Escape from Fort Bravo is a 1953 Western film directed by John Sturges. The film stars William Holden, Eleanor Parker, and John Forsythe.
Director: John Sturges
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Cast: William Holden, Eleanor Parker, John Forsythe, William Demarest, William Campbell, Polly Bergen, Richard Anderson
US Box Office: $3,812,500 ($60,800,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Anscocolor
Genre: Western
Release Date: December 4, 1953 (premiere)
Plot Summary: In 1863, Captain Roper (WIlliam Holden) serves at Fort Bravo in the Arizona Territory, a Union prison for Confederate troops. Roper is widely hated by the prisoners for his strict methods. One day, the beautiful Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker) arrives at the base, ostensibly to attend the wedding of her friend Alice Owens (Polly Bergen) to Lt. Beecher (Richard Anderson). However, she secretly plans to help her imprisoned boyfriend Confederate Captain John Marsh (John Forsythe) and three other men escape the fort. Carla’s plan is complicated when she and Roper begin to fall in love with each other.
Production: In 1952, MGM producer Nicholas Nayfack (the nephew of Nicholas Schenck, one of MGM’s lead executives) began working on a new Civil War-era Western film. Working titles for the film were Rope’s End and Fort Bravo, before Escape from Fort Bravo was chosen. Escape from Fort Bravo was about an Arizona Union captain who falls in love with a woman who frees Confederate prisoners under his watch, and how he is later forced to join up with her and the prisoners to fend off a Mescalero Apache attack. The screenplay was written by Frank Fenton based on a story by Phillip Rock and Michael Pate. John Sturges, who had a contract with MGM at the time, was chosen to direct Escape from Fort Bravo. Although Sturges would later become well known as a director of westerns and action-drama films, he mainly directed comedies and dramas at this point. His only previous western had been The Walking Hills (1949).
William Holden was cast as Captain Roper, the film’s main character. Holden had been working as an actor for more than ten years at this point, but only recently became a big star due to his leading role in the drama Sunset Boulevard (1950). Holden recently starred in the westerns The Man from Colorado (1948) and The Streets of Laredo (1949). Eleanor Parker was cast as Carla Forester, the main female character. She recently starred in the swashbuckling adventure Scaramouche (1952). Parker signed a five-year contract with MGM during production on Escape from Fort Bravo. Keenan Wynn was originally cast as Confederate prisoner Cabot Young, but he was later replaced by William Campbell after Wynn was injured in a car accident.
John Sturges began shooting Escape from Fort Bravo in April of 1953 and filming wrapped up in May. Escape from Fort Bravo was primarily filmed on location in New Mexico and at Death Valley National Park in California. Prominent New Mexico shooting locations included the city of Gallup, the nearby settlements Sanostee and Huerfano, and the mountain Fort Butte. Interior scenes and some of the night scenes were shot back at MGM Studios in Culver City, CA.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Richard Anderson (Lt. Beecher) would later be best known for playing the role of Oscar Goldman in two television series: The Six Million Dollar Man (1973-1978) and The Bionic Woman (1976-1978), and he reprised the part in three television movie sequels. John Sturges had previously directed Anderson in The Magnificent Yankee (1950) and The People Against O’Hara (1951).
William Demarest (Sgt. Campbell) notably appeared in eight films directed by Preston Sturges (no relation to John Sturges) including Sullivan’s Travels (1941), The Lady Eve (1941), and The Palm Beach Story (1942). He later played Uncle Charley in the television series My Three Sons from 1965 to 1972. Glenn Strange has an uncredited bit part as Sgt. Compton. Strange appeared in numerous western films and television shows and he was also known for playing Frankenstein’s Monster in three Universal Monsters films: House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
Reception: Escape from Fort Bravo premiered on December 4, 1953 and it went into general release a few weeks later. The film was only a minor success for MGM but it still managed to earn a small profit. Escape from Fort Bravo had a slightly higher box office gross overseas than in the United States, a rarity for western films. The film received mixed reviews from critics at the time. Clyde Gilmour of Maclean’s magazine gave Escape from Fort Bravo a positive review. He described the film as “exceptionally thrilling.” Howard Thompson of The New York Times was more mixed. While he broadly praised Sturges’ direction, Thompson thought that the characters were poorly defined and criticized the acting performances.
Modern reviews of Escape from Fort Bravo are similarly mixed-to-positive. Leonard Maltin gave the film a 3/4 star rating in his Movie Guide books. Dennis Schwartz and Matt Brunson of Film Frenzy were mixed on Escape from Fort Bravo but gave it slightly positive reviews.
Why You Should See It: Escape from Fort Bravo is a good western film. Most of the acting is good, including the performances of William Holden and Eleanor Parker. John Sturges does a great job directing Escape from Fort Bravo. He skillfully manages both the thrilling moments and the romantic drama between Holden and Parker. The scene where the troops ride through the narrow canyon was really suspenseful, and the battle at the end of the film was excellent.
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