Springfield Rifle ** (1952, Gary Cooper, Phyllis Thaxter, David Brian, Lon Chaney Jr, Paul Kelly, Philip Carey, Guinn Williams, Fess Parker, Martin Milner) – Classic Movie Review 6313

In Spain it was called El honor del capitán Lex.

André de Toth’s strongly cast but mundanely written 1952 Warner Bros Western film Springfield Rifle stars Gary Cooper as Union officer Major Lex Kearney. 

Director André de Toth’s strongly cast but mundanely written 1952 Warner Bros Western film Springfield Rifle stars Gary Cooper as Union officer Major Lex Kearney, who undertakes a covert investigation to find out why the North’s supply of horses is suddenly diminished.

Lex gets himself drummed out of the Union army, posing as a dishonorably discharged soldier, to go undercover among the Yankees, leading him to bust a gang of rustlers selling horses to the South. Somebody at the remote cavalry post he hoves up at has been operating as the thieves’ inside man, and Cooper aims to ferret out this traitor.

This totally average Civil War Western as thin and tired as its plot – the very kind of routine movie that put Westerns out of business on the big screen. Lon Chaney Jr has a poor role as the bumbling villain Pete Elm. However, there are several compensations, not least from the performances of the more than decent cast. Cooper is fine as the stalwart hero in his follow-up to his Oscar-winning turn in High Noon (1952), the support is ideal, Edwin DuPar’s colour cinematography (WarnerColor) helps it to look spruce, and the bursts of action liven it up nicely.

Charles Marquis Warren and Frank Davis’s screenplay is based on the story by Sloan Nibley. It is produced by Louis E Edelman, scored by Max Steiner and designed by John Beckman.

Also in the cast are Phyllis Thaxter, David Brian, Paul Kelly, Philip Carey, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Fess Parker, James Millican, Jerry O’Sullivan, Martin Milner (as Private Olie Larsen), James Brown, Jack Woody, Alan Hale Jr, Vince Barnett, Richard Lightner, Ewing Mitchell, George Ross, Ned Young, Ralph Sanford, Wilton Graff and Jack Mower.

In Spain it was called El Honor del Capitán Lex.

Springfield Rifle was shot California, at the Alabama Hills, Mount Whitney, the San Fernando Valley, and at the Warner Ranch, Calabasas.

Martin Milner (1931–2015).

Martin Milner died on 6 September 2015, aged 83. He first appeared in the 1947 classic Life With Father, and is known for his roles as a jazz guitarist in the 1957 film Sweet Smell of Success and in the 1967 camp classic Valley of the Dolls.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6313

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