Dürstende Lippen (1953)

Dürstende Lippen: Directed by André De Toth. With Broderick Crawford, Barbara Hale, Johnny Stewart, Lloyd Bridges. The remnants of a massacred cavalry troop and ragtag group of stagecoach passengers fight for survival against fierce Comanches at a desert ruin.

“I saw this movie at a childrenu0026#39;s Saturday afternoon matinee performance in Belfast under its then-British title THE SABRE AND THE ARROW. Only a young child, I remember being extremely moved by the juxtapositioning of the Brodrick Crawford seen-it-all Cavalry Sergeantu0026#39;s pragmatism with Johnny Stewartu0026#39;s vulnerablity as Little Knife, the abandoned Comanche boy in the desert. Normally at a childrenu0026#39;s matinee kids fidget and talk throughout, only cheering or boohing the action sequences. Thus we mostly came away from a western with an impression rather than a comprehension because the noise built to a point where dialogue went unheard. Not so in THE SABRE AND THE ARROW, the childrenu0026#39;s attention being a tribute to this westernu0026#39;s emotional pull in the days when just seeing movies in colour was regarded as a treat. Cinema-only viewing added to the lustre. The dryness of that sun-blanched desert still haunts my senses fifty years on.”