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In
Arizona, after the Civil War, Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday and his teenage
daughter Philadelphia stop at a rest station on the road to Fort Apache,
where Thursday has just been reassigned as cavalry commander. Also on
his way to Fort Apache is young West Pointer Lieutenant Michael Shannon
O'Rourke, who is met by his godfather, the Irish Sergeant Mulcahy, and two other soldier
friends. Philadelphia and Michael are immediately attracted to each
other, but hide their feelings behind a facade of military decorum.
Upon arriving at the fort, the exacting, strict
Thursday is briefed about the Apache Indians by Captain Kirby York and
longtime acquaintance Captain Sam Collingwood, the former commander of Fort
Apache. Although Thursday, a demoted Eastern-bred Civil War general
who resents his assignment to the remote fort, scoffs at reports of Apache
insurrection, York, a seasoned frontier fighter, advises that the Apache
threat be taken seriously.
Later, Thursday confers privately with
Collingwood, a fellow Civil War veteran who, unlike Thursday, has enjoyed
few promotions. After discussing Collingwood's upcoming transfer,
Thursday talks privately with Michael's father, who is a noncommissioned
sergeant at the fort. Thursday learns that Michael, whose professional
demeanor has greatly impressed him, received his West Point commission
because O'Rourke won the medal of honor during the Civil War.
The next day, while Philadelphia, Collingwood's
wife Emma and Mrs. O'Rourke turn the barren commander's quarters into a
presentable home, Thursday receives word that a general alarm has been
issued at neighboring Fort Grant. Despite the alarm, Michael takes
Philadelphia riding the next morning, and the couple comes across the bodies
of several massacred soldiers. After riding furiously back to Fort
Apache with Philadelphia, Michael relates his findings to a worried
Thursday. Although appreciative of Michael's detailed report, Thursday
forbids the youth to see his daughter again and orders him to lead a small
detail to retrieve the corpses.
While Michael's detail picks up the slain
bodies, Thursday, an avid, if unimaginative strategist, orders a platoon to
follow the detail's wagons. As hoped, the wagons are attacked by
gun-wielding Apaches, who are then chased off by the platoon.
Later, Thursday and York angrily confront Silas
Meacham, the local reservation agent, about selling "rotgut whiskey" and
firearms to the Apaches. Although the greedy Meacham maintains his
innocence, Thursday discovers that the general store's scales have been
fixed and finds liquor where Bibles should be.
Once back at the fort, York convinces Thursday
to allow him and "Johnny Reb" Beaufort, a Spanish-speaking soldier, to
approach Cochise, the leader of the rebel Apaches, alone and unarmed.
While York and Beaufort ride across the Mexican border to the Apache camp,
Philadelphia and her father argue about her future with Michael, who has
just proposed to her. Thursday tells Philadelphia that, as the son of
a non-commissioned officer, Michael can never marry her. He also
informs her that he is sending her back East, where she must remain until
she reaches legal age.
Later, York and Beaufort interrupt a fort dance
to report that, as arranged by York, Cochise is returning to Arizona to talk
peace with Thursday and Meacham. Despite York's pleas that his promise
to Cochise be honored, Thursday orders that the entire Fort Apache regiment
report for battle.
The
regiment is quickly surrounded by Cochise's superior forces, however, and
Thursday is forced to order York to negotiate a peaceful settlement.
The proud Cochise, who is accompanied by Geronimo and other Apache leaders,
demands that Meacham be ousted as a condition for peace, and threatens to
"kill the whites" if this stipulation is not met by dawn. Outraged by
Cochise's demands, Thursday decides to attack the Indians and orders his
troops to ride into battle in groups of four. When York protests this
strategy, which he calls "suicidal," Thursday relieves him of duty and
orders that Michael and he man the supply wagons. As predicted by
York, Thursday's approach proves disastrous to his troops, and he, too, is
shot. After sending Michael to Fort Grant for help, York rescues
Thursday, who insists on continuing, despite his wounds.
Thursday joins his dug-in regiment and, while
fighting alongside O'Rourke and Collingwood, who is unaware that he has just
received the teaching commission he has longed desired, is attacked and
killed by the Apaches. York and his contingency, the regiment's only
survivors, then surrender to Cochise.
Years later, after Philadelphia and Michael have
married, York, now the highly decorated commander of Fort Apache, defends
Thursday's reputation when questioned by reporters about the massacre.
After stating that the spirit of Thursday's doomed regiment lives on in
every new recruit, York rides off to face Geronimo in battle.
Notes
The working title of this film was War Party. In the
onscreen credits, technical advisor Major Philip J. Kieffer was credited as
"Major Philip Kieffer USA, Rtd." Kieffer also appeared in the film,
and in the cast credit his surname was misspelled as "Keiffer." Fort
Apache was the first film in what critics now refer to as director John
Ford's "Cavalry trilogy." The second film,
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, was produced by Argosy Pictures and
distributed by RKO in 1949, and the third,
Rio Grande,
was also produced by Argosy, but released by Republic Pictures in 1950.
John Wayne starred in all three films, and
Victor McLaglen played supporting roles in all three. Frank S.
Nugent, a former New York Times film critic, made his screenwriting
debut with this picture, and later wrote the screenplay for
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, as well as for Ford's 1956 picture
The
Searchers.
_NRFPT_01_small.jpg) _NRFPT_02_small.jpg) Various sources contend that the film's portrayal of
"Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday" was inspired by General George Armstrong
Custer and his ill-fated stand at Little Big Horn. Unlike the Thursday
character, however, Custer fought against the Sioux Indians in the Dakotas.
According to modern biographical sources, Cochise, the chief of the Chiricahua Apaches in Arizona, led a band of followers into the Dragoon
Mountains in 1861 and evaded capture until 1871, when he surrended to
General George Crook. In 1872, he fled the reservation until the
government established a new Chiricahua reservation on Apache ancestral
land. He surrendered a second time to Tom Jeffords and died in 1874.
As depicted in Fort Apache, Geronimo was a member of the Apache
warriors council under Cochise. In 1885, he began a campaign against
the whites and was finally captured by General Crook in 1886. He
escaped shortly afterward, was recaptured and eventually became a farmer.
HR news items add the following
information about the production. Exteriors for the picture were shot
in Monument Valley, twenty-two miles from the nearest telephone and town.
(Modern sources note that because insurance was prohibitively expensive in
Utah, filming was done on the Arizona side of the Valley.) Interiors
were to be shot at Enterprise Studios in Hollywood, although no confirmation
of this announcement has been found. (Modern sources contend that
interiors were filmed at RKO's Pathé lot in Culver City.) At Monument
Valley, director John Ford hired two doctors from Los Angeles to oversee his
600-person crew, which worked in 135 degree heat. The crew included at
least ten stunt riders, including actor Ben Johnson, whom HR
described as a "husky young cowboy from Pawhuska, Oklahoma." After his
work on Fort Apache, Johnson was signed as a "termer" by Ford and
Cooper and went on to appear in several other Ford westerns, including
3 Godfathers,
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and The Wagonmaster.
John Agar, a former serviceman who was married
to co-star
Shirley Temple at the time of production, made his screen debut in the
film. He and Temple, both of whom RKO borrowed from David O.
Selznick's company for the production, divorced in 1949. Although
HR announced that Fernando Fernández, "Mexico's Sinatra," was signed to
a "singing role" in the film, his appearance in the final film has not been
confirmed. Dick Foran sang the picture's only solo ("Sweet
Genevieve"). In addition to "Sweet Genevieve," excerpts from the
traditional song "The Girl I Left Behind Me" are also heard in the film.
Technical advisor and bit player Major Philip Kieffer, whose name was
misspelled as "Keiffer" in the cast list, was an army historian and "West
Pointer."
Although RKO distributed Argosy's first
production,
The
Fugitive, which was released in late 1947, United Artists was announced
in March 1947 as this picture's distributor. In July 1947, however,
just prior to the start of production on Fort Apache, HR
reported that RKO was releasing the film because of United Artists'
"unsettled status." According to HR , Argosy's deal with RKO
included distribution rights to a second Ford film (She
Wore a Yellow Ribbon). Although MPA lists the film's
general release date as March 9, 1948, HR news items indicate that
the world premiere took place in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 27, 1948, and
that a Chicago premiere occurred two days later. Proceeds from the
picture's Chicago premiere, which was sponsored by the Chicago
Herald-American newspaper, went to the newspaper's wounded soldier fund.
In May 1948, HR announced that Argosy was planning to advertise
Fort Apache and
The
Fugitive on KTLA, a newly formed, independent Los Angeles
television station. Frozen assets from the British release of Fort
Apache and
The
Fugitive were to be used to finance Ford's picture
The
Quiet Man (not made until 1952), according to an April 1948 HR
news item.
Modern sources add the following information
about the production. As preparation for writing the film's script,
Ford had Nugent read fifty books about the story's period and setting and
sent him to Arizona to study Apache culture. Nugent depicted the
Apaches more sympathetically in his screenplay than Bellah did in his story.
(In a January 1949 letter to Nugent, American historian Dee Brown
complimented Nugent and Ford on their accurate, sensitive portrayal of the
tribe.)
The film's original budget was $2.8 million, and
for their work, Temple,
John Wayne and
Henry Fonda were each paid $100,000, while McLaglen received $75,000.
The parade ground exteriors were shot at Ray
Corrigan Ranch in Simi Valley, California. Cinematographer Archie
Stout convinced Ford to shoot the exteriors on black-and-white infrared
film, a film that produced superior day-for-night effects, but had been
rarely used because of its tricky exposure requirements. Utilizing
recently improved stock, Stout shot more infrared film than on any previous
Hollywood picture. Production wrapped twenty-five days under schedule
and $700,000 under budget. Modern sources credit William Clothier as second
unit photographer, Eddie O'Fearna (Ford's older brother) as second assistant
director, and Cliff Lyons as second-unit director. Modern sources add Harry
Tenbrook (Courier), Fred Graham (Cavalry man), Mickey Simpson
(Noncom officer), Archie Twitchell (Stagecoach driver), Dan
Borzage (Trooper), Gil Perkins, Junior Hudkins and Hubert Kerns (Cavalrymen/Stuntmen)
and Frank McGrath (Bugler/Stuntman) to the cast. In addition,
modern sources note that Ford fired actor/director Paul Fix while the crew
was filming in Monument Valley. The film earned $445,000 at the box
office and was one of RKO's biggest moneymakers in 1948. On August 5,
1949, the Hallmark Playhouse broadcast a radio adaptation of the story,
starring
John Wayne and
Ward Bond. |
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