Alvarez kelly

Álvarez Kelly is a 1966 American film directed by Edward Dmytryk. It starred William Holden, Richard Widmark, Patrick O'Neal, Janice Rule, and Victoria Shaw in the lead roles. This movie was based on a real event during the Civil War.

Plot

The year is 1864 and the Civil War is raging in the United States. Mexican rancher Álvarez Kelly has no interest in the war, except for the money he can make from it. On one occasion he is hired to drive a herd of cattle on a long journey, to be delivered to the Union army, in the person of Unionist Major Albert Steadman, who is waiting for him at a plantation in Virginia.

But Confederate Colonel Tom Rossiter desperately needs the cattle to deliver to his starving troops. That is why he intercepts them to appropriate the herd. The colonel had the complicity of the plantation owner's daughter, Charity Warwick, in kidnapping Kelly as part of a plan to divert cattle to the Confederacy. Threatened to be shot if he does not cooperate and after losing a finger to a shot by Colonel Rossiter so that he would know that everything is very serious, Kelly complies, trains the Confederates for the purpose and crosses the so-called Mason-Dixon Line with them. However he takes revenge on him first, when he helps Rossiter's disgruntled girlfriend, Liz Pickering, flee Confederate territory. When Rossiter finds out, he plans to kill him after the mission.

After neutralizing the Federals and seizing the cattle, when the time comes to leave the plantation, they must cross a bridge that has been fortified and is defended by 300 soldiers of Major Steadman and Rossiter has only 100 men to face them. he. Kelly then offers him to save the cattle, their lives and the possibility of completing the mission successfully, if in exchange Rossiter leaves his intentions of revenge towards him. Rossiter agrees to his offer. Then Kelly orders to cause a cattle stampede to cross the bridge. A bloody battle then begins, in which Kelly saves a Confederate officer from death and Rossiter in turn kills one of his own soldiers for wanting to kill Kelly during the battle for having humiliated him during his stay as a Confederate prisoner.

Finally the Union is defeated in combat thanks to Kelly's unexpected stampede and the cattle cross with Kelly, Rossiter and their men over the bridge, thus being in safe Confederate territory. After blowing up the bridge to prevent further federal attacks, Rossiter lets Kelly go. The Confederates were thus able to fill their stomachs with captured cattle. When Ulysses S. Grant heard what had happened, he reacted furiously, while Abraham Lincoln called it the most cunning cattle rustling he had ever heard of.

Cast

• William Holden - Alvarez Kelly
• Richard Widmark - Colonel Tom Rossiter
• Janice Rule - Liz Pickering
• Patrick O'Neal - Major Albert Steadman
• Victoria Shaw - Charity Warwick
• Roger C. Carmel - Captain Angus Ferguson
• Richard Rust - Sergeant Hatcher
• Arthur Franz - Captain Towers

Historical framework

The film was based on an event, which occurred in 1864. It was called the Beefsteak Raid. It was a Confederate cavalry raid that took place in September 1864 as part of the siege of Petersburg during the American Civil War. The mission was to acquire the necessary cattle for consumption in Petersburg and Richmond by stealing them from the enemy. The mission was successful.