7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable plot twists, October 24, 2005
This review is from: Mosby's Marauders [VHS] (VHS Tape)
STORY: A young Private in the Confederate army, Willie Prentiss (Kurt Russell at about 16 years old), is assigned to guard a remote river outpost during the American Civil War. Lonely Willie becomes pals with his Union army counterpart, Corporal Jenkins (James MacArthur) and they talk across the river. They hold shooting contests, and trade tobacco for coffee. Spoiler alert, you may want to jump to the next paragraph if you do not want to know some key plot elements. One day Willie accidentally shoots his own commander, Lt. Mosby (Jack Ging), and the Corporal helps him escape court martial by disguising him as a injured Yankee. Willy is shot sneaking home, but manages to make it. He lands up joining the marauders in one exciting caper after another and rejoins Mosby in trying to capture a Union General. In another plot twist, Corporal Jenkins is captured, and is soon in love with Willies cousin. An enjoyable story with tons of twists and turns.
BEHIND THE SCENES: Directed by studio veteran Michael O'Herlihy. MacArthur appeared in 4 Disney theatrical movies, and Russel appeared in 9 Disney theatrical movies and 2 of their television movies when he was young and has returned to the Studio in recent years. One of the reviewers tried to compare this to a full length movie version from Canada and seemed disappointed at the shorter length of the Disney version of the Mosby story. The reason for is simple. This film was originally planned as a U.S theatre release, but was only released in theatres to overseas audiences. They did shoot enough footage for a longer more in-depth story and there was enough extra footage shot that when it was combined with the original, the studio chose to re-edit all of it from scratch to create 3 separate episodes for January 8, 15, and 12, 1967 release on "The Wonderful World of Disney" television show under the grouped title "Willie and the Yank". The first episode in the Willie series was "The Deserter", second was "The Mosby Raiders", and "The Matchmakers". The version on this page is the shorter overseas theatrical release, also released in 1967, and in my opinion the separate re-edited episodes are better. All in all, very enjoyable, and I highly reccommend!
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
VERY GOOD MOVIE, July 27, 2002
This review is from: Mosby's Marauders [VHS] (VHS Tape)
i HAD RENTED THIS MOVIE ABOUT 5-6 YRS AGO BUT COULDNT FIND IT AGAIN--I JUST THOUGHT OF TYPING IT IN HERE TO THE BROWSER AND I FOUND IT--IM A CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTOR AND IT REALLY A WONDERFUL MOVIE THAT WALT DISNEY MADE--I ESPECIALLY LIKE THE PART WHEN MOSBY BROUGHT GEN STAUGHTON TO CONFEDERATE HEAD QUARTERS AND THE LOOK ON FITZ LEES FACE--YES IM VERY MUCH PLEASED WITH THE CONTENT ALSO--
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent 'long' version of "Mosby's Marauders", October 7, 2006
This review is from: Mosby's Marauders [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I just finished watching 'Mosby's Marauders' on vhs as purchased from an Amazon seller in still sealed/unopened shrinkwrap; interestingly, though my official Walt Disney release box lists 79 minutes as the run time in fact it was 183 (can't imagine what they'd cut to make it 134 minutes as one reviewer referenced or only 79 as the box itself suggests.)
This originally aired in installments on two or three Sunday nights back in January 1967 (though I first saw it some 10 years later.) A pre 'Mod Squad' Peggy Lipton & pre 'Hawaii Five-0' James MacArthur shine as do the rest of the excellent cast to include Nick Adams, Jack Ging & an adolescent Kurt Russell.
Recommended.
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