Search - Springfield Rifle - Authentic Region 1 DVD from Warner Brothers starring Gary Cooper, Phyllis Thaxter & Lon Chaney Jr. on DVD

An entertaining Civil War Western!

Roberto Frangie | Leon, Gto. Mexico | 11/10/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"André De Toth found his niche in Westerns... He directed "Man in the Saddle," "Last of the Comanches," "The Stranger Wore a Gun," and "The Indian Fighter" with his cautious, distinguished way, and intelligent skill..

With a nice musical score by Max Steiner, his "Springfield Rifle" projects imagination and suspense...

Major 'Lex' Kearney (Gary Cooper), a Union officer, masterminds a counter-espionage scheme to undercover a gang of renegades who continually have top-secret informations regarding shipments of horses to the Confederacy... Cooper joins the confederates as a spy to unmask the traitor...

Phyllis Thaxter was effective in her small role as the wondering astonished wife (Erin) suffering with her son (Michael Chapin) who can't accept or understand the fact that his father was cashiered from the army for cowardice...

Lon Chaney, Jr. as a villain, and Philip Carey, as the valiant officer, contribute to the tense and violent atmosphere of the motion picture...

Filmed in Technicolor, "Sprinfield Rifle" follows Fred Zinnemann's great Western "High Noon," and is basically a pretty entertaining routine Civil War Western...

"

Good little Oater!

G. Martin | Glendale, Ca. | 07/21/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For me "Coop" didn't make any really GREAT westerns in the 50's with the expection of the classic High Noon! But he did make some entertaining entries, and this is one of them.
Shot almost totally on location at Lone Pine, Ca. in and around the Alabama Hills, the most photographed rocks in all of movie history, and using the background of the Eastern Sierras and Mt. Whitney with snow capped peaks, this makes for a pretty engaging western.

One of the co-stars is Lon Chaney Jr. AKA the Wolf Man in 41'. Coop and Chaney were buddies in real life and he was also the retired sheriff in High Noon for some extra info here. Be sure to check out what Coop does to Chaney with a knife! A first and maybe last time in any movie western or otherwise.

André De Toth the director did six westerns with Randolph Scott in the 50's, and in fact this is the same caliber of western that he did with "Randy"! A good little western story with out to many complications; the good guys and the bad guys, lots of horses, gun play, and "Coop" wins in the end! Again, ha ha. Enjoy!"