CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA
US, 1954, 84 minutes, Colour.
Barbara Stanwyck, Ronald Reagan, Gene Evans, Lance Fuller, Anthony Caruso, Jack Elam, Yvette Dugay.
Directed by Allan Dwan.
Cattle Queen of Montana is one of two small-budget westerns made by Barbara Stanwyck in the mid-50s: The Maverick Queen and Cattle Queen of Montana. For a quarter of a century, Stanwyck had been a strong presence in many films, reaching peaks of her career with such films as Double Indemnity in 1944. As she aged, she moved into some tough dramas, this kind of western as well as Forty Guns, directed by Samuel Fuller. She then found her home on television in the series The Big Valley. Ronald Reagan appears as her co-star - confounding any expectations that he would ever be president of the United States within thirty years.
1. Enjoyable western? A western of the 50s? The cattle ranchers, the greedy land barons, the Blackfoot Indians, the military? The combination of these elements? The initial hostility towards the Blackfoot? The greater understanding, the Indians wanting peace, the university-educated Indian? The land-grabbers and their manipulation of the Indians with ammunition and whisky?
2. The location settings, the Montana valleys, the land for the cattle, the rivers? Musical score?
3. Audience familiarity with the themes: the 1880s, the ranchers wanting to settle, the role of cattle in the west? The Indians, the reservations? The racial clashes?
4. Barbara Stanwyck as Sierra Nevada Jones? With her father, her old friend, going to the valley, about to lay claim? The Indians, the stampede, her father's death, Colorados taking her and her friend to the camp, caring for them? Her encounter with Farrell at the river?
5. The background of Mc Cord, his wanting to own all the land, his henchmen, his hiring Farrell as a gunfighter? His relationship with the Indians, with Natchakoa? The raid on the cattle, the stampede, his finding the claim document, registering it?
6. The picture of the Blackfoot Indians, the chief, Colorados and his university education, wanting peace? Natchakoa and his angers, deals with McCord?, wanting the guns? Starfire and her love for Colorados, her jealousy of Sierra, her betraying them to Natchakoa, her death? The military, the accords with the Indians? The divided opinions - and the film coming down on the side of the peace-loving Indians with the renegades as villains?
7. Sierra, her recovery, the friendship with Colorados, trusting him? Going to the town, finding that her land was taken? Her planning to confront McCord?, having the cloth with the sign of his ranch? Her overhearing the Indians with McCord? The initial clashes with Farrell, his treatment of her, his going to the camp allegedly to kill her? His help, the revelation that he was military?
8. The build-up to the confrontation with McCord? and Natchakoa, the military finding out about the guns, following Natchakoa, Starfire's betrayal, the shootout? The deaths?
9. Farrell and Sierra, a pair, a future? Colorados and his leadership of the Blackfoot? A small-budget, short-running western, with familiar themes - but echoing the style of the 50s?
