South of St Louis *** (1949, Joel McCrea, Alexis Smith, Zachary Scott, Dorothy Malone, Victor Jory, Bob Steele, Alan Hale Sr) – Classic Movie Review 7240

Joel McCrea, Zachary Scott and Victor Jory kick up some considerable sparks in director Ray Enright’s strongly cast, a notch or so above routine 1949 Western South of St Louis about the lives and loves of three Texas ranchers, whose Missouri ranch is destroyed by Luke Cottrell and his Union army guerrilla raiders, and who fall out over the usual things – money, land and women – during the American Civil War.

McCrea, Scott and Douglas Kennedy play the rough cowboys Kip Davis, Charlie Burns and Lee Price; Alexis Smith and Dorothy Malone are the tough gals Rouge de Lisle and Deborah Miller; Jory and Bob Steele are the stirring baddies Luke Cottrell and Slim Hansen; and Alan Hale Sr, Monte Blue, Art Smith and Nacho Galindo are along for the ride too.

Westerns were ten a penny in this era, but his way more-than-decent cast, Zachary Gold and James R Webb’s robust if diffuse screenplay, and Karl Freund’s extremely fine Technicolor cinematography are the major assets here, raising the movie’s game.

It was shot between May and July 1948 at Warner Ranch, Calabasas, California; Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, California; and Lasky Mesa, Calabasas, California. The original title was Distant Drums.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7240

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