Rocky Mountain (1950)

Under secret orders by General Robert E. Lee, a Captain (Errol Flynn) leads a small group of Confederate soldiers into California with the intention of recruiting some renegades to fight on the side of the South. However, after rescuing a young woman (Patrice Wymore) and a stagecoach driver (Chubby Johnson) from an Indian attack, they find themselves trapped on a rocky mountain by Shoshone Indians. This neat little western, directed by William Keighley (MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER), defies the expected cliches. Flynn, for example, is used strictly as a determined soldier, leaving the romance to Wymore and Scott Forbes as her Cavalry lieutenant fiance. And the somber finale (a shot of a small dog looking among the dead for its master is heartbreaking) leaves the usual western heroics behind. Keighley manages to keep the tension quotient high and doesn't waste much. Handsomely shot in New Mexico in black and white by Ted McCord (TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE), one can't help but wish they had shot it in Technicolor instead. Max Steiner whips up one of his better scores. With Sheb Wooley and Slim Pickens. If you're a westerns buff, you can't afford to miss this one.