The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

What I expected to be just another potboiler western turned out to be a well acted movie with a strong and compelling story. The story deals with issues of loyalty, compassion, ethics, and morality. The main character, a physician played by Robert Francis, has choices to make. Whatever he does, he will make enemies. He is challenged to stay true to his convictions. His only friend is a woman, played by Donna Reed, who provides him moral support. The movie dramatizes the issues that defined the war against the Native Americans. To the US Army, all Native Americans were the enemy, including those who were at peace. When rifles are stolen, the US Army panics and in the process riles up not one but two tribes, who, united, and whose warriors are armed with rifles, comprise a formidable foe that could defeat the Army. Under these conditions the doctor is forced to make certain decisions that could go against his values as a medical professional. But to stay true to his beliefs could put him at risk for being branded a traitor. It makes for strong drama. To find out how it gets resolved, watch the movie.

Had he lived to make more than the four films he did Robert Francis might have done a lot of the roles Tab Hunter did. In his memoirs Hunter said that he did so many military based film that he could have qualified for veteran's benefits. The two looked like they could have been brothers and all four of Francis's films had a military background.They Rode West is a cavalry western and Francis is a young doctor assigned to an army post out west where both the Kiowas and Comanches are pretty hostile. The Kiowas are coming down with malaria living near a swamp as are the military, but the Kiowas have been put there by the government. Like William Holden in The Horse Soldiers, Francis sees himself as a doctor first and a soldier second. He helps the Indian sick and then commits the unpardonable sin in the military by disobeying orders and telling the tribe they have to move to higher ground.Nevertheless his sincere concern for the health of the Indians later stands the cavalry in good stead.Along with Francis are Donna Reed as the niece of the commanding officer, May Wynn as a white Indian maid captive and Philip Carey as his rival who has a more traditional frontier view of the Indians.Francis acquitted himself well in his first film, sad indeed his career was so short.

This film starts out with a Calvary Army Officer being shot in the leg by a Native American Indian and is treated by an Army Doctor who is bombed out of his mind on booze and tries to operate on his leg and cuts an artery and the soldier dies. Philip Carey, (Capt. Peter Blake) is very upset about other Army doctors who have caused him problems in the past who were on drugs and booze also. Robert Francis, (Dr. Allen Sewart),"Caine Mutiny" '54 is a new doctor and commissioned by the Army to serve with Capt. Peter Blake. Blake mistrusts Dr. Allen Sewart and gives him a very hard time, because he seems to hate all doctors. Donna Reed,(Laurie MacKaye) takes a liking to Dr. Sewart and encourages him to stand up and fight back at Capt. Blake. May Wynn,(Manyi-ten) "Caine Mutiny" is a white woman who is married to an Indian and seeks the help of Dr. Sewart and falls in love with him. This is a great story and will hold your interest from beginning to the very end. It is very sad that in real life, Robert Francis, was killed in an airplane accident right after he made the great film "Caine Mutiny" he was only twenty-five (25) years of age.

This picture is a decent western that details the problems of an army doctor among military brass and rank and file soldiers at an outpost in Indian territory. Robert Francis has the misfortune of following incompetent doctors whose questionable medical practices did more harm than good. Problems arise when Francis tries to cure an Indian tribe of malaria against the army's wishes. Another plot angle involves a white woman married to an Indian and Francis tries to persuade her to return to her own people. Donna Reed and Phil Carey are the other main players in this film that has its moments but is otherwise a routine western. Francis and May Wynn were together in "The Caine Mutiny" before Francis' untimely death in a plane crash.