The Raid (1954 film)

The Raid
Directed by	Hugo Fregonese
Written by	Francis Cockrell (Story)
Screenplay by	Sydney Boehm
Based on	Affair at St. Albans 1948 novel by Herbert Ravenel Sass
Produced by	Robert L. Jacks
Starring	Van Heflin Anne Bancroft Richard Boone Lee Marvin
Cinematography	Lucien Ballard
Edited by	Robert Golden
Music by	Roy Webb
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Panoramic Productions
Distributed by	Twentieth Century-Fox
Release date	August 4, 1954 (1954-08-04)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$650,000

The Raid is a 1954 American Western film set during the American Civil War. It stars Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone and Lee Marvin. It is loosely based on a true incident, the St. Albans Raid, as well as the book by Herbert Ravenal Sass. However the film made a significant change, turning the raid into an act of revenge for William Tecumseh Sherman's burning of Atlanta.

Plot

In 1864 a group of Confederate prisoners held in a Union prison stockade at Plattsburgh, New York, not many miles from the Canada–US border, escape. They head for Montreal, Canada and then plan a raid across the border into St. Albans, Vermont, to rob its banks to replenish the Confederate treasury and burn buildings as revenge for Sherman's March to the Sea and to tie up Union forces.

The leader of the raid, Major Neal Benton (Van Heflin), heads into St. Albans as a spy, and develops ambiguous feelings about what he is doing when he becomes friends with a young war widow and her friendly son, who he boards with, masquerading as a Canadian businessman. Other raiders stay in an abandoned barn, or pose as traveling street peddlers. One drunken member interrupts a church service, and is promptly shot dead by Benton, the raid leader, almost giving away the plot. The townspeople shower Benton with gratitude for this, not realizing his true identity. On the appointed day, Major Benton in town, and the other raiders at the barn, all don Confederate uniforms, take some citizens hostage, rob the bank's strongbox at gunpoint, burn down the town hall, and gallop north just ahead of an arriving Union force. Burning a bridge behind them, they barely elude the Union forces, and make a successful getaway to nearby Canada.

Cast

• Van Heflin as Maj. Neal Benton / Neal Swayze
• Anne Bancroft as Katie Bishop
• Richard Boone as Capt. Lionel Foster
• Lee Marvin as Lt. Keating
• Tommy Rettig as Larry Bishop
• Peter Graves as Capt. Frank Dwyer
• Douglas Spencer as Rev. Lucas
• Paul Cavanagh as Col. Tucker
• Will Wright as Josiah Anderson, the Banker
• James Best as Lt. Robinson
• John Dierkes as Cpl. Fred Deane
• Helen Ford as Delphine Coates
• Harry Hines as Mr. Danzig
• Simon Scott as Capt. Floyd Henderson
• William Schallert as Rebel Soldier (uncredited)
• Claude Akins as Lt. Ramsey (uncredited)

External links

• The Raid at IMDb
• The Raid at AllMovie
• The Raid at the TCM Movie Database
• The Raid at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films