They called the ¨wanderer¨ because a horse was his home . They called him ¨Injun-lover¨ but never to his face but they called on him when everyone else had run away . All the special beauty and drama of Oregon's Modoc lava-lands in Cinemascope . President Grant orders Indian fighter MacKay (Alan Ladd) to deal with the Modocs of northern California and southern Oregon . McKay sets out to negotiate a peace treaty with the renegade Indian leader nicknamed Captain Jack (Charles Bronson , he had just changed his name from his real one , Buchinski) , a believable rebel chief .Good Indian-cavalry Western based on real incidents . This first-rate Western draws its riveting tale and power from the interaction of finely drawn roles as well as adventure and formidable action . Two-fisted Bronson enjoyed one of his first big roles in this spectacular story , overshadowing Alan Ladd who was film producer along with Delmer Daves . Tough-guy Ladd plays as a scout and expert Indian fighter , this is his best performance since ¨Shane¨ . Delmer Daves does a good work , an energetic and exciting movie , pitting two antagonist characters against the rugged toughness forced a vast natural environment throughout the trail . Highlight the exemplary value of the landscape as essential dramatic figure, and the narrative takes a brisk pace but not fast, a dash dense but not cumbersome . Colorful cinematography broke away from the traditional images to drape the Western backdrop convincingly in glimmer Warnercolor . Evocative and appropriate musical score by the classic Victor Young . The motion picture is well directed by Delmer Daves - including his characteristic use of landscape that helps the most spectacular scenes- , a Western expert as proved in the notorious ¨Broken arrow¨ , his first big Western ; furthermore , he made ¨The hanging tree¨ , ¨3:10 to Yuma¨, ¨The last wagon¨, Jubal , ¨Cowboy¨, ¨Return of the Texan¨ . And of course ¨Drum beat¨ that turns out to be stylish, fast paced , solid, meticulous and with enjoyable look . This well acted movie is gripping every step of the way . An unjustly forgotten film results to be a nice western and remains consistently agreeable . Rating : Above average , worthwhile watching .The story is based on historical facts , these are the following : The Modocs , a small tribe of northern California , they were fishers , hunters , slave traders and warriors . In 1864 the Modocs reluctantly ceded their tribal lands to the United States and were moved to the Klamath Indian Reservation in Oregon . The Modocs could not live peacefully with the more powerful Klamath tribe and a band of Modocs under the leadership of Kintpuash , better known as Captain Jack , left the reservation and returned to their former lands . They refused to go back the reservation and the army was sent to forcibly remove them ; the result was so-called Modoc War of 1872-3 . Captain Jack and his followers took up an almost impregnable position in the Lava Beds on the California-Oregon border ; the Lava Beds provided a natural stronghold of contorted masses of solidified volcanic lava , a broken region of natural rock trenches and caves . Here , Captain Jack held off superior forces for months . Finally he and his followers surrounded . Captain Jack and four other Modocs were tried by court martial and hanged at Fort Klamath on 3 October 1873 . The survivors of his band were sent to a reservation in the Indian territory of Oklahoma.

While the plot of DRUM BEAT is based on a true incident during frontier days on the plains, nothing about the film suggests that it's any more than a standard Cavalry vs. Indians western seen hundreds of times since the movies were born.However, credit director Delmer Daves for finding some gorgeous locations for his story and casting Charles Bronson and Anthony Caruso as Indians who look marvelously authentic in their make-up. Not so fortunate are Marisa Pavan and Audrey Dalton in the weak female roles that could have been played by any young ingénue on the Warner lot.Alan Ladd is the Indian expert hired by President Grant to make peaceful overtures to the Modocs, headed by Bronson. Elisha Cook, Jr. is interesting as a corrupt Indian trader and most of the supporting roles get good results, especially in the action scenes, all of which are well-staged by director Daves. Especially good is a climactic fight between Ladd and Bronson as they tumble down a rushing stream and fall over the rocky terrain. Ladd seems to be doing most of his stunts in this action-packed scene.But otherwise, he delivers a rather stoic performance, showing barely any expression even in his brief love scenes with Audrey Dalton. Hard to tell if he was bored or just impatient with the routine script.All in all, worth watching for the action scenes and the handsome landscapes filmed in beautiful WideScreen Technicolor.

Catch the two great bookend sequences. They may be the most memorable part of this nicely produced Western purportedly based on fact. That opening sequence with McKay (Ladd) walking in unchallenged to meet President Grant is based on the historical fact that presidents have only been removed from the public in later times. Citizens back then could essentially walk in and talk to the president without a dozen pre-screens. Also, for this Bronson fan, that jail cell ending may well be the high point of his acting career. He shows more unforced good humor and naturalness there than any scene I've seen him in. In fact, he easily steals the movie from the rest of the cast, positioning himself as a real Hollywood comer.This is an A-production from Warner Bros. For example, scope out the well stocked cavalry troop. No corner-cutting there. Then too, lavish use is made of Sedona's familiar red rock locations adding real scenic value. Also, there's a much larger than usual supporting cast of familiar faces, even down to bit parts. Producers Daves and Ladd (uncredited) do a bang-up job assembling the many components.Surprisingly, for plot developments, the Indians actually get to win a battle and rejoice on- screen. However, the film's impact is damaged by being over-long, probably to accommodate a romantic interest to broaden audience appeal. Then too, Ladd, the actor, appears not nearly as interested in the film as Ladd, the co-producer. Frankly, he looks glum throughout the nearly two-hour running time, and I don't think it's from under-playing the part. Plus having him over-power the muscular, extremely fit looking Bronson is quite a stretch.Despite these several drawbacks, it's still a good scenic, action flick, the first of director Daves' series of superior Westerns.

One of Alan Ladd's better post Paramount films was Drum Beat, based on a little known incident from the Indian wars.For the first time an American general was killed during the wars against the Indian tribes. The little known Modoc war was another of those lesser known conflicts as action against the Sioux on the Great Plains and the Apache in the Arizona desert got far more attention. The Modocs were moved from a reservation in northern California to one in Oregon to share with the Klamath, a tribe that had a long feuding history with the Modoc. That was the immediate cause of the war. It was kept going by one of the Modoc's more charismatic leaders, a chief named Captain Jack.On April 11, 1873, General E.R.S. Canby among other peace commissioners who were sitting in council with Captain Jack and the other chiefs were suddenly shot and killed, in fact Captain Jack personally did shoot General Canby. Charles Bronson in his very first film with that name having dropped his real birth last name of Buckinsky plays Captain Jack. Warner Anderson plays the feckless and luckless Canby. The horror of that incident aroused some bad public opinion against the Modocs, not to dissimilar against to what was aroused against the Japanese after Pearl Harbor and Islamist extremists after the World Trade Center attack albeit on a much smaller scale. It certainly shifted priorities for a while in the War Department from the Sioux and the Apache.Alan Ladd plays a real frontier figure named Johnny MacKay who as the film has him was a civilian scout employed by the army to find Captain Jack. His role in real life was not at the center stage of the film, but he did play a part in the Modoc Wars. And he was not among the surviving peace commissioners he wasn't at the meeting when the assassinations happened.For all its inaccuracies Drum Beat is the only film I know to deal with this incident that shocked a nation during The Gilded Age.