Posts from ethanedwards in thread „Allegheny Uprising (1939)“

More great photos, thanks

Quote from BatjacAuburn

Was Claire Trevor a beautiful woman or what.... others may have been more glamorous or well known (and I love Maureen O'hara) but if I had been born 50 years earlier I would have had a Claire Trevor poster instead of a Farrah Fawcett poster on my wall as a teenager.

I couldn't agree more
Pals Of The Saddle- Claire Trevor

Great pics

Hi,
I have been researching all the threads, back to the start of the JWMB,
looking for previous discussion, relating to the movies.
I have found the following, comments, and have copied them here,
so that they are now under one forum:-

Allegheny Uprising, Two different Versions

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itdo
post Sep 14 2004, 07:11 AM

Interesting to compare the original American version of ALLEGHENY UPRISING and the British version THE FIRST REBEL.

I bought The First Rebel on tape in England and found that there is still footage missing.
It was released only two days after Britain entered WWII (BAAAD Timing!) and therefore the anti-British mood didn't help much,
so they pulled it after only a short run and released it again later, under The First Rebel,
a version which doesn't have most of the scenes showing the unfriendly British officer
(including even the very first scene of the film which also introduces the Wayne character).
The British version is about 5 minutes short I guess.
Changing the title, they also had to change the beautiful American titles of a rider holding a latern to the main titles.

I wonder now, maybe our British members know,
do they still show the cut version on your TV?

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arthurarnell
post Sep 14 2004, 07:47 AM

Hi Roland

I can't remember the last time The First Rebel was shown on British Television unless I missed it.

But I got my copy of the tape out its a Cinema Club Edition (1989) Length 71 minutes,
so working on the time I have in a list of John Wayne films I would say its about ten minutes light.

The opening credits show a lantern lighting up the board but not a rider, and the opening scene shows
John Wayne Wilfred Lawson and John F Hamilton walking down the road towards

Callenders camp and discovering the barrels of rum.

One thing I had forgotten about the film was the very gentle and British type music for the opening credits very
Last of the Mohicans type of theme.

And one thing I have never understood was the casting of Wilfred Lawson as McDougal.
If he is playing a drunken lush (as he was in real life) then I suppose its perfect but I think he spent the entire picture taking the mick.

Regards
Arthur

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itdo
post Sep 16 2004, 09:02 AM

So in Britain it's probably still the cut version on TV, as well as on tape.
The biggest cut they made is the beginning of the film! In the American version, it starts with a prisoner exchange - and Wayne's one of these prisoners. You'll never learn about that in the British version - which is, after all, the explanation to Claire Trevor why he was away all the time!
(The OWI during war time forbade the showing of prisoner exchanges in films anyway, so that's a scene that would have been rewritten would the same film have been made after the US entered the war)

Ford's "Drums Along the Mohawk" with a similar theme was made in the same year, but producer Darryl F. Zanuck was smarter than RKO with the Wayne-picture: He demanded with one of his famous memos to "keep British out" of all scenes that would show them as cruel.

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Robbie
post Sep 16 2004, 11:35 AM

Interesting to hear that 'The First Rebel' has been edited for British viewers in the version that I have the Brits
don't come across very bad some I presume that is to has been edited.

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itdo
post Sep 16 2004, 12:00 PM

The First Rebel IS the edited version, Robbie.
Only under the title Allegheny Uprising do you have the unedited version.
This is, however, not the usual cut version thing where a film got butchered for some foggy reasons but should be looked at from the historical standpoint: to compare just WHICH scenes had to go to give Allegheny Uprising a second run in British Cinema during the war - under the title The First Rebel - is interesting. They even went back and filmed the main titles again, something you don't

Allegheny Uprising is a 1939 film produced by RKO Pictures,
starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne as pioneers of early American expansion
in south central Pennsylvania.
Clad in buckskin and a coonskin cap (as he would be a decade later in The Fighting Kentuckian),
Wayne plays real-life James Smith, an American coping with British rule in colonial America.
The film is loosely based on a historical event known as the Black Boys Rebellion of 1765,
after the conclusion of the French and Indian War.

The film did not fare well in its initial release.
The superficially similar John Ford film Drums Along the Mohawk had been released only one week prior.
Retitled The First Rebel for the United Kingdom,
it was banned by the Ministry of Information for placing the British,
already at war against Nazi Germany, in a bad light.

The supporting cast includes Brian Donlevy, George Sanders, and Chill Wills,
and the movie was written by P. J. Wolfson from the 1937 novel
The First Rebel by Neil H. Swanson and directed by William A. Seiter.
Claire Trevor and John Wayne also headed the cast of John Ford's Stagecoach the same year,
and in Allegheny Uprising
Trevor is top-billed over Wayne,
due to her greater name value at the time.

First review I've done, where I'm not sure which sub-forum, to place it!!
We discussed, this amongst others, as whether, it's a miscellaneous, western, or even a war movie?
I am going to decide, it's a western, as in the days of the film, this is as far ,that the west had got.
However, it will at least, give us something to discuss!!
Where would you place it?

I really enjoy this film, and is a favourite.
I thought, Duke acted well, and looked at ease with the part.
RKO keen to cash in, on the success of Stagecoach
cast Duke with Claire Trevor, who at that time was the bigger name.
The chemistry, between them, was probably as good as it was with Maureen,
and like Maureen, Claire and Duke, were to remain, life long friends.

I am also a great admirer of Wilfrid Lawson, who was also in The Long Voyage Home
I have always, liked his style, his humour, and most of all his voice.
George Saunders, as the foppish, Englishman,
(DUKE, disliked, him,he had to be restrained, from thumping him!!)
Brian Donlevy, as the baddie, and Chill Willis, acquitted themselves well.
I though it was a great story line, although it did portray us Brits in a somewhat
bombastic way(we're not like that, I must say!!!)
I thought it, an enjoyable film.
RKO, hoped the Stagecoach combination would work, it didn't!!
However, it did work, later in
Dark Command

User Review

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Fast Paced Western
8 March 2003 | by (maughancannes) (Durham, England)

This is a decently made RKO western, made a few years before the genre became truly great (1946 - 1962), though released the same year as the first classic of the genre ("Stagecoach"). Despite some heavy-handed romantic-comedy moments, the movie moves like one of its galloping horses - at one point, Wayne is wrongly accused of murder, is put in gaol, quells an outside mob riot from inside his cell, stands trial, and is freed all within 7 minutes !

INFORMATION FROM IMDb

Plot Summary
In British colonial America, Captain Swanson's adherence to the rules
results in Trader Callendar's selling to the Indians under cover of a government permit.
Jim Smith won't sit still for that. He organizes troopers to dress up as Indians
and intercept the shipments which, of course, gets him thrown in jail.
Summary written by Ed Stephan

Full Cast
Claire Trevor .... Janie MacDougall
John Wayne .... James Smith
George Sanders .... Capt. Swanson
Brian Donlevy .... Trader Ralph Callendar
Wilfrid Lawson .... 'Mac' MacDougall
Robert Barrat .... Magistrate Duncan
John F. Hamilton .... The Professor
Moroni Olsen .... Tom Calhoon
Eddie Quillan .... Will Anderson
Chill Wills .... John M'Cammon
Ian Wolfe .... Mr. Poole
Wallis Clark .... Sgt. McGlashan
Monte Montague .... Magistrate Morris
Olaf Hytten .... Gen. Gage
Eddy Waller .... Jailer in Carlisle
Clay Clement .... Gov. John Penn
Earl Askam .... One of Jim's Black Boys (uncredited)
Stanley Blystone .... Settler at McDowell's Mill (uncredited)
Jess Cavin .... Colonial farmer (uncredited)
Forrest Dillon .... One of Jim's Black Boys (uncredited)
Jesse Graves .... Governor's servant (uncredited)
Lew Harvey .... Settler at McDowell's Mill (uncredited)
Leyland Hodgson .... Trial judge who protests (uncredited)
Noble Johnson .... Captured Delaware Native American (uncredited)
Carl Knowles .... One of Jim's Black Boys (uncredited)
Ethan Laidlaw .... One of Jim's Black Boys (uncredited)
Tom London .... Settler at McDowell's Mill (uncredited)
Robert McKenzie .... Tavern cook (uncredited)
Charles Middleton .... Dr. Stoke (uncredited)
Clive Morgan .... English sergeant (uncredited)
Bud Osborne .... One of Jim's Black Boys (uncredited)
Jack O'Shea .... One of Callendar's men (uncredited)
Douglas Spencer .... Prisoner in irons (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Neil H. Swanson novel The First Rebel
P.J. Wolfson screenplay

Original Music
Anthony Collins

Cinematography
Nicholas Musuraca

Memorable Quotes

Filming Locations
Lake Sherwood, California, USA
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Sherwood Forest, California, USA

Watch this Trailer

Allegheny Uprising