Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.
Direction
Ford's Monument Valley: characters dwarfed by landscape and ego.
Acting
Fonda's mustache-twirling villainy against Wayne's simmering decency.
Cinematography
Shadows of sabers, dust clouds of doom.
Director
John Ford
John Wayne
Capt. Kirby York
Henry Fonda
Lt. Col. Owen Thursday
Shirley Temple
Philadelphia Thursday
Pedro Armendáriz
Sgt. Beaufort
Ward Bond
Sgt. Maj. Michael O'Rourke
George O'Brien
Capt. Sam Collingwood
Victor McLaglen
Sgt. Festus Mulcahy
Anna Lee
Mrs. Emily Collingwood
Irene Rich
Mrs. Mary O'Rourke
Dick Foran
Sgt. Quincannon
Guy Kibbee
Capt. Dr. Wilkens
Grant Withers
Silas Meacham
Jack Pennick
Sgt. Daniel Schattuck
Ray Hyke
Lt. Gates
Movita
Guadalupe
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
First of Ford's 'Cavalry Trilogy,' this quietly dismantles the Western hero worship he'd helped create.
Fonda, usually the embodiment of American decency, begged Ford to cast him against type. The mustache was his idea.
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