if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Okay, the plot needs a Rosetta Stone to unravel, while affections and alliances shift faster than wind-blown hay and are about that well-motivated. Top that with action that never leaves LA's San Fernando Valley, plus acting prowess that sort of comes and goes, and we're left with what amounts to a cinematic morass. And oh yes, shouldn't forget how everyone insists on marriage before playtime. Isn't that just what you'd expect from these hardened outlaw types, (thanks production code censors). Still, I've got to say, for what it's worth, that the narrative often avoids cliché. That is, people die that you don't expect, a girl has the lead even if it is non-girlish Ann Savage, while neither the Yankees, Confederates, nor Quantrills, are romanticized. Thus, despite the many muddy moments, there are points of interest scattered throughout. So, it seems to me that with a stylish director, an unburdened screenwriter, a bigger budget, and at least a 90-minute runtime, there's a pretty good epic western lurking somewhere in the Lippert shambles.(In passing—thanks johnboy1221, you confirmed my suspicions about the disappearing knife: what a tacky omission. Also, I may be seeing things, but those well-scrubbed close-ups of Savage at times resemble an unsmiling Marilyn Monroe, of all people. See what you think.)

"Deputy Marshal" director William Berke packs a great deal of narrative into this brief, 61-minute American Civil War epic. Basically, "Renegade Girl" concerns a woman's compulsion to kill at any cost the man who slaughtered her mother and father, burned their house, and killed her brother. There has got to be one of the most unusual duels toward the end when a group of outlaws draw their weapons and each other and manage to kill themselves. Jean Shelby is the protagonist and she goes through one change after another from the moment that we see her. Jean is the kind of girl who knows what she wants and refuses to deviate from her pursuit of true love. She is a kind of Mata Hara in Missouri during the war. "Renegade Girl" opens with a prologue. "Far from the main battle fronts, in the latter days of the Civil War, Missouri was torn by violent partisan and guerrilla warfare. So vicious and widespread was this conflict that it paved the way directly for the tremendous wave of outlawry which scourged the Border Region throughout the Reconstruction Days and for years thereafter. And one of the most ominous in the changes of events which this about began when a lone rider appeared on this lonely road on a late summer afternoon in 1864." A Union cavalry unit led by Sergeant James confronts a reluctant Jean Shelby (Ann Savage) and escorts her to Major Barker (Jack Holt) in Newton. While they are riding to headquarters, Major Barker is talking with Cherokee Chief White Cloud (Chief Thunder Cloud) about Bob Shelby. He pays the Indian $10 for the location of Bob Shelby. Shelby rides with Quantrill's infamous Southern guerrilla outfit. The Indian assures Barker that the wounded Shelby is hiding out at his parents' house. Barker orders Corporal Brown to take Shelby into custody. Afterward, Barker explains to Captain Fred Raymond (Alan Curtis) that Bob "is worth twice as much as any man except Quantrill himself." He adds, "When I get a hold of him, I'll break up a combination that makes Quantrill so successful." Barker points out that Bob and his sister Jean work together for Quantrill. Jean persuades people to talk and relays the information to Bob. They haven't been able to catch her doing it. White Cloud hates the Shelby family; it seems that his tribe banished him because he attempted to abduct Jean's mother. At headquarters, Jean discovers their plans to nab Bob. Jean manages to escape when she fools a guard into getting close enough to her so she can disarm him. She seizes Raymond's horse to take a shortcut home to warn her family about the approaching Union troops. She shows up in time to get Bob saddled up and narrowly elude the troopers. Poor Bob is so badly wounded that he cannot ride and he falls off his horse. Jean sets to get a wagon from Quantrill's camp. Meantime, White Cloud has escaped from the Union patrol at Jean's parents' house and he follows them. Although White Cloud kills Bob with a knife, we never see the blade strike him. While all this is happening, Jean gets the drop on Captain Fred Raymond. Afterward, he finds her brother's corpse. Quantrill and company show up not long afterward. Quantrill wants hang Fred because he has lost his 'right-hand man.' Jean shoves a six-shooter into Quantrill's kidney. She threatens to kill him if he hangs Captain Raymond. The truth is that Jean has been in love with the Union captain from the first time she saw him at headquarters. After Quantrill and his men ride away, Raymond accompanies Jean when she fetches Bob's body to take it home. Jean is surprised when she reaches her parents' house and find it under attack by White Cloud. Jean's mother and father are tied to the front gallery of the house. They're dead. Jean charges White Cloud with her six-gun blazing. White Cloud knocks her out of the saddle with a flying knife. Raymond entrusts Jean to the care of Dr. Manson and his daughter Mary and he goes off to fight the war and winds up in a prison camp. Many months pass and the Union has triumphed over the Confederacy. Jean recuperates in the Manson's house, and Jerry and Bob visit her. They have formed a new gang. Jean still nurses her obsession to kill White Cloud. Meanwhile, White Cloud has become the scourge of Missouri with his own depredations. Jean feels disillusioned since Fred has not contacted her. Her obsession with killing White Cloud prompts Jean to promise the man most responsible for his death with a trip to the altar. Eventually, the gang shoots it out. Everybody dies except Bob, until Jerry shoots Bob in the back.. While Jean gathered information for the new gang, she used the pseudonym Marie Carroll. Jean forces Jerry to ride off. She tells him that she doesn't love him. Wandering through the wilderness in a daze of guilt and confusion, Jean wears herself out and settles down to sleep for the night in the woods. Troopers come upon her and return to headquarters with her. Jerry has been discussing Jean with Raymond. He confirms that she masqueraded under the name of Marie Carroll. Fred is shocked to hear about Jean's new exploits. He explains that he was held in a prison camp and gave Jerry five letters to deliver to her. She never received any of the letters. Fred proposes to Jean, but she hasn't wavered in her goal of killing White Cloud. She attacks White Cloud's gang and kills him, but he suffers a fatal wound and dies in Captain Raymond's arms. "Renegade Girl" indicts revenge, and Jean dies knowing that she traveled the wrong road. The film's sympathetic treatment of Quantrill sets it apart from similar westerns where he was depicted as a fiend.

For a good while into the film, it was a bit difficult to figure out what the main theme of the story would be. There was mention of Quantrill's Raiders, Indian Chief White Cloud who was out for revenge on the Shelby family, and a tease of a romance between Jean Shelby (Ann Savage) and Union Captain Fred Raymond (Alan Curtis). That last one managed to confuse me a bit; when Jean first saw Captain Raymond, it was with some recognition, although with regret he was in a Union uniform. Later on in the story though, she asked him his first name. I had to wonder why that was the case.Fundamentally, it's Miss Shelby's story and her attempt to seek out White Cloud (Chief Thunder Cloud) and avenge the death of her parents at his hands. Quantrill (Ray Corrigan) makes a brief appearance, but is conveniently done away with off screen so the rag-tag remnants of his gang, led by Jerry Long (Russell Wade), can join Shelby in her mission. To get the bunch to go along, Shelby offers to marry the man who has the 'most' to do with finding and capturing White Cloud. Another head scratcher - how was she going to determine that? Of course the writers knew they were never going to take it that far, thereby letting everybody off the hook. At least Bob Crandall (Edward Brophy) had the right perspective on the whole marriage thing. He wouldn't marry Jean even if he won because he thought too much of her. That was the most gallantry the film had to offer.The finale winds up being one of the oddest ones ever. White Cloud had already shot Jean once earlier in the picture, requiring some months for her to mend. In a rare event, the main female character takes a bullet one more time, this time a fatal one. But at least she managed to take down White Cloud as well, in a cross fire exchange that brought the Cherokee Chief to his own untimely end.

A Western with a semi-historical Civil War setting, "Renegade Girl" gets off to a fast start and has a good ending, although in between it slows down quite a bit. It has an interesting story and leading character.Ann Savage stars as Jean Shelby, a Confederate sympathizer in Missouri late in the Civil War. She and her family have been helping provide information to Quantrill's raiders, so the Union Army is trying to find the Shelbys, assisted by an outcast Indian who has his own grudge against the family. Things get complicated when Jean and Union Captain Fred Raymond fall in love with each other, raising difficult questions about their loyalties and futures.The film gets off to a pretty good start, with a lot of action that is mostly plausible, especially given the complex historical situation. It slows down then for quite a while, and starts to drag a bit. But it picks up towards the end, and the final sequence is pretty good, and not predictable. Savage does rather well in the lead, making her character mostly believable. Most of the other characters are routine (especially the Indians, portrayed in a very unfavorable light), aside from Edward Brophy as a gregarious member of Quantrill's gang.There's nothing spectacular here, but it's a decent film and should be worth watching either for fans of old Westerns or for those interested in movies about the Civil War era.