calvinnme Leonard Maltin must have delicate ears. He called 1951's "Slaughter Trail" soundtrack "indescribably awful." Something "indescribably awful" to hear is a Siamese cat giving birth. The soundtrack is like the Sons of the Pioneers with below-par lyrics, with an occasional zinger mixed in. This is a sublimely stupid Western, where the "Indians" wear obvious wigs, the makeup people painted their chests but forgot their backs, the soldiers throw up their arms and fall and die before the sound effects tell the viewer they've been hit, the leading lady smooches with a highwayman and her very obvious lipstick is on his face and yet nobody comments on it. When asked if anyone was killed during a robbery, Andy Devine says "just the stagecoach driver. No one important"(!?) Another line that seems to indicate the film was meant as a satire (or maybe just poorly written). Devine asks if an Indian had been hit. Soldier: "No, but he won't be riding a horse for a longgg time." I'd pass on this one. The western genre was big in the 50's because so many social issues could be discussed in the context of the old west rather than cause controversy by discussing them in a modern setting. But then there was always a film just trying to make a buck off the popularity of the genre. This is one of those films.

WoodrowTruesmith Hilariously inept - like "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" remade by five-year-olds.Spoilers ahead: Despite its title, and the high bodycount, "Slaughter Trail" is in fact a musical with Injun battles instead of dance numbers.If you ever wondered what Ed Wood might have done with a B-movie budget, this film should answer your question. Some decisions may have been bad only in retrospect, such as filming in the short-lived Cinecolor process, which resulted in faces changing hue within the same shot. But there was definitely some ill-advised skimping on the film's main set, a cavalry fort that seems to be partly a Norman castle.Terry Gilkyson, who later wrote the 'The Bare Necessities' for Disney's "The Jungle Book", supplies a score full of original ditties which would have been wonderful for a cartoon but which fit Western action like a fuzzy slipper stuck in a stirrup. One song tells how "horse hooves pound, and their melody sounds, like the hoofbeat serenade"...during a dead-serious scene of a cavalry patrol. Other songs literally narrate the story shot by shot, introducing characters, describing their moods and gestures - as they happen on screen - and even stop to advertise the Cinecolor process(!) The script sends ferocious Navajos on the warpath to avenge the killing of two of their band by an outlaw trio. By the end of the film, what looks like a hundred Navajos and cavalrymen have bitten the dust (thanks to repeated footage of the same characters dying over and over.) But the chief is satisfied once he sees the trio of badguys have been slain. As the singer helpfully informs those of us who weren't paying attention, the Navajos ride away, their battle called off. The cavalry captain, surrounded by the corpses of his fallen comrades, cheerily waves his appreciation.The direction could most charitably be described as wooden, or more to the point, Wood-en. Navajos are consistently shot off their horses in pairs -- never just one. Virtually every red man on foot dies by throwing his hands in the air and keeling over. The film also employs the most cautious stuntmen in Hollywood, who crouch before dropping off a one-story roof (and still fail to stick the landing) or turn to look behind them as they slide, "dead", down a rocky slope.The star is Brian Donlevy, who surely deserves an Oscar for not blushing. After the endless final battle scene -- "climax" is scarcely the word -- he scans a list of the dozens of his troopers killed, and shrugs, "It could've been a LOT worse." Trooper Andy Devine gets to sing and robber/murderer Gig Young laughs at Andy's antics...which leads a character who had been held up by masked bandits to rat Gig out: "I'd know that laugh anywhere!" And lest anyone forget just what a nasty piece of work Howard Hughes could be, recall that as head of RKO, Hughes was first in line to blacklist original star Howard Da Silva when HUAC denounced him. It would take Hughes another six years to finish running that once-celebrated studio into the ground, but it didn't help things when he insisted on reshooting Da Silva's every scene for this film, substituting Donlevy.It was nearly a decade before Da Silva was able to work in Hollywood again. But all things considered, for getting him out of "Slaughter Trail", he should have sent Hughes a thank-you note.

Doodlesweaver You know, this is CRAZY but that song in SLAUGHTER TRAIL has kept running through my mind ever since I first saw the film.If you have any other film remembrances of that movie...I'd like to hear them.I think Brian Donlevy had something so "serious" about him that it lent a "feeling" to the film and made that song a mind sticker. Anyway--it's like a miracle that other people still sing that song too.And--I remember it as well as any song from any "A" musical. So, I had to rate it as "Excellent." Gosh, why not? And, I thought I was the only one whose head it kept running around in!

gigicats03 I was very excited to see this movie come up on the database. I remember seeing this movie in the theaters when I was young, and the song keeps going through my head, even now.I have not seen it on TV at all, and would really LOVE to add this movie to my library. I know that what I remember as a child and what it would be like now are two completely different things, but since it took me at least 30 years to find anyone who even knew about this movie I think is an incredible thing.It must have been pretty good, or I wouldn't have remembered the title, the song, or the movie all of these 50 odd years!!!!