Outstanding Musical Score (soundtrack)

The film was greatly enhanced by the musical score. At times a little "over the top," still, the score is epic and magnificent - a successful interpretation of Native American music blended with "Hollywood" orchestration. The composer, Hugo Friedhofer, also wrote great epic scores for the Marlon Brando Western, "One-Eyed Jacks," as well as a spiritual-epic soundtrack for Ingrid Bergman's "Joan of Arc." In "Arrow," there is a surprising, almost startling, use of strings - surprising in the context of the Old West - the unexpected lushness of the strings serves to underscore the tenderness of the romance between Tom Jeffords (James Stewart) and Sonseearay (Debra Paget), as well as the brotherhood and hope-for-the-future motif between Jeffords and Cochise (Jeff Chandler). On the other hand, perhaps the use of strings is not surprising in view of the fact that the musical director was Alfred Newman, head of 20th Century Fox music department, famous for his use of strings and for his partnership with the orchestrator of "Arrow" and many other Fox films, Edward Powell. They just don't make soundtracks - or movies - like this any more.