Springfield Rifle (film)
{{Short description|1952 film}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Springfield Rifle
| image = Poster of the movie Springfield Rifle.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = Andre de Toth
| producer = Louis F. Edelman
| writer = Frank Davis
Sloan Nibley (story)
| starring = Gary Cooper
| music = Max Steiner
| cinematography = Edwin B. DuPar
| editing = Robert L. Swanson
| color_process = WarnerColor
| studio = Warner Bros.
| distributor = Warner Bros.
| released = {{Film date|1952|10|25|}}
| runtime = 93 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| gross = $4.9 million (US rentals)'The Top Box Office Hits of 1953', Variety, January 13, 1954, and 'Top Box-Office Hits of 1952', Variety, January 7, 1953
}}
Springfield Rifle is an American Western film directed by Andre de Toth and released by Warner Bros. Pictures in 1952.{{cite book|author=Peter Lev|title=The Fifties: Transforming the Screen 1950–1959|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TEGl2Ele_XoC&pg=PA113|access-date=April 24, 2013|year=2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24966-0|page=113}} The film is set during the American Civil War and stars Gary Cooper, with Phyllis Thaxter and Lon Chaney Jr.
The titular rifle is the trapdoor Springfield Model 1865 (regardless it would not have been in the field in the winter of 1864-1865). The film is described as "essentially an espionage thriller that pits a Union intelligence officer (Gary Cooper) against a Confederate spy ring."{{cite book|last1=Loukides|first1=Paul|last2=Fuller|first2=Linda K.|title=Beyond the Stars III: The Material World in American Popular Film|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSPILzc9rkcC&pg=PA167|access-date=April 24, 2013|year=1993|publisher=Popular Press|isbn=978-0-87972-623-2|page=167}}
Plot
The Union Army in the American Civil War is in desperate need of new horses. A Confederate spy in Colorado has been informing freeboot horse rustlers of the timing and route of herds being driven by the Union Army, enabling the animals to be seized and re-sold to the South. Charged with cowardice when he abandons his herd, in spite of being outnumbered four-to-one, Major Lex Kearney is drummed out of the Union Army with a dishonorable discharge and a yellow streak painted down his back. His disgrace is complete, with wife Erin even informing him that their harried son has run away in shame.
Kearney is baited by his arch-enemy Captain Tennick into setting foot on Army premises, invoking the death penalty. In the brig with two captured raiders, Kearney aids their escape, then tags along with them to the main hideout. Head rustler Austin McCool is happy to have him join up; second in command Pete Elm is severely rankled. Kearney selects a black horse that nobody else can even approach, gaining their respect. Captain Tennick, supposedly Kearney's enemy, is his secret collaborator. An ambush is prepared with the goal of killing McCool, to flush the actual head of the operation out. As arranged, Tennick kills McCool, but dies in the process, stranding Kearney without a contact man. Still, he continues his ruse, ending up in a business partnership with Elm.
A shipment of the new rapid breachloading Springfield Model 1865 rifles is due, offering a five-to-one potential firepower advantage for the Army troops. The rustlers are tipped off to its pending arrival.
What no one knows is that Kearney has accepted a fake discharge so he can carry out a top-secret assignment to go undercover as a Union counterintelligence agent to find the rustlers and the spy who has been giving them the information.
The chief traitor turns out to be Colonel Hudson, the Union Fort commandant, who has always been sympathetic not only to Kearney but his suffering wife. Discovering Kearney's role, he has everyone who knows the truth of his role murdered and frames Kearney for treason. But sympathizers at the Fort help Kearney escape; together they hijack the Springfield rifle shipment for the big showdown with the horse thieves. Elm is killed, and Kearney goes to great effort to bring Hudson in alive so he will face military justice.
Cast<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045184/fullcredits?mode=desktop&ref_=m_ft_dsk|title=Springfield Rifle (1952) – IMDb|website=[[IMDb]]}}</ref>
- Gary Cooper as Major Alex 'Lex' Kearney
- Phyllis Thaxter as Erin Kearney
- David Brian as Austin McCool
- Paul Kelly as Lt. Col. John Hudson
- Philip Carey as Capt. Tennick
- Lon Chaney Jr. as Pete Elm
- James Millican as Matthew Quint
- Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams as Sgt. Snow
- Alan Hale Jr. as Mizzell
- Martin Milner as Pvt. Olie Larsen
- Wilton Graff as Col. George SharpeRest
- Fess Parker (uncredited) as Confederate Sergeant Jim Randolph
- Ralph Sanford as Barfly (uncredited)
- Fred Kelsey as Barfly (uncredited)
- Michael Chapin as Kearney's Son (uncredited)
Reception
The film was not well received by critics. Jeffrey Meyers noted that Cooper's career went down hill in the early 1950s, until High Noon opened in 1952, and labelled Springfield Rifle a "mediocre" western.{{cite book|last=Meyers|first=Jeffrey|title=Gary Cooper: American Hero|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SCe8JQfDQlgC&pg=PA253|access-date=April 24, 2013|date=March 1, 2001|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8154-1140-6|page=253}}
Rebecca Fish Ewan called the film "confusing" and said that Cooper looked "ever perplexed".{{cite book|last=Ewan|first=Rebecca Fish|title=A Land Between: Owens Valley, California|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nT5pXMZzehMC&pg=PA215|access-date=April 24, 2013|date=November 3, 2000|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-6461-2|page=215}}
New York magazine said "even Cooper can't keep this film from being just another ho-hum Western."{{cite journal|title=New York Magazine|journal = Newyorkmetro.com.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1eYCAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA177|access-date=April 24, 2013|date=June 9, 1986|publisher=New York Media, LLC|page=177|issn=0028-7369}}
However, New York Life described it as an "exciting military melodrama of espionage and counterespionage in a frontier fort."{{cite book|title=Cue: The Weekly Magazine of New York Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BAwAQAAIAAJ|access-date=April 24, 2013|date=January 1962|publisher=Cue Publishing Company|page=48}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{AFI film|50665}}
- {{IMDb title|0045184}}
- [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/springfield-rifle-am144530 Springfield Rifle at AllMovie]
- {{tcmdb title|id=16421}}
{{André de Toth}}
Category:1952 Western (genre) films
Category:American Western (genre) films
Category:Western (genre) cavalry films
Category:Films shot in Lone Pine, California
Category:Films directed by Andre de Toth
Category:Films scored by Max Steiner
Category:American Civil War spy films
Category:1950s English-language films