THE RAID, the “St. Albans Raid”, took place in a peaceful, prosperous Vermont town about a dozen miles from the Canadian border. On October 19, 1864, two dozen Confederate soldiers, escaped from Union captivity, surprised the bucolic farming hub, their leader declaring “I take possession of this town in the name of the Confederate States of America!” They then robbed the town’s banks (to aid “the Cause”) and raised a ruckus before fleeing across the border to Montreal.  The bold fracas was the furthest North that Southern soldiers saw action during the Civil War. Just the sort of desperate exploit made for a 1954 movie, especially if you amp up the gunfire & arson quotient and throw in an ill-starred romance with the town’s prettiest widow.

Van Heflin, always solid as conscience-conflicted types, plays the Reb commander (Van was 45, his historical counterpart had been 21) whose fellow die-hards include Peter Graves (stalwart, serious) and Lee Marvin (surly loose cannon, homicidal Yankee hater). The demure lady on hand is 22-year-old Anne Bancroft. Add her tyke, gifted child actor Tommy Rettig, 11, the same year he started duty as the first pet owner in TVs Lassie. Speckle the supporting cast with familiar faces, increase the raid’s casualties and heave bottles of “Greek fire” (early versions of ‘Molotov cocktails’) with abandon during the combustive finale. Apart from some pesky “how’d that happen?” details (the Rebs quick-change from tattered prison rags to fancy civvy duds and then to fresh uniforms, all done before you get back from the fridge), the fictionalization aspects work to decent dramatic effect with the bare facts of the setup, and the cast is mission-fit.

Kept to a trim 83 minutes, it’s well-directed by Hugo Fregonese (My Six Convicts, Harry Black And The Tiger) and the writing is thoughtful, not letting gooey sentiment clog the narrative. Sydney Boehm whipped out five scripts in 1954, two crime dramas (Black Tuesday and Rogue Cop), an adventure (Secret Of The Incas), a western (Siege At Red River) and this one, based  on “Affair at St. Albans” a 5-page Saturday Evening Post short story that Herbert Ravenal Sass wrote in 1948. *

Box office of 107th place for the year doesn’t seem impressive yet the $2,900,000 gross was more than enough to cancel the well-utilized $650,000 budget expenditure.

In the rebellious ranks and among the rousted citizens are Richard Boone,Will Wright, James Best, Claude Akins, John Dierkes, Douglas Spencer, Paul Cavanagh, Roy Glenn, Robert Easton, Richard Eyer, William Schallert and John Beradino.

* Nothing like wars (in this case a fratricidal one) to make international incidents out of ‘necessity justified’ bank heists. Neutrality-minded Canada and bets-placing Great Britain factored into The Divided States blue v. gray brawl. More info can be gleaned from “The St. Albans Raid: Confederate Attack on Vermont”, 192 pages from Michelle Arnosky Sherburne, and Ted Tedford’s 224-page “Incident At St. Albans”.  As for Herbert Revenel Sass (1884-1958), whose brief muse helped spark what eventually became the script, that South Carolina (here we go again…) writer was a walking definition of “unreconstructed”. Tragically—it would be hilarious if it didn’t portend such peril—in 2024, 66 years after that article, 140 years after the raid, this ‘house’ of ours is still divided.