Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Clevercell Very disappointing...

Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

TheLittleSongbird I saw this film as I like films like this and I admire the cast. In most aspects this film delivered. The title is misleading I agree and I personally would've liked Springfield Rifle to have been 5 or so minutes longer. However, while it is not an exceptional movie it is a very good and enjoyable one, and I also think underrated.Springfield Rifle is a very well made film, I loved the scenery and the cinematography is beautiful. It also has strong direction, a rousing music score from Max Steiner that compliments the film perfectly, a good story with an interesting structure and themes and sharp dialogue.Good pacing is also at hand, and the cast are great. Gary Cooper has done better work perhaps, but still gives an engaging performance. Lon Chaney Jnr likewise, and Phyllis Thaxter and Paul Kelly are excellent. Overall, a very enjoyable movie. 8/10 Bethany Cox

thinker1691 The dates of the civil War stem from 1861 to 1865. In between, half a million men fought and died on both sides. Then Hollywood introduced the Western and then writers quickly retold the history depicting the many facets within the ranks of the two opposing camps. Here is one such story which if you don't look too closely, is interesting and confusing at the same time. The movie is called " Springfield Rifle " and stars one of the most enduring actors to filled the Silver Screen. Gary Cooper plays Maj. Alex 'Lex' Kearney a Union Officer who is cashiered out of the U. S. Army and branded a traitor. The audience however understands his cover as he joins the renegade outlaws who have been stealing herds of horses for the Confederacy. With danger threatening him on both sides, Kearney walks a tight-wire as he seeks out the ringleader of the outlaws. The movie is a cat-and-mouse game and Cooper is aptly supported with other notable western stars like. David Brian, Paul Kelly, Lon Chaney Jr. Alan Hale Jr. and Martin Milner as Pvt. Larsen. The entire cast assembles to provide real shoot-em-up action with the new Springfield Rifle and plenty of hair-raising excitement. Excellent western fare. ****

Spikeopath Depending on what reviews you read of course, Springfield Rifle is either a slowly paced pot boiler or an action packed suspenser. Such is the diversity of this form of the arts, you could easily favour one or the other and nobody could really argue with you. The truth is that André De Toth's film wants to be both, but with an almost dizzying plot and a misleading title, it winds up being an over ambitious picture that doesn't quite pay off on its promise.Gary Cooper stars as Maj. Alex 'Lex' Kearney who gets himself cashiered from the army on a charge of cowardice in order to go undercover to break up a Confederate ring who are stealing horses during the civil war. But Kearney is not the only spy at work so his mission is a touch more complicated than at first thought. Not only that but he is so deep undercover his wife and son believe him to be a real coward and have therefore ostracised him. Oh and the new and war changing Springfield Rifle will have a part to play in the shenanigans.Released in the same year as Cooper was wowing genre fans in High Noon, De Toth's movie does actually feel like an attempt to cash in on the big mans star appeal. However, it should be noted that executives at Warner Brothers didn't want Cooper to play the role, fearing his wholesome image just wouldn't suit a role involving cowardice and double dallying for both parties in the war. De Toth stood by his guns and was rewarded, to my mind, by a film saving performance from Cooper. Frank Davis and Charles Marquis Warren adapt from a story written by Sloan Nibley (who is noted in the genre for his numerous work on Roy Rogers scripts), Max Steiner provides the score and Edwin B. DuPar photographs out of Lone Pine and Warner Ranch in California. The film is not shot in Technicolor {as stated by some reviewers}, it was shot in the Warnercolor process. With the result somewhat pleasing on the eye, notably the uniforms of the soldiers and the flame engulfed sequence towards the finale.The support cast are fair to middling. Lon Chaney Jr. is sadly a shadow of his former self, tho a good old dust up with Cooper raises the temperature. Phyllis Thaxter, David Brian, Paul Kelly & Philip Carey file in and say their lines. While Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams & Alan Hale Jr. deserved more screen time than they actually got. With surprises in the plot and Cooper adding some quality, Springfield Rifle is entertaining enough. But ultimately it ends up being a modest genre piece that really should have been much much better. 6/10

dbdumonteil "Springfield rifle" is a western but it's not your usual average western.Its screenplay could be that of a spy thriller ,for it is primarily a story of spies ,of undercover agents.First thing you have got to bear in mind ,if you want to appreciate De Toth's movie ,is "don't rely too much on appearances ".Things are not what they seem indeed and the audience ,till the last third ,does not know who they can trust.De Toth was not apparently interested in the female character relegated to a position of secondary importance ,even with the moments of the plot which deal with her (and Cooper's ) son:this boy is expected to appear but all his adventures are verbally told (he only appears in the last scene).Just as the director does not tell us the story of two officers' hatred (which was what the audience expected ).Just as in De Toth's 1959 "Day of the outlaw" the "violent " dance and the chase in the snow were completely unexpected.