A thunder of drums (1961)

A cavalry outpost in a desert country, where both Comanches and Apaches make frightening enemies, is the domain of bitter Captain Stephen Maddocks, who will never be promoted because of a mistake he once made and has to do with half staff. From arrival Lieutenant Curtis McQuade, Maddock's former general's inexperienced son, finds his veteran commander tough and difficult, but eminently experienced and always sadly right in Indian matters. Furthermore McQuade gets into a dispute with a fellow officer, whom he outranks, rivaling for Lt. Thomas Gresham's lady, Tracey Hamilton who was his former girlfriend. Once Maddocks has no other choice than use McQuade against the Indian danger, desert patrol life proves to be a hard school but Curtis is a good pupil...