United States Pictures was an independent company set up after the war by Harry Warner for his son-in-law, producer Milton Sperling; Warner Bros. financed and distributed the films, most of which are now part of the holdings to which Olive Films has access. There have been some gems in the pile, including The Enforcer (1951) with Humphrey Bogart, Robert Wise's Three Secrets (1950), Fritz Lang's Cloak and Dagger (1946), and the war classic Retreat, Hell! (1952).

One of the last of the United States output to be released from Olive is one of the few westerns in the group, South of St. Louis debuting on DVD and Blu-Ray Tuesday. It's no gem but it's a fun little picture with a good cast and gorgeous Technicolor.

It's the U.S. Civil War, but it doesn't touch our three heroes, Joel McCrea, Zachary Scott, and Douglas Kennedy, who run a ranch called the Three Bell (and that's not only their brand, they wear little tinkly bells on their spurs). Alas, while they're out of town one day, Union raiders led by evil Victor Jory burn the cattle and drive off the farmland, or vice-versa. Now fully touched by the war, Doug joins the Confederates while Joel and Zach meet up with a pretty little saloon singer, Alexis Smith, who's secretly a gun-runner for the Rebs. Our remaining Two Bells help her to get enough money to rebuild their ranch, but Zach decides the money is so good in smuggling that he'd rather be a prairie pirate than an honest rancher. Pretty soon we've got good-guy Joel, stoic soldier Doug, and the newly-evil Zach matched up as the 'Battling Bells.' Oh, and there are also Battling Belles: Alexis loves Joel, Joel loves nice girl Dorothy Malone, but Dottie loves Doug (women went for guys in uniform even in those days, even Confederate uniforms).

As if THAT isn't complicated enough, after the war, Doug becomes a Texas Ranger and has to hunt down his former pals! Wow! All this in less than an hour and a half!

The gowns on the ladies are sensational in Technicolor (maybe I'm reaching for superlatives here, but I made note of it while watching so it must've impressed me) and Alexis' song 'It Must be Fun to Love a Soldier' is a pip.


Million-dollar Dialog:

Zach having his 'Greed is good' moment: 'There's a lot more money in guns than cows. And guns smell nicer, too!'

If this is a 'minor western', it's more than competent (Karl Freund is the cinematographer, Max Steiner does the score) and, aided no doubt by the Warner Bros. connection, it's nearly a re-staging of the film classic The Roaring Twenties! The ending is stupid, though, so be forewarned.

Mr. McCrea built his career on romantic comedies and aww-shucks nice guys, but from the mid-40s on he almost exclusively stuck to westerns, which he loved doing (he liked to give his profession as 'rancher' and his hobby as 'acting') and he's a natural on horseback, even with tinkly spurs.

The Blu-ray from Olive is beautiful, a few red speckles here and there but nothing to worry about. There are no extras. According to my records, the only United States Pictures film still in the vaults is Elliott Nugent's 1948 love story about American immigrants at the turn of the 20th-century, My Girl Tisa, with Lilli Palmer and Sam Wanamaker. Hopefully, that's forthcoming.

Clifford Weimer is a writer and film historian in Sacramento, CA. He can usually be found lurking about the dark corners of a movie theatre at inthebalcony.com.