Barbara Stanwyck doesn't take adversity laying down in director Allan Dwan's "Cattle Queen of Montana" as the eponymous, pistol-packing, lead-slinging, red-headed Sierra Nevada Jones. This adventurous horse opera features future U.S. President Ronald Reagan playing second fiddle to Stanwyck as a hired gun on her side in an Indian war. This is the kind of western that has good Indians and bad Indians. "Magnificent Obsession" scenarist Robert Blees and "Hell's Angels" scribe Howard Estabrook let Barbara kill her quota of guys, while Reagan gets to blast his six-gun out of her fist in one scene. The Glacier National Valley scenery makes the perfect backdrop to this larger-than-life oater. Basically, "Cattle Queen of Montana" is a revenge western with the heroine searching for the men who ambushed her dad. The villain is ambitious, but he seems a little short-handed when it comes to having dependable help. Stanwyck, her father 'Pop' Jones (Morris Ankrum), and their foreman move a herd of over a thousand cattle into the territory to lay stake to a ranch in the middle of the wilderness. Renegade Native Americans bushwhack Jones and her family. Jones' father bites the dust and their friend Nat is laid up while our heroine tries to absorb what has happened. She is surprised when good Indians arrive to help them. The Indians are Blackfeet, and two of them are vying to lead the tribe after their ailing father migrates to the Happy Hunting Ground in the sky. Colorados (Lance Fuller) is an educated Indian who asks questions before he fires his weapon. His volatile brother Natchakoa (Anthony Caruso) is an uneducated, liquor-swilling brave who shoots first and asks questions afterward. Colorados allows Sierra and Nat to recuperate in his village. The villain is greedy cattleman named Tom McCord (Gene Evans) who wants Natchakoa to scare off the settlers so he can buy their land up cheaply. Neither Natchakoa nor McCord are prepared to tangle with Sierra. She has no problem packing a pistol and putting lead into people. A wandering gunman, Farrell (Ronald Reagan), rides into the country, too, and takes a job as one of McCord's minions.
Review of Cattle Queen of Montana
