I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Some things I liked some I did not.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Although no one would ever confuse Troy Donahue with John Wayne, Donahue does acquit himself well in A Distant Trumpet which turned out to be Raoul Walsh's final feature film.Donahue who made his bones in Hollywood playing mostly decent All American type young men. Here he's a fresh West Point graduate assigned to an Arizona frontier post where the army is busy subduing the last of the great Indian tribes, the Chiracauhua Apache. He's under the command of General James Gregory who was a mentor to him at West Point.In addition to fighting Indians Donahue has a romantic dilemma. He's engaged to Diane McBain who is Gregory's niece. But on the post now is an old flame Suzanne Pleshette who is married to fellow officer William Reynolds. Donahue has a similar dilemma faced by John Wayne in Fort Apache. As with the Duke, Troy behaves in an honorable fashion. In fact in his private affairs he's honorable if very tempted.Take note of a good performance by Judson Pratt as a superior and sympathetic officer to Donahue's plight and a really rollicking and unforgettable one by Claude Akins who is quite the flesh peddler to both the red and white race.A Distant Trumpet is not as sentimental as John Ford's cavalry westerns. But Raoul Walsh ended his career with a good one.

SYNOPSIS: In 1883, U.S. Cavalry Lieutenant Matt Hazard arrives at Fort Delivery on the Mexican border in Arizona to begin a new assignment.NOTES: Location scenes filmed in Arizona and New Mexico.COMMENT: With this film, director Raoul Walsh was honorably discharged from his career in the cinema. Unfortunately, the film does not seem to be quite the marvelous piece of work that the book was, if the reviews of the book (see below) are anything to go by. It's certainly not a whale of a good story, it's just an ordinary U.S. cavalry versus renegade Indians picture, and off-hand I could name at least fifty more powerful treatments of this subject including "Ulzana's Raid". The trouble is that the story is so weak and conventional and that its characters are such stereotypes and they are so weakly and flaccidly played (particularly by James Gregory and Diane McBain, — also William Reynolds in a small part, and Suzanne Pleshette who is charming, but scarcely a strong heroine. Mr. Donahue on the other hand seems to mistake strength for stiffness).Lacking strong characters the film lacks strong emotions and strong audience involvement. Even the battle scenes are routinely staged. The locations look fairly interesting, but we don't see enough of them. But we do see too much of the hero's insipid romantic entanglements. A pity. The film seems to have all the ingredients for power and excitement but it rarely gets above the routine. Film editing is sluggish, sets are unimpressive and even Max Steiner's music score is definitely not work from his top drawer.Here are three quotes from reviews of the novel: "A big, vivid, exciting novel." — New York Herald Tribune. "Paul Horgan's powerful bestseller about the U.S. Cavalry in its history-making conquest of the Apaches, brings to towering life a brilliant and bloody moment of America's past... A tremendous piece of work." — Saturday Review. "A whale of a good story... the finest novel yet on the Southwest." — The New York Times.

The more I watch this, the more I like it. Great epic scenes with a huge cast of soldiers, Indians, and horses in real American West settings. The wide screen Panavision photography (with original release prints in IB Technicolor) is excellent. CGI may be fine, but I have yet to see anything surpass the look of hundreds of REAL men on horses in stunning REAL outdoor settings. As for the story, while I thought the book was very good, the way the characters are handled in the film is better in some ways, and the ending of the film much more to my liking. One thing they did have to tone down from the book was the sex element. It appears WB even adjusted one sequence after prints were made up. This appears in Reel Two, where Matt Hazard (Tro Donahue) and Kitty Mainwarring (Susan Pleshette) are in thr cave together overnight. With Pleshette's back to audience line (apparently later dubbed in) says "Good night Matt" and there is an ABRUPT cut to daytime and troops coming into the fort. 35mm and 16mm prints I have seen all contain this SLICED cut. And the original 35mm trailer containing the cave sequence does not contain the "good night" line". I believe that originally there was an embrace and kiss between Troy and Suzanne and a DISSOLVE to the next scene (or fade out & in). In any event, as Westerns go, this has a good story and looks better all the time, especially wide screen.

This may have started out as an "A" production and its visual elements are certainly first-rate. The ever-reliable William Clothier contributes sparkling color photography which fills the wide-screen with some of the most impressive vistas you're ever likely to see in a western. Unfortunately, by casting Troy Donahue in the lead role, Warner Bros. indicated it was relegating this production to "B" status, and the result is just another cavalry-and-Indians movie. Suzanne Pleshette shows promise as "Kitty" but it's hard to do good work when one's leading man is of the Ken-doll variety. Diane McBain has little to work with as the fiancee and merely adds to the feeling that "A Distant Trumpet" is a spin-off from Warner Bros. stable of TV westerns. At least the cavalry soldiers actually get dusty in this movie, and there's a good scene of Bobby Bare being branded on the back for cowardice.