Last night we went way back to 1931 with Ken Maynard, in an early Western talkie called "Branded Men". It starts with a punchout at a stable. One ranchhand insults Ken, another hand defends him. Ken emerges to settle the fight, along with "Ramrod"(Irving Bacon) and "Half-A-Rod" (the diminutive Billy Bletcher), his two rodeo partners. The stable owner is impressed with Ken's people skills, and suggests that the trio head over to Steep Gulch, where the cowpunchin' jobs pay 75 bucks a month. "That's better than I can do for you here." But he warns Ken to be careful on the way, because horse thieves hang out on the trail, and they might just shoot you in the process.
Well, the stable owner's prediction comes true, in part, because when the guys get to the middle of the Brandeis Movie Ranch in the Santa Susana Pass, Charles King is laying in wait with his honchos. They trick Ken and company with a fake call for help, then ride off with their horses. King has his eye on Tarzan (who you know by now is Maynard's trick horse), and after he and his thieves leave our boys high and dry, he takes Tarzan back to the gang's hideout, where he tries to make him obey. But Tarzan won't tame up for King, so he does what you'd expect Charles King to do in this situation. He pulls out a bullwhip and......thank goodness they don't show it.
Of course, Tarzan escapes, and finds Ken and his partners walking to Steep Gulch on the trail. When Ken sees Tarzan's welts, he vows to find out who stole and whipped him, and when they get to Steep Gulch, the three cowboys volunteer to become the new Sheriffs. Steep Gulch is lawless. The last seven Sheriffs have been killed. "Three is better than none", Ken tells the town elders, who don't wanna pay for a trio, but end up glad they did, because a bank robbery takes place, and now all their money is gone. Good thing Ken and the Rods are there to get it back. Half-A-Rod gets shoulder-shot in the bank robbery shootout, and is taken to the home of the Wilson siblings, "Bud" (Donald Keith) and "Dale" (June Clyde). Bud works at the bank as a clerk. While Half-A-Rod is being nursed back to health by Dale, he finds out that "Ramsey" the saloon owner (Hooper Atchley) used Bud as a dupe for the bank robbery. Ken is focused on finding Charlie King, the enforcer of the gang, but it's really the saloon owner behind the whole thing.
Comedy relief comes in the form of Ramrod being tall, Half-A-Rod being short, and Tarzan gets revenge on his own, when he spots Charles King in the street. He runs after King and stomps him. That they do show, though not in any graphic way. King manages to escape by shooting at 'Zan, but Ken chases him to a cliff above Chatsworth Park, where a final struggle takes place involving death defying stuntwork.
It's a very simple plot, mostly to do with Ken Maynard finding Tarzan, but it's well executed by director Phil Rosen, and you get more speaking lines than usual from good 'ol Charlie King, who will also be featured in our second movie. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Branded Men". The picture is good but slightly damaged. ////
The previous night had Tom Tyler as a boxer-turned-bronco buster in "Rip Roarin' Buckaroo"(1936), another of his contemporary Westerns set in the 1930s. In the opening scene, he's winning an important match but then suddenly he goes down for the count. He loses the fight and passes out in the locker room. His dog Alexander wakes him up, he discovers he was drugged and runs out to catch the other boxer and his manager. He beats them both up, then the trainer too, then he quits the boxing business, knowing all the fights are rigged. The next we see him, he's hitching a ride in the Alabama Hills, looking rather spiffy in a hat and three-piece suit.. A car comes along - in an usual place for a car - a jalopy driven by a goofy gent named "Frozen Face" (Sammy Cohen). Mr. Face just so happens to work for the nearby Hayden Ranch. He tells Tyler he can get him a job as a cowpunch, but only if Tom can drive the car (Frozen is a lousy driver). Tyler says yes. He puts Alexander in the back, and off they go. But the car stalls in a rut in the middle of the Alabama Hills. Another car pulls up behind them, though it's the last place you'd expect a traffic jam, and wouldn't you know it, it's driven by "Betty Rose Hayden" (Beth Marion), the impatient daughter of the ranch owner Frozen Face works for. She's a cutie, but boy is she rude. "Get that heap outta my way," she yells at Tom Tyler. He gets the car moving, and the next thing you know, he's got a job at the ranch in spite of Betty Rose. But because they've already met and argued, romantic friction has been established.
Tyler disguises his identity when her Dad asks if he's "Scotty McQuade" the famous fighter. "No, I'm not," says Tom. "We just have the same name". He doesn't want anyone to know about his boxing career, because he went out with a loss. Who would believe him if he said he lost because he was drugged?
All he wants wants a fresh start, and he gets it in the form of an uppity horse named Blue Belle. Blue Belle is irascible. None of the ranch hands can tame her. Charles King, the ranch foreman, tries to ride her and is thrown (which makes two movies in this blog where Charlie gets his butt kicked by a horse, haha). Tom asks for a chance and he's thrown too. Then he gets a second try and breaks Blue Belle. After a rip snorting ride, she accepts Tyler and takes off on an open field run. The owner sees this and is thrilled. He decides to enter Blue Belle in a horse race. But meantime, Charles King, who is jealous of Tom Tyler, helps expose him as the former boxer. Mr. Hayden the ranch owner finds out he's been lied to. He won't stand for it and fires Tyler, who leaves the ranch along with Frozen Face and Alexander. He gives Blue Belle back to the Haydens.
Then, the enemy boxing manager shows up in town, the guy that drugged Tom to begin with. He's got a horse in the race, and he's also got a new boxer to promote. He challenges Mr. Hayden to a bet: "My horse against yours, for your ranch or 50 thousand dollars." But the only one who can ride Blue Belle is Tom Tyler, and Hayden fired him. Betty Rose says "I'll get him to come back", but he won't because he's tired of being treated like dirt. When he finds out the enemy boxing manager is in town, however, he does come back to enter the horse race. The manager frames Tom, by telling the Sheriff he's a fight fixer (even though the opposite is true), and Tom gets thrown in jail. Then we have a gender bender twist, as Frozen Face dresses up as his wife to break him out. Hollywood knew camp, even in Westerns, and everyone hams it up as the cross-dressing Face helps TT enter the horse race. He and Blue Belle win, but there's still the boxing match to settle. Alexander the dog is the hero in that one.
This is one of the very best Tom Tyler movies, and a special note must be made about Charles King, who gets extra screen time and dialogue in this movie too. Although he's especially dislikeable in both films in this blog, because he's mean to horses in each one, he does get his comeuppance, and it was his job to be the bad guy in pretty much every flick he was ever in, which included hundreds and hundreds of 60 minute Westerns. He's been in, I'd guess, about 70% of the ones we've seen, and you just know when he comes onscreen that he's gonna deliver the goods as a surly, mustachioed, beer-bellied galoot. And then he's gonna start a punchout and get his butt kicked. You can lay money down on it, and because he's Charlie King, you can't wait for his appearance. After seeing him for about the two dozenth time, about a month ago, i said to myself "who is this guy? He's in every movie we've seen!", and I had to look him up. Sure enough, just as I suspected, he got his start as a comedian. Watching him as a bad guy (again and again), I said to myself, "he's gotta be a nice guy in real life", because nobody could be this mean. And nobody was ever meaner than Charles King. As a Heavy, he could show any one of today's bad guys (or from any period) how to do it. So he had to be a good guy in real life. He was also an alcoholic, and died of cirrhosis in his early '50s, and no one remembers him now, but I've become a huge Charles King fan in the last few months, and I think he should have a star on Hollywood Boulevard. Especially considering some of the (ahem) "talent" who've secured a spot on the Walk of Fame in recent years. Charlie King could show most so-called thespians a thing or two about acting. It's time he was given his due.
Two Big Thumbs Up for "Rip Roarin' Buckaroo". The picture is very good.
That's all I know for tonight. I'm listening to "Sweet Freedom" by Uriah Heep, one of the first albums I ever bought at College Records. I also listened to Ken Hensley's "Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf" for the very first time and it is quite good, very song-based in a classic 1970s way. Give it a shot if you haven't heard it.
I hope your day was good and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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