Springfield Rifle (1952)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

André De Toth

Writers:

Charles Marquis Warren (screenplay) and
Frank Davis (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

25 October 1952 (USA)

Genre:

War | Western

Tagline:

The Gun That Made One Man The Equal Of Five!

Plot:

Major Lex Kearny becomes the North's first counterespionage agent as he tries to discover who's behind the theft of Union cavalry horses in Colorado during the Civil War.

Plot Keywords:

Horse | Cavalry | Undercover | Colorado | Jayhawker

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Maj. Alex 'Lex' Kearney
Phyllis Thaxter	...	Erin Kearney
David Brian	...	Austin McCool, Raider Leader
Paul Kelly	...	Lt. Col John Hudson (Ft. Hedley CO)
Lon Chaney Jr.	...	Pete Elm, Leader of Non-military Raiders (as Lon Chaney)
Philip Carey	...	Capt. Edward Tennick
James Millican	...	Det. Matthew Quint
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams	...	Sgt. Snow
Alan Hale Jr.	...	Mizzell
Martin Milner	...	Pvt. Olie Larsen
Wilton Graff	...	Col. George Sharpe

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Warnercolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | UK:U (cut) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1953) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #16005)

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Goofs:

Continuity: When attempting to drive out the horse thieves by burning them out, the wagon section that Kearney drove is twice pushed over the edge in flames.

Quotes:

Sgt. Snow: Never exactly doubted you, sir, and that raw deal they gave you at your court-martial gave us a pain in the collar!
Maj. Alex 'Lex' Kearney: Where do you suppose it gave me a pain?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs (2000) (TV)

Slow-paced 1950s western/war drama

As noted, the film has more to do with horses than rifles. The Springfield Rifle (in this case, the Trapdoor Springfield that the Army adopted after the Civil War) of the title does not makes its appearance until the end of the film when it becomes a decisive factor in the final battle sequence. The story concerns a late-Civil War conflict on the frontier to gain horses for the forces fighting back East. Cooper plays a Union officer who sacrifices much to prove the value of counter-espionage to the Federal military authorities. Cooper manages to transcend some of his famous rigidness as an actor to make his character engaging and sympathetic. The pacing of the direction is slow by today's standards. Some of the stock footage of horses on the range is not well-integrated into the rest of the film. While the setting is southeastern Colorado, the film was actually shot in the area of Lone Pine, CA--as were many Westerns. Anyone who knows the Mt. Whitney-Owens Valley landscape will recognize it immediately. The script contains some authentic mid-19th century frontier colloquial usage such as "jayhawker" and "hardtack." With Cooper's famous Western drawl, such words give the film an old-fashioned frontier edge.