The Command
Original film poster
Directed by	David Butler
Written by	James Warner Bellah (novel "Rear Guard") Samuel Fuller Russell S. Hughes
Produced by	David Weisbart
Starring	Guy Madison Joan Weldon James Whitmore
Cinematography	Wilfred M. Cline
Edited by	Irene Morra
Music by	Dimitri Tiomkin
Production company	Warner Bros.
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	February 13, 1954 (1954-02-13)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2.5 million (US)[1]

The Command is a 1954 American CinemaScope Western film directed by David Butler. It stars Guy Madison and James Whitmore.^[2] It was based on the novel Rear Guard by James Warner Bellah and features a screenplay by Sam Fuller.

Plot

When the commanding officer of a cavalry patrol was wounded and dying, he asks the surviving ranking officer of the patrol who is an army doctor to take over and lead the patrol back to their fort. On the way back to their fort, the cavalry troop passes a town where two companies of infantry troops commanded by a colonel were temporarily taking a breather from their duty of escorting a wagon train of settlers. When the colonel learned of the presence of the cavalry troop, he orders the attachment of the cavalry troop to his command with the specific duty of screening the main body of infantry troops and the wagon train. This attachment resulted in the cavalry troop being involved in several encounters with the native Indians who kept attacking the wagon train. During the trip, the colonel suffers a mild heart attack and is now unable to command. The infantry officers asks the cavalry officer to take over command from the incapacitated infantry colonel. The cavalry doctor-officer took over and lead the combined troops of infantry and cavalry in defeating the Indians.

Cast

• Guy Madison as Capt. Robert MacClaw
• Carl Benton Reid as Col. Janeway
• Joan Weldon as Martha Cutting
• Don Shelton as Maj. Gibbs
• Gregg Barton as Capt. Forsythe
• Robert Nichols as 2nd Lt. O'Hirons
• James Whitmore as 1st Sgt. Elliot
• Boyd 'Red' Morgan as Cpl. Fleming
• Harvey Lembeck as Pvt. Gottschalk