SOUTH OF ST LOUIS
US, 1948, 88 minutes, Colour.
Joel Mc Crea, Alexis Smith, Zachary Scott, Dorothy Malone, Douglas Kennedy, Alan Hale, Victor Jory.
Directed by Ray Enright.
South of St Louis is a standard western, popular ingredients from the civil war, the clash between the north and the south, Confederate farmers and their experience of the north. The film also has a villain in Victor Jory (often maniacal-looking) as Luke Cottrell (based on Quantrill and his raiders).
Joel Mc Crea, Zachary Scott and Douglas Kennedy portray three friends who intend to continue with the ranch they worked before the war. However, they become, at first unwittingly, involved in arms smuggling through the singer at a saloon, Alexis Smith. Joel Mc Crea, of course, is the upright character who remains faithful despite being betrayed by Zachary Scott, usually a villain. Dorothy Malone is his love – but she is attracted to the other friend, Douglas Kennedy, who joins the confederate army. Needless to say the baddies are defeated, Joel McCrea? goes back to the ranch, he marries Alexis Smith who settles down …
1.The popularity of this kind of western? Conventional? Familiar?
2.The western settings, Texas, the Mexican border? Mexican towns? The civil war atmosphere? Musical score, songs?
3.The focus on Kip, Charlie and Lee, in the war, confederates, the clash with the north? Going to Brownsville? Meeting Rouge, the saloon? Her asking Kip to take the furniture south, the accident and the exposure of the arms? His being arrested, her engineering his release? His involvement in arms deliveries, going through the northern lines? Charlie and his getting more interested, wanting the money? Lee and his decision to join the army?
4.Kip as an upright character, Charlie and his ability to be a villain, greed? The henchmen? The murders? The betrayal of Kip?
5.Luke Cottrell, his raids, the destruction, his raid on the arms, getting control of the arms firm? The tying up with Charlie? His confrontation with Kip, the attempt to kill him, his being murdered?
6.Rouge, at the saloon, her singing, the furniture cover, the arms? Her arranging the sale of the cotton? Her being attracted towards Kip? Meeting Deborah? Settling down at the end – back on the ranch?
7.Deborah, her love for Kip, wanting to have the farm, the work in the civil war, the hospital, falling in love with Lee, marrying him – and making Kip available for Rouge?
8.The conventional sequences, the disguise in the northern uniforms and the fight? The pursuit of the wagons? The Mexican scenes? The atmosphere in the 1860s south of St Louis?
