It’s little Peter Willoughby’s birthday in the quiet town of Ketrick Wells, and the kids are gathering for a party.
Then Peter sneaks up behind an ex-Confederate who’s watering his horse and fires his new cap gun — an early birthday present.
The nervous ex-Confederate (John Smith as Wesley Mason), on the run from the law with his father and three brothers, spins and fires, killing Peter.
His dad (John Payne as John Willoughby) spends the rest of the film seeking revenge; his mom (Ruth Roman as Nora) spends the rest of the film trying to keep her husband from throwing away his life, too, through a rash act of violence.
When John Willoughby finds a young man (Ben Cooper as Gray Mason) wounded in Rebel clothing, he takes him home. He suspects he might be one of the Rebels responsible for his son’s death; the young man dodges the question.
He’s nursed back to health by Nora, who knows he was there when her son died, but doesn’t tell her husband.
Later, Willoughby finds out the truth and nearly uses an ax to slay the youngster. His wife stops him.
Instead, Gray winds up in jail, facing a possible hangman’s noose. If a lynch mob doesn’t get him first.
John Payne as John WIlloughby, figuring out the true identity of the ex-Confederate he’s helped nurse back to health in Rebel in Town (1956)
Ruth Roman as Nora Willoughby, reacting to her husband’s attack on Gray Mason in Rebel in Town (1956)
Review:
Exceptionally done, intelligent film. There’s no Western scene more chilling than the shooting of “Petey,” whose body appear to fly backwards about 10 feet when he’s shot, moments after a humorous and touching scene where a young girl gives him a present.
Payne and Roman are convincing as the husband and wife struggling with their son’s death. Even before Petey’s death, Nora complained that the men in her life thought of nothing but Rebels. Her husband is a Union veterans; her son spends his days dressed in a kid-sized Union uniform, killing imaginary Confederates.
The film also tracks the story of the outlaws, chased from Alabama following the war, forced into — or so they seem to think — a life of crime. Carroll Naish plays the father of the little band. He insists his sons not to forget the niceties of life back home and makes the little band vote before every major decision.
Cooper as Gray Mason is the youngest of the brothers, convinced they should return to Ketrick Wells and turn themselves in; John Smith as Wesley represents the bad seed, willing to kill a brother for an extra share of the bank loot, yet unwilling to take responsibility for a young boy’s death.
J. Carrol Naish as Bedloe Mason, with son Gray (Ben Cooper) in Rebel in Town (1956)
Ben Cooper as Gray Mason, finding himself under the care of Nora Willoughby and her husband John in Rebel in Town (1956)
Directed by:
Alfred L. Werker
Cast
John Payne … John Willoughby
Ruth Roman … Nora Willoughby
Bobby Clark … Peter Willoughby
Carroll Naish … Pa Mason
Ben Cooper … Gray Mason
Caine Mason … Caine Mason
Ben Johnson … Frank Mason
John Smith … Wesley Mason
James Griffith … Marshal Adam Russell
Mary Adams … Grandma Ackstadt
Joel Ashley … Doctor
Runtime: 78 min.
Theme song: “A Rebel in Town”
John Smith as Wesley Mason, the ex-Confederate who killed Petey WIlloughby in Rebel in Town (1956)
Sterling Franck as Cain Mason, with a gun pulled on brother Wesley in Rebel in Town (1956)
Memorable lines:
Nora Willoughby: “I don’t care about the Rebels. I’m sick and tired of hearing about the Rebels. That’s all you ever think about. That’s all your son ever thinks about. He doesn’t play with other children. He spends all his time killing Confederates. He doesn’t even have a father; he has a commanding officer.”
Pa Mason: “A man could go crazy if he had to have reasons for everything that happened. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own understanding. It says that right in the book.”
Nora Willoughby: “How many men will you have to kill for Petey to get up and walk around again?”
Gray Mason, whose family always votes on what to do next, about his intent to return to town: “The only way you’re going to keep me here is to kill me. Take a vote.”
Gray Mason: “Why don’t you ask me what you really want to know?”
John Willoughby: “What makes you think I want to know anything?”
Gray: “I’ve been around long enough to know when someone’s the cat and I’m the mouse.”
Pa Mason: “What the sons of some men will do to the sons of others. That’s the tragedy of the world.”
Bobby Clark as Peter Willoughby trying his new cap gun in front of his mother (Ruth Roman) and friend Lisbeth (Mimi Gibson) in Rebel in Town (1956)
Ben Johnson as Frank Mason and J. Carroll Naish as Bedloe Mason, trying to force the release of Gray in Rebel in Town (1956)
John Payne as John Willoughby and James Griffith as Marshal Adam Russell as a lynch mob gathers in Rebel in Town (1956)
Ben Cooper as Gray Mason, in jail after the death of Petey Willoughby in Rebel in Town (1956)
Mimi Gibson as Lisbeth Ackstadt, recognizing Gray Mason as one of the men present when friend Petey died in Rebel in Town (1956)
John Payne as John Willoughby, with a gun on Gray Mason (Ben Cooper) in Rebel in Town (1956)
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