By John M. Whalen
Howdy, pardners. It’s western movie roundup time at
Cinema Retro today. Here are a handful of oldie westerns recently released on
DVD by the Warner Archive- and which are now available in the Cinema Retro
Movie Store. And a rootin’, tootin’, downright interesting bunch of movies they
are.
Station
West
First up, “Station West†with Dick Powell and Jane Greer.
Ever wonder what would happen if private dick Philip Marlowe traveled back in
time to the old west and tried to solve a murder case? That’s essentially what
you have with Station West, an offbeat western filmed in black and white that
plays like film noir, except all the men wear wide-brimmed Stetsons instead of
Fedoras, and shoot Colt Peacemakers and Winchesters instead of snubbed nosed
.38s. To further mix up the western and detective genres Jane Greer, the most fatale of all femme fatales, is on hand, playing Charlie, a hard-boiled gal who
runs a gambling house and just possibly a few things more.
Powell plays Army Intelligence investigator John Haven
who arrives in town to find out who killed a couple of cavalrymen who were
transporting gold. Powell is his usual,
laconic self, cracking wise and engaging in some sharp dialog written by Frank
Fenton and Winston Miller. To wit:
Haven sits down at Charlie’s table uninvited.
Charlie:
You like to take chances, don't you?
Haven: If
I feel lucky.
Charlie: I advise you to try the dice table.
Haven: I'd rather get lucky here.
Charlie [shrugs]
Every man has the right to his own funeral.
Released by RKO in 1952 the movie is loaded with a
supporting cast made up of veterans of that studio’s numerous noir crime
thrillers. Raymond Burr, Regis Toomey, Steve Brodie, Guinn Big Boy Williams,
Agnes Moorehead and Burl Ives are all on hand and just right as the shadowy characters
that populate this crooked little town. Based on a Luke Short novel, “Station
West†provides a diverting 87 minutes of curious, off-beat, entertainment.
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Roughshod
Next up is “Rough Shod†(1949), another RKO black and
white western, this one starring Robert Sterling, Gloria Graham, and John
Ireland. It starts out with Lednov (Ireland) and his two fellow escaped
convicts creeping up on a camp of drovers from a nearby ranch. They kill them
in cold blood and steal their horses and clothes. Not far away Clay Phillips (Sterling)
and his kid brother, Steve (Claude Jarman of The Yearling) are driving eight
head of horses to Sonora to set up a stage line. In town, the sheriff asks if
Clay will join the posse to round up the convicts. Clay says no thanks, adding
he’s pretty sure Lednov will come looking for him. They’ve got a history.
Also on the road is dancehall gal Mary Wells (Graham) and
her three “co-workers†who got kicked out of town by the decent folk. Clay and
Steve run into them on the trail when their buggy breaks down and Clay
reluctantly agrees to help them by taking them in his wagon to the nearest
ranch. The nearest ranch belongs to Ed Wyatt and good old Ed and his wife,
never knew it to fail, well, they get paid a visit by Lednov and his friends.
Meanwhile Clay and Mary are on the trail and she’s starting to get under his
skin. But Clay’s ready to kiss her off soon as they get to the Wyatt place,
because all he cares about is dropping her and the other ladies off at the
Wyatt place, getting the horses to Sonora and setting up his stage line.
I know you’re thinking, oh boy, Clay, Steve and the dance
hall girls are going to ride into a real mess at the Wyatt place. Probably get
captured. Clay and Steve probably get
beat up, with the leering convicts having their way with the dance hall gals.
Well, that’s what would have happened if Anthony Mann had directed “Roughshod.â€
But this movie was directed by Mark Robson, who made movies like “Bright
Victoryâ€, “The Bridges of Toko-Ri,†and “Champion.†He wasn’t into that kinky
stuff. Instead, once the convicts get enough to eat, they say
goodbye to the Wyatts and ride off! After that build up to nothing, the movie
become more or less a soap opera. Mary sees an opportunity to lead a decent
normal life with a guy like Clay and sets out to hog tie him matrimonially
speaking. There are a couple of subplots involving one of the girls who just
happens to be the Wyatt’s daughter, and conflict between Clay and Steve over
the roughshod (get it, Roughshod?) way
Clay treats Mary. It’s all tied up at the end when finally, after all that
romantic folderol, Lednov and his men show up and there’s a pretty well-staged
shootout in the woods.
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Wild Bill Hickock Rides
While Chicago burns, Harry Farrell (Warren William) a would-be land baron, holds a meeting atop the Chicago Cattle Exchange with his tycoonish cronies and lays out a plan to steal all the cattle-rich land around Powder River, Wyoming. In “Wild Bill Hickok Rides†(1942), it seems none of the homesteaders out there heard about a new law that requires them to file claims on their land. Farrell plans to take 100 paid goons out there and legally swindle them out of their land. Before he leaves Chicago he stops at the burnt out gambling house run by Belle Andrews (Constance Bennett) and invites her to join him and run a gambling joint in Powder River. With no other prospects, she accepts and takes some of her girls with her. On the train west there’s a holdup, which is foiled by none other than Wild Bill (Bruce Cabot) himself. Belle is attracted to Wild Bill which later turns into a problem when she finds out what Farrell is really up to.
This Warner Brothers black and white feature directed by Roy Enright has a big cast of B-actors and lots of extras on hand for some of the action set pieces, which include a lynch mob scene, and the explosion of a dam that floods Powder River Basin. Bennett, William, and Cabot were all a bit past their prime, but they manage to keep up with the fast-paced plot and appear to be having a good time. William was in the middle of his Lone Wolf series at the time he made this one. Constance Bennett had starred with Cary Grant as Marion Kerby in Topper (1937). Also in the cast were Ward Bond, Ray Teal, Howard DaSilva, Russell Simpson, J. Farrell McDonald, and Betty Brewer as a really obnoxious teenager. It’s a nice 82-minute diversion, the kind of western your mom or dad would have taken you to see at a theatre on a lazy Sunday afternoon in the 1940s.
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The Real Glory
Technically, “The Real Glory†(1939), which tells the story of the few Americans who were left in the Philippines in 1910 to train the local constabulary how to defend themselves against Moro fanatics, isn’t really a western. But it’s close enough to include here. Just change the Moros to Apaches and a village in the Philippines to a frontier outpost in Arizona and you’ve got your basic setup for just about any western. Gary Cooper is on hand doing his cool cowboy hero thing, only this time playing an Army doctor. He arrives in a small village near Mindanao, where the U.S. Army, in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, is pulling out. The villagers are terrified of the Moro tribesmen in the jungles all around who have a bad habit of killing all the men and raping all the women. Despite pleas from Filipino leaders and clergy, the troops depart, leaving several officers including Russell Simpson, and Reginal Owen to hold the fort. Also on hand are David Niven, doing his Gunga Din bit, and Broderick Crawford in a rare performance as a “sweet,†lovable lunk who’d rather hunt for orchids in the jungle than kill Moros. Also on the scene is Andrea Leeds as Owen’s daughter, providing a love interest for Cooper and Niven to fight over.
What sets this apart from a western are some of the action scenes involving the Moros. In one set piece they bend sapling palm trees down to the ground and use them to catapult men over the outpost’s walls. One of them flies flat into the wall of a building! Wouldn’t have wanted to be that stunt man. They also enjoy covering their enemies in honey and burying them in anthills up to their necks. With the US government shown leaving indigent Filipinos in a lurch after the war, there may be some statement here about American foreign policy, but in this case it’s used to show how, in the end, the people have to learn how to defend themselves. Of course, it’s easier with Gary Cooper on hand.
So there you have it, buckaroos, four DVD’s featuring the kind of movies they really don’t make anymore. They are all bare-bones, burn-on-demand DVRs with practically no extras except maybe a trailer or two, but picture and sound quality are all very good. It’s good to know you can still get films like these at reasonable prices for your film library.
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John M. Whalen is the author of "Hunting Monsters is My Business: The Mordecai Slate Stories" . Click here to order the book from Amazon)