It’s a generic title for a fairly routine oater—or is it? This little flick from director Phil Karlson is either a standard Saturday matinee filler, with the usual sloppiness with which those pictures were thrown together, or one of those daft concoctions that accidently slide into absurdity.
In the first place, the only character who actually rides west astride a horse is Dr. Allen Seward (Robert Francis), who hates riding horses and does it poorly. He’s been assigned to Fort Whatever to replace the last medic, who was malpractice on two legs. Capt. Peter Blake (Phil Carey) hates all doctors, all Indians, and probably most everyone else, too, but the movie runs only 84 minutes so there isn’t enough time to tell for sure. He and Dr. Seward vie, in a very offhand manner, for the attention of visiting cutie Laurie MacKaye (Donna Reed), but the Doc may also have a case of the simmers for Mani-ten (May Wynn), a white woman who has been living with the local Kiowas so long she decides to stay with them when she has the chance to move to the fort.
Seward disobeys a direct order and sneaks off to the Kiowa camp (a sort of make-shift reservation) to treat Indian victims of malaria. Indians and soldiers misunderstand each other’s motives and several of each kind get killed, but the doctor will later remove a bullet from the chief’s son’s back, where it was deposited by Capt. Blake while he was trying to shoot Seward because he was in the Kiowa camp again, so peace breaks out on both sides in a ridiculously under-motivated kumbaya moment and suddenly everything is so why-can’t-we-be-friends you’ll laugh your butt off.
What I enjoyed most was the performance of Roy Roberts, playing Irish Sgt. Creever in what could be a sly parody of Victor McLaglen in John Ford’s Calvary Trilogy. Roberts is wearing a beard here so you might not recognize him, even though he played continuing roles on a dozen TV series. If you’re old enough, he’s probably best remembered as Capt. Simon P. Huxley on “The Gale Storm Show,” aka "Oh Susannah!", and also co-starring Zazu Pitts.
Written by DeVallon Scott and Frank Nugent, from a story by Leo Katcher, with the best intentions in the world, They Rode West is one goofy western. Watch it for that reason. Or don’t.
