Bugles in the Afternoon

Guns, Arrows, Bugles and Revenge.

Bugles in the Afternoon is directed by Roy Rowland and adapted to screenplay by Daniel Mainaring and Harry Brown from the Ernest Haycox novel. It stars Ray Milland, Helena Carter, Hugh Marlowe, Forrest Tucker, Barton Maclane and George Reeves. A Technicolor production with music by Dimitri Tiomkin and cinematography by Wilfred M. Cline.

Solid enjoyable fare that doesnt push any boundaries. Story finds Milland as Kern Shafter, a cavalryman cashiered out the service for running through Edward Garnett (Marlowe). After drifting for a while, Shafter ends up at Bismarck and joins the Seventh Cavalry at Fort Abraham Lincoln. Unfortunately, his new superior is none other than Captain Edward Garnett! As the...

Ray Milland ("Shafter") is cashiered out of the military after an altercation with "Garnett" (Hugh Marlowe) but struggles with civilian life, so re-enlists with a frontier regiment. At his new posting, he discovers that it is not just the marauding Sioux he has to worry about; his nemesis is also at the same fort, and outranks him. It doesn't help their openly displayed animosity, that both fancy the same - from what I could see, only - gal "Josephine" (Helena Carter). It seems that "Shafter" has a shred of decency to him, but the same cannot be said for "Garnett" and with Indian attacks looming, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn only round the corner, the story is riddled with peril both in front and behind his back. This is a competen...