They Rode West (1954)

**_Calvary versus Kiowas and Commanche_**

A young humanitarian doctor (Robert Francis) arrives at a fort in southwest Oklahoma and has to contend with the Indian-hating captain (Philip Carey) while trying to help the Kiowas during an outbreak of malaria. The coquettish niece (Donna Reed) of the fort’s commander has eyes for him, but he seems more interested in Manyi-ten of the Kiowa (May Wynn). Meanwhile the Commanche are looming.

"They Rode West” (1954) was inspired by “Broken Arrow” from four years earlier mixed with a setting a little reminiscent of “War Arrow” from the previous year. It’s almost on par with the former and superior to the latter.

Robert Francis was perfect for the role of the doctor because he had the noble look of someone who was motivated by moral principle as opposed to peer pressure. He and May Wynn previously appeared together in “The Caine Mutiny.” Unfortunately, 8.5 months after the release of this movie he died with two others in a plane crash that he was piloting. He was only 25.

It runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot at Corriganville movie ranch, which was located just east of Semi Valley, which is northwest of Los Angeles.

GRADE: B

With his predecessor having been more content swilling the contents of a bottle, the new doctor “Seward” (Robert Francis) arrives at his remote western cavalry post to a surgery that’s a bit of a mess and to a command that’s entirely indifferent to his presence. That is actually reduced to downright antagonism when he ventures up into them thar hills and encounters the local Comanche population who happen to be suffering from malaria. He advises them to move to a higher altitude where the mozzies aren’t so prevalent, but that just earns him the enmity of his colleagues - especially when the disease visits them too. With the Indians getting more desperate outside their fort and the captain (Phil Carey) getting more desperate inside it’s walls it falls to the optimistic young lieutenant to try to reconcile the parties before open war breaks out and finishes off the disease’s work for it. Of course, there’s the usual romantic element to the story provided by a distinctly below par Donna Reed and there’s a tiny bit of a moral message delivered in the form of a young girl from a white family raised by the Comanche and shunned by her own. It does at least try to tell a slightly more nuanced story than many soldier and Indian conflict tales of the American west, but Francis just looks like he has come straight out of the Richard Chamberlain aisle at central casting and though Carey adds a little weary ruggedness to his character, the rest of this is merely standard afternoon cinema fodder that nobody is likely to recall.