"Devil's Doorway" is one of those movies about Indians that is not much fun, because the movie cares more about showing us the mistreatment of the Indians at the hands of white men than with entertaining us in the traditional manner, such as by having the Indians scalping, raping, and otherwise terrorizing white settlers.Robert Taylor in redface plays Broken Lance, a Shoshone Indian who has just arrived back home in Wyoming after service in the Civil War fighting for the North, where he won the Medal of Honor. In other words, this movie lays it on pretty thick. He intends to return to his peaceful ways as a free range cattle rancher, but he finds he is beset by a bunch of white people that intend to homestead on his land and raise sheep.This is an interesting twist. First, in most movies where there is a clash between men who want an open range for their cattle and families that want to homestead, it is the homesteaders that are good and the cattlemen that are evil, as in "Shane" (1953). Second, in most movies where sheepherders come into conflict with cattlemen, it is the sheepherders that are good and the cattlemen that are, once again, evil. Glenn Ford seems to show up in a lot of these movies. He is said by villain cattleman Rod Steiger to have the smell of sheep about him in "Jubal" (1956), is the title character in "The Sheepman" (1958), and intervenes as a pastor/gunslinger on the side of the good sheepherders (some of whom are Indians) against the bad cattlemen in "Heaven with a Gun" (1969). So, it is strange that the good guy in Devil's Doorway is a free range cattleman pitted again evil homesteading sheepherders. In fact, if this good guy had not been an Indian at a time when audiences were ready for movies about how Indians were good and white people were bad, the reversal might not have worked. Actually, not much works in this movie in any event. It is tedious and boring, as are all moralistic, preachy movies.As long as the movie was going to be about injustice toward Indians, I suppose the producers figured they might as well put in a word for gender equality as well, though they would hardly have termed it as such in 1950. And so, Lance's lawyer ends up being a woman, who goes by the name of Masters (Paula Raymond). Actually, being a pretty white woman, her real function is tantalize the audience with a little unconsummated miscegenation.When Lance finds out from Masters that the law does not allow Indians to homestead, he berates her for her faith in the law, as a kind of religion, saying that when you have the law, you don't have to worry about your conscience. It tells you what is right and wrong and no more thinking is required. He sarcastically says he wishes he had something like that.This is immediately followed by a scene in which a pubescent boy staggers and then crawls toward Lance's house. It turns out that, like all boys, he had to go into the mountains with only a knife, no food or water, go above the snow line wearing only moccasins and a loin cloth, and come back with the talons of an eagle within three days, or he is not a man. When Masters says that this practice is cruel, Lance justifies this custom, saying it is necessary so that the tribe knows whether the boy can be depended on to fight.Needless to say, a lot of boys probably die in making this attempt. I just knew Masters was going to say, "It looks as though I have faith in my laws, and you have faith in yours. Neither one of us has to bother about our conscience." And Masters could also have noted that white men are pretty good at fighting, and they don't do that to their children. Amazingly enough, she makes no such remarks. There is probably a kind of bigotry of low expectations at work here. White civilization is held to the higher standards of reason and justice, whereas there is a tendency to think of the customs of primitive peoples as too precious to subject to any serious criticism, the result being that the people who made this movie seem to be oblivious to the irony of these scenes, even though they put the one right after the other. Maybe they were being extra subtle, allowing us to have a laugh at Lance's expense, but it sure doesn't feel that way.Before the movie is out, the chief villain, played by Louis Calhern, who was the one that instigated the sheepherders' attempt to homestead, is killed off. And Lance is killed off too, in part to show that he is too manly to yield or compromise, and in part to keep him and Masters from exchanging bodily fluids across racial lines.

This movie is a hidden gem. Directed by Anthony Mann, it was probably the first "Civil Rights" Western that went "all in" in terms of presenting the Indian point of view. At the same time, Mann's intensity and fundamental dark view of mankind keep it from becoming condescending or maudlin. Pretty impressive to take this theme on so aggressively a full four years before the "Brown vs. Board of Education" Supreme Court decision kicked off the modern Civil Rights movement.Here are some of the pluses:This is an absolutely terrific performance by Robert Taylor, all the more impressive since it's hard to imagine him playing a full blooded Shoshone Indian. He pulls it off in spades. I haven't seen every Robert Taylor movie, but I can't believe he ever had a better part. Even more impressive, this is an ultra-liberal movie and in real life Taylor was a well known right wing kook. Now that's acting!!This is in black and white, but the movie has a fantastic look and feel to it. Mann's superior direction and creative camera angles jump out at you.One of my favorite Western themes, the Civil War tie-in, is prominent. Lance Poole is a decorated Union Army veteran who returns home to confront racism. In 1950, this is clearly a metaphor for the plight black WW2 veterans returning to the Jim Crow South.It is well plotted. Everything makes sense, is plausible and all the character's motivations are consistent and logical (not something you find in all Anthony Mann Westerns. See my review of "The Man From Laramie").In most cases, the love interest in Westerns is blatantly gratuitous. Orrie Masters, nicely played by Paula Raymond, is written solidly into the script as a sympathetic lawyer. Of course, the movie is once again way ahead of its time with its portrayal of a professional woman.An excellent portrayal of the Shoshones and their plight.Absolutely fantastic Montana location shoot. A shame it wasn't in color.The negatives in this movie are very minor:The problem with going "all in" Indian point of view is that it is inherently depressing.Could have used a stronger supporting cast. Louis Calhern is good as the heavy, but this part could have been stronger.No room for comic relief in the dark world of Anthony Mann. All that stops this from devolving into a lugubrious depress-fest is the edgy plot, good action scenes and Taylor's compelling performance.

ROBERT TAYLOR, grim-faced and painted to look like an Indian, gives a strong performance in Anthony Mann's examination of the plight of American Indians and their mistreatment in DEVIL'S DOORWAY.Although he's a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor after his victorious conduct in war, he doesn't get the welcome he expects when he returns to his home state of Wyoming where EDGAR BUCHANAN is the Sheriff who warns him that he's naive if he thinks he can find a welcome mat for Indians at any bar.PAULA RAYMOND is the pretty lawyer who tries to help Taylor when her mother (SPRING BYINGTON) reminds her that that's what her dad would do. But nobody can stop evil lawyer LOUIS CALHERN from spreading false and malicious gossip that poisons the mind of the homesteaders who want a piece of Taylor's land.It's a grim story, beautifully photographed with stunning B&W western landscapes filling the eye with their grandeur. All of the performances are expert and the climactic battle with men foolishly following Calhern's orders is photographed for stunning impact.Told in a tense 85 minutes, it's a film worth viewing and one that was ahead of its time in dealing with the plight of American Indians in a realistic way.

Robert Taylor, a Hollywood workhorse if there ever was one, NEVER in over 30 years on the screen, put in a bad performance or one in which he failed to give everything he had--from heavily romantic roles, to fatuous 1930s comedies to Westerns to Toga & Sandal monstrosities to crime dramas and---you name it. And always to the level best of his ability. William Wellman, a crack director and one very, very tough and world-experienced hombre, said Taylor was the finest man he ever knew. But the problem Taylor faced in The Devil's Doorway was absolutely insurmontable, even for him. American Indians are Asiatics (which is abundantly clear from the many Indian faces which appear in the movie (not including his father, played by a Caucasian)). No one in the whole wide world looks less Asiatic or more Caucasian than Robert Taylor (with the possible exception of Burt Lancaster, who also, moronically, got saddled with a Noble Indian role). Indeed, in the original version of this movie, which was in color, blue-eyed Robert Taylor had the dubious distinction of playing the only full-blooded blue-eyed Shoshone in the history of the world. Throughout the movie all the experienced moviegoer could think while watching it was "There's Ol' Bob Taylor in blackface." It was like watching Louis Armstrong in whiteface. Ridiculous. Also, his English was without accent and clearly educated, upper-middle class White (mirroring what Taylor in fact was)---how could that possibly be?---while his Shoshone was limited to a few barked, incomplete commands. Nevertheless, Taylor did his usual faultless, yeoman-like job against hopeless credibility odds. The photography was outstanding, Paula Raymond---who, by the way, could not, as a woman, have been licensed to practice law---was breathtakingly beautiful (what ever happened to her?), and Louis Calhern, as always, was excellent. As for the story, that is something else again. Childish, good-guy spirit-loving, earth-loving Indians versus bad-guy avaricious, violent Caucasians. Yawn. That is not the way it was. The Indians did all but teach university-level courses in Violence and Avarice---which they practiced extensively on one another before and after the arrival of the Whites. But that's for another time.