StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

weezeralfalfa One of several films that includes the infamous massacre of a peaceful Cheyenne village at Sand Creek, CO, simply because it was the most accessible location for the perpetrator: Colonel Chivington of the Colorado Territorial Militia(herein claimed to be of the US army). Other films include "Massacre at Sand Creek" and "Soldier Blue". Also, partway through the film, we switched from marauding Cheyenne to marauding Comanche, who would be more relevant to Texas. I'm sure there must be other films where a mass of women took over the usual duties of soldiers because the men were needed elsewhere. I'm familiar with "Wild Women", in which a group of women inmates of a fort prison cell are pressed into service in lower Texas, barricading an abandoned village to fight a Mexican patrol. Another example is "The Man from the Alamo", where Glenn Ford trains the women in a wagon train to fire on a Mexican patrol, after the men are called to join Sam Houston.Audie rides around the north Texas plains, convincing menless women to go to an old broken down mission for safety. Besides Audie, the only man in the mission was Kettle. He came to no good when he stole a horse and rode to his 3 buddies, who promptly strung him up after he told about the women. They came to the mission , but the women scared them off after it was obvious they were up to no good. But, they soon ran into a band of marauding Comanche. Telling them about the women, they rode together back to the mission. But the women had hidden themselves well, so that a superficial look by the Comanche failed to discover them. The 3 men were killed for leading the Comanche astray. Soon there after, a gun was accidentally discharged in the mission, alerting the Comanche that someone was there. The Comanche returned and fired on the fort, killing several women, until Audie sneaked out and killed their medicine man, in the rear, stringing up his body in front of the fort.In the finale, Audie is court martialed by his Union post for desertion and insubordination. But the women somehow got past the guards, into the interrogation room, corroborating what Audie said about their beating off the Comanche. The General decided to drop the charges, and instead served Chivington with a court martial for leading the massacre of Cheyenne. Historically, Chivington was not court martialed. However, he was roundly criticized. He claimed he killed around 200 warriors, but other witnesses said they were mostly women, children and old men. He claimed the massacre would cow the Indians into stopping their raids on settlers, but it had the opposite effect.See it in color at YouTube

Tweekums This film opens with Union Army officer Lt. Frank Hewitt encountering a group of Comanche; they are off the reservation without permission but as they are unarmed and peaceful he allows them to continue on their way. When his CO, Col. Chivington, hears about this he sets off to teach the Comanche a lesson about doing what they are told... this 'lesson' is Sand Creek Massacre. Hewitt knows that after such an atrocity the Indians will understandable go on the war path and one place they are likely to strike is his home in Texas. Knowing this he deserts and heads south. Wearing Union blue he is not too welcome when he arrives in Confederate Texas but after an attack leaves one woman dead the other people start to believe him. Since the war is on there is only one man left in town and he is clearly only out to save his own skin... if he is save the women he must get them ready to fight.B-western regular Audie Murphy puts in a fine performance as Lt. Hewett; the more I see him in films like this the more I'm surprised he better known. The women are a varied bunch and the actresses do well enough even though this is clearly Murphy's film. The action is fairly solid and if you are expecting the women to prevail without taking a single casualty you will be surprised as quite a few die. There were of course a few flaws; it did seem strange that Hewett went into Confederate Texas in his Union uniform, equally it seemed strange that all but one of the men would have left the settlement; I'd have thought there would be a few old men at the very least although accept that it was necessary for the narrative. The epilogue where Hewitt returns to his unit and avoids punishment when the women turn up to vouch for him did seem sill after the action that had gone before. Over all it was pretty entertaining though and I'm sure fans of B-westerns looking for something different will enjoy this. It is of interest to note that while this is obviously a work of fiction Col. Chivington was a real person and he was involved in the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado, where his troops slaughtered numerous Indians; mainly women and children.

bkoganbing Audie Murphy, a Texan here as well as in real life, stayed with the Union Army during the Civil War. He's drawn duty out west fighting Indians instead of Confederates. The real life Sand Creek Massacre of the Cheyenne has occurred and there is a total uprising on the frontier. Murphy goes AWOL from the army and back to his part of Texas to help the remaining people there as most of the young men are in the Confederate army. After a lot of convincing he's got himself a female troop that proves themselves quite worthy standing up to Indians and renegade white men.The Guns at Fort Petticoat is one of Audie Murphy's best B westerns in his career. Murphy turned out to be a real acting talent, if he hadn't been, his career wouldn't have lasted as long as it did.He gets some good support here from that distaff group of players assembled at the old mission where they have to stand off the Cheyenne. Hope Emerson is the second in command and as always Hope is a formidable presence on the screen.While this was playing in theaters Kathryn Grant became the second Mrs. Bing Crosby. I happened to meet her a few years ago when she was on a book tour promoting a book about her marriage with Bing. She mentioned that she liked The Guns at Fort Petticoat and wished she owned a copy of the film. If I had known I would have bought my VHS copy and given it to her. She should be proud of her work in this film.There are four nasty men in this film as well. Sean McClory plays a no good rat of a human being who's impregnated Jeff Donnell and runs out on her. Then there are three of the nastiest outlaws you'd ever want to meet in James Griffith, Nestor Paiva, and Ray Teal. Audie and the women have to deal with them also.There is one terribly touching scene that moistens my eyes every time I watch The Guns at Fort Petticoat. One adolescent girl's mom is killed during one of the attacks. Actresses Isobel Elsom and Peggy Miley play a southern dowager and a saloon entertainer respectively. Both of them comfort the young girl at the hour of her tragedy and in so doing prove they have a lot more character than originally thought. A really class piece of acting, brought off by Director George Marshall.Kathryn Crosby, if you happen to read this review, contact me and I'll be glad to give you my copy of The Guns at Fort Petticoat.

Poseidon-3 The title of this film almost sounds like it will be a comedy.....sort of like "F Troop" meets "Petticoat Junction". It is, however, a relatively serious affair with some decent action sequences and some (sometimes unintentional) amusing moments. Murphy stars as a Cavalry Lieutenant who deserts his post in order to go a warn the people of his nearby hometown of an impending Indian attack. Unfortunately, virtually every man is gone from the area and the remaining women all resent him for wearing the blue instead of the gray uniform. Once the Indians start to make their mark, the ladies begin to change their mind and Murphy rounds them all up in an abandoned mission, determined to convert them into soldiers for their own sake. An already slightly campy film (check out the Indian grandma doing a child's hair at her camp right before a marauding cavalry unit appears), gets even loonier at this point. The mere idea of women brandishing guns and fighting physically must have been otherworldly in 1957. The enterprise is treated with all the expected attention and detail for the curio that it is. Murphy refers to the ladies as "men" and appoints sergeants, etc... He drills them in target practice, hand to hand combat and skirt-tucking (turning skirts into makeshift pants!) Naturally, there is every type of woman imaginable.....the old love, the new love, the haughty rich bitch, the one "in trouble", the religious fanatic, the tart, etc... What gives the film a great boost in the arm is the irascible, irreplaceable presence of burly, sarcastic Emerson as the leader of the women. Always intriguing to watch, she gets a plum role here as a bossy, tough, but good-hearted pioneer woman. It also helps that the film isn't dumb enough to suggest that this sort of thing wouldn't lead to casualties. So the unusual aspect of seeing women holding a fort with guns is accented and enhanced by seeing some of them take a fall as well. This adds to the realism of a film which is, at heart, pretty trite and coy. There are some fairly tough scenes and the Indian attack is actually pretty tense. (And it's awful nice of the Indians to wait and WAIT before coming until Murphy has trained all the gals, drained the water from the well, taught them how to make "bombs" and ammunition and solved various other problems!) Maley as a saloon singer and Elsom as a society matron help push the camp envelope. A few other ladies (like the one who gets upset and literally gobbles like a turkey with her face in the ground) take it even further, but Nolan rips it open. She is downright embarrassing as a devout Christian who clutches her Bible and spouts messages of nonviolence. However, when push comes to shove and arrows come to necks, she has a freak-out scene that is one for the books! Even with the pat situations and mundane dialogue, there's a certain curiosity value to the film and scattered laughs throughout (Wade, as Elsom's maid, has a real zinger of a closing line for her character!) Grant would later become better known as Mrs. Bing Crosby.