User reviews

"War Paint" (1953) starring Robert Stack is a good "mission across the desert" movie with good actors, an OK script, and portrays US Army deserters who murder loyal Army soldiers and try to murder their commanding officer, and almost succeed.

Very few movies portray this important military discipline problem which has happened often in US and other Army military history.

US Army officers are issued sidearms (handguns) to defend themselves against enlisted men they command who may decide to disobey orders and murder the commander who gave them orders they disobey.

During the War In Vietnam, the phenomenon of enlisted men murdering officers who commanded them was publicized and often called "fragging." Enlisted men who attack and try to murder officers, and sometimes succeed, is not new to military experience. Leading a military unit is dangerous for many reasons, not only because of enemy fire, but due to "friendly fire" from soldiers part of one's military group, which "friendly fire" is, sadly and tragically, sometimes intentional.

Murdered officers killed by their own men is not new in military history.

This "War Paint" (1953) movie set in desert country about a small military unit led by a single junior (low level) officer (a Lieutenant) played by Robert Stack shows enlisted men, about a dozen of them, made desperate by harsh no-water desert conditions, and greedy due to a gold mine they come across on their way to delivering a peace treaty to an Indian tribal chief (the mission the military group has in the "old West" of post-Civil War 19th century times in the far west desert country. (This movie was shot entirely in California's "Death Valley," located near the Nevada/ California state border, famous for it's moonscape appearance where almost nothing, plant or animal, can live, or does.) The movie story is very simple, and not a little eerie.

It was made the same year Robert Stack starred in the first 3-D movie titled "Bwana Devil," set in Africa.....another Robert Stack adventure movie.

"War Paint" is a good movie for several reasons, including it's unusual and forthright treatment of bad soldiers doing damage to good soldiers, all in the same Army and supposed to be on the "same team." A single female character is included in the cast, and she is supposed to be an Indian maiden, the daughter of the Indian tribal chief the military group seeks to present with a US Govt. peace treaty.

The girl is beautiful, dressed in a form fitting doe-skin dress, has a perfect complexion, lovely thick dark braided hair, every hair neatly in place, a very pretty face, and a great, curvy female figure, including chorus girl legs shown off when she rides horses or wrestles around on the ground when attacked by soldiers or attacking the soldiers on her own.

She is not a typical movie Indian girl...not submissive, not inarticulate, not demure. She's smart as hell in every way, and shows off her good mental qualities (which match her dazzling appearance) without apology or restraint.

Her physical beauty is a welcome visual relief for movie viewers who must watch the movie story set in the dull and ugly moonscape desert environment which oppresses the struggling soldiers for obvious reasons.

The Indian maiden does not join the military group until the movie is 2/3rds over, and then she is their hostile and unpleasant prisoner, outspokenly "anti-White man!" But we see her (the audience does) well before the actor soldiers do, and we see her comely features and great legs.

She helps her brother, who opposes the US Govt. treaty his father, the Indian tribal chief wants and supports. The brother murders American soldiers, is taken prisoner by the military group, escapes, attacks the group, and finally is killed, all while the younger adult female sister assists her brother and stays out of sight of the military group....until the last 1/3 of the movie when she shoots a straggling soldier during a rifle battle she initiates, and is caught, taken prisoner, and retained as a hostage to present to the Indian tribal chief.

Predictably, she befriends handsome Robert Stack, and at the end of the movie, only the two of them (Stack and the girl) remain....all other soldiers part of the "mission across the desert" have died.....most due to being killed by fellow soldiers.

The whole movie is unusual and thought provoking, worth seeing.

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Written by Tex Allen, SAG-AFTRA movie actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for more information about Tex Allen.

Tex Allen's email address is TexAllen@Rocketmail.Com.

See Tex Allen Movie Credits, Biography, and 2012 photos at WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen. See other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: "http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments" (paste this address into your URL Browser)

War Paint casts Robert Stack as a cavalry lieutenant with a mission to deliver a peace treaty, presumably a draft to the Indians. With Sergeant Charles McGraw, Stack leads a patrol to deliver said peace treaty. The chief's son Keith Larsen is to guide them through the rough desert country, but Larsen and his sister Joan Taylor have their own mission. They actually don't believe the white man's peace treaty, there's such an incredible track record on the subject and they're going to sabotage the mission.

Such stalwart characters actors as John Doucette, Robert J. Wilke, Peter Graves, Douglas Kennedy, and Paul Richards make up some of the patrol. When the water is sabotaged and the discipline breaks down the cast starts dying off for one reason or another.

I do have to say though why no one thought better of the fact that Keith Larsen was in War Paint as he started the mission I'm a bit perplexed at the writers for that.

War Paint gets pretty ugly at times as the men go off their nuts for lack of water and an abundance of heat. It's a gritty no frill western with great cinematography from Death Valley. It could have been a whole lot better though.

War Paint is directed by Lesley Selander and adapted to screenplay by Richard Alan Simmons and Martin Berkeley. It stars Robert Stack, Charles McGraw, Joan Taylor, Peter Graves, Keith Larsen, Robert Wilke and Walter Reed. Music is by Arthur Lange and Emil Newman, and cinematography by Gordon Avil.

A cavalry patrol trying to deliver a peace treaty to Gray Cloud are being destroyed from within by an Indian brother and sister.

Paper of lies!

Filmed out of the superb presence of Death Valley, War Paint is as solid as one of that location's rocks. The title hints at some cheapo "B" Oater, the kind that is all hooray and jingoistic as the cavalry mow down the Indians, but that is not the case. Though an air of familiarity exists, with the core of the story about an army unit literally dying out in the desert, with saboteurs operating within, there's a two sides of the coin pinch in the narrative, with dialogue nicely written with thought and sincerity. Opening with a scalping, drama and suspense is never far away, so as the group implode, with suspicions, thirst and gold fever taking a hold, the viewer is always intrigued as to who will survive and will the treaty ever reach its destination? Plus you may find yourself feeling very thirsty during the viewing...

Very nicely performed and handled with underrated tidy hands by Selander, this is well worth a look by Western fans. 7/10

This western has great natural beauty but more talk than action in a film that should have been better than it was. The plot is simply that of a cavalry patrol that has a few days to deliver a peace treaty to a chief and prevent the Indians from going on the warpath. Robert Stack is the big cast name here and he is in complete "Eliot Ness" mode as a no-nonsense lieutenant who drives his men hard in the name of honor and duty. The patrol is guided by the chief's son who has a completely different agenda. The supporting cast is terrific, with names like Charles McGraw, Douglas Kennedy, Peter Graves, Robert Wilke and John Doucette along to carry out their mission. The picture is not a cavalry-Indian western as the title implies but instead focuses on the travails and frustrations of the troopers, not the least of which is thirst, as they make their way to the Indian village. The movie is worth watching for the old-time character actors and the striking beauty of Death Valley.

Lesley Selander was a prolific B movie director. That is all I know about him. I do not know that I have watched any of his other flicks, but on the strength of WAR PAINT I would say that I am not losing much.

With a decent cast for a B picture - including Robert Stack, Charles McGraw, Peter Graves, Keith Larsen, Walter Reed and beautiful Joan Taylor as a sqwaw - the acting rates sufficiently high to hold your attention.

The script provides the downside: unrelenting in its penchant for tragedy, we see Larsen as the subversive son of the Indian chief kill soldiers, then his sister Taylor does it, and finally the Cavalary troops kill each other. In between, a soldier who has just become a father drinks poisoned H20 and croaks without seeing his son - the single most tragic and heart-wrenching event in the film.

Stack has a fiancée but by the end of the movie he appears to be more inclined toward going off into the sunset with the Indian chief's daughter, peace looking set to stay.

The length is 89 minutes, pretty standard for B pictures... but it feels a lot longer and heavier, what with all the deaths. 6/10.

This could have been a well-made western. With Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and the line-up of supporting characters including a beautiful 'Indian' woman, the acting really wasn't half bad but someone skimped terribly on script-writing and the action scenes.

The rattlesnake scene was horrible. The snake was clearly either dead or a rubber fake, you could see the string tied around its neck that was slowly jerking it along. That was the most fake rattlesnake I've ever seen in a western. I suppose they couldn't afford a real one.

The scene where they drank at the water hole in the cave was even worse. Supposedly near-dead from thirst, all they did was shake their heads in the water and blow bubbles and make noises. Those that did draw water into their mouths spit it back out into the pool right in front of the others who were 'drinking'.

The fight scenes and deaths were the worst. I won't even go into detail about how poorly scripted and acted they were. There was clearly a skinny male stunt person taking the Indian girl's place when she wrestled the soldier. And the way the combatants who were next in line to be killed would stand up in full view to shoot in order to be shot was laughable.

I liked the overall plot and the cast, Robert Stack was good and the dialog not bad. But the director must have been so convinced that these elements would carry the film that he paid no attention to these details. I can't even rate it a 5 because of these blatant oversights.

Robert Stack plays the officer in charge of a cavalry patrol entrusted with delivering a treaty to an Indian encampment, who encounters difficulties with outside and inside influences along the way. Stack is earnest, and despite some miscasting--Charles McGraw was always more at home playing a big-city detective or syndicate killer than he was playing a cavalry sergeant as he does here, and Keith Larsen often played Indians but seldom played them well--the performances are adequate, but if there's one thing that a western cries for it's action, and there's virtually none in this film. It moves like molasses and what little action there is doesn't occur until almost the end of the picture and it's not particularly well done. Director Lesley Selander was an old hand at westerns and has done far better. He must have had an off day. No need for you to have one by watching this snoozer.

A courageous US cavalryman is given a vitally important mission - to deliver a peace treaty to a powerful Indian chief, preventing further conflict. However, a band of bloodthirsty rebels are determined to see him dead before he completes his task, while the officer's guide may not be as trustworthy as he appears.

Filmed in Death Valley, War Paint opens up with a pre-title sequence with an action sequence that sets the scene for the rest of the grim excursion with Keith Larsen's Indian guide leading a cavalry on a mission to destruction. What you get is a tense and involving plot with a bunch of characters not exactly clean as the driven snow. It's sort of like a lost patrol story but with an unusual slant. It's not the most action-packed film, but there's enough going on to keep one captivated and it is quite thoughtful. It also boast solid performances by Robert Stack, Joan Taylor, Keith Larsen and the rest of the cast.

You can almost hear the grunting and straining as director Lesley Selander labors mightily to arise from the quicksand of the Saturday afternoon cowboy matinee that has been his happy place to the more rarified air of the 1950s psychological western. Ultimately, of course, Selander loses the battle and slips back into standard hero/villain, shoot em up land but it was a noble attempt and should be recognized as such. Of course, Selander isn't helped in his struggle by having around his neck the millstone of a supremely dull leading man, Robert Stack, who seemed to do decent work only when Sirk was around to direct him. And the screenplay, with its yawner of a mutiny sub plot and a most unconvincing, 180 degree switch of character on the part of Joan Taylor, is not exactly Frank Nugent or Marguerite Roberts. So let's give it a generous C plus for the scenes of survival in the desert and good support from such 50s western stalwarts as Charles McGraw, Robert Wilkie and Douglas Kennedy, among others.

Usually I am not one to actively seek out Western movies, but every now and again if the opportunity presents itself, then I will sit down to watch Westerns. And such was it with the 1953 movie "War Paint" from director Lesley Selander.

I had never actually heard about "War Paint" prior to stumbling upon it and sitting down to watch it. So I had no expectations to writers Richard Alan Simmons, Martin Berkeley, Fred Freiberger and William Tunberg. However, I have to say, not that I've sat through 89 minutes of this movie, that a story about a handful of Union soldiers walking around the prairie looking for water hardly made for a riveting storyline.

There were some good acting performances in the movie, and there were actually some familiar faces on the cast list as well, with the likes of Robert Stack and Peter Graves.

I will say that "War Paint" definitely looked and felt like a movie set in the mid-1800s. So thumbs up to the props and wardrobe department.

Given my small interest in Western movies, then I have to say that "War Paint" wasn't exactly an outstanding or overly entertaining Western. The storyline simply was too monotonous and boring, lacking any real depth and interest. However, I am sure that diehard Western fans will find some enjoyment in this movie from director Lesley Selander.

My rating of "War Paint" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Simply horrendous imitation (like countless other films) of John Ford's cavalry westerns.

Director Lesley Selander delivers no surprises in this stinky flick that features stoic Bob Stack as an army commander; Keith Larsen as an Indian - Keith Larsen? .... yeah, right; and gorgeous Joan Taylor as a squaw (not even close, but who cares? Joan is beautiful). Unfortunately, Peter Graves, one the poorest excuses for an actor in cinematic history, plays one of the stupid soldiers (type-casting, I guess).

Film has virtually nothing of value (except Joan), but at least it's short, though even at only 90 minutes, you'll still consider hanging yourself from the big tree in the backyard to escape the boredom this movie has to offer.

Cut the cowboys and indians off at the pass and watch something else, preferably John Ford's 'Fort Apache' (1948).

There's been Enough written in the reviews about the who's who, so I won't waste your time with more.

This is THE Slowest moving western I've Ever seen. If your expecting action then forget it. There's NO ACTION!

They had no business calling this a B western. No matter what was going on in the world at the time of writing & filming this movie, I give it a "D" rating!

The government would NOT have sent such a small regiment to deliver a "treaty", Especially one that was so I'll equipped with the necessities & know how.

There were enough REAL LIVE NATIVES who were acting at the time they could have made it a bit more realistic by using them. Even putting Joan in a short, short dress isn't enough to save this movie.

I can't believe I watched it as far as I did. With the Pandemic and No cable I was bored, but by watching this movie I was BORED OUT OF MY MIND!!!

Don't waste Your time with this one, it isn't worth it. Believe me. Your time would be better spent CHEWING ROCKS!!!

An unjustly-overlooked masterpiece. The almost-unrecognizably young Robert Stack plays the hardened CO of a company entrusted with delivering a treaty. If the chief for whom it is intended does not receive it within the week, he will declare war. Of course, complications ensue...Many of the characters and plot points seem cliched, but only because the film shows its age. Look past the vestiges of '50s moviemaking--blue-eyed squaws, etc.--for strikingly modern subject matter: divorce and Native American rage at continued injustices in particular. Tremendously taut and exciting, to boot. See this movie!

A Cavalry lieutenant is assigned to deliver a peace treaty to an Indian chief, but two Indians have vowed to kill the officer and his men before he completes his mission. The two Indians who are brother and sister and chief's children sabotage the patrol's supplies at every turn in various undetected ways. On their journey the patrol discovers the remains of Commissioner Kirby's escort.

The patrol finally get wise to Taslik when they discover that he has led them in a giant circle looking for water. With time rapidly vanishing, Lt. Billings collects all the remaining water of the rapidly diminishing patrol to fill one water bottle. This is given to one of the troopers, who is to make his way overland to the Indian village while the rest of the men conserve their strength by traveling only at night. Wanima ambushes the trooper and kills him but is wounded herself and becomes unconscious.

At night the patrol discovers what has happened, but Billings refuses to kill Wanima. This causes discontent among the patrol, who have lost other members through poisoned water and suicide. Wanima agrees to lead the patrol to water but leads them to an abandoned gold mine, creating further discontent. After a brief struggle between the troopers, Wanima, and Billings, Wanima resents leading them to water. With renewed strength and the knowledge of the gold, some remaining troopers plot to collect the gold and flee. When discovered a shootout occurs, ultimately only Billings and Wanima survive, finally arriving at the village to deliver the treaty.

I guess that everybody could have remembered the movie if John Wayne or Henry Fonda were the leading actors instead of Robert Stack (who was great by the way). I enjoyed it. One of my favorites.

Yes, a rather good western from a chain director, who gave us more westerns than there are mosquitos in Louisiana swamps. In the fifties, as I have already said, Lesley Selander was far, far better than one decade earlier, maybe because he became better with the experience and also the budgets whom the producers allowed him to dispose. I don't know why tere are so many bad comments. Ok, the topic is used, overused, but it remains a good yarn, with supporting characters such as Robert Wilke, Charles Mcgraw, Peter Graves, Robert Stack - Jim Phelps and Elliot Ness - John Doucette. A lost patrol scheme, as we had so many in westerns.