Product: Fort Apache (Color Enhanced) [VHS] (1948)
Rating: 4.0
Col. York (Wayne): "The pay is thirteen dollars a month, their diet beans and hay."
Colorization on the Ford/Wayne western videotapes is mostly pastels and lacks detail, with true reds missing. All horses are the same brown color, and fire is a fakey orange hue. Detractors of computer enhancement have much ammunition with these early color-enhanced works.Ward Bond fans will love FORT APACHE. Here, he's Sgt. Maj. O'Rourke, and has the lilting brogue to prove it. During "the late unpleasantness," O'Rourke was a major decorated with the Medal of Honor. This allowed his son a presidential appointment to West Point.Young 2nd Lt. O'Rourke (Agar, in his screen debut) is a spit-shine officer who contrasts with everyone at his current garrison except new commander Lt. Col. Thursday, a former general and an unpleasant by-the-book martinet. Lt. O'Rourke falls in love with the colonel's daughter, but the father doesn't want under-age Philadelphia (Temple) to mix with O'Rourke, so he plans to ship her back East.That storyline is set aside for Thursday's quest after personal glory via a foolhardy attempt to destroy Cochise's Apaches once he's lured them to this side of the Mexican border. A deadly cavalry/warrior clash is the heart of this classic movie.Shot partly in Monument Valley and a loose take on Custer's Last Stand, "Fort Apache" was the first of John Ford's "Cavalry Trio," being closely followed by SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (1949) (VHS) (DVD), and RIO GRANDE (1950) (VHS) (DVD). (all links to b&w; films)As of 3/10, the colorized "Fort Apache" was not available on DVD.Parenthetical number preceing title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.(7.7) Fort Apache (1948) - John Wayne/Henry Fonda/Shirley Temple/Ward Bond/George O'Brien/Victor McLaglen/Irene Rich/Dick Foran/Guy Kibbee/Grant Withers/Movita/Mae Busch/John Agar