The Savage ** (1952, Charlton Heston, Susan Morrow, Peter Hansen, Joan Taylor) – Classic Movie Review 13,573

‘WHITE MAN by birth! SAVAGE by heart!’ The 1952 Technicolor Western film The Savage stars Charlton Heston, Susan Morrow, Peter Hansen and Joan Taylor.

‘WHITE MAN by birth! SAVAGE by heart!’’ Fearless warrior loved by two girls – one white, one Indian!’

Director George Marshall’s 1952 Technicolor Western film The Savage is written by Sydney Boehm from L L Foreman’s 1949 novel The Renegade, and stars Charlton Heston, Susan Morrow, Peter Hansen, and Joan Taylor.

Charlton Heston does his best to try to convince in an awkward role as a young man with problems when he is torn between his white ancestry as Jim Aherne Jr and his Sioux Indian upbringing as War Bonnet when the Sioux threaten to go to war against the Whites.

The story’s idea was not new even way back then, but the movie is carefully crafted, strongly performed and entertaining. It is beautifully shot in Technicolor by John F Seitz on location in South Dakota, in the Black Hills, Custer State Park, and Rapid City, as well as in the Paramount studios (though the dead-looking studio work looks much less impressive).

Peter Hansen and Richard Rober stand out as Lt Weston Hathersall and Captain Arnold Vaughant. Susan Morrow and Joan Taylor don’t have a very good time in unsatisfying roles as Tally Hathersall and Luta.

Also in the cast are Donald Porter, Ted de Corsia, Ian MacDonald, Milburn Stone, Angela Clarke, Orley Lindgren, Michael Tolan, Howard Negley, Frank Richards and John Miljan.

It was made by Paramount Pictures and released by the studio on September 1, 1952.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,573

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