ONLY THE VALIANT. Warner Brothers, 1951. Gregory Peck, Barbara Payton, Ward Bond, Gig Young, Lon Chaney, Neville Brand, Jeff Corey, Warner Anderson. Based on the novel by Charles Marquis Warren. Director: Gordon Douglas.

   For a movie that, truth be told, isn’t structurally all that sound, Only the Valiant remains overall quite entertaining. Adapted from the eponymous 1943 novel by Charles Marquis Warren, the movie, while far better than many other Westerns released in the same era, suffers from the same ailment that afflicts far too many Westerns based on novels: namely, it tries to do too much.

   Rather than condense the backstories and numerous subplots, the film keeps them in, but in such an abbreviated manner that they all become muddled, leaving the viewer to wonder exactly what is motivating different characters.

   Gregory Peck, who apparently later considered Only the Valiant to have been his least favorite film project, portrays Captain Richard Lance, a hard-nosed U.S. Army Cavalry officer posted in the New Mexico Territory. And with New Mexico comes Apache warriors ready to fight the newly arrived White settlers. After Capt. Lance and his men capture Apache leader, Tucsos (Michael Ansara) at an Army fort decimated by Apache violence, a debate erupts as to what to do with the captive. Lance, known for being by the book, rejects the suggestion that they should kill Tucsos outright.

   This decision sets in motion a series of events that leads Capt. Lance and a handpicked crew of misfits from within the ranks back to the destroyed Army fort. There, the men will make a final stand both against the Apaches and themselves. In the course of their suicide mission, some men will all but crack under the pressure. Others will lash out against the hated Capt. Lance. Sergeant Ben Murdock (Neville Brand), for instance, loathes Lance for denying him a promotion.

   On the other hand, Trooper Kebussyan (Lon Chaney), a soldier of Arab descent, loathes Lance for reasons never satisfactorily explained. The same could be said for Trooper Rutledge (Warner Anderson) and Trooper Saxton (Terry Kilburn), both whom seem to want to kill Capt. Lance. But the backstories why are so condensed that it leaves the viewer a bit puzzled as to what Lance has done to earn so much enmity.

   Muddying the waters even more is the fact that Only the Valiant does not do a particularly good job in introducing other important characters to the audience. Case in point is Captain Eversham (Hugh Sanders), father of Lance’s love interest, Cathy Eversham (Barbara Payton). One again suspects that the movie leaves out important details found in the book, a work that I admittedly have not had the chance to read.

   Despite these flaws, however, Only the Valiant ends up being a perfectly watchable movie. Ironically, a lot of this stems from the fact that one often doesn’t have a clear idea of what direction the plot is going to go. Is it going to be a film about a doomed romantic relationship on an Army outpost, a movie about men bonding in the heat of battle, or something completely different?

   In retrospect, I actually enjoyed watching the movie as the story unfolded more than I find myself appreciating it as a final product. Make of that what you will.