La Mission du commandant Lex

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.

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.............

Depending on what reviews you read of course, Springfield Rifle is either a slowly paced pot boiler or an action packed suspenser. Such is the diversity of this form of the arts, you could easily favour one or the other and nobody could really argue with you. The truth is that André De Toth's film wants to be both, but with an almost dizzying plot and a misleading title, it winds up being an over ambitious picture that doesn't quite pay off on its promise.

Gary Cooper stars as Maj. Alex 'Lex' Kearney who gets himself cashiered from the army on a charge of cowardice in order to go undercover to break up a Confederate ring who are stealing horses during the civil war. But Kearney is not the only spy at work so his mission is a touch more complicated than at first thought. Not only that but he is so deep undercover his wife and son believe him to be a real coward and have therefore ostracised him. Oh and the new and war changing Springfield Rifle will have a part to play in the shenanigans.

Released in the same year as Cooper was wowing genre fans in High Noon, De Toth's movie does actually feel like an attempt to cash in on the big mans star appeal. However, it should be noted that executives at Warner Brothers didn't want Cooper to play the role, fearing his wholesome image just wouldn't suit a role involving cowardice and double dallying for both parties in the war. De Toth stood by his guns and was rewarded, to my mind, by a film saving performance from Cooper. Frank Davis and Charles Marquis Warren adapt from a story written by Sloan Nibley (who is noted in the genre for his numerous work on Roy Rogers scripts), Max Steiner provides the score and Edwin B. DuPar photographs out of Lone Pine and Warner Ranch in California. The film is not shot in Technicolor {as stated by some reviewers}, it was shot in the Warnercolor process. With the result somewhat pleasing on the eye, notably the uniforms of the soldiers and the flame engulfed sequence towards the finale.

The support cast are fair to middling. Lon Chaney Jr. is sadly a shadow of his former self, tho a good old dust up with Cooper raises the temperature. Phyllis Thaxter, David Brian, Paul Kelly & Philip Carey file in and say their lines. While Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams & Alan Hale Jr. deserved more screen time than they actually got. With surprises in the plot and Cooper adding some quality, Springfield Rifle is entertaining enough. But ultimately it ends up being a modest genre piece that really should have been much much better. 6/10

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.

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.