User Reviews

"They Rode West" is an almost forgotten little western that isn't all that bad. It stars the tragic Robert Francis who was killed in 1955 just as his career was getting started.

Major Vandergrif (Myron Healy is wounded in the leg by an Indian rebel. He is brought to the fort where drunken Dr. Gibson (Ralph Dumke) botches the removal of the arrow from the Major's leg and he bleeds to death. A new Doctor is sent for.

Arriving on the stage coach is tenderfoot Dr. Allen Seward (Francis), Laurie MacKaye (Donna Reed) and Mrs. Martha Walters (Peggy Converse), wife of the post commander Colonel Ethan Walters (Onslow Stevens). They are greeted by Captain Peter Blake (Phil Carey) and two shave tail lieutenants, Raymond (Jack Kelly) and Finlay (James Best). Also along is crusty Irish sergeant Creever (Roy Roberts.

Back at the fort, Dr. Seward is not made to feel welcome due to the experiences of the previous doctors who were a bunch of misfits. On patrol with Cpt. Blake and his troopers, they go to the Kilowa village where Seward discovers that there is malaria in the camp. He wants to treat a young boy who is the son of Manyi-ten (May Wynn), who appears to be white, but Blake refuses and orders him back to the fort.

Seward suggest to Col. Walters that the Indian village should be allowed to move to the high country where the water is cleaner and the suseptabilty to malaria is less. Walters refuses. Seward sneaks back to the village and treats Medicine Man Isatai (Frank DeKova) for malaria. Manyi-ten's husband Red Leaf (Eugene Iglasias) dies from the disease. Sward thinks that he can convince her to return to her people, but she refuses.

The Kiowa village pulls up stakes and moves to the high country. The Cheyenne who had stolen ten rifles from Blake while on patrol, join forces with the Kiowa. They plan a mass attack on the fort. Seward is considered to be a traitor for leaving the fort without permission and counselling the Kiowa to move.

Capt. Blake attempts to shoot Seward while he is at the Indian village but wounds the son of Chief Satani (Stuart Randall) instead. As the Indians prepare to attack, Seward convinces Chief Satani to bring his wounded son to the fort for an operation, which if successful will prevent the Indian attack. Seard operates and.................................................

This was one of only four movies that Robert Francis made before his untimely death. Columbia Pictures were building him up to be a star at the time. Donna Reed who was supposed to be Francis' love interest in the film, was actually about ten years older than him. May Wyn had played Francis' wife in "The Caine Mutiny" the same year and it was though that they were being developed as a team.

Look for western veterans Harry Lauter as an orderly and Edmund Cobb as the company Sergeant.

Except for the attention that Robert Francis, as the Army doctor, pays to the Kiowa Indians, there's little that's distinctive about this Western. Most of the others who have commented on the movie have been on point.

Francis arrives a newbie at a Western fort that's more or less run by Phil Carey, a Captain whose previous experiences with doctors have left him bitter. He treats Francis like a stepson, constantly harrying and hectoring him.

Carey is especially discomfited when Francis begins treat the Kiowa who are all down with malaria. The malaria is linked of course to some bad water near the Kiowa camp, allowing mosquitoes to breed and serve as vectors. Of course Francis doesn't know this because the story takes place before the germ theory of disease was developed, and long before Lister introduced sterile techniques into the practice of medicine.

But, okay, Francis may not know that malaria is caused by mosquitoes, but then apparently the screenwriters don't know either because later malaria is treated as a disease you can "catch" from somebody else, like a cold.

Another reviewer pointed out that these Westerns that analyzed the relationship between the Indians and the Cavalry were a kind of metaphor for the racism that couldn't be directly addressed on the screen. The reviewer was right. Francis is loathed by the troopers, called someone who "turns on his own kind" and is a "Kiowa-lover." However, Francis saves the day, averting war between the Indians and the cavalry by extracting a bullet from the brain of a Kiowa honcho. The bullet must have been just under the skin because the way of extracting a bullet at the time was to stick a finger into the hole in the brain and search around until the projectile was palpable. Then you went in with forceps. If Abraham Lincoln hadn't already been mortally wounded, the surgery would have killed him.

I'd like to be able to say the performances add a lot to the film but I can't. Roy Roberts is an Irish top sergeant who is too fond of whiskey. Since John Ford, every cavalry troop must have a dipsomaniac as a top sergeant. Neither of the women have much to do. Robert Francis may or may not have had a future in film if he hadn't died in an accident. It's impossible to tell, judging from the work he left behind. His ensign in "The Caine Mutiny" didn't seem to promise much.