The Last Frontier

"Jed" (Victor Mature) and his two trapping pals happen upon an army fort in Oregon where the captain (Guy Madison) offers them jobs as scouts. They can't have a Blue-coat, but "Jed" has a hankering to settle down and get married - and this seems like an idea place to start. Thing is though, he aims just a little too high with his aspirations - the wife of the colonel (Anne Bancroft) who has just arrived from his own HQ that has been reduced to ashes by some Sioux led by the fearsome "Red Cloud". Now we soon cotton on that this colonel (Robert Preston) is a bit out of his depth - not just with matters of the heart, but with fighting these natives who know a great deal more about skirmishing tactics than him. "Jed" and the captain try to make him see sense - but well, maybe that writing is already on the wall? Mature holds this together fine when he is on screen, but that's not quite often enough to keep this from dawdling along in an all too familiar fashion - muddling romance and internal squabbling with not enough bow and arrow action. When we do get that, it's quite a lively enterprise though, with a denouement that does remind us that the Sioux didn't actually pick these fights - they largely just wanted to be left in peace. The production looks ok and the acting and writing do enough to keep it watchable, I just don't know that I will remember it.