You're the army, do something. Trooper Hook is
John Chard
You're the army, do something. Trooper Hook is directed by Charles Marquis Warren and collectively written by David Victor, Jack Schaefer and Herbert Little…
You're the army, do something.
Trooper Hook is directed by Charles Marquis Warren and collectively written by David Victor, Jack Schaefer and Herbert Little Jr. It stars Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, Earl Holliman, Royal Dano and Rudolfo Acosta. Music is by Gerald Fried, with theme tune song by Tex Ritter, and cinematography is by Ellsworth Fredericks.
Upon capturing a band of marauding Apaches, Cavalry Sergeant Clovis Hook (McCrea) finds a white woman amongst the group. Cora Sutliff (Stanwyck) was taken by the Apache years ago and became the squaw of their leader, Nanchez (Acosta), she also bore him a child, Quito (Terry Lawrence). The army decides to reunite Cora with her white husband and charge Hook with delivering both her and Quito safely across country to the Sutliff homestead...
Splendid cast is assembled for this black and white Oater that is more about racism and the problems of inter-racial relations in the Old West, than it is a Cavalry Vs Indians shoot 'em up. Story essentially follows a stagecoach travelling across country that finds Hook, Cora and Quito encountering all manner of characters along the way, most of whom are racist. While of course there is the small matter of the Apache being on their tail as well.
Hook is a grizzled old badger, orders are orders, regardless of if he had any sort of objections to his mission, he's there to keep order and see the job through. For various reasons, everyone on the journey will be looking to him for action and decisions, not least Cora and Quito who begin to form a warm relationship with him. It of course builds to a head once the Apache come back onto the scene, and there's the issue of if Cora's husband will accept her and her half-breed son into his life?
It's very competently performed, and with the exception of some of the lower budget aspects of the production, it's well crafted by Warren. Unfortunately the writing doesn't always give the outside characters a quality of script befitting the themes of the story. Hook and Cora get some good back story, she in explanation of her captivity and he with his rueful recollections as a prisoner of the Civil War. While Holliman is served well as a genial cowpoke and Dano as the crotchety stagecoach driver is great fun.
Coming as it did post far better movies that dealt with prejudice themes in the Indian Wars, it feels like a coat tail grabber, and a watered down offering at that. That it's still a worthy viewing experience comes down to the work of a committed set of lead actors. 6.5/10
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★ 7 / 10
You're the army, do something.
hitchcockthelegend
Trooper Hook is directed by Charles Marquis Warren and collectively written by David Victor, Jack Schaefer and Herbert Little Jr. It stars Joel McCrea, Barbara…
Trooper Hook is directed by Charles Marquis Warren and collectively written by David Victor, Jack Schaefer and Herbert Little Jr. It stars Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, Earl Holliman, Royal Dano and Rudolfo Acosta. Music is by Gerald Fried, with theme tune song by Tex Ritter, and cinematography is by Ellsworth Fredericks.Upon capturing a band of marauding Apaches, Cavalry Sergeant Clovis Hook (McCrea) finds a white woman amongst the group. Cora Sutliff (Stanwyck) was taken by the Apache years ago and became the squaw of their leader, Nanchez (Acosta), she also bore him a child, Quito (Terry Lawrence). The army decides to reunite Cora with her white husband and charge Hook with delivering both her and Quito safely across country to the Sutliff homestead...Splendid cast is assembled for this black and white Oater that is more about racism and the problems of inter-racial relations in the Old West, than it is a Cavalry Vs Indians shoot 'em up. Story essentially follows a stagecoach travelling across country that finds Hook, Cora and Quito encountering all manner of characters along the way, most of whom are racist. While of course there is the small matter of the Apache being on their tail as well.Hook is a grizzled old badger, orders are orders, regardless of if he had any sort of objections to his mission, he's there to keep order and see the job through. For various reasons, everyone on the journey will be looking to him for action and decisions, not least Cora and Quito who begin to form a warm relationship with him. It of course builds to a head once the Apache come back onto the scene, and there's the issue of if Cora's husband will accept her and her half-breed son into his life?It's very competently performed, and with the exception of some of the lower budget aspects of the production, it's well crafted by Warren. Unfortunately the writing doesn't always give the outside characters a quality of script befitting the themes of the story. Hook and Cora get some good back story, she in explanation of her captivity and he with his rueful recollections as a prisoner of the Civil War. While Holliman is served well as a genial cowpoke and Dano as the crotchety stagecoach driver is great fun.Coming as it did post far better movies that dealt with prejudice themes in the Indian Wars, it feels like a coat tail grabber, and a watered down offering at that. That it's still a worthy viewing experience comes down to the work of a committed set of lead actors. 6.5/10
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★ 8 / 10
"Ole Stoneface" is one of 3 plausible husbands for rescued woman and her mixed race boy
weezeralfalfa
Sergeant Hook's life is changed forever by his capture of Apache chief Nanchez, her mixed race son, and silent European 'wife': Cora. Most of the drama…
Sergeant Hook's life is changed forever by his capture of Apache chief Nanchez, her mixed race son, and silent European 'wife': Cora. Most of the drama concerns the disposition of the 5 year old son: Quito. Cora insists that he remain with her, wherever she goes. But, nearly everyone else, except Hook and a woman or two, thinks the boy should be kept with his father, wherever he goes. Most important, her white husband of about 15 years refuses to accept Quito. Hook points out that the couple didn't have any children in their 9 years together, hence Quito might be the only child he ever has. No one seems to have consulted Quito as to his preference, if any. Nanchez is obsessed that the boy be returned to him. It's not clear whether he insisted on the return of his 'wife', nor whether she would want to return, given a choice. She says Nanchez was kind to her except for one beating when she didn't do what he asked.
When captured, Cora refuses to talk in any language. Once she felt more comfortable, she began to speak English to some. Most European captives lost their facility with their native language if captured for 1 or 2 years. Generally, the younger they were, the more rapid they lost their native tongue. Cora must have been relatively old, probably 25-30 when captured. Thus, she might be expected to retain bits of her native language after about 6 years of captivity. Thus, I suspect her unexpected apparent full retention of English was more a device to facilitate the progression of the film story.
The film begins with the Apache execution of a small detachment of surrounded cavalry, who somehow had managed to lose their horses, firearms and swords. Immediately following, Sergeant Hook's larger cavalry detachment overruns the Apache, capturing Chief Nanchez, as ordered, and killing or capturing most of the other Apache.
At the army post, as well as several stage depots on the way to finding her white husband, Cora was mostly criticized for sleeping with an Apache, saying that she should have killed herself instead of yielding sexually to a fierce enemy of Europeans. Cora didn't agree. Hook comforted her, trying to minimize such revulsion, and telling her about his experience as a captured soldier in the Civil War, when he pretended to be a dog, in order to get enough food to survive.
During their trip to find Cora's husband, they have an encounter or two with Nanchez, whom they learned had escaped prison. Nanchez was still intent on capturing Quito, but Hook had another man hold a gun to Quito's head while he negotiated with Nanchez. Nanchez said the Apache called Hook "Stoneface", for his unemotional bearing, but he should be called "Stoneheart" for his refusal to hand over Quito and threatening Quito's life.
In another tense scene, when Cora is running from her husband: Jeff, toward Hook, who is about to leave Jeff's property, Jeff raises his rifle, threatening to shoot one or all of them. Just then, a bullet from Nanchez nearly hits them. They all get in the buckboard and ride in the opposite direction, with Nanchez and others following close behind. See the film to see what happens next(if you can't guess). This film is currently available on YouTube.
Of course, there are various other Hollywood films that feature females or children captured by Aboriginal Americans. Among these are: "Northwest Passage", "The Charge at Feather River", "The Searchers", "Two Flags West", "Comanche Station", "Stolen women, Captured Hearts", and "Soldier Blue"(all of which I have reviewed),but the film that most resembles the details of the present film is "The Stalking Moon", released a decade later. The main difference is that there is no white husband waiting for her in that film. To me, it's a less interesting and less realistic film. Also, some similarities to "Stagecoach", and "The Big Country" are evident.
Joel McCrea's persistent stiffness in his demeanor is probably partly the characterization of a dutiful Sergeant. However, his persona in other films tends to be stiff. Royal Dano, as the charismatic humorous stage driver serves to partly counter McCrea's stiffness. Barbara Stanwyck did well in her alternative withdrawn and feisty scenes. She was paired with McCrea in a number of other films, the one I remember being "Union Pacific" of nearly 2 decades earlier. Rudolfo Acosta, born a Mexican, mostly played bad guys, especially in westerns. Here he plays Nanchez, the worst of a bevy of bad guys in this film, including both whites and Apache.
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58%
AUDIENCE
6.6/10
1.3K
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Stuck at 64% for three days! Seed please