Tonight's Movie: Kansas Raiders (1950) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Audie Murphy stars as Jesse James in KANSAS RAIDERS (1950). It's part of the brand-new three-film Audie Murphy Collection II from Kino Lorber.

In this Civil War era film, Jesse (Murphy) is riding the trail through Kansas with his brother Frank (Richard Long), the Younger brothers (James Best and Dewey Martin), and Kit Dalton (Tony Curtis).

Their homes in Missouri are gone, and as the men travel Jesse in particular is intrigued by tales he hears of renegade soldier Col. William Quantrill (Brian Donlevy). Jesse mistakenly thinks Quantrill and his "soldiers" only kill those who "have it coming," such as the men who killed Jesse's family.

After a group of Union sympathizers come close to lynching Jesse and his friends, interrupted only by the timely arrival of a captain (Richard Arlen), Jesse becomes determined to find Quantrill and join up with him.

The men do just that, only for Jesse to be quickly disillusioned by the bloodthirsty behavior of Quantrill and his men.

KANSAS RAIDERS is the rare Audie Murphy film I didn't care for, although it has a number of strong points. It's handsomely produced, with lovely Technicolor photography by Irving Glassberg; much of the film was shot in scenic Garner Valley, California.

That said, it's 80 minutes' worth of a sad, violent tale. It reminded me quite a bit of the later SEVEN ANGRY MEN (1955), about abolitionist John Brown, which was similarly dark. I simply don't find a succession of near-lynchings (or worse) or raids on innocent people by a crazy man and his gang enjoyable to watch.

Murphy does well portraying Jesse's initial innocence and then his growing conflict, much of which is spelled out in discussions with Quantrill's jaded mistress, Kate (Marguerite Chapman).

The rest of the cast is also fine, although Arlen's role is quite small and Scott Brady is completely wasted as Quantrill's righthand man. Richard Egan also has a "blink and you'll miss him" role as a soldier.

The problem isn't with the cast or production values, but simply the fact I didn't enjoy the story, scripted by Robert L. Richards and directed by Ray Enright. I'll add that I'm responding to this strictly as a film and am making no judgments as to how it compares with actual history.

Those who don't have trouble with this kind of story may find the film more enjoyable than I did, as it's nicely crafted.

Kino Lorber's print is a pleasure to watch. Extras consist of a commentary track by Henry Parke and C. Courtney Joyner; the trailer; and a gallery of four additional trailers.

I very much like the other two films in the set, SIERRA (1950) and DESTRY (1954), and thus recommend the set, even though I'm not enthused about this title. Incidentally, my review of DESTRY (1954), has been written and will be published in the near future in my Classic Movie Hub Western RoundUp column. (Update: Here's the link for my DESTRY review.)

Murphy fans will be happy to know that Kino Lorber's Audie Murphy Collection III has just been released; look for reviews of those films here in the future!

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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