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Bugles in the Afternoon (1952) A competent Cavalry Western from a novel by Ernest Haycox which dovetails
a convoluted fictional story into a hashed-about version of the events
leading up to the Battle of Little Big Horn. Officer Ray Milland is
cashiered out of the service for taking a sabre to rotten fellow officer
Hugh Marlowe, and pulls the Lawrence of Arabia stunt
of re-enlisting as an ordinary trooper - which backfires when he finds
himself under Marlowe's command and continuously detailed to duties
which involve riding through hostile Indian territory with a target
painted on his back. Meanwhile, Ray and Hugh are competing for the affections
of pretty blonde heroine Helena Carter, importing a good deal too much
spooning and hugging into a picture that needs to concentrate on riding
and shooting. The relative low budget becomes obvious in the finale,
which takes place at a minor skirmish while the big battle is going
on out of sight just over the ridge. The ranks are filled out with sub-John
Ford brawling braggarts like Forrest Tucker and Barton MacLane, competing
to show off their Oirish brogues and salty rambunctiousness ('I heard
of a feller who went in the navy twenty years and the only action he
got was beatin' his wife'), while future TV Superman George Reeves tempers
Marlowe's scurviness as the sympathetic officer. The script is part-authored
by Geoffrey Homes, who also worked on Out of the Past
and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, while the director
is reliable hack Roy Rowland, who hit with The 5,000 Fingers
of Dr T but was usually entrusted with oaters like this. Sheb
Wooley, who had a worldwide hit single with 'Flying Purple People
Eater', is oddly cast as General Custer. First published on the BBC Films website. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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