How about a mystery/Western hybrid? Zane Grey pulls it off with aplomb, in "Rocky Mountain Mystery"(1935), starring the great Randolph Scott. At this point, I'm trusting you to sing the Randolph Scott chorus on your own, and please don't do it halfheartedly. Give it all you've got, okay? Thanks. Scott plays "Larry Sutton" a mining engineer, called to the Ballard Radium Mine in Big Bear as a replacement for his brother-in-law Jack Parsons, who's walked off the job without notice. When Sutton gets there, he learns there's been a murder. Adolph Borg, the mine's manager, has been killed on site and in a most gruesome way, by being placed under the stamp mill, a giant ore-smashing machine. Needless to say, there isn't much left of him to examine. Nevertheless, Sutton meets "Tex Murdoch" (Chic Sale), an old geezer living in a shack who claims to be the town Sheriff. He's got what's left of Mr. Borg laying in a back room. The first ten minutes of the movie is an extended scene between Sutton and Tex in Tex's shack. In a semi-comic turn, actor Sale plays Tex as a crotchety "Festus" type, who swears he's gonna solve him the "gol' durn" case if its the last "dad gum" thing he ever does, goldurnit! He shares a ham steak supper with Larry Sutton, who then leaves to introduce himself to old "Mr. Ballard" (George F. Marion), the mine's bedridden owner.
Ballard bemoans the death of Adolph Borg, and tells Larry that someone may be out to get him too. A masked rider has been seen in the area. Radium has turned out to be worth a lot of money, with the advent of modern medicine.
The Shur-ff (Sheriff) suspects Jack Parsons in the murder. As mentioned, he was the mining engineer before Sutton. Sutton doubts it. "I know Jack. He's going to marry my sister. He isn't the murdering type". Sutton then meets Ballard's granddaughter "Rita" (the great Ann Sheridan in one of her first roles), who lives at the mine. She seconds Larry's opinion. "Jack Parsons didn't do it. He was a good employee for my grandfather." She thinks it could have been a brother and sister nephew/niece team who stand to inherit Mr. Ballard's estate, now that Adolph Borg is out of the way. But then the nephew is murdalized, once again under the stamping machine. That lets him off the hook as a suspect, but what about his sister? She can't stand Mr. Ballard, wants his money, and doesn't want to share it with anyone. But that doesn't mean she'd kill her brother. And what about "Mrs. Borg" (Leslie Carter), the housekeeper? Mr. Ballard kept her on, after her husband's death, and a long-ago affair is rumored. A son is involved, is he illegitimate? You'll have to ask Zane Grey and he's probably not talkin'. The plot is Ten Little Indians, but it isn't confined to one room. The movie was filmed on location at an actual stamping mine in Big Bear, the Kober-Dober mine.
The acting is superior by all involved, and we have not one but three of our earliest actors ever, including......drum roll please.....the new record holder, Leslie Carter, born in 1857. She was three years old when the Civil War began, imagine that. In addition to Miss Carter, we also have Charles F. Marion, born in 1860, and Florence Roberts (as "Mrs. Ballard"), born in 1861. Just to give you an idea of how far out that is, in a mindblowing way, consider my great-grandmother Catherine Kelly, who was born in 1859. Now imagine her at 6 years old, when a child is fully aware of what's going on and is able to form lasting memories. Great-Grandma Kelly would've been 6 in 1865. Imagine her shaking hands with her own great-grandma, or any woman who was 90 years old at the time. That woman would have been born in 1775, or one year before America became a country. Mozart was 19 then. So if that lady shook hands with great-grandma Kelly, and she shook hands with Dad (she helped raise him), and Dad shook hands with me, then I'm only three handshakes away from Mozart and the American Revolution. You are too, in your own family tree. Isn't that far out? I think it is, because when we think of "history", it always seems like such a long time ago, and yet here, in this case it's within three handshakes. In any event, Two Big Thumbs Up for "Rocky Mountain Mystery". The picture is very good. ////
The previous night, we saw another great Johnny Mack Brown drama, "Between Men (1935). With JMB you always get stories with extra heart, and in this film the feeling goes deep, as the Johnny Mack character (also named "Johnny") loses his father as a child. His dad is blacksmith "John Wellington", and you might think he's no good, because he's branded little Johnny with a horseshoe on his chest. But despite that (and he may have done it for a reason, i.e child theft in the Old West, though no reason is ever given) he does love his son, that much is obvious. But one day, "Sir George Thorn" (Lloyd Ingraham) rides into town with his little granddaughter on their buckboard. A lowlife named "Trent" (Earl Dwire) and his honchos insult them, making cracks about the little girl's absent mother (i.e. that she was a harlot).
Big John Wellington the blacksmith won't stand for that kind of talk. He storms the men and beats them up, but there's four of them, and eventually one gets free. He takes a shot at Wellington and hits his little son instead. Wellington, thinking his beloved little Johnny is dead, goes after the hoodlums with a gun. He shoots one guy dead, then runs off and becomes a fugitive. He has nothing more to live for with his son dead, but what he doesn't know is that a doctor was able to save little Johnny's life. The boy is then adopted by old Sir George Thorn, who leaves him his estate in his will. By now, little Johnny is all grown up and is Johnny Mack Brown. Sir George, on his deathbed, has one final wish, that Johnny locate and return with his granddaughter, who left him years earlier after a falling out over her mother. Johnny heads out, and asks around about "Gail Winters", who would now be in her early twenties. In a twist of fate, he discovers she's been living with an older man named "Rand" (William Farnum), who been acting as a father figure/protector. Rand has been at war with the Trent gang, who steal from everyone in the area, but men on his own meager crew have had their eyes on Gail for a long time. While Johnny is searching for her, a harrowing scene takes place, in which some of Rand's men decide to rape her while he's out of town.
This scene is no joke, and is about as realistic as could be portrayed in a 1935 Western. The men never get ahold of Gail, but she overhears what they're planning and runs for her buckboard. The horses take off, she's slapping the reins as hard as she can, and before long she's out of control. The hoodlums are chasing her down on their horses, and it's a terrible but realistic scene, and you can imagine a woman trying to flee from such men, and in this case the actors portrayed them as absolute Wild West lowlifes. Beth Marion was a great actress also, and the whole scene is just awful. But then Johnny Mack rides in and saves her at the last minute, just as she's about to ride off a cliff.
After that, it's easy to despise Trent and look forward to what's coming to him when JMB and Rand finally catch up to him. There's also gonna be a huge plot twist that I can't reveal, but Johnny does tell Gail that Sir George wants to reconcile with her before he dies.
There's also a conflict between Johnny and Rand. They get into a punchout over Gail, when Johnny tells Rand he wants to marry her. Rand thinks of Gail as a daughter and doesn't want any rank-and-file cowpunch taking her away. Johnny Mack says he loves her, and that leads to the fight, which leads to the humongous plot twist. That's all I can tell you, but again this is a first-class Western drama, with more depth than your standard cowboys & crooks plot. We'll have to look for more from William Farnum, who plays Rand. He was a well-respected Silent actor and is excellent in this film. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Between Men". The picture is very good. ////
That's all for tonight. I'm listening to "A" by Jethro Tull, a fantastic album that I hadn't heard before. Tull and Uriah Heep are this year's Binge Bands, I'm hooked on both. :)
I hope you had a nice day and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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