Jack Perrin | Through the Shattered Lens

Newly hired ranch foreman Jack Loomis (Jack Perrin) comes to the aid of two Indians who were nearly swindled out of their land during a card game. The Indians inform Jack that his new boss, George Tully (Al Bridge), is actually a crook and the ranch is just a front for his criminal activities. When Jack says he doesn’t want to be a part of Tully’s schemes, Tully and his men frame Jack for a robbery.

After you watch enough of these Poverty Row westerns, you start to get the feeling that anyone in the 30s could walk into a studio and star in a B-western. Jack Perrin was a World War I veteran who had the right look to be the star of several silent films but once the sound era came along, his deficiencies as an actor became very apparent. He could ride a horse and throw a punch without looking too foolish but his flat line delivery made him one of the least interesting of the B-western stars. That’s the case here, where Perrin is a boring hero and the entire plot hinges on the villain making one really big and really stupid mistake. John Wayne could have pulled this movie off but Jack Perrin was lost.

Jack Perrin’s career as a star ended just a few years after this film but not because he was a bad actor. Instead, Perrin filed a lawsuit after a studio failed to pay him for starring in one of their films. From 1937 until he retirement in 1960, Perrin was reduced to playing minor roles for which he often went uncredited. Hollywood could handle a bad actor but not an actor who expected to be paid for his work.

In the old west, the Apache Kid (Jack Perrin) has decided to go straight because his own mother refuses to accept the stolen money that he sends home. Unfortunately, other outlaws, like Buck Harris (Bud Osborne), continue to break the law while wearing the Apache Kid’s trademark checkered scarf so the Apache Kid still has a posse after him.

Using the alias Jim, the Kid gets a job working at a local ranch. Ranch hand Ted Conway (Fred Church) is looking forward to marrying Jane Wilson (Josephine Hill), the daughter of the ranch’s owner. Ted’s father, Frank (Henry Roquemore), wants Jane for himself so he reveals that Ted is actually adopted and no one knows who his real parents are. Jane’s father (Horace B. Carpenter) announces that the wedding is canceled. So, Ted decides to take on the identity of the Apache Kid and rob a stagecoach. After Ted is arrested, Jim has to return to his old ways to help Ted get out of jail.

The Apache Kid’s Escape is a 47-minute poverty row western that is remembered for being one of the first westerns to feature recorded sound. Unfortunately, the movie sounds terrible, with a steady hum in the background and all of the actors speaking slowly, loudly, and very precisely while awkwardly trying not to look straight at the camera. Everyone noticeably hesitates before speaking, as if waiting for the director to give them the signal to go. With all of the humans struggling to speak, the film’s best performance comes from Starlight the Horse, who is a natural star. Jack Perrin went on to have an active career in B-westerns so maybe he learned how to handle acting with sound.

This was the only film to feature Perrin as the Apache Kid and it’s easy to see why. The plot doesn’t even try to make sense. If Jim wants to escape being the Apache Kid, he should be happy that so many other people are willing to take over the role for him. Perrin is also stuck wearing a really big hat, which makes him look more like a Blazing Saddles extra than a cowboy star.

There were a lot of bad westerns made during the early days of the sound era. The Apache Kid’s Escape might be the worst.