Comanche Territory (1950) Maureen O'Hara, Macdonald Carey, Will Geer, Charles Drake Movie Review

Comanche Territory (1950)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Macdonald Carey and Will Geer in Comanche Territory (1950)

The Feisty Western Gal

When silver is discovered on the land belonging to the Comanche, the U.S. government broker a deal to mine the land. But the locals living near to the land are yet to be made aware of any such agreement and their greed is threatening to cause unrest in the area especially when the new treaty doesn't reach the Comanches. The legendary James Bowie (Macdonald Carey) arrives in the area and following meeting politician Dan'l Seeger (Will Geer) who had been ambushed quickly realises that controlling the situation is not going to be simple as Katie Howard (Maureen O'Hara), a local business woman, appears to be involved in the trouble.

I don't know anyone who writes movie reviews who doesn't have a favourite actor or actress and it is always hard to not to be more generous with their movies than others. For me I have a weakness for Maureen O'Hara movies and as "Comanche Territory" sees her playing a feisty western gal it would be easy to get a little carried away in praising this western from 1950. But the thing is that whilst "Comanche Territory" is entertaining, especially for O'Hara's performance, it is also pretty routine with a storyline which sees an official trying to uncover who is behind the breaking of a peace treaty with the nearby Comanche as well as some romance.

Maureen O'Hara in Comanche Territory (1950)

As such what you get in "Comanche Territory" is Jim Bowie entering town and sniffing around whilst finding himself dealing with various locals; be it the feisty Katie or old timer Dan'l Seeger. You have the semi mystery as to who is really behind the trouble as Dan'l smelt fancy perfume when he was ambushed just prior to delivering the amendment to the treaty with the Comanche. And I could go on because I don't think there is a single part to "Comanche Territory" which I haven't encountered in other westerns.

But "Comanche Territory" is colourful and it is Maureen O'Hara delivering a feisty character which provides plenty of entertainment giving us that humour of a tough western gal who is tomboy-ish but finds herself ditching the buck skin and dressing up like a lady due to a spark of something with Bowie. Also providing some fun is Will Geer who just had a way of saying things which made them amusing. Unfortunately Macdonald Carey ends up far too bland as Bowie and lacks that real element of action man to make him an entertaining lead.

What this all boils down to is that "Comanche Territory" is certainly an entertaining movie for fans of old westerns and also Maureen O'Hara. But it is also a routine which one which could have done with a stronger actor in the lead as sadly Macdonald Carey is a little too bland in this.


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