Not available on dvd in the states, The Raid (1954), starring Van Heflin and Anne Bancroft, (above), whose alleged on screen attraction is muted, is a fact-based Civil War saga, and was directed by an Argentinian native, Hugo Fregonese. Perhaps because of the director's background, it is out on a Region 2 dvd in some countries. It might also be interesting to American Civil War buffs and those of us who enjoy obscure oddities of a historical nature.
I'm really not certain that The Raid (1954) should be categorized as action, adventure or a western, (or maybe a "no'reastern"?), but Klondike's mention of Vermont in Stuart's thread devoted to Northwest Passage reminded me that I've been meaning to write a bit about this odd duck of a movie for some time. Based on the real life attack on the peaceful little Vermont burg of St. Albans near the Canadian border on October 19, 1864, when the confederacy was pretty clearly doomed, it was adapted into a fictionalized 20th Century Fox movie featuring a stolid yet somewhat conflicted Van Heflin, an effectively brooding Richard Boone, a very young, miscast Anne Bancroft, and Lee Marvin, who's a lot of fun to watch in anything, especially at this stage of his career, when, just after he left his mark, (so to speak), on Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat, he was just scraping by as 6th or 7th down in a cast, usually in a role that called on him to remain slack-jawed throughout.
Here's the real, unbelievable tale:
Believe it or not, leading a charge of 20 men, Confederate agent George Sanders (no, not that one), and Lieutenant Bennett Young, the rebels got $200k from three banks in the town, (most of which they dropped during their escape). Though they unsuccessfully tried to burn down the town on the way out, they made it to Montreal, where they were charged, tried but, ooops, never extradited back to Washington, D.C. by those stubborn Canadians. Lieutenant Young, who eventually rose to the rank of General, revisited Montreal in 1911, when, in a conciliatory mood, a group of St. Albans dignitaries paid him a courtesy call at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
In the movie, the characters names have been changed, though Heflin does a good job of conveying a battle weariness (a mood that he brought to almost all his film work from the early '50s on), and he is assisted (sort of) by a dull Peter Graves. Both men, as they case the setup in the town and stew about the Northerners livin' high on the hog while the South crumbles must ride herd on a bunch of Southern yahoos led by Marvin and James Best.
The acting ribbon probably should go, as usual, to Richard Boone, as a wounded Union veteran who mopes around "widder woman" Anne Bancroft's boarding house, making cow eyes at her, and sending dagger eyes toward Van, who sweet talks his way into her good graces. Mr. Boone's role is sadly underwritten, though he does have some nice, slightly over the top scenes. The movie makes it look as though the raiders burned the town to a crisp, but in reality, the hapless bunch only succeeded in incinerating a woodshed, (though some say they had conspired to burn down the governor's house in Montpelier as well). Overall, an interesting, meandering story, enlivened by the additional presence of Tommy Rettig as Bancroft's fatherless lad who, big surprise, latches onto Van Heflin and suffers through what was probably the first of a lifetime of disillusionment. Rettig appears without Lassie to run for help.
Now, if only someone would write a good, tragicomic version of the attempted conquest of Canada in the name of the hoped for Irish Free State by a bunch of Civil War vets who also happened to be Fenians that took place in 1866. Their staging area? The village green at St. Albans, Vt. Was there something in the water there, or was it just a darned convenient jumping off point for Canada?
Some commentators on this movie have noted that it was not until the 1950s and films such as John Huston's adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage that the Civil War battles began to receive detailed treatment on film, though Birth of a Nation and GWTW and The Prisoner of Shark Island are notably redolent with some pretty engaging if distorted and fanciful notions of the war. Why do you think this was? Has anyone else seen this movie, which pops up on FMC occasionally? Thanks.