Springfield Rifle (film)
6.8 /10 1 Votes
Director Andre de Toth Country United States | 6.6/10 IMDb Duration Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date October 22, 1952 (1952-10-22) (New York City)October 25, 1953 (1953-10-25) (North America)August 21, 1953 (1953-08-21) (Finland)September 10, 1953 (1953-09-10) (Norway)September 21, 1953 (1953-09-21) (Sweden) Genres Western, Action Film, Action/Adventure Cast (Maj. Alex 'Lex' Kearney), (Erin Kearney), (Austin McCool, Raider Leader), (Lt. Col John Hudson (Ft. Hedley CO)), Lon Chaney Jr. (Pete Elm, Leader of Non-military Raiders (as Lon Chaney)), (Capt. Edward Tennick)Similar movies War Horse , Warriors of Heaven and Earth , Cheyenne Autumn , Ulzana's Raid , She Wore a Yellow Ribbon , The Glory Guys Tagline The right man... for the right gun! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Springfield rifle trailer 2
Springfield Rifle is a western film, directed by Andre DeToth and released by Warner Bros. Pictures in 1952. The film is set during the American Civil War and stars Gary Cooper, with Phyllis Thaxter and Lon Chaney Jr..
Contents
It is described as "essentially an espionage thriller that pits a Union intelligence officer (Gary Cooper) against a Confederate spy ring."
Plot
Charged with wartime cowardice, Major Lex Kearney is drummed out of the Union Army with a dishonorable discharge. His disgrace is complete, wife Erin even informing him that their ashamed son has run away. What no one knows is that Kearney has accepted a fake discharge so he can carry out a top-secret assignment to go undercover and find the rustlers who have been providing horses to Confederate troops.
Cast
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.
Rebecca Fish Ewan called the film "confusing" and said that Cooper looked "ever perplexed". New York Magazine said "even Cooper can't keep this film from being just another ho- hum Western."
However, New York Life described it as an "exciting military melodrama of espionage and counterespionage in a frontier fort."
References
Springfield Rifle (film) WikipediaSpringfield Rifle (film) IMDb Springfield Rifle (film) themoviedb.org