This film alas fails to fulfil the promise of its opening and despite some good moments it remains a 'B' film with a predominantly 'A' cast. The scene from which it takes its title is brilliantly conceived, after which everything else seems something of an anti-climax.
The highlight of Samuel Fuller's piece is the duologue between the renegade malcontent O'Meara of Rod Steiger and Brian Keith's voice of reason as Captain Clarke.
Veteran Jay C. Flippen is woefully miscast as a Sioux and Charles Bronson, still serving his time as a supporting actor, fails to convince as an Indian chief albeit a well-buffed one. Wholly convincing is H. M. Wynant as the appropriately named Crazy Horse. The female interest(and what a female!) is supplied by scrumptious Spanish import Sara Montiel as a squaw. Her character is however little more than a cipher and she is ineffectually dubbed by Angie Dickinson.
On the plus side we have a customarily lavish score by Victor Young and stunning cinematography courtesy of Joseph Biroc.
As one would expect from Mr. Fuller some scenes are extremely visceral and the off screen agonised cries of Ralph Meeker's character being flayed alive linger long in the memory.
Despite his unevenness as a director, one simply cannot be indifferent to him and what a critic has referred to as this film's 'unbridled audacity' cannot be disputed.
The highlight of Samuel Fuller's piece is the duologue between the renegade malcontent O'Meara of Rod Steiger and Brian Keith's voice of reason as Captain Clarke.
Veteran Jay C. Flippen is woefully miscast as a Sioux and Charles Bronson, still serving his time as a supporting actor, fails to convince as an Indian chief albeit a well-buffed one. Wholly convincing is H. M. Wynant as the appropriately named Crazy Horse. The female interest(and what a female!) is supplied by scrumptious Spanish import Sara Montiel as a squaw. Her character is however little more than a cipher and she is ineffectually dubbed by Angie Dickinson.
On the plus side we have a customarily lavish score by Victor Young and stunning cinematography courtesy of Joseph Biroc.
As one would expect from Mr. Fuller some scenes are extremely visceral and the off screen agonised cries of Ralph Meeker's character being flayed alive linger long in the memory.
Despite his unevenness as a director, one simply cannot be indifferent to him and what a critic has referred to as this film's 'unbridled audacity' cannot be disputed.