They Rode West (1954)

A pretty average 50s cavalry film with some pro-Indian sentiments. The story is about a young doctor (Robert Francis) who moves to a frontier cavalry fort, decides that he should be treating the Indians, inadvertently causes trouble by suggesting they leave their malaria infected reservation, then ultimately saves they day by brokering a peace agreement. It’s all pretty obvious stuff with the doctor’s virtuousness and the various cavalry officer’s callous attitude to the Indians’ plight hammered home pretty heavily.

For a while in the middle I wondered if the film might actually be more sophisticated than I originally thought and if it was making two interesting points. The first about the doctor’s naive attitude towards the Indians and the unfortunate unintended consequences of that. The second about the doctor’s attitude towards a white woman who was living as an squaw (May Wynn) – upon discovering that she is white he suddenly becomes very keen on the importance of rescuing her specifically despite all indications that she’s happy living with the Indians, and I wondered if this was supposed to be intentionally highlighting odd 1950s attitudes. In the end I decided that the script probably wasn’t trying to make any subtle clever points and should just be taken at face value.