Frontier Marshal (1939, directed by Allan Dwan)

Posted on January 22, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

When Wyatt Earp (Randolph Scott) arrives in the town of Tombstone, he takes the law in his own hands by preventing a local outlaw named Indian Charlie (Charles Stevens) from destroying the saloon owned by Ben Carter (John Carradine). For his trouble, Earp is beaten up by Carter’s men. Earp, however, does get a job as the town’s new marshal.

After some initial weariness, Wyatt befriends an alcoholic dentist and gunfighter named Doc Holliday (Cesar Romero). While Earp keeps the peace in Tombstone, Doc is torn between two women, dancehall girl Jerry (Binnie Barnes) and his ex-girlfriend, Sarah (Nancy Kelly).

With Carter and his man planning on robbing a payroll train and also kidnapping frontier performer, Eddie Foy (played by the real Foy’s son, Eddie Foy, Jr.), it is only a matter of time before Earp takes on Carter at the legendary O.K. Corral.

Frontier Marshal was only the second sound film to be made about Wyatt Earp’s time in Tombstone and it was the first to use Earp’s name. (In the first film version of the story, also called Frontier Marshal, Earp’s name was changed to Michael Wyatt.) This was because Wyatt’s widow was offended by some of the material that was included in the biography that served as the basis for Frontier Marshal and threatened to sue anyone who wanted to make a movie out of it. In order to get her permission to make the film, 20th Century Fox agreed that no reference would be made to Wyatt’s marriage in the film. Mrs. Earp ended up suing anyways. 20th Century Fox settled.

As for the film, it’s in no way historically accurate and it pales in comparison to My Darling Clementine, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Tombstone, and the Star Trek episode where Kirk, Spock, and McCoy thought they were in the old west. It is, however, better than The Gunfighters episode of Dr. Who. Randolph Scott is convincing as an upright and law-abiding Wyatt Earp, quite a contrast to the real Wyatt. The movie though is stolen by Cesar Romero, who plays Doc Holliday as being pathologically self-destructive. Cesar Romero is not necessarily the first name that comes to mind when you think of a great western actor but he’s very convincing here. John Carradine is a perfect villain and keep an eye out for Lon Chaney, Jr. as one of his henchmen. Unfortunately, the final gunfight feels rushed and, for all the build up, it isn’t as exciting as it should be. Frontier Marshal will mostly be of interest to those curious to see how Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, Tombstone and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral were portrayed in films before they became a sacrosanct part of the mythology of the Old West.

Frontier Marshal was later remade, as My Darling Clementine, by John Ford. Ward Bond, who played Morgan Earp in Ford’s film, plays the original town marshal in Frontier Marshal. Charles Stevens, who plays Indian Charlie in Frontier Marshal, was often falsely described by the Hollywood publicity mill as being the real-life grandson of Geronimo. He also appeared in My Darling Clementine, once again playing the role of Indian Charlie. It was one of the nearly 200 films he made before he died in 1964.

Tumbleweed Trail (1946, directed by Robert Emmett Transey)

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

I know that I said yesterday that I was done with Eddie Dean westerns but I decided to watch one more, just because it was short and, based on the other Eddie Dean films I had seen, I assumed that it would be undemanding.

(I was right.)

Tumbleweed Trail opens with Brad Barton (Bob Duncan) and his group of colorfully named henchmen (one is named Dead-Eye) ambushing and apparently killing a rancher named Bill Ryan (Kermit Ryan), who also happens to be Barton’s half-brother. Barton wants to take control of Ryan’s ranch and he’s even forged a will to to convince the land office to give it to him instead of Ryan’s children. If this plot sounds familiar, it’s because much of it was recycled for Black Hills.

What Barton did not count on was the arrival of singing cowboy Eddie Dean (played by real-life singing cowboy Eddie Dean) and his sideick, Soapy (Roscoe Ates). Eddie and Soapy get jobs working on Ryan’s ranch. Eddie finds time to sing a few songs and to fall for Bill’s daughter, Robin (Shirley Patterson). Everyone loves Eddie’s singing but he’s not make much progress when it comes to proving that Barton’s will is a fake. Just when it seems like not even Eddie and Soapy will be able to stop Barton, there’s a “surprise” ending that you’ll see coming from a mile away.

This one is uninspired, though some of my reaction could be due to having already seen Eddie Dean go through a similar plot in Black Hills. Eddie sings a lot but that’s about all he does in this routine poverty row western. Bob Duncan is a generic villain. Of the three Eddie Dean films that I’ve watched, Tumbleweed Trail was the most forgettable. It’s for fans of the genre only.

Eddie’s horse in Tumbleweed Trail is played by Flash. Flash gets second billing, above Roscoe Ates.

This, I’m pretty sure, was my final Eddie Dean movie.

Black Hills (1947, directed by Ray Taylor)

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Times are hard and rancher John Hadley (Steve Clark) is running the risk of losing his ranch. When Hadley finds gold on his property, he think that all of his problems have been solved. He makes the mistake of revealing the existence of the gold to his friend, Terry Frost (Dan Kirby). Terry’s not much of a friend because he shoots and kills Hadley and then, working with a corrupt county clerk (William Fawcett), he tries to steal Hadley’s property away from the rancher’s children and rightful heirs.

Luckily, singing cowboy Eddie Dean (played by real-life singing cowboy Eddie Dean) rides up and, with the help of his comic relief sidekick (Roscoe Ates), helps to get things sorted out. Even with Terry trying to frame Eddie for a murder he didn’t commit, Eddie still finds time to sing a few songs.

This was Eddie Dean’s final feature film before he moved into television. Black Hills is better than Romance of the West, the Eddie Dean movie that I reviewed yesterday. The plot actually has a few interesting twists and, though it doesn’t appear that he was ever much of an actor, Eddie Dean appears to be more comfortable with his role here than he was in Romance of the West. Black Hills emphasizes that Eddie could throw a punch just as well as he could sing and veteran western actor Dan Kirby is a credible villain. It makes Black Hills into an entertaining if not exactly memorable western diversion.

One final note about Black Hills: Eddie’s horse, White Cloud, gets second billing in the credits.

Romance of the West (1946, directed by Robert Emmett Tansey)

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

In California’s Antelope Valley, the local Indian tribe lives peacefully alongside the recently arrived white settlers. However, some of the settlers want to end that peace and deliberately try to provoke the Indians into raiding a nearby town. When the Indian village is attacked and a young boy is turned into an orphan, the tribe prepares or war. It falls on the new Indian agent, a singing cowboy named Eddie Dean (played by real-life singing cowboy Eddie Dean) to capture the real culprits and maintain peace in Antelope Valley.

Romance of the West was the first of many films that Eddie Dean made in which he played a character named Eddie Dean. Dean had a good singing voice and an amiable screen presence but he was also a pretty stiff actor. That’s particularly obvious in Romance of the West, where he breaks out into a huge grin whenever he has to deliver any of his dialogue. Even when he talks about something as serious as finding a home for an orphan, he still smiles like someone who has found a month’s worth of moonshine. With the exception of Forest Tucker (who plays a sympathetic priest), the rest of the cast isn’t much better. Eddie looks convincing in a gunfight and on a horse but whenever he has to speak or show emotion, the action comes to a halt.

Compared to other westerns of the period, Romance of the West is sympathetic to the Indians, with Dean speaking up for them every chance he gets and telling one bad guy that the Indians are more American than he’ll ever be. But the movie also features a lot of scenes of the Indians speaking in exaggerated broken English. After an Indian child is orphaned, Eddie refuses the chief’s offer to raise the child, saying that it would be better that the child go to the church orphanage so he “can be raised right.” The film should be commended for rejecting the “savage” stereotype but then it goes too far in other direction, portraying the Natives as being almost child-like and without any agency of their own. Always, it falls on Eddie Dean to explain things to everyone and hold together the fragile peace.

Seen today, the most interesting thing about Romance of the West is that it was shot in color, at a time when that was a rare occurrence. Unfortunately, Eddie Dean was just as boring in color as he was in black-and-white.

On a final note, the singing cowboy genre has always been a strange one to me. Did no one in the old west find it strange that men were riding through the wilderness and singing songs of love to their horses? For some reason, singing cowboys were always appointed to positions of importance, like town marshal or Indian agent. Were people that impressed by a banjo?

The Bravos (1972, directed by Ted Post)

Posted on January 18, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Major John David Harkness (George Peppard) is the commander of Fort Bravo, a small and ill-equipped frontier fort. Despite having only 77 soldiers and not many supplies, Harkness has managed to keep an uneasy peace between the local Indian tribes and the settlers who move through the area. The peace, however, is disturbed when an arrogant wagon master (Pernell Roberts) kills the son of the tribal chief.

That’s not all that Harkness has to worry about. A German outlaw (Bo Svenson) is hiding out at the camp. His head scout (L.Q. Jones) suspects that something is forcing the local tribes out of the area. Two settlers from Missouri (played by Barry Brown and Belinda Montgomery) are at the fort and trying to decide whether they should continue westward or return to Missouri. Finally, Harkness’s 12 year-old son, Peter (Vincent Van Patten), has been expelled from his New England boarding school and is being sent to Fort Bravo to live with his father. When Major Harkness refuses to turn the wagon master over to the Indians, they kidnap his son instead.

The Bravos was made for television and originally aired on ABC in 1972. It was apparently meant to serve as the pilot for a television series, one that would have followed the daily adventures of the Major, his son, and all of the men at Fort Bravo (who were played by television mainstays like Dana Elcar, Randolph Mantooth, and George Murdock.) For all intents and purposes, Pernell Roberts, Bo Svenson, Belinda Montgomery, and Barry Brown are all “special guest stars” and are meant to serve as examples of the type of television-friendly actors who would visit Fort Bravo on a weekly basis. That the pilot didn’t lead to a series isn’t surprising. TV westerns may have dominated the ratings in the 50s and the 60s but they quickly went out of fashion in the 70s as networks realized that they could make more money selling ad space for Norman Lear sitcoms and cop shows. In the 70s, the people that advertisers were wanting to reach were watching Archie Bunker and Starsky and Hutch, not George Peppard.

Because of its TV origins, The Bravos is a fairly bland western. It would be a few years before George Peppard would reinvent himself as a grizzled character actor and he’s sincere but fairly dull here. Pernell Roberts is more effective as the headstrong wagon master and perhaps The Bravos would have worked better if Roberts and Peppard had switched roles. In the end, the main reason to see the film is for the chance to see L.Q. Jones play a heroic role for once. A member of Sam Peckinpah’s stock company, Jones brings some authentic grit to his role as the fort’s only scout. Jones played a lot of villains but I always preferred him as one of the good guys.

The Bravos ends with a few major subplots unresolved. Maybe they would have been resolved during the show’s first season but it was not to be.

Desolation Canyon (2006, directed by David Cass)

Posted on January 17, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

After robbing a bank in a small western town, an outlaw stops by the home of his estranged wife and takes his own son hostage. The town’s aging sheriff (Patrick Duffy) teams with the boy’s grandfather (Stacy Keach) to take the outlaw down and save the child’s life. Accompanying them is the bank president, Edwin Bornstein (David Rees Snell). Edwin may be a city boy who talks about how much he’s always wanted to say “I reckon,” but it turns out that there’s more to him than meets the eye. He’s also good with a gun.

I probably should have given up on Desolation Canyon as soon as I saw that it was a “Hallmark Presents” film but I like westerns and Stacy Keach has always done well whenever he’s been cast as a gunslinger so I decided to give it a try. Starting with a bank robbery and endings with a duel, Desolation Canyon is about as old-fashioned as an old-fashioned western can be. Because it was made by Hallmark, there’s nothing dangerous or edgy about the film. A few people do get shot but there’s no blood. The shoot outs in Red Dead Redemption are more violent and suspenseful than anything to be found in this film. (Of course, that’s because most of the shootouts in Red Dead Redemption occur because the play pushed the wrong button while trying to greet someone. I still feel bad for accidentally shooting the kindly old homesteader who just wanted someone to help him collect some flowers for his wife.) This is the type of western that you can safely watch with your grandparents, since that’s who the film was made for. That’s not bad because grandparents need movies to but if you’re looking for a complex or an unpredictable western in the style of a Larry McMurtry novel or a later Eastwood film, I reckon this ain’t it.

Giving some credit where credit is due, Stacy Keach, David Rees Snell, and even Patrick Duffy are credible in their roles. Stacy Keach is especially convincing a former gunfighter who can still outdraw anyone. Stacy Keach is 81 years old and still working. Someone needs to write a great Stacy Keach role and they need to do it now.

Great Moments In Television History #12: NBC Airs The First Football Game

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Today, everyone takes at least three things for granted: television, football, and football on television.

However, that wasn’t always the case. There was a time when television was a novelty and the idea of watching a game on television while it was being played was nearly unheard of. The first televised football game didn’t involve any of the teams in what would eventually become the NFL. Instead, it was a college game between Fordham and Waynesburg. It was played on September 30th, 1939.

The game was aired on NBC, as part of an experiment to see whether or not a game could actually be carried live over the air. The game was called by Bill Stern, a radio announcer who was famous for embellishing the action on the field while he was calling it. Unfortunately, since no footage of the game appears to still exist, no one knows if he attempted to embellish the action that was being televised.

All in all, NBC spent $100,000 to show the game. What was the size of the audience for the very first televised football game? It was speculated that 500 to 1.000 people watched the game on television! In 1939, with television still a luxury for most people, that was enough to convince NBC that sports and television could go together. 82 years later, it appears that NBC was right.

Incidentally, Fordham beat Waynesburg, 34-7.

Previous Great Moments In Television History:

Great Moments In Comic Book History #16: Alex Ross Captures Galactus In All His Glory

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Galactus has always been one of my favorite Marvel characters and it’s a shame that his only film appearance was botched in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Now that the Fantastic Four are once again free to be a part of the MCU, my sincere hope is that we’ll get a worthy Galactus film. If Marvel Studios could bring Thanos to life, why not the Planet-Eater?

Below is Galactus (and the Silver Surfer) as imagined by Alex Ross. All four of these images are from Marvels #3 (March 1994) and they really capture Galactus in all of his glory.

Hopefully, the next time Galactus appeared in a film, he’ll be as impressive as he was here.

Previous Great Moments In Comic Book History:

Space Rage (1985, directed by Conrad E. Palmisano)

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Space Rage is a mix of science fiction and the old west.

In what the movie insists is the far future, a sadistic and notorious criminal named Grange (Michael Pare) is a captured after robbing the Bank of the Moon. As his punishment, he’s sent to a prison planet called Botany Bay. Despite the name, the entire prison is a desert. (Maybe they named it after the doomed colony from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.) The prison is run by Gov. Tovah (William Windom), who uses the prisoners as slave labor in his mines. Grange doesn’t want to work as a miner so he plots his escape. There’s only one shuttle that goes from Botany Bay to Earth and Grange plans to be in control of it.

Two men are determined to stop Grange and his partners from escaping the planet. Walker (John Laughlin) is a young bounty hunter who is haunted by he death of his wife. The Colonel (Richard Farnsworth) is a former policeman who is haunted by nightmares of his time on Earth. Working together, the inexperienced Walker and the crusty, old Colonel try to thwart Grange’s plans. Grange has an itchy trigger finger and is willing to kill anyone to get what he wants. Grange may be quick on the draw but the Colonel might be even quicker.

Space Rage starts out as a western before becoming a prison film before then concluding as a Mad Max rip-off, with everyone chasing each other through the desert in intergalactic dune buggies. The movie is only 75 minutes long but due to a repetitive soundtrack and some less than inspired dialogue, it often feels longer. The Botany Bay is too obviously Southern California to be an effective setting and neither Michael Pare nor John Laughlin seem to be invested in their roles. Not surprisingly, the film’s greatest strength is Richard Farnsworth, playing another no-nonsense veteran tough guy and doing what a man has to do to keep Earth safe. His presence alone does not make Space Rage worth watching but it definitely helps. It’s a good thing he was out there looking out for us.

Game Review: Second Wind (2021, Matthew Warner)

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Society has collapsed. Biological warfare has changed the majority of humans into werewolves. Those who have not been infected live in locked-down shelters. You live in Shelter 5, with your second wife Lorraine. You used to live in Shelter 4 with your first wife, Wendy. Wendy kicked you out after she found out that you were cheating on her with Lorraine. Things have been tense ever since.

Now, Lorraine’s pregnant. The midwife has told you that the delivery is not going as planned. A C-section has to be performed to save the lives of both Lorraine and the baby. (With humanity nearly wiped out, the survival of your baby could give hope to those few who remain.) You have to get a doctor but that means making you way across the desert wasteland and the ruined city to Shelter 4. Not only do you have to save the life of your second wife but you’re going to have to convince your first wife to help you do it. You only have a few hours to make it and all of the shelter’s hoverbikers are damaged beyond use. Best of luck!

Second Wind is an interactive fiction game for adults. The stakes are real. The puzzles require thought. Your mistakes have consequences. Puzzles are usually my great downfall when it comes interactive fiction. Timed challenges are my second greatest downfall. As you can probably guess, I had to play Second Wind a few times before I got anything close to a good ending and, even then, it was only as good as any ending can be when the world’s gone to Hell in a bucket without anyone even enjoying the ride. But the challenge made the eventual success even more rewarding. When playing a game like Second Wind, the best advice would be to remember that using google is not the same as cheating and that Occam’s Razor is your friend. It also helps to take notes because a lot of the game’s puzzles depend on remembering numbers and then inputting them into the keypads necessary to enter the shelters.

I dug Second Wind. It’s better-written than most and the descriptions are so vivid that you’ll feel like you’re in that apocalyptic desert, trying to make your way back home. And if you really do get lost, there is a walk-through that explains the puzzles without leaving you feeling too ashamed for not being able to figure them out for yourself.

Play Second Wind.