User Reviews

Hilariously inept - like "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" remade by five-year-olds.

Spoilers ahead: Despite its title, and the high bodycount, "Slaughter Trail" is in fact a musical with Injun battles instead of dance numbers.

If you ever wondered what Ed Wood might have done with a B-movie budget, this film should answer your question. Some decisions may have been bad only in retrospect, such as filming in the short-lived Cinecolor process, which resulted in faces changing hue within the same shot. But there was definitely some ill-advised skimping on the film's main set, a cavalry fort that seems to be partly a Norman castle.

Terry Gilkyson, who later wrote the 'The Bare Necessities' for Disney's "The Jungle Book", supplies a score full of original ditties which would have been wonderful for a cartoon but which fit Western action like a fuzzy slipper stuck in a stirrup. One song tells how "horse hooves pound, and their melody sounds, like the hoofbeat serenade"...during a dead-serious scene of a cavalry patrol. Other songs literally narrate the story shot by shot, introducing characters, describing their moods and gestures - as they happen on screen - and even stop to advertise the Cinecolor process(!)

The script sends ferocious Navajos on the warpath to avenge the killing of two of their band by an outlaw trio. By the end of the film, what looks like a hundred Navajos and cavalrymen have bitten the dust (thanks to repeated footage of the same characters dying over and over.) But the chief is satisfied once he sees the trio of badguys have been slain. As the singer helpfully informs those of us who weren't paying attention, the Navajos ride away, their battle called off. The cavalry captain, surrounded by the corpses of his fallen comrades, cheerily waves his appreciation.

The direction could most charitably be described as wooden, or more to the point, Wood-en. Navajos are consistently shot off their horses in pairs -- never just one. Virtually every red man on foot dies by throwing his hands in the air and keeling over. The film also employs the most cautious stuntmen in Hollywood, who crouch before dropping off a one-story roof (and still fail to stick the landing) or turn to look behind them as they slide, "dead", down a rocky slope.

The star is Brian Donlevy, who surely deserves an Oscar for not blushing. After the endless final battle scene -- "climax" is scarcely the word -- he scans a list of the dozens of his troopers killed, and shrugs, "It could've been a LOT worse." Trooper Andy Devine gets to sing and robber/murderer Gig Young laughs at Andy's antics...which leads a character who had been held up by masked bandits to rat Gig out: "I'd know that laugh anywhere!"

And lest anyone forget just what a nasty piece of work Howard Hughes could be, recall that as head of RKO, Hughes was first in line to blacklist original star Howard Da Silva when HUAC denounced him. It would take Hughes another six years to finish running that once-celebrated studio into the ground, but it didn't help things when he insisted on reshooting Da Silva's every scene for this film, substituting Donlevy.

It was nearly a decade before Da Silva was able to work in Hollywood again. But all things considered, for getting him out of "Slaughter Trail", he should have sent Hughes a thank-you note.

Brian Donlevy and Gig Young must have signed up for this film without first reading the script (if there was one). It's a mess that can't decide what kind of film it should be--a musical western, cowboy vs. Indians (referred to in the film as "Redskins" and "Injuns," reflective of Hollywood's view of Native people at that time (1951), stage robbers vs. cavalry. Also where the film should be taking place--location scenes vary from the hills around Chatsworth to some barren deserts. The cavalry wear out their horses looking for the Navajos, but the Navajos have no problem in getting to the Fort. Most of the Indians don't look like Navajos, and I don't think Navajos wore war bonnets. Mention is made of Custer's defeat, so the time in which this film takes place has to be after 1876. By then the Navajo Nation was no longer at war with the whites--they'd had enough of resistance after Bosque Rodondo. Virginia Grey is lovely to look at, but that red lipstick (!) looked garish and out of place in a film that takes place in the old West. The singing was so intrusive I took the liberty of using my remote to speed past the songs, except I was stuck with the "Hoofs on the Ground" that seemed to run on forever. I counted some three dozen Indians shot off their horses in the big battle scene. What tribe would sacrifice so many warriors and then call it quits because the three bad men were killed in the battle? Don't waste your time watching this film!

I've never seen a movie quite like this, and I've seen lots of cheap Westerns. The main unique quality is the use of a ballad as a narrative device; almost every scene transition is filled in with a few stanzas of this ballad updating anyone who may have taken a bathroom break as to where the (largely conventional) plot is going. I liked the folksy style of the ballad, it lent a very nice flavor to the entire film.... somewhat gaudy or "cheezy", but for people like me who enjoy the genre it is pleasing. It's not the same as "singing cowboy" films because we actually only see the singing narrator in 2 or 3 scenes.... usually he is singing but in the capacity of an unseen commentator. At points the narrative ballad's commentary on the story approaches almost a "greek chorus" style of accompaniment to the story, and at points it even seems to poke fun at the film and Western formulas. For instance, when the Native Americans make their first appearance, the singing narrator tells us that "Indians.... they add to the suspense of Slaughter Trail". In this way, as well as in some of the other clearly intentional comedic aspects, this film occasionally raises itself above the level of farce and into spoof, making it almost post-modern. I can certainly see an influence from this film on others as diverse as "Rio Bravo", "Johnny Guitar" and Lucio Fulci's "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (which utilizes a similar singing narrator). This is the first movie of its type I have seen, and it is very different from those other films, so it deserves points for originality. And originality is a rare thing in classic Westerns.... a thing to be treasured by fans. This is by no means a "great" movie, nor is it trying to be (like, ahem, Mr. Ford's 1950s films), but fans will surely enjoy it as a rare, possibly unique, treat.

Other aspects of the film are pleasing, but nothing exceptional. Donlevy is sturdy as usual, and a few Western regulars make appearances though I can't tell you their names. The color is very interesting, the photography is just so-so however. The fact that the story is so "predictable" or "formula" is, I think, another factor pushing this into the area of spoof. It was designed I believe to please those looking for a decent oater and nothing more, but also like most good B movies this film has another element present to please non-genre fans. In this case, those elements are the music and the often hilarious comedy of the film. Some of the film's comedy is pointed at itself, which is also somewhat unique until "Rio Bravo" came along a few years later.