Very disappointing...

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

After watching this film I thought back to 1957 when this film first came out and I wonder if anyone noticed that Pawnee was a remake of The Ten Commandments set in the old west. I guess that Paramount thought that Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures which was on its uppers at that time had nothing worth suing over.George Montgomery plays a man who was raised by the Pawnee after his white parents were killed. At least that explained those baby blue eyes that Burt Lancaster in Apache and Chuck Connors in Geronimo couldn't explain. He's the adopted son of Chief Ralph Moody, favored so much so that blood kin Charles Horvath is jealous. Montgomery is even moving in on Charlotte Austin the Indian maid set to marry the chief to be.It's Moody's wish that Montgomery go among his own race and see how they live and how the Pawnee can adapt in their world. Which he does by taking a job as wagon train scout for a wagon train headed by Bill Williams. And then Montgomery catches the eye of his girl Lola Albright.I think you can see the similarities and the final climax between the Pawnees, settlers, and cavalry is the parting of the Red Sea and it all ends romantically as it did for Moses.Pawnee is a below par western that has me wondering if Cecil B. DeMille was insulted or flattered.

While much of this movie progresses at an anemic pace and much of the ending is lifted out of at least one other cavalry versus Indians movie, the epic confrontation of Pale Arrow (George Montgomery) versus Crazy Fox (Charles Horvath) offered, for me, a stirring finish.All during the film, Crazy Fox has nourished a hatred against Pale Arrow, a man brought up by the tribe. Pale Arrow was favored by Crazy Fox's own father, stole his maiden, Dancing Fawn, and seems to have bested him throughout his life.Now, Pale Arrow, who Crazy Fox thought had been killed at a Pawnee torture stake, spies the chief and a few braves in the midst of a great battle. Pale Arrow rides toward the chief and the epic, final fight is about to commence.They ride toward each; their horses collide. Dismounted, they tussle, roll over each other, and fall into a nearby river. At first, Crazy Fox has the upper hand, beating Pale Arrow with a tomahawk as the swift current drags them away. But, then, they return to calmer water.We see Crazy Fox only from the back now, his hair unbraided, his weapon gone, his skin shimmering from the dunking in the water. Pale Arrow slugs him and Crazy Fox falls back into the water. The proud, valiant, determined, bold, and adventurous Pawnee war chief tries to regain the initiative but cannot. A second punch and he is knocked down to the bottom of the river, near the bank. Pale Arrow jumps on him, holds him down, and drowns him as Crazy Fox desperately tries to save his audacious but malevolent and ultimately doomed life. His existence, his leadership of the tribe, his quest for revenge are all about to come to termination. As the background music reaches its crescendo, Pale Arrow strangles Crazy Fox and the Pawnee's face cannot be seen. Only the breastplate covering his magnificent Pawnee chest is still visible. Crazy Fox is dead.The scene then switches to the final moments of movie.

This is just one in a huge string of westerns that Montgomery made over the course of his career. This one, however, falls pretty near the bottom of the heap in quality and prestige. In it, Montgomery plays a white man raised by Indians. (Hilariously, even though he has been reared among the Native Americans his entire life, his hair isn't as long as theirs and it's parted on the side just as it would be in any other film, but with two braided pig tails down either side!) Soon after he saves Albright and her crusty father from his own people's attack, he decides to rejoin the white race. This agonizing adjustment consists of him wiping off his face paint, removing the faux ponytails and changing clothes.......VOILA! He's white! Through plot contrivance, he winds up as the scout for Albright's wagon train (which is chock full of annoying stock characters who are shown in long shots knocking violently over rugged terrain, yet in the close-ups are barely rocking on a static, stationary prop wagon!) Chief among the silly characters is a frail, ancient pioneer wife who is pregnant with her first child. She is shown in shawls, etc...but occasionally can be seen in cinch-waisted dresses which reveal no belly yet gives birth right after! She and Freeman (later famous for her comedic gifts) and Albright (who still looked human at this stage in her career before turning her skin brown and her hair white) take time out from getting slaughtered by the Indians to buy themselves some new dresses in a nearby town. "Little House on the Prairie" fans will recognize the pregnant lady's husband as the Reverend from the later TV series. Eventually, Montgomery finds himself caught in the middle of the distrusting wagon train participants and his Indian family (incited by a particularly irritable "brother" who is out for blood.) All of the battle sequences are lifted from another film. This is ludicrously brought home when the screen is filled with epic numbers of settlers and warriors but the stars are behind a rock or off to the side watching! Unless it is to poke fun at the sorriness of the production, there's not much reason to watch, though Montgomery does display a still fit figure during some of his scenes as a Pawnee (notably in a "washing up" shot as observed by Albright.)

Despite a veteran cast, this one just doesn't make the grade. The script is routine at best, and most of the location and action scenes are nothing more than stock footage, most of it gleaned from "Buffalo Bill" (1944). Ms. Albright can almost always lift a B picture to the status of "watchable" however, here she is reduced to nothing more than window dressing between old stock footage action scenes. Pass on this one.