Theodore Van Etz | Through the Shattered Lens

Biff Smith (John Wayne), fired from his job as a school bus driver, becomes a partner in a trucking company. In order to show-up the railroads that are determined to put any potential competitors out of business, Biff and his fleet race a train to the Pacific Coast, where a boat needs to be unloaded before a labor strike begins. Making this personal for Biff is that he’s in love with Mary Porter (Louise Latimer), the sister of Biff’s late business partner. Embittered by her brother’s death in a trucking accident, Mary is now working for the head of the railroad, James Gifford (Theodore van Eltz). Biff not only wants to prove that his small trucking firm can compete with the big boys but also wants to show Mary that her new boss is nothing but a smooth-talking weasel.

This film is from John Wayne’s B-movie star period, before John Ford cast him in Stagecoach and made him one of the biggest stars in the world. California Straight Ahead! features Wayne in a contemporary role, though the movie still has a western sensibility. There’s not much difference between a wagon train and Wayne’s fleet of trucks and, as in so many westerns, the greedy railroad baron is the villain. This is one of Wayne’s better B-movie performances. He was clearly comfortable in front of the camera by the time he made this movie and was no longer as stiff as he was in his earlier films. California Straight Ahead! is a crowd-pleasing film that finds Wayne standing up for small businesses and their workers. Though this may just be a 61-minute B flick, California Straight Ahead! reveals the movie star that Wayne would soon become.

1932’s The Red-Haired Alibi tells the story of Lynn (Merna Kennedy).

When we first meet Lynn, she is working at a store in Manhattan. She has red hair. The film is in black-and-white but we have no doubt that her hair is red because every single character who meets her mentions that she has red hair and she continually reminds people that she has red hair. Everyone seems to be so stunned to meet a redhead! And I have to say that this is the most realistic part of this movie. I have red hair. I’ve had complete strangers tell me that they like my hair. I’ve also had complete strangers ask me if I’m a natural redhead (and I am!) and some other things that I’m not going to repeat here. Personally, I love having red hair. I’m a member of the proud 2%. I don’t care if some people claim that people with red hair don’t have souls. When you’ve got red hair, what else do you need?

As for the movie, Lynn meets a charming man named Trent Travers (Theodore van Enz). Trent offers to give Lynn a job, away from the drudgery of working in sales. Trent will pay Lynn to be his companion at night. And since this is a pre-code film, Red-Haired Alibi is pretty open about what that means. Lynn agrees. Trent is handsome and rich and who couldn’t use the money during the Great Depression? I imagine the film’s audience agreed. One thing that always comes through in these Depression-era pre-code films is that morals don’t really matter when you’re struggling to pay your rent and not starve to death.

The problem is that Trent is a gangster. Trent spends his nights committing crimes and then using Lynn as his alibi. Eventually, Lynn realizes that she’s gotten herself into a dangerous situation. The police suggest to her that she should get out of town before Trent takes things too far. (I guess they didn’t have witness protection in 1932.)

Lynn flees New York and builds a new life for herself in White Plains. She meets a charming widower named Bob Wilson (Grant Withers). They marry and settle into a life of domestic bliss. Lynn becomes the stepmother to Bob’s young daughter (played by Shirley Temple, in what is believed to have been her film debut). Everything seems to finally be perfect for Lynn. Or at least it does until Trent shows up….

The Red-Haired Alibi is a generally well-acted but somewhat slow 1930s melodrama. Comparing this film to some of the other films of the early 30s, it’s a relief to see a cast that knows how to deliver dialogue in the sound era but director Christy Carbanne sometimes struggles to maintain the sort of narrative momentum necessary to make a film like this compelling. The ending feels a bit silly but, at least during the pre-code era, there wasn’t a need to try to punish Lynn for having a less-than-perfect past.

Dancer and former silent actress Merna Kennedy was best-known for her work with Charlie Chaplin and she gives a likable performance as Lynn. Two years after making this film, she married Busby Berkley and retired from acting. Tragically, she died of a heart attack in 1944, when she was only 36 years old.