Fort Dobbs (1958)

The first of three movies, all three westerns, Clint Walker made for Warner Brothers between 1958 and 1961 (the other two being Yellowstone Kelly and Gold of the Seven Saints). It was co-scripted by Burt Kennedy, best known for his scripts for the Boetticher-Scott collaborations of the so-called Ranown Cycle.

In Fort Dobbs Walker is Gar Davis, a man on the run for the law because he has shot a man who had been dallying with his wife. The sheriff and his posse are hot on his trail but he manages to shake them off by changing clothes with a man who was killed by Indians on the warpath, and pushing the dead body over a cliff. Like Randolph Scott in Comanche Station (1960), Davis recues a white woman (Virginia Mayo) from the Comanche and feels it's his obligation to bring her to safety - the Fort Dobbs from the title (not knowing that the fort has been attacked by the Comanche).

The script is strongly reminiscent of Kennedy's work for the Ranown Cycle, but also bears some similarities to the John Wayne western Hondo.  Mayo lives - with her husband and young son - in a remote farm near Indian territory and when Walker arrives at her place, she's waiting for her husband to return from a business trip. Of course we immediately understand who this husband is, and why he won't ever come back. The film is cleverly plotted, but most twists and turns are predictable; when shady arms-dealer Brian Keith shows his repeating rifles, we know they will play a key role in the defense of the fort and Walker's redemption. The action is sparse but intense, and there's a great scene with Mayo and her son arriving in the fort, suddenly realizing that all soldiers have been slaughtered, a harrowing moment of shock and fear.

With his majestic appearance - he stood 6 feet 6 (1.98 m) with a 48 inch chest - Walker even seems to dwarf his horse. He was a gentle giant, lacking the features of a man like Randolph Scott, branded by nature, scarred for life. Mayo isn't bad as the frontierswoman caught in a stressful situation, and she has a memorable scene after Walker has saved her from drowning:  waking up, watching Walking polishing his rifle with a bare chest, she suddenly realizes that she's naked under her blanket, so Walker must have taken off her clothes after getting her out of the water. The scene is both funny and sexy, but it's also virtually the only moment in which the romance between the two characters seems to work. Brian Keith has no trouble stealing the movie as the gunrunner dreaming about making a fortune by selling his Henry repeating Rifles - the rifle that won the West - to no matter who.