The Jayhawkers! (1959)

Fess Parker is Cam Bleeker, a former renegade who breaks out of prison and begins a desperate journey home, hopeful for a reunion with a wife rumored to be dead.

He finds a woman in his former home, but it’s widowed immigrant Jeanne DuBouis (Nicole Maurey), not his wife. She is indeed buried on the property, an unfortunate victim in the pre-Civil War fight for Kansas.

Next thing he knows, Bleeker is being taken into custody and given an audience with a governor who wants his assistance in bringing another renegade.

That renegade is Luke Darcy (Jeff Chandler), leader of an army of Jayhawkers. And he’s the man who seduced, used, then threw away Bleeker’s wife after Bleeker went off to war.

Yep, that’s a mission Bleeker will accept.

But Darcy turns out to be something of a surprise, a man with dreams of controlling all of Kansas, a man who demands loyalty from his followers and returns that loyalty, a man who truly believes he can bring a better life to people living in the territory.

Bleeker comes to admire that man, even if his tactics are questionable. Darcy is taking over Kansas one small town at a time.

And he’s doing it by having his men dress up as pro-South red legs before each raid. Once the town is wounded and bleeding, he rides in with the very same men, now as Jayhawkers, offering peace and prosperity.

A serious injury to DuBois’ daughter during one of those raids finally makes Bleeker realize that, admirable or not, Darcy needs to be stopped.

Fess Parker as Cam Bleeker, explaining why he thinks he’d be useful to Luke Darcy in The Jawhawkers! (1959)

Jeff Chandler as Luke Darcy, the man who wants to turn Kansas into his personal empire in The Jayhawkers! (1959)

Review:

Well-done Western featuring a unique plot, a superb performance by Chandler, a neat ending and a rousing score by Jerome Moross.

And the action scenes are balanced by Beeker’s growing attachment to the DuBouis family, which includes a young son and daughter and offers the promise of a life like that one he once hoped to live with his own wife. Of course, that promise depends on his ability to cut ties with Luke Darcy.

Darcy’s band includes Leo Gordon as the man Beeker rescues in order to infiltrate the Jayhawkers and Henry Silva as a top gun who poses the biggest threat to Beeker’s plans.

This marked the only Western for French-born Nicole Maurey. Four years later, she starred in the sci-fi cult classic “Day of the Triffids.”

Nicole Maury as Jeanne DuBois, startled when escaped inmate Cam Bleeker barges into her home in The Jayhawkers! (1959)

Henry Silva as Lordan and Leo Gordon as Jake Barton, two of Darcy’s men, realizing their attempt to get rid of Bleeker failed in The Jayhawkers! (1959)

Directed by:
Melvin Frank

Cast:
Jeff Chandler … Luke Darcy
Fess Parker … Cam Bleeker
Nicole Maurey … Jeanne DuBois
Henry Silva … Lordan
Herbert Rudley … Gov. William Clayton
Frank DeKova … Evans
Don Megowan … China
Leo Gordon … Jake Barton
Shari Lee Bernath … Michelle DuBois
Jimmy Carter … Paul DuBois
Renata Vanni … Indian woman
Berel Firestone … Jayhawker
Al Wyatt Sr. … Jayhawker
Charles Bail … Jayhawker
Ned Glass … Storekeeper

Runtime: 100 min.

Shari Lee Bernath as Michelle DuBois and Jimmy Carter as her brother Paul, learning frontier English from Bleeker in The Jayhawkers! (1959)

Jimmy Carter as Paul DuBois and Nicole Maury as his mom Jeanne, listening to Bleeker sing and play guitar in The Jayhawkers! (1959)

Memorable lines:

Luke Darcy, upon meeting Jeanne DuBois: “Ma’am, you look as though you’ve seen Lucifer himself.”

Gov. Clayton: “I suppose you’re wondering why the governor of Kansas rides 300 miles to meet with a man he could have had hanged by signing a paper in Topeka?”
Cam Bleeker: “If you knew how little time I spent wondering what the governor of Kansas does or thinks, you’d probably bust out crying.”

Gov. Clayton: “Bleeker, you might take a notion to cross me. If you do, remember this: I’ll get him (Luke Darcy) and I’ll get you. And I’ll string you both up, one at a time, on the same day I string up the rest of those Jayhawkers.”
Cam Bleeker: “Mister, you sound like somebody who just came into an awful lot of rope.”

Herbert Rudley as Gov. WIlliam Clayton, the governor desperate to bring Luke Darcy to justice in The Jayhawkers! (1959)

Cam Bleeker convincing Jake Barton (Leo Gordon) to take him to see Luke Darcy in The Jayhawkers! (1959)

Luke Darcy: “A man must die with dignity.”
Cam Bleeker: “What’s the difference? Dead’s dead.”
Darcy: “No. There are 1,000 ways to die, and each man finds his own. To strangle at the end of a rope with your eyes bulging, your feet kicking, your tongue hanging out — that’s for a clown or an animal, not a man.”

Luke Darcy: “To me, a woman is like a wine, something to be enjoyed. When it’s over and there’s nothing left in the bottle, you must throw it away and find another. One difference: With a wine, sometimes you learn its name. With a woman, never.”

Jeanne DuBois: “I hate the thought of my children being so close to something that evil (Darcy), even for one day.”

Henry Silva as Lordan pressing Jeanne DuBois (Nicole Maurey) for information about Bleeker in The Jayhawkers! (1959)

Fess Parker as Cam Bleeker and Jeff Chandler as Luke Darcy, planning a $500,000 heist in the town of Topeka in The Jayhawkers! (1959)