Overlooked Films: Rin-Tin-Tin's first serial - The Lone Defender

Yep, you guessed it. I'm still reading Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean. 

I've seen some of this 1930 serial, and it's pretty rough going. But it does feature the original Rin-Tin-Tin (at least in close-ups) and it produced some pretty cool posters. 

 

More Overlooked Films (and maybe some other dogs) at Sweet Freedom.

Overrestored Films: Guns Along the Trail (aka Paradise Canyon)

 

Some folks think adding color to black and white films is wrong. Not me. When it’s done right (like with Disney’s Zorro series) colorization can be a beautiful thing. But when it’s done wrong, as it was with Paradise Canyon, the film looks as washed out as an old hand-tinted photograph - and way worse than the original.

But the folks who decided to “restore” this 1935 film didn’t stop there. They also added a lame musical soundtrack produced with a tinny-sounding synthesizer. Every time I almost reached a point where I could ignore the pale colorization, the artificial music blared out - twice as loud as the dialogue - and reminded me I was watching an atrocity.

The only good thing I can say about this 2007 restored version (retitled Guns Along the Trail) is that the picture has been cleaned up, eliminating most of the flicker and fuzz common to these old oaters. If the restoration had stopped there, leaving the color and soundtrack alone, I'd be a happy man.

Paradise Canyon is one of those many Wayne films in the public domain, and has been packaged and repackaged on cheap DVDs for many years. I saw it in that form not long ago, and it’s no great shakes anyway. There’s too much talk, not enough action and nary a hint of comic relief. All the movie really has going for it is Wayne, with a semi-interesting performance by Yakima Canutt as the villain.

And why the new title - Guns Along the Trail? There are guns in it, it's true, though they aren’t used much. But because this is one of those odd westerns set in the Not-So-Old West of the 1930s, there are no trails. They have roads. Of course, the title Paradise Canyon made no sense either. There’s no canyon, and nothing remotely resembling paradise. Apparently both titles were just pulled out of a hat.

 

More Overlooked Films down the trail at Sweet Freedom.

Overlooked Oaters: The Rider of the Law (1935) starring Bob Steele

 

I've seen a lot of Bob Steele westerns over the past few months. Not because I wanted to, exactly, but because I've been working my way through the 50-film cheapo public domain collection, The Way West, and he stars in a lot of them. None have been bad. As a cowboy hero, he's a scrappy little guy with no more personality or acting ability than is absolutely necessary. Get me? He's just okay. 

The Rider of the Law is really no exception, but I single it out because for at least the first 15 minutes, I found it more amusing than the standard Steele entry. The film opens with rowdies shooting up the town and the city fathers moaning that they'll never find a sheriff willing to stand up to them. Enter a scruffy, Gabby-esque buffalo hunter (played by Si Jenks) who takes the job. Then the stage rolls in, and off hops a dude in a fedora and horn-rimmed glasses who appears to be straight from the East. You guessed, it, it's Bob Steele.

For the first few minutes of the movie, Steele displays an aptitude for slapstick humor that's missing from the other films I've seen. He attempts to mount a horse with all the acrobatic ineptitude you'd expect from Charlie Chaplin. And when he's cornered by two outlaws with guns, he flounders around until he stumbles between them and cause them to shoot each other dead. Good stuff.

We soon discover, though, that he's a federal marshall sent to clean up the town, and the dudishness is all an act. The film then falls into the usual pattern, complete with cowardly townspeople, a good girl Steele is smitten with and a bad girl who's smitten with him. 

After making a ton of these cheapies in the 30s, Steele went on to make a lot more in the 40s (many as Billy the Kid, before Buster Crabbe assumed the role). In the 50s, along with more films, he did guest stints on various TV Westerns, and in the 60s had small parts in such films as McLintock!, The Longest Day and 4 for Texas before settling into a regular role as Trooper Duffy on F-Troop. 

 

More Overlooked Films & Stuff await you, as usual at SWEET FREEDOM.

Art Gallery: Robin Hood of El Dorado (1936)

An early attempt to portray real life hero/desperado Joaquin Murrietta.

Overlooked Films: A Western Trio

Some years back I picked up the entire Great American Western series of public domain Westerns on DVD, including the separate John Wayne, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry sets issued by the same outfit.

Since then, every time I’ve seen a new, affordable (meaning cheap) collection of Westerns, it’s been a repackaging of those same films. Until now. I recently came across this 50 movie set called The Way West, and near as I can tell, only one of those 50 films - the Roy Rogers oater Hands Across the Border - was already in my possession.

The guy pictured on the cover is Bob Steele, and rightly so, because he stars in eleven of the 50 flicks. Ken Maynard is featured in five, Bill Cody and Tom Tyler in four each, Jack Randall and Tex Ritter in three. Most stars, including some of my favorites like Tim McCoy and Clayton Moore, appear only in one.

Anyway, I couldn’t resist popping in disc 1 (of 12) and checking out the films. Skipping over Hands Across the Border, first up was Bob Steele in Arizona Gunfighter (Republic, 1937). Nothing wrong with this one. Steele hooks up with a bandit leader, who - to the disappointment of his gang - turns out to be sort of a Robin Hood. It took a while to get used to the lack of musical soundtrack, though they did play some dramatic music during the climactic fist fight.

Next comes Tex Ritter in Hittin’ the Trail (Grand National, 1937). Though I still listen to a Tex record now and then, it’s been a while since I’ve seen him on screen. Interesting to compare his looks to that of his son, John Ritter, and grandson, Jason Ritter of The Event. Tex’s sidekick in this one is long, tall, slow-talkin’ Hank Worden (here billed as Heber Snow), who is more familiar for his later roles in The Searchers, McLintock, Red River and The Alamo. Again, no musical soundtrack, but thanks to Tex and his Texas Tornados, The Range Ramblers and The Phelps Brothers, we’re treated to plenty of tunes, including some Western swing. This film just happened to be directed by Bob Steele’s father, R.N. Bradbury.

Finally, we have the Three Mesquite’s (Robert Livingston, Ray “Crash” Corrigan and Max Terhune) in Come On, Cowboys! (Republic, 1937). Finally, a film with a real soundtrack. Made it go down easier. And this one had a lot more humor, including a scene where Tucson dresses up in a gorilla suit to scare a bad buy. This film is set in that magical Old West of 1937. In the beginning, as Tucson, Stony and Lullaby are performing in a circus, we see men in fedoras in the audience. And when the circus owner’s niece comes to town, she arrives on a bus instead of a stage. But from there on in it’s all horses and buckboards and Stetsons and six-guns. Has anyone read the William Colt MacDonald story that introduced these guys? Was it set the real Old West or not?

More Overlooked Films on display at Sweet Freedom!