Chuka (film)

Chuka is a 1967 American western film starring Rod Taylor who also produced and worked on the screenplay. The film began a series of tough guy roles for Taylor. A story of honor, debt, and personal redemption, it was directed by Gordon Douglas and is based on 1961 novel by Richard Jessup, who also wrote the screenplay.

The film begins with a U.S. Army commander dictating a report. Held prisoner in the commander's office, in a fort that has been almost totally destroyed, is the Arapaho Indian war chief, Hanu (Marco Lopez). He says very little. Within the fort's ruins have been found a single grave and a Colt pistol once owned by a gunman Hanu describes as a "quiet, lonely man..." At this point the action of the movie commences.

A wandering gunman Chuka (Rod Taylor) rides into an Arapaho camp. It is winter and everyone in the camp is starving, so he gives them some food. Shortly afterwards Chuka crosses paths with a stagecoach taking Mexican passengers Senora Veronica Kleitz (Luciana Paluzzi) and her niece Senorita Helena Chavez (Victoria Vetri) through the territory. Chuka and Kleitz look hard at each other. Suddenly Arapaho, led by Hanu, surround the coach. Everyone connected to the stagecoach expects to be killed, but Hanu recognizes Chuka and the braves simply ride on.

Chuka accompanies the coach to a nearby U.S. Army fort. The outpost's commander, Colonel Stuart Valois (John Mills), is worried the Arapahos may have ambushed his overdue patrol and refuses to allow the civilians to leave. He sends out his scout Lou Trent (James Whitmore) to reconnoiter, but the horse returns without the rider.

Everybody in the fort has a past they would rather forget. Before he became a hired gunman, Chuka was in love with Kleitz, but because he was only a lowly hired hand on her wealthy father's ranch, he was run off. She dutifully married a man selected by her father from their own social class. The soldiers are the dregs of the army. Valois was cashiered from the British Army for suspected cowardice, including being drunk when his command was attacked. His second-in-command, Major Benson (Louis Hayward), is a card cheat, and also (though Valois does not know it) keeps an Arapaho mistress hidden within the fort. Lieutenant Daly was acquitted of a charge of treason. Most of these revelations are told during dinner by Captain Valois, to humiliate the men involved. Only Sergeant Otto Hansbach (Ernest Borgnine) is a first-rate soldier. When the coach arrived at the fort he had been overseeing the flogging of a soldier, Spivey (Michael Cole), for desertion. Hansbach takes an immediate dislike to Chuka.