THE GREAT SIOUX UPRISING

US, 1953, 80 minutes, Colour.
Jeff Chandler, Lyle Bettger, Faith Domergue.
Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

Conventional western material directed by Lloyd Bacon. Lloyd Bacon, director of no many films of Warner Brothers in the thirties and forties, musicals, westerns, gangster films then musicals and conventional material at 20th Century Fox in the fifties. Jeff Chandler appeared in many action adventure& at Universal at this time and Lyle Bettger was a perennial villain. The film takes a strong anti-racial stance at the end.

1. An entertaining western? The picture of the Indians. the background of the Civil War, a western town, race relationships - Indians, blacks and slaves?

2. The conventions of the western - the town, horses and cavalry, the smart businessman, blood-thirsty men, hero, heroine, the people of the town, the clashes with the Indians and betrayals?

3. Colour photography, the typical score?

4. The basic plausibility of the plot? The picture of the town? Doctor Westgate as hero - the war, his arrival in the town, dealings with the Indians, the clash with Cook, the attraction towards Joan? His heroic action in the clash with Cook, his strength against the Indian torture and ordeal? The final satisfactory resolution and the statements about war and peace?

5. Jeff Chandler as hero - his skill as doctor, his integrity, his strength and quick-wittedness?

6. Joan as a strong heroine - horse trading, the visit to the Indians, her Indian cook and bond with her, friendship with Ahab, attraction towards Jonathan? Her participation in the visit to the Indians, imprisonment and escape, the warning of the cavalry - and the happy ending?

7. Ahab as the village blacksmith, Bible quoting, leading people away when Jonathan was to be lynched, giving himself up to the Indians for Jonathan and Joan to escape?

8. Cook as a suave villain: his dealings with the horses, his illness and the operation, his sparing Jonathan’s life, Uriah an his bloodthirsty henchman and his cruelty, Cook's fear and exploitation of the Indian situation, his telling the truth to the Cavalry?

9. The people of the town, their fear of Cook, the traitor and his busybody information, the stable, light and his death? The various people of the town strong only when working in a group for example at the lynching? The role of the Cavalry?

10. The theme of the Indians, their meeting, lack of weapons, the Indian Confederate General and his campaigning, his violence to the slave and the Indians reacting to Jonathan's speech?


11. Basic western ingredients - audience enjoyment of them, part of the American heritage, basic heroism and villainy, themes of right and wrong?