BY JOHN M. WHALEN
At the opening of “Taza, Son of Cochise,†(1954), it’s
1875 and the great Apache Chief Cochise (Jeff Chandler) is dying. At his side
are his two sons, Taza (Rock Hudson) and Naiche (Rex Reason, billed here as
Bart Roberts). He asks them to continue the peace he made with the White Eyes
after his death. Naturally, if the two sons were in agreement the movie would
have ended right there. But in fact, they don’t agree. Taza wants to do as his
father said. But Naiche hates the white man and intends to side up with Grey
Eagle (Morris Ankrum) and Geronimo (Ian MacDonald) and start the war up again.
If that isn’t enough complication to make a movie out of, writers George Drayson
Adams and George Zuckerman add in a rivalry between the two brothers over the
affections of Oona (Barbara Rush), Grey Eagle’s beautiful daughter.
It’s a good set-up for a story and Universal
International intended the film as another of the westerns being produced at
that time with the purpose of showing Native Americans in a favorable light.
“Taza†is in fact a follow-up to “Broken Arrow,†which featured Chandler as
Cochise, another movie about “good†Apaches who’d rather get along with the
white man than lift his scalp . Yet, despite the studio’s noble intentions, as
you probably already noticed, there is a total lack of any Native Americans in
any of the lead roles. That’s how it was in 1954. In that era, Hollywood did
not hire many Native Americans for big movie parts. Jay Silverheels, who played
Tonto in The Lone Ranger TV series, was a rare exception. As a result, you had
some really hard-to-swallow casting of Native American characters back then.
Rock Hudson’s Taza is one example, although not as bad as blonde and blue-eyed
Chuck Connors in “Geronimo†or Burt Lancaster in “Apache.†Victor Mature played
the title character in “Chief Crazy Horse,†and his high cheek bones and
Italian good looks almost let him get away with it, except, well, you know, it
was big hammy old Victor Mature.
Watching these films today it’s pretty hard to maintain
your “suspension of disbelief†at the sight of these Hollywood hunks running
around on the warpath with tomahawks and bows and arrows. Hudson himself was
more than aware of the problem and said later, according to commentary provided
on a separate audio track, he considered this to be his worst film. I wouldn’t
go that far. At over six feet tall, with his dark hair and brown eyes, he maintained
a certain amount of gravitas in the role and at least had the physical presence
to convincingly vault onto his Indian pony’s back with ease and he handled
himself pretty well in action scenes involving knives and rifles.
“Taza, Son of Cochise,†was director Douglas Sirk’s
second time working with Hudson, and his first and only shot at making a
western. He never made another, perhaps realizing it just wasn’t his métier. There is dramatic potential in a
story about a man who sides with his enemies, wears an Army blue coat and forms
a police force to arrest those of his own people who break the peace. But if Taza
ever felt any inner conflict, it’s never dealt with. Instead Sirk focuses on
Taza’s desire to prevent needless suffering by his people when they are forced
by General Crook (Robert Burton) to move to the dreaded San Carlos Reservation.
He convinces Captain Burnett (Greg Palmer) to talk Crook into at least letting
him form a reservation police force made up of Apaches in order to police
themselves, rather than suffer brutality and humiliation at the hands of white
soldiers. Taza must have been a believer in the old saying: “When you’re stuck
with lemons, make lemonade.â€
“Taza†was one of the last of the movies made during the
“golden age of 3-D.†Between 1952 and 1954, 48 films were shot that way. The 3-D
process, which was used to lure movie goers away from their television sets,
faded quickly because of the many technical problems encountered both in
shooting the films and in projecting them in theaters. In “Taza,†however, cinematographer
Russell Metty put it to good use, capturing the mountain and desert scenery
around Arches National Park in Utah, where the movie was filmed. It also, of
course, features the obligatory 3-D scenes with actors and stunt doubles
hurling rocks, firing arrows, hurling spears, and men falling directly into the
audience’s lap.
I hate to admit
it, but I’m old enough to have seen “Taza†in a theater as a kid, and frankly back
then I didn’t care about who played what. I didn’t know Rock Hudson from Chief
Red Cloud or how historically accurate any of it was. Did Taza actually lead
his band to attack Geronimo and kill other Apache warriors in order to save
Cavalry Captain Burnett (Gregg Palmer) from certain death? Sounds far-fetched,
but maybe they did. I don’t know. And who cares? I had a good time watching
“Taza, Son of Cochise†back then and, if you’re willing to make allowances for the
time in which it was made, you probably will too. it’s worth catching if only
as an authentic artifact of the film making of its time.
Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray presents “Taza, Son of Cochise†in
both 2-D and 3-D in its correct theatrical aspect ratio of 2.00:1 from a 2K
Master. The picture is very good, with a soft Technicolor pallet accurately
capturing the reddish hues of the mountainous desert country. Frank Skinner’s
score sounds good, a typical Universal soundtrack of the fifties with tom-toms
added. Bonus features include commentaries on separate audio tracks by film
historians David Del Valle author C. Courtney Joiner, and 3-D expert Mike
Ballew. Also included is the original theatrical trailer, and English
subtitles.
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(John M. Whalen is the author of "Vampire Siege at Rio Muerto". Click here to order from Amazon.)