Renegade Girl (1946) User Reviews

Femme Fatale Rides Again!

[bsmith5552 · 6/10 · 4 March 2007]

"Renegade Girl" was an early effort from the Lippert Company directed by veteran William A. Berke. It contains plenty of action and has many sexual innuendos, risky for the time and for a "B" western.

Jean Shelby (Ann Savage) is using her charms to aid the south during the Civil War. The Yankees are seeking her brother Bob (James Martin) who is a Rebel officer. Major Barker (Jack Holt) questions Jean and renegade Chief White Cloud (Chief Thundercloud) and sends out a patrol to find her brother. Jean meets Captain Fred Raymond (Alan Curtis and is attracted to him.

Jean manages to get Bob away from the family ranch. On her way to the camp of William Quantrill (Ray Corrigan), Bob becomes weak and Jean is forced to leave him on the roadside while she goes for help. Meanwhile White Cloud murders Bob Shelby. White Cloud and his band then raid the Shelby ranch and murder Jean's parents. She vows revenge. She also manages to save Raymond from Quantrill's gang along the way.

Jean is shot by White Cloud and taken to Dr. Manson's (Forrest Taylor) home where she is cared for by his daughter Mary (Claudia Drake). In the meantime Capt. Raymond has been imprisoned by the rebels and jean thinks that he has abandoned her. After she recovers and after the war, she joins up with the remnants of Quantrill's gang and takes on the identity of Marie Carroll and rides with them on various raids. She joins on the condition that the gang make White Cloud their number one priority. she also promises to "marry" the one who leads her to the Indian.

Raymond is released from prison and returns to find that Jean has gone. We learn that the most amorous of the outlaws, Jerry Long (Russell Wade) a rebel, had withheld letters from Raymond to Jean for his own gain. Anyway Jean finally tracks down White Cloud and..............

This little opus is blessed with a cast of recognizable veteran players. In addition to those already mentioned, Edward Brophy, Dick Curtis, Ernie Adams, and Harry Cording play various raiders and John "Dusty" King, Edmund Cobb and Kermit Maynard appear as Union soldiers.

Ann Savage had a brief career in the 40s and fifties as a sort of poverty row femme fatale. "Detour" (1945) immediately comes to mind. She plays a femme fatale in this film as well and although the sexual suggestions are subdued due to censorship, there is little doubt left as to how she gets her way and survives among the gang.

Ray "Crash" Corrigan and John "Dusty" King had been two thirds of Monogram's "Range Busters" in the early 40s. For King, this was his final film. Corrogan's career was virtually over at this point too, although he continued to appear in relatively minor roles for the next ten years or so.

Ambitious little western film Noire.

"All I am now is heartbroken and lonely".

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 2 October 2010]

For a good while into the film, it was a bit difficult to figure out what the main theme of the story would be. There was mention of Quantrill's Raiders, Indian Chief White Cloud who was out for revenge on the Shelby family, and a tease of a romance between Jean Shelby (Ann Savage) and Union Captain Fred Raymond (Alan Curtis). That last one managed to confuse me a bit; when Jean first saw Captain Raymond, it was with some recognition, although with regret he was in a Union uniform. Later on in the story though, she asked him his first name. I had to wonder why that was the case.

Fundamentally, it's Miss Shelby's story and her attempt to seek out White Cloud (Chief Thunder Cloud) and avenge the death of her parents at his hands. Quantrill (Ray Corrigan) makes a brief appearance, but is conveniently done away with off screen so the rag-tag remnants of his gang, led by Jerry Long (Russell Wade), can join Shelby in her mission. To get the bunch to go along, Shelby offers to marry the man who has the 'most' to do with finding and capturing White Cloud. Another head scratcher - how was she going to determine that? Of course the writers knew they were never going to take it that far, thereby letting everybody off the hook. At least Bob Crandall (Edward Brophy) had the right perspective on the whole marriage thing. He wouldn't marry Jean even if he won because he thought too much of her. That was the most gallantry the film had to offer.

The finale winds up being one of the oddest ones ever. White Cloud had already shot Jean once earlier in the picture, requiring some months for her to mend. In a rare event, the main female character takes a bullet one more time, this time a fatal one. But at least she managed to take down White Cloud as well, in a cross fire exchange that brought the Cherokee Chief to his own untimely end.

Fast Start, Good Ending, Rather Slow in the Middle

[Snow Leopard · 9 July 2001]

A Western with a semi-historical Civil War setting, "Renegade Girl" gets off to a fast start and has a good ending, although in between it slows down quite a bit. It has an interesting story and leading character.

Ann Savage stars as Jean Shelby, a Confederate sympathizer in Missouri late in the Civil War. She and her family have been helping provide information to Quantrill's raiders, so the Union Army is trying to find the Shelbys, assisted by an outcast Indian who has his own grudge against the family. Things get complicated when Jean and Union Captain Fred Raymond fall in love with each other, raising difficult questions about their loyalties and futures.

The film gets off to a pretty good start, with a lot of action that is mostly plausible, especially given the complex historical situation. It slows down then for quite a while, and starts to drag a bit. But it picks up towards the end, and the final sequence is pretty good, and not predictable. Savage does rather well in the lead, making her character mostly believable. Most of the other characters are routine (especially the Indians, portrayed in a very unfavorable light), aside from Edward Brophy as a gregarious member of Quantrill's gang.

There's nothing spectacular here, but it's a decent film and should be worth watching either for fans of old Westerns or for those interested in movies about the Civil War era.

Renegade Girl is simply awful....

[Johnboy1221 · 1/10 · 24 July 2007]

This is not really a western as much as it's a showcase for it's star, pretty Ann Savage, who does a credible job of acting.

Unfortunately, she's the only real reason to watch this film.

I knew this was a cheesy movie as soon as the renegade Indian threw his knife into her brother Bob's body, thereby killing him, and the knife just disappeared from sight. Jeez, a disappearing knife!

Later, for whatever reason, the rebels start shooting one another, but the director shot the entire scene by focusing on their heads! Yeah, how weird is that? I guess that everyone died of fright, since no one obviously took a bullet. What kind of western is this, I thought? Even during the early days of westerns, the old programers showed people get shot or stabbed...and this film was made in 1946!!!!

Then, our heroine stumbles into the woods, and faints under a tree....and stays there all night!!! What a renegade!

The ending is just as truncated, and woundless, as the rest of the film....and extremely melodramatic.

I was glad when it was over. I wasted a lot of my precious time watching this drivel. Don't you.

Even for a low-budget B-western, this one is terrible.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 28 July 2011]

Okay, I know my summary is harsh, but it is direct and to the point. Even for a cheap B-western, "Renegade Girl" is a bad film—filled with clichés and atrocious writing…really atrocious.

The film is set during the waning years of the Civil War. Like so many westerns made during the era, this one involves Quantrill's Raiders—a group of terrorists who fought for the South and who were even hated in the South by many since they pretty much ignored the rules of war at that time. In particular, they attacked Northern towns and targeted civilians. Yet, oddly, this film portrays them as the good guys! Now that's a first.

The main focus, however, is not Quantrill but a very anachronistic and overly butch lady. Sporting a 1940s perm and acting like the clichéd western macho dame, she is all fire and emotion. And, she seems to switch her mind from one minute to the next. For example, she helps Quantrill and her brother (one of Quantrill's men)—yet soon after meeting a handsome Yankee officer, she completely abandons her cause and suddenly sees her compatriots as the bad guys! What a flake! Then, after she is injured by a nasty Native, she is saved by this Yankee. Yet, when he leaves her to be cared for, when she awakens she announces that she now HATES him!!! What is with this lady—is she off her medication?!?! Most of the rest of the film is pretty bad as well—filled with bad writing and confusing plot elements. In fact, I absolutely hated the film—and I normally like B-westerns and cut them a lot of slack (although they were cheap, they were usually very entertaining….unlike this film). Not worth your time. But if you are crazy enough to want to see it, this is a public domain film from tiny Robert Lippert Productions. You can follow the links on IMDb and download your own legal copy. Although why you would is beyond me now that you've been warned.

She-Devil Becomes a War-Angel In Love

[strong-122-478885 · 2/10 · 1 August 2011]

Yeah. I know this sounds terribly sexist, but when it comes to Westerns - "The Law Of The West" should strictly forbid them from being reduced to a trifling, little "Chick Flick".

I'm a guy who likes my Westerns rugged, mean, and masculine, with very little interference from women in the story at all.

Sure Chick Flicks are fine when it comes to any other genre of film, but definitely not allowed in a Western.

Ann Savage unconvincingly plays Jean Shelby. This highly-jealous, easily brought to tears woman is (get this) the leader of a tough, all-male band of Confederate raiders. Being so emotionally unstable, Jean's reliability as a leader of these men is seriously brought into question when she secretly turns traitor and falls for a Union soldier, pretty-boy who's actually been stalking her.

Yep. Renegade Girl is a dud.

Like I said before - Westerns should be forbidden to be made into Chick Flicks!

Okay Female Revenge Western

[zardoz-13 · 7/10 · 2 February 2012]

"Deputy Marshal" director William Berke packs a great deal of narrative into this brief, 61-minute American Civil War epic. Basically, "Renegade Girl" concerns a woman's compulsion to kill at any cost the man who slaughtered her mother and father, burned their house, and killed her brother. There has got to be one of the most unusual duels toward the end when a group of outlaws draw their weapons and each other and manage to kill themselves. Jean Shelby is the protagonist and she goes through one change after another from the moment that we see her. Jean is the kind of girl who knows what she wants and refuses to deviate from her pursuit of true love. She is a kind of Mata Hara in Missouri during the war.

"Renegade Girl" opens with a prologue. "Far from the main battle fronts, in the latter days of the Civil War, Missouri was torn by violent partisan and guerrilla warfare. So vicious and widespread was this conflict that it paved the way directly for the tremendous wave of outlawry which scourged the Border Region throughout the Reconstruction Days and for years thereafter. And one of the most ominous in the changes of events which this about began when a lone rider appeared on this lonely road on a late summer afternoon in 1864." A Union cavalry unit led by Sergeant James confronts a reluctant Jean Shelby (Ann Savage) and escorts her to Major Barker (Jack Holt) in Newton. While they are riding to headquarters, Major Barker is talking with Cherokee Chief White Cloud (Chief Thunder Cloud) about Bob Shelby. He pays the Indian $10 for the location of Bob Shelby. Shelby rides with Quantrill's infamous Southern guerrilla outfit. The Indian assures Barker that the wounded Shelby is hiding out at his parents' house. Barker orders Corporal Brown to take Shelby into custody. Afterward, Barker explains to Captain Fred Raymond (Alan Curtis) that Bob "is worth twice as much as any man except Quantrill himself." He adds, "When I get a hold of him, I'll break up a combination that makes Quantrill so successful." Barker points out that Bob and his sister Jean work together for Quantrill. Jean persuades people to talk and relays the information to Bob. They haven't been able to catch her doing it. White Cloud hates the Shelby family; it seems that his tribe banished him because he attempted to abduct Jean's mother.

At headquarters, Jean discovers their plans to nab Bob. Jean manages to escape when she fools a guard into getting close enough to her so she can disarm him. She seizes Raymond's horse to take a shortcut home to warn her family about the approaching Union troops. She shows up in time to get Bob saddled up and narrowly elude the troopers. Poor Bob is so badly wounded that he cannot ride and he falls off his horse. Jean sets to get a wagon from Quantrill's camp. Meantime, White Cloud has escaped from the Union patrol at Jean's parents' house and he follows them. Although White Cloud kills Bob with a knife, we never see the blade strike him. While all this is happening, Jean gets the drop on Captain Fred Raymond. Afterward, he finds her brother's corpse. Quantrill and company show up not long afterward. Quantrill wants hang Fred because he has lost his 'right-hand man.'

Jean shoves a six-shooter into Quantrill's kidney. She threatens to kill him if he hangs Captain Raymond. The truth is that Jean has been in love with the Union captain from the first time she saw him at headquarters. After Quantrill and his men ride away, Raymond accompanies Jean when she fetches Bob's body to take it home. Jean is surprised when she reaches her parents' house and find it under attack by White Cloud. Jean's mother and father are tied to the front gallery of the house. They're dead. Jean charges White Cloud with her six-gun blazing. White Cloud knocks her out of the saddle with a flying knife. Raymond entrusts Jean to the care of Dr. Manson and his daughter Mary and he goes off to fight the war and winds up in a prison camp. Many months pass and the Union has triumphed over the Confederacy. Jean recuperates in the Manson's house, and Jerry and Bob visit her. They have formed a new gang. Jean still nurses her obsession to kill White Cloud.

Meanwhile, White Cloud has become the scourge of Missouri with his own depredations. Jean feels disillusioned since Fred has not contacted her. Her obsession with killing White Cloud prompts Jean to promise the man most responsible for his death with a trip to the altar. Eventually, the gang shoots it out. Everybody dies except Bob, until Jerry shoots Bob in the back.. While Jean gathered information for the new gang, she used the pseudonym Marie Carroll. Jean forces Jerry to ride off. She tells him that she doesn't love him. Wandering through the wilderness in a daze of guilt and confusion, Jean wears herself out and settles down to sleep for the night in the woods. Troopers come upon her and return to headquarters with her. Jerry has been discussing Jean with Raymond. He confirms that she masqueraded under the name of Marie Carroll. Fred is shocked to hear about Jean's new exploits. He explains that he was held in a prison camp and gave Jerry five letters to deliver to her. She never received any of the letters. Fred proposes to Jean, but she hasn't wavered in her goal of killing White Cloud. She attacks White Cloud's gang and kills him, but he suffers a fatal wound and dies in Captain Raymond's arms.

"Renegade Girl" indicts revenge, and Jean dies knowing that she traveled the wrong road. The film's sympathetic treatment of Quantrill sets it apart from similar westerns where he was depicted as a fiend.

Unintentionally Awful

[qatmom · 2/10 · 12 November 2010]

This movie sounded amusing, so I tried to watch it (very) early this morning.

The dialogue is wooden and stilted beyond description, and not just a line here and there, but whole scenes! The plot is no better. None of the characters are sympathetic; the heroine scowls from scene to scene, half the males in the movie seem infatuated with her for unknown reasons, but of course, the only one she shows interest in is the one who ignores her during her months-long convalescence--failing to visit as promised until a few minutes after she leaves the home where she has been nursed back to health.

Had I been more wakeful, it might have been a jolly experience. As it was, I fell asleep, and when I woke up, a Montel infomercial was running. Alas, I missed the ending--but I did not much care.

I don't think anything was cut out of it. I suspect this is just a movie that just didn't come out the way someone must have imagined it.

The Mission Comes First

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 21 April 2014]

Renegade Girl stars Ann Savage in this Lippert Production about a Belle Starr like outlaw who after some service with Quantrill's Raiders leads an outlaw band. The story is a rehashed version not of the real Belle Starr's story, but of the 20th Century Fox film that starred Gene Tierney and Randolph Scott. Elements of that plot are definitely present.

For the tough leader of an outlaw band this woman has a lot of issues. She has a mission that tops all, to get Chief Thundercloud who is another renegade leader who has a grudge against her family the Shelbys. What the grudge is we're not told, but he's wiped out her whole family except for her.

Ann's got Union Cavalry captain Alan Curtis and fellow outlaw Russell Wade panting after her, but her mission comes first.

Renegade Girl is a poorly plotted and shoddily directed affair. Only the most confirmed B western addicts should be looking at this one.

Savage detour from film noir to the old west.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 9 December 2017]

Wearing a hairstyle that looks like it belonged on Carole Lombard in a 1930's screwball comedy, film noir actress Ann Savage finds herself way out of her element. The story's not bad, but her performance is lifeless and placid. She's a bad girl seeking revenge on Chief Thudercloud whose own tribe has disowned him for unnecessary violence and obsession with vengeance against Savage's family after he unsuccessfully tried to kidnap her mother. Now they are all dead and she's made a deal with the Confederate army to scout for them while searching for Thundercloud. Along the way, she finds love with a Yankee officer but her loyalties to the south prevent her from allowing that romance to blossom.

This has a nice supporting cast of veteran actors, with Alan Curtis as the supposedly married Yankee as well as Edward Brophy and Jack Holt. But as hard as she tries, Savage is never convincing, especially being southern with a bleached blonde permanent wave. The film has a few suspenseful moments, but is often boring and ridiculous. They try hard to make savage sympathetic here, but often she comes off as rather mentally challenged, and obviously suffering from bipolar disorder long before that was diagnosed as a mental illness. Her melodramatic outbursts and sudden personality changes aren't even unintentionally funny. Even at 70 minutes, I just couldn't wait for this to be over.

Exciting little western

[searchanddestroy-1 · 4 May 2023]

And among my favourite from director William Berke, mostly because the main character is a female, as in DALTON GIRLS, TWO GUN LADY, JESSE JAMES WOMEN and I don't even speak of BELLE STARR and CALAMITY JANE westerns. This story is bitter, a bit gloomy and poignant. For all those reasons, it doesn't look like other westerns of this period. It is still question of Quantrill, an overused character in many movies and this girl's role is quite interesting. Excellent conclusion for my taste. Good stuff, very professionally made, with no length, good pace, action packed. It is a must see in terms of B westerns. I highly recommand it.

Turning Outlaw

[StrictlyConfidential · 2/10 · 29 September 2021]

"Renegade Girl" was originally released back in 1946.

Anyway - As the story goes - A Missouri family of Confederate sympathizers has been aiding the Confederate raiders operating in the area by providing valuable information about Union activities. A Union contingent, aided by a Native American guide with a grudge against the family, is given the hard task of tracking down the family and stopping them.

Muddy, but with Points of Interest

[dougdoepke · 17 January 2016]

Okay, the plot needs a Rosetta Stone to unravel, while affections and alliances shift faster than wind-blown hay and are about that well-motivated. Top that with action that never leaves LA's San Fernando Valley, plus acting prowess that sort of comes and goes, and we're left with what amounts to a cinematic morass. And oh yes, shouldn't forget how everyone insists on marriage before playtime. Isn't that just what you'd expect from these hardened outlaw types, (thanks production code censors).

Still, I've got to say, for what it's worth, that the narrative often avoids cliché. That is, people die that you don't expect, a girl has the lead even if it is non-girlish Ann Savage, while neither the Yankees, Confederates, nor Quantrills, are romanticized. Thus, despite the many muddy moments, there are points of interest scattered throughout. So, it seems to me that with a stylish director, an unburdened screenwriter, a bigger budget, and at least a 90-minute runtime, there's a pretty good epic western lurking somewhere in the Lippert shambles.

(In passing—thanks johnboy1221, you confirmed my suspicions about the disappearing knife: what a tacky omission. Also, I may be seeing things, but those well-scrubbed close-ups of Savage at times resemble an unsmiling Marilyn Monroe, of all people. See what you think.)