Escape From Fort Bravo

John Sturges's Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) is an underwhelming film with an intriguing premise. Everything's in place for a crackerjack Western, but loopy plotting and forced characterization result in an uneven film.

Captain Roper (William Holden) is the tough second-in-command at Ft. Bravo, a cavalry outpost in New Mexico during the Civil War serving as a POW camp. He's constantly having to tangle with Confederate Captain Marsh (John Forsythe) and his escape-minded prisoners, but his harsh methods earn him the enmity of the fort's commander (Carl Benton Reid). Feisty Texas girl Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker) arrives at the fort and strikes up a flirtation with Roper, helping Marsh and his men escape. Roper tracks the Rebels down, but the arrival of hostile Mescalero Apaches forces the Yanks and Rebs to work together.

Escape from Fort Bravo was a milestone in the career of John Sturges, allowing him to break free of grunt work on cheesy programmers (For the Love of Rusty, anyone?). Sturges built an impressive CV of Westerns (The Magnificent Seven) and action flicks (The Great Escape) that are slickly made and undemanding, with a shade more characterization and depth than average genre fare.

Escape from Fort Bravo has an intriguing premise but doesn't add up. The film is incongruous as its mixture of impressive Death Valley locations and obvious painted sets, morphing from a fairly mooted prison camp drama to an action film. The camp scenes are static and largely devoid of tension: the POWs seem to get along with their guards (heck, Marsh and another officer are invited to the regimental ball!) and the escape far too easy. In the last 30 minutes, the film settles into a Lost Patrol-style siege which can't help but be compelling, but the overall effect is disappointing.

A particular gripe is writer Frank Fenton's shoddy characterization. We're told again and again that Roper is a real hardass, but after his intro dragging a sunburned POW into camp, he does nothing to justify this assessment. Carla starts out as a resourceful frontier gal, fighting off Indians with a derringer and using her feminine wiles like a proto-femme fatale, but her devolution into blubbering arm candy by the final reels is inexcusable. Painfully on-the-nose dialogue spells out character relations and scenarios that are already obvious. Show don't tell is a rule this film constantly violates.

In crunchtime, Sturges is primarily an action director and Fort Bravo delivers here. There are several inventive set pieces, including a cavalry patrol's tense trot through a canyon (sans musical accompaniment). The Indians aren't pop-up targets but a clever, dangerous enemy; in the final siege, a clever bit involves the Apaches "bracketing" the troopers with lances for an arrow strike. Sam Peckinpah clearly used the film as a touchstone for his much better Major Dundee, borrowing the setting and lifting several scenes wholesale, namely the POWs defiantly whistling Dixie during role call.

William Holden makes a fine two-fisted hero. It's an undemanding role for the star of Sunset Blvd. but Holden's assured performance almost lives up to the script's hype. Eleanor Parker (Mission to Moscow) is fetching but can't handle Carla's lousy character arc. The wooden John Forsythe (In Cold Blood) makes a dull antagonist and his lack of chemistry with Parker doesn't help. William Demearst (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) and William Campbell provide an amusing doubles-act as agitated Rebel prisoners. Richard Anderson (Seven Days in May) makes an impression as Holden's lieutenant and Polly Bergen (The Long Gray Line) has a bit part.

Escape from Fort Bravo makes for an uneven Western. The film has its moments, but overall it feels like a lot of wasted potential.