Red Tomahawk * (1967, Howard Keel, Joan Caulfield, Broderick Crawford, Scott Brady) – Classic Movie Review 9539

A welcome cast of old-timers enlivens director R G Springsteen’s otherwise fairly dull and unremarkable 1967 A C Lyles Productions Western film Red Tomahawk about brave military man, US Cavalry Captain Tom York (Howard Keel), who, with the assistance of gunslinger friend Ep Wyatt (Scott Brady) and saloon roulette dealer Dakota Lil McCoy (Joan Caulfield), helps the people of Deadwood to defend themselves from an Indian attack.

The writing is strictly from stock – and even then from a lower drawer – and even the action is not very well done, though it is saved by the stalwart vintage cast.

Steve Fisher writes the screenplay and Andrew Craddock writes the story.

The cast are Howard Keel, Joan Caulfield, Broderick Crawford, Scott Brady, Wendell Corey, Richard Arlen, Tom Drake, Ben Cooper, Don ‘Red’ Barry [Donald Barry], Tracy Olsen, Regis Parton [Reg Parton], Roy Jenson, Gerald Jann, Henry Wills, Sol Gorss and Dan White.

It is the ninth in a series of 13 A C Lyles Productions B-movie Westerns from 1963 to 1967.

Red Tomahawk is directed by R G Springsteen, runs 82 minutes, is made by A C Lyles Productions, is released by Paramount, is written by Steve Fisher, is shot in Pathécolor by W Wallace Kelley, is produced by A C Lyles and is scored by Jimmie Haskell, with Art Direction by Hal Pereira and Al Roelofs.

Betty Hutton and Howard Keel were set to team again after Annie Get Your Gun (1950) but Hutton could not keep up with the fast-paced shooting of only 10 to 14 days, so she was fired and replaced by Joan Caulfield.

Veteran film producer A C Lyles died aged 95 on 27 September 2013.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9539

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