Customer Reviews

Cavalry Charge

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

well made movie. Ronald Reagan, Rhonda Fleming, and a host of tv stars of the fifties. Premise is two brothers fighting the civil war one union one confederate on tv it's known as the last outpost. Interesting plot and in color

CAVALRY CHARGE is actually a film from Paramount,called THE LAST OUTPOST.
It was an A feature and did good solid box office.

The original film had beautiful colors by Technicolor.
From Paul B. Scott

This film deserves a much better release than this one from Ivy Video. The original title "Last Outpost" has been removed and replaced with "Cavalry Charge" for this re-release by another distributor. All references to Paramount Pictures have been removed. The quality starts out good, but then worsens with print damage and splices. This made it somewhat annoying to watch. Hard to recommend this edition.

This first Western starring Ronald Reagan is loaded with Action and a fine cast. Rhonda Fleming is the beautiful lost love. The only thing that I fault is the fact that the film should have been restored so as to prevent those spots where there are drop outs. Bravo to Amazon for carrying the movie and letting people buy it.

Those old Civil War films are always the same. They're filmed in the California desert with inaccurate uniforms and weapons. Reagan gives a so-so performance as a Confederate Cavalry officer who finds himself fighting against his brother who is an officer in the Union Cavalry. And of course...there's a woman invoved too. It's a somewhat enjoyable movie, but certainly not a five star film.

I grew up in Texas and was always perplexed at how little attention most histories give to the Civil War battles beyond the big famous ones back east. Pea Ridge Arkansas, anyone? How about the "battle" of Lawrence Kansas [more accurately labeled a massacre of civilians by Missouri bushwhackers] For me the most interesting campaigns occurred far from Pennsylvania or Va.
You can read about them elsewhere in great depth but there were CSA loyalists who fought at Glorietta Pass New Mexico. Heck, Arizona was actually claimed as a Confederate territory and yep, there were battles fought there as well.

I was led to view this film from the SCV website.
I live now in SC and of course the War Between the States is ever present in one way or another, certainly any time a politician complains about meddling from Washington.
This film is light entertaining fair. The rebel troops are entirely too well outfitted and dressed to actually be a unit from Texas. Yep this is another CW film made in the Mojave desert or maybe Arizona/Nevada. The dialogue does make reference to Jo Shelby who attempted an invasion of NM from Texas. As befits the era it was made in (post WWII) the NCO characters seem to be a bit on the buffoonish side [I suspect this was the subtle way egghead WWII draftees chose to get back at the men who trained them during their time in uniform]

We never really get a clear grasp of why the Reagan character chose to go with the South and no one Union or Confederate ever discusses slavery. We're told that he and his brother were both Westpoint men. Ea chose a different uniform.

No one in this movie is ever really shot in battle until the final scenes and then it is Indians killing whites. The Indians actually breach the barricades and it looks bad for the blue coats and who comes riding in to save the day? The Confederates!

The opening scene has Union troops taking a brief swim thinking no rebel troops are in the AO. That's when we see Reagan and his confederates ride up and capture the Federals without firing a shot. Hard to believe anything like that scene could have happened in the actual war. I think in the real war the rebels would have killed the Union men. Instead Reagan has his troops pillage the Union supply wagons and then set fire to both the wagons and the swimming soldiers uniforms. The dejected Union men have to walk into their outpost to the laughter and ridicule of onlooking garrison troops. [The "walk back to post with no uniform" happens twice!]

Later Reagan has tied up two shopkeepers and when Federal troops enter the store they find RR behind the counter with an apron on. The vintage Reagan sense of humor which would be on view for all from the Oval Office was easily manifested in this scene: "Say you're not the man who normally works here.. where are [name forgotten]?"
"Oh I'm filling in they're both tied up right now"
And of course they are ea there under the counter with gagged mouths and wrists tied.
To summarize this was an idealized version of a remote and poorly documented aspect of the CW. Extremely unrealistic though quite entertaining. RR was never true leading man material but he handled the love scenes with "Julie" well enough.
As an added bonus, we see the Confederate 2nd in command is none other than Hugh Beaumont-- yep, the Beaver's Daddy was a CSA man!