Devil's Doorway

Plot synopsis:
The Civil War may be over back East, but prejudice still rules the West. A full-blooded Shoshone Indian named Lance Poole distinguished himself in the war, winning the Congressional Medal of Honor, only to return home to Medicine Bow, Wyoming, to something a far cry from a hero's welcome.
Townspeople resent the fact that Lance and his father own a large and valuable piece of land. A doctor refuses to treat Lance's father, who dies, while Lance himself is unable to even buy a drink in the local saloon. A loophole in a law involving homesteaders is used by biased attorney Verne Coolan to strip Lance of his property. Lance turns to a female lawyer, Orrie Masters, who fails to acquire the necessary petition signatures they need to overturn the law.
Coolan organizes sheepherders and attempts to drive out Lance by force. Shoshone tribesmen fight by Lance's side, using his cabin for a fort. Orrie calls in the U.S. Cavalry to create a truce, only to have them side with Coolan and the town. It's a lost cause. Lance is at least able to kill Coolan, but not before being already seriously wounded himself at the Shoshone barricade.
Lance Poole then turns the responsibility for the surviving women and children over to the only surviving male child, who leads them away from the barricade and presumably in the direction of the reservation. Afterward, Lance puts on his civil war sergeants major uniform, and walks out to the cavalry commander and his former lawyer. The commander salutes Poole first, as that is the custom when greeting a medal of honor recipient. Lance then dies from exsanguination.

Tags: cult, murder, violence

Review:
In Wyoming, Native American Indian and Civil War hero Robert Taylor (as Broken Lance Poole) faces discrimination.
White lawyer Louis Calhern (as Verne Coolan) wants to take away the land Taylor inherits.
Sheepherding homesteader Marshall Thompson (as Rod MacDougall) moves in, and the conflict gets violent..."Devil's Doorway" opens with some serious reservations about Taylor's portrayal of a Native American.
The "pro-Indian" theme was not new, but had become rare.******* Devil's Doorway (9/15/50) Anthony Mann ~ Robert Taylor, Paula Raymond, Louis Calhern, Marshall Thompson.
Plus, although Taylor is an Anglo with an aquiline nose and blue eyes, the film manages to have him appear rather Indian-like--and his craggy middle-aged good looks helped--along with gobs of skin paint!
I cannot speak for American Indians, but I assume most would appreciate the film's message and overlook the casting--as there simply wasn't any better sort of film about them made at the time--and very, very few since.The film begins with Taylor returning home after several years absence serving in the Union army during the Civil War. Along the way, he developed a bit of naiveté and assumes his being a sergeant in the military and living out the White American dream that he'd be accorded respect and equal treatment at home.
The characters, as a result, were multidimensional and interesting.Overall, if you are a bit tired of cookie-cutter westerns and are looking for something a bit different, "Devil's Doorway" is a pretty good bet..
It stars Robert Taylor as Lance Poole, a Shoshone Indian who returns home to Medicine-Bow from the American Civil War after a three year stint, and a veteran of three major conflicts.
However, all his hopes and dreams are shattered by bigotry and greed as new laws are ushered in to deprive the Native Indians land rights.Biting and cutting, Devil's Doorway is a Civil Rights Western that, boldly for its time, looks at the injustices done to Native Americans.
Prior to this Mann had showed himself to have a keen eye for tough pieces with dark themes in a few well regarded film noir movies.
Robert Taylor always had his critics, hell I'm sometimes one of them, but here as he is cast against type as a Shoshone Indian, he gives the character conviction and a stoic nobility that really makes it work.
Robert Taylor is unbelievably convincing as a Native American who fought in the war and got a Congressional Medal of Honor.
Anthony Mann was at his best on westerns with a dark side and here he shows us the talent that would be responsible for so many great films that were yet to come..
Anthony Mann's first western maybe one of the best ever done and sad to say it was probably overshadowed by the more popular Broken Arrow which also dealt sympathetically with the plight of the American Indian.
Right after Devil's Doorway Mann did Winchester 73 and a whole slew of films with James Stewart, mostly westerns and well received ones at that.
If anyone knows why, please let me know.Robert Taylor gives one of his best screen performances as Lance Poole, Union Army veteran and Congressional Medal of Honor winner and full blooded Shoshoni Indian.
Taylor has bought into the ideals of the Civil War. He in fact went to war to free another group of people from slavery.It's one big disillusioning process as he discovers that Indians need not apply for a piece of the American dream.
The Homestead Act which Abraham Lincoln signed during the Civil War specifically excludes Indians from its provisions.Louis Calhern portrays one of the most loathsome villains of his career as Verne Coolan, a lawyer who apparently for no other reason than his own hatred of the red man, stirs up hatred and resentment against Taylor and the Shoshonis.
Although overtly Taylor and Raymond have a business relationship, there is a gleam in Raymond's eyes whenever Taylor's around.Oddly enough six years later Taylor saw cinematically how the other half lived when in The Last Hunt he played buffalo hunter Charlie Gilson who had a hate for the Indian the equal of Calhern's here.Although Broken Arrow got all the acclaim and deserved it, it is a pity that Devil's Doorway did not get more attention.
This movie had more atomic weight in its characters,setting, plot and theme than most other films of its time (and the year 1950 was indeed a most impressive time for westerns).
I wonder if it wouldeven have been made just two years later-during the McCarthy era.Robert Taylor had clearly evolved from a "pretty boy" leading man of the 1930s into a believable ,masculine hero for a tough-minded postwar film environment..
Another strong western by Anthony Mann.But like any intelligent western,this story is eternal.A man who fought for his country and who is denied the most legitimate of all his rights,just because he is an Indian:to own a little bit of the land to which he had given the most beautiful years of his life.That was the story of Mervyn Le Roy's "I'm fugitive from a chain gang" when Paul Muni was trying to sell his medals to survive.That would be the story of Liam Neeson in "Suspect" ,once a Vietnam veteran,now one of the last lonely and wretched .Robert Taylor is extremely convincing,mainly when he is speaking of the land,of the way the Indians love it,of their communion with nature.
It deals with Lance Poole (offbeat cast of Robert Taylor who surprisingly is pretty well) , an Indian Navajo who won a Medal of Honor fighting at Gettysburg , goes back to his tribal territory intent on peaceful cattle ranching .
Good acting by Robert Taylor as an Indian Navajo who served in Civil War and must fight to right the injustices against his people ; his perfect interpretation as "Lance Poole" remains one of the highlights in his prestigious career.
This good film packs a splendid photography in atmospheric black and white by John Alton, another European -Austro-Hungarian- who emigrated US and became an excellent cameraman expert on Noir cinema as well as Nicholas Musuraca .This top-drawer Western was stunningly realized by the master Anthony Mann , infusing the traditional Western with psychological confusion , including his characteristic use of landscape with marvelous use of outdoors which is visually memorable , including a majestic production design by Cedric Gibbons , Metro Goldwyn Mayer's (MGM) ordinary .
Anthony Mann is a treasure of classic films and the Western genre.
There is no redemption to be found here -- no happy ending could ever come about.Robert Taylor gives a strong, stirring, and impassioned performance here of an honorable man, betrayed and brutalized by the people around him and the country he distinguishably served.
This is the best film I have seen from Mann yet, topping all 5 of the James Stewart westerns.
ROBERT TAYLOR, grim-faced and painted to look like an Indian, gives a strong performance in Anthony Mann's examination of the plight of American Indians and their mistreatment in DEVIL'S DOORWAY.Although he's a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor after his victorious conduct in war, he doesn't get the welcome he expects when he returns to his home state of Wyoming where EDGAR BUCHANAN is the Sheriff who warns him that he's naive if he thinks he can find a welcome mat for Indians at any bar.PAULA RAYMOND is the pretty lawyer who tries to help Taylor when her mother (SPRING BYINGTON) reminds her that that's what her dad would do.
But nobody can stop evil lawyer LOUIS CALHERN from spreading false and malicious gossip that poisons the mind of the homesteaders who want a piece of Taylor's land.It's a grim story, beautifully photographed with stunning B&W western landscapes filling the eye with their grandeur.
All of the performances are expert and the climactic battle with men foolishly following Calhern's orders is photographed for stunning impact.Told in a tense 85 minutes, it's a film worth viewing and one that was ahead of its time in dealing with the plight of American Indians in a realistic way..
It was NOT, however, in black/white (as someone said); it was originally made in color, and has not been colorized.Robert Taylor was remarkable as Lance Poole; the only thing that bothered me were his incredibly beautiful blue eyes; he should have been wearing BROWN contacts!
Paula Raymond was just perfect as the young lawyer who tried to help Lance keep his land, and Louis Calhern was so good that I still hate him!
The movie was historically accurate, not the story line, but the way things occurred at the time that these events took place -- shortly after the Civil War!
Whereas the Indians have made little, if any progress, and even today the state of the reservations are disgraceful, and among the young men there is an unusually high rate of alcoholism and suicide.The movie was beautifully, and sensitively written and acted, and showed no bias whatsoever -- only the truth.I treasure my copy of Devil's Doorway and have looked for it on DVD, but so far, no luck.This is a marvelous western and ranks with the best!
Should one be impressed by the subject matter or appalled that the fate of Native Americans was actually less important to these producers than their prurient fascination with an implied hook-up between Taylor (a red man rocking a page boy wig, his screen test for Ivanhoe) and Paula Raymond (the whitest woman in his world)?
Directed by Anthony Mann, it was probably the first "Civil Rights" Western that went "all in" in terms of presenting the Indian point of view.
Board of Education" Supreme Court decision kicked off the modern Civil Rights movement.Here are some of the pluses:This is an absolutely terrific performance by Robert Taylor, all the more impressive since it's hard to imagine him playing a full blooded Shoshone Indian.
Having seen it right behind Man of the West as I just did, well, not a good thing for it: There are five or six or seven scenes in the Cooper film that I have watched maybe 30 or 40 times, the only one here would be the first : the dog barking Taylor into town and the great looming shot of Calhern, wonderful introduction to his vile character, very classic.
Don't forget this country is a Christian nation and most of the white people are Christians, yet what this country and the white Christians continuously did unbelievable and unimaginable vicious, monstrous things anytime when an excuse or an opportunity arisen, then they would grab it to by passing a law customized to suit and serve their purpose, change their wrongdoings as legal.This film boldly told us a story about what the white Christians did to the American Indians to rob their land and homesteads from them.
A decorated veteran of the American Civil War who is also a Shoshone Indian returns to Wyoming where he finds significantly more white settlers who are keenly interested in his prime valley land.
Whatever, because Taylor did a remarkable portrayal of a complex character with allegiances to his Shoshone people as well as the United States, for which he bravely fought to preserve the Union and emancipate the slaves in the Civil War. This film relates his fight for the Shoshone cause as he finds his identity as citizen of the United States stripped from him and thus his legal rights to what was his own land.
Directed by Anthony Mann and filmed by Mann's legendary cinematographer John Alton in black and white, this turns out to be a western superior perhaps even to Mann's classic Winchester 73..
Nicely written for the screen by Guy Trosperm DEVIL'S DOORWAY was stunningly photographed in glorious Black & White in Aspen, Colorado by John Alton and was complimented with a splendid atmospheric score - featuring an exciting Indian motif - by Russian composer Daniele Amfitheathrof.With the Congressional Medal of Honour pinned to his Union tunic distinguished Shoshone Indian Sergeant Major Lance Poole (Robert Taylor) returns home from the war between the States to his people in his beautiful valley of Sweet Meadow.
With Mann's earlier noir successes "T Men" (1947) and "Raw Deal" ('48) DEVIL'S DOORWAY contains wonderful noirish moments of outstanding quality such as in the bruising fist fight sequence in the Saloon between Taylor and gunman James Milican with its low angle camera and arresting use of light and shadow and again later for scenes inside the dimly lit Indian shacks.
Civil War hero Robert Taylor returns to his people to Wyoming, only to find his valley ranch fair game for white homesteaders and himself, as an Indian, ineligible to claim his own land, leading to a violent confrontation.An unusual (and unusually grim) western, here the Indians are the cowboys and the villains sheep-farmers, the nemesis of cowboys everywhere.
Although the ending is painfully obvious early on, getting there is compelling and heartbreaking, with the film perfectly capturing the anger and despair of not just native people, but anyone who plays by the rules and finds himself ground under the wheels of progress.Although not as well known as Anthony Mann's western collaborations with star James Stewart, this one also knows what buttons to push and delivers an action-packed climax, as well as good performances from Taylor and Paula Raymond, as a lady attorney who takes up his case..
At the end of the Civil War, a veteran of the Union Army, Lance Poole, returns to his home in Wyoming.
Poole, (Robert Taylor), a Shoshone Indian, has had his fill of fighting and simply wants to live in peace on his family's ancestral acres.The West, however, is changing.
Broken Lance, a holder of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his war service, surrenders to the cavalry.A sub-theme of the film is the confinement of Indians to the reservations.
There are no happy endings here.Robert Taylor is superb as Broken Lance Poole.
When offered the role, Mr. Taylor was happy to act in a film that, for once, saw things from the Indian point of view.
At first I was wondering if I would buy Robert Taylor as a full-blooded Native American character, but it's a testament to the depth and range of his talent that he had me convinced within the first minute of his screen time, without even a momentary falter throughout the rest of the film.
Lance Poole comes back from the war fighting side by side with whites in the Union forces and winning the Congressional Medal of Honor.
The film was much ahead of its time, and I consider it to be one of the finest westerns ever made, and Taylor's performance one of sensitivity and strength.
Robert Taylor you are a superb, amazing actor who I enjoy.You are also good to look upon.I just watched this movie for the first time earlier today and I was entranced through every minute.The Devil's Doorway is a tender, tough piece of film that shows how inhumane the policy was back in the 1800s in regards to the American Indian.Sweet Meadow was a gorgeous,breathtaking holy place that the Shoshone Indians made their home.Then after the Civil War there was a new law invoked in the United States that made it illegal for Native Americans to own land.This is the story of a former Civil War soldier who fought for the Union and he was an American Indian.After the war ended he comes home to Wyoming to settle down and live for the rest of his life at Sweet Meadow.He meets with tyranny,hate and all out greed.The white man decides they are going to let sheep herders and their families take Sweet Meadow from the Indian tribe.You can guess what happens after that.This movie was intelligent,well acted,and beautiful to watch.I cannot say enough.Watch this gem if you can.I made a DVD from Turner Classic Movies and I watched the DVD today and I am glad that I did.If you watch this movie more than likely you will not be sorry..
"Devil's Doorway" is one of those movies about Indians that is not much fun, because the movie cares more about showing us the mistreatment of the Indians at the hands of white men than with entertaining us in the traditional manner, such as by having the Indians scalping, raping, and otherwise terrorizing white settlers.Robert Taylor in redface plays Broken Lance, a Shoshone Indian who has just arrived back home in Wyoming after service in the Civil War fighting for the North, where he won the Medal of Honor.
In fact, if this good guy had not been an Indian at a time when audiences were ready for movies about how Indians were good and white people were bad, the reversal might not have worked.
Maybe they were being extra subtle, allowing us to have a laugh at Lance's expense, but it sure doesn't feel that way.Before the movie is out, the chief villain, played by Louis Calhern, who was the one that instigated the sheepherders' attempt to homestead, is killed off.
Despite a very good performance by Robert Taylor as a native Indian facing discrimination after his heroic war efforts during the Civil War, the film is a rather routine one.Louis Calhern plays the heavy here- an attorney full of prejudice who causes the tragedy to unfold in the Wyoming territory, after the civil war and the coming of the Homestead Act.It's usually a movie adage that never in the history of motion pictures has the cavalry ever been late.
An early scene establishes how the citizens of Medicine Bow will react to the return of Broken Lance Poole (Robert Taylor) from his service in the Civil War. Racist attorney Verne Coolan (Louis Calhern) makes no attempt to conceal his disdain for the Shoshone tribesman, and is only too willing to make a buck advising sheep herders to take advantage of a Homestead Act that denies property rights to Native Americans.What's interesting is Lance's immediate reaction to a female lawyer.