Gordon Douglas' "Fort Dobbs" is a sturdy, black & white, Warner Brothers' western that provided Clint Walker with his first starring role. Previously, Walker had appeared in several movies in supporting roles and starred in the television series "Cheyenne." Walker plays a rugged westerner who killed another man for beating up his girlfriend. Gar Davis doesn't know his way around women and he pays the price when he latches onto a no-good dame who plays him for a fool. When our hero is out of town, his darling is loving it up with any man she can attract with her wiles. She is badly beaten up by one man, and Gar goes after him to give him similar treatment. Things get a little out of hand for Gar and he has to kill his adversary after the ruffian tries to kill him with a shotgun. At this point, our hero lights out with a posse pursuing him straight into the desert where the Comanches have decided to hit the war path. The pugnacious Native Americans have killed one man with an arrow in the back. Gar swaps coats and dumps the corpse over a cliff with his coat on so that Largo Sheriff (Russ Conway) and his men initially believe that they have found Gar's corpse. To throw the posse off her trial, Gar lets them take his horse after they find his body. Later that evening, Gar tries to steal a horse from a nearby ranch, but Chad Gray (Richard Eyer of "The Desperate Hours") wounds him with his breechloader. When he recovers, Gar admits to Celia Gray (Virginia Mayo of "Colorado Territory") that he was indeed trying to steal a horse. He has seen the Comanches on the war path and persuades Celia and her son Chad to accompany him to the nearest cavalry fort: Fort Dobbs.
Douglas doesn't waste time in this lean 90-minute sagebrusher, and he has a good script by future director Burt Kennedy of "Return of the Seven" and "Red Mountain" scribe George W. George. This represented Kennedy's fifth oater. He penned it between writing assignments for Budd Boetticher. Kennedy wrote "The Tall T" before he inked this screenplay and followed it up with an uncredited rewrite on "Buchanan Rides Alone." The screenplay is as lean and mean as this 90 western. Ace lenser William Clothier captures the west in all of its savage beauty and often relies on perspective shots. Brian Keith plays a sleazy cowboy named Clett who is heading to Santa Fe to sell a bunch of Henry repeating rifles. When he intervenes on Gar's behalf, Clett (Keith) demonstrates the ferocity of the 15 shot repeating rifle. Later, when the townspeople flee Largo, they head to Fort Dobbs, and they are in for a surprise. The last man that Gar expected to see at the outpost was none other than the sheriff of Largo. The ending is interesting. Composer Max Steiner of "King Kong" fame furnishes a robust orchestral score that highlight the dramatic revelations. "Fort Dobbs" is a good western, and Douglas borrows from an earlier western "Only the Valiant."
Douglas doesn't waste time in this lean 90-minute sagebrusher, and he has a good script by future director Burt Kennedy of "Return of the Seven" and "Red Mountain" scribe George W. George. This represented Kennedy's fifth oater. He penned it between writing assignments for Budd Boetticher. Kennedy wrote "The Tall T" before he inked this screenplay and followed it up with an uncredited rewrite on "Buchanan Rides Alone." The screenplay is as lean and mean as this 90 western. Ace lenser William Clothier captures the west in all of its savage beauty and often relies on perspective shots. Brian Keith plays a sleazy cowboy named Clett who is heading to Santa Fe to sell a bunch of Henry repeating rifles. When he intervenes on Gar's behalf, Clett (Keith) demonstrates the ferocity of the 15 shot repeating rifle. Later, when the townspeople flee Largo, they head to Fort Dobbs, and they are in for a surprise. The last man that Gar expected to see at the outpost was none other than the sheriff of Largo. The ending is interesting. Composer Max Steiner of "King Kong" fame furnishes a robust orchestral score that highlight the dramatic revelations. "Fort Dobbs" is a good western, and Douglas borrows from an earlier western "Only the Valiant."