Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

classicsoncall It seemed to me a lot was made of the Utes fearing the river because it went through a no man's land of dangerous rapids and unknown terror, but once the soldiers made their escape in boats, the Indians pretty much followed along in order to take out the cavalry. That was a disconnect for me, making me wonder why the story line brought it up in the first place. I guess it sounded good as a rationale for Brett Halliday (Dana Andrews) to pitch the idea.This is one of those stories where the female lead, in this case Piper Laurie as Laura Evans, switches allegiances mid-way through the picture, throwing over her fiancé Lieutenant Ford (Rex Reason) when he sides with his commander Harper (William Talman) against Halliday for all the wrong reasons. Well OK, he was mostly following orders, but just like the Captain, he never did consider Halliday's point of view, even after Halliday proved his loyalty to the cause once hostilities got under way. Smooth move there Lieutenant, trying to take out Halliday and going over the cliff for his trouble; he should have watched that first step.It seemed to me Dana Andrews was pretty low key in his lead role here, almost like he wasn't invested in the outcome of the movie. We eventually get to learn his character's back story, but it seems he could have put more energy into the role. Say, what's with that scene when he tries to save Livingston (William Schallert) and right there in the middle of the river, the screen writer came up with a quicksand gimmick! Has anyone ever heard of that? A complete head scratcher for this viewer.Well this one winds things up pretty well up to expectation, with the headstrong Captain finally being convinced to see things the right way in regard to Halliday's circumstances. No feel-good romance ending to close out the picture though, since Talman allowed Halliday to escape according to the rule book.

Marlburian As a child in the 1960s I watched as many Westerns at the cinema as possible, and "Smoke Signal" was one of those that left a lasting impression. I had to wait many years for it to be shown on British TV, and then it wasn't quite as good as I'd remembered, but still quite novel, with the US Cavalry taking to the boats to escape Indians. Certainly the Grand Canyon made a spectacular background to much of the film, though with the white protagonists being confined to two small boats quite a lot of rather obvious back projection was necessary whenever one of them spoke.Few films of the 1950s (or indeed of any period)dared omit a female from the cast, however contrived her inclusion might be, and here we have Piper Laurie visiting her father at one of the most primitive forts I've seen portrayed in a film at a time of tension with the Indians.

helpless_dancer Huge war party is about to attack an Army outpost against an outnumbered military unit. To survive, the soldiers must take to a dangerous river flowing through canyon country, harassed by the savages all the way. Their troubles were compounded by internal strife created by a prisoner the Army was taking with them. Good action yarn filmed in the Grand Canyon.

bux The wrinkle here, is that most of the action takes place in boats, traversing a treacherous river in the west. Andrews, Laurie, and Reason acquit themselves well, but the script is tired, even for the mid 50s. There is enough action to satisfy and Piper is easy on the eyes, otherwise this one is just passable.