Chuka (1967) Online

The story occurs in 1876 , Chuka (Rod Taylor) is a grizzled gunfighter who helps an unexperienced though honorable cavalry officer to roust renegade soldiers and a tribe of Arapahoe Indians . When the main characters arrive at the fort a soldier being flogged for desertion (though hipping or whipping had been prohibited by the U.S. Army as of 5 August 1861) . There Cavalry commandant (John Mills) is saddled not only problems with Native American but irritability among his own troops (Louis Hayward) . Chuka eventually puts the bridle on tight and protects a pair of damsels (gorgeous Luciana Paluzzi and Angela Dorian or Victoria Vetri , famous Miss Playboy) in distress . The Indians are out on a rampage of killing , vengeance against the white intruders and with the aim for getting food .

This is an unusually brutal tale of a hard-bitten gunslinger assembling a detail of misfit cavalrymen to hold-off rampaging Indians . Rod Taylor and an expert all-star-cast shine in this gripping story about a surrounded garrison and director takes a fine penned screenplay creating a cavalry-Indians tale that is far from ordinary , exploring the anguish and desperation of soldiers . It's the habitual theme about an unit stranded by enemies and their grueling efforts to break the siege , issue imitated many other times . The picture contains nice moments but partially unsatisfying for the reason of the claustrophobic environment . Produced by Rod Taylor , this Western is predictable and conventional but entertaining . It displays a colorful and adequate cinematography by Harold E. Stine . In addition , atmospheric as well as evocative musical score by Leith Stevens .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Gordon Douglas . He's an expert on adventures genre such as ¨Black arrow¨ , ¨Fortunes of Captain Blood¨ , both starred by Louis Hayward and Western , as he proved in the films starred by Clint Walker such as ¨Fort Dobbs¨, ¨Yellowstone Kelly¨ , ¨Gold of seven Saints¨ , Gregory Peck as ¨Only the valiant¨ in similar plot to ¨Chuka¨ , Richard Boone as ¨Rio Conchos¨ considered the best , and on legendary bandits as ¨Doolins of Oklahoma¨ , ¨Great Missouri raid¨ , among others .

Just recently I found a video store in New Haven County where fine old westerns can be had on VHS. One of the ones I had long wanted to see was "CHUKA" or Chuka: the Gunfighter, from 1967.

The video transfer was high quality and so watching this movie on tape was an enjoyable experience. Luciana Paluzzi is stunningly beautiful.

Indeed, Chuka is something of a Hollywood fantasy but the tone and the settings of the story are fairly well done.

Both Paluzzi and her niece, played by Victoria Vetri ( as Angela Dorian ), do very well in this western oddity. Ernest Borgnine is good as ever, at being Ernest Borgnine. Rod Taylor was also very good and very believable as the cowpuncher turned hardened hired killer.

The most interesting part of the story was about how Fort Clendennon became a dumping ground for misfits, rejects, and bad officers. This is a well-known but seldom portrayed part of the truth of how the U.S. Army operated in the late 1870's. It is true that in this fiction, many of the soldiers and civilians seem to be just a little too clean for that day and age, but it doesn't really detract from the rapid pace of the events in this drama.

Additionally, the extreme deprivation imposed on the Arapaho tribal nation by the Army at this time is another important element. The "injuns" are rather cartoonish in their depictions but at least some aspects of their true grievances are relayed in the plot.

Perhaps this Chuka -- pronounced Chuck-Uh -- is a lot more savvy than circumstances in that day and age might have permitted, but Rod Taylor does really well at being fast-as-lightning and very tough.

This film gets a vote of 7 from me, which was really a six with a kicker for the beautiful Vetri and the beautiful Paluzzi.

Many of the better westerns have been good about presenting the Mexican culture of that time in a favorable light, and this is one of them, and neither Vetri nor Paluzzi appear as simply being "eye candy" for a rough-and-tumble western. The dinner sequence where Colonel Valois rakes his officers over the coals and embarrasses them all is a piece-de-resistance in western drama. Other elements are not so convincing but this is fun way to see a good western drama from a by-gone era of movie making.

Chuka derives its power from the high quality of the story on which it is based. I can recommend it heartily for western fans, for Victoria Vetri fans, and for Rod Taylor's excellent, dynamic performance.

Chuka is an unusual and unsatisfying Western with a plot that several times reminds one of Beau Geste. It starts with the US Cavalry retrieving their comrades' bodies at a fort that has been overwhelmed by Indians and then flashes back to portray the events that led up to the massacre.

John Mills usually plays a sympathetic character but as Colonel Valois he has no redeeming feature at all, even at the end he stands apparently helpless as his ragtag soldiers fight off the Indian attack. (One wonders why a colonel has such a small command, which seems to total barely 40 men, and the fort itself is small enough to fit conveniently into a studio.) It is hard to find much to like about most of the cast, but then the members are playing unlikeable people. Rod Taylor as the gunslinger Chaka shows his good side in the opening scenes when he offers his food to starving Indians but drives a hard bargain when his scouting expertise is needed. Louis Hayward, looking a bit like the British character actor Terry-Thomas, pays for the services of an Indian girl. Only Ernest Borgnine, appearing larger than one usually visualises him, makes much of a screen impact, and his character is one of the few who seems not to have an unfortunate past.

The two Mexican ladies marooned at the post after rashly travelling across country in a stagecoach are an intrusion into the plot (but then I often groan at the contrived introduction of glamorous women into an environment that in real life would be all-male).

All in all, a disappointing oddity.

An unfortunate veneer of artificiality hangs over this otherwise rugged western, giving it a cheap feeling despite its impressive cast. Taylor plays the title character, a drifter and a gunman, who comes upon a distressed stagecoach and escorts it to a nearby fort. On the coach is a former love of his (Paluzzi) and her ward Vetri. Once inside, rather than finding the relief of security, Taylor and the others discover that the fort is actually manned by inept, almost mutinous soldiers and run by a stubborn tyrant with esteem issues. The colonel in charge (Mills) is about to incite an attack from local Indians because he reuses to aid them with food or supplies. Taylor urges him to desert the fort before everyone in it is slaughtered, as they are mightily outnumbered, but Mills is steadfast in his decision. Soon enough, Indians are attacking with rage as the fort's inhabitants options dwindle. Taylor, a reliable and appealing actor, was co-producer on this film. He clearly saw it as an opportunity to essay a serious, deep character. Unfortunately, his inherent amiability makes his tough character a harder sell than it might be for another actor. Still, he does a decent job. Oddly, his character's name comes from the fact that, as a boy, he could always be found around the "chuck wagon", hence the pronunciation "chuck-a" which looks like it would be "chew-ka" (why not just spell it "Chucka"?? Why not "Chuckie" or "Chuck-O" for that matter?) This is stupid and makes viewers glad that Taylor didn't hang out at the "sh*t hole" as a boy. Borgnine is pretty good as one of Mills devoted flunkies who clashes with Taylor in an extended fight sequence. Mills has a badly written role to play and comes very close to embarrassing himself at times. Thankfully, he had an Oscar with his name on it just around the corner for "Ryan's Daughter". Paluzzi, best known as a Bond girl from "Thunderball" is mostly made to stand around and stare, which she does attractively. Vetri barely registers. Her initial scenes are distracted by having a huge crueller stapled to her head. Later, she's basically furniture. If she'd been allowed to show any type of skin besides her face and hands, maybe she'd have been more memorable. Speaking of clothing, this must be a low point for the legendary costume designer Edith Head (if she even, in fact, had anything to do with the dull, non-evocative costumes.) A few other actors pop up in supporting roles including Whitmore as a boozy scout, Hayward as a jaded major and Cole (soon to be one of TV's "The Mod Squad") as a rebellious soldier. Noted voice-over actor Sirola appears as the stage coach driver and a pal to Taylor. Apart from Taylor and, to a lesser degree Borgnine and Mills, the only creative or arresting acting comes from the ever-reliable Whitmore. The script, derived from a novel by the novel's author, is not cohesive enough and really should have been streamlined in order to retain a particular focus. It allows too many characters and subplots to chip away, to no great effect, at the primary story. Even so, the movie is nearly undone by the horrendous lack of authenticity in the settings. A key outdoor scene features plainly artificial snow made up from chipped tissue paper. The fort is almost entirely constructed (obviously) indoors. All the distress to the set, such as char, aging, etc..., is done with all the skill of 4th grade art students. Time and again, the cheapness and confining restriction of an indoor set takes the viewer out of the moment. There is also an atrociously bad matte painting of an Indian camp. These things brand the film as being just above a TV show, if even that! Most of the action occurs at the tail end of the film and it isn't staged in any grand way. This is for die-hard Cavalry and Indian buffs or for fans of the stars only.

This may be one of the strangest A-List movies ever made. It has a superb international cast (U.S., Great Britain, Australia, Italy), but the story is unbearably childish, intolerably boring, and riddled with errors and plot missteps that defy belief. Just a very few: no cashiered foreign officer could possibly get a commission in the U.S. Army, much less rise to the rank of Colonel; no Colonel wears major's leaves as his rank insignia; no Colonel ever commanded a fort consisting of what appears to be no more than a squad of soldiers (not to mention that no frontier fort was ever held by a mere squad); no Americans served in the British Army's Sudan Campaign; Chuka NEVER misses his shots at the rapidly moving Indians, regardless the range and the fact that, rather than aiming, he lunges, throws out, his pistol when firing, which absolutely GUARANTEES a miss; poor Louis Hayward (at the end of his career) agrees to lead a mutiny, which no officer in the U.S. Armed Forces has ever done; there was no concept, ever, of a fort to which were banished incompetent, criminal officers and cast-off, second-rate men (where do they GET ideas like that?)---this could go on forever. Given the idiocies of the plot and parade of one moronic scene after another (e.g., the Commanding Officer going around the dinner table and grievously insulting every single officer in his command), it must be admitted that the highly professional cast did its very best with the hopeless script (written by someone with no knowledge of the military or the American West)---but that was like trying to breathe life into the first 500 pages of the Manhattan telephone directory. Years from now this film---given its stellar cast---will be pondered upon as one of the great mysteries in Hollywood production and film-making.

Among the films of Rod Taylor, one is hard pressed to single any which stand out as wrong for him. This particular film called " Chuka " is right up his alley. The rugged, good looking rough and tumble action hero is right at home in a run down Army post surrounded by frigid miles of empty winter desert. The year is 1876, the place Fort Clandenen, home to an odd collection of misfit soldiers, deserters and questionable officers. The post is commanded by an aging Ex-British Colonel called Stuart Valois. Although disliked by his small command, only one has respect for him. That man is professional soldier Sgt. Otto Kahnsbach. (Ernest Borgnine) Into the shabby excuse of an outpost, looking for a bed is an experienced gunfighter called Chuka. (Rod Taylor) Accompanying him is the overland stage with two Beautiful Spanish women. Senora Veronica Kleitz (Luciana Paluzzi) and (Angela Dorian). With a gathering and ever encircling force of Arapahoes, led by Hanu ( Marco Lopez) a young warrior Chief, his people, ill fed and starving, need the supplies of the fort. The action in the movie is convincing as are the supporting cast. Seasoned actors James Whitmore who plays Lou Trent, the Chief scout, Louis Hayward and Lucky Carson all give fine performances. Despite the interesting stories of the characters, it is Rod Taylor who warrants most of the attention on the screen. Although lacking in cinematic promotion, this story earns the status of Classic western and is therefore recommended viewing. ****

This is a strange western that I think owes some inspiration from John Ford's classic Cheyenne Autumn. Like the Ford movie it's concerning starving Indians on the reservation, in this case Arapahoe who resolve not to starve any longer.

Especially when post commander John Mills has plenty of army supplies in his fort and won't feed the Arapahoe or give them guns to hunt. His fort is a last chance outpost where apparently the army sends all its misfits from the commander on down. Holding some kind of discipline together is Sergeant Ernest Borgnine.

Into the mix rides gunfighter Rod Taylor in the title role together with Luciana Paluzzi and her niece Victoria Vetri. Paluzzi and Taylor had a little something something going back in the day.

In any event the Arapahoes have them boxed in with a massacre impending. Our sympathies are completely with the Indians on this one. This post contains some of the worst specimens of human being ever gathered together in one spot. Mills is a frightening spectacle with Borgnine enforcing his edicts on an unruly post. Of course there's a reason he's a drunken shell of a man which we learn near the end of the film.

Chuka misses being a classic because of the pedestrian direction it got from Gordon Douglas. Someone like Delmar Daves or John Huston could have made it a classic. The cast is a good one.

John Ford would never have directed it though, no way he would have portrayed his beloved United States Cavalry like this.

Chuka is a strangely written film with some strange characters, all of whom need to have some tedious expository background scene whilst the audience twiddles its thumbs waiting for the Indians to attack (that they win is revealed in the opening scene so there's no suspense here).

Writer Richard Jassup creates some bizarre people who are unlikely to have existed in real life. His army fort is populated by a collection of what is described as the 'scum of the Earth'. As if a USA army fort in Indian territory would ever be (or ever could be) populated with 'disgraced' people. The officer in charge is a disgraced (and, it is implied, castrated) former British officer who, for reasons understandably unexplained, is now a colonel in the USA army. Not only that, but his German sergeant who served with him in the British army in the Sudan (?!) is also with him at the fort. Another character explains that he hates battles because horses get killed (!). With such bizarre creations as these, there is little one can do really but sit it out for the full 105m whilst these people all reveal something 'significant' about their backgrounds and hope that the end action justifies the wait (even know you know it won't).

The real star of the film is not Rod Taylor but the most unconvincing fort set that I have ever seen (and I must have watched over 400 westerns including all 13 of AC Lyles' films). It is so small you only ever get to see one small part of the wall. The inhabitants must number about 30 at most - only about 20 can fit in the non-existent 'parade ground' - and there is room in the stable for about 10 horses. Apart from Taylor, none of the main actors seem to have left this set for the duration. Consequently, the film has a cramped, claustrophobic, artificial look throughout and I was half expecting the source material to be a stage play. The constricted set causes several Indian arrows to defy the laws of physics and gravity - one army officer gets one in the back when his back was up against a wooden wall ! Other highlights include a long fight between Taylor and Ernest Borgnine which ends, following kidney punches and the banging of Taylor's head against a wooden post, with the two simply laughing and seemingly unharmed. Plus a somewhat incomprehensible ending that tries to strain for significance (would a grave really not be dug-up due to 'sacrilege' if a relative was after the body?).

Sorry i could not resist the headline.This Western must have been made on the very cheap because everything seems to be made of balsa wood.Rod Taylor seems to have a six shooter which is as accurate as a snipers rifle and which fires 12 shots for every 6 rounds loaded.John Mills has a look which says"this will pay next years tax bill".What about poor Louis Hayward,i didn't even recognise him.It is little wonder that Westerns were on their way out with efforts like this.It has to be another in the pantheon of those films that are so bad that they are actually very enjoyable.So if it comes your way and you want a good laugh then watch this film

I will always look back on CHUKA as a B movie with a stellar cast, including Oscar winners Borgnine and Mills. The latter, and lead Taylor (not to mention beautiful Paluzzi) were not known doing Westerns, and all look rather uncomfortable, even if Taylor looks physically fit and does his best to make the most of a not particularly desirable role.

Direction is unimaginative and unable to extract anything close to the best from the cast. One of the highlights of the movie, the fight between Borgnine and Taylor, is unconvincing, with poor stunts.

The script is limited, and predictable in its attempts to shock the viewer with revelations about the characters' dark sides. I kept thinking that I was watching a British production with Indians for color and atmosphere which, surely, was not what Director Douglas intended.

Photography is in keeping with the low budget and the ultimate pointlessness of the entire project.

Chuka is directed by Gordon Douglas and adapted to screenplay by Richard Jessup from his own novel. It stars Rod Taylor, John Mills, Ernest Borgnine, Luciana Paluzzi, James Whimore, Louis Hayward and Victoria Vetri. Music is by Leith Stevens and Pthe Color photography by Harold E. Stine.

1876 and Fort Clendenon is host to a bunch of army misfits and a lovelorn gunslinger, hardly a group capable of defending the Fort against an impending Arapaho attack...

A super cast and a rather gorgeous colour print can't avert this being a distinctly average Siege Oater. Prodution wise it's a hodgepodge, an uneasy blend of stuffy looking studio bound sequences, matte paintings and airy locales, while the acting, sparse characterisations and general reliance on non meaty chatty filler scenes, all make it an odd viewing experience.

The chat angle is most frustrating, not so much because there is so much of it so as to make this a 90% talky piece, but in that there are moments of great dialogue, where interesting character arcs are dangled, but alas they are threads that are never pulled to the benefit of all. Action is sparse but what there is is competently staged, with the siege itself - while not worth the wait - has enough moments of excitement and intelligence so as to not annoy.

A very good and intriguing ending further adds to the strange mix of poor and good of it all, but ultimately it's average and hardly essential for fans of Westerns and the stars involved. 5/10

When a single concept keeps intruding on one's enjoyment of a film it has to be mentioned. For myself, I kept wondering how a former British soldier with a French surname is in command of a U.S. Cavalry garrison in 1876. I wouldn't mind so much if this was a Thirties of Forties 'B' programmer but here it was 1967 so maybe a little background would have been in order.

There's a lot more one needs to overlook in the picture as well, but having Luciana Paluzzi on hand as a Mexican senorita sort of balanced things out. Her mysterious association with gunslinger Chuka (Rod Taylor) is eventually revealed as things reach critical mass at Fort Clendennon, though it's never really confirmed whether she was still married or not. However I did notice a wedding band on her finger at one point, so I guess you have to make up your own mind at some point.

Say here's something I never saw before - how about those clever Arapahoe Indians spearing the wall of the fort so they could use them as steps to breach the perimeter. I thought that was rather ingenious. Speaking of those spears, how is it that Chuka was able to remove one that entirely pierced his body? One minute it was there and the next minute gone. But even that wasn't as amazing as Senora Veronica (Paluzzi) taking an arrow in the back when she was standing against the wall of a barricade. How does that work?

Oh well, trying to make sense of it all isn't going to get you anywhere. There were a couple of good moments like Chuka duking it out with Sergeant Hahnsbach (Ernest Borgnine), and the Indian attack on the fort was staged fairly well. I guess in the end we're supposed to understand that Chuka was a former cavalry soldier based on the narrator's description of the cross placed on a small grave after the dust settled. Just another question mark in the story that could have been explained better to keep us all from guessing.

When "Chuka" was released back in 1967, who knew it'd be one of the last of those westerns which used to come out of the studio system with annual regularity? As an example of the genre it's quite competent and it benefits from a better than average cast -- including Oscar winners John Mills and Ernest Borgnine -- but the market for this kind of movie was drying up in the late 1960s and has never really recovered. Look for a sweaty Michael Cole, (soon to achieve fame on TV's "Mod Squad), getting a flogging as the stagecoach rolls into the fort. This flogging ranks 15th in the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies." Also look for the scene near the end when a freshly-dug grave is mentioned. Opinions may differ as to just who is occupying this grave.

CHUKA is a fun western for Rod Taylor, not one of the best of its type but solid enough as a piece of entertainment. The film is set within a fort occupied by the US army and laid to siege by a vengeful army of Indians. With little chance of rescue from outside, tempers fray within the walls and danger comes from inside as well as out.

This kind of backdrop typically brims with suspense and so it proves here. Taylor was always one of my favourite stars of the decade and he plays the ultimate tough guy here with his tough-bitten, unsentimental turn. The film has better characterisation than you'd expect for the genre as well as solid action scenes and a surprisingly pessimistic feel. The violence has a harder edge than expected. It feels a little like THE ALAMO in places albeit a version made on a lower budget.

John Mills has a fine role as the alcoholic colonel in charge of the fort's defences while Ernest Borgnine is a hard-as-nails sergeant. Borgnine's dragged-out fist-fight with Taylor is one of the great ones, up there with those featured in COOL HAND Luke and THEY LIVE. Louis Hayward is the old timer and James Whitmore has a good character part as a boozer. THUNDERBALL actress Luciana Paluzzi's red-haired beauty is a nice addition to the mix to boot.

Pretty good western about the evil injun attacking the beleaguered Army outpost. What I didn't like about the film was that everything was so CLEAN. All these soldiers, drifters, and scouts always looked so nice and tidy; they should have looked like something the cat dragged in. Also, the fight scene between Chuka and the top kick was so phoney I nearly gagged. That seemed to be the way western fights went during this time span - lots of haymakers, stumbling into horses, falling through corrals, and rolling around in the hay. Fortunately, there was only hay on the barn floor, don't know where all the dung went. Ok, the show was corny, but it still had lots of gunplay and action. I feel that those of us who love old westerns will get a bang out of this flic.

I found this film so disappointing that it moved me to write my first review.

I enjoy the western genre and was particularly looking forward to watching it as it is one I haven't seen before. Firstly, there is really some odd casting in this movie - Rod Taylor is completely unconvincing as a tough gunslinger, John Mills as a terribly English upper class officer in charge of a US fort(!), Louis Hayward as a lecherous womaniser with a weakness for young natives, James Whitmore as a drunken Indian scout, Luciana Paluzzi as Taylor's superfluous love interest, and Victoria Vetri who is just superfluous. Lastly, there is Ernest Borgnine as a bullying American/German army sergeant who shouts a lot and also we are led to believe served with Mills in the Sudan!

There is very little in the way of action until the climax apart from one brutal and overlong fight scene between Taylor and Borgnine which ends with them being friends - isn't that sweet?! I won't bore anyone with the 'plot' mainly because I couldn't find one suffice to say that thankfully the injuns eventually turn up and kill all of these thoroughly unpleasant people.

I can honestly say this film has no redeeming features - I can't really fault the acting but the story such as it is has more holes than a tea bag and also leaves many unanswered questions. I give it a generous 2/10.

This is a movie that constantly teeters on the brink of being awful, yet somehow continually proves itself to be interesting and entertaining.

Here's what I liked:

• Rod Taylor pulls off the role of charismatic "pistolero" loner quite well.

• I don't know how plausible it is for a former British army officer to be commanding U.S. troops, but John Mills character adds a unique texture to the Western setting.

• The characters in the movie were very well developed in terms of complexity.

• Ernest Borgnine and James Whitmore provide excellent supporting acting.

• I liked the fact that a strong Mexican theme was introduced through the love interest. It was nice to see a Mexican aristocrat portrayed and not the usual ragged, barefoot street vendor/flunkie.

• Although the Indians were presented as stereotypical murderers threatening the heroes, they were given legitimate cause for their extreme actions.

• I enjoyed a couple of "super macho" scenes, one involving a extended fist fight between Taylor and Borgnine and the other involving an extended Tequila drinking bout by Taylor and Whitmore.

• A shout out to lovely Bond girl Luciana Paluzzi. She's very effective as a complex love interest for Taylor.

Here's some things I didn't like:

• There's maybe too much time spent developing the back stories of the main characters. The movie needed more action oriented subplots, especially since it was told as a flashback i.e. We already knew the ending.

• I found the general pacing too slow, starting with Chuka's long pony ride through the snow at the beginning.

• Maybe the Arapahoes were starving, but Rod Taylor sure wasn't. Hard to imaging getting that pudgy wandering around the desert on a horse. You think the guy could have worked out a little for this part.

• I don't know how to shoot a pistol, but I'm sure Taylor's firing technique is extremely poor. Hard to believe he never misses.

• This was shot almost entirely on set. I like Westerns to have significant location shoots in the West, not in Burbank.

• The Burbank set itself was very cheap and the whole movie had a cartoonish feel. This was dissonant with its rather grim and violent plot.

• Was it necessary to reveal that Colonel Valois is no longer a "complete man" because he was sexually mutilated by natives in the Sudan? This was a bizarre non-sequitur introduced late in the movie.

• There is zero comic relief, at least intentional comic relief.

Confronted with impending starvation and death "Chief Hanu" (Marco Lopez) of the Arapaho tribe mulls attacking a nearby United States Army outpost to acquire food and weapons. Although the commanding officer of the fort "Colonel Stuart Valois" (John Mills) fully understands the plight of the Arapaho, his superiors don't believe an attack is imminent and have forbidden him to help them out. Adding to his concern is the fact that the soldiers he has under his command are extremely undisciplined and a search party he has recently sent out has yet to return. Along with that a stagecoach carrying two female passengers and a gunslinger has arrived and with them the driver brings even more ominous news. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film turned out to be a solid, no frills western for the most part. Admittedly, some of the action scenes were a bit too far-fetched with the gunslinger "Chuka" (Rod Taylor) being much too fast and accurate with his pistol to be believed. Even so, I liked the way the story progressed and I thought that Luciana Paluzzi was perfectly cast as "Senora Veronica Kleitz". Be that as it may, I enjoyed this movie and because of that I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Released in July 1967, near the tail end of Hollywood's love affair with the traditional Western film, "Chuka" is a middling representative of that great cinematic genre, rescued largely by the thesping contributions of a bunch of seasoned pros. It was a disappointing performer at the box office and is largely forgotten today, yet a recent viewing has served to demonstrate for me that the film nevertheless contains many elements that make it worthy of reevaluation and commendation. The picture was coproduced, cowritten and stars Australian actor Rod Taylor, and those viewers who have only previously encountered Mr. Taylor as the handsome and well-groomed protagonists of such classic films as "The Time Machine" (1960) and "The Birds" (1963) might be a bit taken aback by how scruffy, craggy, grizzly and bloated he appears here. Only part of this seems to be a makeup job; Rod does appear to have aged a bit and packed on some poundage in those intervening years. And playing the part of a "pistolero," a hired killer since a young age, whose habit of loitering near chuck wagons has resulted in his nickname Chuka (we never do learn his real name), would conceivably have made him even more difficult to warm up to here. Not to worry, though; Taylor's innate charm manages to seep through Chuka's gruff exterior, and his "bad man" is ultimately revealed to have a heart of mush, despite the fact that he is said to have previously killed 16 men in fair fights.

When we first encounter Chuka, he is sharing some of his food with starving Arapaho Indians in what this viewer assumed was Colorado, in November 1876. The gunman soon fetches up at Ft. Clendennon, an outpost of cashiered Army losers and assorted scum, lorded over by its drunken commanding officer, Col. Valois (the great British actor John Mills), and the brutish Sgt. Hansbach (another typically wonderful performance by the late Ernest Borgnine). Fearing a mass attack from Arapaho chief Hanu and his warriors (a legitimate fear, the viewer realizes, as the film is told in flashback, its first images being some shots of the decimated Ft. Clendennon), Valois compels Chuka to do service as a scout. Meanwhile, Chuka is having some personal problems of his own, as the fort is currently serving as the temporary residence of his prior love interest, Mexican senora Veronica Kleitz (Italian actress Lucianna Paluzzi, who this viewer has had a major "thang" for ever since seeing her in "Thunderball" in 1965, and who was, truth to tell, my sole inspiration for renting out this film), who is escorting her niece Helena (Angela Dorian, later known as Victoria Vetri, who would memorably appear in a "Playboy" centerfold in September of that year and go on to appear in such films as "Rosemary's Baby," "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" and "Invasion of the Bee Girls") to her wedding in California. But can even the resourceful Chuka protect these women and himself amid the seemingly inevitable doom of Ft. Clendennon?

"Chuka" the film builds slowly to that grisly showdown between the riffraff of the lonely outpost and the desperate and starving Arapahos, and its ending is a surprisingly bleak and downbeat one, with a very high body count and hardly any survivors. And no, this is NOT a spoiler; as I mentioned, the aftermath of this battle, revealing the doom of the fort and its occupants, was shown to us at the film's onset. Besides this finely done battle sequence, the film offers at least two other memorable scenes, both of which feature Ernest Borgnine (who had just appeared in "The Dirty Dozen" the month before). In the first, Hansbach and Chuka engage in a lengthy and brutal fistfight, resulting in the sergeant beginning to have a grudging admiration for the grizzled gunman who he had previously regarded as only a "saddle bum"; in the second, Hansbach tells Chuka and others of his history with Valois, and of why he is so loyal to the man, and it is a fairly shocking story, indeed. In addition to the other fine performers already listed, "Chuka" features typically fine contributions from James Whitmore, as the fort's official scout, and Louis Hayward, as Clendennon's traitorous Maj. Benson. The film gives us some nice wintry backdrops (some very fine outdoor cinematography here by DOP Harold E. Stine), costumes by the legendary Edith Head, a pleasant but forgettable theme by composer Leith Stevens, and direction that is at times surprisingly inventive, from Gordon Douglas. (Douglas' list of credits is a huge one, in a wide variety of genres and formats; some of this viewer's favorites directed by Douglas are "Them!," "Call Me Bwana" and "In Like Flint," the last of which had been released just four months prior to "Chuka.") And as for Lucianna, well, she is just as gorgeous here as any 007 fan might recall, never more so than when she lets her hair down (literally and figuratively) before a lovemaking session with the lucky Chuka, hours before the Arapaho raid. All said, "Chuka" is a satisfying film, even a grim and startling one at times; certainly not in the front rank of classic Westerns, but a worthy addition to the genre, nevertheless....

The director was not allowed to film on location,which ,for a western is perhaps not a very smart idea.But as almost all the action takes place in a fort besieged by starving Indians,the movie does not suffer for it.It's a very dark western,with a murky atmosphere ,unsympathetic characters; in spite of the gorgeous Luciana Paluzzi (one of the best James Bond girl that ever was ) and her niece (portrayed by Angela Dorian,more famous for her small part of Terry Gionoffrio in "Rosemary's baby" ),the dinner becomes a settling of scores.The movie contains very violent scenes in its last quarter ,predating Peckinpah and "soldier blue" and it's one of the rare films of the genre to feature a thoroughly unhappy ending.

This movie dealt with a fort that was being surrounded by Arapahoes Native Americans as the soldiers were defending supplies and food that the Arapahoes wanted. Rod Taylor plays a man, Chuka, who comes upon this rather dire situation. He helps a former lover of his and a niece who become stranded while traveling on the road. The visitors become stuck inside the fort as the Arapahoes prepare to attack it. There are several scenes involving Chuka and the other fort soldiers that show the personalities of the fort's defenders. There are even a few light moments in the movie as the imminent attack draws near. Rod's character also has a love scene with the former lover (gorgeous Luciana Paluzzi). Chuka tries to persuade the commanding officer of the fort to abandon it and allow the Arapahoes to take the supplies, which he refuses. The concept of following duty appears to be an unconvincing aspect of the situation given that the safety of the fort's occupants should have been paramount. John Mills, who plays the commanding officer, is the guilt driven colonel who refuses to allow the soldiers to abandon the fort as a way out of the situation. The movie reminded me of situations where the number of fighters on one side was way outnumbered by the opposition. There was little sympathy for those that followed the orders blindly. Chuka was one of the few who offered a possible alternative to the impending massacre.

I'd love to have given this a higher vote than 6 but there are just enough corny, well okay bad scenes, that meant I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Fact is though that all the problems with the film for me were washed away with that one moment at the end of the film that brought it back from being below average to being rather satisfying.

I don't really care so much about historical accuracy. I doubt many people would watch this film with the idea that they are being educated about life in the west 150 years ago. The story is the key and I was quite able to accept most of it. The jarring moments are the ones where Rod Stewart can't carry off some really poor dialogue and some really bad, well, let me say, childish stuff where his character is putting across the tough guy persona that misses by a long way.

The vast majority of westerns that were made were pretty poor. They were churned out as fast as Zane Grey could write them. No wonder then that the really good ones made such an impact since they were such a shock compared to the usual dross.

I haven't actually watched this film for, oh 20 years or so, but I have never forgotten it and have thought on it often. It is a personal favorite in that way and if I can get a copy I will buy it.

It isn't a great film. It has many flaws. But ... I enjoyed it and would gladly watch it again.