Routine
After many small parts on Gene Autry and Roy
Rogers oaters, and some of those Three Mesquiteers ones in the late 1930s, George
Montgomery finally got to lead in a Western in the 1941 version of Riders of the Purple Sage. In the early
50s he starred in many a B-Western, many of them already reviewed on this blog,
and if he wasn’t the most charismatic of Western actors he was still solid and
reliable. Battle of Rogue River, a cavalry
Western made the same year as The Lone Gun and Masterson of Kansas, was
a typical example.
It was a Sam Katzman/William Castle effort. IMDB
tells us that producer Katzman's output “encompassed virtually every genre
imaginable. In the 1930s he turned out Tim McCoy westerns for Puritan and
Victory, the next decade he was grinding out the East Side Kids series at
Monogram, the 1950s saw him making sci-fi opuses and teenage musicals for
Columbia and in the 1960s he was cranking out hippie/biker films for AIP and Elvis
Presley musicals for MGM.” He was a master of cashing in on a fad and his
pictures may not have been fine art but they rarely lost money.
Castle & Katzman evidently pals
William Castle produced and directed low-budget B-movies, which
also specialized in faddy gimmicks in both production and promotion, such as the
Tingler, a vibrating device attached to theater seats. He didn’t direct that
many Westerns, though three of them were with George Montgomery. They were
competently done.
Rogue River didn’t exactly have a
star-studded cast. After Montgomery it starred Richard Denning as the leader of
a civilian militia, John Crawford as an Army lieutenant and Michael Granger as
Chief Mike of the Rogue River Indians, with Martha Hyer (later to become Mrs.
Hal B Wallis) as the dame for George to fall for. Denning was in a few Westerns,
leading in only one, before he became the governor on Hawaii Five-0. He said, "I'm very grateful for a career that
wasn't spectacular. I have wonderful memories of it, but I don't really miss
it." He was especially unspectacular in Rogue River. Crawford is mostly known for TV work but he also took a
few secondary roles in Columbia Western features. As for Granger, he was
another with an unspectacular career. He was only in six feature Westerns and
led in none of them. He was often an Indian (Sitting Bull in Fort Vengeance), though heaven knows why
because he didn’t resemble one in the least.
Solid Montgomery (in 1870s cavalry uniform) and unspectacular Denning (who can't be a goody because he's blond)
Battle of Rogue
River is a story set during the Rogue River Indian
war of 1856 in Oregon. Montgomery is Major Frank Archer, a new martinet fort
commander, taking over from a lackadaisical one (good old Willis Bouchey) and
Archer is determined to lick the soldiers into shape and wipe out these pesky
Indians, using his new-fangled artillery - until orders come from on high
telling him to make peace. So he establishes a mutually respectful rapport with
Chief Mike.
Chief Mike
However, there are bad-guy white men who are
against statehood and have a vested interest in keeping the Indian wars going,
and it soon becomes apparent that they have suborned apparent good-guy Stacey
Wyatt (Denning). He lies and schemes to sabotage Major Archer’s truce.
There’s a sub-Broken Arrow vibe to the picture as the Indians are basically
goodies and their chief, despite his silly name and war bonnet, statesmanlike
in a Cochisey sort of way.
There’s some nice (though unOregonish) scenery
shot in Technicolor by DP Henry Freulich and some stirring Mischa Bakaleinikoff
music for us to enjoy. In fact the whole picture would be watchable on a wet
afternoon.
Showdown
After mucho
skullduggery and an Archer/Wyatt showdown, the chief and the major kiss and
make up, the peace pipe is smoked, Oregon becomes a state and Major Archer wins
the hand of the girl who has been, it must be said, rather annoying and silly.