SYNOPSICS
Drango (1957) is a English movie. Hall Bartlett,Jules Bricken has directed this movie. Jeff Chandler,Joanne Dru,Julie London,Donald Crisp are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1957. Drango (1957) is considered one of the best Western movie in India and around the world.
Major Clint Drango of the U.S. Army and his aide, Capt. Marc Banning, ride into a burned-out Georgia town shortly after the end of the Civil War with orders to set up a military governorship. The townspeople are bitter over the earlier destruction of their crops, homes, schools and church by Sherman and Union troops but they do not know that Drango was a participant in that destruction. Renegade former Confederates under Clay Allen plan to undermine Drango's benign administration in hopes of restarting the war. The renegades commit a series of crimes and killings and Drango's honesty and character eventually win him some converts in the town.
Same Actors
Same Director
Drango (1957) Reviews
historical gem
This film reveals a lot about the reconstruction era in the U. S. after the Civil War. It is amazing to see this era explained without an agenda or politically correct spins that Americans are fed now. The post Civil War era in the South shows the hardships the people faced and how one honorable Yankee military governor attempts to handle it.
"I'm building here, not burning".
This film grabbed me right from the start with it's opening theme and stark but crisp black and white cinematography. There's something fascinating about the character of Major Clint Drango, intent on winning over the citizens of Kennesaw Pass one at a time. In part to right the wrongs of Sherman's Army and his own involvement in the War as well, Drango's challenge is to bring the murderers of Henry Calder to justice. In so doing, he must gain the confidence of the citizens that Reconstruction will proceed with an emphasis on the law for everyone, not for a single man or for the army that won the War. I found it interesting that Clay Allen (Ronald Howard) distrusted Drango because the Major was an honest man. There seems to be a corollary there that resonates with the current state of political correctness, but I digress. The ebb and flow of the story with characters slowly taking sides was my best takeaway from the film. It helped that there was a great cast of familiar character actors here from the genre, folks like Milburn Stone, Walter Sande, Parley Baer and the venerable Donald Crisp. Julie London and Joanne Dru are also effective in somewhat understated roles, even though important to the story. John Lupton probably deserved a larger presence as Drango's adjutant, but I guess that's how the saber rattles. Overall, an intriguing Western with an out of the ordinary theme that moves along at a nice pace. The traditional good guy ending is tested along the way by forces that pit the citizens of a small town against each other, much like the Civil War did to the country. As a microcosm of that larger conflict, "Drango" delivers it's message well.
Drango
Somber account of a Union soldier attempting to right the wrongs of war that left a community broken and sore, wrought with hate and anger towards "them dirty, rotten Yanks." The setting is Kinnesaw, Georgia, not long after the Civil War as malevolent feelings remain towards the North, with Major Clint Drango(Chandler)placed over the town, a type of military governing the citizens, but he desires for the people to start over, re-building their lives. This noble effort is constantly defeated by Clay Allen(Ronald Howard), Confederacy sympathizer and father to Kinnesaw Judge Allen(Donald Crisp), who wants "the South to rise again" and is secretly motivating his township to form a mob, thwarting everything good Drango wishes for them. The despicable lengths, such as burning a newspaper which kills the child of the father who runs it, and murdering Drango's fellow officer, and best friend, Captain Marc Banning(John Lupton)for which Clay will go prove that he will cause nothing but terrible repercussions to those he feels deserve to have won the war the Confederacy lost. Prices are paid for this mad goal, such as food rations stole, and in this the shooting of town physician, Doc Blair(Walter Sande), but no matter the obstacle he faces, Drango's will and resolve remains strong, as he continually runs up against it, this man simply wishes for the people of Kinnesaw to have a chance to begin again, without killing and death. Anchored by the strong central performance of Jeff Chandler(..who I'm not familiar with, which is a shame really), I really liked the thought-provoking script from Hall Bartlett, and while it does seem a bit one-sided at times, I think the themes of bringing divided groups together after a war left scars never to be fully healed and the attempt to reconcile with those you have hurt by helping the community start over are powerful enough. Really rock solid cast of no-names and the material is provocative enough, even if the ending is a bit too easy in it's resolution as Clay has the town in his grip and prepared to storm a Union base for supplies Kinnesaw needs, only to be impeded by the very man who has always loved him, realizing that his son has become a monster willing to lead people into a certain massacre. The "lynch mob" theme is again explored(..this material has a recurring use during this time)as Clay Allen is able to pull men together, exploiting their yearning for revenge, the deep-rooted, seething feelings of intense disgust for those who defeated them, killing their relatives, burning their crops, destroying their homes. What really adds a unique spin to this material is Drango's notorious past, how he led an army who actually caused the destruction across Georgia, how guilt and the sobering account of his part in a regrettable war have left him ashamed, fueling his goals to help those he caused such harm, lends a great deal to the film, I think. Chandler provides the anguish and regret, and it's etched clearly on his face throughout, and I think it's quite a performance deserved of praise. Joanne Dru is excellent as Kate Calder, a Kinnesaw citizen, opposed to the Civil War, whose father was lynched by Allen and others for his bold stance against the Confederacy. Dru becomes Drango's support system, at first bitter with him for how he talked her father out of leaving the town for the nearest fort. Julie London is Shelby Ransom, Clay's lover, knowing that he's responsible for the lynching and other devious activities in and around Kinnesaw, agreeing to seduce Banning for him. Crisp, Sande, Morris Ankrum(..as the lynched Henry Calder), and Twilight Zone veteran Barney Philips(..as the town reverend) head a strong cast putting faces and voices on those who all suffer for their eventual allegiance to Drango, understanding how he wishes to help, not destroy. I think the film effectively conveys the rift between both sides, how a war left those still alive wounded, and we are witness to the aftermath, with director Bartlett and Bricken choosing this specific location to speak about issues of that time. While maybe the ending is asking us to take a leap of faith that a people can put aside their feelings, embracing someone they find out had led the raid that positioned them for great misery and strife, hunger and suffering, believing that they can, in fact, overcome what ails them, I admire the filmmakers for the message they want to get across.
The director knew the far-west
The director and writer of this movie, Hall Bartlett knew the far-west because he made a documentary fiction about a Navajo Indian who was brought up in a white school (Navajo 1952). You can see that this movie looks more real than other westerns. Jeff Chandler as Major Drango is an officer who understands this villagers and he has self-reproach because he sacked the village during the civil war. He did it by order but anyway he wants to make it good. The officer of the confederation, Captain Marc Banning (John Lupton) is full of lust for revenge and at the end there will be the confrontation with his own father -the past- and with Major Drango who claims a peaceful future for the people who lost the war. After each war people have to try to live together again but all wounds cannot be healed in some months. This movie is a serious attempt to show the psychological difficulties in the reconstruction of a nation after a civil war.
A Conquered And Proud People
Jeff Chandler in the title role of Clint Drango has a disagreeable and difficult duty to perform as military governor of a small Georgia town that not even a year before he had ridden through with General Sherman's army. They did not leave much standing and when the town learns of his military record, Chandler's not left with much support for the difficult job he's trying to do. To bring peace to a conquered and proud people. The film starts with the lynching of northern sympathizer Morris Ankrum and his daughter Joanne Dru though she hates Chandler at first for not sending Ankrum to safety, she becomes his biggest supporter mainly because she has nowhere else to go. Behind the resistance is former Confederate officer Ronald Howard who never looked more like his father Leslie than in this film. He was certainly evocative of Ashley Wilkes another Georgia aristocrat. Donald Crisp is Howard's father here and Julie London is another southern aristocrat who Howard uses to gain information. Of course Ashley's attitude toward the conquering Yankees was light years different than than Ronald Howard's in Drango. Drango's not a bad western, but quite frankly the total absence of blacks from the film is puzzling. There are places in the south which did not have cotton plantations and hence no significant black population at the time of the Civil War. But looking at the mansions that Crisp and London have belies that notion for this section of Georgia. That absence makes Drango a decent, but very flawed picture.