Fess Parker is James J. Andrews, a Northern spy and leader of a daring raid into Confederate territory during the Civil War.
With the help of volunteer Union soldiers, including William Pittenger (John Lupton) and William Campbell (Jeff York), his goal is do damage the Western and Atlantic Railroad and burn railroad bridges between Atlanta and Chattanooga.
That will prevent the Confederacy from rushing troops north when Gen. Mitchell launches an attack on Chatanooga. And, by disrupting a key Southern supply line, it might also shorten the war.
Andrews and his volunteers slip South in small groups and succeed in capturing a locomotive named The General. Then they start their trek back north, destroying track along the way and cutting telegraph lines to make pursuit difficult.
But a quick-thinking railroad man named William Fuller (Jeffrey Hunter) has discovered what they’re up to and sets out in pursuit, first on foot, then by handcar, then on another engine being driven backward.
Aboard the General, some of Andrews’ men want to stop and fight the pursuing Confederates. But Andrews insists they do nothing to risk losing the train engine needed to complete their mission and reunite with Mitchell.
Fess Parker as James A. Andrews, explaining his mission to the volunteers in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
Jeffrey Hunter as William A. Fuller, the Southern railroad man determined to chase down a stolen locomotive in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
Review:
A Disney film based on a real-life Civil War raid and attempting to capitalize on Fess Parker’s post-Davy Crockett fame.
Unfortunately, it’s a rather tame affair, long on chase, short on action. Even the infighting among Andrews’ men comes off as more of a contrived plot devise than a serious threat to the mission.
Lupton’s character, William Pittenger, narrates the film, fitting since he wrote a popular book about the raid that was first published in 1863.
And the film gets this right: The surviving raiders were the first recipients of the newly created Congressional Medal of Honor.
Don Megowan as Marion A. Ross and Jeff York as WIlliam Campbell, Andrews’ men more inclined to fight than scheme in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
John Lupton as William Pittenger, about to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
Directed by:
Francis Lyon
Cast:
Fess Parker … James J. Andrews
Jeffrey Hunter … William A. Fuller
Jeff York … William Campbell
John Lupton … William Pittenger
Eddie Firestone … Robert Buffum
Kenneth Tobey … Anthony Murphy
Don Megowan … Marion A. Ross
Claude Jarman Jr. … Jacob Parrott
Harry Carey Jr. … William Bensinger
Leonard P. Geer … J.A. Wilson
Runtime: 85 min.
Slim Pickens as Pete Bracken, at the controls of one of the engines tryin got catch up to the Northerners in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
Richard H. Cutting as Union General Mitchell, the man who dispatches James Andrews on a mission to destroy a Southern railroad in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
Memorable lines:
James J. Andrews: “How do you like this (spy) business?”
William Pittinger: “There’s one part of it I can’t get used to. The widow woman who fed us and gave us her bed? When I deceive them I feel like the lowest snake that crawls.”
William Pittenger, marveling at his commander’s ability to get others to cooperate: “I don’t know why we have to take the South. If Andrews asked for it, they’d give it to him.”
Marion A. Ross: “When I was a little boy, my father locked me in a closet for 14 hours. I always obeyed him after that, but I didn’t like him much.”
James J. Andrews: “Mr. Fuller, may I have a word with you?”
William Fuller: “You had a word with me, going North. We’re going South now.”
Jeffrey Hunter as William A. Fuller and Kenneth Tobey as Anthony Murphy, exhausted from trying to run down a stolen locomotive in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
Robert Buffum (Eddie Firestone), William Pittenger (John Lupton) and James J. Andrews (Fess Parker) watch for pursuers in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
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