DANA ANDREWS, LINDA CRISTAL AND KENT SMITH IN 'COMANCHE'

Dana Andrews in COMANCHE Year: 1966 Rating: 1/2

Many Westerns, started around this time, the mid-to-late 1950's, will have a white character more compassionate to the Indians and for Dana Andrews, as a scout named Jim Read, this was familiar territory since he'd recently played a similar character in SMOKE SIGNAL, which had enough action to make up for all the preaching...

And the latter is about all COMANCHE has within a series of meetings between the hilariously miscast blond-haired Kent Smith as, of all things, an Indian Chief of the titular tribe, about to do battle with... not white men this time but Mexicans who've been exploiting Indians and their scalps...

Kent Smith in COMANCHE who was with Dana Andrews in My Foolish Heart

Of course, as Dana tells in one of many rambling peace-treaty sequences, it's all because of the evil white man and his everlasting treachery and omnipresent backstabbing... and while the COMANCHE plot synopsis promises a beautiful Spanish girl, played by first-time starlet Linda Cristal, being kidnapped by Indians until rescued by Dana himself, that aspect is not only unimportant, it's practically non-existent... blink or miss...

Instead going from one powwow to another within a long dreary stretch of open plain with a message that itself is never quite clear and, during Dana Andrews' alcoholic phase of forgettable fifties' programmers mixed with a few cult gems, COMANCHE is, by far, his worst yet: attempting the start of the Neo-Western while stuck with that corny-opening ballad continuing throughout a hybrid of outdated kitsch with melodramatically progressive drivel.

Dana Andrews in COMANCHE

Dana Andrews in COMANCHE

Dana Andrews in COMANCHE with Linda Cristal

Linda Cristal in COMANCHE

Dana Andrews  in COMANCHE