Springfield Rifle 05/17/25

Gary Cooper’s best oater for Warner Bros. may be this sharp action-espionage western directed with real verve by the dependable André De Toth. Coop must play traitor to get the lowdown on horse thieves in Civil War-era Colorado; the on-location action is exciting and the cast is capable — Phyllis Thaxter, David Brian, Paul Kelly, Philip Carey, Lon Chaney Jr.. It’s pretty sneaky politically — the under-theme supports military spending and a military counter-intelligence agency. The storyline is almost a replay of a Warners anti-Commie film … but we’ll just enjoy it as an exciting, superior thriller. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
05/17/25