ONLY THE VALIANT
US, 1951, 105 minutes, Black and white.
Gregory Peck, Barbara Payton, Ward Bond, Gig Young, Lon Chaney Jnr, Neville Brand, Jeff Corey, Warner Anderson, Steve Brodie, Michael Ansara.
Directed by Gordon Douglas.
Only the Valiant is a psychological western. It is well made – though has not remained in the memory, especially for Gregory Peck’s career. Peck had made both Yellow Sky and The Gunfighter just prior to Only the Valiant and they stand out as far more significant westerns. This was Gregory Peck still within the first seven years of his long career.
Gig Young leads the supporting cast with a number of regulars from the westerns and gangster films of the period.
The film focuses on Gregory Peck as a captain who is resented by the men at the military fort. The situation is the conflict between the military and the Indians, especially and Indian chief escaping and killing a respected lieutenant played by Gig Young.
People comment that the rest of the plot is a bit like The Dirty Dozen – the rounding up of a number of misfits and discontented military to go on a special squad to hold the pass and to delay the Indian attack to give others safety. They achieve their purpose but also learn some respect for the military skills of their commander.
The film was directed by Gordon Douglas, a prolific director of conventional films from the 1930s. As the decades went on, his status grew as an accomplished director in the 50s with such films as Come Fill the Cup, Them, Young at Heart with Doris Day and Frank Sinatra. He went even more upscale in the 1960s with The Sins of Rachel Cade, Robin and the Seven Hoods, Sylvia, Harlow, Tony Rome and The Detective.
1. The significance of the title and its irony?
2. How successful a western, the presentation of the cavalry, Indians? The conventions of a cavalry and Indians western?
3. The authentic setting and the historical explanation? The westerns and the American heritage?
4. The importance of the atmosphere of forts, Indian threats and massacres, the misfits on the mission? The detailed presentation of atmosphere?
5. The anti-Indian atmosphere of the fort? The Indian slaughter, the massacre of Indians? The significance and reasons for uprisings?
6. Gregory Peck as the hero for this kind of film? The emphasis on rules, integrity, love and not defending himself? Disappointments? His motivation on the mission? His skill with the Indians? The importance of his telling the truth to all the misfits? The dramatic impact of this? His heroism and
achievement? A typical western hero?
7. The significance of Holloway in the personal drama, his death and its repercussions on Gregory Peck?
8. The love element and the jealousy? The dramatic importance, cowardice, final happy ending?
9. Comment on each of the men and their reasons for their being in the mission? Drink, cowardice, brutality? What insight into soldiers did this give?
