Directed by Andre de Toth, who was well-known for his work on the timeless classic House of Wax, and various Noir and Western classics, Springfield Rifle is a feature that stars screen icon Gary Cooper and takes place during the Civil War. But it’s more than just your average Western as the well-renowned directed has added a crime espionage ingredient to his film.

In Springfield Rifle Gary Cooper(Cloak and Dagger, Mr. Deeds Comes to Town, Meet John Doe) stars as  Union officer Major Alex Kearney who is court-martialled only to serve as an undercover agent during the Civil War. The whole court-martial procedure was a swerve for him to be a spy! His task is to find out who is stealing army horses and selling them to the South before they can seize a delivery of the new Springfield Rifle, which of course he does! But this leads to more twists and turns with more acts of betrayal among the Union!

To me, this movie, while not the greatest work Gary Cooper has ever done, is still an underrated classic. The cast includes horror icon Lon Chaney, Jr. (The Wolf Man, The Alligator People, The Indestructible Man) and screen legend David Brian (Intruder in the Dust, The Damned Don’t Cry) as pair of ruthless bad guys! Alan Hale, Jr., (The Crawling Hand, Destry, The Giant Spider Invasion) whose acting career lasted for over fifty years and is mostly known for being the skipper from Gilligan’s Island has a small role in this feature.

The soundtrack for this film is by none other than the iconic composer Max Steiner, the man behind King Kong, Gone with the Wind, Jezebel, Casablanca and many other classics!

Springfield Rifle arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of the Warner Archive collection in 1080p with a new 2025 4K scan of the original camera negative. This movie was shot in Warnercolor (as opposed to Technicolor) and is presented in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio. To me the video quality is top-notch, which tends to be the case with Warner Archive Collection releases. The colors to the indoor and outdoor scenery along with the outfits the actors wear are rich and bold. Outdoor shots look especially great with bright cheerful blue skies and various landscapes.  The cinematography is from Edwin B. DuPar and this Blu-ray amphiphiles his outstanding camerawork, capturing many gorgeous scenes of the terrain. The color palette tends to be in the warmer side from what I have observed. Evening scenes also look excellent with a lot of shadow detail.

For their Blu-ray the audio is an English DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono soundtrack, which sounds great with clear, easy to follow dialogue. The action sounds and Max Steiner’s musical scores also come in perfectly fine.  If anything had the strongest fidelity, it was the music from Max Steiner, but it isn’t overpowering. The audio does sound perfectly balanced without hissing, crackling.  There was one scene where the audio had a slight drop for some reason, but otherwise this sound quality is balance just about all the way through. English SDH subtitles are available.

Special Features for this release include a pair of classic cartoons in Feed the Kitty and Rabbits Kin, plus Joe McDoakes Short, So You Want to Enjoy Life. In this ten-minutes short Joe believes he has a month to live and makes the most of it.

There is also an original theatrical trailer to round out the extras.

Springfield Rifle is another superb release by Warner Archive and can recommend this Blu-ray! I bought it as a blind purchase and enjoyed it, and urge others who haven’t seen it to give this movie a spin too!

Springfield Rifle

Director – Andre de Toth 

Cast- Gary Cooper, Phyllis Thaxter

Country of Origin-USA

Distributor – Warner Archive/ Warner Home Video

Number of Discs –1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date-5/4/2025