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Warpath

5.7

80

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Original title

Warpath

Year

1951

Running time

95 min.

Country

United States

Director

Byron Haskin

Screenwriter

Frank Gruber

Cast

Music

Paul Sawtell

Cinematography

Ray Rennahan

Producer

Paramount Pictures

Genre

Western

Synopsis

Newly arrived in town, John Vickers confronts Herb Woodson on the street and challenges him to draw his gun. When Woodson asks John why he has been following him for eight years, John reminds him that he and two other men killed his fiancée Helen. Woodson fires and misses, but John's bullet finds its target, and as Woodson dies, he reveals that the other two killers, Morrison and Bly, have joined the U.S. Cavalry.

Shortly afterward, John, enroute to Bismarck, North Dakota, to enlist in General George Custer's Seventh Regiment, defends Molly Quade, an attractive young woman who is being harassed by a drunken sergeant. The sergeant, O'Hara, is furious at the intrusion, and after the train arrives in Bismarck, he is pleased to learn that John has been assigned to his company at Fort Lincoln. John befriends some of the other Company M men, but O'Hara torments him, ordering him to perform stable duty and other loathsome tasks. Meanwhile, Molly, who has come to Fort Lincoln to help her father run the general store, tells the elder Quade that she has met an interesting man, but Quade, upon meeting John, is inexplicably rude to the recruit. O'Hara overhears John asking a soldier if Bly and Morrison are in the Seventh Regiment. Several days later, Company M is ordered to subdue a band of Sioux that has attacked a wagon train. At Nelson's Island, miles from the fort, the company finds itself outnumbered and under attack by the Indians. Following a furious battle, John volunteers to return to the fort for help, but as he disappears into the trees, someone takes a shot at him. John arrives at the fort just as General Custer rides up. Custer remarks that he remembers John's years as an outstanding Union officer.

Then the general and his men, to the great relief of the besieged troopers, accompany John to Nelson's Island. Having helped to save the surviving soldiers of Company M from slaughter, John is promoted to the rank of first sergeant. That day, John accuses O'Hara of having shot at him on the island and reveals his suspicions that O'Hara is one of his fiancée's murderers. Worried, O'Hara visits Quade and advises him that John has discovered his identity, whereupon Quade persuades him to flee for his life. New information convinces John that O'Hara is, in fact, Bly, but after strapping on his gun, John learns that the sergeant has deserted. After advising John to pursue the killers through legal channels, Captain Gregson orders him and his men to escort a wagon train through Sioux country. Quade and Molly, having sold their store, join the wagon train and are captured along with John and several others when the party is attacked. At the Sioux village, where O'Hara is also being held captive, the prisoners learn that Custer unknowingly is leading his men into an impossible battle with ten thousand Sioux and Cheyenne at Little Big Horn. To help the others escape, O'Hara disrupts the tribe's spirited powwow with gunfire, sacrificing his life in the process.

John, Quade and Molly seize the opportunity to steal away from the village, and that night, John tells Molly that although he knows that her father is also one of the killers, he is no longer obsessed with a desire for revenge. While the sweethearts talk, Quade rides off to warn Custer about the Indian forces at Little Big Horn. The next day, John and Molly rejoin Captain Gregson's detachment, which succeeds in winning a battle against the Sioux. Realizing that Custer and most of the Seventh Regiment have probably been wiped out, Gregson persuades John to become an officer so that he and his future wife Molly can live in the officer's quarters.

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User history

Warpath

1951

Byron Haskin

5.7

(80)