More of an army drama set in the West vs. a Western this has solid direction and some good actors. Victor Mature is hammy but Guy Madison gives a stronger performance here than was usual for him, relaxed and assured. Robert Preston is the cruel commander married to a soft and startlingly blond Anne Bancroft, she is good but her part is incidental, who is revealed early on as a souless martinet. This makes some veiled and some pointed references to early settlers disregard for the ways not only of the indians but of trappers and others who had easily coexisted with them and destroyed their way of life as valueless merely because it was not their way.