From my favorite movies..

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I've long thought this is one of John Wayne's most suspenseful and overall entertaining films. The story is so well acted and believable that you're actually there. It's easy to see why he is so legendary - he had an on-screen/off-screen presence and ability like few others.Claire Trevor is also very dynamic here. She's funny, witty, has impeccable timing and is perfectly cast. She brings incredible energy and top-tier talent.How often can you say you enjoyed every minute of a movie? Far and away, this is a perfect example. Its all around terrific, underrated, and the epitome of a memorable, enjoyable film. I only wish it were longer and available in HD! Warner Brothers - can you deliver for a loyal fan?Enjoy!

A pre-Revolutionary War frontier movie, when central Pennsylvania was still the frontier; this is a wonderful JOHN WAYNE adventure movie. The main problem is that lovely Claire Trevor wants John Wayne, but Wayne might just as soon keep his freedom. Problem #2 is that bad guys led by Brian Donlevy are into selling liquor and booze to the Indians while the Indians are at war with the settlers.If you have a choice, see this movie colorized. RKO ought to have made it in color to begin with, but color films were few in 1939. The color is excellent. It enhances the Pennsylvania countryside, the British redcoats, etc. Not all colorizing is great, but this is A+.Most films made in 2006 and 2007 will have a commercial life of maybe 6 to 9 months; to be forgotten forever. Nobody will be searching in 50 years for any of the junk in today's multiplex. Allegheny Uprising is just one of many films made in 1939 that have endured for 68 years. Released, re-released, re-released again. Then shown on TV, sold on VHS, on DVD. Quality endures, junk dies fast.

John Wayne had been making low budget movies for almost 15 years when he starred with Claire Trevor in the William Seiter directed "Allegheny Uprising". He must have felt his career was going backwards as the production values here are second rate even by the marginal standards of his earlier films. Cast before the release of "Stagecoach", he and Trevor were given a more central role in "Allegheny Uprising" as it is not an ensemble piece like "Stagecoach". The new popularity of the two B-Movie actors required P. J. Wolfson to alter his adaptation of Neil Swanson's novel "The First Rebel". In place of his straight historical fiction action- adventure tale (based on the Smith's Rebellion and Fort Loudoun in southern Pennsylvania) Wolfson was forced to add a romance and pad Trevor's role. Unfortunately adapting a novel to the screen is difficult enough without having to insert a character utterly irrelevant to a story already too expansive for easy adaptation. Contemporary viewers will find the forced insertion of Trevor into most of the scenes rather puzzling, at least in part because she has little going for herself as an actress or a screen presence. The younger John Wayne was much better when paired with talented leading ladies like Ella Raines and Cecilia Parker. Set in Pennsylvania's Conococheague Valley in 1759, Wayne plays title character James Smith who returns to the valley with a friend called The Professor (John Frank Hamilton). They find the local British commander (George Sanders) a martinet and a local civilian (Brian Donley) trading contraband goods (whiskey and weapons) with the Indians, in league with some corrupt soldiers. Trevor plays Janie MacDougall, a loud tomboy who loves Smith and manages to insert herself into his affairs at every turn. 1939 was not a good time for a movie which portrayed our soon to be allies (insert the British here) as stupid and corrupt. And southern California was not a good location for shooting a film about colonial America. There are far too many shots of grassy, almost treeless, California valleys to maintain the necessary geographical illusion. Also jarring is the contemporary dialogue which leaves you expecting Mickey Rooney and Lewis Stone to pull up outside the fort in the family sedan. When not painful, the inattention to period detail is unintentionally amusing. My favorite scene involves the British soldiers laughing at the idea of the settlers taking over the fort. It will remind you of the "Robin Huck" episode of "Huckleberry Hound" where he exhorts his merry men to "yuk it up a bit" and they respond by going "yuk, yuk, yuk". All in all, a weak example of the B-movie product. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

This is a decently made RKO western, made a few years before the genre became truly great (1946 - 1962), though released the same year as the first classic of the genre ("Stagecoach"). Despite some heavy-handed romantic-comedy moments, the movie moves like one of its galloping horses - at one point, Wayne is wrongly accused of murder, is put in gaol, quells an outside mob riot from inside his cell, stands trial, and is freed all within 7 minutes !