Captain Phillip Donlin and his small troop rush to reach Little Big Horn to warn Lt. Colonel Custer of the Sioux attack that awaits him. As they race against time and Donlin pushes his men through an arduous and dangerous journey, the Sioux begin killing the soldiers one at a time. Donlin also clashes with Lt. John Haywood, who is having an affair with his Donlin's wife Celie.
The film was to be the first of a two-picture deal that Charles Marquis Warren had signed with Republic Pictures. Warren was a leading writer best known for Only the Valiant who wanted to become a director. The film was originally titled The Black Hills and was to be produced by Joseph Kane and star Rod Cameron. Filming was set to begin on March 10, 1950.[4][5]
The film shifted to Lippert Pictures,[6] and filming was rescheduled to start on November 7, 1950.[7] The start of production was again delayed to February 1951.[8]
Marie Windsor later recalled that a Lippert Films executive announced that the film's budget had been exhausted, forcing several pages to be removed from the script, and the film was completed without some of its intended scenes.[9]
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Howard Thompson wrote: "'Little Big Horn' ... is a Western that starts off on the right hoof and ends up right back in the old tried-and-true rut. Credit the picture, though, for trying hard not to. ... Mr. Ireland looks and acts as though he'd just crawled out of bed—the wrong side. And Mr. Bridges, as their tough leader, bucking the redskins, the pallid acting of the rest of the cast, the erratic direction and a standard assignment, is mighty fine."[1]
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