User Reviews

This western is about two unreconstructed southerners who steal a Gatling gun from Union soldiers which winds up in the hands of an outlaw who sells the gun to Indians for gold. The film dwells on character development and takes a great deal of time detailing the two southern agents' travels from town to town delivering coded messages and trying to arrange a rendezvous with a contact to deliver the Gatling. The picture is another Blue vs. Gray conflict in the west with the Indians on the warpath against the soldiers, a plot angle that has been done better in other westerns. Van Johnson is okay as the hero and Joanne Dru is the gal who falls for Johnson. Richard Boone is a standout as a gun-running renegade in a role as a heavy he would reprise in other westerns. The supporting cast and color photography are good.

This well unfolded tale is set at the end of the American Civil War, 1861 - 1865, it concerns the battle for one of the first Gatlin Machine Gun. As a confederate officer called Farraday, Van Johnson, posing as a Medicine Man along with his colleague, Milburn Stone , go throughout towns singing and delivering their supplies. They ride on a carriage captioning : Doc Sunderland, Muscle Builder, great scientific discovery. Meanwhile, the bad boy, Richard Boone, takes the Gatlin gun so that he can sell it to the violent Indians. Along the way captain Farraday falls in love for a beautiful nurse, Joanne Dru who formerly played a classic Western : Red River by Howard Hawks . The last and most desperate battle in the winning of the West!. And the two best soldiers in the line that day were the Giorgia captain and the Yankee spitfire!.

Decent Western in B-style with plenty of intrigue for good measure, noisy action, thrills , Indian attacks and cavalry charges . A plain, simple and nice plot deals with an undercover captain named Farraday who tries to prevent a Gatlin machine gun passes into the hands of hostile Indians . Varied cast provide adequate interpretation. But the rousing musical score by Lionel Newman, Cryl Mockridge, as well as appropriate production design by Lyle Wheeler, George Patrick and colorful cinematography in brilliant Technicolor by Edward Cronjager are the real stars of the film . Main starring, Van Johnson and Joanne Dru, who replaced Jean Peters, are pretty well. And support cast is frankly good, such as : Jeff Morrow, Milburn Stone, Craig Hill, among others. Special mention for Richard Boone who steals the show, giving a terrific acting as a strong villian.

This is an attractive western with action all the way produced by short-lived Panoramic Productions, being professionally directed by Rudolph Maté, though it has failures and some stock-shots. Maté, 1898-1964, was a good craftsman initially working in Europe, he even photographed the classic Passion of Joan of Arc by Karl Theodor Dreyer , as Nazi government rising, he then emigrated America where worked as a prestigious cameraman, and subsequently directed various films of all kinds of genres with penchant for thrillers, dramas, Adventure, Sci-Fi and westerns such as DOA, The dark past, Union Station, Branded, When worlds collide, The green glove, Second chance, The black shield of Falworth, The violent men, Three violent people, Deep six and For the first time. Rating : 6.5/10. Well worth watching.

It's a typical 50's Technicolor Western trotting out all the usual ingredients with the usual vim – no-nonsense people and plot was the motto.

Two Rebs steal the being-developed Gatling Gun from the Feds in an ingenious segment, eventually toting it further south but ending up stuck in a small town. This town gets quickly filled to the brim with Federal soldiers still on the hunt for their gun. Van Johnson (Reb) and Joanne Dru (Fed) fall for each other of course although of course they don't realise it until the climax. What interested me was the implication that the gun could be used by civilised whites against each other in a civilised slaughter but that selling it to the savage Reds was beyond the Pale. Both Feds and Rebs are eventually united to prevent the Reds using it during the noisy 5 minute siege. And of course the implication was only the Reds were low enough to actually use the horrible weapon the Feds had had the brains to design – at the time of production America had the same idea about the Russian Reds and the atom bomb.

It has a bit of everything Western in: romance and fights, trains and horses, shootings and slapstick comedy. It's fun, I loved it.

An unpretentious Western totally unlike ' The Unforgiven ' which I reviewed just before this film. This is the kind of Western that is there as simple entertainment for those who like the genre. It gives a picture of the West as it really never was and the audiences of the time ( early to middle 1950's ) loved its nonsense because it kept to its formula. This formula consisted of colourful scenery, villains and heroes, women with improbably good clothes and makeup, a few battle scenes, horses and Indians and a lot of delightful hokum. The epitome of this is Saloon Bar music with the same ' tune ' played in film after film; 2Oth Century Fox was the past master of this ridiculous fiction. The whole concept of this image of the West was there to lull its audience into lies about how conquered America was constructed to put its indigenous people into Reservations. I accept the lie of this image of how the West was won as simple and superficial enjoyment; a guilty pleasure that entertains. This is totally unlike the Western with a message and often a fake finger wagging liberalism. This liberalism was to ease a conscience; a collective conscience of guilt and I dislike it. As they say in Film Noir ' it was too late for tears '. This simple film is all about the Gatling Gun and how it must not end up in Native American hands. It has a ridiculous song which is endearing and has Van Johnson, Joanne Dru and Richard Boone. An ' A ' cast in a basically' B ' film, and they all act to form and just as the audience expected them to do. There is a stirring climax and the Gatling Gun ( a horrible form of human extermination ) and it is made to look like a naughty toy. The mindless child I still am thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jim Farady (Van Johnson)and his associate Benjy (Milburn Stone) appear to be hucksters ,travelling the West selling patent medicine (a muscle builder)but in reality they are spies for the Confederacy and are transporting a stolen Gatling Gun to the Confederate lines ,a journey that will take them through Indian Territory ,and the natives are not friendly. They attract the attention of a shrewd Pinkerton man Frank Kelso (Jeff Morrow)and are forced to smuggle the guns out concealed in a hospital wagon driven by the unsuspecting Nora Curtis (Joanne Dru)who is attracted ,somewhat against her will to Farady.they are betrayed by their ostensible escort ,Manning (Richard Boone)who has plans to sell the guns to the Indians for an attack on a nearby fort ,plans Farady sets out to foil.

The movie is immaculately shot in Technicolor by Edward Cronjager and Rudolph Mate ensures the action moves along with vigour .The acting is good and the movie never flags ,even finding time for a unique drunk scene -the inebriate in question being Nora .

The climax may appear familiar and if so this is unsurprising -the climactic battle is lifted from Buffalo Bill ,the Joel Macrae movie from an earlier decade ,and intercut with close up of the actors in this movie

Its a solid action Western and enjoyable for lovers of the genre

Two Confederate agents (Van Johnson and Milburn Stone) head west in order to bring a Gatling gun back to the South in the hopes of winning the Civil War. In order to travel with the famous gun through hostile Commanche territory they hire Indian trader Richard Boone to lead the way. Johnson and Stone hide their true identities by masquerading as sales reps for a cure all tonic and actually perform a song together in order to draw in a crowd. Amongst the crowds are various Confederate sympathizers who slip them concealed notes about where to go next. Also in the mix is Joanne Dru who plays a health care provider and who falls for Johnson's ruse as the tonic sales rep while gradually discovering his true Confederate identity. The action is mostly laughable, especially a big fight with Indians, though they (the Commanches) do get their hands on the Gatling gun and get a chance to use it. However, any film with Richard Boone in it is worth watching. He does not disappoint here as a sore tempered loser at poker and treacherous Indian trader. A few years later the film Rio Conchos portrayed a similar story of the Civil War out west, and this one also starred Boone. It's about ten times better than Siege At Red River.

Siege At Red River is a Civil War western which casts Van Johnson and Milburn Stone as a couple of Confederate spies who steal a prototype new Gatling Gun from the Union Army and hope to get it south so that their army can get it in the field and turn the war's tide. Students of history will note that there is a scene shortly after they accomplish the heist showing that Lincoln has been safely re-elected and that was on the heels of Sherman taking Atlanta. We know if Van and Milburn don't that they're fighting a lost cause.

But we can't have loose Gatling Guns around and Army Intelligence Officer Jeff Morrow is on the trail of the thieves. Johnson and Stone are a wily pair and con Union Army nurse Joanne Dru into innocently transporting the weapon with her medical supplies. But another guy who they use for aid, outlaw renegade Richard Boone has an agenda all his own and it involves the Indians.

I don't think I have to go any farther, anyone who's seen enough films and knows off history knows how this will end generally. How it ends for the principal cast members you see the film for.

What I liked about Siege At Red River is that Van Johnson and Milburn Stone in their guise as medicine show hucksters got to do a little snappy patter and song in the film. Johnson started out as a chorus boy on Broadway and he was brought to Hollywood after a bit part on Broadway in Too Many Girls. Occasionally he did do some singing and dancing, but not enough in my humble opinion. Peggy Maley also does a nice number in the saloon and she was great also.

Maley is Richard Boone's girl and when Richard Boone is mean on the screen there ain't nobody meaner. His villains are usually quite irredeemable creatures with no decent characteristics.

The final attack of the Indians and the soldiers counterattack is staged very well. Nice location cinematography for this, it was not the kind of sequence that could reasonably been done on a studio back lot any longer. Definitely a good western and I believe the only one Van Johnson ever did in his career.

Johnson as a cavalry captain trying to stop the delivery of Gatling Guns to hostile Indians. Boone, of course stands out as the heavy, in this otherwise below par oater.

Siege at Red River is a good, clean, honest and highly enjoyable adventure film which happens to unfold in the old west at what appears to be somewhat of a height during the American Civil War. Throughout, there are numerous items which open up and contribute to the grubby, generally downcast nature of the film to do with shots at redemption on top of a heist sub-plot meshing in with a revenge tale neatly blending enough to make it a good crack. It's a fair old romp through some often hard material covering the pratfalls of a bunch of both male and female lowlifes cheating, stealing and charming their way through some rather inhospitable territories in aid of themselves. The film is an engaging and pleasing enough rollick, its effectiveness somewhat masked by its own simplicity and surprisingly tense overall demeanour as it rolls its leads from situation to situation with a great deal at stake looming.

The film will cover that of two confederate soldiers deep into Union army, and thus enemy, territory whom pose as travelling salesmen ridding their waggon of muscle tonic and dumping such goods onto the unsuspecting locals with a catchy tune; a smirk and a wink in the process. They are charmers, operating amorally out of a front but whose presence there is much more broadly linked to that of a recently stolen, state-of-the-art Union army produced Gatling gun. Such a gun, and the catalyst of which kicks off its ambling journey around the houses, is foretold during the film's opening; a daring robbery of the train upon which this gun was being transported seeing the perpetrators initially hidden away in the mail waggon with their target granted as much secrecy as it lies hidden away from public view on account of the top Union army officials whom have denied its existence in the newspapers. The thieves, however, know about its presence and the manner in which they infiltrate the train on top of this hints at a sly professionalism very few might be able to match.

It is those very salesperson's, a certain Jim Farraday played by Van Johnson and his accomplice Benjy Guderman (Stone) whom stole and are now in possession of the gun; the bedding down in a nearby town of which leads to complication that see it near impossible to get out of there without being found by the enemy whom litter the area, predominantly down to a Union army captain and his crew scouring for all of the bits and pieces which will lead them to the merchandise he's aware is around. Thank heavens, then, for the shining beacon of light that is Richard Boone's Brett Manning; a rough talking, sleazy, fist-fighting tough guy whom offers them a way out of there - then again, maybe not. Manning plays a sly and seedy customer; a womanising, gambling lout whom, it would seem, mingles around and plays guardian to a performing girl whom specialises in that of playing on-stage burlesque as he sits in the office back-stage doing what-not and probably getting a cut of her earnings to boot.

The aura, or the reputation that the Gatling gun seemingly has, is highlighted by some character officials speaking of said item. The concerns raised about the gun, in that it is so advanced and so powerful, sees one official doubt that it even exists in this still feeble, pre-modern world, or if it is indeed only a rumour that such a paramount armament exists. Its presence, however, is something another man confirms is true before going on to speak of notions that it would indeed be "terrible" if it were to "fall into the wrong hands", something the film enjoys in a very basic sense of building up an off-screen MacGuffin before having the aforementioned clinical bandits make off with it – when they do, we fear the worst. Farraday and Guderman venture onwards and uncover young Nora (Dru), a nurse at a local manor house she owns whose cart is stuck in a river, Jim's somewhat displeasing attempts at getting to know her seeing him use, again, a false persona as he does with the travelling store to charm her; the bumps in the road as he transports her back seeing her invite the interaction, and despite hearing some different truths about Jim from Gunderman, she appears unperturbed and will continue on as is.

The film dares us not to particularly like its leads, Farraday and Guderman; something that is indeed linked to the fact they are thieves and con-men but is more broadly linked to that of a long history of Confederate demonisation embedded within the genre of the American western. In contrast to the rather monstrous Manning, these two are fairly decent folk and it is again to the film's credit that it even attempts to go anywhere near the places it ventures toward come the finale, when ideas of redemption and men seeing the errors of their ways unfold; the film providing us with a chance to reverse prior perception and yet maintain a dramatic edge whilst weaving newfound territory naturally into the proceedings. But the film's sole joy remains observing these scuzzy lowlifes whilst in the throngs of their existence try to outsmart and manoeuvre their way out of trouble, the savage elements linked to that of the overall representation of the Native Americans uneasy in hindsight, but everything else blending well and most of it working rather expertly in the long run.

I had seen this film some years ago, and the only scenes that I remembered were those when Johnson and Stone sing "Tapioca" as a code song to identify themselves to Southern agents. But I still enjoyed it second time around, and perhaps I should have first read Alice Liddel's intellectual comments written here so that I would have appreciated it better.

Boone, playing an out-and-out villain, steals his scenes.I wasn't too sure about the comic interlude halfway through with Dru accidentally getting drunk, though it did teasingly leave us with the question: did Johnson really change her into her night-dress and put her to bed? I incline to nitpicking, and I thought it ham-fisted the way the Union troops charged in to town to arrest the Southern-sympathising storekeeper, only to shoot him dead. It would have been more convincing, but less spectacular, to send three or four men in to the store posing as customers - he could still have been shot in a struggle.

I wonder what Southern audiences would have made of Johnson's change of heart at the end (I'm British)? Both sides in the Civil War used Indians, and by its end the fact that women and children - families of Union soldiers - would be killed would be of minor concern to many Confederates.

In the last days of the American Civil War, a Confederate gun smuggler ends up helping to defend a Union fort when his weapons are sold to the Shawnee Indians.

Routine yet amiable western with light-hearted moments as well as tense ones. Van Johnson stars as a salesman going town with his assistance singing "tapioca." Clever bit is that it's a code word. It moves leisurely, and gets more exciting as it progresses and ends with a rousing cavalry vs Indians fight featuring a Gatling gun. Joanna Dru and Richard Boone as a villain also star. Van Johnson does well in his only western. Well photographed with fantastic rugged terrain.

I was not really concentrating on this film (on Film4), as I was reading the Sunday newspaper. However, I found my attention being more and more drawn to a plot that seemed to get more believable as it progressed. Characters were developed to the point where strangeness of behaviour became them. The lack of outright violence was a huge plus in such a story, that might easily have descended into a straight-forward gunfight. Period settings overcame obvious rigours of budget to a degree of acceptability. Though all aspects - dialogue, scenery, plot etc. - all fell short at some point, the overall effect was of a well-constructed and written movie into which a great deal of thoughtful direction had been lavished.

This western is,in my opinion,very underrated,and gives a nice blend of adventure,thrills,actiion and wry humour with the addition of some very catchy tunes. Van Johnson gives a good performance as one of a pair of undercover Confederate agents,carrying a stolen Gatling Gun through Union territory to aid the cause of the South. They travel as medicine salesmen contacting Confederate agents as they travel and picking up Joanne Dru on the way. The love interest between her and Van Johnson provide some nice humerous touches. Richard Boone steals the film,of course, as a really nasty,bullying,woman hating,unscrupulous,murdering cut-throat,who steals the Gatling gun from Van Johnson and sells it to the Indians and joins them, for money,of course, in attacking the Cavalry Fort. The fights,action scenes and Indian attack are very well-done. At the end Van Johnson gives Boone his come-uppance,the day is saved and Van goes off with Joanne into the sunset, but all in a very satisfying manner. Milburn Stone and Jeff Morrow provide excellent support. The direction,writing and acting are above par from all concerned. It is a western that one can see time and time again and still obtain great enjoyment.

I have always enjoyed films directed by Rudolph Maté. There is a certain charm to them that can be traced back to Maté's deft handling of crew and material, with cinematography a dependable strong point.

In SIEGE AT RED RIVER, the script by Sydney Boehm brings together the Civil War, marauding Indians, beautiful Joanne Dru, and unusually engaging confederate rebels trying to deliver Gatling machine guns to various confederate towns. The latter are sympathetically portrayed by Van Johnson and Milburn Stone.

As ever Richard Boone embodies the heavy, even though he is neither reb nor yankee nor yet a supporter of Indians planning to attack a Union fort. He is just out to make a fast buck before the war ends.

Nothing really new but it is a well done Western that wraps up rather graciously in 82'

In 1954, a Western about the Civil War is not just about the Civil War. 'Siege at Red River' opens with the robbery of a Union train by a bunch of outlaws. The Union soldiers, including a detective, combine the Military and the Law - they are protecting a secret new super-weapon - the Gatling Gun, the first example of mechanised warfare which means surefire victory for which ever side possesses it.

If we substitute the Gatling with a nuclear warhead, the Civil War with the Cold War; and if we note that the bandits make off in a red mail van, and that their leader wears a red cravat, and we assume them as commies, than the Western becomes an Allegory. This is not surprising - from its inception the genre has celebrated the UNITED States and played out and resolved its crises, while the likes of President Reagan have used it to signify a sense of genuine Americanness, so it is natural the genre should be marshalled in such a time of perceived crisis.

As the film is directed by the great Rudolph Mate, former cinematographer for, among others, Carl Dreyer, one of the genuine maestros of the cinema, we might assume that if his film is a Cold War Allegory, it will be far from simplistic. The linking of Communism with disruption, criminality, secrecy and murder is not a surprise; if we do make the link, when our first shock is that the bandit leader is played by the film's star. The benefits of the star persona - wit, charm, a (relatively) rounded personality (he is a grim avenger and gun smuggler, but also a musician, orator and gentleman; he is connected with role-play and the theatre) are in contrast with the monolithic forces of law and order; while he has multiple interests besides the war, they have only that defining interest. Further, while his motives are essentially decent and right-minded, the 'good' guys are not only street-bawling thugs, but perpetrators of vile, near-genocidal acts.

The film doesn't go so far as to salvage Farraday's oppositional position - the conflict between North and South is on one level displaced on gender, where it can be resolved in romance; and on another, generic level, displaced on a third enemy - the murderous amoral smuggler and the Indians - so the opposing American forces can finally reconcile. But it's not a happy reconciliation - the massacre of the Indians is only cathartic if we ignore that they too, like the Americans in the Fort, have women and children; and the finale is only happy if we accept the couple's words, and not the narrative reality, that he is an outlaw evading justice and leaving the woman he has learned to love. This fact of separation from the site of reconciliation implicitly questions that reconciliation.

There are other features - the anti-realistic use of colour; the drunk scene, where the dominant male point of view suddenly switches to the drunken, gun-shooting female, linked to her frank, disruptive, transformative sexuality and contrasted with the ship-lashing, neurotic villain; the use of song, espeically 'Tapioca', and its movement from rebel code to music hall; the argument that nation is an arbitrary series of signs - the Indians shoot first at the US flag, not the army; the image of the Niagara Falls on the music hall curtains - where national identity is constructed and negotiated, not 'natural'; a sophisticated attitude to patriotism, war and friendship - that all add up to a more thoughtful Western than its routine reputation might suggest.

Milburn Stone got perhaps his best chance to shine and he grabbed that chance with both hands. What a great performance.

All the players were great, in fact, even the ones who got perhaps only one scene.

The scenery there in Colorado, including some of the ancient "apartment buildings," briefly visible just before the big battle, would, by itself, make this worth watching, but add in the lovely Joanne Dru for even more scenery.

As usual, Hollywood gets a lot of history wrong, but since it isn't really trying to be historical, it doesn't matter much here.

Don't expect too much and this is a nice movie. Available at YouTube.

I don't know why, but the Van Johnson's role seems to have been inspired by a Randolph Scott's character in a western from the forties, for Warner, where he played a Confederate soldier fighting for something lost in advance; of course as a Confederate officer.... Maybe I am wrong, I have not in mind all the Randolph Scott's characters, but this Confederate soldier trying to do his best to win or at best change the course of the war, I have seen this before. However this lead character can't be shown as the evil guy, only ambivalent. This is not my Rudolph Maté's western favorite. Worth watching for any western buff.