Tonight The Durango Kid was back yet again in "Snake River Desperadoes" (1951). The plot is a familiar one, and was even used in another Durango movie that we recently watched, lol, so stop me if you've heard it before (or don't stop me and I'll tell you all about it).
Let's see.....a town businessman is scheming to sell rifles to the local Indian tribe. He poses as their friend and confidante, telling their Chief that the white settlers of the town are preparing to attack his village, in order to rid the area of Indians.
Hmmm......mightn't they want to buy a large supply of guns to defend themselves?
Chief say "yes". White businessman then deliver guns at remote location, which is discovered accidentally by ten year old TV Tommy Ivo, back for another stint in a Kid movie. Meanwhile, the businessman has another element to his nefarious plan. He has his henchmen (the town rowdies) dress up as Indians to stage their own attacks on the white settlers!
If nothing else, the repeated use of this plot serves to describe how major wars are started, by arms merchants selling weapons to either side and using false flag operations to trigger a conflict. This knowledge is old hat in the modern era, but here we see it offered in the Saturday Afternoon Matinee material of a Durango Kid movie. It is interesting to see how socially aware these stories were. You would expect a cowboy movie to at least be marginally right wing, but in these films Charles Starrett, as the dual character of "Steve"and Durango, sides against the big shots every single time. And he will not tolerate racism from anyone. This was in 1951.
Now, the message was excellent, as it always is in these Kid movies. I am running low in my collection (only have three more) and would gladly purchase another dvd set if one were available. But this was not one of the better Durango Kid flicks from my set, only because the plot was rehashed and the story seemed a bit rushed. There was a lot of ridin' and shootin' - and a ton of great Iverson Ranch footage, out near Rocky Peak - but there was not as much "villain building", i.e. developing of the bad guy and his motives as there was in prior DK films. And, most of all, there wasn't much for Smiley Burnette to do. His comic relief is a key element in every story, but here Smiley was shuffled off to the side, and what's more, there were no song vignettes by any cowboy music stars, a treat we had come to expect, having seen a different band in every movie so far.
I still give "Snake River Desperadoes" two thumbs up, even though there was no Snake River, and it was never mentioned once. The title was chosen because it sounds good, haha. As reported before, these movies get an automatic Two Thumbs because they were created in a time of different values, a time not of innocence but maybe one that was still somewhat free of cynicism. A time of open possibilities.
I love old fashioned Westerns because I like it when the Good Guys win, and when the Bad Guys are exposed for exactly who they are. And in the Durango Kid movies, the Good Guys always win and are inherently good. ////
It actually snowed today in parts of the Valley, not in snowflakes but in small droplets. We didn't get any here in Northridge, but the folks in slightly higher elevations did, and I mention it because it's a pretty rare thing.
Me, I'd hibernate if I could. And I do happen to know of a cave out in Simi Valley. If we don't warm up soon, you may find me there. :)
R.I.P. to Peter Tork of The Monkees. For a brief flash in my life, they were my favorite band, when I was seven years old. In the Summer of '67, I had all their albums and played them even more than The Beatles, and I am sure there were thousands if not millions of kids like me. Peter was the Funny Monkee, kind of like George in the early Beatles, before George got serious.
The Monkees became big enough to have played The Forum in Los Angeles, with the mighty Jimi Hendrix opening for them. They were pretty cool and have many songs that still hold up today.
1967 was The Summer Of Love, and Flower Power and Paisley Shirts.
See you in the morning with a ton of love sent til then. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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