Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Robert J. Maxwell Except for the attention that Robert Francis, as the Army doctor, pays to the Kiowa Indians, there's little that's distinctive about this Western. Most of the others who have commented on the movie have been on point.Francis arrives a newbie at a Western fort that's more or less run by Phil Carey, a Captain whose previous experiences with doctors have left him bitter. He treats Francis like a stepson, constantly harrying and hectoring him.Carey is especially discomfited when Francis begins treat the Kiowa who are all down with malaria. The malaria is linked of course to some bad water near the Kiowa camp, allowing mosquitoes to breed and serve as vectors. Of course Francis doesn't know this because the story takes place before the germ theory of disease was developed, and long before Lister introduced sterile techniques into the practice of medicine.But, okay, Francis may not know that malaria is caused by mosquitoes, but then apparently the screenwriters don't know either because later malaria is treated as a disease you can "catch" from somebody else, like a cold.Another reviewer pointed out that these Westerns that analyzed the relationship between the Indians and the Cavalry were a kind of metaphor for the racism that couldn't be directly addressed on the screen. The reviewer was right. Francis is loathed by the troopers, called someone who "turns on his own kind" and is a "Kiowa-lover." However, Francis saves the day, averting war between the Indians and the cavalry by extracting a bullet from the brain of a Kiowa honcho. The bullet must have been just under the skin because the way of extracting a bullet at the time was to stick a finger into the hole in the brain and search around until the projectile was palpable. Then you went in with forceps. If Abraham Lincoln hadn't already been mortally wounded, the surgery would have killed him.I'd like to be able to say the performances add a lot to the film but I can't. Roy Roberts is an Irish top sergeant who is too fond of whiskey. Since John Ford, every cavalry troop must have a dipsomaniac as a top sergeant. Neither of the women have much to do. Robert Francis may or may not have had a future in film if he hadn't died in an accident. It's impossible to tell, judging from the work he left behind. His ensign in "The Caine Mutiny" didn't seem to promise much.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) The beginning of this film makes you feel you are seeing one of the great westerns. What a good story, there is a fort, a butcher of a doctor, who after being responsible for the death of an officer is replaced by a young man (Robert Francis). There are the Kiowas which are dying of malaria in a reservation, a flirting woman (Donna Reed), a beautiful white woman (May Wynn) who lives among the natives. And then it all goes downhill. It is like all of the sudden they had to rush to finish the film and the last scene is very hard to believe. Phil Karlson, who directed was quite efficient in action movies like "Mask of the Avenger"(1951) and "The Texas Rangers" (1951), two films I greatly enjoyed. Donna Reed is not easy at all in her role, playing completely against type. Phil Carey is very good as the captain who hates the doctor (Francis).

whpratt1 This film starts out with a Calvary Army Officer being shot in the leg by a Native American Indian and is treated by an Army Doctor who is bombed out of his mind on booze and tries to operate on his leg and cuts an artery and the soldier dies. Philip Carey, (Capt. Peter Blake) is very upset about other Army doctors who have caused him problems in the past who were on drugs and booze also. Robert Francis, (Dr. Allen Sewart),"Caine Mutiny" '54 is a new doctor and commissioned by the Army to serve with Capt. Peter Blake. Blake mistrusts Dr. Allen Sewart and gives him a very hard time, because he seems to hate all doctors. Donna Reed,(Laurie MacKaye) takes a liking to Dr. Sewart and encourages him to stand up and fight back at Capt. Blake. May Wynn,(Manyi-ten) "Caine Mutiny" is a white woman who is married to an Indian and seeks the help of Dr. Sewart and falls in love with him. This is a great story and will hold your interest from beginning to the very end. It is very sad that in real life, Robert Francis, was killed in an airplane accident right after he made the great film "Caine Mutiny" he was only twenty-five (25) years of age.

bux I saw this one at the theater as a kid and was somewhat disappointed, probably too much story and not enough action to suit my taste at the time. However by today's standards, this one treats the Native American much more respectfully than other movies of it's time, most notably the God-awful "Arrowhead"(1953). The story moves along well and there really is enough action to go around and Francis shows that he had some real star quality, had he lived. Not a bad one.