Comanche (1956)

Director:

George Sherman

Writer:

Carl Krueger (writer)

Release Date:

March 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

The Never-Before-Told Epic of the Last Great Indian Battle...Filmed in the All-The-Earth-Spanning Power of CinemaScope

Plot Keywords:

Dead Children | Native American | Child Murder | Comanche Indian | Dead Child

Cast

Dana Andrews	...	Jim Read
Kent Smith	...	Quanah Parker
Nestor Paiva	...	Puffer
Henry Brandon	...	Black Cloud
Stacy Harris	...	Art Downey
John Litel	...	Gen. Nelson Miles
Lowell Gilmore	...	Commissioner John Ward
Mike Mazurki	...	Flat Mouth
Tony Carbajal	...	Little Snake (as Antonio Carbajal)
Linda Cristal	...	Margarita
Reed Sherman	...	2nd Lt. John French
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
The Lancers	...	Themselves (singing voice)
Iron Eyes Cody	...	Medicine Arrow (the medicine man) (uncredited)
José Ángel Espinosa 'Ferrusquilla'	...	(uncredited)
Jorge Martínez de Hoyos	...	(uncredited)
Carlos Múzquiz	...	(uncredited)
Caetana Paiva	...	Young girl killed by Indians (uncredited)
Joseph Paiva	...	Young boy killed by Indians (uncredited)
Carlos Rivas	...	Wounded Comanche (uncredited)
Fanny Schiller	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
George Sherman

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Carl Krueger		writer

Produced by
Carl Krueger	....	producer
Henry Spitz	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Herschel Burke Gilbert

Cinematography by
Jorge Stahl Jr.		(as George Stahl Jr.)

Film Editing by
Charles L. Kimball

Art Direction by
Ramón Rodríguez Granada		(as Ramon Rodriguez)

Costume Design by
Dave Berman		(as David Berman)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lindsley Parsons Jr.	....	second assistant director

Sound Department
James L. Fields	....	sound supervisor
Galdino R. Samperio	....	sound recordist (as Galdino Samperio)
Manuel Topete	....	sound recordist

Music Department
Joseph Mullendore	....	orchestrator (as Joe Mullendore)
Walter Sheets	....	orchestrator

Other crew
'Chema' Hernandez	....	head wrangler: Mexico (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Carl Krueger Productions

Distributors

• United Artists (1956) (USA) (theatrical)
• Comet Video (????) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Durango, Mexico

Company:

Carl Krueger Productions

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When the Comanches ride down the main street of the Mexican village, a crewmember wearing a white shirt, dark pants, and a hat can be seen at the lower-right-hand side of the screen turning around and walking off to screen right.

Quotes:

Quanah Parker: But our numbers do not increase. And the Americans are without number... they are like weeds... like drops of rain... no end to them.
Jim Read: The time has come to walk the path of the Americans.
Quanah Parker: This has long been on my mind. The Americans are brave. They know many things. We must learn from them... or the sun will set on us forever.

High budget look, low budget acting

Dana Andrews is called in to negotiate a peace treaty with the Comanches raiding across the border into Mexico. There are elements on both sides who don't want peace including the Indian-hating scalphunters on the one hand, and the breakaway Comanches (led by Black Cloud) on the other.

I hate to say it but Kent Smith isn't convincing as Quanah Parker. If they were going to have this kind of robotic dialog, then they should have at least gotten Charles Bronson or Steven McNally to do it since they look more Indian-like than the blue-eyed, fair-haired Smith does. Yeah, I know Parker was half-white and all that, but still...

Plus you have Dana Andrews and the rest of the cast looking like they are sleepwalking through the whole thing. It's as if everyone is just going through the motions with little or no effort. Were they bored with it, or was it only what the script demanded?

The only character who was remotely interesting was Andrews' sidekick Puffer, played by Nestor Paiva. He looked sufficiently grizzled for the part without resorting to too much of the silliness that say, Gabby Hayes would have done if he had played the role. It's too bad his part wasn't bigger.

The battle scenes look lame even by 50s standards with the whole thing having a rushed look to it, despite the widescreen technicolor cinematography by George Stahl. This use of color was a rarity on United Artists part since they mostly shot their westerns in b/w.

And with the title music sung by The Lancers sounding all hokey and Disney-like, all it does is bring it down a couple of more notches for me.

3 out of 10