The story begins in 1863, at Fort Bravo...a remote Union prison in Arizona Territory. One of the soldiers stationed at Fort Bravo is Captain Roper (William Holden). A hardened, unkind, cynical man, Roper performs his duties with an iron hand.
Given the fort's remote desert location and the local warring Mescalero Indians, escape from the prison is hardly likely; however, when one man does try to escape, Roper, intending to make an example of him and, thus, discourage future break-outs, drags the man back to the fort at the end of a rope. With Roper's rather inhumane methods, his superior, who doesn't approve of such actions, makes the statement that he's glad he and Roper are on the same army.
The Confederate prisoners, of course, despise Roper and even taunt him by whistling "Dixie" as he walks by. Captain Marsh (John Forsythe) tells a few of his men that they are waiting for the right time and then they will break out....and the right time soon arrives...in the person of Carla Forrester (Eleanor Parker).
A friend of Roper's superior's daughter, Carla has come to the fort supposedly for a visit.
However, in actuality, she is engaged to Captain Marsh, and her purpose in being at the fort is to make arrangements with a Confederate sympathizer for guns and transportation of the prisoners.
Additionally, she is to distract Roper---a job which she does perfectly.
Completely smitten with Carla, Roper's emotionless facade begins to crack.
Totally in love with her, he asks her to marry him and to stay on at the fort. Carla indicates she loves him too...but does she?
Has her playing at love become real? Or are her kisses and tender words just an act?
What will Roper do when he discovers that several of his prisoners are gone...and that the woman he loves has deceived him? And what about the Mescaleros? As they move in for attack, will anyone be able to survive against them...especially in the harsh desert terrain of Arizona? These are the questions which will play out in the balance of this film.
William Holden was totally gorgeous at this point in his career!! He is ruggedly handsome in this film, and he looks fabulous in the Union uniform.
As always, Mr. Holden's acting was super. He definitely could portray the hardened, cynical, unemotional man to the hilt. Eleanor Parker was lovely, and although it was a bit unrealistic to think that she would have so many gowns with her (she was just visiting the fort), the gowns were stunning. There was great chemistry between Parker and Holden here---definitely passion in their kissing scenes. While I'm not a huge fan of Westerns, there was enough romance in this film to make it enjoyable for me. The ending was a bit abrupt, though, and could have been better, so although I'm giving 4 stars, it's more like 3.5...still a very solid, enjoyable viewing experience and one which I highly recommend (even to those who don't ordinarily enjoy Westerns).
The film is out on DVD, so it ought to be fairly easy to track down. Fans of William Holden and Eleanor Parker ought to especially enjoy it.
Happy viewing!!
Hi Patti,
ReplyDeleteI saw you comment over at Victoria's and thought by chance if you wanted to go back to the old interface on blogger this is what you do.
Burlap Luxe said... over at SeaCottage.blogspot.com on her Mayday Mayday Mayday post for me and then this helped her because the very next day blogger changed her page on her. OMGosh! I so figured it all out, this is what you will do when it happens to you!
If you want to go back to the old format, click on the icon at the upper right hand corner of the page that looks kind of like a gear or very small narrow gray box. A drop down menu will give you the option to go back to the old format of a choice of the blogger interface click that and you are back. It's easy, once you know where to go...
All bloggers are dealing with this its a matter of time for others.
~Dore
Thank you, Dore, for your instruction on how to change back. I think I'm just going to stay with the new interface, as I've learned my way around. Who knows how long they will be keeping the old one around before automatically changing everyone...just as Facebook has done with the timeline.
DeleteI'm so funny about older movies that are in color, I prefer them in black and white for some reason! I don't think I'd go out of my way to see this but, because of your review, I'd definitely give it a go if it happened to be on. Sometimes the barren, dry, desert backdrops of Westerns turn me off too.
ReplyDeleteI so agree with you about the powerful ones needing to justify their jobs and their paychecks! They create problems so they can have 900 long meetings about them. Kyran goes through that at work, he puzzles over why his bosses complicate things and I tell him "So they have something to do".
I'm actually feeling ok with the new interface now. I think there's bigger and more pressing things to worry about...the more I use it, the more familiar I'll be with it. And we're very lucky to be able to run our blogs for free! It's becoming more and more rare to be able to do anything on the internet for free anymore so that's a blessing:) Dore's advice will work though, if you do want to go back to the old but, I've heard when you go back to the old it keeps reverting you back to the new one.
Great review, as always:)
Victoria, I actually prefer black and white movies too!!! My kids sometimes even laugh at me if a movie is in color. Knowing my love for black and whites, they can't believe I'll sit through a color film.
DeleteThough I'm not wild about Westerns, I AM wild about William Holden (as everyone already knows!), and since he's clean-shaven (a must for me!) and gorgeous here, I'm not turned off by the genre. Additionally, I adore Eleanor Parker. So, this film definitely works for me.
I've gotten used to the new interface, too, and am not going to switch back, but I still don't think the change was necessary. But since they did change it, I hope they keep it around a few years anyway.
Escape From Fort Bravo sounds interesting. There are a lot of Westerns dealing with similar themes, in fact I was watching one called Major Dundee just the other night.
ReplyDeleteI know you're not a big fan of Westerns so I won't recommend it to you, but I am glad you enjoyed this one.
I also wanted to weigh in on the Blogger interface debate. I've resisted the new interface so far and have changed back every time Blogger has tried to force me to use it. Sadly it seems the old Blogger interface will cease to exist some time in the very near future and I'll be forced to use the new one. Sad to say I'm not best pleased about that!
Paul, I really am trying to develop a taste for Westerns. After all, if I hope to see all of Robert Ryan's and William Holden's films, I'm going to have to be watching some Westerns!! If the men are clean-shaven and there's not too much dust and dirt, I can manage them. And if there's an element of romance, I like them even more.
DeleteAs for the Blogger interface, I, too, resisted for months. However, I knew it was inevitable, so I made the switch this month. Not sure why they felt it was necessary...after all, things were working just fine before!! I am not a person who has ever tracked stats, so I actually don't need that "page views" section on my dashboard.
Same thing at Facebook. My account got the timeline yesterday, so I've been doing some re-vamping there. While I don't hate the timeline, I just don't see it as being necessary. All these "upgrades" just give Google and Facebook employees something to do for their salaries. Next year, they'll probably throw mandatory "upgrades" at us again!