Konterbande

Lot of different things going on in this enjoyable civil war type western. The plot is set in motion in the opening frames when a ruthless raider named Luke Contrell (I guess he's the union version of William Quantrill) burns out the Three Bells ranch in Texas. The Three Bells is run by 3 friends, Joel McCrea, Zachary Scott and Douglas Kennedy (I hope you don't mind my convention of referring to the characters by the actor's names, it's just easier and apart from Contrell, the names don't mean much) who set of for Brownsville to get even. Contrell carries out his raiding under the protection of the union army, which prevents our hero, Joel McCrea, from doing much more than beating him up and telling him to leave town.

Our three heros -- it's weird seeing Zachary Scott as a hero -- are now kind of shiftless and looking for what to do next. Kennedy decides to join the Confederation and fight in the open. This is kind of different, the movie is set during the Civil War and one of the hero's decides to join the confederation and doesn't feel the need to talk about protecting his way of life. The union army might protect Contrell, but they don't like him much, and the commander offers to buy McCrea a drink after he beats up Contrell -- but McCrea don't drink with Yankees. McCrea and Scott get mixed up in gun running and take to the trade, blockade running guns from Mexico to the confederates.

The romantic sub-plot is that a saloon singer played by Alexis Smith has set her cap for McCrea and McCrea's gal, Dorothy Malone, has followed Kennedy into fighting the good fight as a nurse (the film just never really gets into the nitty gritty of the politics of the civil war). I found the romantic business, usually something of a drag in the avg McCrea feature, to be pretty interesting and not quite so ham handed as is often done.

The production values are not bad, the acting is pretty good, the story interesting and a little different. If you love westerns, and I presume you do if you've read this far, you could do a lot worse that this movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Joel McCrea, Zachary Scott, and Douglas Kennedy were three friends who tried to ranch together, and dorothy Malone was the good girl they all loved. Then came the Civil War, and now in its closing days, their ranch is destroyed, so they turn to arms smuggling. But cracks show in their friendship, and when the War ends, will it mean the start of their battle?

Warner Brothers had been putting Erroll Flynn in handsome westerns for some time, and this looks like it was intended as another. It's handsome, engaging, has a fine cast, including Alan Hale as a politician, Alexis Smith as the bad girl with a heart of gold, and Bob Steele as the mean henchman. But despite Karl Freund's typically fine camerawork, it all seems like a b western writ large. Perhaps it's because the villain of the piece is Victor Jory as Quantrell, but they were afraid of a lawsuit, so they called his 'Cotrell'. There are no obvious errors, just a feeling it has too many moving parts that never quite mesh.

Kip Davis (Joel McCrea), Charlie Burns (Zachary Scott) and Lee Price (Douglas Kennedy) are best friends and partners in the Three-Bell Ranch, but the Civil War breaks out and their home is destroyed by Union raiders led by Luke Cottrell. Kip tracks down Cottrell in the local saloon and beats him. It won't be their last meeting.

But with the Three-Bell ranch gone, the partners split up. Lee joins the Confederate army. At the urging of saloon singer Rouge de Lisle (Alexis Smith), Kip becomes a gunrunner and Charlie joins him in the gun-running business.

Kip just wants to get enough money to restart the Three-Bell Ranch, however Charlie is more interested in the money than the ranch. Meanwhile,Lee winds up being more interested in Deborah Miller (Dorothy Malone) - the girl Kip planned to marry - than a renewed partnership with his two friends.

Turns out the close bond between the Three-Bell partners is going to be severely tested, during the war and after.

A decent Joel McCrea western highlighting the turbulence that war can cause by splitting three friends apart, but it's the rousing action scenes that drives this fast-paced western splashed in Technicolor. Great stunts, horse riding and gun smoke! Plus you get two hotties Alexis Smith and Dorothy Malone. The performances are great too, especially from McCrea who is an honourable character, something he would continue to play later in his career. Zachary Scott does what it's expected, and sneers in bad guy fashion. So does Victor Jory. It's a well- directed colourful western, but that's what you expect from the director of the superb Coroner's Creek!

This western is one of the best of the late forties, and I would say the forties, even without Randolph Scott as the lead. And once more in Ray Enright's westerns, it evokes the Civil War and once more for this decade, Victor Jory is the villain of the story. It is splendid though predictable, without real surprise. But the best elements are elsewhere, in the music, atmosphere, fast pace and above all characters symphony. But, after all, yes, you have a surprise. Zachary Scott is not a villain, the bad guy, but the hero's friend. Joel McCrea is terrific here. I think it was an iconic western in the past, for moviegoers, but unfortunately thos late forties period is not the best known. It's such a shame. This western should be more released, for young audiences.

Despite having Joel McCrea in the lead, this is a rather dull western...dull and pretty predictable. About the only part that was unexpected was how less than honorable McCrea's character was through much of the movie.

The story is set during the Civil War. Three buddies all arrive in Yankee occupied Texas on the lookout for Cottrell (Victor Jory). Cottrell is fashioned after the real life Civil War raider, Quantrill...though oddly he's fighting for the Union in this one. Despite Kip Davis (Joel McCrea) and his friends wanting to kill Cottrell, soon Lee (Douglas Kennedy) joins the Confederate army and Kip and Charlie (Zachary Scott) help the South by running the blockades. Eventually, however, Charlie comes to enjoy getting rich much more than helping the Confederacy and this brings a very predictable showdown at the end.

Everything about this film is mediocre at best and the story only occasionally interesting. I had a hard time caring about the characters and the story.