A Thunder of Drums is a 1961 Western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 directed by Joseph M. Newman

Joseph M. Newman

Joseph M. Newman was an American film director most famous for his 1955 film This Island Earth. His credits include episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour....

, starring Richard Boone

Richard Boone

Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.-Early life:...

, George Hamilton

George Hamilton (actor)

George Stevens Hamilton is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Hamilton was the youngest son of bandleader George "Spike" Hamilton and his first wife, Ann Stevens . He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Blytheville, Arkansas...

 and Luana Patten

Luana Patten

-Career:Patten made her first film appearance in Joel Chandler Harris's Song of the South with Bobby Driscoll, and they both appeared in Song of the Souths sister film So Dear to My Heart. She appeared again with Bobby Driscoll in the Pecos Bill segment of Disney's Melody Time...

.

Plot

1st Lieutenant Curtis McQuade (Hamilton), a cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 officer without field experience, is assigned to a remote, understaffed post where he attempts to adjust to this new life under the once-disgraced Captain Maddocks (Boone).

Notable cast members

The movie is notable for starring three well-known actors in relatively minor roles. Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

 of Death Wish

Death Wish (film)

Death Wish is a 1974 crime thriller film loosely based on the novel Death Wish by Brian Garfield. The film was directed by Michael Winner and stars Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey, a man who becomes a vigilante after his wife is murdered and his daughter is sexually assaulted by muggers.The film was...

 fame and rock musician Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...

 star as troopers, while Richard Chamberlain

Richard Chamberlain

George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...

 portrays Lieutenant Porter. Slim Pickens

Slim Pickens

Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. , better known by the stage name Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, but who is best remembered for his comic roles, notably in Dr...

 and Arthur O'Connell

Arthur O'Connell

Arthur O'Connell was an American stage and film actor. He appeared in films in 1941 and television programs...

also had roles.