Here's a great example of a Western with all the fat and unnecessary baggage trimmed from it. The story is brutally simple and shows no mercy.Hard-bitten Lt. Billings (Robert Stack) and his motley crew of cavalrymen are charged with delivering a vitally important peace treaty to Chief Grey Cloud. If Grey Cloud doesn't get the treaty within a certain time limit, he and his braves will go on the attack, leading to a bloodbath.The mission is plagued with mishaps from the start. The Indian guide Tasslik is Grey Cloud's own son and he has his own agenda. Merciless heat and thirst stalk the soldiers, as well as a mysterious sniper and saboteur. The more misfortune strikes, the more tension grows between the men, until it explodes into violent conflict.Nothing is sugar-coated in this story and death can strike anyone at any time. Real Death Valley settings make heat and thirst almost palpable. The story starts with tension which only grows. But character is not ignored. Billings' strict discipline actually masks a man who is tired of war and hungry for peace...an optimist, at heart. The plight of the Indians is also given a sympathetic turn, even though their actions here lead to pain and death.The cast can't be described as "A-list" but everybody does their job just right. Stack is excellent and other reliable actors like Peter Graves, John Doucette, Charles McGraw and Douglas Kennedy provide great support.You want a tough, tense Western? "War Paint" is a perfect choice.

This could have been a well-made western. With Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and the line-up of supporting characters including a beautiful 'Indian' woman, the acting really wasn't half bad but someone skimped terribly on script-writing and the action scenes.The rattlesnake scene was horrible. The snake was clearly either dead or a rubber fake, you could see the string tied around its neck that was slowly jerking it along. That was the most fake rattlesnake I've ever seen in a western. I suppose they couldn't afford a real one.The scene where they drank at the water hole in the cave was even worse. Supposedly near-dead from thirst, all they did was shake their heads in the water and blow bubbles and make noises. Those that did draw water into their mouths spit it back out into the pool right in front of the others who were 'drinking'.The fight scenes and deaths were the worst. I won't even go into detail about how poorly scripted and acted they were. There was clearly a skinny male stunt person taking the Indian girl's place when she wrestled the soldier. And the way the combatants who were next in line to be killed would stand up in full view to shoot in order to be shot was laughable.I liked the overall plot and the cast, Robert Stack was good and the dialog not bad. But the director must have been so convinced that these elements would carry the film that he paid no attention to these details. I can't even rate it a 5 because of these blatant oversights.

This western has great natural beauty but more talk than action in a film that should have been better than it was. The plot is simply that of a cavalry patrol that has a few days to deliver a peace treaty to a chief and prevent the Indians from going on the warpath. Robert Stack is the big cast name here and he is in complete "Eliot Ness" mode as a no-nonsense lieutenant who drives his men hard in the name of honor and duty. The patrol is guided by the chief's son who has a completely different agenda. The supporting cast is terrific, with names like Charles McGraw, Douglas Kennedy, Peter Graves, Robert Wilke and John Doucette along to carry out their mission. The picture is not a cavalry-Indian western as the title implies but instead focuses on the travails and frustrations of the troopers, not the least of which is thirst, as they make their way to the Indian village. The movie is worth watching for the old-time character actors and the striking beauty of Death Valley.

Robert Stack plays the officer in charge of a cavalry patrol entrusted with delivering a treaty to an Indian encampment, who encounters difficulties with outside and inside influences along the way. Stack is earnest, and despite some miscasting--Charles McGraw was always more at home playing a big-city detective or syndicate killer than he was playing a cavalry sergeant as he does here, and Keith Larsen often played Indians but seldom played them well--the performances are adequate, but if there's one thing that a western cries for it's action, and there's virtually none in this film. It moves like molasses and what little action there is doesn't occur until almost the end of the picture and it's not particularly well done. Director Lesley Selander was an old hand at westerns and has done far better. He must have had an off day. No need for you to have one by watching this snoozer.