Renegade Girl (1946)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Great Film overall

Absolutely Fantastic

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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.

Renegade Girl stars Ann Savage in this Lippert Production about a Belle Starr like outlaw who after some service with Quantrill's Raiders leads an outlaw band. The story is a rehashed version not of the real Belle Starr's story, but of the 20th Century Fox film that starred Gene Tierney and Randolph Scott. Elements of that plot are definitely present.For the tough leader of an outlaw band this woman has a lot of issues. She has a mission that tops all, to get Chief Thundercloud who is another renegade leader who has a grudge against her family the Shelbys. What the grudge is we're not told, but he's wiped out her whole family except for her.Ann's got Union Cavalry captain Alan Curtis and fellow outlaw Russell Wade panting after her, but her mission comes first.Renegade Girl is a poorly plotted and shoddily directed affair. Only the most confirmed B western addicts should be looking at this one.

"Deputy Marshal" director William Berke packs a great deal of narrative into this brief, 61-minute American Civil War epic. Basically, "Renegade Girl" concerns a woman's compulsion to kill at any cost the man who slaughtered her mother and father, burned their house, and killed her brother. There has got to be one of the most unusual duels toward the end when a group of outlaws draw their weapons and each other and manage to kill themselves. Jean Shelby is the protagonist and she goes through one change after another from the moment that we see her. Jean is the kind of girl who knows what she wants and refuses to deviate from her pursuit of true love. She is a kind of Mata Hara in Missouri during the war. "Renegade Girl" opens with a prologue. "Far from the main battle fronts, in the latter days of the Civil War, Missouri was torn by violent partisan and guerrilla warfare. So vicious and widespread was this conflict that it paved the way directly for the tremendous wave of outlawry which scourged the Border Region throughout the Reconstruction Days and for years thereafter. And one of the most ominous in the changes of events which this about began when a lone rider appeared on this lonely road on a late summer afternoon in 1864." A Union cavalry unit led by Sergeant James confronts a reluctant Jean Shelby (Ann Savage) and escorts her to Major Barker (Jack Holt) in Newton. While they are riding to headquarters, Major Barker is talking with Cherokee Chief White Cloud (Chief Thunder Cloud) about Bob Shelby. He pays the Indian $10 for the location of Bob Shelby. Shelby rides with Quantrill's infamous Southern guerrilla outfit. The Indian assures Barker that the wounded Shelby is hiding out at his parents' house. Barker orders Corporal Brown to take Shelby into custody. Afterward, Barker explains to Captain Fred Raymond (Alan Curtis) that Bob "is worth twice as much as any man except Quantrill himself." He adds, "When I get a hold of him, I'll break up a combination that makes Quantrill so successful." Barker points out that Bob and his sister Jean work together for Quantrill. Jean persuades people to talk and relays the information to Bob. They haven't been able to catch her doing it. White Cloud hates the Shelby family; it seems that his tribe banished him because he attempted to abduct Jean's mother. At headquarters, Jean discovers their plans to nab Bob. Jean manages to escape when she fools a guard into getting close enough to her so she can disarm him. She seizes Raymond's horse to take a shortcut home to warn her family about the approaching Union troops. She shows up in time to get Bob saddled up and narrowly elude the troopers. Poor Bob is so badly wounded that he cannot ride and he falls off his horse. Jean sets to get a wagon from Quantrill's camp. Meantime, White Cloud has escaped from the Union patrol at Jean's parents' house and he follows them. Although White Cloud kills Bob with a knife, we never see the blade strike him. While all this is happening, Jean gets the drop on Captain Fred Raymond. Afterward, he finds her brother's corpse. Quantrill and company show up not long afterward. Quantrill wants hang Fred because he has lost his 'right-hand man.' Jean shoves a six-shooter into Quantrill's kidney. She threatens to kill him if he hangs Captain Raymond. The truth is that Jean has been in love with the Union captain from the first time she saw him at headquarters. After Quantrill and his men ride away, Raymond accompanies Jean when she fetches Bob's body to take it home. Jean is surprised when she reaches her parents' house and find it under attack by White Cloud. Jean's mother and father are tied to the front gallery of the house. They're dead. Jean charges White Cloud with her six-gun blazing. White Cloud knocks her out of the saddle with a flying knife. Raymond entrusts Jean to the care of Dr. Manson and his daughter Mary and he goes off to fight the war and winds up in a prison camp. Many months pass and the Union has triumphed over the Confederacy. Jean recuperates in the Manson's house, and Jerry and Bob visit her. They have formed a new gang. Jean still nurses her obsession to kill White Cloud. Meanwhile, White Cloud has become the scourge of Missouri with his own depredations. Jean feels disillusioned since Fred has not contacted her. Her obsession with killing White Cloud prompts Jean to promise the man most responsible for his death with a trip to the altar. Eventually, the gang shoots it out. Everybody dies except Bob, until Jerry shoots Bob in the back.. While Jean gathered information for the new gang, she used the pseudonym Marie Carroll. Jean forces Jerry to ride off. She tells him that she doesn't love him. Wandering through the wilderness in a daze of guilt and confusion, Jean wears herself out and settles down to sleep for the night in the woods. Troopers come upon her and return to headquarters with her. Jerry has been discussing Jean with Raymond. He confirms that she masqueraded under the name of Marie Carroll. Fred is shocked to hear about Jean's new exploits. He explains that he was held in a prison camp and gave Jerry five letters to deliver to her. She never received any of the letters. Fred proposes to Jean, but she hasn't wavered in her goal of killing White Cloud. She attacks White Cloud's gang and kills him, but he suffers a fatal wound and dies in Captain Raymond's arms. "Renegade Girl" indicts revenge, and Jean dies knowing that she traveled the wrong road. The film's sympathetic treatment of Quantrill sets it apart from similar westerns where he was depicted as a fiend.

Okay, I know my summary is harsh, but it is direct and to the point. Even for a cheap B-western, "Renegade Girl" is a bad film—filled with clichés and atrocious writing…really atrocious.The film is set during the waning years of the Civil War. Like so many westerns made during the era, this one involves Quantrill's Raiders—a group of terrorists who fought for the South and who were even hated in the South by many since they pretty much ignored the rules of war at that time. In particular, they attacked Northern towns and targeted civilians. Yet, oddly, this film portrays them as the good guys! Now that's a first.The main focus, however, is not Quantrill but a very anachronistic and overly butch lady. Sporting a 1940s perm and acting like the clichéd western macho dame, she is all fire and emotion. And, she seems to switch her mind from one minute to the next. For example, she helps Quantrill and her brother (one of Quantrill's men)—yet soon after meeting a handsome Yankee officer, she completely abandons her cause and suddenly sees her compatriots as the bad guys! What a flake! Then, after she is injured by a nasty Native, she is saved by this Yankee. Yet, when he leaves her to be cared for, when she awakens she announces that she now HATES him!!! What is with this lady—is she off her medication?!?! Most of the rest of the film is pretty bad as well—filled with bad writing and confusing plot elements. In fact, I absolutely hated the film—and I normally like B-westerns and cut them a lot of slack (although they were cheap, they were usually very entertaining….unlike this film). Not worth your time. But if you are crazy enough to want to see it, this is a public domain film from tiny Robert Lippert Productions. You can follow the links on IMDb and download your own legal copy. Although why you would is beyond me now that you've been warned.