Springfield Rifle - 4 stars out of 5 stars

Before Clint Eastwood there was Gary Cooper.I've already reviewed "Vera Cruz" and "Beau Geste " and now we add this lesser know and badly titled film.Badly titled because the film is really about the Civil War and the behind the lines espionage used to fight it,in this case,steal horses destined for the war effort. However I've learned through the years how films were titled in such a way as to not upset 1/2 the country as it was still less than 100 years after that war when these sort of films were made.Case in point,an earlier film I reviewed,"Santa Fe Trail"To get a idea of the raw feeling some films might have enticed if not titled in such ways.Just think, it is a longer time from WW1 to now,then the civil war to the 50's films made about it.Anyway,back to this film.Simply put,it rises on that strong silent character that Cooper was so good at creating as Eastwood later did.The story is simple enough and the action rings true enough.I only took 1 star off because it seems a little contrived that real espionage might have been better used on something more militarily decisive  LIKE Springfield Rifles rather than simple horse stealing.The rifles only play a small part in re capturing stolen horses and destroying the raiders at the end of the film.Still released in 1952 and running 93 minutes,its a western classic to be seen by all fans of the genre.There was no trailer I could find so a scene URL follows the pix and a IMDB summary below.

Major Lex Kearny becomes the North's first counterespionage agent as he tries to discover who's behind the theft of Union cavalry horses in Colorado during the Civil War.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf8xuPdvZG8