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Rating:  -
Fox's "White Feather" (1955) is a pallid reworking of their seminal 1950 James Stewart western "Broken Arrow". Pallid indeed, thanks in no small measure to the leaden performance of Robert Wagner in the leading role and the wearisome screenplay by the ubiquitous and usually more astute Delmar Daves, who by the way, also directed "Broken Arrow".
"Broken Arrow" expertly dealt with the plight of the Apache Indian and one white man's efforts to make peace with them. The difference with "White Feather" is instead of it being the Apache it is the Cheyenne. Even Wagner's narration at the picture's opening informs us, just like Jimmy Stewart did in the earlier film, that "this is a true story and when the Indian speaks he will speak in our language etc. etc."
Also Fox starlet Debra Paget who played an Apache Squaw in "Broken Arrow" turns up here as a Cheyenne Squaw. She virtually plays the same part and, would you believe, is dressed in the same outfit. She must have had a vision of a future studio call sheet were she learned she was going to be a Cheyenne Squaw, so she saved the costume. Huh? The only difference in her role here is her name is not Sonseerahray it is Appearing Day. Perhaps she should have been called Appearing Every Day!
Limply directed by Robert Webb there is not one actor in this sorry affair capable of lifting it up above the banality bar. Webb has no idea of pacing or direction and not once is the movie intruded upon with anything that resembles style. The Fox bland brigade - Robert Wagner, Jeffery Hunter, Debra Paget, Hugh O'Brian, Virginia Leith et al parade through this trite vehicle bemused and with a look of wonderment on their faces. Probably wondering when the day's shoot will finish so they can go home. We, on the other hand, are home and also have a look of wonderment on our faces as we wonder what the hell we're doing watching this rubbish?
However, after all that I'll have to give this vacuous effort a one star rating for the beautiful Cinemascope / Colour Cinematography by Lucian Ballard and the excellent score by the great Hugo Friedhofer who incidentlly also composed the music for "Broken Arrow" and here makes exceptional use of his love theme from the previous picture as his main theme. But ultimately, I'm afraid, "White Feather" is bottom drawer material that never hits the mark and gets my vote as one of the most pedestrain western ever made.
I really don't understand Fox Home Entertainment putting out poor movies like "White Feather", "True Story Of Jesse James" "The Proud Ones","Fort Courageous" etc. while left languishing in their vault are fine westerns like "Rio Conchos", "Rawhide", "From Hell To Texas" and "Two Flags West".
Go figure!!
Rating:  -
I saw this movie three times when it was first released and again about four years after at a tiny movie house reserved for 'quality' films. At long last, it is now available on DVD. Congratulations to the 'powers-that-be' for bringing it to the public at long last! I have had a taped copy of the movie for sometime, which I watched periodically. I am glad to own now it on DVD. Great to see it again in widescreen format. I find the storyline compelling and also find that the actors play their roles with conviction. I especially enjoy Eduard Franz at the Chief. He expresses his pain remarkably well on his face. John Lund is suitably sympathetic as the army officer. The main roles are played well by a cast at the start of their careers. Jeffery Hunter is especially noteworthy as Little Dog. I recommend this movie to everyone - and even to those who do not enjoy westerns. This is not a movie to be dismissed and, again, although it has been a 'long time coming', the wait has been worthwhile. Now, all I need is for 20th Century Fox to make available the DVD of 'The Egyptian' and 'That Lady' and my collection will be complete.
Rating: -
I got White Feather last Thursday and I've been watching it once, even twice a day since. I saw this movie on television in 1977 and never thought I'd ever seen it again. Thirty years later, it's still very powerful. I must admit that the very beginning where Little Dog(Jeffrey Hunter)and his party are watching surveyor Josh Tanner(Robert Wagner) taking care of the killed miner I couldn't help but grin at Jeffrey Hunter's delivery of his lines. But then remembering he had broadcasting training he had to project his voice a little bit more dramatically. My favorite scenes I like to watch over and over is the scene where Little Dog and his party intercept Josh Tanner and Anne with Tanner being so bold as to pluck a feather out of the testy Little Dog's hair and awarding Little Dog a fold out comb. I was just as fascinated with it as Little Dog because I, too, have never seen such a comb, and of course the dramatic death scene at the end. Gradually did Josh Tanner grow to love Appearing Day(Debra Paget)Little Dog's sister. Paget by the way played an Apache maiden courted by Jimmy Stewart in "Broken Arrow", whose music appears in a few scenes of White Feather which I wasn't too thrilled with. Little Dog's build up to his dramatic end gives me goose pimples no matter how often I play it back, especially with his shrill war cries that make my spine tingle.I enjoyed Little Dog's humor about the stolen Crow horse and why Tanner shouldn't ride alone busting the myth that Indians have no humor.I'm still touched no matter how many times I play Little Dog addressing his friend, Josh Tanner, before the soldiers by saying amongst other things:"I will not go with the soldiers. I will die here..." busting the myth that every Indian went quietly, bending mindlessly to the will of the white man. What I found annoying with the movie are blatantly bad stunt double work such as the scene where Crow are chasing after the Cheyenne, Jeff Hunter falls off riding backwards and we hear him war cry for help, we see him staring at a Crow going after him, then we plainly see another man pull the Crow off his horse by yanking his lance, then we see Jeff again popping on the horse. Did the studio think the audience too daft to notice a different man? Did they think a sharp-eyed watcher wouldn't notice during the fort rescue scene where Little Dog must rescue American Horse another man is plainly shown jumping down to the fort ground after scaling the wall, hide behind a tree, only to see Jeff Hunter pop out? It's insulting that studios then and now think audiences too stupid to notice when an actor is being replaced by a stunt 'double' who doesn't even barely look like the actor he's replacing. Some people actually *do* notice for those few seconds because they're actually paying attention not mindlessly watching. I thought movies are supposed to have people in charge of continuity. White Feather's continuity problems were sloppily obvious.Little Dog's sister,Appearing Day, would be wearing one color of braid ties and then a second later in the same scene they'd be a different color. After Little Dog's first confrontation with Josh Tanner and Anne, and Tanner leaves, American Horse shifts his horse and a second later he's shown not moving from his spot as if the two scenes were hastily spliced together. Little Dog first confronts Josh Tanner and Anne, you notice his hair ribbons, he introduces himself, they disappear, he watches Josh and Anne leave and his hair ribbons miraculously reappear. When Little Dog examines Josh Tanner and Anne, his loincloth's longer back is first draped over his horse, then he's sitting on it and he didn't even shift his weight and near the end when Little Dog and American Horse get ready to confront the soldiers and they were putting on their ornaments, both forgot their lances leaning against a rock and Little Dog left his war chief feathered bonnet on its rock.What's the point of bringing all that extra gear when all you're going to really use is your carbine? Did the studio think no one would notice? Then there's Josh Tanner first being seen riding a buckskin, then a much lighter fort buckskin horse as he's crossing the river after his Cheyenne dinner date. Why on earth was he given a lighter buckskin when his first buckskin was good enough? Then he rides the black Crow horse the rest of the movie. He changed horses more often than Appearing Day changed her braid ties, and people who know horses notice subtle color changes of their coats especially if they're the same breed. The continuity director didn't see these blatant mistakes because they didn't think anyone would notice. Since we're informed that the characters actually existed, one would think the real American Horse and Little Dog wouldn't have been caught dead wearing body paint that made them look like they were scribbled on by a studio hired kindergartner. Without meaning to White Feather also shows some comedy like the scene of Little Dog and his warriors practicing their battle skills. Look closely on both screen versions through the haze of dust, two prop men, one in a white shirt, madly running around collecting fallen arrows, seeing the Crow warriors chasing Josh Tanner and seeing their lance-armed leader in all his bravado and shouting not realizing he's thrusting a backwards lance. I suppose someone told him because the next second the Crow had wised up and displays his lance blade properly facing front, the exodus scene where an old lady passes with a cradleboard and she's supporting it with her left hand that has a wedding ring, or the scene where Little Dog is with his warriors just after Josh Tanner leaves Anne to award Little Dog his comb. On the letterbox version, as Little Dog speaks, you can see one of his warriors at the far right, fumbling to put his bow back in its case on his back.I'm appalled by the DVD's back jacket synopsis:"In an effort to peacefully coexist with white settlers the Cheyenne tribe agrees to resettle, sacrificing valued Wyoming hunting grounds to make way for gold prospecting. Led by Colonel Lindsey, the tribe's resettlement journey is also guided by a rugged land surveyor Josh Tanner and his Cheyenne tribesman friends-Little Dog and American Horse. But an attraction between Little Dog's fiancee(Debra Paget) and Tanner threatens to ruin the resettlement plans and the tribe sends an arrow with a white feather-a symbol of their intention to wage war!" Obviously whomever wrote that didn't bother to watch the movie at all and should be spanked for making things up! The Cheyenne didn't give up their hunting grounds, they gave up *all* of their land because their neighbors the Sioux, Arapaho and Blackfeet agreed to leave. Cheyenne would be alone to fight the whites and as Chief Broken Hand said, their food supply in the buffalo herds had been drastically cut again and without food to sustain them, without their tribal allies helping them fight, the Cheyenne would have too many more young men die. The move was reluctant. Had he been young, Chief Broken Hand said he would've stayed to fight. The settlement journey wasn't guided by Tanner, Little Dog and American Horse. Tanner originally came to help build a town eventually and the fort was his stop over. He just got caught up in the mix, became friends with Little Dog and American Horse who admired his courage, and he fell in love with Chief Broken Hand's daughter, Appearing Day, which ticked American Horse off because she was his reluctant fiancee, not Little Dog's. Appearing Day was Little Dog's sister. Tanner's attraction to Appearing Day didn't threaten to ruin anything! The only thing that threatened to ruin the resettlement was Little Dog and American Horse who rightfully refused to be relocated. Lastly, the white feather wasn't attached to any arrow, but to one of the Bowie knives Josh Tanner gave to Little Dog and American Horse.The white feather wasn't a symbol from the Cheyenne as a whole to wage war. It was a challenge from Little Dog and American Horse who prefered to fight the army single handedly. They weren't bound by the treaty giving up their land because they weren't in camp when it was signed. One who has never seen White Feather and read the innacurate DVD's synopsis wouldn't know the difference. Afterwards however, I have a feeling they'd be miffed at the blatant innacuracies because I assume they care. The DVD has some special features. You can select any scene and go on from there. You can select your languages from English or French or you can watch the entire movie in French and use the subtitles you need which are English, French or Spanish. The dubbing into French doesn't work well if you're a decent close up lip reader. There's an Interactive Pressbook gallery where, even though there are many articles, only some you can highlight and actually read. There are pictures and posters and an original theatrical trailer. One side you can see the original version of the movie which is letter box. At first I found it distracting until I watched the other side where you get a full screen version but characters have a tendency to be cut out of the picture. One has a tough decision to make. Watch the letter box version where characters look smaller on your monitor but you get everyone in, or put it on full screen and see everything bigger but have people reduced to disembodied voices. On both versions however it starts off in letterbox then changes. If you want to see a decent Western with strong characterizations, Durango Mexico that looks convincingly like Wyoming, White Feather is a Cinemascope masterpiece without having to have John Wayne swaggering and blustering nearby to be watchable. This isn't a movie for fans of the late Jeffrey Hunter to overlook.
Rating: -
This is great movie and a must have for anyone who loves the classic Western. Robert Wagner plays the leading role as surveyer Josh Tanner. Tanner befriends the young chief Little Dog of the Cheyenne (Jeffrey Hunter) and falls in love with the young chiefs sister played by Debra Paget. The Cheyenne and other tribes are to be moved from their Wyoming hunting grounds and John Lund as Colonel Lindsey leads U.S. army's push to resettle the indians. Tanner's attraction to the chiefs sister threatens to endanger a peaceful settlement. The highpoint of the tension between army and Cheyenne arrives when Little Dog and his friend American Horse send an arrow with a white feather their symbol to wager war.
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