''The Reivers'' (also known as ''The Yellow Winton Flyer'' in the UK) is a 1969

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

film in

Panavision Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company founded in 1953 specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses dur ...

starring Steve McQueen and directed by

Mark Rydell Mark Rydell (born Mortimer H. Rydell; March 23, 1929) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has directed several Academy Award-nominated films including '' The Fox'' (1967), '' The Reivers'' (1969), ''Cinderella Liberty'' (1973) ...

based on the 1962

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

novel '' The Reivers, a Reminiscence''. The supporting cast includes

Sharon Farrell Sharon Farrell (born December 24, 1940) is an American television and film actress, and former dancer. Originally beginning her career as a ballerina with the American Ballet Theatre company, Farrell made her film debut in 1959 in ''Kiss Her Goo ...

, Rupert Crosse,

Mitch Vogel Mitchel L Vogel (born January 17, 1956) is an American former child actor, musician and director. As of 2021, he is one of two surviving main cast members from ''Bonanza'', next to Tim Matheson. Having begun his professional acting career at a ...

, and

Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...

as the narrator.

Plot

Set in 1905, the film follows the exploits of the likable but raffish Boon Hoggenbeck ( Steve McQueen), who takes an interest in a new car, a new 1905 Winton Flyer that is the property of a man named Boss (

Will Geer Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978) was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In Ca ...

), the patriarch of the McCaslin family, who live in the Mississippi area where Boon lives. When the taking of the car first by Boon and then by Ned ( Rupert Crosse) (they show themselves to be reivers, or thieves, in the film's start, hence the title) leads to a public brawl, the local magistrate lets them off by a bond that Boss pays on the condition both men stay out of trouble and far away from the car while he is away with family to attend a funeral. That is soon changed by Boon, who takes the car again to go up to Memphis to see his woman Corrie (

) and talks his young friend Lucius (

) into going for the ride. Ned stows away as well, but Boon grudgingly allows him to come. Other characters include a horse that loves sardines and races for them, a friendly bordello madam and her amiable employees, and a man with a horse who lives near an impassable sinkhole full of mud for which he charges expensive rates to get both carts and cars through.

Cast

* Steve McQueen as Boon Hogganbeck *

as Corrie *

as Lucius McCaslin * Rupert Crosse as Ned McCaslin * Ruth White as Miss Reba *

Michael Constantine Michael Constantine (born Gus Efstratiou (Ευστρατίου); May 22, 1927 – August 31, 2021) was an American actor. He is most widely recognized for his portrayal of Kostas "Gus" Portokalos, the Windex bottle-toting Greek father of Toula ...

as Mr. Binford *

Clifton James George Clifton James (May 29, 1920 – April 15, 2017) was an American actor known for roles as a prison floorwalker in ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), Sheriff J.W. Pepper alongside Roger Moore in the James Bond films '' Live and Let Die'' (19 ...

as Butch Lovemaiden * Juano Hernandez as Uncle Possum * Lonny Chapman as Maury McCaslin (Lucius' father) *

as Boss McCaslin (Lucius' grandfather) *

Allyn Ann McLerie Allyn Ann McLerie (December 1, 1926 – May 21, 2018) was a Canadian-born American actress, singer and dancer who worked with many of Golden Age musical theatre's major choreographers, including George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, and Jerome Robb ...

as Alison McCaslin (Lucius' mother) * Lindy Davis as Otis * Diane Shalet as Hannah * Pat Randall as May Ellen * Diane Ladd as Phoebe *

Ellen Geer Ellen Ware Geer is an American actress, professor, and theatre director. Personal life Geer was born in New York City, the daughter of actors Herta Ware and Will Geer. Her father was best-known for playing Grandpa Zebulon "Zeb" Walton on ''Th ...

as Sally *

Dub Taylor Walter Clarence "Dub" Taylor Jr. (February 26, 1907 – October 3, 1994),Dub Taylor, 87, Actor in Westerns, The New York Times, October 5, 1994, Section B, Page 12 was an American character actor who from the 1940s into the 1990s worked extens ...

as Dr. Peabody *

as the narrator (voice)

Awards

1970 Oscar Nominations: * Actor in a Supporting Role – Rupert Crosse ("Ned McCaslin") making him the first African American to receive a nomination in this category. * Music (Original Score – for a motion picture ot a musical – John Williams

Home media

''The Reivers'' was released to DVD by Paramount Home Video on June 14, 2005 as a Region 1 widescreen DVD. The film was later released on Blu-Ray by Kino Lorber.

References

External links