Sergeant Rutledge

Sergeant Rutledge
Directed by	John Ford
Produced by	Willis Goldbeck Patrick Ford
Written by	James Warner Bellah Willis Goldbeck
Starring	Jeffrey Hunter Woody Strode Billie Burke
Music by	Howard Jackson
Cinematography	Bert Glennon
Edited by	Jack Murray
Production company	John Ford Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	May 18, 1960 (1960-05-18) (United States)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Sergeant Rutledge is a 1960 American Technicolor Western crime film starring Jeffrey Hunter, Woody Strode and Billie Burke It was directed by John Ford and shot on location in Monument Valley, Utah.

The film starred Strode as a black first sergeant in the United States Cavalry accused of the rape and murder of a white girl at a U.S. Army fort in the late 1880s.

The film revolves around the court-martial of 1st Sgt. Braxton Rutledge (Strode), a "Buffalo Soldier" of the 9th U.S. Cavalry. His defense is handled by Lt. Tom Cantrell (Hunter), Rutledge's troop officer. The story is told through a series of flashbacks, expanding the testimony of witnesses as they describe the events following the murder of Rutledge's Commanding Officer, Major Dabney, and the rape and murder of Dabney's daughter, for which Rutledge is the accused.

Circumstantial evidence suggests that the first sergeant raped and murdered the girl and then killed his commanding officer. Worse still, Rutledge deserts after the killings. Ultimately, he is tracked down and arrested by Lt. Cantrell. At one point, Rutledge escapes from captivity during an Indian raid, but later, he voluntarily returns to warn his fellow cavalrymen that they are about to face an ambush, thus saving the troop. He is then brought back in to face the charges and the prejudices of an all-white military court.

Eventually he is found not guilty of the rape and murder of the girl when a local white man breaks down under questioning and admits that he raped the girl.