Plot: A Canadian Mountie single-handedly returns the peace between the white men and the Cree Indians.
Notes:
With opening-credit artwork and narration so similar to Broken Arrow (1950), you might expect Pony Soldier to be a serious, dramatic story of one man's relationship with a particular group of Indians. On the contrary, there is little to be taken serious about this film. It is full of surprisingly comedic moments, especially when Thomas Gomez, as Natayo, has a scene.
Starring:
Tyrone Power
Cameron Mitchell
Thomas Gomez
Penny Edwards
Robert Horton
Anthony Earl Numkena
Adeline DeWalt Reynolds
Howard Petrie
Stuart Randall
Richard Boone
Chief Bright Fire
Frank DeKova
Muriel Landers
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Storyline Roundup: (Warning: SPOILERS)
It is 1876 and the Northwest Mounted Police has been established for only three years. Constable Duncan MacDonald (Power) belongs to Troop B in Ft. Saskatchewan. He is more than a little green and knows little more than what is in the rule book.
A friendly Blackfeet half-breed, Natayo (Gomez), comes to the fort with news. He requests an Enfield rifle, two Hudson Bay blankets, and a copper cooking pot the size to cook two buffalo tongues, before he will tell the Fort commander, Inspector Frazer (Petrie). The news is that the Cree Indians lost in a fight with the Long Knives (the American Calvary) south of the border. Natayo says that he saw a group of seven or eight Indians raid a group of wagons, killing all except two people, whom they took captive.
The inspector sends MacDonald to track down the band of Indians, escort them back to their reservation, and release the captives. The inspector wants Natayo to go along as scout. Natayo says, "No. Ask Natayo to make bed in nest of rattlers. Ask him to put hand in grizzly's mouth. Ask him to walk barefeeted through blizzard. This he will do! But go with this, this fine tenderfeet Pony Soldier. No!"
Through the cunning of Constable MacDonald, Natayo is forced to choose the easier of two tasks and go along on the trip.
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| MacDonald and Natayo |
While on the trail after the Indians, Natayo is frightened by a mirage. He thinks it is caused by the Evil Spirit, no matter what MacDonald says to convince him it is just a work of nature. They keep moving, although Natayo is reluctant to do so.
They want to find the Crees. Instead, the Crees, led by a brave named Konah (Mitchell), find them and take them back to their village. It turns out to be a village of hundreds. Many, many more than the eight braves they were hoping to find.
"You told Inspector Frazier Standing Bear's Crees were cut to pieces," MacDonald says to Natayo, as they look down on the veritable city below.
"Natayo make big mistake!" he replies. "Sometimes even when smart beaver cut down tree, tree fall on beaver."
While being taken through the camp, Natayo points out a certain tipi, marked with a beaver drawing, that should house the captives. They are led to the chief himself. Standing Bear (Randall).
MacDonald speaks to Standing Bear, who gives him and Natayo freedom to leave—but he refuses to go back to the reservation, and denies fighting the Long Knives and taking captives. MacDonald accuses him of lying, and marches into the beaver tipi. He releases the captives, a young woman and a young man, and brings them to face Standing Bear.
Standing Bear is surprised to see the captives, having not known about them himself. Konah claims them as his own. The chief decides to hold a counsel over what is to be done with them. MacDonald and Natayo are ordered to stay in the camp, but are given freedom to as they wish within the boundary.
MacDonald goes to speak with the captives. The girl, Emerald Neeley (Edwards), is relieved to see a lawman, but the man, Jess Calhoun (Horton), does not seem very grateful for MacDonald's appearance. Calhoun wants to try to escape. He says it is better to go down fighting, that the "only talk an Indian understands is hot lead in his belly." MacDonald disagrees. He will find a way to get out of the village safely and peacefully.
That night, while MacDonald and Natayo listen to the Indians chanting and dancing around the campfire, a young Indian boy approaches them. With the gift of a whistle, MacDonald makes fast friends with the orphan, "Comes Running," (Numkena) and shares food with him.
But their meal is interrupted by an announcement. Konah has given the white girl to his brother to be taken as a wife! "Now Konah has drawn knife against you," Natayo tells MacDonald. "Is like sending arrow; his message of war."
"That's true, Pony Soldier," Comes Running chimes in. "There'll be a tangle of trouble."
The next morning, Standing Bear calls for MacDonald and gives him the verdict of the counsel. Like the earlier decision, MacDonald and Natayo will be freed, but the captives will remain in the camp. Standing Bear says that he is being merciful to the constable; the braves want his blood, but Standing Bear will let him get a few hours' head start.
MacDonald starts to leave. Comes Running follows him and says that he will go with him, as a son. But before anything else can happen, a strange reaction washes over the Cree. They start moaning and bowing.
MacDonald sees what is causing it—a mirage on the horizon, a mirage that looks like a giant ship sailing on water. All the Indians, Natayo included, think that it is a message from Manitou.
MacDonald steps up and convinces the chief that the mirage was sent because the counsel decided wrong. He demands to be heard by the Standing Bear. Standing Bear agrees to hold counsel with him at noon.
Comes Running suggests that the counsel would be a good time for MacDonald to ask Standing Bear's permission to adopt Comes Running. "Yes, yes. I guess it would. We'll see," MacDonald replies.
At the counsel, MacDonald demands that the Cree return to their reserve, and that the captives be freed. Konah steps in and tells him that he may take Calhoun, but the girl will still be married to Konah's brother.
"There will be no marriage!" MacDonald insists.
Standing Bear says, "The counsel will decide."
The counsel votes to go back to the reservation. If MacDonald's promises of food and protection are not kept, they will hunt him down.
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| Konah |
When MacDonald goes to join Natayo and Comes Running, the boy is disappointed that MacDonald did not speak to the chief about adopting him. MacDonald tells him that now that peace is between their peoples, they do not need permission. "From now on, you're my son."
Comes Running arranges for the adoption to be formally announced. He also informs MacDonald that he needs a new name, and MacDonald gives him his own name. Duncan 'Comes Running' MacDonald. The boy is thrilled about his new name, and rides to tell the camp about it.
MacDonald sends Natayo back to the fort to get supplies to bring to the Cree on the way to the reserve. But before Natayo leaves, he finally admits that he saw Jess Calhoun in prison. Calhoun is an escaped convict.
Konah's brother still intends to marry Miss Neeley, but MacDonald assures her that Standing Bear will not allow it. They will march tomorrow.
During the night, Calhoun slips out of the tipi. On his way out of camp, he runs into Konah's brother and kills him.
Konah captures Calhoun and prepares to tear him apart between two horses. Hearing the excitement, MacDonald leaves Comes Running to watch over Miss Neeley, and goes to see what it is about.
MacDonald and Standing Bear manage to stop Konah, both agreeing that Calhoun needs to be punished by white man's law. McDoanld collects Calhoun. "You stupid idiot," he tells him. "I'd have have let them tear you apart, except for the pleasure I'm going to get by taking you back and turning you in."
With two surprising blows, Calhoun knocks MacDonald to the ground and takes his rifle. MacDonald shoots and wounds him when he tries to ride away. Calhoun is placed under close guard.
Standing Bear asks that the march to the reservation be delayed three days because of Konah's brother's death. MacDonald agrees.
Meanwhile, Konah and three other braves kidnap Miss Neeley, taking her out of camp. Comes Running finds MacDonald and tells him about it.
Standing Bear and MacDonald go after Konah and his men, leaving Comes Running behind, despite his pleas to go along and help. They find where Konah is. He built a huge fire, intending to burn Miss Neeley for all the "bad medicine" she brought to the Cree.
A fight ensues. Standing Bear and MacDonald kill Konah's braves, and MacDonald thinks he killed Konah.
But Konah is still alive.
He sneaks up behind MacDonald and is just about to kill him. . . . But a small arrow lodges in Konah's chest. Comes Running followed MacDonald, and killed Konah to save his adopted father.
"You have chosen a brave son!" Standing Bear exclaims.
MacDonald smiles. "And a brave warrior."
And so, as the movie comes to a close, MacDonald rides with the Cree, escorting them back to their reserve.
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Pony Soldier is a 1952, 20th Century Fox production in Technicolor.
Director: Joseph M. Newman
Producer: Samuel G. Engel
Screenwriter: John C. Higgens
Based on a story by: Garnett Weston
Musical Directior: Alfred Newman
Music: Alex North
Director of Photography: Harry Jackson, A.S.C.
Art Directors: Lyle Wheeler
Chester Gore
Set Decorators: Thomas Little
Fred J. Rose
Editor: John W. McCafferty
Wardrobe Direction: Charles Le Maire
Costumes Designed By: Edward Stevenson
Orchestration: Edward Powell
Makeup Artist: Ben Nye
Special Photographic Effects: Ray Kellogg
Sound: Eugene Grossman
Harry M. Leonard
Technicolor Adviser: Chief Nipo T. Strongheart
Assistant Director: Horace Hough