Hollywood's 1939 obsession: let's make Geronimo... the villain?
The army's effort to capture Apache chief Geronimo, who is leading a band of warriors on a rampage of raiding and murder, is hampered by a feud between two officers--who are father and son.
Acting
Preston Foster's mustache carries the father-son feud
Production
That '10,000 yelling Indians' was maybe 200 extras
Director
Paul Sloane
Preston Foster
Capt. Bill Starrett
Ellen Drew
Alice Hamilton
William Henry
Lt. John Steele, Jr.
Andy Devine
Sneezer
Ralph Morgan
Gen. Steele
Gene Lockhart
Gillespie
Marjorie Gateson
Mrs. Steele
Pierre Watkin
Col. White
Chief Thundercloud
Geronimo
Kitty Kelly
Daisy Devine
Monte Blue
Interpreter
Addison Richards
Frederick Allison
Joseph Crehan
President Ulysses S. Grant
William Haade
McNeil
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
1939 was peak 'Western as American mythology'—this dropped same year as Stagecoach, but without Ford's nuance. The real Geronimo died in 1909 a prisoner of war; Hollywood turned his resistance into villainy.
The father-son conflict (Foster vs. Henry) mirrors the film's own identity crisis: can't decide if it's pro-military adventure or accidentally sympathetic to Native resistance. The result? Neither works.
US
