weezeralfalfa
Complicated Technicolor western, mostly filmed in the scenic foothills of Glacier National Park. Blackfoot 'Indians', both real and manufactured, are prominent in the story. The Blackfoot reservation adjacent to the Park was a convenient source of 'Indian' extras. As was common at the time, the main 'Indian' roles went to Hollywood actors who spoke Hollywood 'Indian' pigeon English: very stilted, for the most part. Reagan seems out of place as a famed gunslinger.The complicated formulistic plot includes rivalries among both the Europeans and Blackfoot, both men and women, with some alliances of convenience included. Tom McCord(Gene Evans) is the thoroughly evil, backstabbing, cattle baron of this 'Buffalo Valley' region of apparently west central Montana. 'Pop'Jones and his matronly daughter Sierra Nevada(Barbara Stanwyck, age 46)headed a leisurely 7 month cattle drive from Texas to this well-watered grazing land, with only a preliminary claim on it, unaware of how criminal their well-established neighbor was. McCord is determined to scare off or dispose of these new land claimants, as he has previous ones. He utilizes the European -hating war chief Natchakoa to engineer a nocturnal stampede of their cattle, while dispatching their minimal cowhands. Initially, it is thought that all the Jones outfit died in this incident. But Sierra and her foreman Nat(Chubby Johnson) survived and were taken by friendly Blackfoot leader Colorados to a Blackfoot village to recuperate.Meanwhile, army undercover agent Farrell (Ron Reagan) signs as a hired gun for McCord and is given the assignment of dispatching the stampede survivors. He pretends to agree, but is captured by Blackfoot, who now realize that it's bad for them to be involved in the planned murders. Meanwhile, McCord has filed a claim to the land Sierra assumed would be hers, as well as a claim on her cattle brand, thinking her dead. When he discovers his error, he sends Farrell to offer to buy her cattle, on the condition she return to Texas. At one point, she agrees, but then discovers that McCord was behind the stampede. Farrell discovers that McCord has been the source of the illegal rifles being supplied the Blackfoot, which is his main purpose here. Farrel gradually shifts his allegiance from McCord to Sierra, who has lost her companion Nat to a Natchakoa arrow.The old Blackfoot chief Powhani dies. Rivals to replace him, Colorados and Natchakoa have a hand to hand duel, which Colorados wins, but declines to dispatch Natchakoa, to his later regret. We are now ready for the final confrontation between the 'good' and 'bad' elements. Blackfoot princess Starfire, jealous of Colorados' friendship with Sierra, leads her and Farrell into an ambush by Natchakoa's forces, but is accidentally killed herself. McCord's and Colorados' bunches now show up for a complicated 4 team shootout, and all the baddies are killed. Sierra and Farrell hint at a possible future together.According to the stone property marker, this story took place in 1888, very close to the end of the open range period on the Western Plains. However, we have the anachronism of Colonel Carrington: Farrell's boss. This is a historically relevant name, as Colonel Carrington headed the effort to control Sioux raids on immigrants going to southwest Montana along the Bozeman Trail in the mid-1860s. But, he left this region after only a rather brief stay, and never made it past WY. Interestingly, the first significant drive of Texas Longhorns from Texas to Montana occurred during this same period, as dramatized in the '55 Clark Gable-starring "The Tall Men".Barbara was not the first, nor most impressive, Hollywood Montana 'cattle queen'. For example, a much younger, more glamorous- looking Alexis Smith posed as an established 'cattle queen' a few years earlier in the Technicolor "Montana", with a more charismatic adversary/love interest in Errol Flynn.The plot of this film appears to owe much to the historic story of 'Cattle Kate', which includes an established southwestern WY cattle baron named Boswell: a character very similar to that of McCord in this story. Unfortunately, newcomer 'Cattle Kate' didn't fare as well as Sierra, being framed as a cattle rustler herself, resulting in her execution.Strange that the great cattle die off in the 1886-7 Montana winter wasn't mentioned. Many herds were decimated and ranchers ruined by the extreme cold and lack of winter feed. This is just prior to when this story supposedly takes place.The whites-friendly Blackfoot leader Colorados supposedly had studied at a college. Most likely, this was actually the Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, PA, established just a few years earlier. Neighboring Sioux were among the prominent early students.
discount1957
Perhaps the most uncomplicated of America's classic directors, Dwan made a series of films in the fifties for producer Bogeaus that allowed him a degree of flexibility he'd been unused to since the silent days. Cattle Queen of Montana, the tale of Stanwyck's struggles to hold on to the property of her murdered father, is beautifully lit by cinematographer Alton, the great unsung Hollywood cameraman. It evokes a world of easeful innocence far removed from the cynicism and violence that was the norm in the Western of the fifties. Reagan is the mysterious gunman who comes to Stanwyck's rescue. Stanwyck, who did all her own stunts, so impressed the Blackfeet Indians hired as extras that they made her a blood sister, and gave her the Indian name of Princess Many Victories.Phil Hardy
NewEnglandPat
Barbara Stanwyck stars as hard-riding redhead who is out to reclaim land and cattle stolen from her by an unscrupulous rancher in cahoots with hostile Indians. Many of the standard western movie clichés make up the story so there isn't anything new here. Ronald Reagan appears as an undercover government agent investigating unlawful distribution of rifles to the Indians and has trouble keeping Stanwyck out of harm's way. Lance Fuller is a college-educated Indian who wants his people to walk in the ways of the white man. Anthony Caruso, who was great at portraying villains, is on target as a bad Indian who's in cahoots with Gene Evans who conspires to drive Jones off her rightful claim to the valley. The picture also has a wealth of great character actors such as Myron Healy, Jack Elam, Morris Ankrum, Chubby Johnson and Rod Redwing. The film has fine technicolor lensing and an okay music score.
bsmith5552
"Cattle Queen of Montana" was one of those "tough old broad" westerns that Barbara Stanwyck made during the 1950s. In this one Sierra Nevada Jones (Stanwyck), her father Pop Jones (Morris Ankrum) and their foreman Nat Collins (Chubby Johnson) have driven a herd of some 1,100 cattle up from Texas to settle in Montana. On their arrival, the herd is stampeded, Pop is killed and old Nat seriously wounded. The raid is led by renegade Blackfoot Natchakoa (Anthony Carouso) who is in league with local rancher McCloud (Gene Evans) to drive off any new ranchers arriving in the area. Into the picture comes gunfighter Farrell (Ronald Reagan) who signs on with McCloud. In the meantime "good" Blackfoot, Colorados (Lance Fuller) rescues Sierra and Nat and takes them to his village to recover. Gradually Sierra and Colorados become allies much to the chagrin of Colorado's girlfriend Starfire (Yvette Duguay) and Natchakoa. It turns out that Farrell is an army officer working under cover to discover who has been selling guns to the renegade Blackfeet. Well you knew that the clean cut Reagan would turn out to be a good guy didn't you? Anyway, Farrell aligns himself with Sierra and Colorados against the baddies and well, you know the rest. Director Alan Dwan gives us a beautifully photographed outdoor western. The VCI DVD has been digitally remastered to its original technicolor brilliance and this alone makes this a must see. Reagan is not very convincing as a ruthless gunfighter. He just doesn't come across as being mean enough. Stanwyck would play a number of similar roles in other westerns culminating with her long run on TV's "The Big Valley". She's supposed to be a "cattle queen" here but doesn't have any cattle to speak of through most of the picture. Lance Fuller looks about as much like an Blackfoot Indian as I do. Also in the cast are Jack Elam and Myron Healey (who has a good scene with Stanwyck) as McCloud's henchmen, Hugh Sanders as Col. Carrington and a toothless Glenn Strange as the old Blackfoot Chief. Oddly enough most of the featured players (and Reagan) in this film would turn up in "Tennessee's Partner" the following year.
