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9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
As Buffalo Bill saw himself., 9 November 2004
6/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

If William F. Cody had lived until 1944 he would have loved this film. Most of all he would have approved of the casting of Hollywood's most straight arrow hero Joel McCrea as himself. That's the image Cody liked to convey even if it wasn't exactly the truth.

The real Cody was a brave enough hero all right and this film does mention some of the highlights of his real life, the buffalo hunt with Grand Duke Alexei of Russia, the hand to hand fight with Yellow Hand at War Bonnet Gorge, and the formation of his wild west show.

The trouble was the real Cody got into show business and he was ballyhooed out of all proportion to his real accomplishments. And Cody was lent himself admirably to exploitation.

The movie is the kind of ballyhoo that Cody would have approved. Cody's chief publicist in real life was Ned Buntline who is faithfully portrayed here by Thomas Mitchell. Maureen O'Hara is Louisa Frederici Cody and she's the faithful, but eastern bred wife. No hint of the real marriage problems that plagued the Codys.

Linda Darnell and Edgar Buchanan are in this film and I don't really know why. Darnell is an Indian school mistress and Buchanan is a grizzled old army trooper. No real reason for either of them in the film. Darnell is killed at War Bonnet Gorge and she must have been the first squaw who rode into battle. Buchanan's character is also left hanging in the air. Anthony Quinn is Cheyenne chief Yellow Hand and is Cody's worthy adversary on the screen.

Buffalo Bill Cody's real contribution was the wild west show. Cody had many imitators, but he was the original. Until Hollywood took over with the making of the first silent westerns, these shows created the myths surrounding the winning of the west. Sadly that part of Cody's life is given short shrift.

But Buffalo Bill would have loved this film. Whether today's audience would is open to speculation.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
A Great Adventure, 3 March 2004
9/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The story of Buffalo Bill (Joel McCrea) is showed basically in two parts, beginning in 1877: in the West, when he meets his future wife Louisa Frederici Cody (Maureen O'Hara), his friendship with the Indians, specially with Yellow Hand (Anthony Quinn), and his work, as an explorer of the wild West, ending when his wife returns to the East with his baby son and with a battle against the Cheyenne. The second part begins when he moves to the East, loses his son, separates from his wife, defends the Indians in the civilized society until his retirement. I liked this movie a lot: the battle scenes are fantastic, the story has action, romance, drama and is not corny. I do not know whether the facts are correctly presented or not, but as a movie, it is a great entertainment, recommended for all audiences. Maureen O'Hara's beauty is stunning. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): `Buffalo Bill'

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
The dark side of civilization., 15 February 2004
8/10
Author: tmwest from S. Paulo, Brazil

When this film was made, people were still in love with cars, freeways and bringing progress to the west. So it was quite an achievement to bring to the screen a divided hero, who from one side admired the Indian way of life, and who understood that the killing of the buffaloes would bring misery to the natives, but at the same time arranged buffalo hunts for people of the east, and as a scout helped the army fight the Indians. When he goes east and see stories written about him by Ned Buntline we know that it is impossible for him (as for any human being) to live up to them, and he is bound to end up in ridicule. People nowadays are more ecology conscious and that makes this film more meaningful than in 1944. The first part of the film shows the west and the war with the Indians with excellent battle scenes and great color. Maureen O'Hara is more beautiful than in any other film I've seen her and so is Linda Darnell. The second part is when Buffalo Bill goes east, and that is when the film is at its best.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Buffalo Bill (1944), 25 April 2005
8/10
Author: Albert Mazeika from United States

While as Biography, "Buffalo Bill" is probably as accurate as the depiction of Custer in "They Died With Their boots On", it is still excellent film making and a fine vehicle for stalwart Joel McCrea, who, despite performances in excellent non-westerns such as "Sullivan's Travels" and "Foreign Correspondent" was known primarily as a Cowboy Star.

I would also hold this film up as another example, along with John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy, of a film which depicted Native Americans as a noble race, victimized by the march of western civilization, long before the advent of films such as "Little Big Man" or "Dances With Wolves" The White Man is clearly the villain in this and the Ford films. Early on, Cody admonishes a Government representative, telling him that Yellow hand (Anthony Quinn, who also plays Crazy Horse in "They Died With Their boots On") is a Prince of his people, and should be treated as such.

Plus, if the reunion at the shooting gallery and the Wild West Show farewell scenes don't put a lump in your throat, better check your pulse.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Cavalry-Indian battle at War Bonnet Gorge, 20 June 2003
7/10
Author: NewEnglandPat from Virginia

This film is a hidden gem in western film lore and has fine work by Joel McCrea in the title role. The movie has great color and scenery, a fine cast, a great battle scene, and genuinely poignant moments. The random slaughter of buffalo is the spark that sets off a powder keg that explodes with Indians going on the warpath to drive the white invaders from their hunting grounds. The thrilling clash of red and blue at War Bonnet Gorge is perhaps the best ever filmed by any major studio on any level. The fight symbolized the struggle of two cultures and a way of life that the Indians fought desperately to preserve. The soldiers and Indians are a blur in a savage mixture of military conflict that forever broke the resistance of the Plains Indians to westward expansion. Maureen O'Hara is pretty as Mrs. Cody and Thomas Mitchell does well in his role as Ned Buntline.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Very dated but has its moments, 30 July 2004
6/10
Author: frankfob from California

Big, splashy spectacle benefits from absolutely beautiful photography and a truly outstanding finale that has hundreds of cavalrymen and Indians battling in the middle of a river. Joel McCrea's performance is okay--overacting is something he was never accused of--and Maureen O'Hara tries hard but is miscast (not, however, as badly as Linda Darnell, who is breathtaking to look at but totally wasted as an Indian maiden). The script takes liberties with the facts, which is to be expected, but its point of view is quite a bit more sympathetic to the Indians' plight than that of most westerns of the period. Overall it doesn't hold up all that well, but if you've never seen it it's worth a look.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Factual Errors, 12 December 2005
Author: taklasek from Hazelwood, MO USA

I enjoyed watching the film "Buffalo Bill." Unfortunately close blood relations of Buffalo Bill were still living at that time, and they should have made an effort not to make errors.

Louisa Frederici met Cody in Saint Louis, and served out the end of the war there planning on making her his bride. They were married in her father's home (John Frederici) on South 8th Street in Saint Louis. They left right away for a steamboat to Kansas. Her father did not go along, and was NOT a Senator.

It is a fine film, and entertaining. When Bill Cody returned to the West in 1866 he was married! There was no Linda Darnell's character. Just once I would like for Hollywood to do an exact biography without changing the facts!

I am a Frederici descendant. Terry Alan Klasek Saint Louis, Missouri

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Killer Bill, 22 October 2008
Author: JoeytheBrit from www.moviemoviesite.com

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The most noticeable thing about this fairly routine Western is its sympathetic portrayal of the native American – something of a rarity for a Hollywood film of the 40s. The white man is the villain here – or, more specifically, the white man from the East who is unfamiliar with both the culture of the Indians and their needs. Coming from New York in their droves, they decimate the buffalo population as part of a fashion fad and uncaringly leave the starving Indian nation with no option but to go to war. Despite this sympathetic portrayal, stereotypes still abound. Anthony Quinn plays the legendary Yellow Hand, one-time friend of Cody, who has been educated by the White Man but still talks in that curious pigeon-English so beloved of Hollywood film-makers. And for all the Indian's nobility, whiteness is still something to which Indian squaw Linda Darnell still aspires. It's difficult to understand why she is included in the plot because she has little to do other than gaze longingly at an oblivious Cody. Even the writers don't seem to know what to do with her and end up having her bizarrely taking part in a pitched battle between Indians and cavalry.

Joel McCrea plays Buffalo Bill and he is as reliable and unspectacular as you would expect McCrea to be. Cody himself is something of a paradox. Initially friendly with the Indian he sacrifices his position in order to save the father of the Eastern lass he has his eye on (a radiant Maureen O'Hara) and then helps organise guided hunting trips to give witless city types the opportunity to take part in the orchestrated massacre of the buffalo (perhaps, then, a better title for him would have been Buffalo-killer Bill?). Having helped drive his old friend Yellow Hand's tribe to the edge of extinction he then deliberately baits the Indian chief into a battle to the death to buy himself some time when out-numbered by the combined forces of the Sioux and Cheyenne. Despite later railing against the 'civilisation' that has claimed the life of his son, Cody then embraces that culture and finds a niche within it as an entertainer, recreating his exploits in a travelling sideshow before the titled heads of the world. When you think about it, this isn't exactly the most admirable of people we're learning about here, and you're left feeling that the writers really hadn't given much thought to the overall impression they were trying to give of the man.

Although the film overall is something of a dull affair it's lifted by some good action sequences and early use of technicolor.

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Noticeable Goof, 21 February 2004
Author: GASDOC from Sun City West, AZ

I first saw this film in 1944 in Denver, CO., and the last time just recently. It is truly an excellent film. Having lived mostly in Arizona I can certainly understand the plight of the Native American Indian throughout the history of our country.

There is a scene in the movie where Buffalo Bill is being honored at a dinner given by a Mr. Vandervere(George Lessey). During the introduction of Buffalo Bill, Mr. Vandervere attributes the quote, "The only good indian is a dead indian" to General William T. Sherman. Sherman may have uttered the quote but it is attributed to General Philip H. Sheridan.

Actually, the quote,"The only good indian is a dead indian" is a historical proverb of unknown origin. Edward Ellis in his book, THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY: FROM THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA TO THE PRESENT TIME(1895) titles a short paragraph, "Sheridan's Bon Mot". Ellis relates an event from an eyewitness account of Captain Charles Nordstrom. It was the writer's good fortune to be present when General Sheridan uttered the Bon Mot in January of 1869 at old Fort Cobb in Indian Territory, now Oklahona, shortly after Custer's fight with Black-Kettle's Band of Cheyennes. Old Toch-a-way(turtle dove), a chief of the Commanches, on being presented to General Sheridan, desired to impress the General in his favor. Striking himself a resounding blow on the breast, he managed to say, "Me, Toch-a-way, me good injun." A quizzical smile lit up the General's face as he set those standing by in a roar by saying, "The only good indians I ever saw were dead."

In later years,General Sheridan denied he ever made the comment.

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
C.B.DeMille-style western, 8 May 2003
Author: gstevens-2 from Azusa, CA

All the action in this movie is mostly towards the beginning-the indian vs calvary battle which bestows the famous reputation of indian-fighter on the main character, Buffalo Bill. The battle scenes are enhanced by the large numbers of real indians who were wearing real eagle feathers, and even the participation of a young indian woman in the battle(a similarity to the Custer battle, where indian women also participated). Staging a battle with large numbers of horses in the middle of a river must have been challenging. The indians would have probably chosen a much better site, but the storyline said they were in a hurry to get through a vital pass and so the clash.Buffalo Bill summarized his feelings for the indians by saying,"they were all my friends." the rest of the movie focuses on his personal life and tragedies. His final speech to his fans gave the viewer a feel for the about-to-be-lost glory and grandeur of the old west.It made me think of how far beyond anything C.B. DeMille ever did the true west really was.

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