Le Raid

I grew up in St. Albans and I remember as a young grade school student and old gentleman who was a witness to the event visited our school and told of us his experience. It was a thrilling to us young people. The tree where a Confedate bullet hit was still standing back in the 30's and still remember it well. Many of the old structures are still standing today. Banks , livery stable etc. The Park where the people were herded is a more or less unchanged from the Old days. Every year a local store displayed the old uniform etc of the Confederate Officer. No animosity was held towards any one and I guess Lt. Young ? even returned to visit.

"This is a true story...it began on the night of September 26 1864, in a Union prison stockade at Plattsburgh, New York, not many miles from the Canadian border."

Tho director Hugo Fregonese's The Raid opens with the above written statement, it's not entirely accurate. Further research into what became known as "The St. Albans Raid" is required if you want the complete and unembellished story. However, The Raid is in structure and plot significantly in line with what happened back there in 1864. Lifting from the story entitled "Affair At St. Albans" by Herbert Ravenal Sass, The Raid is about seven Confederate prison escapees who infiltrate the community of St. Albans and plot a second front. As the town is gleefully praising General Sherman's march towards Savannah - and throwing auctions to sell off mementos of slain "Rebel" soldiers, the "Rebs" are fashioning bottles of "Greek Fire" with which to torch the town as they plunder the bank of all the town money.

Naturally all doesn't go to plan, as an on the edge soldier puts a spanner in the works; and the "Reb" leader, Maj. Neal Benton (aka Neal Swayze), finds a conflict of interest as his relationship with Katie Bishop and her son starts to form. All of which helps to make The Raid an engrossing picture outside of its already high interest point for being a "Confederate" movie (how many can you name about the "Rebs" winning for example?). More so when one knows that the film doesn't revert to genre formula, it threatens to, but Fregonese and his crew are not interested in serving up standard fare, with the ending a particular point of reference to ram home that opinion.

Van Heflin is excellent as Benton/Swayze, put this along side his work in other Western outings like Shane and 3:10 To Yuma, and he surely is a candidate for the genre's most undervalued actor award. Watch as he has to suppress various forms of emotion - anger as the town around him rejoices in his fellow countrymen's misfortune - affection as he gets close to the mother and son, and torn as he ultimately must abide by his war driven codes. A fine turn from a very fine actor. Anne Bancroft is suitably bright eyed and deep down strong as Katie, while Richard Boone does a nice line as the troubled, and limb absent Captain in desperate need of redemption. Lee Marvin, Claude Akins (uncredited) and Peter Graves man up the support cast, and a nod of approval is warranted for young Tommy Rettig as Larry Bishop.

Filmed on location at Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, I find myself once again searching for superlatives about Lucien Ballard's cinematography. This is a "gorgeous" film to look at, the Technicolor crisp in tone as the brown and orange hues of St. Albans play host to the shimmering blues of the soldiers uniforms, all of course about to be engulfed by the crackling spurts of the raiders incendiary use of "Greek Fire". I fell in love with this movie quite early on in proceedings, come the finale, I knew I just had to have it in my own collection, I can only hope that this picture finds a new audience from which to give it the love it dearly deserves. 9/10

A good film that moves along at a pleasing rate, helped by a good cast, including a young Lee Marvin, an equally-young Richard Boone before his face became lined (but he still plays a troubled person) and the distinctive John Dierkes (the "Gaunt Man" in "The Red Badge of Courage").

This film pairs with another, "The Siege at Red River". Both feature a Southern officer working undercover in Northern territory, both feature Boone, and both stars have the first name Van. But compared with Johnson in TSARR, Heflin's conscience is only slightly troubled by the consequences of his actions; indeed a web search for "St Albans 1864" suggests that "The Raid" greatly magnifies the arson Heflin's men cause with "Greek Fire" - apparently only one shed was actually burnt down. (This contrasts with the way the film "Quantrill's Raiders" greatly underplays the notorious attack on Lawrence.) Also, it would seem, in fact the raiders dropped a lot of the money from the banks.

My only slight criticism was that already voiced by other commentators - the smartness of the Confederate uniforms. On the plus side, the film avoids instant romance between Heflin and Bancroft (though they're obviously attracted to each other) and there's no mawkish bonding between the former and Bancroft's son.

Not that well-known a film, but well worth watching.

Maybe most interesting in the movie is the conflict between the social and the political. The Confederate major (Heflin) experiences this when he gets somewhat socialized into the Union town his raiders are slated to attack. He prepares the way for his raiders by infiltrating the town as a businessman. There he meets friendly people, including a widow (Bancroft) and her son (Rettig). It's impossible not to like what he finds there. Still, he and his men have a duty to the Confederacy, regardless of personal feelings. Besides, Gen. Sherman is burning his way through the southern states. So, given the personal conflict, what will the major do.

Well acted by a stellar cast, including an unstable Lee Marvin as a Johnny Reb with an itchy trigger finger. With his distinctive looks and manner, Marvin is clearly on his way up the Hollywood ladder. The burning of the town is done to scale, though the flames are clearly controlled. Still, it's an elaborate effect, though I didn't know portable fire-grenades like those used were available at that early time.

Of course, a topic like the Civil War means neither side can be treated as evil, unlike propaganda films involving foreign enemies. So each side, Union and Confederate, gets to show good points and bad, but ultimately, each gets respect. All in all, it's a good personality western and showcase for a number of up and coming stars.

See it – I'm always a sucker for a good Civil War movie. If you are anything like me, you're always on the lookout for another film with a fresh depiction of that fascinating, yet tragic period in United States history. I like this one because it tells the story from the Confederate perspective. Van Heflin, Lee Marvin, and Richard Boone star in this exciting and relatively unknown film about a band of Confederate Rebels who escape from a Union prison camp. They escape to Canada, and start planning "The Raid" on a Northern Yankee town. Of course this movie is very "old-fashioned," but I guess that's why I like it. 3 action rating