Customer Reviews

White Feather

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4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
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This is great movie and a must have for anyone who loves the classic Western. Robert Wagner plays the leading role as surveyer Josh Tanner. Tanner befriends the young chief Little Dog of the Cheyenne (Jeffrey Hunter) and falls in love with the young chiefs sister played by Debra Paget. The Cheyenne and other tribes are to be moved from their Wyoming hunting grounds and John Lund as Colonel Lindsey leads U.S. army's push to resettle the indians. Tanner's attraction to the chiefs sister threatens to endanger a peaceful settlement. The highpoint of the tension between army and Cheyenne arrives when Little Dog and his friend American Horse send an arrow with a white feather their symbol to wager war.

I saw this movie three times when it was first released and again about four years after at a tiny movie house reserved for 'quality' films. At long last, it is now available on DVD. Congratulations to the 'powers-that-be' for bringing it to the public at long last! I have had a taped copy of the movie for sometime, which I watched periodically. I am glad to own now it on DVD. Great to see it again in widescreen format. I find the storyline compelling and also find that the actors play their roles with conviction. I especially enjoy Eduard Franz at the Chief. He expresses his pain remarkably well on his face. John Lund is suitably sympathetic as the army officer. The main roles are played well by a cast at the start of their careers. Jeffery Hunter is especially noteworthy as Little Dog. I recommend this movie to everyone - and even to those who do not enjoy westerns. This is not a movie to be dismissed and, again, although it has been a 'long time coming', the wait has been worthwhile. Now, all I need is for 20th Century Fox to make available the DVD of 'The Egyptian' and 'That Lady' and my collection will be complete.

As one would expect from a Hollywood feature film from the fifties ('55 to be exact) `White Feather' suffers from the usual maladies: stiff and somewhat unrealistic dialogue, a lot of dramatic posturing for effect purposes and the always disconcerting visual of white actors playing the role of Native Americans. However that is an unchangeable sign of that generation and if you're a fan of early films you've learned to accept the stylist difference and enjoy the many other aspects of a good film.

`White Feather' doesn't contain the numerous sequences that usually accompany a film categorized within the Western genre. The film is by in large a tale (according to the narration in the prologue and epilogue a factual story) of romance between two people from different cultures, one white (Robert Wagner as Josh Tanner) and one Native American (Debra Paget as Appearing Day). The backdrop of this love story concerns the impending signing of a peace treaty between the Cheyenne and the white usurpers that would displace the Native Americans from their rightful homeland and requires them to move south to less than greener pastures.

What this film lacks in fast paced action is more than made up for in overall strong performances by the entire cast and a surprisingly sensitive and poignant depiction of the plight of the Native American and the code of honor that the warrior lives by.

With all that said let me also admit that I've had a crush on Debra Paget as long as I can remember so any film she appears in will more likely than not get a higher rating then it would have otherwise. However in this case I think I would have recommended this one even in her absence.

This movie is excellent entertainment for its time and also for today, however, it is not excellent history. But what the movie attempts to show deserves some sympathetic historical consideration.

Robert Wagner mentions the date 1877 at movie's beginning, only a few months after the Custer fight of June, 1876, at the Little Big Horn. After that fight, the Lakota as well as Northern Cheyenne were later tracked and attacked by General Ranald Mackenzie's troops either to die in battle or suffer much in way of starvation and death during the winter of 1876. Were driven after the battle to accept charity from Crazy Horse's Oglala people to live through the winter of '76. The old, normal life of the Northern Cheyenne had ceased to exit.

We are to assume the spring of 1877, for that is when the Northern Cheyenne were compelled to sign a treaty which would take them south away from their traditional home to Oklahoma then known as Indian Territory. The Northern Cheyenne walked every mile, close to 1500 miles, from the Powder River country to their new home near Fort Reno at the Darlington Agency. The journey on foot had taken several months from spring to fall, 1877. From that fall, 1877, until following spring, 1878, they remained in Oklahoma, but found conditions there so impossible they were forced into a choice of facing death at Darlington or death on the trail back to Montana. They chose to return to the Powder River country. That subject too Hollywood also put on film in 1964 as CHEYENNE AUTUMN.

Many may not enjoy this film, taking exception to major or minor elements, but for the attempt made to offer some pictorial history of this 1877 turbulent time, the movie does deserve several stars. The acting is very good, the filming is also good, but the story it attempts to tell is even better. Whether Hollywood or viewers were aware, it was a brave venture, none-the-less even today. The Northern Cheyenne did finally receive some tribute for both their bravery and suffering.

Though I see glaring historical errors in this film, it is still one of the more intelligent films made in the 1950s on the Northern plains Lakota tribes. Many may not feel that way, but then many do not read the real history of those long ago times. And though the movie has its inaccuracies, in the main it is a story well told. The shadows of both Little Wolf (Little Coyote) and Dull Knife (Morning Star) under examination continue to stand tall, though both died pretty much forgotten even to their own people.

Semper Fi.

Most of the young stars here perform very well in a high production western that is'nt quite as good as the sum of it's parts. Wagner is'nt bad, Debra Paget is good as always but Jeff Hunter is slightly miscast, though he works quite hard. I liked the feel of time and place this film has and it still retains a sweep and grandour which must have looked great on its original cinema outing.What else can I say. I thoroughly enjoyed it even with its shortcommings and can recommend it even on repeated viewings though widescreen works best for the full-bodied western vistas.

In 1877, the Indian tribes of the Northern Plains have been invited to a great council at Fort Laramie. The Sioux, Blackfoot, Crow, and Arapaho have responded and are negotiating, but the Cheyenne, led by Chief Broken Hand (Eduard Franz), are holding out, staying on their side of the river but killing any white person who dares to cross it--as at least one hopeful prospector does. His body is found by Josh Tanner (Robert Wagner), a young surveyor hired by a group of businessmen who hope to establish a city in the land the Indians will give up. Tanner's father was a trader and he knows the Indians well, but, he says, has "no feelings" for them, either of sympathy or of enmity. Unexpectedly he encounters Broken Hand's son Little Dog (Jeffrey Hunter) and his friend American Horse (Hugh O'Brian) and so impresses them by his steadiness and courage that they invite him to their village as a guest. In this process he meets Little Dog's sister Appearing Day (Debra Paget, who had played a similar part five years earlier in Broken Arrow), and love blooms, turning Tanner's sympathies definitely in a red direction. But when Broken Hand decides that his people must sign the offered treaty, Little Dog balks, and tragedy appears inevitable.

Though Tanner in his opening narration says that the story "actually happened," history has been rather seriously mangled: quite apart from the fact that not a word is said of the Custer incident of 1876, there was no Laramie council in 1877, and of the tribes mentioned, only the Cheyennes were forced to leave their own lands and go south--the Sioux, Blackfoot, Crow, and northern Arapaho all remained in the north, although the Arapaho ended up sharing a reservation with their traditional enemies the Shoshoni. There are also a couple of rather important errors in the portrayal of Cheyenne custom, most notably when Broken Hand shoots one of his own young men for "dishonoring his people before the white men"--among the Cheyenne, as most other tribes, murder within the group was a very serious crime and very rare. On the other hand, there's a certain beauty and gravity about the movie that makes it more than a pale shadow of Jimmy Stewart's Broken Arrow, and as in the latter the Indians, even though played by whites, are sympathetically portrayed. If you can accept the notion that perhaps all this is going on in an alternate universe, the solemn tragedy of the story, lightened a bit by Tanner and Appearing Day's romance, is genuinely affecting, and there's a good leaven of Indian pageantry, action, and suspense besides. Watch for Milburn Stone (Doc Adams of "Gunsmoke") as a peace commissioner and Western stalwart Noah Beery, Jr., as a Cavalry lieutenant.

This sympathetic western was among the best of its type during the 1950s. Although the film falls into the cavalry-Indian category, the theme throughout was a peaceful relocation of the Cheyennes to another territory, presumably the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, thus allowing their homeland to be despoiled by prospectors and gold hunters. Robert Wagner stars as a surveyor who befriends the Cheyennes, which leads to a romantic union with Debra Paget who reenacts her role as an Indian maiden as she did in director Delmer Daves' classic western, "Broken Arrow". Jeffrey Hunter and Hugh O'Brian are good as Cheyenne warriors, as are John Lund and Eduard Franz as army colonel and Cheyenne chief, respectively. This western is always worth a look for its content as well as its entertainment and nostalgic value.

Co-written by Delmer Daves (with Robert Townsend) and directed by Robert Webb, WHITE FEATHER (1955) is essentially a true story with a plot similar to BROKEN ARROW. In fact, it co-stars Debra Paget who also played the hero's Native American love interest in BROKEN ARROW.

Robert Wagner stars as Josh Tanner, a surveyor, sent to Fort Laramie to lay out a townsite, once a treaty has been signed with the Cheyenne. After a couple of tense encounters, he becomes friends with Little Dog (Jeffrey Hunter), son of Chief Broken Hand (Eduard Franz), and American Horse (Hugh O'Brian), both of whom oppose any treaty with the whites. He also falls in love with Appearing Day (Paget), who has been promised to American Horse.

Once Broken Hand signs the treaty, both Little Dog and American Horse send a white feather to the military commander (John Lund) of the fort, challenging him to war. It will be the two Cheyenne against the entire Army force, but if the military fires first, the entire tribe of Cheyenne may turn of them.

According to the film, the son of the characters played by Wagner and Paget (i.e. Chief Broken Hand's grandson) would attend the military academy at West Point.

Noah Beery, Jr. and Virginia Leith co-star in the movie.

© Michael B. Druxman

Jeffrey Hunter as the cheyenne warrior "Little Dog" and son of chief "Broken Hand".

World changes for the cheyennes when the white men invades their land, rich of gold.

Proud warriors Little Dog and his best friend American Horse want to fight and not go to the "new land in the South".

In this hard time for their people one white man named "Josh Tanner" enters the cheyennes land and their first encounter is full of danger and distrust.

Little Dog is impressed with the courage of this white man, so they have a sincere friendship and Josh fell in love with Appearing Day, Little Dogs sister.

But she belongs to American Horse, her father arranged that against her will. So she leaves her people and want to live a white mans life, with Josh.

Broken Hand signs the peace treaty (that means to leave the cheyennes land and go to the new land in the South).

Little Dog and his friend American Horse want to fight alone against the soldiers, because they both are not bount to the treaty. They sent the message through the "White Feather"...........

John Lund as American Horse is fabulous, Robert Wagner as Josh Tanner and Debra Paget as Appearing Day.

The very good actors let you forget unreal things in this movie (how could a cheyenne, never in contact with white men,know that he must take the keys to open a door in the arrest area???)

Nice movie with Jeffrey Hunter, one of his best performances in his short life.

White Feather takes us back to 1877 Wyoming for the signing of a Peace Treaty. On the one side, we have the Sioux, Arapaho, Crow, Blackfeet, and Cheyenne Indians. On the other, we have the US Government. In the middle, we have Chief Broken Hand, the leader of the Cheyenne, and a complement of the US Calvary commanded by Colonel Lindsay, a man of considerable integrity and remarkable wisdom.

Josh Tanner, played by a young and handsome Robert Wagner, a topographical engineer dispatched by a group of wealthy individuals with interests in land development, also finds himself immediately implicated in the rapid movement of events.

Two young Cheyenne braves, Little Dog and American Horse, played by Jeffrey Hunter and Hugh O'Brian, add their hot blood to the escalation of rivalries.

In a role particularly suited to her undeniable charm and winsome beauty, we find Debra Paget playing the part of Appearing Day. She is sister to Little Dog and the daughter of Chief Broken Hand.

And let us not forget Virginia Leith. Her role is small as Ann Magruder, a lovely young woman with a vivid scar in her past, yet she is quite memorable. With the figure of a dancer and the face of a siren, she harbors a great deal of compassion.

"Sitting on a powder keg," as Colonel Lindsay described the conditions to Josh Tanner, leaves us in a position to extol the civilized behavior encountered multiple times during the intersection of peoples on opposite sides of a contest for land and life. Josh Tanner treats us to a most unusual and unexpectedly original solution to a brush with death, filling us with admiration and regard. It is no wonder that Appearing Day is moved in a magic moment to love and to cherish him. Debra Paget manages to embody these emotions and feelings in the unmistakable language of the heart, with unspoken words expressed so sincerely in her manner of adoration and devotion. Recognizing just how few minutes she had to accomplish this feat of communication is to applaud her performance and purity. Over and over.

Little Dog, son of Chief Broken Hand, is also drawn to Josh Tanner, a reflection of his respect for bravery and courage. He may also like his new comb (smile). It is his invitation to Josh Tanner to come to the Cheyenne village for a welcome feast that permits Josh a brief moment alone with Appearing Day. It is also here where Josh again proffers gifts, unknowingly encouraging Little Dog and American Horse to seek once again to reply in kind. And thus a friendship develops, fragile and delicate under the circumstances, but worthy of some trust. We watch as this trust is tested and find that both sides have their strengths and weaknesses. In this film, an assessment of those characteristics is left to the audience. It is directed with a fair hand and a commendably civil tongue.

Surprisingly, from beginning to end, we are confronted with only five deaths, just three of which are witnessed first hand. The last two signal an end to hostilities and place us on a path towards peace and enlightenment. If only it were true.

White Feather shares some attributes with an earlier film titled Broken Arrow, starring James Stewart and Jeff Chandler. While Debra Paget is the only person to appear in both, the two movies present similar conflicts in similar contexts. In Broken Arrow, Debra Paget is five years younger, approaching seventeen years of age, and equally enchanting. The cinematography of Broken Arrow manages to catch her in the most dazzling light. She fairly glows. Clearly, for me, Debra Paget is the major attraction in both of these films even if the scripts tend to provide little time with her.