I’ve been doing research on Andre de Toth’s The Indian Fighter (1955) for a commentary on Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray. (When it comes to research like this, my wife Jennifer does a lot of the heavy lifting.)
The Indian Fighter was the first picture from Kirk Douglas’ Bryna Productions, and they built an elaborate 200-foot square fort for it. It looks terrific in those CinemaScope tracking shots.
The stockade belonged to the Bend, Oregon, Chamber Of Commerce (it was built by a local construction company), and they rented it out for various things, including Oregon Passage (1958), a Paul Landres picture I really like. A forest fire damaged the area around the fort, really hurting its usefulness as a movie location. It was burned in the early 60s and the area replanted. It’s a shame, since it’s really impressive, compared to other movie forts I’ve seen.
Toby ,do you know if Kirk Douglas was asked to offer his thoughts on the movie?
DRAGOON WELLS MASSACRE is available from Spain on the Classic Media label which includes English .
Speaking of Oregon Passage, sad news to report the beautiful Lola Albright as died. She will always be Peter Gunn’s gal pal in my mind. I mostly always liked the way she seemed to have a constant smile when she spoke. You just knew she knew she was in on the joke and had a good sense of humor. Turns out in real life she was a very funny person too. I knew it had to be true. A great lady who was admired when alive and now will be sorely missed. Good Night Funny Lady.
THE VIOLENT MEN (1954) coming to Blu-Ray (if you can tolerate forced subtitles).