Last night, we found another Zane Grey entitled "Mark of the Avenger"(1938), a complex Western with a layered plot. Let me see if I've got it all straight. As the movie opens, a stage is robbed in the Arizona desert by "Pecos Bill" (Douglas Dumbrille) and his partner "Frosty" (the great Sidney Toler, known for Charlie Chan). I guess Pecos Bill is an all purpose name for Zane Grey, because he uses it at random for different characters in various movies. Anyway, one of the guys Pecos robs is a passenger named "Jack Bellounds" (Weldon Heyburn), an ornery young man who tells Pecos "you'll be sorry you robbed me". Why? Because he's the son of the local ranch owner, "William Bellounds" (Stanley Andrews), a town big shot. Sonny Boy Jack is returning from a stint in prison. Dad Bellounds wants to keep it quiet, so he gives his boy a job at the ranch. The next thing you know, who should show up but Pecos Bill and Frosty, under assumed names and without their masks on (oh, the Covid horror!)
Pecos wants the ranch, but not in the way you'd think. He's not trying to steal it, but we find this out slowly. He and Frosty get jobs, through "Collie" (Charlotte Field) the adopted daughter of Mr. Bellounds. Pecos is attentive to Collie; Frosty says "why, you're old enough to be her father!" More on that later. Collie gives Frosty the job as ranch cook, which makes for much mirth at the hands of Sidney Toler, who's responsible for comic relief. Meanwhile, someone is rustling cattle at the ranch. Soon, we find out it's Jack Bellounds, under the direction of his Dad. But why would the ranch owner rustle his own cattle, you ask? Well, he's under the control of "Cap Folsom" (Monte Blue), the local hotelier, and if there's anyone in these movies who has more criminal power than the ranch owner, or the assayer, it's always the hotelier. In fact, let's do a quick Bad Guy Hierarchy, from the lowest rung to the top: henchman, ranch foreman, sheriff, assayer, ranch owner, land office agent, hotelier.
So yeah, the hotelier is really behind the rustling scheme. He's just using Mr. Bellounds as a front man. "Wils Moore" (Russell Hayden) steps in to try and stop the rustling, because he's the head cowpuncher at the ranch, but Jack Bellounds doesn't like him for two reasons: 1) Because Collie thinks he's handsome, and 2) Jack is doing all the rustling. Meanwhile, Pecos Bill gets closer to Collie, when he becomes the dog handler at the ranch. She admires how good he is with the dogs; previous handlers mistreated them and Pecos doesn't do that. The big reveal comes when we learn that Pecos is Collie's father. His real name is Ben Wade. He used to own the ranch until his business partner was murdered. Wade was framed for the murder by Mr. Bellounds, his foreman at the time, who took over the ranch but is really just a front man for Folsom the hotel owner. Folsom is the real killer of Ben Wade's partner. The frame job drove Wade underground, and he became "Pecos Bill". Ever since, he's been trying to get his ranch back so he could give it to Collie, who doesn't know he's her father.
Wils the cowpunch falls in love with Collie, and discovers Pecos Bill's secret. This aligns the men and they forge a pact to stop the rustling and expose Bellounds. They don't yet know that Folsom is controlling him. We've talked about the use of humor in these 60 minute Westerns; Sidney Toler provides some of the best we've seen, due to his acting ability. He juggles several running jokes, having to do with his cooking skills and his many stints in jail, all hilarious, and his character is also good at throwing knives. Russell Hayden had the looks and the talent to be a major Western star, but he was more of the silent good guy type, maybe a little too inward in style to become as big as "Personality-Plus" actors such as Johnny Mack Brown or Tom Tyler. Still, his movies should be sought out, as theirs are. Well anyhow, I hope I sufficiently explained the plot. Finally, when Folsom is exposed, he shows his true colors by shooting Mr. Bellounds in the back. This forces son Jack to avenge his father, but Folsom's henchmen shoot him too, which leads to a final showdown in the desert between Pecos, Frosty and Wils on one side, and Folsom and his henchmen on the other. Here we see why Zane Grey's writing is a cut above. Not that we don't love our other Western scripts, which use hijinks in place of layering (because we love the heck out of those films) but with ZG, you get more of a major league plot. Anyway, nuff said. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Mark of the Avenger". It's highly recommended and the picture is very good. ////
The previous night, we saw Tom Tyler in "Orphan of the Pecos"(1937), a Western concurrent with it's release year. Now that's different! It's unusual to see any Western with automobiles driving around, but in this film, the car replaces the covered wagon for 20th Century snake oil salesman "Jeremiah Matthews" (Theodore Lorch), who sells bottles of something he calls "Kuro" (think "cure-all"), which is nothing more than bad corn whiskey. He happens to be driving along a dirt road when he runs into "Tom Rayburn" (Tom Tyler), who's headed into town to look for a job slingin' cattle. Rayburn buys a bottle of Kuro from Matthews, just to be a good sport, then he demonstrates his shootin' skills by throwing it in the air and pickin' it off, Kablammo! They both have a laugh and Rayburn rides into town and stops at the nearest ranch to ask about a job. Well, we already know he's gonna find a dead man there, because in the first scene, the ranch foreman came in and tried to rob the ranch owner. In their confrontation, we find out that the foreman wants to marry the owner's daughter, but the owner knows he's a crumbum who covets the ranch and also has a gambling problem. When the owner resists the robbery, the foreman shoots him dead, then flees with the money from the safe.
When Tom Rayburn shows up and finds the owner dead, his daughter arrives shortly thereafter with the foreman, who's doubled back so he can pin the murder on Rayburn. They find him hovering over the owner's body, and the foreman tries to make a citizens arrest. He even plants the stolen cash in Rayburn's pocket to frame him. But Rayburn gets the better of the foreman with a quick punch, then he rides off to try and find Jeremiah Matthews the snake oil salesman, the only man who can vouch for his alibi.
Meanwhile, the foreman is trying to convince the owner's daughter (who is now the "orphan" of the title) not to sell off the ranch, which she owns, now that her pa is dead. Tom Rayburn returns surreptitiously and tries to convince her he didn't commit the murder. It takes some doing, but when he explains everything, including the foreman's motivations, she sees the truth. In an aside, I noticed that in the years between "Deadwood Pass", the 1933 film that introduced us to Tom Tyler, and this movie, it appears that Tyler did some work on his voice, and maybe had some dialogue training. He speaks much more smoothly than he did in the earlier film, in the soft, modulated way of Johnny Mack Brown and Buster Crabbe.
This is a very, very low budget picture, and the script is not developed past what I've described. There's no comedy, or singing, or rom/com or henchman subplots. It's just Tom Tyler, and the foreman, and the daughter, and the Kuro salesman in his motorcar, with minor appearances from the town Sheriff and a few bit players. However, because everyone is so likable (except the foreman), the whole thing works. And, there's a huge twist that you'll never see coming. I mean, never in a million years will you see it coming. When it comes, you might - might - relate it to something that occurs much earlier in the film, when Tyler tricks the foreman in their original punchout. But that thought will vanish quickly when the twist is revealed. Then you'll think, "man that was some clever screenwriting". Tom Tyler gets to do a lot of his signature horse mounts, where he runs up behind his steed and pushes on its rear like a pommel horse, and launches himself into the saddle.
Jeanne Martel is sweet and savvy as the orphan "Ann Gelbart". She was Tom Tyler's real life wife for a while. I wish there was info on the location; part of it looks like Iverson Ranch, but then there are scenes with open range, boulders and pine trees, which could be San Berdoo. Well anyhow, Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is soft, and slightly below what we consider par, but watch it because we love Tom Tyler. ////
And that's all I've got for tonight. I didn't buy a Porcupine Tree ticket after all, I'm sorry to say, because of prices and principle. The base price for the ticket was 70 dollars, which is fair for a decent seat these days, but Ticketmaster added 28 dollars in service fees, a 39% increase. Sorry, but No Can Do, for any band. Especially not with 6 dollar gasoline. No problem, though. I've been to a million concerts in my life, it won't kill me to miss one, or two, or three, or thirty. I hope you are having a good week, and I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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