War Paint
Tags: revenge, murder, violence

Plot synopsis:
The pre-credit sequence of the film starts out with Bureau of Indian Affairs Commissioner Kirby and the last survivor of his US Cavalry escort shot and scalped by Taslik and his squaw Wanima.
The film proper begins with Lt. Billings leading his patrol, that has escorted Cpl Hamilton, a cartographer who has been making maps of the area. On the way back to the fort they are met by a messenger, who brings orders that they are to meet Commissioner Kirby and his party at a trading post in order to deliver a recently signed Indian treaty from Washington to the chief of the local tribe. The messenger gives the treaty to the Lieutenant, who commandeers him to join his patrol. The patrol, who are unaware of the fate of Kirby and his party, have nine days to get the treaty to the chief, lest a new uprising start.
At the trading post is Taslik, who offers to lead the patrol to the chief. Taslik is wearing war paint that he explains is from his killing members of a rival tribe who have trespassed on his tribe's land.
Unknown to the patrol, Taslik and Wanima, who is shadowing the patrol, are strongly against the peace treaty. The two sabotage the patrol's supplies at every turn in various undetected ways. On their journey the patrol discovers the remains of Commissioner Kirby's escort.
The patrol finally get wise to Taslik when they discover that he has led them in a giant circle looking for water. With time rapidly vanishing, Lt. Billings collects all the remaining water of the rapidly diminishing patrol to fill one water bottle. This is given to one of the troopers, who is to make his way overland to the Indian village while the rest of the men conserve their strength by travelling only at night. Wanima ambushes the trooper and kills him but is wounded herself and becomes unconscious.
At night the patrol discovers what has happened, but Billings refuses to kill Wanima. This causes discontent amongst the patrol, who have lost other members through poisoned water and suicide. Wanima agrees to lead the patrol to water but leads them to an abandoned gold mine, setting them to killing each other off to satisfy their greed.

Review: "War Paint" (1953) starring Robert Stack is a good "mission across the desert" movie.
"War Paint" (1953) starring Robert Stack is a good "mission across the desert" movie with good actors, an OK script, and portrays US Army deserters who murder loyal Army soldiers and try to murder their commanding officer, and almost succeed.Very few movies portray this important military discipline problem which has happened often in US and other Army military history.US Army officers are issued sidearms (handguns) to defend themselves against enlisted men they command who may decide to disobey orders and murder the commander who gave them orders they disobey.During the War In Vietnam, the phenomenon of enlisted men murdering officers who commanded them was publicized and often called "fragging." Enlisted men who attack and try to murder officers, and sometimes succeed, is not new to military experience.
Leading a military unit is dangerous for many reasons, not only because of enemy fire, but due to "friendly fire" from soldiers part of one's military group, which "friendly fire" is, sadly and tragically, sometimes intentional.Murdered officers killed by their own men is not new in military history.This "War Paint" (1953) movie set in desert country about a small military unit led by a single junior (low level) officer (a Lieutenant) played by Robert Stack shows enlisted men, about a dozen of them, made desperate by harsh no-water desert conditions, and greedy due to a gold mine they come across on their way to delivering a peace treaty to an Indian tribal chief (the mission the military group has in the "old West" of post-Civil War 19th century times in the far west desert country.
(This movie was shot entirely in California's "Death Valley," located near the Nevada/ California state border, famous for it's moonscape appearance where almost nothing, plant or animal, can live, or does.) The movie story is very simple, and not a little eerie.It was made the same year Robert Stack starred in the first 3-D movie titled "Bwana Devil," set in Africa.....another Robert Stack adventure movie."War Paint" is a good movie for several reasons, including it's unusual and forthright treatment of bad soldiers doing damage to good soldiers, all in the same Army and supposed to be on the "same team." A single female character is included in the cast, and she is supposed to be an Indian maiden, the daughter of the Indian tribal chief the military group seeks to present with a US Govt.
peace treaty.The girl is beautiful, dressed in a form fitting doe-skin dress, has a perfect complexion, lovely thick dark braided hair, every hair neatly in place, a very pretty face, and a great, curvy female figure, including chorus girl legs shown off when she rides horses or wrestles around on the ground when attacked by soldiers or attacking the soldiers on her own.She is not a typical movie Indian girl...not submissive, not inarticulate, not demure.
She's smart as hell in every way, and shows off her good mental qualities (which match her dazzling appearance) without apology or restraint.Her physical beauty is a welcome visual relief for movie viewers who must watch the movie story set in the dull and ugly moonscape desert environment which oppresses the struggling soldiers for obvious reasons.The Indian maiden does not join the military group until the movie is 2/3rds over, and then she is their hostile and unpleasant prisoner, outspokenly "anti-White man!" But we see her (the audience does) well before the actor soldiers do, and we see her comely features and great legs.She helps her brother, who opposes the US Govt.
treaty his father, the Indian tribal chief wants and supports.
The brother murders American soldiers, is taken prisoner by the military group, escapes, attacks the group, and finally is killed, all while the younger adult female sister assists her brother and stays out of sight of the military group....until the last 1/3 of the movie when she shoots a straggling soldier during a rifle battle she initiates, and is caught, taken prisoner, and retained as a hostage to present to the Indian tribal chief.Predictably, she befriends handsome Robert Stack, and at the end of the movie, only the two of them (Stack and the girl) remain....all other soldiers part of the "mission across the desert" have died.....most due to being killed by fellow soldiers.The whole movie is unusual and thought provoking, worth seeing.-----------------Written by Tex Allen, SAG-AFTRA movie actor.
The almost-unrecognizably young Robert Stack plays the hardened CO of a company entrusted with delivering a treaty.
Meandering western but a great cast and beautiful Death Valley.
This western has great natural beauty but more talk than action in a film that should have been better than it was.
The plot is simply that of a cavalry patrol that has a few days to deliver a peace treaty to a chief and prevent the Indians from going on the warpath.
Robert Stack is the big cast name here and he is in complete "Eliot Ness" mode as a no-nonsense lieutenant who drives his men hard in the name of honor and duty.
The patrol is guided by the chief's son who has a completely different agenda.
The supporting cast is terrific, with names like Charles McGraw, Douglas Kennedy, Peter Graves, Robert Wilke and John Doucette along to carry out their mission.
The picture is not a cavalry-Indian western as the title implies but instead focuses on the travails and frustrations of the troopers, not the least of which is thirst, as they make their way to the Indian village.
The movie is worth watching for the old-time character actors and the striking beauty of Death Valley..
Robert Stack plays the officer in charge of a cavalry patrol entrusted with delivering a treaty to an Indian encampment, who encounters difficulties with outside and inside influences along the way.
Stack is earnest, and despite some miscasting--Charles McGraw was always more at home playing a big-city detective or syndicate killer than he was playing a cavalry sergeant as he does here, and Keith Larsen often played Indians but seldom played them well--the performances are adequate, but if there's one thing that a western cries for it's action, and there's virtually none in this film.
Director Lesley Selander was an old hand at westerns and has done far better.
Good cast, interesting plot and sub-plots, bad script and directing.
With Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and the line-up of supporting characters including a beautiful 'Indian' woman, the acting really wasn't half bad but someone skimped terribly on script-writing and the action scenes.The rattlesnake scene was horrible.
Supposedly near-dead from thirst, all they did was shake their heads in the water and blow bubbles and make noises.
Those that did draw water into their mouths spit it back out into the pool right in front of the others who were 'drinking'.The fight scenes and deaths were the worst.
And the way the combatants who were next in line to be killed would stand up in full view to shoot in order to be shot was laughable.I liked the overall plot and the cast, Robert Stack was good and the dialog not bad.
War Paint is directed by Lesley Selander and adapted to screenplay by Richard Alan Simmons and Martin Berkeley.
It stars Robert Stack, Charles McGraw, Joan Taylor, Peter Graves, Keith Larsen, Robert Wilke and Walter Reed.
Music is by Arthur Lange and Emil Newman, and cinematography by Gordon Avil.A cavalry patrol trying to deliver a peace treaty to Gray Cloud are being destroyed from within by an Indian brother and sister.Paper of lies!Filmed out of the superb presence of Death Valley, War Paint is as solid as one of that location's rocks.
Though an air of familiarity exists, with the core of the story about an army unit literally dying out in the desert, with saboteurs operating within, there's a two sides of the coin pinch in the narrative, with dialogue nicely written with thought and sincerity.
Opening with a scalping, drama and suspense is never far away, so as the group implode, with suspicions, thirst and gold fever taking a hold, the viewer is always intrigued as to who will survive and will the treaty ever reach its destination?
Plus you may find yourself feeling very thirsty during the viewing...Very nicely performed and handled with underrated tidy hands by Selander, this is well worth a look by Western fans.
War Paint casts Robert Stack as a cavalry lieutenant with a mission to deliver a peace treaty, presumably a draft to the Indians.
With Sergeant Charles McGraw, Stack leads a patrol to deliver said peace treaty.
The chief's son Keith Larsen is to guide them through the rough desert country, but Larsen and his sister Joan Taylor have their own mission.
They actually don't believe the white man's peace treaty, there's such an incredible track record on the subject and they're going to sabotage the mission.Such stalwart characters actors as John Doucette, Robert J.
Wilke, Peter Graves, Douglas Kennedy, and Paul Richards make up some of the patrol.
When the water is sabotaged and the discipline breaks down the cast starts dying off for one reason or another.I do have to say though why no one thought better of the fact that Keith Larsen was in War Paint as he started the mission I'm a bit perplexed at the writers for that.
War Paint gets pretty ugly at times as the men go off their nuts for lack of water and an abundance of heat.
It's a gritty no frill western with great cinematography from Death Valley.
Simply horrendous imitation (like countless other films) of John Ford's cavalry westerns.Director Lesley Selander delivers no surprises in this stinky flick that features stoic Bob Stack as an army commander; Keith Larsen as an Indian - Keith Larsen?
Unfortunately, Peter Graves, one the poorest excuses for an actor in cinematic history, plays one of the stupid soldiers (type-casting, I guess).Film has virtually nothing of value (except Joan), but at least it's short, though even at only 90 minutes, you'll still consider hanging yourself from the big tree in the backyard to escape the boredom this movie has to offer.Cut the cowboys and indians off at the pass and watch something else, preferably John Ford's 'Fort Apache' (1948)..
A good, gritty western.
A cavalry patrol runs into big trouble while trying to deliver a peace treaty.
A cavalry patrol has six days to deliver a peace treaty and avoid an Indian war.
The chief's son Taslik ( a somewhat miscast but still good Keith Larsen) agrees to lead the patrol to his father's village.
Unknow to dedicated, stalwart Lt. Billings ( Robert Stack) Taslik wants war with the hated white men.
Taslik's sister Wanima (a very good Joan Taylor)who also has no love for the white man, secretly follows the patrol sabotages their water supply and runs off their horses.
Taslik Then leads the patrol to one dry water hole after another.
Wanima also deliberately leads the patrol to a gold mine the Spanish discovered years before but whom the Indians killed.
This leads some members of the patrol to start thinking that gold might be more important than peace.While this film may be a little short of action, it has very good suspense, a much better than average plot, better than average character development, good acting, good color photography and some great Death Valley locations.
Pretty good B western.
WAR PAINT 1953This 1953 western was a Bel Air Production released through United Artists.
The cast includes, Robert Stack, Keith Larsen, Charles McGraw, Robert Wilke, Douglas Kennedy, Joan Taylor, Peter Graves, Paul Richards and John Doucette.A Lieutenant in the U.S. Calvary, Robert Stack, is assigned to deliver a peace treaty to a US government official.
The official is then to forward the treaty to the chief of an Apache tribe.
What Stack does not know is that the Government type and his escort are all dead.
The Chief's son, Keith Larsen and daughter, Joan Taylor, have other ideas about the treaty.
The pair really want war between the whites and the Apache.Not finding the Government type at the trading post meeting place, Stack decides to deliver the treaty himself.
And as it so happens, the Chief's son, Larsen, is there and offers to lead Stack and his small patrol to his father.
The treaty is time sensitive and must be delivered within 9 days.
Larsen tells Stack that it will take 6 days to reach the native village.
Being Death Valley, the Cavalry loads up with full canteens and some pack horses with several casks of extra water.
Stack suspects that the Indian, Larsen might be the guilty party, but he is always in sight when the "accidents" happen.
Of course the viewer knows it is really Larsen's sister, Miss Taylor doing the deeds.
She is trailing the patrol at a distance during the day and doing a bit of sabotage at night.
With their water nearly exhausted, Larsen offers to take then to a water hole, but it will delay the trip to the village by a day.
The day is wasted because the water hole is dried up.
Stack is bound and determined to deliver the treaty.
The men now stumble onto a small water hole.
The hole however is full of bad water which one of the men drinks.
Now Stack finds out that the Indian, Larsen has been leading them in a big circle.
Another of the troopers now steps up and shoots Larsen dead before Stack can stop him.Stack and his Sgt, Charles McGraw now decide to send one man ahead to deliver the documents.
They give the man, Douglas Kennedy all the remaining water and will follow as best they can.
Kennedy however is ambushed the next day by Larsen's sister, Taylor.
Needless to say Stack and the others find Taylor and the dead trooper.
The men however are all going a tad wacko from lack of water.
Several of the men, Wilkie, Graves and Doucette are all for having their way with the woman.
Taylor tells Stack that she will take them to some nearby water.
They decide to kill Stack and Sgt McGraw, then "force" Taylor to really lead them to water.
Then they will load up on gold and disappear.Stack collects a round in the arm before he can talk sense into Graves and company.
Miss Taylor now decides it would be in her best interest to really show the men the water spring.
The men's thirst for water is slackened, but not their thirst for gold.
The only survivors are Stack, Miss Taylor and Peter Graves.
Miss Taylor has now decided to change teams and helps Stack deliver the treaty to her father.
This well-crafted B western was directed by veteran programmer man, Lesley Selander.
This Pathecoler film was shot on location in Death Valley and is well worth a watch imo.
Producers Howard W Koch and Aubrey Schenck would score with a whole series of well-made B western, war and noir films during the 1950's.
The story is brutally simple and shows no mercy.Hard-bitten Lt. Billings (Robert Stack) and his motley crew of cavalrymen are charged with delivering a vitally important peace treaty to Chief Grey Cloud.
If Grey Cloud doesn't get the treaty within a certain time limit, he and his braves will go on the attack, leading to a bloodbath.The mission is plagued with mishaps from the start.
The Indian guide Tasslik is Grey Cloud's own son and he has his own agenda.
The more misfortune strikes, the more tension grows between the men, until it explodes into violent conflict.Nothing is sugar-coated in this story and death can strike anyone at any time.
Real Death Valley settings make heat and thirst almost palpable.
Billings' strict discipline actually masks a man who is tired of war and hungry for peace...an optimist, at heart.
The plight of the Indians is also given a sympathetic turn, even though their actions here lead to pain and death.The cast can't be described as "A-list" but everybody does their job just right.
Stack is excellent and other reliable actors like Peter Graves, John Doucette, Charles McGraw and Douglas Kennedy provide great support.You want a tough, tense Western?
Good, solid B-Western, despite some of the critical comments.
Story follows cavalry patrol through Death Valley in the face of dissension in the ranks and Indian infiltrators.
What an excellent supporting cast, familiar faces who lend color and personality by individualizing the troopers beyond their look-alike uniforms.
And as the no-nonsense officer, Stack provides a humorless authority that, by golly, is going to get the peace treaty to Gray Cloud even if it kills him and his men.
On the other hand, there's a nice bit of overlooked irony in this 90-minute horse opera.
They may be the villains, but Indians Taslik and Wanima are correct in rejecting the treaty, after all.
The white man will indeed ignore the treaty when it suits him, as proved by the mutinous troopers who renounce army authority once they find gold in the parched hills.
Anyhow, director Selander has a good action premise to work with, plus a colorful cast, and while he's no John Ford, he knows a good scenic set-up when he sees one.
A hot, dusty, situation-western filmed in the oven like alkali desert of Death Valley.
Peter Graves gets to try the villain thing before STALAG 17.Actually my first thought when I saw the picture was to complain to myself- When are they going to show a cavalry patrol with a remuda (the cavalry took several horses per soldier so they could switch horses on long rides), a chuck wagon, a water tank (one may ration water for the men but cannot stint on water for the horses.
A sub-sub genre then, the western/cavalry /patrol picture.
A sub-sub genre then, the western/cavalry /patrol picture.
If there is any irony here its that the Indian who resisted was right.