Pony Soldier (1952)

“Across the medicine line to see the new pony soldiers at Fort Walsh. This evil that has happened to these ranchers may be good fortune for us.” – Natayo Smith

Number of Times Seen – 1 (27 Mar 2019)

Brief Synopsis – In the 1870’s, a Canadian Mountie is sent on a mission to rescue two settlers who have been captured by Indians.

My Take on it – This is a film that I had hoped would be more interesting than it actually was.

They try to depict what was happening in the vast Canadian wilderness during the 1870’s as a contrast that all that was occurring in the Western parts of the US at the same time.

Unfortunately, this movie doesn’t manage to do the genre justice and feels pretty mediocre at best.

Tyrone Power was a great actor, but he comes across in this film in a very wooden manner.

The story itself is quite predictable and they seem to follow the notion of keeping as many of the characters and plot lines stereotypical the whole way through.

Nothing here really feels very original or innovative and ruins the false premise that something intriguing must have been happening in Canada during this period of time.

I found it quite humorous that they felt the need to have to explain to the audience why the Indians in the story speak English instead of their native languages since it is self evident that films at the time usually depicted all characters speaking the same language despite racial or geographical differences between them.

Bottom Line – Pretty mediocre western that doesn’t really do the genre much justice. The idea of trying to show how things were in the Canadian wilderness during this time is technically a good idea, yet they don’t find a way to make this film more unique or interesting. Even Power feels wooden in this film and everything that happens seems a bit too predictable and stereotypical the whole way through.  It was actually quite humorous that they feel the need to explain in the introduction why the Indians speak English instead of their native languages since this should be straight forward already.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Actor Stuart Randall, playing Standing Bear, had all his lines re-dubbed with another actor’s voice after filming was completed. Apparently the producers finally realized that most Canadian Indians do not, like Randall, have a distinct Texas accent. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (5/10)

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