Steve Cochran plays Capt. Allan Wescott, a Confederate officer working undercover as horse trader Mike Davis in order to help plot a Rebel attack on the federal armory in Lawrence, Kansas.
The attack is to be carried out by William Quantrill (Leo Gordon) and his men, but Wescott quickly learns that that Quantrill has a special hate for Lawrence that might cloud his judgment concerning looting and violence against innocent citizens.
Meanwhile, our undercover Reb becomes friends with pretty Sue Walters (Diane Brewster) and her adopted son Joel (Kim Charney), giving him another reason for wanting to prevent a wholesale massacre of the town’s occupants. But it isn’t long before the town’s vigilance committee starts getting suspicious about his presence in Lawrence.
Review:
The film might get two stars, if it didn’t play so fast and loose with history. Let’s see, barely a Union sympathizer dies in this film. The town of Lawrence isn’t looted or burned. And Quantrill isn’t even the Confederate leader’s real name — it’s Charlie Hart, a man who gunned down three people in Lawrence years earlier.
Gale Robbins provides some sex appeal as a saucy redhead who’s hoping Wescott can free her from Quantrill. But the action scenes aren’t very well done. For instance, check out the leisurely pace at which the Union troops “circle their wagons” when Quantrill’s men spring an ambush early in the film. You’d think they were preparing for a Sunday picnic.
Cochran appear in three or four other Westerns (including 1961’s “The Deadly Companions”), but this marked the only time he got top billing in one. His death six yars later at age 48 is far more interesting. He was on his yacht, supposedly scouting film locations with three Mexican women aboard when he got sick and died of a lung infection. The boat drifted to shore 10 days later. Now a film about that might have gotten more than one star.
Directed by:
Edward Bernds
Cast:
Steve Cochran … Capt. Allan Wescott (aka Mike Davis)
Diane Brewster … Sue Walters
Leo Gordon … William Clarke Quantrill
Gale Robbins … Kate Clark
Will Wright … Judge Wood
Kim Charney … Joel
Myron Healey … Jarrett
Robert Foulk … Hager
Glenn Strange … Todd
Lane Chandler … Sheriff
Guy Prescott … Maj. Mathews
Runtime: 68 min.
Memorable lines:
Quantrill, indicating a map: “Lawrence, take a good look at it Kate, while it’s still on the map.”
Quantrill’s man: “You’re not really gonna pass up that raid, are you chief?”
Quantrill: “Oh, no. I got me 100 scores to settle in Lawrence — 100 free staters who swore they’d kill me. I’ll do the killin’. I’m run their blood in the gutters, every mother son of them.”
Sue Walters: “Michael, if you’re not what you seem to be, don’t tell me. Just go away. A man hurt me terribly once. I don’t want to be hurt again. I’m beginning to like you.”
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