One Little Indian is the first of two westerns that James Garner and Vera Miles made for Walt Disney Productions in the middle Seventies, the second being The Castaway Cowboy. Vera has less to do in this film as James Garner spends most of his screen time with the actor playing the title role, young Clay O'Brien.
The title is really a misnomer because O'Brien isn't an Indian. He's a white captive who is discovered as such after an army patrol brings in some women and kids. He's used to living with the Cheyenne and runs away.
While on the run O'Brien meets up with James Garner who is also on the run from the army. He's been sentenced to hang for mutiny and desertion and Sergeant Morgan Woodward is making it a personal mission to bring Garner in.
As it turns out Garner finds O'Brien invaluable because he didn't get away on a horse. His getaway animal was a mother camel named Rosebud and her baby named Thirsty. Part of the remnants of Jefferson Davis's camel corps experiment which even today can be found roaming our deserts in the Southwest. Rosie can outlast any horse on the desert, but she does require some special handling and O'Brien proves to have a way with the beast.
Where One Little Indian succeeds is in the chemistry between Garner and O'Brien without which the film couldn't work. Rendering them aid and comfort for a while is widowed mother Vera Miles and her daughter Jodie Foster. Garner being an army deserter and under sentence to hang does complicate things for a romance with Miles.
This is a Walt Disney production so you know it will all work out. Pat Hingle a gruff army captain who does not like the routine of his well ordered post disrupted proves to be a savior for all, but Woodward. How that is accomplished is something to watch One Little Indian for.
One Little Indian is a pleasant piece of entertainment from Walt Disney with the added pleasure of James Garner.
The title is really a misnomer because O'Brien isn't an Indian. He's a white captive who is discovered as such after an army patrol brings in some women and kids. He's used to living with the Cheyenne and runs away.
While on the run O'Brien meets up with James Garner who is also on the run from the army. He's been sentenced to hang for mutiny and desertion and Sergeant Morgan Woodward is making it a personal mission to bring Garner in.
As it turns out Garner finds O'Brien invaluable because he didn't get away on a horse. His getaway animal was a mother camel named Rosebud and her baby named Thirsty. Part of the remnants of Jefferson Davis's camel corps experiment which even today can be found roaming our deserts in the Southwest. Rosie can outlast any horse on the desert, but she does require some special handling and O'Brien proves to have a way with the beast.
Where One Little Indian succeeds is in the chemistry between Garner and O'Brien without which the film couldn't work. Rendering them aid and comfort for a while is widowed mother Vera Miles and her daughter Jodie Foster. Garner being an army deserter and under sentence to hang does complicate things for a romance with Miles.
This is a Walt Disney production so you know it will all work out. Pat Hingle a gruff army captain who does not like the routine of his well ordered post disrupted proves to be a savior for all, but Woodward. How that is accomplished is something to watch One Little Indian for.
One Little Indian is a pleasant piece of entertainment from Walt Disney with the added pleasure of James Garner.