Last night we watched "Drift Fence"(1936), another Zane Grey Western, this time starring Buster Crabbe, the Olympic swimmer who became a movie star. Crabbe plays "Slinger Dunn" a gunman who's working for cattle rustler "Clay Jackson" (Stanley Andrews). The movie opens in Arizona at a rodeo, where a New York city slicker named "Jim Traft" (Benny Baker), is watching the action with a local man, "Jim Travis" (Tom Keene). Traft is in Arizona to take over his uncle's cattle ranch. He doesn't want to be there (he's a geek in a checkered suit, played for comic relief), so he asks Travis, an experienced cowboy, to go in his place. "We have almost the same name, just pretend you're me. You'll get a free ranch out of it". Travis hedges at first, until he hears that Clay Jackson is rustling cattle in the area. The name seems to ring a bell for Travis and causes him to change his mind.
He goes to the ranch and poses as Jim Traft, wearing a three piece suit. He looks like a city boy and the ruse works. Travis-as-Traft is then sent out by the ranch foreman to work on building the drift fence, which keeps rustlers from stealing the cattle. Clay Jackson hears about the fence, and sends Slinger Dunn out to warn Travis and his men. "You'd better stop putting up this fence if you want to stay alive". But Travis doesn't stop, and we figure a showdown is coming. Slinger seems pretty tough. but when he goes home, we find out that he's under the thumb of his domineering Grandma (Effie Ellsler, our earliest actress to date, born in 1855!). She is a complete witch, who thinks fence builders should be shot, and if Slinger isn't man enough to do it, she's gonna send out her granddaughter Molly (Katherine DeMille, daughter of Cecil B) to do the job. In fact, Slinger doesn't want to be involved in battles with the ranchers. He's actually a passive kind of guy, but his Granny grinds him down to a nub. Finally, she sends Molly to go shoot Travis, but on the way she falls off her horse. Travis comes to her rescue and now she's too embarrassed to shoot him.
There's a romantic interlude in which Travis (still posing as Jim Traft), becomes friendly with Molly when he sees her at a square dance. Of course, their initial friction means love will result, as written in the Motion Picture Code of Law. We later find out that Jim Travis is really an undercover Texas Ranger who's been looking for Clay Jackson for years. He realizes that Slinger and Molly are under Jackson's control, and offers them a chance to be on his side. This sets up a showdown between Jackson's men (the rustlers) and Jim Travis and the Dunns. By now, Granny Dunn has seen the light and is fighting for the good guys. She grabs a rifle in the final shootout, and.....that's all I can tell you.
We can't end the review, however, without mentioning the star power of Buster Crabbe. I'm surprised we haven't seen him before. He was big box office in the 1930s, and played Tarzan and Flash Gordon, as well as appearing in a ton of Westerns and jungle movies. Crabbe of course was a champion swimmer at USC before going on to compete in the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928, then Los Angeles in 1932, where he won a gold medal. It must be noted that he's very handsome, resembling a young Marlon Brando in both looks and voice. He's a natural as a movie star and we'll be on the lookout for more of his films. Tom Keene, with his Pepsodent smile, is also great as the prototypical White Hat, Jim Travis. Benny Baker supplies goofy comic relief as Jim Traft, ditto Chester Gan as the Chinese cook. This is a jam packed 56 minute movie with plenty of authentic Western detail, courtesy of Zane Grey. Two huge thumbs up! The picture is razor sharp. /////
The previous night - you guessed it - yet another Zane Grey Western, once again with Buster Crabbe. In "Desert Gold"(1936) he plays "Moya", an Indian chief whose tribe owns a secret gold mine in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. As the movie opens, cowboy "Randolph Gale" (Tom Keene again) and "Ford Mortimer" (Bob Cummings of "Love That Bob" fame) are headed to the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, to work as mining engineers for "Chet Kasedon" (Monte Blue), the town big shot who's after the Indians' gold mine (Iverson Ranch is standing in for the Superstition Mountains). The first ten minutes is hijinx in the stagecoach, as Ford Mortimer has a toothache, and the town doctor, who happens to be riding shotgun on the stage, hops inside the carriage to pull his infected tooth. The doc is also the father of passenger "Judy Belding" (Marsha Hunt, who's still alive at 104 years old! She's the oldest living Hollywood star, and she's only 19 in the movie!) Anyhow, Bob Cummings is quite funny as the goofball Mortimer. But when he and Randolph Gale get to town, they see Chet Kasedon whipping Moya, to get him to tell where the Indian gold mine is located. Naturally they are horrified. Gale pulls a gun on Kasedon and tells him to back off. "I'm not gonna work for you now". Instead, he and Mortimer team up with Moya and the Indians to protect the gold mine, but Kasedon won't give up without a fight.
There's a lot of shenanigans in this one from Love That Bob, and a major rom/com angle with Tom Keene and the beautiful Marsha Hunt, who went on to become a cult figure in film noirs until her movie career was cut short by HUAC, who blacklisted her in the 1950s for her political views. But, she outlived 'em all, haha, and is presumably having the last laugh.
Buster Crabbe is once again great as Moya. The last fifteen minutes is a shoot-em-up extravaganza, shot on location at the Garden of the Gods in the Santa Susana Pass. The great Lief Erickson has small roles in both of the movies in this blog. He was of course the star of the High Chapparal TV series in the mid-60s. There are all kinds of bit parts from wonderful cowboy actors. This was the most lively of the Zane Greys we've seen so far, with large doses of comedy and romance added to the mix to lighten the grim persecution of Moya. He gifts Tom Keene with a beautiful Palomonio horse, to show his appreciation for Keene saving his life.
Once again, there are so many layers to the script that you could watch the movie three times to get it all. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "Desert Gold". It's very highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp. ///
That's all I know for tonight. I hope your week is going well, and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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