The Warner Archive has released a Blu-ray edition of director John Sturges' "Escape from Fort Bravo", a 1953 Western that serves that combines several different aspects of the action/adventure film genre: traditional cowboy elements, Mescalero Apaches on the warpath and key elements pertaining to the Civil War. This "everything but the kitchen sink" approach makes the film the equivalent of celluloid jambalaya but it somehow works. The movie was originally set to be a 3-D production but MGM ultimately settled on making it an early venture in widescreen presentation format, filmed in a color process known as Ansco. It was heavily promoted and became a major boxoffice hit.
The story is set in Arizona when the area was a territory in the days before statehood. Fort Bravo is a remote desert outpost that protects a small town in the midst of hostile Indian country. The fort's commander, Colonel Owens, (Carl Benton Reid) is sitting on a powder keg. His troops are standing guard over a large contingent of Confederate prisoners that outnumbers the Union troops, who are regularly reduced in numbers when Apaches attack their patrols. (It's not satisfactorily explained how the Reb prisoners arrived in Arizona, since the territory saw only one minor battle/skirmish fought on its soil.) To keep order, Owens treats his prisoners with a light touch and extends all respect and courtesies to the Confederate senior officer, Captain John Marsh (John Forsythe). The Rebs resent the fort's second-in-command, Captain Roper (William Holden) for his often brutal treatment of recaptured prisoners who have attempted to escape into the brutal environment surrounding the fort. The dynamics of the situation at Fort Bravo take a dramatic turn with the arrival of a stagecoach that had been under attack by Apaches. A passing cavalry patrol intervenes and brings the stage safely to the fort. The most prominent passenger is Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker), a stunning beauty who alights from the stagecoach dressed to the nines and looking as though she just stepped off a fashion show runway in Paris. (As in many such scenarios in Hollywood Westerns of this era, she has endured a brutal journey in excruciating discomfort but her hair and makeup aren't any worse for the wear.) Upon seeing her, Roper is immediately smitten. He learns she has come to Fort Bravo to see the wedding of Colonel Owens' daughter Alice (Polly Bergen) to one of his senior officers (Richard Anderson). Carla and Alice are old friends but the wedding serves as decoy for Carla's real reason to visit the fort. Seems she is a Southern sympathizer who is secretly engaged to Captain Marsh. She intends to serve as a crucial conspirator in helping Marsh and a few other prisoners escape with the help of a local merchant who will hide the escapees and Carla in his wagon after he leaves the festivities for the wedding. Meanwhile, she strings Roper along by acting flirtatious and somewhat sexually suggestive. Roper becomes so head-over-heels in love with her, that he ends up proposing they get married.
Up to this point, "Escape from Fort Bravo" is fairly routine horse opera stuff. However, after Marsh, Carla and a few others manage to escape, the film switches into high gear and affords director Sturges the opportunity to show off his skills at directing a big budget action movie, something that would become his trademark as his reputation in Hollywood became elevated in status. Humiliated by being cuckolded by Carla, Roper and a few troopers track down the escaped prisoners and recapture them. Predictably, Carla has been pining away for Roper, realizing that she no longer loves Marsh. Upon heading back to Fort Bravo, the small group is surrounded by Apaches and forced to abandon their horses in the midst of the harsh desert. The Apaches use inspired military-like strategies to isolate the group and pick them off one-by-one. Sturges cranks up the suspense and makes the most of this highly engrossing sequence, which serves as the heart of the film. The performances are all fine, with Holden in particularly good form and the movie benefits from a good supporting cast of welcome character actors including William Demarest as an aged Confederate prisoner and Howard McNear as the conniving local merchant.
The new Warner Archive Blu-ray looks sensational and does justice to cinematographer Robert Surtees' impressive shots of the Death Valley landscapes where much of the movie was filmed. If you like the movie and own the previous DVD release, it's worth investing in the Blu-ray upgrade.The only bonus feature is the original trailer.
