MovieChat Forums > Siege at Red River (1954) Discussion > Seige of boredom

Seige of boredom

posted 13 years ago by inneroscator2
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I watched this a few nites ago on TCM and it really stinks to put it mildly. A routine vehicle to say the least. Quite a few low-budget saturday afternoon matinee oaters are better than this. Why waste beautiful technicolor on such a routine exercise? Absolutely nothing memorable here. Van Johnson is totally unengaging as the "hero" unless one likes to hear him sing the word "tapioca" quickly and Milburn Stone comes across as annoying as Johnson's sidekick. So what is the point? Pretty yankee women will fall in love with confederate spies who can sing and use medicine snake oil wagons as fronts for their espionage activities? Only decent aspect of the movie is beautiful Joanne Dru in technicolor. What a stinker.

[–] Jason_Radley 13 years ago

I learn something from every Western I watch. Had heard of the Gatling gun but this helped to place it in historical perspective. Admittedly the comic edge of a couple of scenes sits rather uneasily with the core of the film but the theme of the justifiable enmity caused by war was deftly handled.