User Reviews

"Thunder Over the Plains" is another of those enjoyable little 80 minute color westerns turned out by Randolph Scott in the 1950s. Competently directed by Andre deToth, the film keeps moving along and doesn't get too bogged down with the domestic issues. And there's another of those great supporting casts of recognizable faces.

This one takes place in Texas following the U.S. Civil War before the state re-entered the Union and was governed by the occupying Union Army. Capt. David Porter (Scott) is charged with the protection of government officials in their dealings with local land owners. The only trouble is these officials are nothing but carpetbaggers who over tax and cheat the farmers out of their property.

Chief among the carpetbaggers are Tax Commissioner Joseph Standish (Elisha Cook Jr.) and cotton broker H.L. Balfour (Hugh Sanders). Porter, a native Texan, is accused of bias towards the settlers by his commanding officer, Lt. Col. Chandler (Henry Hull) who doesn't want to upset his superiors as he is within two years of retirement.

Aiding the settlers is Ben Westman (Charles McGraw) a sort of "Robin Hood" who with his gang that includes Faraday (Lane Chandler), Kirby (Fess Parker) and henchman John Cason foil Balfour at every turn. Col. Chandler orders Porter to bring Westman in.

Trigger happy Captain Bill Hodges (Lex Barker) arrives and is placed under Porter's command. He also has designs on Porter's attractive wife Norah (Phyllis Kirk). Hodges moves on Westman's hideout against Porter's orders and allows the bandit to escape. Hodges however, shoots Kirby in the back without provocation.

When Standish witnesses Balfour murder a cohort, he becomes nervous and threatens to inform the authorities. Balfour murders Standish and pins the blame on Westman. In order to clear his name Westman allows Porter to take him in on Porter's promise to find the guilty party. Col. Chandler gives Porter only three days before he orders Westman hanged. After Hodges bungles another battle with Westman's gang, Chandler orders that Westman be hung the next morning. Porter goes to Westman's gang for help forcing a final showdown with Balfour and his gunman Conrad (James Brown) where.....................................

Scott gives his usual excellent stiff jawed performance. Unusual for him, he remains in uniform for most of the film. Barker had recently finished his "Tarzan" series (1948-52) for RKO in which he replaced Johnny Weissmuller. Henry Hull is probably best remembered for "Werewolf of London" (1935) in which he played the title role.

Fess Parker would shortly become Davy Crockett for Disney and later play Daniel Boone on TV. James Brown (not the football player or the Soul Singer) is best remembered for playing Lt. Rip Masters on the long running "Rin Tin Tin" TV series. Elisha Cook appeared in "Shane" the same year as "Torrey" the settler who is gunned down by Jack Palance. Also in the cast are Trevor Bardette as a settler and Earle Hodgins as a fast talking auctioneer.

Randolph Scott plays it perfectly straight as a post-war captain in the Union Army, stationed in Texas and a Southerner himself. He and his wife, Phyllis Kirk, are uncomfortable with their duties. Scott is supposed to protect the civilian authorities from the depredations of a gang led by Charles McGraw. But the civilians -- the wide-eyed and trembling Elisha Cook, Jr., and his dominant partner, the sneering and treacherous Hugh Sanders -- are worse than the gang. They overtax the locals, buy cotton for one tenth what they sell it for after they ship it to New York. For Scott, this is known as "role conflict," when a person is caught between two non-concordant roles -- loyal Texan and loyal Army officer. For the South, this is known as "reconstruction."

Nobody knows how Lincoln might have handled reconstruction since he was assassinated at the end of the war. (He'd said the Southern states would be welcomed back into the union "as if they'd never left.") His successor, Andrew Johnson, was an unregenerate racist and a barely literate ex tailor who mismanaged the deal as best he could. His earnest hope was that the white aristocrats of the South, being gentlemen, would reestablish order and the slaves, now free, would assume their accustomed place as subordinates and servants. It didn't work out. Reconstruction was a disaster and order was maintained by the presence of Army troops for years. Seven years after the year of this movie, 1869, Rutherford B. Hayes found himself in a controversy concerning the electoral college and the popular vote, and apparently made a deal to withdraw the Army from the Southern states in return for the presidency. For the next ninety years the South would remain solidly Democratic and segregated.

It's in this historical context that the movie's particular interest lies. It's not just another Western with a good sheriff against a band of evil outlaws and cattle rustlers. The role conflict that Randolph Scott was in was very real and generated by political circumstances. No nonsense about who's the fastest draw around here.

It's one of Scott's best performances, full of complexity. The villains are clearly identified -- Cook and Brand, that scurrilous duo of miscreants. The movie's sympathy is obviously with the native Texans, most of whom are men of principle, including the gang leader, McGraw. He holds up the shipment of that tainted cotton all right, but he doesn't keep it for himself. He evidently returns it to those who rightly own it or he burns it.

Scott is joined by an arrogant officer, Lex Barker, who does everything wrong and who puts moves on Scott's wife. He's another unlikable villain. (You can always tell the villains because they have no sense of humor.) Lex Barker does not perform celluloid magic but he's stolid in the part. As Scott's wife, Phyllis Kirk must have been genuinely uncomfortable. Stuck out there on the Texas plains, with her elegant accent and aristocratic features. She must have wondered what life was all about, how to cope with it all, how to live in the unfolding moment. (Her birth name was not Kirk but Kierkegaard.) It has its Western conventions but it's an attempt at a serious movie about a serious subject and Scott handles it well.

The Civil War has ended and 1869 Texas is not unlike a powder keg with a short fuse. Those that can farm or grow cotton are forced out of their homes and off of their ranches by greedy carpetbaggers from the north. Captain David Porter(Randolph Scott)has a hard time with his loyalties being forced to witness carpetbaggers hiding under the legal protection of the Union Army of Occupation. A Texas patriot Ben Westman(Charles McGraw)is framed on a murder charge and Porter is under fire for letting his real allegiance be known. Westman's followers do their best to steal back what the carpetbaggers have taken by corrupt law of the land. Meanwhile a younger Captain Hodges(Lex Barker)is trying to put the moves on Porter's wife(Phyllis Kirk), who feels she has suffered loneliness much too long. Scott is at his stoic best, while Elisha Cook Jr. and Hugh Sanders fill the role of villains. Also in the cast: Lane Chandler, Fess Parker and Henry Hull.

The American Civil War has ended four years earlier and Texas valiantly still refuses to join the Union . Carpetbaggers from the north dominate the economic landscape sticking their talons in to the population of Texas . Rebel Ben Westman becomes a folk hero fighting both the carpetbaggers and army of occupation . Texas born federal army captain David Porter is ordered to hunt Westman down

Carpetbagger is a word I've heard of for a very long time but it it's only recently that I've found out that it's a noun and derogatory term given to Northern businessmen who moved south to make a fast and cruel buck in the reconstruction of the South . You can rely on Americans to cheer the underdog and Westman is referenced in the opening narration as being a modern day Robin Hood so the audience quickly know whose side to take

One thing that sticks out is that watching THUNDER OVER THE PLAINS in 2013 is that the entire story could easily be made today as a war drama set in Iraq or Afghanistan with very little modification where an Iraqi/Afghan born US army officer finds himself set against a childhood friend waging a war of resistance against American occupiers . Of course from a moral point of view the audience would then be on the side of the United States and the Westman character would be the standard Hollywood bad guy rather than the noble freedom fighter . On second thoughts it wouldn't be the same story at all

That said THUNDER OVER THE PLAINS does have a rather timeless quality to it where audiences are allowed to cheer on someone who isn't necessarily a villain , just someone who is fighting for what he believes in and getting framed for something he didn't do . The film also manages to paint Porter as a man who has a dilemma of being part of a new America which means putting aside earlier friendships while having to do what a man has to do . Add to this the Technicolor cinematography and you've got a film that's far better than what could have been another B movie Western

" . . . South into the choicest slice of Enlightened Mexico, Hell-bent upon contaminating this Land of Freedom with their warped depraved horror of Racist Black Slavery" states the opening narration for THUNDER OVER THE PLAINS. "Lazy human ticks such as 'Dave Crockett' were so eager to leech great riches from the blood, sweat, and tears of those Minority Folks they claimed to 'own' that these feckless miscreants recklessly assumed that they could murder the superior forces of Santa Ana's Mexican Patriot Freedom Fighters at their shoddy make-shift hideouts such as San Antonio's 'Alamo,'" the narrator continues. "After Santa Ana bravely cleared out that Pro-Slavery vipers' nest, the underhanded 'Texicans' resorted to War Crimes (now banned by the Geneva Conventions) during the tragedy of the San Jacinto Disaster which doomed Texas Blacks to three decades of Slavery, plus 150 more years of systematic torture, Lynchings, and pick-up truck dragging deaths," concludes the opening narration for THUNDER OVER THE PLAINS. While it's hard to quibble with most of these Historic Facts, I would like to defend my Great Uncle Davy. The Disney People had beloved actor "Fess Parker" (who plays "Kirby" here) portray my uncle in their later biography of him. Since Davy "roamed in the woods till he knew every tree," he never had time to notice any of this Slavery Business going on before some mendacious swindlers sold him a fraudulent "time share" down in Texas!

Randy is in a complicated situation. He is a Captain(Porter) in the Union occupational army in Reconstruction Texas. But, he is a Texan himself, although pro-Union during the war. Thus, he finds his duty to uphold what amounts to swindling of the Texans by carpetbaggers often distasteful. Along with newly arrived Cpt. Hodges, he is charged with rounding up the Westman gang of Texans, who have held up cotton wagon trains owned by the carpetbaggers Standish and Balfour, and are accused of the murder of an informant. Unfortunately, Randy and Cpt. Hodges are sometimes at odds in strategy in capturing the gang. Later, they come to blows over Hodges' romantic interest in Randy's wife, played by Phyllis Kirk. She is unhappy in their present situation, being ostracized by most of the Texans.

Balfour knifes the informant on the Westman gang in the back to regain the reward money just given him. Westman is blamed for this murder. The body was pinned with a note indicating this, but Randy doesn't believe it. Standish witnessed the murder, but is afraid to tell about it. Westman, when cornered, gives himself up to Randy on the promise that he will get a fair trial for the murder. But, orders are soon received by the army commander to hang Westman without a trial. Standish is kidnapped by the Westman gang and held for exchange of Westman. Randy tries to find a way to prove Westman is innocent of the murder and agrees to go to the gang's hideout as a civilian to talk to Standish. But, just as Standish is about to spill the beans on the real murderer, he is accidentally shot by Cpt. Hodges, who is trying to shoot Randy, as an army deserter. See the film to find out how Randy brings a happy conclusion to this mess.

This is pretty much a hard-driving drama, with few light moments, other than the stripping of the hated carpetbaggers by Westman's gang. Randy lacks the light-hearted sidekicks, budding romances and nightspot scenes that provided a better balance of duty and relaxation in the film "The Man Behind the Gun", released the same year. Nonetheless, it is a good historically plausible story and provides enough complexities to maintain the viewer's interest.

Since this film was made, our idea of the pervasiveness of carpetbagger corruption and opportunism has undergone a revision, recognizing that these have been overemphasized. Many carpetbaggers were ex-union soldiers, who remained in the South after discharge. A glaring anomaly I noticed was the lack of any African Americans or Mexicans in this community. Possible, but unexpected. I must say that Lex Barker, as Captain Hodges, showed a striking physical resemblance to a middle-aged John Travolta. For those used to seeing Fess Parker as Davy Crocket or Daniel Boone, it will be a novelty seeing him as a murdered member of the outlaw gang.