We've got a Rough Riders double bill this time, beginning with "Arizona Bound"(1941), the first film in the series. U.S. Marshal "Buck Roberts" (Buck Jones) is all set to retire on his Arizona ranch, when he gets a telegram from his captain "Bat Madison" (gotta love that name), asking him to come back one last time to help out on a case involving a Wells Fargo stage line in Mesa City. Buck is loyal to the Riders (and the Marshal's Office) and can't say no, even though he'd rather be kickin' up his heels over a plate of ribs n' beans. One thing you have to understand about the Rough Riders is that they work separately at first, and by deception. Each Rider plays a role to deceive the bad guys, so at first, Buck goes to Mesa City posing as a cattle rancher who needs livestock. Through "Ruth Masters" (Luana Walters), the gal that runs the stage, he finds out that the town is going under. It's lawless, they don't have a Sheriff, and the last seven stage drivers have been killed. Buck already knows this, of course, but he has to maintain his cover. Ruth explains the relentless string of stage and gold robberies. Buck volunteers to drive a stage himself. "I want to start my ranch and I'd like to help clean up the town". At the same time, an itinerant preacher shows up at the local saloon. He's "Marshal Tim McCall" (Tim McCoy), in disguise of course. McCall is another one of the Riders. The tough guys in the bar call him a Sky Pilot. I've wondered where that phrase originated, as my brother and I liked the song of that name by Eric Burdon and the Animals, and we had our own version, so it was interesting to hear the phrase used as an epithet, and in an Old West movie to boot.
McCall shows the hoodlums who's boss when he whips out his six gun and shatters a honcho's beer mug. "Pilot that!", he exclaims. Then he challenges the owner of the saloon to a card game, 500 bucks a hand. "I need a new church and you're gonna pay for it when you lose." The saloon owner is of course the crook behind the stage robberies. We can repeat the Western Hierarchy of Criminals if need be, but saloon owner is in the top 5. When Tim wins enough hands to score five gees for his church, he quits. "Pay up by tomorrow", he tells the guy.
Raymond Hatton plays "Marshal Sandy Hopkins", the third of the Rough Rider trio. He always disguises himself as a disheveled bumbler of one sort or another, but his nickname as a Marshal is Killer. In a pinch, he can always be counted on to save Tim and Buck, and in many cases, he's the one who does the investigative work while the other two are duking it out with - or being framed by - the bad guys. Killer is the Columbo of the group.
I got a huge kick out of the saloon owner (Tristam Coffin) being named "Mr. Taggart". "Blazing Saddles" fans will get the reference. The plot is simple, just the Riders against the stage bandits. There's no romance until the very end, when Buck points his gun at Ruth Masters and her boyfriend and orders them to get married, which is also part of the comic relief. Also funny is Ruth's "Aunt Mildred" (Kathryn Sheldon), who huffs and puffs about going back to Kansas City, a "civilized town". Buck Jones has a great line at the end of the movie when she finally leaves, now that the stage line has been saved. He tells Aunt Mildred to "get your hoofs up" on the bench seat, and the line goes by so fast that she does a double take (my hoofs?!) and it's a total crack up, worthy of a comedian's insult. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Arizona Bound". The picture is soft but watchable. ////
The previous night, the Rough Riders investigated the murders of two Marshals in "Ghost Town Law" (1942), a mysterious Western with spooky overtones. Something weird is going on in the town of Pickwick. "Keep Out" signs are everywhere, including the graveyard, but no one goes there anyway; it's a ghost town and the only resident is old lady Pickwick, who lives in a Victorian joint resembling the Psycho house with her creepy Indian assistant "Pawnee" (Frank Lackteen), who skulks around and makes coffee. This is one coffee drinkin' movie; someone's always downing a cup, and as the movie opens, we find out there's people in Pickwick after all. Outlaw "Red Larkin" (Tom Corbett) is hiding out in the tunnels of the old Pickwick mine, along with his henchmen (including Charles King, thank goodness).
Red knows that old lady Pickwick has gold stashed in her creepy house. He aims to get it, and the rest of the gold in the mine, but first he has to get rid of the foreman at Pickwick Ranch, a young guy who's in love with "Josie Hall" (Virginia Carpenter), Lady Pickwick's niece, who's just arrived in town to inspect the mine after the old lady falls dead.
Meanwhile, the Rough Riders have convened per their captain, Bat Madison. Tim McCoy is always the overt one. Here he works openly, as he usually does, as a US Marshall, in this case to investigate the old lady's death. Buck Jones appears later on as a bedraggled drifter, covered in dirt, who's "near death" when he stumbles to the Pickwick doorstep. It's a ploy to get inside the house, but at first you don't know that he's a good guy.
Raymond Hatton similarly ingratiates himself with an old geezer named "Luke Martin" (Milburn Morante), who lives in a shack near the mine, and knows the goings on of the ghost town. A masked rider is trying to kill Buck Jones (the drifter), and then the young ranch foreman. Of course, the rider is Charles King, and when King finally takes on Raymond Hatton, the two tumble down a mine shaft, and Hatton discovers the labyrinth of tunnels. When Luke Martin finds out that Hatton is a Marshal, he actually utters the line "what in Tarnation are ya doin' here?"
At first, there's confusion in the plot, because the mission of the Riders isn't specified at the beginning, as it was in "Arizona Bound". Also, Tim McCoy's role is minor this time. Mystery is the key aspect over plot, but once the Rough Riders come together in the last fifteen minutes, it all begins to make sense. The bottom line is that movies don't get better than the Rough Rider series. They're all about the camaraderie between the three leads, and their different specialties in crime solving. They always go their separate ways when the case is over: McCoy to Wyoming, Hatton back to Texas, and Buck Jones to Arizona, where he retires at the end of every movie. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Ghost Town Law". The print is very good. I can't recommend this series highly enough.
That's all for tonight. I'm listening to Glenn Gould play the French Suites by Bach, and I wish you a very nice weekend. I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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