Only the Valiant

United States

1951

105 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

English

Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
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SCR Edmund H. North, Harry Brown, Charles Marquis Warren

CAST Gregory Peck, Barbara Payton, Ward Bond, Lon Chaney Jr., Neville Brand, Gig Young, Jeff Corey, Warner Anderson, Steve Brodie, Dan Riss, Terry Kilburn, Herbert Heyes, Art Baker, Hugh Sanders, Michael Ansara, Nana Bryant

ED Walter Hannemann, Robert Seiter

The ironically-named Fort Invincible is ambushed by an evil Apache chief and his gang of indians. The fort is preserved, thanks to the due diligence of Captain Richard Lance and a band of soldiers from a nearby fort. Lance is able to capture the chief, but instead of killing him, he follows orders and returns the prisoner to the fort. The captain’s insistence on following the rules has consequences, however, and the military soon decides the Apache chief needs to be transferred elsewhere in order to save their fort from vengeful indians. It’s a dangerous job, so Lance decides to handle it himself—that is until his superior makes him send his best friend, Bill Holloway instead.

After Holloway is killed on the mission, the other soldiers begin to resent Lance because they think he ordered the switch on purpose. In the meantime, Lance receives word that the Apache indians are planning a major attack on the fort. He handpicks a rowdy group of soldiers (many of which want to kill Lance personally) and embarks on a suicide mission to protect Fort Invincible from the onslaught of Apaches. —DVDverdict.com

Director

Gordon Douglas

Gordon Douglas (December 15, 1907 – September 29, 1993) was an American film director, who directed many different genres of films over the course of a five-decade career in motion pictures. He was a native of New York City.

Biography
Hal Roach and Our Gang

Born Gordon Douglas Brickner, he began his career as a child actor. As a teenager he worked at the Hal Roach Studios, working in the office and appearing in bit parts in various Hal Roach films. He made walk-on appearances in at least three Our Gang shorts: Teacher’s Pet, Big Ears and Birthday Blues. By 1934 Douglas was assistant to director Gus Meins, and served as assistant director on Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s 1934 film Babes in Toyland, and on the Our Gang comedies made between 1934 and mid-1936.

Beginning with Bored of Education in 1936, Our Gang moved from two-reel (20-minute) comedies to one-reel (10-minute) comedies, and Douglas became the senior director of the series. Bored of Education won… read more

Gordon Douglas (December 15, 1907 – September 29, 1993) was an American film director, who directed many different genres of films over the course of a five-decade career in motion pictures. He was a native of New York City.

Biography
Hal Roach and Our Gang

Born Gordon Douglas Brickner, he began his career as a child actor. As a teenager he worked at the Hal Roach Studios, working in the office and appearing in bit parts in various Hal Roach films. He made walk-on appearances in at least three Our Gang shorts: Teacher’s Pet, Big Ears and Birthday Blues. By 1934 Douglas was assistant to director Gus Meins, and served as assistant director on Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s 1934 film Babes in Toyland, and on the Our Gang comedies made between 1934 and mid-1936.

Beginning with Bored of Education in 1936, Our Gang moved from two-reel (20-minute) comedies to one-reel (10-minute) comedies, and Douglas became the senior director of the series. Bored of Education won the 1936 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film, and was the only Our Gang entry ever honored with the award. Douglas remained with the series as director for two years. His Our Gang shorts, featuring Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Porky, Buckwheat, Waldo, Butch and Woim, are the most familiar in the series’ 22-year canon.

Roach sold the Our Gang unit to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in May 1938. Douglas directed two MGM Our Gangs on loan from Roach before deciding that he could not get used to the more industrialized atmosphere at the larger studio. Returning to his home studio, Douglas directed Zenobia with Oliver Hardy and Harry Langdon, Saps at Sea with Laurel and Hardy, and All-American Co-Ed with former Our Gang member Johnny Downs.

Later years

Douglas’ last picture for Roach was the Nazi satire The Devil with Hitler (1942). He might have stayed with Roach indefinitely, but Roach turned his studio over to the U.S. Army for the production of wartime training films. Douglas moved on to RKO Radio Pictures, where he directed low-budget entries in the studio’s series featuring The Great Gildersleeve, Brown and Carney, The Falcon and Dick Tracy. He was sometimes billed as Gordon M. Douglas.

He migrated from RKO to Columbia Pictures in 1948, and then to Warner Bros. in 1950. At Warners Douglas directed a number of successful films, including Liberace’s Sincerely Yours (1955) and the sci-fi classic Them!. Later films for other studios included Bob Hope’s Call Me Bwana, Frank Sinatra’s The Detective, Sidney Poitier’s They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! and Elvis Presley’s Follow That Dream.

Death

Gordon Douglas died of cancer on September 29, 1993 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 85. He was survived by his wife Julia Mack Douglas, son Gary Douglas, daughter Cathie Graham, and a grandson. —Wikipedia

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