Tonka ** (1958, Sal Mineo, Philip Carey, Jerome Courtland) – Classic Movie Review 9857

Italian American Sal Mineo is odd, awkward casting but gets a useful role in Walt Disney Productions’s junior 1958 Western adventure film Tonka [A Horse Named Comanche] about a young Sioux Indian boy called White Bull who catches and trains a wild colt he calls Tonka. His passion for the horse is shared by US Cavalry captain Miles Keogh (Carey), who becomes the owner of Comanche.

The horse is sold to General George Armstrong Custer (Britt Lomond) and is the sole survivor at Custer’s Last Stand after the last soldier was killed by the Indians at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Mineo’s strong performance, Loyal Griggs’s Technicolor photography and Oliver Wallace’s music score are the main assets in director Lewis R Foster’s pleasant, sentimental saga, held back by its low budget.

Lewis R Foster and Lillie Hayward’s screenplay is based on David Appel’s book Comanche: Story of America’s Most Heroic Horse, which tells an imaginary story of the horse’s owners.

Also in the cast are Jerome Courtland, Rafael Campos, H M Wynant, Joy Page, Britt Lomond, Herbert Rudley, Sydney Smith, John War Eagle, Gregg Martell, Slim Pickens, Robert ‘Buzz’ Henry, and Eddie Little Sky.

It was filmed in Bend and Madras, Oregon.

A Horse Named Comanche is the US reissue title.

Tonka [A Horse Named Comanche] is directed by Lewis R Foster, runs 97 minutes, is made by Walt Disney Productions, is released by Buena Vista Distribution, is written by Lewis R Foster and Lillie Hayward, based on David Appel’s book Comanche: Story of America’s Most Heroic Horse, is shot in Technicolor by Loyal Griggs, is produced by James C Pratt and John Lasseter and is scored by Oliver Wallace.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9857

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