Smoke Signal

source: Smoke Signal

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Smoke Signal

The wrinkle here, is that most of the action takes place in boats, traversing a treacherous river in the west. Andrews, Laurie, and Reason acquit themselves well, but the script is tired, even for the mid 50s. There is enough action to satisfy and Piper is easy on the eyes, otherwise this one is just passable.

Having abandoned his post to join the Utes a man named "Brett Halliday" (Dana Andrews) is recaptured later to stand trial for treason. It's also then that the Utes have joined forces with the Sioux and Navajo to wage war on the United States and one of their first targets is the small fort where Brett has been imprisoned. To make things even more complicated, with too few troops to defend the fort a decision has to be made on whether to follow Brett's advice to escape by going on small boats down the treacherous Colorado River-which might be even more dangerous than the Utes. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be a fairly nice Western for the most part with a couple of interesting twists and turns along the way and fine performances by both Dana Andrews and Laurie Piper (as "Laura Evans"). All things considered, I found it to be worth the time spent to watch it and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

When Captain William Tallman returns to the fort with accused deserter Dana Andrews, he finds himself besieged by Indians who want him back. Tallman won't give him up, and the Utes threaten to kill everyone. So Andrews leads them on an escape by boat down the wild Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. There are some technical issues with the obvious process shots. You can easily see which shots re shot in the studio against a screen. Even so, the location shots by Clifford Stine are lovely, and the sparse lines well delivered by a cast that includes Piper Laurie, Milburn Stone, Gordon Jones, and William Schallert -- even though Miss Laurie ater stated that Andrews was drunk throughout the shoot.

Huge war party is about to attack an Army outpost against an outnumbered military unit. To survive, the soldiers must take to a dangerous river flowing through canyon country, harassed by the savages all the way. Their troubles were compounded by internal strife created by a prisoner the Army was taking with them. Good action yarn filmed in the Grand Canyon.

Capt. Harper's cavalry patrol returns to the fort to find it besieged by Ute Indians. The apparent cause is the recapture of Army traitor Brett Halliday, who deserted to the Utes in a previous war; but Brett has a different story. With capture imminent, the only chance for the surviving men (and one woman) is to boat down a wild, uncharted river, where Harper and Halliday must pull together, like it or not. Like the better-known The Last Wagon, Smoke Signal features a despised 'Indian lover' prisoner ( Dana Andrews) helping a mixed band of whites made up of cavalry officers and a lady ( Piper Laurie) evade the Utes by crossing the Grand Canyon stretch of the Colorado River, and along with the intense drama between the characters, the river plays its part in conveying the turmoil of the situation they are in. It's a rugged action western with good performances by the underrated Dana Andrews, Piper Laurie, the bitter William Talman and Rex reason - a stirring adventure film.

Since "broken arrow" it had become politically correct to treat the Indians as human beings and it was about time!Like James Stewart ,the hero lived with a tribe,married a squaw (who died too) ,but it was a bad idea cause he was a military man and by leaving his "people " behind ,he became a deserter .He was captured and held prisoner in a fort in jeopardy for the Indians are all around.The only way is the river which runs through the canyon. The screenplay is predictable to a fault ,the female part (Piper Laurie)is essentially decorative ,but the landscapes are worth the price of admission.Like Richard Widmark in " the last wagon" ,Dana Andrews will "redeem himself" (but he is actually so noble there is nothing to redeem indeed).This is a "river movie" ,in which the enemy is actually not the Indians but the dangerous waters and the white men's jealousy and hatred . Like this ? try these... "River of no return" ,Otto Preminger "The far horizons" ,Rudolph Maté

As a child in the 1960s I watched as many Westerns at the cinema as possible, and "Smoke Signal" was one of those that left a lasting impression. I had to wait many years for it to be shown on British TV, and then it wasn't quite as good as I'd remembered, but still quite novel, with the US Cavalry taking to the boats to escape Indians. Certainly the Grand Canyon made a spectacular background to much of the film, though with the white protagonists being confined to two small boats quite a lot of rather obvious back projection was necessary whenever one of them spoke. Few films of the 1950s (or indeed of any period)dared omit a female from the cast, however contrived her inclusion might be, and here we have Piper Laurie visiting her father at one of the most primitive forts I've seen portrayed in a film at a time of tension with the Indians.