Renegade Girl (1946)

So much average

An Exercise In Nonsense

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Wearing a hairstyle that looks like it belonged on Carole Lombard in a 1930's screwball comedy, film noir actress Ann Savage finds herself way out of her element. The story's not bad, but her performance is lifeless and placid. She's a bad girl seeking revenge on Chief Thudercloud whose own tribe has disowned him for unnecessary violence and obsession with vengeance against Savage's family after he unsuccessfully tried to kidnap her mother. Now they are all dead and she's made a deal with the Confederate army to scout for them while searching for Thundercloud. Along the way, she finds love with a Yankee officer but her loyalties to the south prevent her from allowing that romance to blossom.This has a nice supporting cast of veteran actors, with Alan Curtis as the supposedly married Yankee as well as Edward Brophy and Jack Holt. But as hard as she tries, Savage is never convincing, especially being southern with a bleached blonde permanent wave. The film has a few suspenseful moments, but is often boring and ridiculous. They try hard to make savage sympathetic here, but often she comes off as rather mentally challenged, and obviously suffering from bipolar disorder long before that was diagnosed as a mental illness. Her melodramatic outbursts and sudden personality changes aren't even unintentionally funny. Even at 70 minutes, I just couldn't wait for this to be over.

Okay, the plot needs a Rosetta Stone to unravel, while affections and alliances shift faster than wind-blown hay and are about that well-motivated. Top that with action that never leaves LA's San Fernando Valley, plus acting prowess that sort of comes and goes, and we're left with what amounts to a cinematic morass. And oh yes, shouldn't forget how everyone insists on marriage before playtime. Isn't that just what you'd expect from these hardened outlaw types, (thanks production code censors). Still, I've got to say, for what it's worth, that the narrative often avoids cliché. That is, people die that you don't expect, a girl has the lead even if it is non-girlish Ann Savage, while neither the Yankees, Confederates, nor Quantrills, are romanticized. Thus, despite the many muddy moments, there are points of interest scattered throughout. So, it seems to me that with a stylish director, an unburdened screenwriter, a bigger budget, and at least a 90-minute runtime, there's a pretty good epic western lurking somewhere in the Lippert shambles.(In passing—thanks johnboy1221, you confirmed my suspicions about the disappearing knife: what a tacky omission. Also, I may be seeing things, but those well-scrubbed close-ups of Savage at times resemble an unsmiling Marilyn Monroe, of all people. See what you think.)

This is not really a western as much as it's a showcase for it's star, pretty Ann Savage, who does a credible job of acting.Unfortunately, she's the only real reason to watch this film.I knew this was a cheesy movie as soon as the renegade Indian threw his knife into her brother Bob's body, thereby killing him, and the knife just disappeared from sight. Jeez, a disappearing knife! Later, for whatever reason, the rebels start shooting one another, but the director shot the entire scene by focusing on their heads! Yeah, how weird is that? I guess that everyone died of fright, since no one obviously took a bullet. What kind of western is this, I thought? Even during the early days of westerns, the old programers showed people get shot or stabbed...and this film was made in 1946!!!! Then, our heroine stumbles into the woods, and faints under a tree....and stays there all night!!! What a renegade! The ending is just as truncated, and woundless, as the rest of the film....and extremely melodramatic. I was glad when it was over. I wasted a lot of my precious time watching this drivel. Don't you.

A Western with a semi-historical Civil War setting, "Renegade Girl" gets off to a fast start and has a good ending, although in between it slows down quite a bit. It has an interesting story and leading character.Ann Savage stars as Jean Shelby, a Confederate sympathizer in Missouri late in the Civil War. She and her family have been helping provide information to Quantrill's raiders, so the Union Army is trying to find the Shelbys, assisted by an outcast Indian who has his own grudge against the family. Things get complicated when Jean and Union Captain Fred Raymond fall in love with each other, raising difficult questions about their loyalties and futures.The film gets off to a pretty good start, with a lot of action that is mostly plausible, especially given the complex historical situation. It slows down then for quite a while, and starts to drag a bit. But it picks up towards the end, and the final sequence is pretty good, and not predictable. Savage does rather well in the lead, making her character mostly believable. Most of the other characters are routine (especially the Indians, portrayed in a very unfavorable light), aside from Edward Brophy as a gregarious member of Quantrill's gang.There's nothing spectacular here, but it's a decent film and should be worth watching either for fans of old Westerns or for those interested in movies about the Civil War era.