Sitting Bull

Turning a deaf ear to pleas, General Custer forces Sitting Bull of the Sioux to gather forces against him at Little Big Horn. And the one soldier who tried to prevent it faces the firing squad for treason. Unless …

Sitting Bull (1954) starring Dale Robertson, Mary Murphy, J. Carrol Naish

Major Robert ‘Bob’ Parrish: Those people use this fort to buy their supplies in. They lie in their teeth about where they’re going. They go into Sioux territory, slaughter their game, foul their water, and shoot every Indian they see if he’s old or harmless enough. The treaties, they don’t mean anything to them. They’re just words on paper.
Gen. Wilford Howell: Admitting every word of that to be true, it’s outside your province as a soldier. We are all here to obey orders.
Col. Custer: And orders seem to be something of a stumbling block for you. Major, you’ve been a burr under my saddle ever since you came west. You were an aide to General Grant when I first knew you, a colonel! Now you seem to be traveling downwards in rank.
Major Robert ‘Bob’ Parrish: Well, we seem to be traveling in the same direction, Colonel Custer. You used to be a general.

Product Description 

Dale Robertson, Mary Murphy. An Army major, wanting fairness for all men, pleads with General Custer not to embark on his battle at Little Big Horn. When Custer suffers his famous defeat, Major Parrish faces the charges of his fellow soldiers that he turned traitor and helped the Indians during battle. But when he is court-martialed and sentenced to die, Chief Sitting Bull petitions President Grant to pardon him. 1954/color/105 min/NR/widescreen.

Major Robert ‘Bob’ Parrish: Great chief, will you listen to the words of my chief?
Sitting Bull: Speak.
Major Robert ‘Bob’ Parrish: Move your braves across the little river. My chief too has many soldiers. They will come and they’ll stop on their side. But neither army must strike a blow while you come to the great white chief with the big counsel.
Sitting Bull: I will say “yes” to this meeting.
[They share a peace pipe]
Major Robert ‘Bob’ Parrish: What is your plan, Sitting Bull?
Sitting Bull: My braves will hold their arrows, but your chief must come here. He will meet me between the two armies in the open country.
Major Robert ‘Bob’ Parrish: You mean bring the president here?
Sitting Bull: If this meeting fails, then both armies will come together. The chiefs in the middle will die first. This is the Indian way.

Cast of characters

• Dale Robertson (O. Henry’s Full House) … Maj. Robert ‘Bob’ Parrish
• Mary Murphy (The Mad Magician) … Kathy Howell
• J. Carrol Naish (House of Frankenstein) … Sitting Bull
• John Litel (The Fuller Brush Girl) … Gen. Wilford Howell
• Joel Fluellen … Sam
• Iron Eyes Cody (The Paleface) … Crazy Horse
• John Hamilton (McLintock!) … President Ulysses S. Grant
• Douglas Kennedy (Alligator People) … Col. Custer
• William Tannen … O’Connor
• William Hopper (20 Million Miles to Earth) … Charles Wentworth
• Thomas Browne Henry (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers) … Webber – Indian Agent

Additional Cast

• Ana Robinson Calles … White Cloud (uncredited)
• Bill Coontz (She Demons) … Trooper Foster (uncredited)
• Félix González … Young Buffalo (uncredited)
• Whitey Hughes (She Demons) … Trooper (uncredited)
• Al Wyatt Sr. … Capt. Swain (uncredited)