Broken Arrow (1950)

Cochise: I break the arrow. I will try the way of peace.

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Tom Jeffords: The story started when I saw some buzzards circling in the sky. The buzzard is a smart bird. Something or somebody was getting ready to die. I figured it was a hurt deer or a rabbit or a snake.
[Jeffords spots a wounded Apache youth staggering in a ravine]
Tom Jeffords: Not a rabbit, not a deer... his kind was more dangerous than a snake. He was an Apache. For ten years we'd been on a savage war with his people - a bloody, no-give-no-take war.

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Tom Jeffords: Cochise can't even read a map, but he and his men know every gulley, every foot of every mountain, every waterhole in Arizona. His horses can go twice as far as yours in a day, and his men can run on foot as far as a horse can run. He can't write his name, but his intelligence service knows when you got to Fort Grant and how many men you got. He stopped the Butterfield Stage from running. He stopped the U.S. Mail from going through. And for the first time in Indian history, he has all the Apaches from all the tribes fighting under one command.

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"Screen Director's Playhouse" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on September 7, 1951 with James Stewart and Jeff Chandler reprising their film roles.
The film was considered groundbreaking at the time because it portrayed the Native American Indians in a humane light, something that had scarcely happened since silent days. However, years later the film was heavily criticized because the Indians were still played by white actors.
At 41, James Stewart was 25 years older than Debra Paget, who was barely 16 at the time of filming.
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