User Reviews

My best recollection of Guy Madison comes from watching the Fifties TV Western "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok"; this movie came out during the latter part of it's run from 1951 to 1958. As colorful as he was in that series, Madison is basically one dimensional here, possibly due to the instruction he was given from director George Sherman. One is left baffled in the early going as to why he's so antagonistic toward both Indians and whites, though it's eventually revealed about mid way into the story that Frank Madden (Madison) is a half breed.

The picture offers some interesting perspectives on racism, particularly in the character of Catherine Cantrell (Felicia Farr). Her compassion toward Indians in the story is severely tested right after Taini (Kathryn Grant) provides cover for Madden's murder charge by stating that she spent the night with him. All of a sudden, Catherine's no longer the sympathetic, understanding woman who sees the good in everyone. It's a provocative scene because she reveals her own prejudice even while she can't believe she can have those kinds of feelings.

Sheriff Jim Dixon (Otto Hulett) was a stand-up guy in the story for backing the law and putting Madden under protective custody before the town mob got out of control, but something he said managed to bother me. As Madden and Catherine Mitchell were discussing how feelings can lead to problems and misunderstanding, Dixon stated "The law has feelings too". In matters of right and wrong, I don't think feelings have any place in the interpretation of the law. It might have sounded good in the story when the sheriff said it, but I thought it was totally misplaced.

Hey, how about that miracle shot Bert Shipley (Michael Pate) made when he hit Taini - she was standing almost directly behind Madden! Granted, he only grazed her arm but from where I sat it didn't look very believable. Bert was another interesting character by the way. A rabid racist along with his brothers, he didn't have a problem coming on to the Indian maiden Taini. His character was a brilliant expose on how bullies and thugs can rationalize their behavior when it's in their own self interest.

Anyway, Madden is vindicated of the murder he's charged with, while the woman who earlier professed her love for him in front of the entire town finds herself free to join him. Considering Madden's temperament throughout most the story, the attempt at a feel good ending didn't quite strike me as a happy ride off into the sunset.

The movie had the great idea of showing the prejudice that the Indians had to live through. Most Westerns, not all, didn't usually do this. Our hero of the movie is Frank Madden. He's a half-breed and he's hiding it. He decides when he grows up that he is going to be a white man and leave his Indian roots behind. As far as he's concerned, he's not an Indian anymore. He is not Neola (his real name). Now he is Frank Madden and he is going to own his own land. An Indian couldn't own their own land.

This could've been a very good movie, but frankly I was letdown. The biggest problem is Guy Madison. With a better actor, this could've really worked. First of all, Madison does not look at all convincing as a half white and half Indian man. If they want an actor to look like a half-breed then they shouldn't get someone that looks so white. I loved Guy Madison in Till the End of Time. But in this movie he just wasn't good enough. This should've been such a dramatic role. But it's trivialized. Madison doesn't do a good enough job. He's not likable in the movie, you can never see the anguish or torment he's going through, or his inner struggle of a man that is torn between who he is and where he belongs.

Imitation of Life was about a girl that was ashamed of being half white and half black. Like Frank Madden, she denies who she really is and passes herself off as white. When she makes her mother, who is black, go away in one scene, you can see what she's going through. When she is ashamed of her mother, you can see some emotion. Madison's performance is just dull and boring. When he has the scenes with Ralph Moody, who is playing his Indian grandfather, when he wants him to go away and leave him alone, they are so dull when they could've been so much better.

This movie really just wasn't that good. You got some good performances out of Edward Platt, Wayne Mallory, and Michael Pate, who play the Shipley brothers. They're villains you love to hate. But they were just part of another Western cliché of a family or a group running a town and being above the law. Felicia Farr was okay as Catherine. Kathryn Grant was good as Taini, an attractive Indian girl. The ending also could've been so powerful when he finally reveals himself to be half Indian and tells the whole town his name is Neola. In the end, it takes tragic circumstances for him to finally come out with it. He is ashamed in the end that he left his people and went with the white men, who never gave him a chance. He declares he will go back to his people. He decides he's leaving and he will go to a place where people are accepting of him and will let him own his own land. Sounds powerful, right? It wasn't. Again, what could've been powerful is very dull.

I compared this to Imitation of Life, but I have an even better one. This concept of the hero being a half-breed that doesn't know where he belongs was done years later when they made the Western Flaming Star. My advice is, check out Flaming Star instead of this. The idea in Flaming Star is used so much better and so much more effectively. The movie stars Elvis Presley as Pacer. It's a serious movie, very dramatic, and very memorable. There's also way more action and better action scenes with a better story. The movie also has a better script and Elvis Presley's performance is way better than Guy Madison's. In Flaming Star, Elvis had a chance to do all the things Madison should've done. The movie used the whole idea of the hero being torn way better. The hero also has a chance to make two great speeches. One when he decides what he's going to do and another at the end of the movie. Guy Madison never does this nearly as well. Not with enough feeling and not with enough emotion. His performance can be blamed partly on the script, but he did have a few chances to shine and he was very dull and had no charisma. If you haven't seen this, you're not really missing anything. But I do highly recommend Flaming Star, which is a better Western and a better movie in every way.

This B western was directed by the master of B westerns: George Marshall. The title was taken from the book of the same name, by Arthur Gordon, which is centered around the historic lynching of 4 African Americans in GA, in 1946, by a mob of whites. This generated national protests, and induced President Truman to create The President's Commission on Civil Rights, and to promote anti-lynching legislation, which was struck down by a southern Democrat coalition. Of course, no one was convicted. ...........This film is also about sour race relations, but, as expected in a western, the ethnic minority is Native Americans. The villains are the trio of Shipley brothers: Bert, Neil, and Tom. At the beginning, they are on trial for the lynching of 2 Native Americans. Of course, they are acquitted by the prejudiced jury. But, we aren't yet finished with lynchings! The climax of the film centers around an angry mob who breaks Frank Madden(Guy Madison) out of jail to hang him for supposedly shooting Tom Shipley. Ironically, although they think they are lynching a white man this time, Frank secretly is actually a half breed(although he doesn't look it). Also, ironically, the actual guilty is a Native American, who was enacting revenge for killing his wife........The remaining Shipleys have good reason for wanting Frank dead. They had long grazed their cattle on the land that Frank had recently filed a claim on. With Frank dead, they hoped to claim this land for themselves......... Two young single women actually tried to persuade the mob to release Frank. Catherine, played by beautiful, pensive, Felicia Farr, had just been visiting Frank, in jail. The mob leaders wanted to know her objection to their task. She blurts out that she loves Frank. This doesn't dissuade the leaders. However, soon, Indian princess Taini(played by Caucasian-looking Kathryn Grant), steps in front of the mob and yells that Frank is innocent. How does she know?. She tells them that Frank was with her all that night. Everyone, especially Catherine, is shocked. Viewers know that Taini's claim is likely false, as Frank had rebuffed her interest in him, as he didn't want to be known as an Indian lover, possibly bringing into question his own ethnic background, possibly bringing into question his right to own land. Amazingly, the mob accepts Taini's claim as the truth, and soon disperses..........Next, there is an incident between Bert Shipley and the group of Frank, Taini and Frank's Indian grandfather. Then, Frank tried to convince the now stand-offish Catherine that Taini lied, to protect him. But she was hesitant to accept that........See the film(free at You Tube) to learn the details of the post-lynching mob finale...........Kathrine Grant would soon marry Bing Crosby, keeping her in the limelight, while Felicia Farr would later marry actor Jack Lemmon.

WARNING: spoilers.

Guy Madison plays Frank Madden, a man who is half-Indian and half-white and who hides his Indian heritage in order to fit into white society. He's sick of the way Indians have been treated, banished to reservations and not having the same rights as the conquering white men. His goal is to be somebody by owning something of his own---in this case, land.

After much effort he buys an old ranch outside of town, and problems begin. His neighbors---the nasty Shipley brothers---don't take kindly to the fact that he is fencing off his property. They have been using it as grazing land for free since the previous owners abandoned it.

The rest of the movie is about his dealings with Neil, Bert, and Tom Shipley, his denial of his Indian heritage, and his relationship (poorly developed) with an attractive white woman in town. Prejudice, tyranny, fear, stubbornness, and insecurity are constant themes. So is poor acting. Madden acts as if he were mad at everyone, including Indians, and speaks mostly in anger. OK, he has a chip on his shoulder, but it's way overdone here, seeming laughable at times. Maybe in the mid-1950s that counted as drama.

A scene near the end that made me wince. It was one of those improbable 'one man against the town' scenes that appear in a lot of westerns. In this case the one man is the sheriff. Madden has been jailed for his own protection after the evil Bert and Neil Shipley claim that he killed their brother Tom (he didn't). A mob led by Bert and Neil arrives at the jail and demands that the sheriff hand over Madden so it can administer its own justice: a rope. Not a single man of the town offers to help the sheriff quell the mob. He has at least one deputy, but I didn't see or hear him in that scene. If he were there and I missed him, so be it, but I think he was down in the saloon thinking about his insignificant part in the movie.

Another scene was a pleasant curiosity. Two men are riding horses along a street in the town, and as the camera pans to the right to follow them, you can see that they are riding downhill. In almost every western I've seen, the town streets were flat as a squashed rattlesnake---no hills. This was a refreshing change from the norm, although it was probably an accident of choice of movie set rather than a conscious effort to insert a slope into a plot.

To the credit of the writers and director, I have to say that the movie treats Indians as human beings, rather than taking the low road and using the stereotype of bloodthirsty savages. Too bad the protagonist couldn't relate to them---or to most people for that matter---until a tragedy near end of the story.

Balancing the portrayal of Indians against my disappointments, I'll give it a 5.

This film uses a script cowritten by David Dortort. He would become known for television westerns like The Restless Gun, Bonanza and The High Chaparral.

There's a lot going on in this film, and the action starts very simply. Guy Madison plays a man who has just bought an old homestead. He heads into the nearest town to sign the property deeds. The main street seems deserted, and he learns all the inhabitants are in the saloon where court is in session. Three trouble-making brothers, the Shipleys, are on trial for the murder of a native. As Madison and the others look on, a prejudiced jury of white men clears the brothers of their crime with what has to be the quickest verdict ever reached.

What's interesting here is that Madison is half native, though he isn't telling anyone this. He's using a white man's name. He soon meets a white woman (Felicia Farr, the future Mrs. Jack Lemmon) who takes a shine to him, as well as a native woman (Kathryn Grant, the future Mrs. Bing Crosby) who is being pursued on the down-low by one of the Shipleys. Yes, there are some intricate race relations occurring in this town.

Added into the mix is an old native man (Ralph Moody) who helps Madison on his land, but who is in reality his grandfather. He allows Madison to treat him as an employee instead of a relative. Meanwhile, one of the natives from a local tribe is still intent on avenging the murder that the Shipleys committed and this leads to one of the Shipleys being killed. But Madison gets blamed for it, since he is perceived an Injun lover. Ironically, he is exonerated by Grant's character, who says he was with her all night, which is a lie, and which affects things with Farr's character.

The story reaches an interesting climax when Madison's grandfather is killed by one of the Shipleys. This forces Madison to renounce his status as a white man and to defend his late grandfather's honor. A subplot related to these proceedings is the fact that a native cannot own land like a white man can, so in essence, Madison will have to forfeit ownership of the homestead he bought at the beginning.

The story gives us much to consider about how communities are settled. Also, how laws may protect one segment of the population but discriminate against another.