Just four years after making this movie Andre De Toth goes on to make Day Of The Outlaw with Robert Ryan and Burl Ives which was a much better film than this one. Kirk Douglas plays a man called the Indian fighter but has a better relationship with the Indians than his name might suggest. The Indians just want to be left alone and don't want any white men like Walter Matthau and Lon Chaney Jr. selling whiskey for gold to any Indians. Matthau is caught by the Indians and almost killed but Douglas fights one of the leaders to save him. Douglas winds up falling in love with an Indian played by Elsa Martinelli and this is looked down upon. The movie goes by pretty quickly at 88 minutes and it does have a good cast that also has Alan Hale Jr. and Elisha Cook Jr.

Kirk Douglas turns in another of his wonderfully flamboyant performances as Johnny Hawks, `The Indian Fighter'. The movie is humorous and action picked. It even has a terrific performances from Diana Douglas, Kirk's ex-wife. However, for whatever reason, Kirk Douglas has populated his movie with some ridiculous casting choices: Eduard Franz as a Sioux chief(?), Harry Landers as Grey Eagle(??), Hank Worden as Crazy Bear(?!!!!?) and Elsa Martinelli as an Indian maiden(??!!!!!!!???). The first time Martinelli delivers that thick Italian accents, I started giggling. Come on, Kirk; you produced this. Couldn't you have found some REAL Indians, or at least an actress that didn't sound as if she's just come off the boat at Ellis Island. Hank Worden also plays a white character, making things seem even more ridiculous.Hey, my wife is Italian, so I wouldn't dare take cheap shots at Martinelli. Actually, when she keeps her mouth shut, Martinelli is pretty darn good. Had the script be rewritten so she only spoke Sioux, Martinelli would have been MUCH more believable. Oh well.To it's credit, the movie neither exploits or downplays the interracial relationship between Douglas and Martinelli. That's daring and commendable on the part of producer Douglas, particularly given the era of both the story and race relations in 50s America.No one seems to have commented on the Douglas-Martinelli courting ritual. It looks more like rape than romance. I thought feminist reviewers would be outraged. However, I've been told this ritual was common among the Plains Indians, though it is not clear to me whether this applies to the Sioux. Some comments should be made about the performances of Walter Matthau and Lon Chaney. Matthau comes across as WAY too contemporary and Chaney still seems to be playing Lenny from `Of Mice and Men'. Elisha Cook seems to have wandered over from the set of `Shane.' Nonetheless, Cook is still pretty watchable. Michael Winkelman (`The Real McCoys'), who played Diana Douglas's son, is terrific.The Technicolor photography is very good, the editing only OK. For example, the wagon train has traveled at least one full day, but seems to get back to the fort in a couple of minutes. The Oregon landscapes are spectacular.Given its shortcomings, `The Indian Fighter is STILL a pretty decent western. I give it a weak `6'.

This western is a solid adventure has plenty of action and romance and cavalry-Indian fighting. Kirk Douglas is the hero of the story as he guides a wagon train west through Indian country. Problems arise as gold-hungry white men offer whiskey to Indians for information about the whereabouts of gold deposits on Sioux land. While guiding the train, Douglas finds time for a dalliance with a pretty Indian maiden, the beautiful Elza Martinelli, but the lust for gold undoes a peace treaty with the Indians and leads to hostilities, with the train racing back to the fort for army protection. Douglas is great as the trail guide and Martinelli is a looker but doesn't seem comfortable with extended dialogue. Walter Matthau, Lon Chaney Jr, Ray Teal and Elisha Cook have key roles and ex-spouse Diana Douglas has a nice part as a marriage-minded widow. Franz Waxman contributes a nice score, a wistful, brooding accompaniment for this quality western.

I had noticed this video for rent several times, but had always thought that the cover photo showed Kirk Douglas with Natalie Wood. Much to my surprise, it turns out not to be Natalie at all, but someone far more unusual, Elsa Martinelli, someone it seems I know best as Charlton Heston's love interest in "The Pigeon That Took Rome", the slim but pleasant comedy from 1962.In fact, this film is "introducing Elsa Martinelli", a fresh import from Italy at the time. Bell' Italia indeed. Elsa introduces herself to us in the opening scene by undressing completely to go for a quiet dip in the river. So it's going to be la dolce vita along the riverbank, it seems...As the beautiful long-haired Indian maiden, Elsa finds herself teamed with Kirk, brandishing his chin and his triangular physique. The Wild West lives up to its name, not only with the Indians' fiery attack on the army fort, the film's climax, but also with the steamy roll in the "surf" by our two principals, a couple of years after "From Here to Eternity".The film offers Elisha Cook an unusual part to play, a photographer who had worked with Matthew Brady during the War, and who now wants to immortalize the West with his camera as advertising to attract settlers. The film understands the dichotomy of preservation and destruction that his character represents.Walter Matthau and Lon Chaney are the bad white men, while Alan Hale (Gilligan's Skipper) and Frank Cady (Green Acres' Mr. Drucker) round out a nostalgic supporting cast.Produced by Kirk Douglas's own production company, Bryna, "The Indian Fighter" can't help but have a social conscience. It does show the strong influence of the message Western -- in its interracial romance, Cook's proto-Ansel Adams character, and so on -- but without sacrificing the adventure elements of the story.The film boasts some spectacular Oregon scenery. It's not the Monument Valley desert landscape we're used to seeing in so many other epic Westerns when directed by John Ford, but rather mountainous and riverine terrain, more like what Ford showed us in "How the West Was Won" (1962).André De Toth provides good solid Cinemascope direction, letting the widescreen process work its own wonders on the audience. The film however does betray more brutality than I would have expected, especially for its day.All in all, an adventure story intelligently and attractively handled, with some depth for those who care to look.