Bugles in the Afternoon (1952)

★ 5.2 1h 25m IMDb
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Old enemies stationed together at an Army post vie for the same woman.

Bugles in the Afternoon

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Cast

Ray Milland
Ray Milland as Kern Shafter Died 1986 · Neath, Glamorgan, Wales, UK Ray Milland (born Reginald Alfred John Truscott-Jones or Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh actor and director. He is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning port...
Helena Carter
Helena Carter as Josephine Russell Died 2000 · New York City, New York, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Helena Carter (24 August 1923–11 January 2000) was an American film actress in the 1940s and 1950s. Carter was born Helen Rickerts in New York City, and her fa...
Hugh Marlowe
Hugh Marlowe as Capitano Garnett Died 1982 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Hugh Marlowe (January 30, 1911 – May 2, 1982) was an American film, television, stage and radio actor. Marlowe was born Hugh Herbert Hipple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and began his stage career i...
Forrest Tucker
Forrest Tucker as Donavan Died 1986 · Plainfield, Indiana, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Forrest Meredith Tucker (February 12, 1919 – October 25, 1986) was an American actor in both movies and television who appeared in nearly a hundred films. Tucke...
Barton MacLane
Barton MacLane as Capt. Myles Moylan Died 1969 · Columbia, South Carolina, USA Barton MacLane graduated from Wesleyan University, where he displayed a notable aptitude for sports, in particular football and basketball. Not surprisingly, his physical prowess led to an early role...
George Reeves
George Reeves as Lt. Smith Died 1959 · Woolstock, Iowa, USA George Reeves (January 5, 1914 – June 16, 1959) was an American actor best known for his role as Superman in the 1950s television program titled 'Adventures of Superman'. His death at age 45 from a gu...

Audience Reviews

John Chard 6.5/10 Nov 16, 2013
Guns, Arrows, Bugles and Revenge.

Bugles in the Afternoon is directed by Roy Rowland and adapted to screenplay by Daniel Mainaring and Harry Brown from the Ernest Haycox novel. It stars Ray Milland, Helena Carter, Hugh Marlowe, Forrest Tucker, Barton Maclane and George Reeves. A Technicolor production with music by Dimitri Tiomkin and cinematography by Wilfred M. Cline.

Solid enjoyable fare that doesn’t push any boundaries. Story finds Milland as Kern Shafter, a cavalryman cashiered out the service for running through Edward Garnett (Marlowe). After drifting for a while, Shafter ends up at Bismarck and joins the Seventh Cavalry at Fort Abraham Lincoln. Unfortunately, his new superior is none other than Captain Edward Garnett! As the two men vie for the same woman, Josephine Russell (Carter), Garnett continually puts Shafter into perilous situations as the Indian War rages. With the arrival of Custer (Sheb Wooley) to lead the men for an attack on the Sioux at Little Big Horn, Garnett and Shafter will each find their day of destiny.

It’s all very colourful and muscular, with well staged fights and nifty stunt work. The love triangle core of the story doesn’t grate or swamp the film in pointless mush, however, it seems strange to have the massacre at Little Big Horn in your story, yet only have it as a minor side issue to a couple of guys feuding with each other. Milland and Tucker, the latter as an Irish Private who befriends Shafter and welcomes pain as a test of manhood, both score well with engaging turns, while Carter also does good work with what could easily have been a token girl in the middle role. Location photography in Kanab is delightful (Cline would prove to be a dab hand in Westerns for the rest of the decade), and Tiomkin scores the music with verve and vigour.

There’s some stereotyping of the Indians, and this even though there are some real Native Americans in the cast, while Marlowe is done no favours as his villainy is poorly written, but a better than average time waster this proves to be on a wintry afternoon by the fire. 6.5/10
CinemaSerf 6/10 Jun 15, 2022
Ray Milland ("Shafter") is cashiered out of the military after an altercation with "Garnett" (Hugh Marlowe) but struggles with civilian life, so re-enlists with a frontier regiment. At his new posting, he discovers that it is not just the marauding Sioux he has to worry about; his nemesis is also at the same fort, and outranks him. It doesn't help their openly displayed animosity, that both fancy the same - from what I could see, only - gal "Josephine" (Helena Carter). It seems that "Shafter" has a shred of decency to him, but the same cannot be said for "Garnett" and with Indian attacks looming, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn only round the corner, the story is riddled with peril both in front and behind his back. This is a competently produced western adventure with loads of action, a minimum of romance and plenty of duplicity from the really rather unlikeable Marlowe. The ending feels a bit hurried, but Milland is on decent form and director Roy Rowland focuses on keeping the story on track well enough. Not great, no - but I did quite enjoy it.

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