Bart is no fan of army life but is drawn to the fort because of the poker game. The Colonel threatens him with the stockade unless he joins the cavalry. This is the Dakota territory, and the Sioux are making trouble. The Colonel wants Bart to find out who is giving them guns. As expected, Bart does not make a good soldier. It is KP and guard duty, then Bart gets into a slugfest with his sergeant. The Colonel's wife was raised by Indians and has a Sioux lover. Bart appears bored and out of place as the cavalry and Indians engage in battle. Having turned 24 in basic training, I can attest to the rigors of army life. The hardest part is the loneliness.
3 Reviews
You're in the army now
bkoganbing21 September 2018
There's no way that military life would appeal to a Maverick. But they do have a
good poker game at the army post Bart Maverick is at the sutler's store. Good enough
to keep him interested until the commanding officer Colonel Herbert Rudley has
him arrested.
Given Jack Kelly's conning ways Rudley wants him to undercover and find out who is behind the selling of supplies to the Sioux. Just be the best gold brick you can be and make sure your displeasure with military life is known. Sure enough the traitors contact him and Bart's in the gang.
Some elements of classic films This Is My Affair and Springfield Rifle are part of a very confused and muddled plot. Kelly does have some good moments but the writing and continuity come up short. These characters especially the leader of the ring have some off the wall motivations.
Hardly the best from this series.
Given Jack Kelly's conning ways Rudley wants him to undercover and find out who is behind the selling of supplies to the Sioux. Just be the best gold brick you can be and make sure your displeasure with military life is known. Sure enough the traitors contact him and Bart's in the gang.
Some elements of classic films This Is My Affair and Springfield Rifle are part of a very confused and muddled plot. Kelly does have some good moments but the writing and continuity come up short. These characters especially the leader of the ring have some off the wall motivations.
Hardly the best from this series.
It doesn't have to make sense...
schappe12 May 2023
Warning: Spoilers
...apparently.
Bart stops at a fort because there's a lucrative poker game there when the payroll comes in. (On Army pay?) On past visits he has made friends with the Colonel who commands the post. Only this time the colonel has him arrested for violating a post rule against gambling on the premises. (What would Captain Renault think?). He uses that as leverage to force Bart to enlist for 6 months. He protests that he knows nothing about being a soldier, (even though he and Bret were 'galvanized Yankees' during the war: captured confederate soldiers who agreed to fight Indians on the frontier to avoid prison). The Colonel wants him, (based on getting to know him in poker games), to go undercover to discover who is selling military supplies, including guns, to the Indians, which could incite a war.
The Colonel is married to an Indian woman who hates the whites and wants to incite a war but he is somehow oblivious to this. He's then called away for a meeting with the commanding General of the territory but is killed by a bandit who thinks his protective detail of five troopers is after him. The colonel is the only one who knows Bart is his undercover agent. When the bad guys are intercepted and killed in a shoot-out, Bart, despite having killed the head man, is court martialed and sentenced to hang.
The whole thing is resolved when the wife and the local Indian chief, (played by Tony Young, who reminds me of Leonard Nimoy), suddenly reform and realize they were wrong to want a war and the wife produces a letter the Colonel left behind, clearing Bart, who, nonetheless has to serve out the rest of his 6 month enlistment.
The script almost seems like it might have been the product of one of those barracks or prison camp literary efforts where each guy writes a paragraph and then gives it to the next guy to write the next one.
Bart stops at a fort because there's a lucrative poker game there when the payroll comes in. (On Army pay?) On past visits he has made friends with the Colonel who commands the post. Only this time the colonel has him arrested for violating a post rule against gambling on the premises. (What would Captain Renault think?). He uses that as leverage to force Bart to enlist for 6 months. He protests that he knows nothing about being a soldier, (even though he and Bret were 'galvanized Yankees' during the war: captured confederate soldiers who agreed to fight Indians on the frontier to avoid prison). The Colonel wants him, (based on getting to know him in poker games), to go undercover to discover who is selling military supplies, including guns, to the Indians, which could incite a war.
The Colonel is married to an Indian woman who hates the whites and wants to incite a war but he is somehow oblivious to this. He's then called away for a meeting with the commanding General of the territory but is killed by a bandit who thinks his protective detail of five troopers is after him. The colonel is the only one who knows Bart is his undercover agent. When the bad guys are intercepted and killed in a shoot-out, Bart, despite having killed the head man, is court martialed and sentenced to hang.
The whole thing is resolved when the wife and the local Indian chief, (played by Tony Young, who reminds me of Leonard Nimoy), suddenly reform and realize they were wrong to want a war and the wife produces a letter the Colonel left behind, clearing Bart, who, nonetheless has to serve out the rest of his 6 month enlistment.
The script almost seems like it might have been the product of one of those barracks or prison camp literary efforts where each guy writes a paragraph and then gives it to the next guy to write the next one.
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