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Help! Anthony Quinn's Role


It's been a long time since I've seen this film so I would be grateful if someone would clarify a point.

In Cecil B. DeMille's THE PLAINSMAN, Anthony Quinn was a Cheyenne warrior who told Gary Cooper of the Indian victory at the Little Big Horn. A few years later, in THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON, Anthony Quinn played Crazy Horse who slew George Armstrong Custer and rode off with the 7th Cavalry's banner. In BUFFALO BILL, was the Battle of the Little Big Horn mentioned or did a Custer in all but name appear? Did Anthony Quinn score a trifecta against Yellow Hair?

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Yes the Battle of the Little Big Horn is mentioned though not shown. Quinn does a nice job as Yellow Hair who leads his people against the whites for the slaughtering of the buffalo.

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In THE PLAINSMAN, the Indian chief who tortured Wild Bill Hickock (Gary Cooper) was Yellow Hand. In BUFFALO BILL, Anthony Quinn's character was named Yellow Hand. As Yellow Hand was a real historical person killed by Buffalo Bill, the only casualty at the Battle of Warbonnet Creek, was this supposed to be the same character in both films?

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Yes.

I have read that originally Buffalo Bill was supposed to have had a bigger role in The Plainsman (1936) and the movie would have ended with him killing Yellow Hand at Hat Creek or Warbonnet Gorge. So perhaps someone worked on both movies.

In The Plainsman (1936) Wild Bill is shot as a cavalry column under General Merritt is passing through Deadwood en route to reinforce General Crook's command. General Merritt, Colonel of the Fifth Cavalry, was much younger than the actor in the movie despite having been a Civil War General, and did pass though Deadwood in 1876, but only after having joined Crook's command.

In Buffalo Bill the Fifth Cavalry under the command of the fictional General Blazier (first name Trail?)is marching to reinforce General Crook after the Little Brig Horn when it fights the Battle of War Bonnet Gorge.

In The Command a force of cavalry and infantry and a civilian wagon train (rather as in General Sully's Sioux campaign in 1864) is marching to join another force. It sounded like their destination was General Cook, but in the original James Warner Bellah story they were marching to reinforce General Crook after the Little Big Horn.

In Last of the Comanches , set late in 1876, one of the characters mentions how they defeated the Sioux after Custer's Last Stand, possibly meaning those specific soldiers were there. In one scene a hat is seen with the insignia "14 G". So they would have been members of Troop G of the Fourteenth Cavalry (which was not created until decades later).

So I can't help wishing that someone had made a movie showing what fictionally would have happened after all those (mostly fictional) reinforcements reached General Crook, and showed the defeat of the Sioux in a battle at least as spectacular and exaggerated as the Battle of War Bonnet Gorge in Buffalo Bill !

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Yours is a beautiful post.

The real Cheyenne Chief killed by Cody at Warbonnet Creek was named Yellow Hair for a blonde scalp he carried. His name has been mistranslated as Yellow Hand.

The Cheyenne war to save the buffalo was over by the time of the Custer Battle, and rather than having been on the war path the Sioux were living peacefully on land that was theirs by treaty when Custer attacked.

On the other hand I like to point out that the land around the Little Big Horn was believed by the Crow Indians to belong to the Crow. The Crow (Sparrowhawk) had been pushed out of the area by the Sioux (Dakota) and Cheyenne. Since the Custer Battlefield is on the Crow Reservation one could say that justice was served.

Sorry to ramble, but I have always been interested in the subject.

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Buffalo Bill won the real victory, however. "Buffalo Bill's First Scalp for Custer" was a feature of The Wild West for over thirty years, reenacted countless times. Cody even made a movie in the early 1900s that featured the First Scalp for Custer, as well as the shooting of Tall Bull.

"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae

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