hit, earning Chandler an Oscar nomination and establishing him as a star. He was the first actor nominated for an Academy Award for portraying an American Indian. Even before Broken Arrow was released, Chandler was upped to leading-man status back at Universal. He was meant to make Death on a Sidestreet and The Lady Count but neither ended up being made. Instead, he took over a role originally meant for Dana Andrews, a Lucky Luciano-style gangster in Deported, for producer Robert Buckner, who cast him in Sword in the Desert. "I don't know why I got it," Chandler joked at the time, "maybe it's because I'm saving them money." The movie was shot on location in Italy, although Chandler's radio commitments meant some of it had to be filmed in Hollywood. He went back to Fox for his second film for them, as an embittered Union cavalryman in Two Flags West for director Robert Wise. Chandler replaced Lee J. Cobb, and it was one of his least-typical roles, a character part rather than a leading man. Once again, location work required him to regularly commute back and forth to Hollywood throughout the shoot. Returning to Universal, Chandler played an adventurer in Smuggler's Island, a role he liked because he said it was close to his real personality. Hollywood tended to cast him, though, in different nationalities. According to one profile, "he has unusual face, with taut, bony features, which seem to fit neatly into any sort of role". He was reunited with Fox and Delmer Daves to play a Polynesian chief in Bird of Paradise (1951), which Chandler admitted was a variation of his performance as Cochise. It was the last film he made outside Universal for a number of years. Back at Universal, he played a boxer in Iron Man (1951), a remake of an old Lew Ayres movie. He was announced for another film with Buckner, The Wild Bunch, which was not made; instead, he played an Arab chief in Flame of Araby (1951), opposite Maureen O'Hara. Around this time, Chandler expressed his dissatisfaction with acting in film as opposed to radio: [Radio actors] have to make their roles come alive, and they only have their voices with which to do it, but in pictures, the technique is quite different. The actor is only a small part of the performance. He lends his intelligence and personality to the