Siege At Red River (1954)

As the Civil War winds down, two Confederate spies (Van Johnson, Milburn Stone) disguised as traveling salesmen steal a Gatling gun off a Union train with plans to bring it to the Confederacy. But a betrayal and warring Indians alter those plans. The citified Jonson seems an unlikely choice for a western hero and he looks rather awkward in the surroundings but he's pleasant enough in this diverting, if pedestrian, oater. Efficiently directed by Rudolph Mate, the film bookends with action set pieces while the middle concentrates on the tenuous attraction between Johnson and Joanne Dru, who runs a frontier hospital. In actuality, they have very little chemistry. But Richard Boone makes for a marvelous, mean spirited villain. Lionel Newman did the busy score. With Jeff Morrow, Peggy Maley and Craig Hill.