Good concept, poorly executed.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The Indian Fighter was a good western for Kirk Douglas to show his stuff. Apparently he did his own stunts, riding his own horse, even falling from a horse and breaking his nose in the process although that wasn't part of the script.We got to see Kirk Douglas with his teeth fully clenched and of course we got see Kirk Douglas flexing his biceps and shirtless. But the best parts were the passionate scenes between him and Elsa Martinelli. Boy they were hot. I can see myself now back in the 1950's at a Saturday afternoon matinée and the theater is packed mostly with kids and there would be a lot of hooting and hollering especially when they rolled in the water. You could call it lust in the dust except they were in the water so lust in the river. But us impressionable young lads weren't supposed to know things like that but it would still have been great fun. Or as some would say darn there they are smooching again. Howls of laughter. I watched this film recently and given how hot the scenes were between Kirk and Elsa it was not surprising to learn afterwards that the two of them were having a torrid affair on the set. Making it more bizarre was the fact that Kirk was married at the time to Anne Douglas and it was with her that they found Elsa Martinelli and got her for the part of the Indian maiden.Further the other love interest in the film was Donna Douglas playing Susan Rogers a single mother travelling west with her young lad but she was also Kirk's ex wife from 1943-1951 and the mother of Michael Douglas. Boy the intrigue and relationships behind the movie were better than the movie itself. Not that the film was bad as it was a pretty good duster even literally as a lot of dust was kicked up in the battle scenes. On the plus side this film did a good job of trying to present the Indian in a positive light (Hollywood was starting to figure it out that the Indians were not always the bad guys) and not as godless savages or some such thing as the baddie Lon Chaney declared at one point.Indeed there was a lot of that as the white men and women would literally go into a panic at the thought of the Indians coming anywhere near them. After all don't the Indians just want to rape (am I allowed to say that?) and pillage and scalp? No they were presented in a positive light and of course poor Kirk was accused of being an Indian lover. But the film turned on the baddies Walter Matthau and Lon Chaney both plying the Indians with drink and looking for the gold. But it's OK as they get theirs in the end after they were responsible for breaking the peace treaty and of course blaming it on the Indians and everyone runs around like chickens with their heads cut off screaming the Indians are coming or some such blather. There was a pretty good battle scene and overall this film wasn't bad with great fun and some regular western actors like Ray Teal, Walter Abel and Allan Hale. And a great little turn by film noir icon Elisha Cook Jr. The CinemaScope was great even on my 42 inch Samsung with a clear picture seen in its full glory on YouTube. Great fun with the best fun with Kirk shirtless flexing his biceps and frolicking with Elsa in the river. Lust in the river.

Kirk Douglas is portrayed as a lovable jack-the-lad here, always ready to fight for right. He's got a winning quip, a twinkle in his eye and a heart of a lion. I beg to differ.For starters, right at the beginning he sees an Indian squaw he likes, taking a bath in a lake. So what does he do? Forget about roses or chocolates... he virtually ASSAULTS her to get a kiss, and then steals her knife into the bargain. Later on, he does the exact same thing. Guess what... this brutish behaviour actually makes her FALL IN LOVE with the maniac, and she has sex with him in the forest (only implied though... this WAS made in 1955 after all). This infatuation also causes him to divert a wagon train of white folk on a two day detour from their destination into hostile Indian territory... just so he can sneak a peek at her. This leads to a huge fight, in which many lives are lost on both sides. Some 'hero'.If you ignore the movie's celebration of this psycho, and the dubious underlying message that we should all resort to Stone Age methods to get the girl of our dreams, there is quite a bit to enjoy here. Full scale battles, majestic cinematography, a compelling story, the works. There are amusing supporting characters, including a young guy who wants to photograph the whole Wild West with his newfangled invention known as a 'camera', and a tough widow with a little boy who is constantly proposed to by a boring fertiliser-obsessed farmer. Sadly for him, her affections (which remain unrequited) lie with Kirk Douglas... and even more bafflingly, her son idolises this lunatic too. Suddenly, soil is starting to seem more appealing by the minute...So, yeah. Not a classic, but a rousing enough spectacle. With a protagonist I love to hate. Next... 6/10

I've always enjoyed Kirk Douglas films in general and he's usually very good in westerns. But The Indian Fighter quite frankly is a pumped up B western.Kirk produced this one as well and was able to get a good cast of familiar faces in westerns. He even got his ex-wife, Diana Douglas to appear as a widow traveling west on a wagon train with her son.Kirk Douglas is Johnny Hawks who is a scout guiding a wagon train west to Oregon. The film opens with him checking out the naked Elsa Martinelli taking a bath in a creek. Pleasure before business and he continues on to the village where he finds out Elsa is the daughter of Chief Eduard Franz.And that sets the tone for the film. When Douglas should be concerned about the safety of the people he's working for, he's off trying to court Elsa. His preoccupation with her almost causes disaster to the train.Action there is though, including a nicely staged Indian attack on an army post. And the whole film was shot in Oregon on location quite nicely. I believe some of this same area was used in Kirk Douglas's later western The Way West.Kirk Douglas's heroes are usually flawed and quite three dimensional. But this film has a hero I could not really get a rooting interest for.

Kirk Douglas turns in another of his wonderfully flamboyant performances as Johnny Hawks, `The Indian Fighter'. The movie is humorous and action picked. It even has a terrific performances from Diana Douglas, Kirk's ex-wife. However, for whatever reason, Kirk Douglas has populated his movie with some ridiculous casting choices: Eduard Franz as a Sioux chief(?), Harry Landers as Grey Eagle(??), Hank Worden as Crazy Bear(?!!!!?) and Elsa Martinelli as an Indian maiden(??!!!!!!!???). The first time Martinelli delivers that thick Italian accents, I started giggling. Come on, Kirk; you produced this. Couldn't you have found some REAL Indians, or at least an actress that didn't sound as if she's just come off the boat at Ellis Island. Hank Worden also plays a white character, making things seem even more ridiculous.Hey, my wife is Italian, so I wouldn't dare take cheap shots at Martinelli. Actually, when she keeps her mouth shut, Martinelli is pretty darn good. Had the script be rewritten so she only spoke Sioux, Martinelli would have been MUCH more believable. Oh well.To it's credit, the movie neither exploits or downplays the interracial relationship between Douglas and Martinelli. That's daring and commendable on the part of producer Douglas, particularly given the era of both the story and race relations in 50s America.No one seems to have commented on the Douglas-Martinelli courting ritual. It looks more like rape than romance. I thought feminist reviewers would be outraged. However, I've been told this ritual was common among the Plains Indians, though it is not clear to me whether this applies to the Sioux. Some comments should be made about the performances of Walter Matthau and Lon Chaney. Matthau comes across as WAY too contemporary and Chaney still seems to be playing Lenny from `Of Mice and Men'. Elisha Cook seems to have wandered over from the set of `Shane.' Nonetheless, Cook is still pretty watchable. Michael Winkelman (`The Real McCoys'), who played Diana Douglas's son, is terrific.The Technicolor photography is very good, the editing only OK. For example, the wagon train has traveled at least one full day, but seems to get back to the fort in a couple of minutes. The Oregon landscapes are spectacular.Given its shortcomings, `The Indian Fighter is STILL a pretty decent western. I give it a weak `6'.