Counter espionage (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Counter espionage |
| Original title | Springfield Rifle |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1952 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | André De Toth |
| script |
Frank Davis Charles Marquis Warren |
| production | Louis F. Edelman |
| music | Max Steiner |
| camera | Edwin B. DuPar |
| cut | Robert L. Swanson |
| occupation | |
| |
Counter-espionage (Original title: Springfield Rifle ) is an American western directed by André De Toth from 1952 with Gary Cooper in the lead role.
action
Major Lex Kearney accompanies a group of cavalrymen on a horse transport that is needed as supplies for the civil war front. When, for some inexplicable reason, he orders a retreat during an attack and thus gives up the horses, he is dishonorably discharged from the army.
His wife travels to see him to tell him that his son left school out of shame. She asks him to come home in vain. Kearney stays near the army compound, despite the death penalty if he enters . After a brawl with Capt. Edward Tennick is arrested. Together with two horse thieves , he escapes and joins the gang around Austin McCool.
Kearney keeps to himself that he belongs to the newly founded counter-espionage of the northern states , which should clear up the reason for the loss of horse supplies. He makes himself indispensable for the horse thieves and learns that the stolen horses are being resold to the southern states .
With Tennick's help, he can take out Pete Elm and becomes McCool's right-hand man. Kearney discovered in the person of Lt. Col. John Hudson the traitor in his own ranks. This sees through Kearney's game and now turns off his accomplices in the fort.
Hudson can ambush Kearney and have him arrested. Kearney is a spy of the Southern sentenced to death. His former army comrades can free him in time; this is followed by his rehabilitation and honorable re-entry into the army and a promotion.
Trivia
The original title refers to the new Springfield Model 1873 army rifle shown in the film . The rear- loading process, which was new at the time, enabled a faster sequence of shots . At the end of the film it is announced that this rifle will be introduced as the standard rifle in the army.
Reviews
"Surprisingly and ingeniously constructed military westerners, excitingly staged, with one-sided partisanship for the northern states."
background
The script by Frank Davis and Charles Marquis Warren was based on a story by Sloan Nibley.
For lead actor Gary Cooper it was the only collaboration with director André De Toth and after 12 noon the second western role within the same year.
The Warner Bros. gave the film in 1953 in the West German cinemas. In this dubbed version, which is still in use today, Gary Cooper got the voice of Hans Nielsen .
literature
- Joe Hembus : The Western Lexicon - Extended new edition by Benjamin Hembus - 1567 films from 1894 to today . Heyne Film Library No. 32/207, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag Munich, original edition 1995, ISBN 3-453-08121-8 .
Web links
- Counterintelligence in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Counter-espionage. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .