Die Gnadenlosen (1971)

Die Gnadenlosen: Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. With James Stewart, George Kennedy, Anne Baxter, Strother Martin. In 1935, after forty years in a West Virginia prison, three released convicts wish to open a legitimate business using the $25,000 earned in prison, but a crooked prison guard in cahoots with the town banker plans to defraud them.

“After doing about four or five straight westerns, James Stewart obviously wanted a change of pace, so he starred in this Depression era film about a man just released from prison and ready to cash a check for $25,000.00. This is the equivalent of 40 years of working in the prison mines as convict labor and apparently never buying anything in the prison commissary. Which is the part I find hard to believe.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow possibly had this story been set in 1925 in the boom times of the Roaring Twenties, Stewart might have had different ambitions. But he and friends Strother Martin and Kurt Russell just want to open up a general store in some small town and live quietly.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut this is the Thirties a decade of hard times and bank failures. Local banker David Huddleston canu0026#39;t afford to cash Stewartu0026#39;s check or the bank in which heu0026#39;s been dipping in the till will go belly up with his name on the failure. So he goes to whom he usually goes to bail him out of these situations; prison guard George Kennedy and henchmen Mike Kellin and Morgan Paull.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe story is far fetched but Andrew McLaglen put together a really good cast and the film definitely had some colorful characters. Anne Baxter plays the painted prostitute of the river who has a boat for assignations and a young girl played by Katherine Cannon for those who donu0026#39;t like the older model. Her lifeu0026#39;s ambition is to get into the Daughters of the American Revolution because as she puts she and her family have been serving our country by servicing our soldieru0026#39;s needs since 1776. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGeorge Kennedyu0026#39;s part is also a gem. Heu0026#39;s a Sunday school teacher as well as a prison guard and contract killer for hire. We havenu0026#39;t seen a religious hypocrite like him since Robert Mitchum as Reverend Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter. Then again thatu0026#39;s no accident since Davis Grubb wrote the novels on which both films are based. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRobert Donner has a key role in the film as the train conductor with a conscience. I canu0026#39;t say more, but the manu0026#39;s conscience is what brings about a righting of all wrongs.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBest scene in the film is James Stewart getting the drop on Morgan Paull during the first confrontation. Paull is a would be country singer who does a little killing on the side, but only if theyu0026#39;re atheists. And of course itu0026#39;s Kennedy and Kellin who point out the atheists to do in.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eKennedy is also carrying around one ton of homosexual repression. Note that in his scenes with Paull and with Kurt Russell as he declaims loud and long about how he doesnu0026#39;t like boys. He likes them too well when his religion tells him thatu0026#39;s a big no-no.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI remember back in my working days at NYS Crime Victims Board I did a claim for a homicide victim who was a 67 year old letter carrier for U.S. Post Office. He was a man described by the police as someone who just worked all his adult life for the Post Office, never married and raised a family, never took a vacation, just worked and saved. He managed to accumulate over $350,000.00 in his life and the estate was going to go to our claimant who was his 88 year old mother. Sad when you think of it, but letter carriers are a bit better paid than convict labor even granting the differing values of the dollar in those eras. Itu0026#39;s why I canu0026#39;t grasp how Stewart saved all that money.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDespite my inability to suspend disbelief Foolsu0026#39; Parade is a colorful film with some fine acting in it and a must for fans of James Stewart like myself.”