A good movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since it seemed to have a decent reputation (it is indeed included in the ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?’ list among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, I saw it on the BBC without subtitles so I have to admit that I did struggle a little bit to follow the dialogues. Anyway, I’m usually not a big fan of such vintage Westerns and this one turned out to be some kind of romantic love letter to the US cavalry. In fact, if there would have been enough Indians alive to fight at the time, it could have been almost described as a propaganda film. Still, I have to admit that the damned thing was not bad at all. Personally, I enjoyed above all the numerous horse chases which were so well made and quite thrilling to watch. Furthermore, I have to admit that I’m not really familiar with John Wayne’s work but he did deliver here a solid performance. Indeed, it was neat that he wasn’t playing a character who was way too young for him and I thought he was playing for once someone close to his age. Eventually, I was really surprised that his character was actually 20 years older than Wayne was at the time (in fact, he was even younger than I’m today which seems incredible). It shows how convincing the guy was and it is deservedly considered as one of his best performances. Concerning the other characters, Quincannon was fun but I had a harder time to care about a rather half-baked love triangle (the reason why this movie got this title in the first place) involving a young woman and two young officers, even though I have to admit that Joanne Dru was really lovely. Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

7/10