Tambores de guerra

Catch the two great bookend sequences. They may be the most memorable part of this nicely produced Western purportedly based on fact. That opening sequence with McKay (Ladd) walking in unchallenged to meet President Grant is based on the historical fact that presidents have only been removed from the public in later times. Citizens back then could essentially walk in and talk to the president without a dozen pre-screens.

Also, for this Bronson fan, that jail cell ending may well be the high point of his acting career. He shows more unforced good humor and naturalness there than any scene I've seen him in. In fact, he easily steals the movie from the rest of the cast, positioning himself as a real Hollywood comer.

This is an A-production from Warner Bros. For example, scope out the well stocked cavalry troop. No corner-cutting there. Then too, lavish use is made of Sedona's familiar red rock locations adding real scenic value. Also, there's a much larger than usual supporting cast of familiar faces, even down to bit parts. Producers Daves and Ladd (uncredited) do a bang-up job assembling the many components.

Surprisingly, for plot developments, the Indians actually get to win a battle and rejoice on- screen. However, the film's impact is damaged by being over-long, probably to accommodate a romantic interest to broaden audience appeal. Then too, Ladd, the actor, appears not nearly as interested in the film as Ladd, the co-producer. Frankly, he looks glum throughout the nearly two-hour running time, and I don't think it's from under-playing the part. Plus having him over-power the muscular, extremely fit looking Bronson is quite a stretch.

Despite these several drawbacks, it's still a good scenic, action flick, the first of director Daves' series of superior Westerns.

One of Alan Ladd's better post Paramount films was Drum Beat, based on a little known incident from the Indian wars.

For the first time an American general was killed during the wars against the Indian tribes. The little known Modoc war was another of those lesser known conflicts as action against the Sioux on the Great Plains and the Apache in the Arizona desert got far more attention.

The Modocs were moved from a reservation in northern California to one in Oregon to share with the Klamath, a tribe that had a long feuding history with the Modoc. That was the immediate cause of the war. It was kept going by one of the Modoc's more charismatic leaders, a chief named Captain Jack.

On April 11, 1873, General E.R.S. Canby among other peace commissioners who were sitting in council with Captain Jack and the other chiefs were suddenly shot and killed, in fact Captain Jack personally did shoot General Canby. Charles Bronson in his very first film with that name having dropped his real birth last name of Buckinsky plays Captain Jack. Warner Anderson plays the feckless and luckless Canby.

The horror of that incident aroused some bad public opinion against the Modocs, not to dissimilar against to what was aroused against the Japanese after Pearl Harbor and Islamist extremists after the World Trade Center attack albeit on a much smaller scale. It certainly shifted priorities for a while in the War Department from the Sioux and the Apache.

Alan Ladd plays a real frontier figure named Johnny MacKay who as the film has him was a civilian scout employed by the army to find Captain Jack. His role in real life was not at the center stage of the film, but he did play a part in the Modoc Wars. And he was not among the surviving peace commissioners he wasn't at the meeting when the assassinations happened.

For all its inaccuracies Drum Beat is the only film I know to deal with this incident that shocked a nation during The Gilded Age.

Drum Beat is written and directed by Delmer Daves. It stars Alan Ladd, Charles Bronson, Robert Keith, Audrey Dalton, Marisa Pavan, Rodolfo Acosta, Warner Anderson, Elisha Cook Jr and Anthony Caruso. A CinemaScope/Warnercolor production, music is scored by Victor Young and cinematography by J. Peverell Marley.

Alan Ladd is Indian fighter Johnny Mackay, who is ordered by President Ulysses Grant (Hayden Rorke) to negotiate with the Modoc Indians in an attempt to avert war...

Utterly frustrating! One of the most attractive looking Westerns of the fifties, Daves' movie doesn't quite have the courage of its convictions. The core basis of the film is sound, though as we are told from the off, it features fictionalised enhancements to further dramatic impact. Snatching from a little known part of the Indian Wars from 1872/3 (to be applauded), that of the Modoc Uprising, film is set in 1869 around the Oregon-California border. Plot and story are put in place neatly, where the characters are interesting, the back drop of various Arizona locations is simply in "scope" gorgeous, and the narrative promises some boldness as the first person killed is an innocent woman and the white man protagonists are fuelled by anger and hatred. But...

Unfortunately with a running time of one hour and fifty minutes, many passages of chatter never really expand the characters. Something which is not usually applicable to Delmer Daves when he was on form. We should be getting high grade dramatic worth from the principle players, their conversations should ping with emotion and depth, after being set up as people with voices to be heard, we never get a real grasp of Mackay's inner conflict, or Captain Jack's (Bronson) staunch loyalty to his cause, or even the depth and reasoning of Bill Satterwhite's (Keith) hatred. While there is, as the historians will tell you, a severe dilution of the story to suit the white man's cause. It's hard to believe this is the same director of Broken Arrow from four years earlier! But then Daves wasn't writing the screenplay....

Maybe Daves felt he needed to better the screenplay for Broken Arrow? To show he could put down on the page some "liberal" quality as well as directing? He would prove post Drum Beat that he could "co-write" great Western screenplays (Jubal/White Feather/The Last Wagon), but here on his own he falls short. Not only does it skulk in the shadow of Broken Arrow, it also pales into insignificance to Anthony Mann's brilliant Devil's Doorway, which was also from 1950. You can feel Daves striving for relevance in the mid fifties, but he is trumped by narrative zest elsewhere, a shame since the acting performances and production quality make Drum Beat very watchable.

Visually it's superb, Sedona's various natural beauties are excellently captured by Peverell Marley (The Left Handed Gun/Westbound), while Daves proves adept at utilising the landscapes as part of his action sequences (check out the red rock rifle engagement scene). Young's score is a goodie, blending bombastic beats with ballad strains, and the Warnercolor is gorgeous, one of the better Warnercolor productions that I have seen. Acting wise it's Bronson's movie, physically perfect and featuring a shifty aggressive ebullience that's most appealing. Ladd scores well, too, nicely underplayed at the critical moments, Keith has a thespian quality that suits the role of an Indian hating aggressor, and Elisha Cook provides weasel smarts that make us yearn for his part to have been bigger.

Some have questioned why this isn't better known or worthy of a widespread home format release? The answer is that simply it has more style than substance, and Daves, as much as us Western fans love him, is to blame from a writing perspective. Visually and aurally the film ranks a comfortable 9/10. As a whole, sadly, it rounds out as 6.5/10.

While the plot of DRUM BEAT is based on a true incident during frontier days on the plains, nothing about the film suggests that it's any more than a standard Cavalry vs. Indians western seen hundreds of times since the movies were born.

However, credit director Delmer Daves for finding some gorgeous locations for his story and casting Charles Bronson and Anthony Caruso as Indians who look marvelously authentic in their make-up. Not so fortunate are Marisa Pavan and Audrey Dalton in the weak female roles that could have been played by any young ingénue on the Warner lot.

Alan Ladd is the Indian expert hired by President Grant to make peaceful overtures to the Modocs, headed by Bronson. Elisha Cook, Jr. is interesting as a corrupt Indian trader and most of the supporting roles get good results, especially in the action scenes, all of which are well-staged by director Daves. Especially good is a climactic fight between Ladd and Bronson as they tumble down a rushing stream and fall over the rocky terrain. Ladd seems to be doing most of his stunts in this action-packed scene.

But otherwise, he delivers a rather stoic performance, showing barely any expression even in his brief love scenes with Audrey Dalton. Hard to tell if he was bored or just impatient with the routine script.

All in all, worth watching for the action scenes and the handsome landscapes filmed in beautiful WideScreen Technicolor.

This western is one of Alan Ladd's best films and he is the peace commissioner turned Indian fighter who finally brings peace in the far west. The film is based on factual events as Modoc boss Captain Jack ignores repeated overtures for peace and leaves the cavalry no choice but to resort to arms to stop the killing and outrages. Ladd and Charles Bronson, the Indian leader, make fine adversaries and the movie has lots of action and beautiful scenery. A great cast of western favorites are in the film and Ladd even has a moment or two to clinch with with pretty Audrey Dalton. Marisa Pavan is an Indian maiden who also has a yen for Ladd. Delmer Daves directed this film, which is another in a succession of excellent Daves westerns. Victor Young's fine music accompanies the film.