Blu-ray Review Springfield Rifle Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Andre DeToth’s Springfield Rifle offers an entertaining story of counter-espionage during the Civil War led by an excellent Gary Cooper and a surprise-filled narrative that’s quickly paced and expertly told.



Springfield Rifle (1952)



Released: 25 Oct 1952
Rated: Approved
Runtime: 93 min




Director: André De Toth
Genre: Thriller, War, Western



Cast: Gary Cooper, Phyllis Thaxter, David Brian
Writer(s): Charles Marquis Warren, Frank Davis, Sloan Nibley



Plot: Major Lex Kearney becomes the North's first counterespionage agent as he tries to discover who's behind the theft of Union cavalry horses in Colorado during the Civil War.



IMDB rating: 6.6
MetaScore: N/A





Disc Information



Studio: Warner Brothers
Distributed...

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[Robert Crawford]

Today, I watched my Blu-ray in its entirety and concur with your review. This movie never looked good on home video and though, this Blu-ray offers a big improvement there are still some issues with certain sequences. I was never a fan of Warner Color. Also, this western has never been among my favorite Cooper westerns because of some screenplay shortcomings that always bothered me. I'm still glad to have it in my film collection because I want to support Warner Archive as I hope for more westerns on Blu-ray.

 

[lark144]

Thanks Robert for your thoughts, always concise and intriguing, which makes me want to see this again. I've always looked on SPRINGFIELD RIFLE as more of a Noir, in spite of the use of color, and less of a Gary Cooper vehicle than a film which focuses on the villains, for they at least seem to stand for something, no matter how insidious or harmful, whereas Cooper's character is cloaked in moral ambiguity. Whatever he chooses to do is the wrong move, Betrayal haunts him, wounds him, possibly fatally, in terms of his character and principles, which is why I found his wife's rejection of him believable, for he has completely changed. It's a very clear example of how "the end justifies the means" lead to moral and personal degragation. Of course, this isn't what one looks for in a Gary Cooper film, but I find it nonetheless strikingly acted and directed.. I think the half-hearted reconciliation at the end has more to do with Jack Warner than Mr. De Toth. In fact, the character situation is very similar to CRIME WAVE, which Andre de Toth directed the following year. It's also, as Matt pointed out, a double agent movie more than a Western--though those action scenes are brilliantly done--finding a similar character arc in THE SPY WHO CAME OUT OF THE COLD. Speaking of ambiguity, the character ( and actor) I find most interesting is David Brian. I'm generally not a fan of his in those Joan Crawford camp-noirs, but I am here.