Kansas Raiders (1950)

Kansas Raiders is a 1950 Universal-International western starring Audie Murphy and a very interesting western it is too.

Murphy plays a very young Jesse James. Now you have to remember that this is a Hollywood movie so it has zero interest in historical accuracy. Don’t assume that it’s going to follow the real-life story of Jesse James in any way, shape or form. That’s a particularly important point to bear in mind with this movie since any assumptions you may make about James as either a hero or a villain will lead you astray.

It is 1863, the middle of the Civil War. The movie opens out west, with a group of young men heading for the headquarters of the famous (or infamous) guerrilla leader Quantrill (Brian Donlevy). They want to join up. Quantrill’s admirers see him as a brave and bold warrior for the Confederacy. His detractors regard him as the leader of a gang of thieves and murderers.

Jesse James as we see him in the early part of this movie is a very likeable very pleasant young man. The sort of young man we expect to see as the hero in a western. He rescues a young lady when her horses bolt and both she and her cart seem headed for disaster. He’s the kind of young guy who saves the lives of ladies in peril.

And then suddenly we get a glimpse of a darker side to him. It’s a scene that has been repeated in countless westerns and adventure films. The hero has to fight a duel, in this case a fight to the death with knives, with a man who has tried to bully and insult him. We know what will happen. The hero will win, the bad guy will be disarmed and lying helpless waiting for the killing blow, and of course the hero will let him live because heroes do not kill helpless unarmed men. But in this case Jesse unhesitatingly delivers the killing blow. It’s a shocking moment of ruthless violence that you just don’t see in Hollywood movies in 1950. This is clearly going to be an unusual western.

There is more brutal violence to come. There are several scenes in which unarmed men who have surrendered are ruthlessly gunned down.

Jesse is appointed an officer in Quantrill’s guerrilla army. Jesse’s admiration for Quantrill knows no bounds. Then disillusionment starts to set in. Quantrill’s guerrilla army really is nothing more than a band of cut-throats and murderers. This is indicative of the overall mood of cynicism in this movie. There’s a Union guerrilla army, known as the Red Legs, operating in the same territory. They are also cut-throats and murderers. In fact Jesse has first-hand experience of the Red Legs. They slaughtered most of his family a few weeks earlier. Jesse is obsessed by thoughts of revenge. He is twisted up inside by hate. But he is at the same time fundamentally decent. He is a very conflicted young man. There’s some nice moral ambiguity in this movie.

There’s a definite cynicism towards war in this movie. Those who lead men to war talk of glory and honour but in practice war is nothing more than butchery. This is a dark grim violent movie.

This movie sets itself a difficult problem from the outset but it’s the way it tackles that problem that makes it such a fascinating movie. The focus is on young Jesse James and his brother Frank and their three buddies who would later go on to be the core of the James Gang. Jesse is very much the protagonist. We have to be able to relate to him. These young man have to be presented in a reasonably sympathetic light but they would go on to violent criminal careers and the movie itself focuses on their activities as party of a notorious band of thieves and murderers. The solution adopted was to portray them as innocents misled into wrongdoing by the charismatic evil Quantrill. And in particular Jesse is portrayed as being totally under the spell of Quantrill - he has a romantic notion of Quantrill as a brave fighter for freedom.

Of course as the truth about Quantrill becomes increasingly obvious Jesse becomes more and more conflicted and tortured. Jesse just cannot accept that he has become complicit in evil. This makes it a complex demanding part for Audie Murphy. Is Jesse a tragic hero or a tragic villain? He’s a bit of both. Murphy does a fine job. We might be exasperated by Jesse but at the same time we admire his loyalty to Quantrill, even if it’s tragically misguided loyalty.

Quantrill is evil, but he is also deluded. He seems to really believe that he is going to be the saviour of the South. It’s possible that at one time he really was a hero but he has spiralled downwards into self-delusion and fantasy.

A romance angle has been added. The woman (Kate, played by Marguerite Chapman) Jesse rescued at the start of the film turns up again at Quantrill’s headquarters. The movie has to be rather coy about her status. She is clearly Quantrill’s woman but that cannot be made too obvious.

The ending is really interesting and very effective.

Kansas Raiders is an exceptionally interesting western and it’s highly recommended.

The Kino Lorber Blu-Ray transfer looks superb.