A Thunder of Drums

Luckily Richard Boone ("Capt. Maddocks") and Charles Bronson (the trouble-making "Hanna") inject a little oomph into this otherwise remarkably sterile western that sees two of the most wooden actors to ever don a yankee uniform fight it out against some renegade Indians whilst one of them vies for the affections of ex-girlfriend "Tracey" (a totally unremarkable Luana Patten) who is actually supposed to be affianced to "Lt. Gresham" (James Douglas)! The story all starts with the arrival of the straight out of West Point "Lt. McQuade" (George Hamilton) who hasn't a clue, but has sense enough to respect his aggrieved and embittered commanding officer. Also on station is the equally useless "Lt. Porter" (Richard Chamberlain) and so what we can be certain of here, is that never an hair will be out of place as they must galvanise their troops for an attack by the some wily and unidentified hostiles hungry for such perfectly coiffured scalps! Boone is undoubtedly the star here, and when the action is allowed to prevail this is actually not a bad film - it's just that for too much of the time director Joseph M. Newman allows the dreary lovestruck melodrama to dictate the pace and narrative of the film, and that really drags it down far too often. It's quite exciting at the end, but there's a lot of schmaltzy guff beforehand to wade through.