War Paint is a 1953 Western directed by Lesley Selander, starring Robert Stack and Joan Taylor. A U.S. Cavalry lieutenant is assigned to deliver a peace treaty to a powerful Indian chief, but two Indians have vowed to kill the officer before he completes his mission.
The film was shot in Pathecolor and filmed on location in Death Valley. Robert Stack plays the officer in charge of a cavalry patrol entrusted with delivering a treaty to an Indian encampment, who encounters difficulties with outside and inside influences along the way. Stack is earnest, and despite some miscasting--Charles McGraw was always more at home playing a big-city detective or syndicate killer
Than he was playing a cavalry sergeant as he does here, and Keith Larsen often played Indians but seldom played them well--the performances are adequate, but if there's one thing that a western cries for it's action, and there's virtually none in this film. It moves like molasses and what little action there is doesn't occur until almost the end of the picture and it's not particularly well done. Director Lesley Selander was an old hand at westerns and has done far better. He must have had an off day.
