''Escape from Fort Bravo'' is a 1953 American

Ansco Ansco was the brand name of a photography, photographic company based in Binghamton, New York, which produced photographic films, photographic paper, papers and cameras from the mid-19th century until the 1980s. In the late 1880s, Ansco's pred ...

color

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 during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Directed by

John Sturges John Eliot Sturges (; January 3, 1910 – August 18, 1992) was an American film director. His films include '' Bad Day at Black Rock'' (1955), '' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'' (1957), ''The Magnificent Seven'' (1960), '' The Great Escape'' (19 ...

it stars

William Holden William Franklin Holden (né Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film '' Stalag 17'' (1953) and the Pri ...

Eleanor Parker Eleanor Jean Parker (June 26, 1922 – December 9, 2013) was an American actress. She was nominated for three Academy Awards for her roles in the films ''Caged (1950 film), Caged'' (1950), ''Detective Story (1951 film), Detective Story'' (1951 ...

, and

John Forsythe John Lincoln Forsythe ( Freund; January 29, 1918 – April 1, 2010) was an American stage, film/television actor, producer, narrator, drama teacher and philanthropist whose career spanned six decades. He also appeared as a guest on several t ...

Plot

Fort Bravo is a Union prison camp with a strict disciplinarian named Captain Roper (

). A pretty woman named Carla Forester (

) shows up to help with the wedding of her friend, but has really come to assist in freeing some prisoners including her previous beau Confederate Captain John Marsh (

). Roper falls in love with her (and she with him) and the escape happens after the wedding celebrations and Carla unexpectedly leaves with the four Confederate escapees. This gives Roper an additional motive to recapture the escapees. He does just that, but on the way back to the fort, they are attacked by fierce Mescalero Apaches who are hostile to both sides and the group ends up trapped in a shallow exposed depression. Roper frees and arms his prisoners, but even then, it looks like the Apaches will wipe them out. Bailey ( John Lupton), a proven coward, escapes when one of their loose horses returns in the night. One by one, the rest of the group are killed, including Campbell ( William Demarest), Young ( William Campbell), and the

Kiowa Kiowa ( ) or Cáuigú () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an Indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colora ...

guide. Marsh and Lieutenant Beecher (Richard Anderson) are wounded. The next morning, in an effort to save Carla and Beecher, Roper walks out in plain view, making it appear that he is the sole survivor. He is wounded, but the cavalry comes to the rescue just in time. Roper thanks Bailey for coming with help, while Marsh dies after smiling at Bailey who has come through and shown he is not a coward.

Cast

as Captain Roper *

as Carla Forester *

as Captain John Marsh * William Demarest as Sgt. Campbell * William Campbell as Cabot Young *

Polly Bergen Polly Bergen (born Nellie Paulina Burgin; July 14, 1930 – September 20, 2014) was an American actress, singer, television host, writer, and entrepreneur. She won an Emmy Award in 1958 for her performance as Helen Morgan (singer), Helen ...

as Alice Owens *

Richard Anderson Richard Norman Anderson (August 8, 1926 – August 31, 2017) was an American film and television actor. One of his best-known roles was his portrayal of Oscar Goldman, the boss of Steve Austin (Lee Majors) and Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) in ...

as Lieutenant Beecher * Carl Benton Reid as Colonel Owens * John Lupton as Bailey * Forrest Lewis (uncredited) as Dr. Miller * Howard McNear (uncredited) as Watson *

Glenn Strange George Glenn Strange (August 16, 1899 – September 20, 1973) was an American actor who appeared in hundreds of Western (genre), Western films. He played Sam Noonan, the bartender on Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS's ''Gunsmoke'' televisio ...

appears briefly (uncredited) as Sgt. Compton Several members of the supporting cast would have notable careers in television shows of the 1960s and '70s.

Production notes

The working titles of this film were ''Rope's End'' and ''Fort Bravo''. Production ran from April until late May 1953. Most of the film was shot on location in

Gallup, New Mexico Gallup is a city in McKinley County, New Mexico, United States, with a population of 21,899 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A substantial percentage of its population is Native Americans in the United States, Native American, wi ...

and

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is a national park of the United States that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern sect ...

Reception

The film received a mixed review from Howard Thompson of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. While he found Sturges's direction full of "professional smoothness," he had many problems with Frank Fenton's "fuzzily defined" characters. The cast, he goes on, "seems confused throughout."

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

disagreed, calling the film "well-executed" and awarding it three stars in his independent movie review guide.Maltin, Leonard (2009), p. 420. Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. . Signet Books. Accessed May 7, 2012 The film serves as an inspiration for the fifth title in the Belgian comic book series '' Les Tuniques Bleues'' (The Bluecoats) by Raoul Cauvin and Willy Lambil, a graphic novel titled "Les Déserteurs" (1975)

Box office

According to MGM records, the film earned $1,525,000 in the US and Canada and $1,633,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $104,000.

References

External links

*
''Escape from Fort Bravo'' at AllMovie
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Escape From Fort Bravo 1953 Western (genre) films 1953 films 1950s prison films American Civil War films American Western (genre) films Films about prison escapes Apache Wars films Films directed by John Sturges Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language Western (genre) films English-language crime films