Pony Soldier

source: Pony Soldier

Pony Soldier

I'll second what one (several) reviewers said about the location of the filming being ludicrous . . . But I found this more than interesting, almost intriguing, and the leads of Power and Gomez are excellent. I suspect the story line is largely, if not totally, fictional. Didn't matter to me: It was entertaining, focused on finding a peaceful solution, and the action and crowd scenes are impressive for what had many trappings of a B-movie. Seen today, Gomez's style and performance come close to making me cringe. Viewed from the perspective of 70 years ago, it's an outstanding performance with some clever words and effective acting. Liked it, didn't love it, definitely worth seeing if your style runs to action and thought and bright colors.

Beautiful early color and gorgeous Canadian landscapes aside, Pony Soldier is about as embarrassing and stereotypical a piece of dated cultural nonsense as you'll find in the Western genre. Natives kidnapping white women, "noble savages", you name it: Pony Soldier captures all the tried and true hits. Just because it's Canadian doesn't make it any less cringe-worthy.

This totally inept film obviously could not afford to go anywhere near Canada ( there is a lot of talk about the respect for Queen Victoria in it and as seen here it was given a more appropriate title in the UK. ) Tyrone power is ill served by this Western, and in the main it is static stuck in a camp of Cree Native Americans. He is there to bring back two hostages that the Cree have captured after an attack on a wagon train. The talk is endless and tedious ( it is painfully explained that the Cree will speak English in the film, ) and there are sporadic attacks of violence including a killing by a hatchet in the face. Graphically shown, and nasty. The only virtue to the film is that the Native Americans are rarely called savages ( I counted one such comment ) and that the opening music was well composed by Alex North. Who can forget his score for the great ' A Streetcar Named Desire ' ? Thomas Gomez acts well as a guide for Tyrone Power and to sum up it is just about watchable.

Garrulous Technicolor nonsense whose grasp of geography is evident from the use of Texan locations pretending to be Canada and whose fidelity to factual accuracy is evident from casting Cameron Mitchell and Thomas Gomez (the latter looking like Jabba the Hutt) as red indians. It boasts an interesting score by Alex North, who rapidly went on to much greater things.

Tyrone Power is the title character in this good western whose mission is to effect the return of the Cree tribe from the United States back to Canada in the name of the Queen. Of course, the Indians just want to hunt and return to their old way of life and to lift a few scalps along the way. Power is aided by a trail-savvy, talkative half-breed scout who provides droll comic relief along the way. The film has more dialogue than action, although white hostages held by the Indians lead to some tense moments for the Mountie. The officer's peace efforts are threatened by a band of hostile Indians, with most of the skirmishes coming at the end of the picture. The movie has a great cast of western character actors and the camera work is also very good.

Greatly enjoyed this film which had great photography in Arizona and showed in great detail the Native American dwellings and customs. Tyrone Power(Constable Duncan MacDonald),"The Eddy Duchin Story",'56, played a young Canadian Mounted Police Constable who was on a mission to rescue settlers who were captured and held hostage. Thomas Gomez,(Natayo Smith),"Key Largo",'48 gave an outstanding performance as a guide to Duncan through the Indian country and demanded great rewards for his services. Penny Edwards,(Emerald Neeley),"Two Guys from Texas",'48 was the only white woman around and was greatly abused through out the entire picture. Despite all the conflicts among the Indians and the White folks, Duncan MacDonald was able to adopt a young boy as his son with the Indian community blessings. I have seen Thomas Gomez perform in many Classic films, but I truly enjoyed his great acting abilities in this film and regret he had a very short lived career.