''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 i ...

film produced and directed by Irving Allen, filmed in Corriganville and released by

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

Plot

A trio of masked bandits rob a

stagecoach A stagecoach 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 four horses although some versions are draw ...

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

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest fe ...

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 by an act of Congress on 3 August 1861.Price (1883) p. 103, 104 This act converted the U.S. Army's two regiments of dragoons, one ...

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

Main cast

* Brian Donlevy as Capt. Dempster *

Gig Young Gig Young (born Byron Elsworth Barr; November 4, 1913 – October 19, 1978) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in ''Come Fill the Cup'' (1952) and '' Teacher's Pet'' ...

as Ike Vaughn *

Virginia Grey Virginia Grey (March 22, 1917 – July 31, 2004) was an American actress who appeared in over 100 films and a number of radio and television shows from the 1930s to the early 1980s. Biography Grey was born on March 22, 1917, in Edendale, Calif ...

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 Western films, including his role as Cookie, the sidekick of Roy Rogers in 10 feature f ...

as Sgt. Macintosh * Robert Hutton as Lt. Morgan *

Terry Gilkyson Terry Gilkyson (June 17, 1916 — October 15, 1999) was an American folk singer and songwriter. Biography Gilkyson was born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, and graduated from St. George's School in Middletown, Rhode Island in 1935. By his early ...

as Singalong

Production

The film was made in 1950 and was originally to have been released through Eagle-Lion but was picked up for release by RKO. Originally the film was shot with

Howard Da Silva Howard Da Silva (born Howard Silverblatt, May 4, 1909 – February 16, 1986) was an American actor, director and musical performer on stage, film, television and radio. He was cast in dozens of productions on the New York stage, appeared in mo ...

in the lead. After he was accused of Communist leanings, RKO ordered DaSilva's scenes reshot with Brian Donlevy. 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, center ...

'', ''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 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. From the 16th cent ...

. 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