Description

Allegheny Uprising is an engaging blend of historical fiction, boisterous backwoods comedy, and pretty much nonstop rowdydow that qualifies as one of John Wayne’s more offbeat vehicles. Made half a year after his stellar breakout in Stagecoach, the picture re-teams Wayne with Claire Trevor as a frontier tomboy who supplies feisty love interest. A decade and a half before the Revolutionary War, a community in south-central Pennsylvania (apparently Chambersburg) stages a principled rebellion against King George III’s forces that’s more social protest than full-fledged revolt. Wayne plays a thoughtful fellow named Jim Smith who, with his “men of the Conococheague,” demonstrates to the Crown that it’s bad faith to lend military protection to unscrupulous traders (cue Brian Donlevy) clandestinely peddling firearms and English-made weaponry to the Indians.