Pawnee is a cliche ridden mid-fifties Western made bearable by a good cast, professional direction, and some decent scenery. George Montgomery stars as a white man raised by the Pawnee Indians who must decide whether to remain an Indian and become chief of the Pawnee nation or return to his roots and save a wagon train from an Indian attack. The basic premise is old hat, and the film is loaded with stock characters includng the wise old Indian chief who seeks peace with the whites and the younger, violent war-mongering chief who seeks to kill the settlers (and his long despised white "brother" and rival Goerge Montgomery), the kindly and wise wagon train doctor, the wagon master who also becomes a rival of Montgomery for the love of a whte woman, a crusty, but lovable old coot of a settler, and so on. The film is juvenile and simplistic, but is watchable thanks to a good cast of old pros, fast and knowing direction, and excellent color photography of the scenic west. George Montgomery was a solid, leading man in many westerns of the fifties, and turns in his typically solid performance as the hero here. He is ably supported by such stalwarts of fifties westerns as Robert Griffin, Francis McDonald, Dabbs Greer, and Bill Williams. Lola Albright, an excellent, but underrated actress who later costarred on TV's Peter Gunn, gives a good performance as a yong woman traveling with the wagon train, who comes between Bill Williams, the wagon master, and Montgomery. It is noted that the lead Indian parts are played by caucasion actors and Native Americans are used almost exclusively as extras. The direction is by George Waggner, who directed the Wolfman and other horror films at Universal in the forties. Waggner is an old pro who moves the script along quickly and makes the cliches bearable while keeping the cast from going over the top in roles that could have easily become laughable. There is nothing new here, but it is a competent film which should mildly entertain western fans and youngsters who have never sat through a western programmer from the fifties.
Review of Pawnee
