La mission du commandant Lex

Not content to make yet another mediocre Civil War western DeToth and his scenarists decide to throw espionage into the mix so that we get a nice dose of over plotting to go along with our under characterization. Add a dash of bad story decision making...killing off your most compelling character 40% of the way through (talking, of course, about the always under rated David Brian's strangely sympathetic rebel horse stealer)... and a whiff of dull Phyllis Thaxter love interest perfume all overlaid by the clink of coins hitting the pay phone slot which is Coop phoning it in as well as an annoying crick in your neck from Paul Kelly's stiffness and you have yourself one clunky movie. Give it a C.

andre de toth was a remarkable jewel in hollywood....perhaps possessing the most relentlessly savage humor of anyone in the history of that town....any movie he ever got his hands on were almost obsessive in his pursuit to put in his sharp jabs to the eye and ear....and springfield rifle is no exception....forget the plot and sit back and enjoy Cooper doing what he did best...being himself with that real western accent that only somebody who has spent more time on a horse than he should have owns.....and then get ready for a couple of de toth's unique moments.....the first coming when Cooper is talking to David Brian after stealing the horse out from under Lon Chaney Jr. and Chaney comes riding up sees Cooper and knocks him to the ground=====without mind you even a look by Brian over in Cooper's direction, but just giving Chaney a slightly narrorer pair of eyes as he kind of snarls....Pete i thought i told you never to ride a horse like that....................no other director in the history of hollywood ever ignored Cooper or their stories hero so gloriously.....and in film after film by De Toth, from House of Wax to Ramrod you get these moments..... but done so fast and laconically that you have to keep a sharp eye or they go right past you.............

I agree the movie is an underrated western, it reminds one of John Ford movies, and the direction is great. Some of the acting and direction, e.g. when Col. Hudson figures out Lex is an agent, is really good, as well as other scenes with very subtly fine direction. What also occurs to me is that much of the cinematography in this film is pretty near fantastic. While the setting in Lone Pine, California is nice and makes the filming a little easier in that regard, the lighting and camera work are exceptional, including early and late day shots, and even for the average shots on the set, e.g. around the fort, lighting, etc. Some of the action shots are pretty darned amazing, too, including the running herds of horses. I noticed a mix of saddle horses, mules and draft horses in the herd, which I think lends some authenticity to the film.

As a matter of curiosity, in 1952 Gary Cooper appeared in two Westerns as diverse as SPRINGFIELD RIFLE, in Technicolor, and in the masterpiece HIGH NOON, in B&W. In the former he was directed by a professionally competent but hardly out of the box André de Toth, whereas in the latter he had the guiding hand of the brilliant Fred Zinnemann.

Neither de Toth nor Cooper were helped by the predictable script by Charles Marquis about a Union Army officer putting on a show of supposed betrayal and cowardice in order to ramify into espionage in the enemy camp, and track down the mole in the US War Department (sounds like a Cold War movie, doesn't it?!)

Cooper has done much better work, in fact I would rate his performance here as substandard, especially when compared with his show in HIGH NOON.

I doubt I will watch SPRINGFIELD RIFLE again. 6/10.

Springfield Rifle is the film Gary Cooper made after his much acclaimed performance in High Noon. Not that it's a bad film, but a fairly routine western which even kind of gives away who the inside man is way too early in the film. It would have been better had their been more suspense.

Gary Cooper goes undercover to find a ring of rustlers who are working in cahoots with the Confederacy during the Civil War, stealing horses meant for the Union cavalry.

To do this he gets himself courtmartialed and drummed out of the army. And he gets the full Chuck Connors treatment, that Connors received on his series Branded. This enables Cooper to join the renegades led by David Brian and Lon Chaney, Jr.

Things do get complicated when Coop's wife, Phyllis Thaxter, shows up to tell him about their son who has run away. Her concern nearly derails the mission and her husband.

Some good western action is in Springfield Rifle, a couple of pitched battles with the renegades and Cooper finally uncovering the inside man in the rustling ring.

Three good performances besides the players mentioned are Guinn Williams as the sergeant who saves Cooper from a hangman, Paul Kelly as the post commander, and Philip Carey as a rival officer to Cooper on the post.

Springfield Rifle is good action entertainment for those who like their westerns action filled.