There are gunfights, there are brawls, there are dangerous knife fights and some fast horse riding. And to be honest there are a couple of reasonable twists thrown in aw well, none of which are complex but again makes the storyline work better than your average 50s western.īut whilst these layers make the storyline more interesting much of what you see can only be called standard. All of which is entertaining because as already mentioned there is basically layer upon layer of storyline, little of it has any depth but it makes it more interesting than just cowboys versus Indians. What happens after that is a group of men who don't want peace and will go to any length to get the gold and in order to do so try and set up Gary and his father Sam whilst also starting a war with the Indians in the process. That alone covers the first 20 minutes of "Drums Across the River" and ends with Gary brokering peace between the Indians and the people of Crown City following the ill advised attempts to steal their land and gold. This actually leads to a deeper understanding as through various troubles Gary actually becomes a friend to the Indians and this is another 50s western which aims to portray Native Americans as more than just savages. This leads to the first confrontation and we learn that Gary Brannon hates the Indians because of the death of his mother despite his father having made peace with them. As such we have them wanting to stake claim to gold which is across the river on Indian land and in typical fashion we have a group of these men who will lie, fight and steal to get their hands on it. So as already mentioned "Drums Across the River" is very much a movie of layers and the first layer is all about the men from Crown City, a city built on gold mining but with gold running out is quickly becoming a ghost town. But not only does Gary discover that the Ute are good people he also learns that Frank will stop at nothing to get his hands on that gold even if it means setting up Gary and his father Sam ( Walter Brennan - Best of the Badmen) as well as starting a war with the Ute. Desperate to keep going a group of men lead by the crooked Frank Walker ( Lyle Bettger - Carnival Story) head on to the Ute land to take what they want and joining them is Gary Bannon ( Audie Murphy - Ride Clear of Diablo) who following his mother's death has hated the Ute. Once a thriving Gold mining town Crown City is on the verge of becoming a ghost town as the Gold is all gone, with only the land belonging to the Ute Indian untouched. As you can guess in a movie which is relatively short none of this has any depth but it makes "Drums Across the River" an entertaining western which adds another layer to the story every 10 minutes or so. But surrounding that main storyline we have elements of racial tension and understanding, a touch of romance, treachery and of course being a western plenty of action. For a western which is just short of 80 minutes "Drums Across the River" crams a lot in, we have a main storyline about some greedy white cowboys trying to steal Indian land or at least their gold.
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