Fort Apache

1948

2h 8m

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

389

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3 Videos

68 Images

Western

Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.

Directors

John Ford

Writers

James Warner Bellah(story by)

Frank S. Nugent(screenplay by)

Stars

John Wayne

Henry Fonda

Shirley Temple

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Videos3

Photos68

Top cast

John Wayne

Capt. Kirby York

Henry Fonda

Lt. Col. Owen Thursday

Shirley Temple

Philadelphia Thursday

Pedro Armendáriz

Sgt. Beaufort

Ward Bond

Sgt. Maj. Michael O'Rourke

George O'Brien

Capt. Sam Collingwood

Victor McLaglen

Sgt. Festus Mulcahy

Anna Lee

Mrs. Emily Collingwood

Mrs. Mary O'Rourke

Sgt. Quincannon

Capt. Dr. Wilkens

Silas Meacham

Sgt. Daniel Schattuck

Lt. Gates

Guadalupe

Cochise

Ma (barmaid)

Cavalryman

Directors

John Ford

Writers

James Warner Bellah(story by)

Frank S. Nugent(screenplay by)

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Review

Featured review

7/10

Certainly, I think, the best of the John Ford US cavalry trilogies this one. Henry Fonda is cracking as the honourable, but out of his depth, by-the-book colonel sent to run a ramshackle army post just as the Apache are on the rise again. He replaces the far more practically experienced John Wayne and soon it all gets a bit sticky. John Agar and Shirley Temple provide an amiable romantic sub-plot as the very green lieutenant son of the Sergeant Major (Ward Bond) and the daughter of the Colonel who fall in love - despite the disapproval of (for different reasons) both sets of parents. The photography is, as usual, quite stunning - George O'Brien; Pedro Armedáris, Dick Foran and the inimitable Victor McLaglen all contribute hugely (and frequently humorously) to a tight little, and occasionally quite thought-provoking, Frank Nugent screenplay and the Admiral maintains a decent degree of jeopardy - between the two, on-form, leads and between them and the Apache - until the very, gallant, end. It's held up remarkably well, nodding subtly - but distinctly - to the appalling way the native American tribes were treated during the pioneering, expansion of the United States.

Geronimo196709 Jul, 2022