Renegado Heróico

I saw this film as I like films like this and I admire the cast. In most aspects this film delivered. The title is misleading I agree and I personally would've liked Springfield Rifle to have been 5 or so minutes longer. However, while it is not an exceptional movie it is a very good and enjoyable one, and I also think underrated.

Springfield Rifle is a very well made film, I loved the scenery and the cinematography is beautiful. It also has strong direction, a rousing music score from Max Steiner that compliments the film perfectly, a good story with an interesting structure and themes and sharp dialogue.

Good pacing is also at hand, and the cast are great. Gary Cooper has done better work perhaps, but still gives an engaging performance. Lon Chaney Jnr likewise, and Phyllis Thaxter and Paul Kelly are excellent. Overall, a very enjoyable movie. 8/10 Bethany Cox

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.

The dates of the civil War stem from 1861 to 1865. In between, half a million men fought and died on both sides. Then Hollywood introduced the Western and then writers quickly retold the history depicting the many facets within the ranks of the two opposing camps. Here is one such story which if you don't look too closely, is interesting and confusing at the same time. The movie is called " Springfield Rifle " and stars one of the most enduring actors to filled the Silver Screen. Gary Cooper plays Maj. Alex 'Lex' Kearney a Union Officer who is cashiered out of the U. S. Army and branded a traitor. The audience however understands his cover as he joins the renegade outlaws who have been stealing herds of horses for the Confederacy. With danger threatening him on both sides, Kearney walks a tight-wire as he seeks out the ringleader of the outlaws. The movie is a cat-and-mouse game and Cooper is aptly supported with other notable western stars like. David Brian, Paul Kelly, Lon Chaney Jr. Alan Hale Jr. and Martin Milner as Pvt. Larsen. The entire cast assembles to provide real shoot-em-up action with the new Springfield Rifle and plenty of hair-raising excitement. Excellent western fare. ****

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.

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.