Audience Member
Veteran B-movie helmer Lesley Selander knew a thing or two about
directing low-budget westerns, but it looks like Twentieth Century Fox
must have tampered with this 72-minute opus. This predictable but
old-fashioned cavalry versus the Indians epic concerns an army patrol
ordered to take a prisoner, Sergeant Anthony Lucas (Fred Beir of
"Convict Stage"), to Fort Courageous where he will then be escorted to
Fort Alcatraz to serve a ten-year stretch for raping a woman who was
secretly a tramp. No, "Voodoo Island" scenarist Richard Landau doesn't
resolve the issue of our hero's moral dilemma. Indeed, the woman who
cried rape did because the sergeant refused her offer of sex. Another
officer assures the sergeant that whatever charms the woman had to
offer were not worth a decade behind bars. Anyway, a wrongly-accused
cavalryman is clapped in chains and has to cross a hostile desert.
Essentially, the filmmakers provide no closure about Lucas' rape
sentence. The film doesn't clear him at the end. Consequently, our
tarnished hero never gets his due despite the acts of heroism that he
performs in transit to Fort Courageous.
Inevitably, our heroes enouncter a mother and daughter along the way,
and the daughter appears to have been raped by the Indians. No,
Selander doesn't depict the act of rape. The Indians throw her to the
ground, surround her, and she screams in horror. It might have added a
dimension of complication if we knew that the daughter had not been
raped,except in her mind. She could have been a counterpart to the
tramp that the sergeant encountered. Nevertheless, whatever the
redskins did to the girl is the equivalent of rape in the mother's eyes
as well as the daughter's eyes. The Indians attack the cavalry patrol
and mortally wound the captain in charge. Sergeant Lucas takes over
command. Our heroes plod through the desert with the son of an Indian
chieftain as their hostage and drink themselves dry before they reach
the eponymous fort.
Little do they know that virtually everybody in "Fort Courageous" died
in the first scene. More than half-way through the Indian attack on the
fort, Selander and Landau cut to the main credits and put it up with
the patrol scheduled to deliver Lucas. Lucas' old pal, Indian scout Joe
(Harry Lauter of "The Satan Bug"), tries to give him a chance to escape
to Mexico, but Lucas amounts to the epitome of virtue. He refuses to
run away. Mind you, we never see the woman that destroyed his life.
Captain Howard (Don 'Red' Barry of "Shalako") is the sole survivor of
the massacre. Left for dead, he manages to open the forts and then
behaves like a martinet. He wants Lucas put back in chains and hangs
out the Indian chieftain's son (Michael Carr of "War Party") to bake in
the sun. Of course, Sergeant Lucas refuses to tolerate this brutal,
inhuman behavior, and cuts down the poor Native American, only to face
Howard's wrath. When Howard tries to cut a deal with the Indians under
a flag of truce with the son as his hostage, things backfire. The
chief's son escapes and Howard barely eludes death, largely as a result
of Lucas' intervention.
Unfortunately, "Fort Courageous" leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
At the last minute, the mother of the daughter who was raped by the
Indians decides to commit herself to Lucas and they share a screen
kiss. Selander and Landau put our heroes and heroines between a rock
and a hard place and then out of the blue, the movie concludes with a
surprise ending that says something about the admiration that the
Native Americans had for their opponents. Real Indians would have wiped
them out. Harry Lauter has an unsavory death scene. He is run through with a wooden stake and the stake is set afire. The Indians leave him out in the open in front of the fort hoping that somebody will try to save the scout. Unless you enjoy old westerns, with a mite more violence than usual and some mature themes, "Fort Courageous" with its "Sergeant Rutledge" subplot isn't for you.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/15/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Veteran B-movie helmer Lesley Selander knew a thing or two about
directing low-budget westerns, but it looks like Twentieth Century Fox
must have tampered with this 72-minute opus. This predictable but
old-fashioned cavalry versus the Indians epic concerns an army patrol
ordered to take a prisoner, Sergeant Anthony Lucas (Fred Beir of
"Convict Stage"), to Fort Courageous where he will then be escorted to
Fort Alcatraz to serve a ten-year stretch for raping a woman who was
secretly a tramp. No, "Voodoo Island" scenarist Richard Landau doesn't
resolve the issue of our hero's moral dilemma. Indeed, the woman who
cried rape did because the sergeant refused her offer of sex. Another
officer assures the sergeant that whatever charms the woman had to
offer were not worth a decade behind bars. Anyway, a wrongly-accused
cavalryman is clapped in chains and has to cross a hostile desert.
Essentially, the filmmakers provide no closure about Lucas' rape
sentence. The film doesn't clear him at the end. Consequently, our
tarnished hero never gets his due despite the acts of heroism that he
performs in transit to Fort Courageous.
Inevitably, our heroes enouncter a mother and daughter along the way,
and the daughter appears to have been raped by the Indians. No,
Selander doesn't depict the act of rape. The Indians throw her to the
ground, surround her, and she screams in horror. It might have added a
dimension of complication if we knew that the daughter had not been
raped,except in her mind. She could have been a counterpart to the
tramp that the sergeant encountered. Nevertheless, whatever the
redskins did to the girl is the equivalent of rape in the mother's eyes
as well as the daughter's eyes. The Indians attack the cavalry patrol
and mortally wound the captain in charge. Sergeant Lucas takes over
command. Our heroes plod through the desert with the son of an Indian
chieftain as their hostage and drink themselves dry before they reach
the eponymous fort.
Little do they know that virtually everybody in "Fort Courageous" died
in the first scene. More than half-way through the Indian attack on the
fort, Selander and Landau cut to the main credits and put it up with
the patrol scheduled to deliver Lucas. Lucas' old pal, Indian scout Joe
(Harry Lauter of "The Satan Bug"), tries to give him a chance to escape
to Mexico, but Lucas amounts to the epitome of virtue. He refuses to
run away. Mind you, we never see the woman that destroyed his life.
Captain Howard (Don 'Red' Barry of "Shalako") is the sole survivor of
the massacre. Left for dead, he manages to open the forts and then
behaves like a martinet. He wants Lucas put back in chains and hangs
out the Indian chieftain's son (Michael Carr of "War Party") to bake in
the sun. Of course, Sergeant Lucas refuses to tolerate this brutal,
inhuman behavior, and cuts down the poor Native American, only to face
Howard's wrath. When Howard tries to cut a deal with the Indians under
a flag of truce with the son as his hostage, things backfire. The
chief's son escapes and Howard barely eludes death, largely as a result
of Lucas' intervention.
Unfortunately, "Fort Courageous" leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
At the last minute, the mother of the daughter who was raped by the
Indians decides to commit herself to Lucas and they share a screen
kiss. Selander and Landau put our heroes and heroines between a rock
and a hard place and then out of the blue, the movie concludes with a
surprise ending that says something about the admiration that the
Native Americans had for their opponents. Real Indians would have wipedthem out. Harry Lauter has an unsavory death scene. He is run through with a wooden stake and the stake is set afire. The Indians leave him out in the open in front of the fort hoping that somebody will try to save the scout. Unless you enjoy old westerns, with a mite more violence than usual and some mature themes, "Fort Courageous" with its "Sergeant Rutledge" subplot isn't for you.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
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