A Distant Trumpet is a 1964 American Western film directed by Raoul Walsh starring Troy Donahue, Suzanne Pleshette and Diane McBain. The screenplay by John Twist, Albert Beich and Richard Fielder is based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Paul Horgan.
Plot[]
In 1883, U.S. Army Cavalry lieutenant Matthew Hazard, newly graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (on the Hudson River), is assigned to isolated Fort Delivery on the Mexican border of the Arizona Territory in the early 1880s, where he meets commanding officer Teddy Mainwarring's wife Kitty, whom he later rescues from an Indian attack.
Soon after a new commander, Major General Alexander Quaint, (James Gregory), arriving at the fort with a large regiment of "spit and polished" cavalry / "horse soldiers" takes charge. When his efforts to capture Chiricahua Apache chief "War Eagle" fail, he orders Hazard into northern Mexico to cajole the Indian chief into surrendering.
After a long arduous trip south across the border in desolate deserts and buttes, canyons with dry ravines, and gulches, Hazard sits and meets with convincing the wary suspicious War Eagle to return with him with the promise that the Indians will be provided a safe haven at a reservation near their ancient tribal homeland in Arizona. En route back to the fort, they encounter a Major Miller sent out to meet the party taking them into custody as if criminal prisoners, who orders the Indians be sent instead in exile to Florida.
Hazard and General Quaint journey to the "Great White Father" in Washington, D.C. to protest, campaign on their demands to honor their promises of good faith with U.S. War Department and the Secretary of War himself and army brass and government officials to reverse their decision and allow Hazard to keep his word to War Eagle. Finally General Quaint calls 21st President of the United States himself at the neighboring White House, on a new-fangled thing called a "telephone" and off-handedly referring to the Chief Executive as "Chet", (Chester A. Arthur, 1829-1886, served 1881-1885), warning him that he was in a lot of trouble with these Indians after Lt. Hazard refuses and throws down his offered "Congressional Medal of Honor" (the highest American military honor), submitting his resigned officer's commission. At the ceremony in the Secretary of War's office in front of a assembly of press reporters and family, making a bold declaration about how the Indians have been betrayed by the United States Army.
Cast[]
- Troy Donahue as Lt. Matthew Hazard, U.S.A.
- Suzanne Pleshette as Kitty Mainwarring
- William Reynolds as Teddy Mainwarring, U.S.A.
- James Gregory as Maj. Gen. Alexander Quaint, U.S.A.
- Diane McBain as Laura Frelief
- Claude Akins as Seely Jones
- Kent Smith as the U.S. Secretary of War
