It is pretty much a shame this a much forgotten movie...Jimmie Rogers, the pop singer from the 50s and 60s made his film debut as Chad, just Chad as a sort of homeless boy who is taken in by a family during the civil war and given food, shelter and a chance to work in the family business of farming and tree cutting. Chad is not illiterate, but is not too familiar with the ways of the world at that time during the pre and first days of the civil war. Rogers is looking to build a life and basically wanders to find his place in life. He has a romantic interest in the lovely Luana Patten (Song of the South as Jenny) but roams off to Lexington, Kentucky in the final months before the civil war. Here he is sort of discovered by a wealthy businessman played by Chill Wills, who takes him into his household as a son of his own, although Wills never has had children. Rogers wants to get a college education and Wills is only happy to provide the money to send him to a prestigious university in Lexington....Rogers then falls in love with a local lady whose father is a very influential man in local circles in Lexington. With the outbreak of the civil war Rogers decides to join the Yankee army, thus rejecting his southern upbringing. After fighting in the war and becoming an officer Rogers decides to return to his original hometown and rekindles his romance with the lovely Patten. This is a sort of folk type movie with local spins, and you can really get attached to the character Rogers provides. George Kennedy plays a heavy, a nasty local landowner who thinks that Rogers owes him work since the people Rogers lived with died and left their obligations still unpaid. Pretty much a down home type western...not the greatest acting, but Rogers and Patten make a very believable couple in the end. Sad, this film has never been put on video, but recently was on the Fox movie station on television....very hard to catch on TV...filmed in brilliant technicolor and Cinemascope in it's original release. Good film for the whole family to watch, nothing objectionable.
