An old western, that isn't that old. In the late 1950's PAWNEE looked old and somewhat modern. A young white boy named Paul Fletcher(George Montgomery)is raised by a Pawnee Chief Wise Eagle(Ralph Moody). Blue eyed Pale Arrow reaches manhood, and still a favorite of the Chief, is ejected from the tribe. His future and loyalties will become tested when he takes a job as a scout for a wagon train. He will be taking wagons of white people into Indian Territory. Tensions rise when peace-loving Wise Eagle dies leaving a war-minded Crazy Fox(Charles Horvath)taking over leading the tribe. Crazy Fox just happens to be Paul/Pale Arrow's archenemy. Any peace on the prairie will be blemished.The cast also features: Bill Williams, Lola Albright, Robert Griffin, Kathleen Freeman, Dabs Greer, Bill Coontz and Francis McDonald.

After watching this film I thought back to 1957 when this film first came out and I wonder if anyone noticed that Pawnee was a remake of The Ten Commandments set in the old west. I guess that Paramount thought that Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures which was on its uppers at that time had nothing worth suing over.George Montgomery plays a man who was raised by the Pawnee after his white parents were killed. At least that explained those baby blue eyes that Burt Lancaster in Apache and Chuck Connors in Geronimo couldn't explain. He's the adopted son of Chief Ralph Moody, favored so much so that blood kin Charles Horvath is jealous. Montgomery is even moving in on Charlotte Austin the Indian maid set to marry the chief to be.It's Moody's wish that Montgomery go among his own race and see how they live and how the Pawnee can adapt in their world. Which he does by taking a job as wagon train scout for a wagon train headed by Bill Williams. And then Montgomery catches the eye of his girl Lola Albright.I think you can see the similarities and the final climax between the Pawnees, settlers, and cavalry is the parting of the Red Sea and it all ends romantically as it did for Moses.Pawnee is a below par western that has me wondering if Cecil B. DeMille was insulted or flattered.

Despite a veteran cast, this one just doesn't make the grade. The script is routine at best, and most of the location and action scenes are nothing more than stock footage, most of it gleaned from "Buffalo Bill" (1944). Ms. Albright can almost always lift a B picture to the status of "watchable" however, here she is reduced to nothing more than window dressing between old stock footage action scenes. Pass on this one.

Pawnee is a cliche ridden mid-fifties Western made bearable by a good cast, professional direction, and some decent scenery. George Montgomery stars as a white man raised by the Pawnee Indians who must decide whether to remain an Indian and become chief of the Pawnee nation or return to his roots and save a wagon train from an Indian attack. The basic premise is old hat, and the film is loaded with stock characters includng the wise old Indian chief who seeks peace with the whites and the younger, violent war-mongering chief who seeks to kill the settlers (and his long despised white "brother" and rival Goerge Montgomery), the kindly and wise wagon train doctor, the wagon master who also becomes a rival of Montgomery for the love of a whte woman, a crusty, but lovable old coot of a settler, and so on. The film is juvenile and simplistic, but is watchable thanks to a good cast of old pros, fast and knowing direction, and excellent color photography of the scenic west. George Montgomery was a solid, leading man in many westerns of the fifties, and turns in his typically solid performance as the hero here. He is ably supported by such stalwarts of fifties westerns as Robert Griffin, Francis McDonald, Dabbs Greer, and Bill Williams. Lola Albright, an excellent, but underrated actress who later costarred on TV's Peter Gunn, gives a good performance as a yong woman traveling with the wagon train, who comes between Bill Williams, the wagon master, and Montgomery. It is noted that the lead Indian parts are played by caucasion actors and Native Americans are used almost exclusively as extras. The direction is by George Waggner, who directed the Wolfman and other horror films at Universal in the forties. Waggner is an old pro who moves the script along quickly and makes the cliches bearable while keeping the cast from going over the top in roles that could have easily become laughable. There is nothing new here, but it is a competent film which should mildly entertain western fans and youngsters who have never sat through a western programmer from the fifties.