We needed more Buster Crabbe, so we watched him last night in "Billy the Kid: Wanted"(1941). Buster of course plays Billy, who's getting tired of being blamed for every robbery in town. It's gotten so bad that he's taken to hiding at the Iverson Movie Ranch with his pals "Jeff" (Dave O'Brien) and "Fuzzy" (the legendary Al St. John). While riding around the rocks, Fuzzy sees a poster advertising land for sale. He tells Billy he's had enough of the wild life. "I'm tired of the Sheriff always breathin' down our necks. I just wanna farm and sit under my fig tree at the end of the day". He says his goodbyes to Billy and Jeff, and leaves for the settlement, where he knocks on the door of a homesteader for information. The man isn't home, but his wife and little boy are. She invites Fuzzy in, which provides for a few minutes of comic relief, as her boy (played by director Sam Newfield's five year old son) instructs him on the fine points of cooking vegetable soup.
Later, the husband arrives, thanks Fuzzy for his help with supper, then tells him not to buy any land because it's all a big swindle. "Mr. Brawley (Glenn Strange) gave us a good price but then charged us so much for water that we couldn't make our payments". On top of that, the only store in town is also owned by Brawley, with jacked up prices. Fuzzy is duly warned, and is reconsidering his plans, when Billy and Jeff ride to town and find him in jail.
Brawley has the Sheriff in his pocket (of course), and has had Fuzzy arrested for shooting off his mouth in the saloon, talking about the ripped-off homesteaders. There's also a third party: "Jack Saunders" (Charles King), a gang leader with a lot of honchos who's running a protection racket. He wants his cut of the land profits from Brawley, otherwise he's gonna cause trouble. Billy and Jeff know that the only way to break up this power structure is to divide and conquer, so after Fuzzy is arrested, they arrange for a jailbreak. Then they stage a brutal but phony fight with one another, to get Brawley and Saunders to think they're enemies. Billy then sides with Brawley to get back at Jeff, and Jeff sides with Saunders, to retaliate against Billy. In reality, they're pitting both big shots against one another, but Brawley and Saunders don't realise it until it's too late.
Later they figure out the scheme, and capture both Billy and Jeff, and are about to string 'em up, but Fuzzy shows up just in time with all the homesteaders who've been ripped off by Brawley and are fightin' mad. The Sheriff is a total wimp and does nothing, leaving Brawley on his own, and the homesteaders outnumber Saunders' henchmen, so the good guys win. Buster Crabbe is great in the lead role, as athletic as ever and looking more like a young Marlon Brando than Brando himself. You get 63 minutes of action at Iverson Ranch and Corriganville, and for the record, I didn't know until I looked him up on IMDB that Al St. John was the newphew of Fatty Arbuckle. I called him legendary because his career goes back to 1914, and he appeared in many of Fatty's early shorts, which are freakin' hilarious and are available on the Buster Keaton Shorts Collection. Fatty of course had his career and life destroyed by a false rape claim from a woman named Virginia Rappe. That's a whole 'nuther Hollywood Story, but check out Al St. John (and Fatty) in those early short films. They're some seriously funny stuff that'll have you scratching your head and wondering "how dey do dat"? Two Big Thumbs Up for "Billy the Kid: Wanted". It's good to have Buster Crabbe back in the saddle, the picture is reasonably good, and the movie is highly recommended. ////
The previous night we found a serious Western called "Riding Wild"(1935), with Tim McCoy in a no-nonsense role as "Tim Malloy", ranch foreman for "Matt McCabe" (Edward LeSaint, born 1870) of Sonora, California. A range war is brewing between the big and little ranchers of the town, and a cattleman's meeting has been called by the Sheriff to prevent violence. He suggests nominating a go-between to lead the coming round-up, a man who will be fair to both sides and make sure no one gets cheated or rustled.The only man everyone can agree on is Malloy, but as it turns out, rival ranch owner "Clay Stevens" (Niles Welch) only nominated him so he could later hang him out to dry, and blame him (or have him killed) for the range war that he - Stevens - is planning to ignite for certain with his henchmen.
Stevens particularly has it in for the Mexican ranchers in Sonora, who bought the land he offered, because he only sold it to them to pay off mortgage debts. He was in danger of losing his ranch, and sold off small parcels to the honest Mexican ranchers, with a view toward driving them off the land later on, in a deliberate range war, so they'd lose their deeds over non- payment and the land would revert to him. In short, he's trying to screw them and the other small ranchers too, but Malloy is a close friend of "Joaquin Ortega" (Dick Botiller), the leader of the Mexican ranchers, and he sides with them when Stevens tries to frame Joaquin for rustling.
Malloy is trying to run an honest roundup, and when a big galoot named "Barker" (Richard Alexander) is caught re-branding a calf, Joaquin is proven innocent and the peace treaty is broken. Stevens retaliates by having the Sheriff murdered and framing Joaquin. Then he hires a Malloy lookalike (Tim McCoy plays both roles), who's a wanted killer, to pretend he's Malloy so they can kidnap the real Malloy and hold him hostage while they run all the remaining small ranchers into an ambush in a gulch called The Narrows. But Malloy gets the cowboy guarding him to reveal the plan, then he knocks him off his chair and takes his gun and escapes, and rides back to get Mr. McCabe and stop the ambush.
Man, this movie is a serious representation of how range wars must've started. Someone wrote a big league historical script and put it in a 54 minute Western. McCoy is great in a dual role. There aren't the usual punchouts; it's more a chess game between the big rancher Stevens and the straight arrow Malloy, with Mr. McCabe in the middle, and the Mexican ranchers as the loyal underdogs. A small romance is threaded through, with McCoy co-star Billie Seward once again playing the love interest as Mr. McCabe's daughter. Marriages always result at the end of these movies, usually in the last fifteen seconds of dialogue.
Tim McCoy goes to the top of the heap with this film, wearing the tallest cowboy hat you'll ever see. He's young here, and as noted several blogs ago, he was an actual quick draw in real life, a talent he honed for his movie roles, so when you see him facing off an outlaw and whipping out two pistols in the blink of an eye, it's the real thing. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Riding Wild". The picture is restored and looks as good as it did in the theater 87 years ago. ////
I've been listening to Mahler symphonies for the last few days. I do that every so often, and I must say, they are among the greatest pieces of music ever written. Give a listen to Mahler's 8th (or #5 or 6), and tell me there's ever been anything better. It's just incredible stuff. For the 8th, there's a live version on Youtube, conducted by Ricardo Chailly at the Lucerne Festival, that's off the charts amazing. If you have never tried symphonic music, or only know the more familiar stuff like Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn (which is great also), I suggest giving Mahler a try. He's epic, and so is Bruckner, both of whom were influenced by the operas of Richard Wagner, which are unsurpassed in musical color and emotion. This is progressive rock, classical style, and it's every bit as great in it's own way. Give Mahler a shot and see.
That's all for tonight. I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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