''Slaughter Trail'' is a 1951

Cinecolor Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel an ...

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 produced and directed by

Irving Allen Irving Allen (born Irving Applebaum, November 24, 1905 – December 17, 1987) was an Austro-Hungarian–born American theatrical and cinematic producer and director. He received an Academy Award in 1948 for producing the short movie '' Climbin ...

, filmed in

Corriganville __NOTOC__ Corriganville Movie Ranch was a working film studio and movie ranch for outdoor location shooting, as well as a Western (genre), Western-themed tourist attraction. The ranch, owned by actor and stuntman Ray "Crash" Corrigan, was locate ...

and released by

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...

Plot

A trio of masked bandits rob a

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

secretly assisted by one of the passengers. The fleeing bandits come across some unarmed

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 ...

who they shoot and steal their horses. One of the Navajo survives and informs the tribe who sets his tribe on the warpath against all whites. The commander of the

US Cavalry The United States Cavalry, or U.S. Cavalry, was the designation of the mounted force of the United States Army. The United States Cavalry was formally created by an act of United States Congress, Congress on 3 August 1861 and ceased as a dist ...

fort who is friendly with the Navajo chief is caught in the middle.

Cast

Brian Donlevy Waldo Brian Donlevy (February 9, 1901 – April 6, 1972) was an American actor, who was noted for playing dangerous and tough characters. Usually appearing in supporting roles, among his best-known films are '' Beau Geste'' (1939), '' The Great ...

as Capt. Dempster *

Gig Young Gig Young (born Byron Elsworth Barr; November 4, 1913 – October 19, 1978) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in '' Come Fill the Cup'' ...

as Ike Vaughn * Virginia Grey as Lorabelle Larkin *

Andy Devine Andrew Vabre Devine (October 7, 1905 – February 18, 1977) was an American character actor known for his distinctive raspy, crackly voice and roles in American frontier, Western films, including his role as Cookie, the sidekick of Roy Rogers ...

as Sgt. Macintosh * Robert Hutton as Lt. Morgan * Terry Gilkyson as Singalong

Production

The film was made in 1950 and was originally to have been released through

Eagle-Lion Eagle-Lion Films was the name of two distinct, though related, companies. In 1944, UK film magnate J. Arthur Rank created an American distribution company with the name to handle his British films. The following year, under a reciprocal distrib ...

but was picked up for release by RKO. Originally the film was shot with Howard Da Silva in the lead. After he was accused of Communist leanings, RKO ordered DaSilva's scenes reshot with

. Allen reshot the film in three days and sold it to RKO for $200,000.Allen at Helm of Production Thomas, Kevin. Los Angeles Times 6 July 1967: e14. Like ''

High Noon ''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western (genre), Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in Real time (media), real time, centers ...

'', ''Slaughter Trail'' has continuing ballads throughout the film that ask and answer questions as well as narrate the story.p.49McFarlane, Brian & Mayer, Geoff ''New Australian Cinema: Sources and Parallels in American and British Film'' 1992 Cambridge University Press It may be debated whether the film was made "straight," or was satiric, due to the even then well known Western set pieces such as a stagecoach holdup, Indian attacks, and the army standing between hostile Indians and townspeople being commented on by songs that often break the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...

. The writer of the film Sid Kuller was a well known comedy writer and also wrote some of the film's songs. One of the film's songs ''I Wish I Was'' became a hit song of the year.

Notes

External links

* {{Irving Allen 1951 films 1951 Western (genre) films Films directed by Irving Allen Western (genre) cavalry films Cinecolor films Films set in 1882 American Western (genre) films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language Western (genre) films