Release date: November 2, 1950, 105 minutes
Director: John Ford
Cast Includes:
Synopsis:
As an officer in the Union Army, under the command of General Sheridan ( J. Carrol Naish), Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke (John Wayne) was obliged to burn the plantation of his Southern-born wife (Maureen O'Hara). She refused to forgive him and they have been estranged for fifteen years. During that time he has not seen his son, Jeff (Claude Jarman, Jnr.)
Col. Yorke has thrown himself wholeheartedly into fighting the Indian Wars in the West - a lost cause since the US and Mexican governments have agreed that their military forces will not cross the Rio Grande under any circumstances. This enables the Apaches to raid, torture, kill the whites, then escape across the border and be safe from attack.
The situation is at a stalemate when General Sheridan arrives at Yorke's headquarters, on a routine inspection. Yorke is supposed to whip the Apaches into submission in order to make the Southwest safe for settlers, but the border sanctuary set-up and the shortage of troops have him licked. Thus, at the worst possible time, Yorke's son, Jeff, enlists in the army, having failed at West Point. He is assigned to his father's command as an ordinary trooper.
Then Mrs Yorke arrives at the fort and, flaunting her charms before Yorke's love-starved eyes, she tries to obtain his agreement to young Jeff's discharge, Jeff and his father both hold out against her but she embarrasses them by taking her place among the enlisted men's wives and mothers on "laundresses' row".
A fresh attack by the Apaches leads General Sheridan to give Col. Yorke informal permission to cross the border and smoke the Indians out of their hideout. They both know it will mean a court's martial for Yorke, but the General promises to handpick the members for the court.
The mission succeeds and the Apaches are taught a lesson, Jeff acquits himself admirably and by doing so cuts loose from his mother's domination. The colonel, as "punishment", is sent to the Court of St. James as US military attache. This pleases his wife immensely. They are reconciled and the trip to England serves as a second honeymoon.
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