The period is 1875. The War Between The States had ended. But South of the Rio Grande, another more ancient and cruel war continued. Peaceful Mexican villages were tragic victims...Comanche is directed by George Sherman and stars Dana Andrews as frontier scout Jim Read, who is sent to hopefully broker peace between Mexicans and the Comanche. As usual conflict exists within the tribe {Quanah Parker and Black Cloud}, as it does within the cavalry. Thus peace will be very hard to establish after years of mistreatment and mistrust.Filmed entirely in Durango, Old Mexico for authenticity and shot in deluxe colour for a Cinemascope production, Comanche is a very tidy B Western offering. The action scenes are well constructed, with the Blanco Canyon scenes particularly eye catching; as the cavalry and divided Comanche armies form. While the acting, although far from being great, is competent and never at any time hinders the movie. Some misplaced jauntiness and a shoe-horned in romantic arc {Linda Cristal} threaten to derail the piece, and no doubt about it the film has over familiarity issues with Delmer Daves' far better Broken Arrow from 1950. But it's an interesting story that offers up something different within the genre. And since we may never get a great film that deals with the Quanah Parker {played by Kent Smith here} story, Comanche at least made the effort, and made the effort to watch it worthwhile.Solid, interesting and enjoyable. 6.5/10

There are so many aspects of this film that are bad, it is difficult to decide where to begin. Filmed in Technicolor, this was NOT a B-grade movie. Yet I have seen many B-grade westerns that are superior to this utterly pedestrian effort at film-making. In fact, the color film is the only thing about this movie that is decent. The cinematography, itself, is unremarkable. The scenery, shown once would have been unremarkable, too. The same location shown repeatedly, however, is laughable.Worst of all is the soundtrack. The Lancers' upbeat, ersatz-folk sound is hopelessly out of sync with the story, giving the film a kind of schizophrenic quality. The songs, with a change of lyrics, would be better suited to a Frankie and Annette film of the same era - or an upbeat Disney movie.Then there's the acting - or better stated as a question - where's the acting? In particular, I have never been able to understand how Dana Andrews ever had a career in film. He is absolutely the most wooden actor ever seen in Hollywood. His delivery is the same whether he is portraying a film noir tough guy or an Indian scout. His face always has the exact same expression - utterly impassive. Whether his character is experiencing joy or sorrow, his face looks exactly the same. Who told this guy he could act? He must have had the dope on a lot of Hollywood big-wigs to have been cast in films - even as an extra! The rest of the cast is apparently mimicking other actors - the Gabby Hayes wannabe, the Stewart Granger wannabe, the Dolores Del Rio wannabe. They are all pretty much on autopilot - delivering caricatures rather than portraying characters.The question I have whenever I subject myself to an abomination such as this is: Who is most to blame - the actors or the director? Did the director actually want these actors to act as they did, or was he simply incapable of getting anything else out of them? What would Ed Wood have accomplished with a budget such as this director had at his disposal?

COMANCHE is filmed in Durango, Mexico for a sense of authenticity. It is also one of the first Hollywood films to be sympathetic toward the Native American Indian. A Comanche attack on a Mexican village nets the capture of several woman and children including the lovely Margarita(Linda Cristal). Black Cloud(Henry Brandon)is a hotheaded brave that have no use for the white man, let alone Mexicans, whom he can also get the pleasure of scalping. Jim Read(Dana Andrews)is a strong willed frontier scout, who hopes to shield his Native American friends from a bigoted genocidal Gen. Miles(John Litel). It is Read and his friendship with Chief Quanah Parker(Kent Smith)that restores trust and peace between the Indians and the white man. This is Cristal's movie debut. Andrews, not out of the norm, is wooden. Others in the cast: Nestor Paiva, Tony Carbajal, Lowell Gilmore and Iron Eyes Cody.

This B film attempts to do for the great Comanche warrior chief Quannah Parker what Broken Arrow did for Cochise. Kent Smith as Quannah quite frankly is doing a flat out imitation of Jeff Chandler in his greatest role. Quannah deserves better than that.Scouts Dana Andrews and Nestor Paiva are trying to get Quannah Parker to sit down and negotiate a peace. He's beaten everything the U.S. Army has thrown at him and that part of the film ain't fiction. And he's in an impregnable redoubt.Andrews and Paiva are beset by troublemakers on both sides. Scalphunter Stacy Harris wants to keep a lucrative business going and Henry Brandon as sub-chief Black Cloud is not counting the human cost in Comanche lives. Andrews and Paiva have their work cut out for them.This was a bad year for Henry Brandon as a Comanche. He meets a no good end here and in The Searchers in the same year. And ironically in Two Rode Together, he got to play Quannah Parker for John Ford.The movie also introduced Linda Cristal as a Comanche captive that Andrews takes a fancy to. She also would play another Comanche captive in Two Rode Together.Quannah Parker's story deserved an epic western and while this film is an unpretentious and good B western, one would hope that a bigger film might tell Quannah's tale and make him the central character.