South column
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | South column |
| Original title | Column South |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1953 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Frederick de Cordova |
| script | William Sackheim |
| production | Ted Richmond for Universal |
| music |
Joseph Gershenson Herman Stein |
| camera | Charles P. Boyle |
| cut | Milton Carruth |
| occupation | |
| |
Column South (original title: Column South ) is an American western from 1953. Directed by Frederick de Cordova , the leading roles are cast with Audie Murphy , Joan Evans , Robert Sterling , Ray Collins and Dennis Weaver .
action
Shortly before the start of the Civil War, Lieutenant Jed Sayre is replaced as commander of Fort Union in New Mexico by a Mississippi Captain Whitlock, who arrives with his sister Marcy at the military post in the Navajo area. While there were only a few rather harmless lack of discipline up to this point, the tensions are now increasing suddenly; Cavalrymen from north and south scramble in the quarters, and Sayre, with his good relationship with Navajo chief Menguito, also finds little understanding from his new superior. The mood is further heated by the death and scalping of a gold digger : Whitlock urges retaliation, while Sayre and his friend Lieutenant Chalmers find the real culprit in a nearby saloon - the gold digger and player Tom Kehler. In this way, a military conflict can be prevented for the time being. That changes little in the irritable climate; Whitlock provokes another quarrel in the Navajo camp, and when Menguito later pays a return visit to the fort, he is insulted by Marcy, who despises all savages, but who later apologizes to Sayre and also begins to harbor faint feelings for the prudent lieutenant.
Meanwhile, the imminent outbreak of the north-south conflict is causing the commander at headquarters of the 9th Military District in Santa Fe, Brigadier General BN Stone, to inform local politicians of his plans to use the troops stationed in New Mexico for the cause of the Confederate , what de facto amounts to treason. He also directed his request to Whitlock, who as a Mississippian actually consented. The theft of rifles and ammunition means that only a small crew remains at Fort Union, while Sayre's men ride to the Navajos, where the weapons they are looking for are found; in the meantime Whitlock can prepare to desert. But Sayre thwarts these plans when he attends a meeting of his superior in the wild with other renegade cavalrymen and finally finds a letter revealing Whitlock's treasonous intentions. The lieutenant rides with his followers back to the fort, which has meanwhile been taken by the warriors of the disappointed Menguito. In the wild skirmish that followed, the chances for the "blue coats" are more than bad when suddenly Whitlock, who has changed his mind, arrives with reinforcements and can turn the tide.
Sayre convinces his Indian friend that Brigadier General Stone, who was caught on the occasion, is responsible for the gun trouble, and while he gets his command back Whitlock rides his soldiers to the Confederate; Marcy stays with Sayre.
production
Production notes
Some scenes in the film were shot in Apple Valley , California . The shooting extended from July 29 to the end of August 1952.
Although Ray Collins' character is named Storey in the opening credits, he is dubbed Stone in the film.
Synchronization, publication
The German synchronization was carried out by Berliner Synchron GmbH, dialogue book: Fritz A. Koeniger , dialogue director: Rolf von Sydow .
The film premiered on May 20, 1953 in Los Angeles. In the Federal Republic of Germany it was published on January 29, 1954, in Austria in the spelling Colonne Süd in March 1954. It was also seen in the following countries: Sweden, France, Turkey, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile , Greece, Italy, Portugal and Romania.
Kolonne Süd is included along with three other Audie Murphy films in a German language version in the “Audie Murphy Collection” on DVD, which was released on June 12, 2014 by Koch Media GmbH.
criticism
The Bishops' Conference of the United States spoke of a routine Western whose scenes of violence were borderline.
Film critic Dennis Schwartz was of the opinion that the film would have been better under a more dynamic director, but he liked the freshly playing Audie Murphy, who was the hero here, and therefore liked the film.
"Western according to the usual scheme with a few original ideas."
Web links
- South column in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Column South at Turner Classic Movies (English)
- Kolonne Süd movie poster in filmposter-archiv.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Column South (1953) in synchronkartei.de
- ↑ Audie Murphy Western Box DVD Western Legends
- ↑ Column South in archive.usccb.org (English)
- ↑ Politicized western , reviewed by Dennis Schwartz (English)
- ^ South column. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 4, 2017 .
