weezeralfalfa One of several films that includes the infamous massacre of a peaceful Cheyenne village at Sand Creek, CO, simply because it was the most accessible location for the perpetrator: Colonel Chivington of the Colorado Territorial Militia(herein claimed to be of the US army). Other films include "Massacre at Sand Creek" and "Soldier Blue". Also, partway through the film, we switched from marauding Cheyenne to marauding Comanche, who would be more relevant to Texas. I'm sure there must be other films where a mass of women took over the usual duties of soldiers because the men were needed elsewhere. I'm familiar with "Wild Women", in which a group of women inmates of a fort prison cell are pressed into service in lower Texas, barricading an abandoned village to fight a Mexican patrol. Another example is "The Man from the Alamo", where Glenn Ford trains the women in a wagon train to fire on a Mexican patrol, after the men are called to join Sam Houston.Audie rides around the north Texas plains, convincing menless women to go to an old broken down mission for safety. Besides Audie, the only man in the mission was Kettle. He came to no good when he stole a horse and rode to his 3 buddies, who promptly strung him up after he told about the women. They came to the mission , but the women scared them off after it was obvious they were up to no good. But, they soon ran into a band of marauding Comanche. Telling them about the women, they rode together back to the mission. But the women had hidden themselves well, so that a superficial look by the Comanche failed to discover them. The 3 men were killed for leading the Comanche astray. Soon there after, a gun was accidentally discharged in the mission, alerting the Comanche that someone was there. The Comanche returned and fired on the fort, killing several women, until Audie sneaked out and killed their medicine man, in the rear, stringing up his body in front of the fort.In the finale, Audie is court martialed by his Union post for desertion and insubordination. But the women somehow got past the guards, into the interrogation room, corroborating what Audie said about their beating off the Comanche. The General decided to drop the charges, and instead served Chivington with a court martial for leading the massacre of Cheyenne. Historically, Chivington was not court martialed. However, he was roundly criticized. He claimed he killed around 200 warriors, but other witnesses said they were mostly women, children and old men. He claimed the massacre would cow the Indians into stopping their raids on settlers, but it had the opposite effect.See it in color at YouTube

classicsoncall The picture opens with a take on the historical Sand Creek Massacre which occurred on November 29th, 1864. It was accurately depicted as being led by Colonel John Chivington, though in the actual battle Chivington's forces totaled about two hundred fifty men, a lot larger than this film represented. The number of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians slaughtered varies with the source, but most of the estimates come in around a hundred thirty five, with most of them being women and children. The colonel who led the attack was particularly hateful of Indians and was quoted back in the day saying - "I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians." Quite appropriately, the event also goes by the name of Chivington's Massacre.With that, Lieutenant Frank Hewitt (Audie Murphy), disgusted with the actions of his commanding officer, deserts the Cavalry and heads south into Texas, attempting to warn whoever he can that a Cheyenne uprising is imminent. Finding the border town of Jonesville occupied primarily by women whose husbands are off fighting for the Confederacy, Hewitt is confronted with derision and disdain for wearing a Union uniform. It takes the murder of a local woman by a Cheyenne to convince the rest of the women to abandon town and bond together for protection at a run down mission under Hewitt's direction and training.My favorite character here has to be 'good as three men' Hannah Lacey, admirably portrayed by the feisty Hope Emerson. Hannah gets right into the spirit of things at the mission fort, calling all her female charges 'men', as in 'Let's go men' when it's time to buckle down and do the hard work required to get ready for an Indian attack. Hewitt placed her second in command, and who was going to argue? In this story though, you didn't get a sense of how big actress Emerson actually was, six foot two and two hundred thirty pounds in her heyday. If you get the chance, you really have to catch her in the 1950 prison movie "Caged", it'll give you nightmares for a week! There's a side story regarding a trio of outlaws that interferes with Hewitt's command of 'Fort Petticoat' but they're dispatched rather quickly once the Cheyenne figure out their game. When it comes time to defend the mission, the women are up to the task, even while taking on casualties. The picture is quite realistic in that regard, showing women and even a young kid getting shot before Hewitt's calculated move to ambush a Cheyenne medicine man and string him up to stop the warring tribe, thereby suggesting it was not a good day to die.

aravis3 OK, this film is goofy, but that's what makes it so good. I have watched it twice, and I love it. This was the first full film I had seen with Audie Murphy, and now, I'd like to see more of his work. Since he was a Texas boy, (I'm a native of Texas as well) he's proof that talent comes out of Texas. It's certainly better than a lot of the junk out in the world right now, and westerns nowadays have none of the luster that the old ones do. Maybe it's because they axed the sexual content and more of the language and blood violence. Certainly, this ranks along with: McLintock!, Calamity Jane, the Apple Dumpling Gang, Apple Dumpling Gang Rides AGain, Angel and the Badman, etc......(You can tell I like JOhn Wayne's stuff and Don Knotts) anyway. One of the best westerns, and it had (has) an excellent cast.

Artemis-9 I wonder why no one who commented on this movie before noticed how this is the sort of scenario that made El Alamo the thrilling film it was, and that led to so many re-makes. There is a surrounded group, with no escape, and decided not to surrender to a bitter enemy... That this group was of women only, and that they died battling with bravery, makes me wonder where the cable televisions are, what video producer will discover this gem first - a gem it is, as people who saw this film only had praise for it! I'll be the first to buy a VHS or DVD copy of this film. Just tell me where it is.