Bill Elliott is Frank Graham, a gambler who rushes back to Junction City when he gets word that his father has died during the Civil War.
An old friend provides more details. Graham’s father, a freighter, was making a deal to sell his wagons for the princely sum of $2,000.
He wound up with $2,000 in counterfeit money and a fatal knife wound in the back.
With the counterfeit bills as evidence, Graham heads to Belfry, where his father died.
But he quickly discovers the U.S. Army is way too busy with war matters to be concerned about the murder of one elderly freighter.
So he launches his own investigation, looking for others who have come across counterfeit bills.
He eventually takes a job as a driver with a freight company owned by Jane Dudley (Marjorie Lord), figuring that might be a good way to get leads on who killed his father.
Then a counterfeit bill shows up in the pocket of Greeley (Denver Pyle), a man Graham is playing poker with.
But before he can locate Greeley, his dead body — with a knife wound to the back — winds up in one of the wagons Graham is driving.
Now he not only has the job of finding his father’s killer or killers, but also of proving to the Army that he didn’t kill Greeley.
Bill Elliott as Frank Graham, about to undercover the Copperheads in Rebel City (1953)
Marjorie Lord as Jane Dudley, coming to Frank Graham’s defense in Rebel City (1953)
Review:
One of a number of B Westerns, Elliott made for Allied Artists in the 1950s, this is a modest effort with a couple other familiar faces.
The title refers to the fact that Copperheads are operating for the Southern cause in Belfry. And they’re behind the freight business mischief.
Marjorie Lord plays the sorta-feisty love interest. She loses her temper with Graham twice only to take pity on him moments later.
Conveniently, her current beau is mixed up in the Copperhead shenanigans, opening the way for a new romance with gambler Graham.
Lord enjoyed a long career in movies and TV, but is best remembered as the second wife of Danny Thomas in the “Danny Thomas Show,” which ran from 1957 to 1964.
Robert Kent as Capt. Ramsey, Jane’s beau and a man with a secret in Rebel City (1953)
Ray Walker as Col. Barnes, questioning Graham about Greeley’s murder in Rebel City (1953)
Directed by:
Thomas Carr
Cast:
Bill Elliott … Frank Graham
Marjorie Lord … Jane Dudley
Robert Kent … Capt. Ramsey
Keith Richards … Temple
I. Stanford Jolley … Jack Perry
Denver Pyle … Greeley
Henry Rowland … Hardy
John Crawford … Joe Spencer
Otto Waldis … Spain
Stanley Price … Herb
Ray Walker … Col. Barnes
Michael Vallon … Sam
Bill Walker … William
Runtime: 63 min.
Keith Richards as Temple, watching Frank Graham’s every move in Rebel City (1953)
I. Stanford Jolley as Jack Perry, his suspicions aroused by two riders in Rebel City (1953)
Memorable lines:
Frank Graham, trying to land a job with Jane Dudley’s freight outfit: “Why don’t you try me and find out?”
Jane Dudley: “You’ve already been tried and found wanting. If you’d been here when your father needed you, he might still be alive.”
Col. Barnes, after Greeley’s body is found in the freight wagon he’s driving: “Why did you do it, Graham?”
Frank Graham: “I didn’t.”
Col. Barnes: “He didn’t die of old age with a knife planted in his back.”
Frank Graham: “I’ve been gambling too long to throw away an ace in the hole.”
Otto Waldis as Spain, the engraver who dies when he decides to cooperate with the Army in Rebel City (1953)
Denver Pyle as Greeley, the man who gambles with counterfeit money in Rebel City (1953)
Bill Elliott as Frank Graham with Marjorie Lord as Jane Dudley in Rebel City (1953)
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