Three Rebel soldiers — Joel McCrea as Will Owens, Barry Sullivan as Jesse Wallace and James Whitmore as Clint Priest — kill a guard and escape a prisoner of war camp when the inmates are taken to a nearby stream to bathe.
The trio manages to dodge Union patrols trying to recapture them, but wind up being picked up by Sgt. Keely, who’s leading a detachment of Quantrill’s raiders.
Owens served with Hood’s Texans and is familiar with the Sante Fe area, so Keely figures he’ll be particularly helpful.
Seems a caravan led by Don Antonio Chaves will be transporting $1 million from Sante Fe to St. Louis. Keely wants that gold for the Confederate treasury.
So his new men get a simple mission: Join the wagon train as outriders and guide it into an ambush at Cow Creek.
Chaves is wary of the trio, until they help fight off an Indian attack. Soon, Will is serving as de facto leader of the small expedition, helping deal with a horse stampede and more Indians.
Along for the trip are an ill priest, a pretty war widow named Jen Gort (Arlene Dahl) and her brother-in-law Roy (Claude Jarman Jr.), a young team eager to prove he’s not a coward like his older brother.
Owens tries not to get too close to the members of the party, knowing how the trip is supposed to end.
But he can’t help himself when it comes to Jen and Roy. Of course, Jesse is also interested in getting to know Jen better.
Joel McCrea as Will Owens, torn between duty and compassion as he’s supposed to lead a caravan of civilians into ambush in The Outriders (1950)
Arlene Dahl as Jen Gort, the widow Will Owens falls in love with on the trip from Sante Fe to Cow Creek in The Outriders (1950)
Review:
A great-looking film finds McCrea caught between his loyalty to the Southern cause and his conscience as he leads innocents to the slaughter. In fact, Will Owen guides the Chavez party through one danger after another, all in order to keep an appointment with near certain death at the hands of Keely and his guerillas.
Sullivan does a fine job as the partner with no such scruples, leaving Whitmore in a third-wheel sort of role as an older, war-weary veteran. Still, it all adds up to an interesting twist on the story of a wagon train in danger because of treachery from within.
Dalh’s best moment comes when she dances, rather sensuously, with the men in the wagon train after being warned by Owens to keep her distance because they’ve been drinking. Of course, he winds up claiming the last dance for himself.
Barry Sullivan as Jesse Wallace, a fellow escapee of Will Owens, determined to nab some of the gold for himself in The Outriders (1950)
James Whitmore as Clint Priest, a fellow escapee ready to come to Will Owens’ defense in The Outriders (1950)
Directed by:
Roy Rowland
Cast:
Joel McCrea … Will Owens
Arlene Dahl … Jen Gort
Barry Sullivan .. Jesse Wallace
Claude Jarman Jr. … Roy Gort
James Whitmore … Clint Priest
Ramon Novarro … Don Antonio Chaves
Jeff Corey … Sgt. Keely
Ted de Corsia … Bye
Martin Garralaga … Father Damasco
Runtime: 93 min.
Martin Garralaga as Father Damasco and Ramon Novarro as Don Antonio Chaves, leaders of the caravan headed East from Sante Fe in The Outriders (1950)
Claude Jarman Jr. as Roy Gort, the brother of Jen Gort’s late husband, eager to prove he’s a man in The Outriders (1950)
Memorable lines:
Sgt. Kelly to Jesse: “You talk like a gentleman who should be fighting in a fancy outfit. How come you’re only a foot soldier?”
Jesse: “You’re an officer, you’ve got to answer to your men. Like this, I answer to myself. Makes war less complicated.”
Jesse: “We’ve been together for a long time, you and me, blanket mates. It’s been share and share alike. But you want to know something?”
Will: “Tell me.”
Jesse: “It’s all over.”
Will: “Jesse, I’m going to flood the prairies and wash out gullies with my tears.”
Jesse to Will: “Keely should have made me top man. I’d never let a woman come between me and the cause. Especially a dead woman.”
Jeff Corey as Sgt. Keely, the Quantrill man planning the attack on Don Antonio Chaves’s caravan in The Outriders (1950)
Ted de Corsia as Bye, the Quantrill man sent to accompany Will Owens and his colleagues on their mission in The Outriders (1950)
Ramon Navarro as Don Antonio Chaves and Arlene Dahl as Jen Gort, reacting to a dangerous river crossing in The Outriders (1950)
Joel McCrea as Will Owens, showing the effects of time spent in a Union prisoner of war camp in The Outriders (1950)
){kind=link}