The first of director John Ford's unofficial trilogy of Cavalry Westerns - the others were She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande. Shot in Ford's favourite location, the spectacular Monument Valley, it possesses all the sweep, grandeur and action of an age long past. Heading a fine cast of Ford regulars, co-stars Henry Fonda and John Wayne both give superb performances: Fonda is the martinet Civil War veteran embittered by his demotion to command the Arizona outpost and deal with its rebellious local Indians. Wayne (in one of his finest roles) plays his more astute second-in-command. Apart from the masterly outdoor action scenes, though, the film has worn less well. Much of its other footage is over-sentimental and its 'other rank' humour painful, with bull-in-a-china-shop Victor McLaglen the chief offender. An adult Shirley Temple and her then-husband John Agar are highly resistible (although their scenes are too awkwardly written to give them much chance) as the fort's young lovers and everyone, Fonda apart, is just too good to be true.

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