O Primeiro Rebelde

"Allegheny Uprising" is a spectacular saga with an outlandish setting, as it is set in an America pre-revolutionary, an America still under British rule. Sixteen years before the revolutionary war, in Pennsylvania valley, a group of British colonists spoke with guns in defend of liberty. This is the story of James Smith and his black boys, and a chapter of history long lost in the Allegheny mountains. It begins with an exchange of prisoners between the French and British. Canadian border 1759. Stars John Wayne as James Smith who battles against Delaware Indians, smugglers : led by Brian Donlevy, who are selling weapons and licour to Indians, and a tyrannical British commandant, George Sanders and his soldiers. As Wayne will stop at nothing to stop the bad guys sell guns to Indians.

This is an entertaining film with noisy action, battles, romance and comedy . After the hit of Stagecoach, RKO hurriedly put their new hero cowboy , The Duke John Wayne, and his partenaire Claire Trevor in another Western, but this time resulted to be a lesser effort. Pretty good man and support cast accompany the brave and stuborn protagonists. Not a bad movie, but not memorable, either, however, being entertaining enough . Wayne gives a nice acting as the frontiersman who clashes with a British commander in order to stop his injustice. His leading lady Claire Trevor provides a silly acting and overacting, at times, as the obstinate sweetheart chasing Wayne here and there. And notorious secondaries appearing, such as : George Sanders as British military commander, Brian Donlevy as the villain seller, Wilfrid Lawson, John Hamilton, Moroni Oldsen, Roger Barrat, Ian Wolfe, Eddie Quillan and a thin Chill Wills. It packs an atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Nicholas Musuraka, a bit later on, to become one of the best Film Noir cameramen as well as John Alton, John Seitz or Sol Polito. Furthermore, it delivers a thrilling and evocative musical score. The motion picture, lavishly produced by RKO/Pandro S. Berman, was regular but professionally directed by William A Seiter 1890-1964. He was a fine craftsman who diected films of all kinds of genres as drama, thriller , musical, Western, romantic comedy, such as : In person, Stowaway, Dimples, Room service, The moon's our home, Susannah of the Mounties, It is a date , Nice girl?, You were never lovelier, Lady takes a chance, Destroyer, Little giant, I will be yours, Up in the Central Park, One touch of Venus, Borderline, Make haste to live. Rating : 6/10. Decent, passable and acceptable, though very inferior to Stagecoach . Also available on horrible colorized version.

American colonists in Pennsylvania rise up against an English army that allows illegal trading with the Indians.

The movie might be more properly titled San Fernando Valley Uprising since the terrain is familiar from a thousand matinée Westerns. Still, the producers popped for a bunch of extras with redcoats and also an impressive looking fort that even has realistic tree stumps indicating a cleared forest on the approaches.

To me, however, the movie's a disappointment. More importantly, the material shows why John Ford was such a master of this type of movie— that is,"winning the West" with roistering men and headstrong women, amusing drunks and slippery villains. The trouble here is that there's nothing humorous about the obnoxious drunk (Lawson), while Trevor in a padded part goes way over the top as a tomboy, but worse, she's allowed to interrupt the action just as it gets rolling.

The screenplay doesn't help either. Note that despite all the shooting and confrontations, no redcoat kills a colonist or vice-versa-- a rather strange outcome for an armed "uprising". My guess is that the pre-war year 1939 didn't want to show potential allies against the Nazis killing each other; then again, maybe American or British casualties would have complicated sorting out blame, which otherwise lies with the sneaky traders (Donlevy & Wolfe). Whatever the reason, it remains a pretty unbelievable development, given all the shooting.

On the other hand, Wayne shows potential as an outstanding leader of men, while Sanders is excellent as usual as a literate snob, this time an English officer. I did miss a strong Ward Bond-type as Wayne's buddy instead of the rather foolish professor (Hamilton). Anyway, the elements don't really gel into the kind of action movie that gets remembered. I just wish that superb story teller John Ford had gotten hold of the material first.

This is a decently made RKO western, made a few years before the genre became truly great (1946 - 1962), though released the same year as the first classic of the genre ("Stagecoach"). Despite some heavy-handed romantic-comedy moments, the movie moves like one of its galloping horses - at one point, Wayne is wrongly accused of murder, is put in gaol, quells an outside mob riot from inside his cell, stands trial, and is freed all within 7 minutes !

I have not seen the colorized version but it does not matter for the characters themselves are very colorful;particularly George Sanders as the "aristocratic" straight-faced phoney military man who treats the +Yankees as if they were ripe for exploitation;particularly Claire +Trevor who teamed up with Wayne in "stagecoach" and later would in ,notably ,"the high and the mighty" ,as the tomboy who wants to fight with the men who were still very macho in those troubled times. The story is routine ,and although it takes place in North America ,has a Robin Hood side ,but the actors make it a winner . The first scene when the men are asked to take off their hat is almost comedy.

John Wayne leads a group of colonial settlers that have to contend with Indians, as well as stuffy Brit George Sanders and traitorous Brian Donlevy. Despite the colonial setting, it's essentially a western. Wayne's great but Claire Trevor steals the show as a loud-mouthed tomboy in love with him who wants to fight alongside the menfolk. The rest of the cast is solid. Lots of action in this one and more than a little comedy. The fast pace helps a lot. This is loosely based on real people and events. Made the same year as the classic Stagecoach. This isn't on that level but it's a very entertaining historical drama and pseudo-western.