Local Nuisance

Shenandoah. "I've been havin' a little talk with your people about that shellin'," drawls James Stewart, complaining to a cavalryman about a local nuisance subsequently known as the Civil War. Stewart wants none of it. He is not a slave owner. He peacefully tills "500 acres of good rich dirt" in the lush Virginia farm country, where heartwarming Early American cliches spring up like wildflowers, ready for him to mow down.

Chomping on a homemade stogie, Stewart tackles the chore with relish. Sometimes he saunters to the little cemetery in the hollow to talk to his late beloved Martha, gone these 16 years. When a young Rebel officer (Doug Mc-Clure) wants to marry his pretty daughter (Rosemary Forsyth), Stewart gives the whippersnapper a little lecture on the secret of handling womenfolk.

Stewart reluctantly gets caught up in the war when the youngest of his six strapping sons (Phillip Alford) is captured by Yankee troops, later to be snatched from death's jaws by his former playmate, a freed slave. The rest of the family goes searching for him, enduring separation, fear and wanton slaughter, before they return home just in time to ride off for Sunday services at the village church. There, naturally, the lost son hobbles in on a makeshift crutch. Shenandoah's final comment on the futility of war conveys the odd impression that it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

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