Pony Soldier is a 1952 American Northern Western film set in Canada, but filmed in Sedona, Arizona. It is based on a 1951 Saturday Evening Post story "Mounted Patrol" by Garnett Weston. It was retitled MacDonald of the Canadian Mounties in Britain and The Last Arrow in France, Spain, and Italy.
Plot In 1876, the North-West Mounted Police send Constable Duncan MacDonald (Tyrone Power) and a blackmailed Blackfoot scout (Thomas Gomez) to get the Cree to sign Treaty 6 with the Crown. Initially hostile, the Cree are influenced by a Fata Morgana-type mirage that they mistake for the power of Queen Victoria.
In addition to negotiating with the Cree, MacDonald of the Mounted Police rescues White hostages (Robert Horton and Penny Edwards), arrests a murderer and adopts a Cree son (Anthony Earl Numkena).
Cast Tyrone Power as Constable Duncan MacDonald Cameron Mitchell as Konah Thomas Gomez as Natayo Smith Penny Edwards as Emerald Neeley Robert Horton as Jess Calhoun Anthony Earl Numkena as Comes Running Adeline DeWalt Reynolds as White Moon Howard Petrie as Inspector Frazer Stuart Randall as Standing Bear Included in the cast were Richard Boone and Frank deKova, with ending narration by Michael Rennie. Golden Globe-winning actor Earl Holliman made his film debut, in an uncredited role.
Production During development of the project, technical advisor on Native American issues, Nipo T. Strongheart, wrote a critical review of the proposed screenplay, though other departments of the studio had begun work on it. This led to a meeting with studio executives, which he described as feeling like he was called to the principal's office, and led to a major reconstruction of the whole project.
Strongheart worked with the Cree people and their language, and coached non-Indian and Indian actors throughout the movie. In the film, he plays a medicine man (as he did opposite Tyrone Power's father, Tyrone Power Sr., in a 1925 film called Braveheart). Strongheart also toured to promote the movie.
Director Joseph M. Newman originally scouted locations in Montana, but finding nothing he thought suitable, the film was made in Sedona, Arizona. There, the producers recruited 450 Navajo to play Cree when large numbers were needed. During the location shooting, production was interrupted by snowstorms and the flash of a nuclear weapon test 300 miles (482.8 km) away at the Nevada Proving Ground (Operation Tumbler–Snapper).p.99 Heidinger, Lisa, Trevillyan, Janeen, Sedona Historical Society Sedona 2007 Arcadia Publishing
References
External links
Filming at Sedona The New York Times review