Walk the Proud Land

Product Information

Murphy's fans were accustomed to him playing white-centric roles, where he usually went up against the natives who were on the other side of civilization and the law. In these pictures, Murphy's characters were meant to uphold the ideologies of European Americans in the west, not to make concessions to Indians, least of all warring Apaches. WALK THE PROUD LAND is a story which seems the antithesis of all that.

The role of Mary Dennison, Clum's fiancée, was originally offered to Piper Laurie, but she turned it down so she could study at the Actors Studio in New York. Pat Crowley was cast instead. [5] I confess to not knowing the real story of Clum, so I was not distracted by how factually accurate this account was (or wasn't, as the case may be). I watched it purely for its entertainment value and walked away completely entertained. Yes, the script has some rather heavy-handed messages we are beaten over the head with throughout, but I feel most of society could stand to be beaten over the head with some positive messages regarding friendship, loyalty, family, and race relations, so that didn't bother me. Indeed, the role of a pacifist would have worked better with a liberal actor like Henry Fonda or Burt Lancaster. Perhaps Murphy was anxious to spread his wings and show people what he could do with a different sort of heroic character, but contemporary audiences did not buy it. This Universal picture made money at the box office, but not enough money to be profitable for the studio. It was an "A" budget production with an expensive star, Audie Murphy, who had proven himself in a slew of other westerns and action adventure yarns that appealed to conservative audiences. Why they decided to put him into a biographical role as an Indian agent who sympathized with the Apaches is somewhat baffling. In the various tellings of the tale of the OK Corral, the name John Clum comes up as a peripheral character. At that point in his life he was Mayor of Tombstone, Arizona and founder and editor of the Tombstone Epitaph which was in editorial support of the Earp brothers. But before that John Clum was an Indian agent, sent to the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona to reform the corrupt practices regarding same. Audie Murphy plays an eager and honest Clum in this film.

See also

There were a couple of moments when Ann Bancroft was on screen when my mouth dropped open at how utterly gorgeous she was. Simply breathtaking! Charles Drake and Morris Ankrum do nice work, and Jay Silverheels can do no wrong in my book (I could watch that noble face and listen to that great voice all day long). In the hands of other performers, the story might have come across better. Also, if it had been filmed as an independent production that was allowed to take a few substantial risks, they might have been able to overcome the studio formula and turn out an insightful motion picture. I would say this is the best western/biopic starring Audie Murphy that I have seen. It's based on the story of John Clum, during his appointment as Indian Agent at Arizona's Apache San Carlos Reservation, some distance north of Tucson.

I am not saying Bancroft is an amateur in WALK THE PROUD LAND; on the contrary, she provides a very engaging performance. But I still found her attempt to play an Indian problematic, and she is not portraying a sympathetic character, which seems at odds with the story's thesis, that we are supposed to give Apaches a chance. COMMENT: In the present=day climate of racial tolerance, integration and understanding, it's a big surprise that this screen biography of a true-life Indian agent who blazed this particular trail, is not constantly revived. Admittedly, next to its patent earnestness, the picture's main virtue is its expansive CinemaScope location cinematography. With Piper Laurie suddenly not available, the role of Murphy's wife was given to Patricia Crowley who was more identified with romantic comedies at her home studio Paramount. Unfortunately, Crowley doesn't register much in the story and she is not given anything significant to do in her limited scenes. San Carlos, Arizona, and John Philip Clum (Murphy) arrives and attempts to broker peace with the Apache by way of letting them have autonomy away from army government.SYNOPSIS: John Philip Clum is appointed Indian Agent at the San Carlos Apache Reservation, where he finds the Army using violent means to suppress the Indians. Clum asserts his authority to help the Apaches, thus earning the displeasure of the people of Tucson. In gratitude, the Indians send Tianay to keep house for him. This arouses the jealousy of Clum's fiancée, Mary Dennison. The right to use the title "Walk the Proud Land" was obtained from Logan Forster, author of "Proud Land," a novel of the same genre. Adapting the real-life story of government agent John Clum, this is undoubtedly a more 'enlightened' look at the relationships between whites and native people during a contentious time in U. S. history. But Murphy doesn't fit the part, given the persona that was associated with him in his previous films, not to mention his status as a hero during World War II. Clum is an Indian agent sent to the San Carlos Apache reservation in Arizona in 1874 to prevent further bloodshed and stop the renegade chief Geronimo (Jay Silverheels) from encouraging young Indian braves to take up their weapons and fight once more. Clum s struggle is made worse by the townsfolk and cavalry who believe that the only good Indian is a scalped one. But whilst Clum makes enemies of the governor, cavalry officers and the more headstrong Apache braves, he begins to win the trust of the elders by talking of the government s new peace plan for Indian autonomy rather than submission and prevent the reservation from siding with Geronimo...