"Cattle Queen of Montana" was one of those "tough old broad" westerns that Barbara Stanwyck made during the 1950s.
In this one Sierra Nevada Jones (Stanwyck), her father Pop Jones (Morris Ankrum) and their foreman Nat Collins (Chubby Johnson) have driven a herd of some 1,100 cattle up from Texas to settle in Montana. On their arrival, the herd is stampeded, Pop is killed and old Nat seriously wounded. The raid is led by renegade Blackfoot Natchakoa (Anthony Carouso) who is in league with local rancher McCloud (Gene Evans) to drive off any new ranchers arriving in the area.
Into the picture comes gunfighter Farrell (Ronald Reagan) who signs on with McCloud. In the meantime "good" Blackfoot, Colorados (Lance Fuller) rescues Sierra and Nat and takes them to his village to recover. Gradually Sierra and Colorados become allies much to the chagrin of Colorado's girlfriend Starfire (Yvette Duguay) and Natchakoa.
It turns out that Farrell is an army officer working under cover to discover who has been selling guns to the renegade Blackfeet. Well you knew that the clean cut Reagan would turn out to be a good guy didn't you? Anyway, Farrell aligns himself with Sierra and Colorados against the baddies and well, you know the rest.
Director Alan Dwan gives us a beautifully photographed outdoor western. The VCI DVD has been digitally remastered to its original technicolor brilliance and this alone makes this a must see.
Reagan is not very convincing as a ruthless gunfighter. He just doesn't come across as being mean enough. Stanwyck would play a number of similar roles in other westerns culminating with her long run on TV's "The Big Valley". She's supposed to be a "cattle queen" here but doesn't have any cattle to speak of through most of the picture. Lance Fuller looks about as much like an Blackfoot Indian as I do.
Also in the cast are Jack Elam and Myron Healey (who has a good scene with Stanwyck) as McCloud's henchmen, Hugh Sanders as Col. Carrington and a toothless Glenn Strange as the old Blackfoot Chief.
Oddly enough most of the featured players (and Reagan) in this film would turn up in "Tennessee's Partner" the following year.
