Pillars of the Sky [The Tomahawk and the Cross] ** (1956, Jeff Chandler, Dorothy Malone, Ward Bond, Keith Andes, Lee Marvin) – Classic Movie Review 13,072

Pillars of the Sky (1956, Dorothy Malone).

The efficient and actionful 1956 Western film Pillars of the Sky [The Tomahawk and the Cross] stars Jeff Chandler and Dorothy Malone, along with Ward Bond, Keith Andes and Lee Marvin.

Director George Marshall’s 1956 colour and widescreen Western film Pillars of the Sky [The Tomahawk and the Cross] stars Jeff Chandler and Dorothy Malone, along with Ward Bond, Keith Andes, Lee Marvin, Willis Bouchey, Sydney Chaplin, Michael Ansara, Olive Carey, and Charles Horvath

Dorothy Malone stars as married woman Calla Gaxton, who dabbles with a US army scout called First Sgt Emmett Bell (Jeff Chandler), displeasing Captain Tom Gaxton (Keith Andes), in a fairly ordinary Western in which the US Cavalry battles with the Indians after the army violates the treaty by building a road across government-granted tribal land in 1868 Oregon.

Stuck with too much conventional love interest material, Malone can’t seem to find her best form here and Chandler gives a woodenly heroic turn as the hard-drinking, insubordinate First Sergeant Emmett Bell who is reluctant to fight in an Indian war that he tried to prevent.

But, acting wise there is a long roster of effective support players, and the reliable stalwart performances of Ward Bond as medical man Dr Joseph Holden, Lee Marvin as sergeant Lloyd Carracart, Sydney Chaplin as Indian scout and Michael Ansara as chief Kamiakin help a lot.

The movie is efficient and actionful enough, with robust direction by the capable George Marshall, but there are cliches galore in this acceptable minor Western.

The screenplay by Sam Rolfe is taken from Heck Allen’s novel Frontier Fury (writing as Will Henry).

Also in the cast are Orlando Rodriguez, Glen Kramer, Floyd Simmons, Pat Hogan, Felix Noriego, Paul Smith, Martin Milner, Robert Ellis, Ralph Votrian, Walter Coy, Alberto Morin, Richard Hale, Frank DeKova, Terry Wilson, Philip Kieffer, and Gilbert Conner.

Pillars of the Sky [The Tomahawk and the Cross]is directed by Marshall, runs 95 minutes, is made and released by Universal, is written by Sam Rolfe, is shot in colour (Technicolor prints) and widescreen (CinemaScope) by Harold Lipstein, is produced by Robert Arthur, is scored by Joseph Gershenson, William Lava, Heinz Roemheld and Milton Rosen, and is designed by Alexander Golitzen.

It was released as Pillars of the Sky (US) and retitled The Tomahawk and the Cross in the UK.

Ward Bond did not get along with Jeff Chandler or Lee Marvin. Bond told Marvin that the US should attack the Soviet Union because of ‘the Communist threat’. Marvin, an ex-Marine who served in World War Two, told Bond the only thing he knew about war was what he pretended to fight on studio back lots.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,072

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