The Command

With shoot-'em-ups galore, a clean-cut hero, dust-beaten horse soldiers and fearless warriors, The Command—Warner Bros.' first CinemaScope release—is a galloping entertainment success.

Guy Madison portrays 7th cavalry doctor Capt. Robert MacClaw, unexpectedly handed the reins of his battered troop's command. Unfamiliar with by-the-book military tactics, MacClaw nevertheless knows how to take charge. He keeps the book closed and his mind open as he leads his men and a settlers' wagon train on a desperate journey besieged by waves of Indian attacks.

Multiple Oscar winner Dimitri Tiomkin provides the lively score pacing the thunderous action. And plenty of hoofs provide the thunder: the movie's wrangler estimated the project required 41,882 horse-hours (number of horses times number of hours used). That ain't hay!

From the Saturday Evening Post novel by James Warner Bellah.