Classic, Classic, Classic! Yeah, you can complain about being a bit slow nearly 50 years later, but what movie from that time wasn't. This movie is loosely based on Hampton's and General Rosser's Cattle Raid. Not filmed in Virginia, but I am from near Richmond and played as a child on some of the land the actual raid crossed over and it has the same feel. Holden and Widmark both hit home runs, hard to tell which is better. Widmark has the southern Virginia accent down pat, he sounds like a couple of my uncles which were about his age. The score and the cinematography just add to the ambiance. There are some slight imperfections with the script, but the strengths of this film tower over it's shortcomings.

This is a true story of the civil war. It is said that when Gen. Grant found out what had happened to the cattle, the words that he uttered could not be repeated orally. I could just imagine what the good general would have said if he saw this mess of a film.Bill Holden is Kelly. The North and the South both want his sheep to feed people during the civil war. The south, led by Gen. Richard Widmark, in a totally phony southern accent, go as far to kidnap Kelly. Widmark shoots off a finger and threatens a finger a day until Kelly complies.The shocking thing is this awful picture is that by the end of it, Kelly plays along with the south. Widmark is willing to forget that Kelly has allowed his girl friend, (Janice Rule) to flee from Richmond.This film is uneven at best. There are far too many questions to ask, but why bother since it's a real clinker anyway.

1st watched 5/5/2007 - 3 out of 10(Dir-Edward Dmytryk): Un-exciting cattle battle between the confederate's and the yanks with the leader of the herd, Alvarez Kelly(played by William Holden), running it like a Vietnam anti-hero -- only going to the side that gives him the most money. This movie starts with the corniest theme song that I've heard in awhile which pretty much tells the story before the movie even begins. A swashbuckling cattle-mover who loves the ladies?? Come on, even the star power of Holden and Richard Widmark can't rescue this supposed true(and boring) event from the civil war. Kelly thinks he's done with his job as he delivers the herd early in the movie but the army has a different idea and wants him to redirect them to Richmond, Virginia where the meat is needed the most. He gets them there only to be smuggled to the other side by a confederate-loving landowner. Then, Kelly is hired(or bribed) to get them to their final destination for the southern side. He'd rather just go home, have a hot bath, and drink some bourbon with a beautiful woman by his side but he's kind of stuck in a predicament that has to be completed. So, we get to watch the job getting done. Oh boy -- unless you really love cattle -- this is definitely not a fun experience or if you really have to see everything William Holden is in, but otherwise stay away from this yawner.

This is a peculiar western turned American Civil War film. William Holden is Alverez Kelly, a citizen of Mexico of Irish ancestry, and a gentleman cattle herd leader. He has, we learn, had involvement with the U.S. before 1861 - 64. His father, the owner of a large estate in Mexico, was killed in the "Mexican War" (Holden says it has a different name in Mexico) by American troops, some of whom are now Confederates. But he is totally uninterested in the results of the war: he is a foreign citizen intent to sell cattle to the best payer. This means, however, that he has to deal with the Union more than the South (at one point he is asked if he doubts the value of Confederate currency, and starts telling the Confederate Secretary of War what one could do now with Confederate currency). It is Holden's fortune that he gets a Union Army contract for 4500 steers that it takes him three months to bring up from Mexico. Unfortunately he is met by Major Steadmen (Patrick O'Neill) at the point where Holden felt he was supposed to deliver. Steadman is one of the most obnoxious men one can mingle with. A citizen of Boston, he was a lawyer before the war. He prides himself on being able to manipulate people by his brains (an example I will give in a moment). He drew up the contract, and in very fine print (he does apologize for it's tiny size), he had a clause added that the commanding General in the area that needs the meat can insist it be delivered there before payment. That is General Grant: the cattle have to be brought to Richmond.Holden has no choice, but he will be paid. Unfortunately this leads to a 1,400 mile railway trip from Texas through the Midwest to Maryland and into Virginia - accompanied by Steadman. Earlier we saw Steadman as a stiff type - he had to wait an additional ten days for Kelly to appear at the point Kelly thought was delivery point, and does not like being kept waiting (even though the army would have been footing his bill in the border town). But on the ride he tells Kelly his "war stories" about being a lawyer in Massachusetts. The one we hear the great tail end of is about how he trumped a judge on a legal point in a case by use of a writ of certiorari (this legal document demands to know from the judge what is the statutory power the judge is using that is the grounds for his decision). I'm sure that most people would love to hear this type of story....I'd love to know who the Masssachusetts Judge was. Hopefully, for Steadman's career sake, it was not Lemuel Shaw, the Chief Justice of the Commonwealth, a man of formidable mind and presence. He looks it from his photos. He was also the father-in-law of a one time sailor and writer, later a customs house man named Herman Melville. Shaw, had he been embarrassed by some idiotic glory seeking lawyer would have swallowed and remembered the idiot. And the idiot would have paid in the long-run throughout Massachusetts' court system.The cattle are delivered at a plantation now in Union hands outside Richmond. But after Kelly is paid, he becomes a target of southerners led by Colonel Tom Rossiter (Richard Widmark). Rossiter sees all that wonderful meat nearby and wants it for the folks in Richmond and for Lee's forces. So he kidnaps Kelly (with the help of the plantation owner Charity Warwick (Victoria Shaw)), and Kelly soon is in Richmond being offered a chance to do the Confederacy a small aid by stealing the herd back. Rossiter is no sweet guy, but a genuine patriot who has already sacrificed an eye for the Confederacy.* He uses methods as vile in their way as Steadman's (including intentional minor maiming) to force Kelly to help him. The interest in the film really centers on the mental warfare between Rossiter and Kelly, as each tries to see how far they can force the other back on track or off track. For Kelly sees that Rossiter's plan is a desperate last chance - and a long shot that he has no real concern about.(*There actually was a noted Confederate Cavalry leader, General Thomas Rosser, who survived the war in tact and ended his career as an engineer on U.S. and Canadian railways. His last military action was in 1876 - he heard his pal George Custer (army differences forgiven) was killed at Little Big Horn. Rosser took leave from his job to join the U.S. forces seeking Crazy Horse's army)The film is well acted and plotted actually - far better than other mad last gasp Confederate tales are (witness VIRGINIA CITY). Kelly finds a way to avenge his maiming through an act of kindness to Elizabeth Pickering (Janice Rule) Rossiter's fiancé. But in the end he is the one who wins - by getting the cattle to the right place, and finding out his own finer senses.Also note the performances of two favorite character actors from television (usually), Howard Caine and Roger C. Carmel. Caine (best recalled as the nasty S.S. Major Hochstadter on HOGAN'S HEROS) is a northern spy who gets most of the cards in his hands, and deals the wrong answer out. Carmel (best recalled for his role as Kay Ballard's husband on THE MOTHERS - IN - LAW, or as Harry Mudd on STAR TREK) is Captain Fergusson, a clever Scotish Blockade Runner (for profit of course - like Rhett Butler was too). Both help enliven an above average adventure flick.