Randolph Scott is one of my favorite western actors, but this is a poor movie. Blame the screen writer, the director and probably the budget. There's not much action or tension, just a lot of horse operatics with a stable of unsympathetic and unlikable characters. Even the usual team of normally good character actors (Jay C. Flippen, Harry Carey Jr., Barbara Hale etc) can't pull this broken wagon out of the mud of bad writing. The scenery's not bad,the pine country of California, but it's a far cry from the Montana plains where Custer met his doom. Everybody's against Scott as an officer who went to bring his fiancé to Fort Lincoln instead of joining Custer, Benteen and Reno with their rendezvous with destiny on the Little Big Horn. He tries to redeem himself by undertaking a dangerous mission to retrieve Custer's body from the battlefield. They meet up with some superstitious Indians and the way they get out of the mess is not bad. For a more compelling story, even the wildly historically inaccurate "They Died With Their Boots On" is scalps and shoulders above this entry.
Review of 7th Cavalry
