The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957)

In a very contrived bit of plot, Audie Murphy plays a Lieutenant in the Union army who deserts because he thinks his commanding officer's massacre of some peaceful Indians will stir up a Comanche uprising in his native Texas. There he encounters people bitter about his joining the Union army and rounds up the local women to defend them. These include his ex (Patricia Livingston), who hasn't quite got over him; an old battle-axe who helps take charge of the women (Hope Emerson), an initially antagonistic girl who is obvious destined to be the love interest (Kathryn Grant), a woman secretly pregnant by her dubious lover, a dance-hall girl, a stuck-up aristocrat-type figure, and others. A lot of these characters are barely above cliché, but I think the core ones work decently.

Hardy's Encyclopedia of Westerns is quite scathing about this, saying that it's purely routine. I quite enjoyed it though. It's an interesting (if unrealistic) premise which provides some effective tension as the Indian attack approaches and some good action. The central love-triangle works well – although a bit slight, it isn't overplayed and so doesn't outstay it's welcome. The weaknesses come from the set-up (which just seems unrealistic), and some of the smaller female roles. Specifically the pregnant woman (although an interesting character) gets killed off there-by avoiding the need to resolve any of the more difficult issues with the character, and the dance-hall girl/stuck-up society figure issue gets wrapped up in a slightly abrupt and obvious (but still not really believable) manner.

(Putting this into the "Female main characters" theme category is perhaps slighly charitable)