drystyx A fairly scenic Western which boasts that it is based on true events, and announces in the beginning that it does take literary license to make it more entertaining, so there's no beef about that.Ladd plays Indian fighter Johnny, who has a hate-like-hate relationship with Captain Jack, played by Charles Bronson, and is on a first name basis with the leading thugs that accompany Captain Jack.Captain Jack is a Modoc Native American, but he is not a real captain. He steals medals from officers he kills. The real leaders of the Modoc don't trust him, and think little of him. Same for his main cohorts.He makes a name for himself in villainy, and President Grant tries to quell his killing peacefully. He sees the importance of keeping peace with the good Modoc people who would make good neighbors.As with any Delmer Daves directed movie, we know his high handed American Nazi ideology will prevail, and he will force the issue to kill at least one beautiful brunette woman. One must wonder if Daves was once jilted and humiliated by a brown eyed brunette, in order to make him continually do this.It is just one of the "forced" looking events that take place in this movie. More "forced" is the direction, in which Daves seems to want to display certain lines and characteristics in very unnatural looking sequences of events. It looks like Daves had in mind to make sure certain lines were spoken, and certain images taken. It almost looks like a movie made by a story book artist.Daves is a bit more subdued in this movie than in most movies, however, and it probably is the best of his works, which isn't saying much.

ma-cortes They called the ¨wanderer¨ because a horse was his home . They called him ¨Injun-lover¨ but never to his face but they called on him when everyone else had run away . All the special beauty and drama of Oregon's Modoc lava-lands in Cinemascope . President Grant orders Indian fighter MacKay (Alan Ladd) to deal with the Modocs of northern California and southern Oregon . McKay sets out to negotiate a peace treaty with the renegade Indian leader nicknamed Captain Jack (Charles Bronson , he had just changed his name from his real one , Buchinski) , a believable rebel chief .Good Indian-cavalry Western based on real incidents . This first-rate Western draws its riveting tale and power from the interaction of finely drawn roles as well as adventure and formidable action . Two-fisted Bronson enjoyed one of his first big roles in this spectacular story , overshadowing Alan Ladd who was film producer along with Delmer Daves . Tough-guy Ladd plays as a scout and expert Indian fighter , this is his best performance since ¨Shane¨ . Delmer Daves does a good work , an energetic and exciting movie , pitting two antagonist characters against the rugged toughness forced a vast natural environment throughout the trail . Highlight the exemplary value of the landscape as essential dramatic figure, and the narrative takes a brisk pace but not fast, a dash dense but not cumbersome . Colorful cinematography broke away from the traditional images to drape the Western backdrop convincingly in glimmer Warnercolor . Evocative and appropriate musical score by the classic Victor Young . The motion picture is well directed by Delmer Daves - including his characteristic use of landscape that helps the most spectacular scenes- , a Western expert as proved in the notorious ¨Broken arrow¨ , his first big Western ; furthermore , he made ¨The hanging tree¨ , ¨3:10 to Yuma¨, ¨The last wagon¨, Jubal , ¨Cowboy¨, ¨Return of the Texan¨ . And of course ¨Drum beat¨ that turns out to be stylish, fast paced , solid, meticulous and with enjoyable look . This well acted movie is gripping every step of the way . An unjustly forgotten film results to be a nice western and remains consistently agreeable . Rating : Above average , worthwhile watching .The story is based on historical facts , these are the following : The Modocs , a small tribe of northern California , they were fishers , hunters , slave traders and warriors . In 1864 the Modocs reluctantly ceded their tribal lands to the United States and were moved to the Klamath Indian Reservation in Oregon . The Modocs could not live peacefully with the more powerful Klamath tribe and a band of Modocs under the leadership of Kintpuash , better known as Captain Jack , left the reservation and returned to their former lands . They refused to go back the reservation and the army was sent to forcibly remove them ; the result was so-called Modoc War of 1872-3 . Captain Jack and his followers took up an almost impregnable position in the Lava Beds on the California-Oregon border ; the Lava Beds provided a natural stronghold of contorted masses of solidified volcanic lava , a broken region of natural rock trenches and caves . Here , Captain Jack held off superior forces for months . Finally he and his followers surrounded . Captain Jack and four other Modocs were tried by court martial and hanged at Fort Klamath on 3 October 1873 . The survivors of his band were sent to a reservation in the Indian territory of Oklahoma.

bkoganbing 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.

Mickey-2 "Drum Beat", released in 1954 pits Alan Ladd, as an Indian fighter turned peace commissioner, against the leader of the Modoc Indians of N. California, led by Charles Bronson. Ladd, as Johnny McKay, has an intense bitterness towards Indians in general, as they had slaughtered his family years earlier. However, Pres. Grant desires him to work with the Modoc tribe, in particular, to bring peace in the area of California and Oregon. The Modoc chief, Captain Jack, played by Charles Bronson, feels that an area of land is Modoc land only, and it is his to take, and keep. He also has an intense feeling toward the army medals and blue coats, which, to him, are symbols of power and authority. He even kills a retired army colonel, and seizes the medals off the coat the man was wearing.Ladd, with the aid of Modoc Indians that desire peace, attempts to settle the conflict, but hostilities do break out between the tribe and the soldiers. This was the role that Ladd seemed to shine best in, that of the tight-lipped, slow-to-anger, tough guy. Watchable western fare.