South of St. Louis

Lot of different things going on in this enjoyable civil war type western. The plot is set in motion in the opening frames when a ruthless raider named Luke Contrell (I guess he's the union version of William Quantrill) burns out the Three Bells ranch in Texas. The Three Bells is run by 3 friends, Joel McCrea, Zachary Scott and Douglas Kennedy (I hope you don't mind my convention of referring to the characters by the actor's names, it's just easier and apart from Contrell, the names don't mean much) who set of for Brownsville to get even. Contrell carries out his raiding under the protection of the union army, which prevents our hero, Joel McCrea, from doing much more than beating him up and telling him to leave town.

Our three heros -- it's weird seeing Zachary Scott as a hero -- are now kind of shiftless and looking for what to do next. Kennedy decides to join the Confederation and fight in the open. This is kind of different, the movie is set during the Civil War and one of the hero's decides to join the confederation and doesn't feel the need to talk about protecting his way of life. The union army might protect Contrell, but they don't like him much, and the commander offers to buy McCrea a drink after he beats up Contrell -- but McCrea don't drink with Yankees. McCrea and Scott get mixed up in gun running and take to the trade, blockade running guns from Mexico to the confederates.

The romantic sub-plot is that a saloon singer played by Alexis Smith has set her cap for McCrea and McCrea's gal, Dorothy Malone, has followed Kennedy into fighting the good fight as a nurse (the film just never really gets into the nitty gritty of the politics of the civil war). I found the romantic business, usually something of a drag in the avg McCrea feature, to be pretty interesting and not quite so ham handed as is often done.

The production values are not bad, the acting is pretty good, the story interesting and a little different. If you love westerns, and I presume you do if you've read this far, you could do a lot worse that this movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Kip Davis (Joel McCrea), Charlie Burns (Zachary Scott) and Lee Price (Douglas Kennedy) are best friends and partners in the Three-Bell Ranch, but the Civil War breaks out and their home is destroyed by Union raiders led by Luke Cottrell. Kip tracks down Cottrell in the local saloon and beats him. It won't be their last meeting.

But with the Three-Bell ranch gone, the partners split up. Lee joins the Confederate army. At the urging of saloon singer Rouge de Lisle (Alexis Smith), Kip becomes a gunrunner and Charlie joins him in the gun-running business.

Kip just wants to get enough money to restart the Three-Bell Ranch, however Charlie is more interested in the money than the ranch. Meanwhile,Lee winds up being more interested in Deborah Miller (Dorothy Malone) - the girl Kip planned to marry - than a renewed partnership with his two friends.

Turns out the close bond between the Three-Bell partners is going to be severely tested, during the war and after.

A decent Joel McCrea western highlighting the turbulence that war can cause by splitting three friends apart, but it's the rousing action scenes that drives this fast-paced western splashed in Technicolor. Great stunts, horse riding and gun smoke! Plus you get two hotties Alexis Smith and Dorothy Malone. The performances are great too, especially from McCrea who is an honourable character, something he would continue to play later in his career. Zachary Scott does what it's expected, and sneers in bad guy fashion. So does Victor Jory. It's a well- directed colourful western, but that's what you expect from the director of the superb Coroner's Creek!

Good film packs action-packed Western , thrills , fistfight , action , betrayals and spectacular raids . Passable portrayal of three Texans , Kip Davis (Joel McCrea) , Charlie Burns (Zachary Scott) and Lee Price (Douglas Kennedy) own Three Bell Ranch being destroyed by Luke Cottrell (Victor Jory who makes a throughly unpleasant bad guy) and his henchman (Bob Steele) , of the Union army, along with his band of outlaw raiders . As the trio seeks both , justice and vengeance against the villains who encroached his ranch . Driven from their land, many settlers move to Texas, still a neutral territory . They are three young men who from Missouri go to Texas seeking vengeance , and reckoning against Cottrel , facing off furious , fighting guerrillas . As Cottrell plunders the region for personal gain rather than in the name of the Union . They take on a leader of a band of guerrilla raiders working for the Union army that carry out bloody and violent raids and ravage the Missouri countryside during the Civil War . Shortly after , Kip, Charlie and Lee go to Brownsville, Texas, looking for Cottrell . After a confrontation between Kip and Cottrell , Cottrell is told to abandon Texas. While Lee (Douglas Kennedy) decides to join the Confederate army , Kip (Joel McCrea) and Charlie (Zachary Scott) attempt to raise money to rebuild their ranch by smuggling . This lucrative enterprise brings them into conflict with Cottrell who, after abandoning the Union cause , is also smuggling guns out of Mexico , then the Confederates capture Brownsville . Kip suggests they all return to rebuild their cattle ranch , but Lee insists in joining the Confederacy . However , Kip and Charlie continue the smuggling together, but subsequently Kip is disillusionated with Charlie . Meanwhile , Cottrell and his guerrilla executing violent looting and slaughters against innocent civilians . Violent raids ...aflame again in all its fury !Warner Bros.' Thundering New Triumph!

An overplotted and exciting Western about the friendship of three Texas Ranchers who wish to create the Three Bell Ranch , but along the way smuggling arms for the Confederacy , bypassing the blockade imposed by the Union . Interesting and colorful film dealing with three friends get involved in a series of conflicts , crosses and double-crosses , smuggling , battles and love triangle . The screenplay is pretty complicated and most of it , despite the title , takes place West of St. Louis . Brawling , sprawling , almost primitive action in which our protagonists join the weapon smuggling from Mexico to US and vice versa . Fast paced filmmaking , it features impressive as well as moving attack scenes punctuated by great action scenes and thrilling go riding . The film is well co-starred by three fine actors , the Western usual Joel McCrea who plays in his habitual style as a peaceful rancher turns renegade gunrunner during the Civil War when his stock is destroyed by Union guerrillas ; Zachary Scott as Charlie , who's more interested in money and gunrunning than in ranching, deciding to continue the smuggling ; Douglas Kennedy as Lee who chooses to remain in the Confederate army and continue the fight . Furthermore , Alexis Smith as a saloon show-girl and dazzling in a plethora of gowns as well as the beautiful Dorothy Lamour falling in love for both , Joel McCrea and Douglas Kennedy . Support cast is pretty good , such as : Alan Hale in one of his last characters provides a vivid portrayal of the local bartender , Art Smith , Monte Blue , Tex Cooper , Tex Driscoll , and finally , Victor Jory and Bob Steele once himself a Western hero , both of whom providing a pair of extremely villainous roles .

It displays a rousing and stirring musical score by the classy Max Steiner . It contains a colorful and brilliant cinematography by Karl Freund who directed the viintage movie : The mummy ; all help strenghen this acceptable Western . The motion picture was well directed by Ray Enright who had just finished a spate of eight Westerns with Randolph Scott . He was a western expert , as he directed a lot of Westerns , the first film he made was Trackers by the police , starring Rin Tin Tin , he subsequently directed Bad Men of Missouri, Men of Texas , The spoilers , Sin town , Alburquerque, Montana , Return of the bad Men , South of St Louis , Flamingo Father , among others. Rating 6.5 out 10 western, better than average . Well worth seeing.

The flick is indirectly based on real deeds , these are the following ones : The character "Luke Cottrell" played by Victor Jory and his hoodlum Bob Steele are described as guerrilla members , while robbing and murdering Southern sympathizers. These characters are obviously based on the real-life William Quantrill, and Anderson who were in fact the leaders of a band of Confederate guerrillas called Bushwackers . This militia commanded by William Clarke Quantrill and Anderson execute their razzias at whatever means by killing and rampaging , carrying out war crimes . They carry out a violent raid on the pro-Union town of Lawrence , Kansas. They really terrorized the Missouri and Kansas countryside during the Civil War. The Lawrence Massacre, was a rebel guerrilla attack during the U.S. Civil War by Quantrill's Raiders, led by William Clarke Quantrill, on the pro-Union town of Lawrence, Kansas. The attack on August 21, 1863, targeted Lawrence due to the town's long support of abolition and its reputation as a center for Jayhawkers and Redlegs, which were free-state militia and vigilante groups known for attacking and destroying farms and plantations in Missouri's pro-slavery western counties . By 1863, Kansas had long been the center of strife and warfare over the admission of slave versus free states. In the summer of 1856, the first sacking of Lawrence sparked a guerrilla war in Kansas that lasted for months. John Brown might be the best known participant, but numerous groups fought for each side in Bleeding Kansas . By the beginning of the American Civil War, Lawrence, Kansas, was already a target for pro-slavery ire, having been seen as the anti-slavery stronghold in the state and more importantly, a staging area for Union and Jayhawker incursions into Missouri.

Despite having Joel McCrea in the lead, this is a rather dull western...dull and pretty predictable. About the only part that was unexpected was how less than honorable McCrea's character was through much of the movie.

The story is set during the Civil War. Three buddies all arrive in Yankee occupied Texas on the lookout for Cottrell (Victor Jory). Cottrell is fashioned after the real life Civil War raider, Quantrill...though oddly he's fighting for the Union in this one. Despite Kip Davis (Joel McCrea) and his friends wanting to kill Cottrell, soon Lee (Douglas Kennedy) joins the Confederate army and Kip and Charlie (Zachary Scott) help the South by running the blockades. Eventually, however, Charlie comes to enjoy getting rich much more than helping the Confederacy and this brings a very predictable showdown at the end.

Everything about this film is mediocre at best and the story only occasionally interesting. I had a hard time caring about the characters and the story.

This movie is filled with every cliche you can think of, and absolutely none of them work. The plot is predictable and the characters are not interesting, but boring. The acting is pretty bad, even by Joel McCrea. Even western fans should stay away from this one.