Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Pony Soldier Blu-ray Movie Review

Cowboys and Indians, eh?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 20, 2013

We Americans tend to think of the wild west as being solely within our national purview. But even some cursory reflection reveals this not to be case, for it is the Spanish tradition of the vaquero which gave birth to the modern idea of the cowboy. In fact it might even be argued that the concept of a “cowboy” actually emigrated to North America via Spanish Conquistadors and then other South American influences which ultimately matriculated into our nation. And so in at least one direction—namely south of us in the United States—it becomes pretty easy to at least slightly universalize our supposed “unique” history and to understand it was certainly an international affair. But for some peculiar reason that really is hard to pin down, many Americans just never think of Canada as having had its own “wild west” history, replete with cowboys and so-called Indians. This seems a really oddly chauvinistic (in the true sense of that word) point of view, one completely ignorant of the actual history of Canada. Pony Soldier may not in fact have much to offer in terms of anything other than the sort of romanticized history that regularly dots films of all eras, but it at least offers a relatively rare look at our northern cousins and an era in that nation’s history that few here in the United States ever really have pondered.

It’s sometimes shocking to see actors who were once matinee idols or sex symbols but who have not weathered the vagaries of time especially well. Tyrone Power was probably the biggest male star Fox had in their stable during the forties, but by the early fifties, he had started to show the rigors of having worked so hard for so long (not to mention having served honorably as a Marine during World War II), despite the fact that (rather incredibly) he was still only in his thirties when Pony Soldier was made in 1952. (Power would die at the tragically young age of 44 in 1958, shortly after Witness for the Prosecution was released and actually during the filming of Solomon and Sheba, which had to be recast with Yul Brynner when Power expired before the film was finished.) Power had already started to chafe at his “pretty boy” image, and in fact wanted to pursue a stage career, and Pony Soldier finds him appearing just slightly uncomfortable suited up in red as a Canadian Mountie in the late nineteenth century.

Pony Soldier is far from the best film Power ever made, and it’s not hard to see why he was unhappy even appearing in films like this. Filled with archaic sayings like “speak with forked tongue,” which were probably a joke even back in 1952, the film is a pretty standard melodrama that simply lifts several American “cowboys and Indians” clichés and transports them several hundred miles north to Canada. Power portrays relatively new Mountie Duncan MacDonald (and in fact the Mounties themselves were relatively new at the time). MacDonald’s first attempt to “always catch his man” ended in spectacular failure, and he seems consigned to a life of paper pushing (or whatever the Mountie equivalent is) until a wheeling and dealing half-breed Blackfoot named Natayo Smith (Thomas Gomez) arrives at the Fort and divulges that some Cree have left their reservation and have actually taken two white folks hostage. MacDonald and Smith are enlisted to find the pair, free them, and to talk some sense into the Cree, who have also been seen attacking various other tribes in the region.

The rest of the film plays out almost entirely in one (unexpectedly) large encampment of Cree, where MacDonald and Smith find themselves outnumbered (to say the least) and must utilize their wits to get not just themselves, but the hostages (played by Robert Horton and Penny Smith), out of danger. One of the interesting diversions from many Westerns, American or otherwise, is the portrayal of the Cree in this film. Though MacDonald himself kind of disparagingly refers to them as “savages” (there are those old clichés again), their behavior is actually kind of noble, in fact rather hilariously so at times. (The Peace Pipe council confessional among the tribe elders make provoke a few unintended laughs among the more jaded audience members.) Only one hyperbolic warrior named Konah (played by Cameron Mitchell) tends to fall within what is the usual trope for native peoples in films such as these.

It’s a rather brief glimmer in what is otherwise a pretty dim witted outing. MacDonald ends up adopting an orphaned Blackfoot boy (a very sweet Anthony Earl Numkena), who comes to MacDonald’s aid late in the film after MacDonald has figured out one of the hostages may be hiding a secret and another one is then spirited away by Konah, necessitating a whole second rescue scenario. Pony Soldier is often quite scenic (evidently Arizona was utilized to fill in for Canada), but pretty scenery can only get you so far. Audience members would probably be prone to react to this film with a rather overwhelming “eh?” even if it weren’t located in Canada.

Pony Soldier Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pony Soldier is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Twilight Time with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This is unfortunately one of the more ragged looking releases we've seen coming from Twilight Time (which got their HD master from Fox). The Fox outings Twilight Time has released have sometimes not quite reached the near impeccable levels of the Sony-Columbia titles the label also licenses, but this particular release has a fairly murky overall appearance, and I would be shocked if this HD presentation has been culled from an IP. (Stranger things have happened, so I'm only too happy to admit I could be mistaken.) While colors are okay looking, they simply don't quite pop with "true" three strip Technicolor boldness—look, for example, how the Mounties' red uniforms tip ever so slightly toward the orange end of the spectrum (and actually most of these screenshots don't really represent how much tipping is evident throughout this presentation). The image rarely is more than acceptably sharp and well defined (though a few isolated scenes suddenly increase in sharpness and saturation), and in fact a lot of the midrange and wide shots are pretty fuzzy looking. The elements themselves are in good enough condition, with only fairly minor (and expected) minor flecks and specks showing up very intermittently.

Pony Soldier Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Pony Soldier's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix is generally effective, although it's hampered by its era's recording technology, which tends to make everything sound slightly closed in and artificial sounding at times. Dialogue and score are relatively well mixed (I personally would have loved Alex North's score to have been more forward in several key scenes, though the isolated score track offered here as a supplement is outstanding and helps to largely ameliorate that qualm). Fidelity is very good within the narrow confines of this track and dynamic range is fairly wide, though Pony Soldier really doesn't have any battles to speak of, and most of the range is due to North's score and some screeching Cree.

Pony Soldier Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Isolated Score is presented via a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, and the difference between this presentation and the one on the actual soundtrack is nothing short of breathtaking. Alex North does some amazing work in this score, utilizing a kind of proto-Jerome Moross approach in underscoring the "wide open spaces" sequences, while his percussion laden approach to the Cree sequences actually presage in a strange kind of way his work almost a decade later on Cleopatra. This is a gorgeous score and is certainly deserving of wider recognition.

Pony Soldier Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Pony Soldier is a pretty middling effort through and through, and it's a rather odd choice for Twilight Time to be bringing to Blu-ray. The film is undeniably scenic, but from a dramatic standpoint, it's lethargic and predictable, and Power simply looks uncomfortable playing a Mountie. For me personally, the best part of this release was undoubtedly the often stunning Alex North score, and I'm once again truly thankful that Twilight Time presents almost all of its releases with isolated score supplements, even if that feature only appeals to a rather small niche (of which I am a proud member). My sense is this release is probably going to appeal to Power fans (even if this is far from Power's best film) and to those who admire the music of Alex North.