Kansas Raiders (1950)

During the Civil War, young Jesse James (Audie Murphy) and his gang ride into Kansas looking to join up with the notorious Colonel William Quantrill (Brian Donlevy).  Seeking revenge against the Union for the murder of his family, Jesse wants to help Quantrill claim Kansas for the Confederacy. Directed by Ray Enright (CHINA SKY), this highly fictionalized western has little basis in fact other than Jesse James and his brother Frank (Richard Long) were part of Quantrill's Raiders. On its own, it's just okay though the film wants to have it both ways. It portrays Quantrill for the out of control murderer he was but it also gives him a nobility that the facts don't bear out. It's hard to be sympathetic to Jesse as he is well aware of the disastrous path Quantrill is leading him but goes anyway! A minor flaw is the "romance" between the boyish Audie Murphy and the mature Marguerite Chapman as Quantrill's mistress as she looks old enough to be his mother. With Tony Curtis, Richard Egan, Richard Arlen, Scott Brady, Dewey Martin and James Best.