Devil's Doorway

332. Devil's Doorway (1950) Mann 85 Minutes B&W Stars: Robert Taylor, Louis Calhern. Plot: A Civil war Indian Medal-of-Honor winner returns to home and fights against prejudice and to keep his land.

Devil's Doorway was a box office and critical flop when released. Although, it had some boosters, who saw it as a civil rights movie, most saw it as a low budget movie copy cat version of "Broken Arrow" released the same year. Seeing it 70 years later,  the public in 1950 was correct in turning up its collective nose.

Devils Doorway is a low budget, badly written Western B&W western notable only for a few things: First, Robert Taylor is badly miscast as an Indian. Taylor's acting isn't bad, if you forget he's supposed to be an Indian, which the movie never does. Secondly, after establishing that Taylor is an Indian, and that the evil Luis Calhern is an "Injun hater" the movie turns into a boring talk-fest for the next 60 minutes. Taylor hooks up with a lady lawyer and there's a lot - way too much - of legalese about land grants and the homesteader act, blah blah. After boring us to death with endless legal disputes, and run-ins with a few irrational 'what are you doing here Redskin?' racists, the movie turns into a mindless shootout. The movie then indicates we're supposed to cheer on the Indians as they attack the white sheepherders and their covered wagons. Interestingly, the Indians and Robert Taylor use Dynamite, which of course wasn't invented yet. Third, The script and story are complete historical fantasy.

Summary: While you can see Mann's genius in the camera work and some of the action scenes, the script, cast, budget and thin plot simply aren't good enough to make this more than a C+ Western. Lately, many film critics have been beating the drum for it, but not every Mann film was a good one, and this is Exhibit A. Rating **