Fort Osage was released on January 1st, 1952. Produced by Monogram Pictures it is directed by genre veteran Lesley Selander and stars Rod Cameron. In this film Cameron plays wagonmaster Tom Clay, who is hired by the unscrupulous Arthur Pickett to lead a wagon train of homesteaders from Missouri to California.
On his way in to town to meet Pickett, Tom comes across a massacred wagon train and, believing that the Osage are on the warpath, tries to dissuade Pickett from sending the homesteaders through. Unbeknownst to Clay, Pickett has been withholding government supplies from the Osage and is responsible for their current discontent. George Keane (Douglas Kennedy), the leader of Pickett's hired thugs, is convinced that the wagon was attacked by a small party of rogue Osages and insists on bringing the wagons through but Clay refuses. To complicate matters, Clay falls for Pickett's daughter Ann (Jane Nigh) who is unaware of her father's treachery and tries to convince Tom to take the job as wagon-master.
Eventually, he agrees to go and meet with the Osage chief and get to the bottom of the conflict. He finds out that a group of the Osages were massacred by Keane and his men while going to pick up their supplies. From here things begin to escalate, as Keane goes to town to bring Pickett and his band to justice while Keane and his men raid the Osage camp to discourage them from taking further action. In the end, Clay must take down Keane and his gang and prove to the Osage that it is they, and not the townsfolk, who are responsible for the violence.
For a series western, Fort Osage is fairly complex in its treatment of the relationship between the settlers and the Osage. It is fairly par-for-the-course to have the Indians play be innocent victims of unscrupulous white villains but we rarely get to see their point of view and the tragic violence we see here would generally be avoided in your average B-western. Pickett's last minute change of heart is also a little more nuanced then one would usually expect for a villain in this type of picture, though Kennedy's character remains thoroughly irredeemable. It is also worthy of note that Cameron's character is friendly with the Osage and speaks highly of them throughout the film.
Rod Cameron makes for a strong protagonist. His imposing figure (he was 6' 5"!) and rugged visage give him a real onscreen presence. Tom Clay is a pragmatic, world-weary man and Cameron sells it really well. He has surprisingly good romantic chemistry with Jane Nigh, who is able to hold her own in there scenes together and imbues her character with a sense of integrity and spirit. The film is well cast in general. Morris Ankrum does a good job playing Arthur Pickett, who at first seems trustworthy but ultimately turns out to be crooked. He really sells the character change of heart and grows increasingly uncomfortable with Keane's violent methods as the film goes on. Douglas Kennedy is also great as the despicable Keane, and brings a real sense of perfidiousness to the role of George Kean while Francis McDonald brings a lot of of humanity to the beleaguered Osage Chief. The film also features solid performances from John Ridgely as Henry Travers, I. Stanford Jolley, Dorothy Adams and Anne Kimbell as a homesteader family the Winfields, and Myron Healey, a familiar face for any fan of the genre, as one of Keane's henchmen.
The film's direction is deftly handled by Lesley Selander who does an especially good job with the action, which is plentiful in this film. He is greatly aided here by Marlin Skiles score, which has a warmth and affectiveness unusual for a film of this sort. The Cinecolor photography by Harry Neumann is quite well done, even if it lacks the vibrancy of the more expensive Technicolor. Like Trucolor it provided an inexpensive 2-color alternative to Technicolor, but tended to have a more teal look as compared to the muddy appearance of Trucolor.
Overall, Fort Osage is a really solid little gem from the last days of the series western.
Score: 8/10
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