Some time back, I recorded a block, or at least a double feature, of Alan Ladd movies. I already did a review of The Deep Six; the other movie that I recorded was Drum Beat. Once again, having watched it, I can now do the requisite post on it.
The movie is based on a real historical event, the Modoc War of the early 1870s between the Modoc Tribe and the US. The Modoc, like a lot of tribes, had been put on reservations not always on their traditional lands, with the result that some tribal members were unhappy and resorted to violence. The Modoc were originally in northern California but moved north to Oregon, and by 1872 some dissidents were resorting to violence.
Against that background, an Indian fighter named Johnny MacKay (Alan Ladd) is summoned to Washington by President Grant to discuss the issue and what can be done. Johnny's job will be to go back west and renounce violence in the effort to bring peace between the Modoc and white man and subdue those members of the tribe who don't like the status quo. Also heading west is Nancy Meek (Audrey Dalton), whose uncle had fought on the frontier and decided to retire there. Unfortunately, they don't make it to Oregon without incident, as the stagecoach is attacked, and Nancy discovers that there's been an ambush on her uncle's farm with her uncle and aunt having been killed.
The man responsible for all of this is a member of the Modoc calling himself Captain Jack (that's Charles Bronson), and he's a bright if violent man who knows how to use violence to keep the white man at bay. But, as mentioned earlier, there are some Modoc who are also willing to live in relative peace with the white man, or perhaps even in the white man's world and not just on a reservation. Among that latter group are Toby (Marisa Pavan) and her brother Manok, and they can function as a sort of go-between the Modoc and the whites.
Sadly, while there are Modoc dissidents who still want to fight, there are also white dissidents who see the violence from the Modoc and want revenge in the most severe way possible. This threatens to scupper the delicate peace negotiations between the US government, who really do want peace albeit with them in control, and the Modoc. When some whites do bollix things up, that's only bound to make Captain Jack more violent.
Of course, we know how history turned out, and that the Americans wound up victorious; after all, there's no Modoc country today. That requires the defeat of Captain Jack, and the rest of Drum Beat deals with how that happens.
Drum Beat is well enough made, although despite the disclaimer in the opening about how "Fictional incidents and characters have been introduced only where necessary to dramatize the truth", I wonder just how much of this follows the real history, and the extent to which it needed to. Alan Ladd and Charles Bronson both do well, although it is a bit difficult to believe Bronson as a member of the Modoc. It's even more difficult to accept Marisa Pavan as a Native American.
Of course, back in the 1950s when Drum Beat was made, it was normal to cast not just white Anglo Americans in odd ethnicities, but foreigners as well, and everybody does the best they can. Drum Beat is ultimately entertaining enough, if not a particularly great movie.
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