''Pony Soldier'' is a 1952 American

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating ...

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film set in Canada, but filmed in

Sedona, Arizona Sedona ( ) is a city that straddles the county line between Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino and Yavapai County, Arizona, Yavapai counties in the northern Verde Valley region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 United States Census, ...

. It is based on a 1951 ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

'' story "Mounted Patrol" by Garnett Weston. It was retitled ''MacDonald of the Canadian Mounties'' in Britain and ''The Last Arrow'' in France, Spain, and Italy.

Plot

In 1876, the

North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian paramilitary police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory to ...

send

Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

Duncan MacDonald (

Tyrone Power Tyrone Edmund Power III (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include ''Jesse James (193 ...

) and a

blackmailed Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a threat ...

Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'', or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bl ...

scout (

Thomas Gomez Thomas Gomez (July 10, 1905 – June 18, 1971) was an American actor. Life and career Spanish on his father (Sabino Tomás Gómez)'s side (Gibraltar and Santander, Spain) and French-Irish on his mother's side (Alsace and County Cork), Gomez's ...

) to get the

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

to sign

Treaty 6 Treaty 6 is the sixth of the numbered treaties that were signed by the Canadian Crown and various First Nations between 1871 and 1877. It is one of a total of 11 numbered treaties signed between the Canadian Crown and First Nations. Specifi ...

with

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

. Initially hostile, the Cree are influenced by a Fata Morgana-type

mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', mean ...

that they mistake for the power of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

. In addition to negotiating with the Cree, MacDonald of the Mounted Police rescues White hostages ( Robert Horton and Penny Edwards), arrests a murderer and adopts a Cree son (Anthony Earl Numkena).

Cast

as Constable Duncan MacDonald * Cameron Mitchell as Konah *

as Natayo Smith * Penny Edwards as Emerald Neeley * Robert Horton as Jess Calhoun * Anthony Earl Numkena as Comes Running * Adeline DeWalt Reynolds as White Moon *

Howard Petrie Howard Alexander Petrie (November 22, 1906 – March 24, 1968) was an American radio, television, and film actor. Early life Howard Petrie was born in Beverly, Massachusetts on November 22, 1906. When Howard was three years old his family ...

as Inspector Frazer * Stuart Randall as Standing Bear Included in the cast were

Richard Boone Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series ''Have Gun – Will Travel''. Early lif ...

and

Frank deKova Frank de Kova (March 17, 1910 – October 15, 1981) was an American character actor in films, stage, and TV. Biography De Kova was born in New York City. He was a teacher at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group. He ...

, with ending narration by

Michael Rennie Michael Rennie (born Eric Alexander Rennie; 25 August 1909 – 10 June 1971) was a British film, television and stage actor, who had leading roles in a number of Hollywood films, including his portrayal of the space visitor Klaatu in the ...

Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Januar ...

-winning actor

Earl Holliman Henry Earl Holliman (September 11, 1928 – November 25, 2024) was an American actor, animal rights activist, and singer known for his many character roles in films, mostly Westerns and dramas, in the 1950s and 1960s. He won a Golden Globe Award ...

made his film debut, in an uncredited role.

Production

Director Newman originally scouted locations in Montana, but finding nothing he thought suitable, the film was made in

. During development of the project,

technical advisor In film production, a technical advisor is someone who advises the director on the convincing portrayal of a subject. The advisor's expertise adds realism both to the acting and to the setting of a movie. Nipo T. Strongheart Nipo T. Stronghear ...

on Native American issues,

Nipo T. Strongheart Nipo T. Strongheart (May 15, 1891 – December 31, 1966) was an American performer in Wild West shows, technical advisor to Hollywood film producers, and lecturer on the Chautauqua circuit. Throughout his life, which spanned several careers ...

, wrote a critical review of the proposed screenplay, though other departments of the studio had begun work on it. This led to a meeting with studio executives, which he described as feeling like he was called to the principal's office, and led to a major reconstruction of the whole project. Strongheart worked with the Cree people and their language, and coached non-Indian and Indian actors throughout the movie. During the filming at Sedona, production was interrupted by snowstorms and the flash of a nuclear weapon tested 300 miles (482.8 km) away in Nevada.p.99 Heidinger, Lisa, Trevillyan, Janeen, Sedona Historical Society ''Sedona'' 2007 Arcadia Publishing The producers recruited 450

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

to play Cree when large numbers were needed. Strongheart, who also plays a

medicine man A medicine man (from Ojibwe ''mashkikiiwinini'') or medicine woman (from Ojibwe ''mashkikiiwininiikwe'') is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Each culture has its own name i ...

in the film, also toured to promote the movie. Strongheart had appeared in the 1925 film ''

Braveheart ''Braveheart'' is a 1995 American epic film, epic historical drama, historical war drama film directed and produced by Mel Gibson, who portrays Scottish warrior William Wallace in the First War of Scottish Independence against Edward I of Engl ...

'' with Tyrone Power Sr.

References

External links

* * *
Filming at Sedona''The New York Times'' review
{{Joseph M. Newman 1952 films American Western (genre) films 1950s English-language films Films set in 1876 20th Century Fox films Films produced by Samuel G. Engel Films scored by Alex North Films set in the Canadian Prairies Films shot in Arizona 1952 Western (genre) films American films based on actual events Films based on short fiction Films about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Northern (genre) films Films directed by Joseph M. Newman 1950s American films Cultural depictions of Queen Victoria English-language Western (genre) films