Rod Taylor

Ernest Borgnine

John Mills

Luciana Paluzzi

James Whitmore

Victoria Vetri

Louis Hayward

Joseph Sirola

Marco López

Michael Cole

Hugh Reilly

Barry O'Hara

Gerald York

Gordon Douglas

Richard Jessup

Leith Stevens

Edith Head

Jack Jason

Harold E. Stine

Bob Wyman

Bob Herron

Action

Drama

Western

Chuka

Rodlor

Paramount Pictures

New Art Film Company

United States of America

We're the scum of the United States Army. Colonel.

Chuka is directed by Gordon Douglas and adapted to screenplay by Richard Jessup from his own novel. It stars Rod Taylor, John Mills, Ernest Borgnine, Luciana Paluzzi, James Whimore, Louis Hayward and Victoria Vetri. Music is by Leith Stevens and Pthe Color photography by Harold E. Stine.

1876 and Fort Clendenon is host to a bunch of army misfits and a lovelorn gunslinger, hardly a group capable of defending the Fort against an impending Arapaho attack...

A super cast and a rather gorgeous colour print can't avert this being a distinctly average Siege Oater. Prodution wise it's a hodgepodge, an uneasy blend of stuffy looking studio bound sequences, matte paintings and airy locales, while the acting, sparse characterisations and general reliance on non meaty chatty filler scenes, all make it an odd viewing experience.

The chat angle is most frustrating, not so much because there is so much of it so as to make this a 90% talky piece, but in that there are moments of great dialogue, where interesting character arcs are dangled, but alas they are threads that are never pulled to the benefit of all. Action is sparse but what there is is competently staged, with the siege itself - while not worth the wait - has enough moments of excitement and intelligence so as to not annoy.

A very good and intriguing ending further adds to the strange mix of poor and good of it all, but ultimately it's average and hardly essential for fans of Westerns and the stars involved. 5/10

English