Grant Williams is Capt. Forrest, a Union commander who has taken a small detachment of men, a gatling gun, a government agent and a cache of gold across enemy lines in Georgia to meet a Union spy.
The spy has good news: The war is over. But Forrest knows it might not be quite over for his men. He heads North, realizing lots of Confederates units might not have gotten that word.
Brad Dexter is Confederate Major Boyd. He knows the war has ended. But he doesn’t care. He wants the Union gold so he and his men can return home with something to build a new life on.
He isn’t alone. Once they learn about the gold, some of Forrest’s men are tempted. So is Carole Mathews, a Northerner who married a Southerner for his wealth and has watched that wealth vanish during the war, along with her prospects for a bright future.
The cast also fetures Richard Garland as Carole’s war-weary husband, Rex Holman as a Union soldier who has survived Andersonville and Robert Dix as Lt. Wilcox, Boyd’s second-in-command.
Review:
Interesting concept, interesting plot. One gets the impression that it could have been something special in the right hands and with the right cast. Here, only Holman makes much of his role.
This was the only big-screen film for director Harry Gerstad. He spent most of his time behind the camera directing 20 episodes of the “Adventures of Superman” TV series,
starring George Reeves and Noel Neill.
Later the same year Dexter got a far more memorable role as Harry Luck, one of the seven in the Western classic “The Magnificent Seven.”
Directed by:
Harry Gerstad
Cast:
Grant Williams … Capt. Forrest
Brad Dexter … Maj. Boyd
Carole Mathews … Carole Prescott
Robert Dix … Lt. Wilcox
Richard Garland … Prescott
Rayford Barnes … Sgt. Yates
John Erwin … Cpl. McLean
Richard Crane … Loomis
Rex Holman … Root
Robert Palmer … Private Jensen
Mauritz Hugo … Walter Ives
Ted Knight … Samuel
Fred Kohler Jr. … Corey
Stephen Ferry … Sgt. Wade
Runtime: 69 min.
Memorable lines:
Ives, a Union spy: “I assure you, sir, I’m a legitimate businessman. Here are my papers.”
Maj. Boyd: “I make it a rule never to look at what a man wants me to see.”
Conner: “I didn’t have nothing when I started this war but a few ideals. I figure that’s the least I can go home with.”
Capt. Forrest to Carole Prescot: “You should be more careful who you fire on.”
Carole: “No, I should just be a better shot, captain.”
Capt. Forrest, after Root discards gold pieces he finds in the pocket of a dead Confederate: “You’re not interested in gold?”
Root: “Captain, I learned if you can’t eat it, make love to it or wear it, forget it.”
Yates, as the major prepares to talk to the Yankees: “Major. Major, they’ll kill you for sure.”
Maj. Boyd: “They’ve got honor, Yates. Honor. The easiest man in the world to fiddle is an honorable man.”
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