Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

zardoz-13 "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.

Dalbert Pringle Yeah. I know this sounds terribly sexist, but when it comes to Westerns - "The Law Of The West" should strictly forbid them from being reduced to a trifling, little "Chick Flick".I'm a guy who likes my Westerns rugged, mean, and masculine, with very little interference from women in the story at all.Sure Chick Flicks are fine when it comes to any other genre of film, but definitely not allowed in a Western.Ann Savage unconvincingly plays Jean Shelby. This highly-jealous, easily brought to tears woman is (get this) the leader of a tough, all-male band of Confederate raiders. Being so emotionally unstable, Jean's reliability as a leader of these men is seriously brought into question when she secretly turns traitor and falls for a Union soldier, pretty-boy who's actually been stalking her.Yep. Renegade Girl is a dud.Like I said before - Westerns should be forbidden to be made into Chick Flicks!

Johnboy1221 This is not really a western as much as it's a showcase for it's star, pretty Ann Savage, who does a credible job of acting.Unfortunately, she's the only real reason to watch this film.I knew this was a cheesy movie as soon as the renegade Indian threw his knife into her brother Bob's body, thereby killing him, and the knife just disappeared from sight. Jeez, a disappearing knife! Later, for whatever reason, the rebels start shooting one another, but the director shot the entire scene by focusing on their heads! Yeah, how weird is that? I guess that everyone died of fright, since no one obviously took a bullet. What kind of western is this, I thought? Even during the early days of westerns, the old programers showed people get shot or stabbed...and this film was made in 1946!!!! Then, our heroine stumbles into the woods, and faints under a tree....and stays there all night!!! What a renegade! The ending is just as truncated, and woundless, as the rest of the film....and extremely melodramatic. I was glad when it was over. I wasted a lot of my precious time watching this drivel. Don't you.

bsmith5552 "Renegade Girl" was an early effort from the Lippert Company directed by veteran William A. Berke. It contains plenty of action and has many sexual innuendos, risky for the time and for a "B" western.Jean Shelby (Ann Savage) is using her charms to aid the south during the Civil War. The Yankees are seeking her brother Bob (James Martin) who is a Rebel officer. Major Barker (Jack Holt) questions Jean and renegade Chief White Cloud (Chief Thundercloud) and sends out a patrol to find her brother. Jean meets Captain Fred Raymond (Alan Curtis and is attracted to him.Jean manages to get Bob away from the family ranch. On her way to the camp of William Quantrill (Ray Corrigan), Bob becomes weak and Jean is forced to leave him on the roadside while she goes for help. Meanwhile White Cloud murders Bob Shelby. White Cloud and his band then raid the Shelby ranch and murder Jean's parents. She vows revenge. She also manages to save Raymond from Quantrill's gang along the way.Jean is shot by White Cloud and taken to Dr. Manson's (Forrest Taylor) home where she is cared for by his daughter Mary (Claudia Drake). In the meantime Capt. Raymond has been imprisoned by the rebels and jean thinks that he has abandoned her. After she recovers and after the war, she joins up with the remnants of Quantrill's gang and takes on the identity of Marie Carroll and rides with them on various raids. She joins on the condition that the gang make White Cloud their number one priority. she also promises to "marry" the one who leads her to the Indian.Raymond is released from prison and returns to find that Jean has gone. We learn that the most amorous of the outlaws, Jerry Long (Russell Wade) a rebel, had withheld letters from Raymond to Jean for his own gain. Anyway Jean finally tracks down White Cloud and..............This little opus is blessed with a cast of recognizable veteran players. In addition to those already mentioned, Edward Brophy, Dick Curtis, Ernie Adams, and Harry Cording play various raiders and John "Dusty" King, Edmund Cobb and Kermit Maynard appear as Union soldiers.Ann Savage had a brief career in the 40s and fifties as a sort of poverty row femme fatale. "Detour" (1945) immediately comes to mind. She plays a femme fatale in this film as well and although the sexual suggestions are subdued due to censorship, there is little doubt left as to how she gets her way and survives among the gang.Ray "Crash" Corrigan and John "Dusty" King had been two thirds of Monogram's "Range Busters" in the early 40s. For King, this was his final film. Corrogan's career was virtually over at this point too, although he continued to appear in relatively minor roles for the next ten years or so.Ambitious little western film Noire.