Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.4/10   

Director:

John Sturges

Escritores:

Phillip Rock (story) and
Michael Pate (story) ...

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

4 diciembre 1953 (USA)

Género:

Del Oeste

Plot:

A ruthless Union captain is renowned throughout his prison fort as the toughest soldier in the business...

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Confederate | American Civil War | Cavalry | Officer

Comentarios de los usuarios:

MGM Over-Produces a Western

Reparto

William Holden	...	Capt. Roper
Eleanor Parker	...	Carla Forester
John Forsythe	...	Capt. John Marsh
William Demarest	...	Campbell
William Campbell	...	Cabot Young
Polly Bergen	...	Alice Owens
Richard Anderson	...	Lt. Beecher
Carl Benton Reid	...	Col. Owens
John Lupton	...	Bailey

También conocida como:

Fort Bravo (USA) (closing credits title)
Fort Bravo (Spain) [es]

Duración:

99 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color (Anscocolor)

Relación de Aspecto:

1.75 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Clasificación:

West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | Australia:PG

Locaciones de Filmación:

Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California, USA

Compañía:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Errores:

Anacronismos: Lt. Beecher scans the horizon with a very modern pair of binoculars.

Citas:

Capt. Roper: When you're in the grave, Beecher, it doesn't matter too much how you got there.
Lt. Beecher: Well, I think it matters. I think it does.
Capt. Roper: Write the War Department.

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in Major Dundee (1965)

Banda de Sonido:

Soothe My Lonely Heart

MGM Over-Produces a Western

No need to repeat an oft-repeated story-line. The movie has two things going for it-- William Holden in an earnest performance, and some spectacular A-level scenery, some of which appears shot in the uncredited Sedona, Arizona area. Otherwise, the film is simply too flawed to rank among the better Westerns.

Apparently the studio had to really sweeten the pot to get the Oscar-nominated (twice) Eleanor Parker to lower herself into a macho Western. As a result, a number of crippling compromises occur. Her part is over-inflated for more screen time, even though these showcase scenes seriously sap the action, undercutting the degree of tightness and pacing that would hold interest throughout. Instead, we get some badly constructed studio sets meant to accommodate her many outdoor love scenes. These do have a point in the plot, nonetheless they're seriously overdrawn. Then too-- as another reviewer perceptively notes-- her flashy costumes, spangled hair, and immaculate make-up resemble nothing so much as a countess entering the royal court, and this in the middle of deadly Apache territory to which she has traveled in a tiny stage compartment. This is what happens when a studio places star-power above believability.

I could go on about the damage done by hiring a diva to fatten up marquee appeal-- consider, for example, the casual shopping trip across Apache country that has all the care-freeness of a trip to an 1860's frontier mall-- but you get the idea. Had glamor-obsessed MGM wanted to make a real Western, Parker's part would have gone to the modest-looking and acting Polly Bergen, whose part, as it is, is about the size of a postage stamp.

There are other poorly thought-out flaws-- such as Confederate prisoners who one and all speak as if they were born in Chicago, or the ridiculous prisoners' pen that's supposed to discourage the massed Johnny-rebs from charging a single armed guard. My guess is that the studio didn't put up a more plausible barbed-wire fence because that would have reflected badly on the Union captors. Be that as it may, I'm ready to put up with some concessions to Hollywood commercialism in a good horse opera. But this one simply has too many compromises without enough compensation. (The well-staged arrow barrage is both novel and fascinating, but is about the only dramatic highlight.) Had the less image-conscious Columbia studio done the movie with, say, Budd Boetticher and the Ranown company, we could have gotten something special. However, the way this film stands, maybe a good story lurks inside all that glitz and fat , but it still awaits proper treatment.