Flaming Feather * (1952, Sterling Hayden, Forrest Tucker, Barbara Rush, Richard Arlen, Victor Jory, Edgar Buchanan) – – Classic Movie Review 12,390

The 1951 Technicolor Western film Flaming Feather stars Sterling Hayden as farmer Tex McCloud, who, helped by cavalryman Lieutenant Tom Blaine (Forrest Tucker), has to hunt outlaw Lucky Lee (Victor Jory). 

Director Ray Enright’s rather mediocre 1951 Technicolor Western film Flaming Feather stars Sterling Hayden as farmer Tex McCloud, who, helped by cavalryman Lieutenant Tom Blaine (Forrest Tucker), has to hunt outlaw Lucky Lee (Victor Jory) and rescue a woman in peril, Nora Logan (Barbara Rush), who has been snatched by the Apaches.

Flaming Feather is a very routine, low-budget Western, with no particular new ideas in Gerald Drayson Adams and Frank Gruber’s screenplay.

Some fine Western stalwart character actors like Richard Arlen, George Cleveland and Edgar Buchanan help the stars out of their misery, but unfortunately the movie is flaming dreary some of the time. Veteran Ray Enright, a Westerns expert in this latter stage of his career, keeps it smart and professional, and it looks good in Technicolor thanks to cinematographer Ray Rennahan.

So respect to the stalwart cast and crew then.

Flaming Feather in a double bill with The Boogie Man Will Get You.

The cast are Sterling Hayden, Forrest Tucker, Barbara Rush, Richard Arlen, Victor Jory, Edgar Buchanan, Arlene Whelan, Carol Thurston, Ian MacDonald, George Cleveland, Bob Cortman, Ethan Laidlaw, Don Dunning, Paul Burns, Ray Teal, and Nacho Galindo.

Flaming Feather was screened in places in a double bill with The Boogie Man Will Get You.

Ray Enright (March 25, 1896 – April 3, 1965) directed 73 films between 1927 and 1953. After Coroner Creek (1948), he made six more films: Return of the Bad Men (1948), South of St Louis (1949), Montana (1950), Kansas Raiders (1950), Flaming Feather (1952), and The Man from Cairo (1953).

Flaming Feather is directed by Ray Enright, runs 80 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Gerald Drayson Adams (story and screenplay) and Frank Gruber (additional dialogue), is shot in Technicolor by Ray Rennahan, is produced by Nat Holt, is scored by Paul Sawtel, and is designed by John B Goodman.

The film is shot around Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona, Arizona, and at the Montezuma Castle National Monument near Sedona. Local Yavapai Indians, hired as extras, refused to enter the cliff dwellings saying they represented the ‘dwelling place of the dead’ so filming halted for Navajos from a reservation 137 miles away to come aboard.

The cast are Sterling Hayden as Tex McCloud, Forrest Tucker as Lieutenant Tom Blaine, Arleen Whelan as Carolina, Barbara Rush as Nora Logan, Victor Jory as Lucky Lee aka Sidewinder, Richard Arlen as Eddie ‘Showdown’ Calhoun, Edgar Buchanan as Sgt. O’Rourke, Carol Thurston as Turquoise, Ian MacDonald as Tombstone Jack, George Cleveland as Doc Fallon, Bob Cortman, Ethan Laidlaw, Don Dunning, Paul Burns, Ray Teal, and Nacho Galindo.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,390

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