Would you believe Tim McCoy as a cop? Yes you would; the only difference is the type of uniform and a squad car instead of a horse, but the no nonsense persona is intact, and so are the consequences for bad guys as he patrols the streets of Los Angeles in "Police Car 17"(1933). As the movie opens, he and his partner Ward Bond get a call about a child abduction. A woman is reporting that her ex-husband has taken their boy, who she has custody of. In truth, all the guy did was pick the kid up from school. He has visitation rights, and drove off a few minutes early, is all. McCoy is ready to arrest the guy, because he follows procedure, but you can tell he wants to give him a break, because the charge is trivial. The man simply made a mistake. McCoy leaves it up to the ex-wife if she wants to press charges. Then he asks their little boy what he would like to have happen. The kid says: "I wish my Mom and Dad would go home together", and that's the message of the scene. McCoy saves the day, and maybe the marriage.
During the stop, he meets "Helen Regan" (Evalyn Rapp) a teacher from the school who was present as a witness. He and Bond offer her a ride home, and are impressed to learn she's the daughter of the legendary police lieutenant "Dan Regan" (Wallis Clark), who worked at the same station as McCoy and Bond years earlier. McCoy asks Helen if he can meet her Dad, she says yes, and he's shocked to discover that the old Lt. is confined to a wheelchair with a bullet in his spine, courtesy of master criminal "Big Bill Standish" (Edwin Maxwell). Standish is doing life for the shooting, but later that night, McCoy hears on the radio that he's just escaped from prison. We see Standish in a barber shop. The barber's a compadre of his, he trims Standish's hair so it looks like he's balding, gives him a fake Van Dyke beard, and voila - he's now incognito, posing as a college professor. He's on a mission to pay back the chief, who put him in prison. The first time he shot him, he only paralyzed him. Now he's gonna finish the job. The entire force is on the lookout for Standish, but in the meantime McCoy is also forming a relationship with Helen Regan, the lieutenant's daughter. She also has a boyfriend on the side, a car dealer who knew McCoy when they were kids.
A bank robbery takes place, and the car dealer might be involved. Is he a pal of Big Bill Standish? In the way the cronies are associated, the plot is similar to our 60 minute westerns. But the difference, besides genres, is that you get some utterly fantastic location footage with all the police chases. It looks like the movie was shot in Pasadena and the east Valley, and man, oh man I would love to know the streets because there's some very old storefronts. The action camerawork for 1933 is outstanding. Columbia was the studio so perhaps they gave 'em a bigger budget.
Tim will of course find out that Helen's car dealer boyfriend is a criminal. There is one horrible scene where he beats the tar out of the guy, and it's way too realistic (i.e. pre-Code). You can imagine that this was the way cops dealt with hoodlums in the old days, but even though they speed up the footage, it's still hard to watch. Arrest the guy, give him life in prison, but don't beat him to a pulp, it's just not right. Dan Regan the lieutenant has to get an operation on his spine (another Western plot go-to) and the criminals send a fake ambulance to pick him up and take him to their hideout instead of the hospital. McCoy has to find him for the final shootout with Big Bill Standish. Take the Western plots we know and love, and transfer them to an Adam 12 scenario, and there you have it - Two Big Thumbs Up for "Police Car 17". The picture is so-so, but don't miss it, not only for the movie but the aforementioned old-time locations. ////
The previous night, we watched Buck Jones and Raymond Hatton, who make up 2/3rds of the "Rough Riders" franchise (Tim McCoy is the other third), guide a wagon train through Indian country in "Dawn on the Great Divide"(1942). As the movie opens, their associate "Jack Carson" (Rex Bell) is having a pow-wow with the elders of the local tribe. They smoke the peace pipe, and the chief tells Carson, in sign language, that it isn't Indians attacking settlers on the Oregon Trail, but white men dressed as Indians. Carson thanks the chief, then rides off to warn Jones and Hatton. A lengthy interlude takes place, as we are introduced to the settlers in the wagon train itself. Buck and Hatton ride past each coach, as a Happy Trails-type soundtrack plays. Buck says "hi" or "mornin" to each family, and we get introduced to the characters. From this intro, it is clear that a saga is ahead of us. Another clue is the 69 minute running time. This is not an ordinary Cowboys and Crooks Western.
On his way to the wagon train, Carson the Indian Scout stops in Beaver Creek to talk to "Jim Corkle" (Harry Woods), the proprietor of the general store and gambling house. Carson is now posing as a gambler, to fish for info on Corkle's possible connection to the attacks. If white men are posing as Indians on the trail, there aren't any other outposts in the area, so chances are good that Corkle knows something about it. We already know he's a crook. We've seen his henchman stopping the supply wagons from reaching Beaver Creek. They don't want settlers coming in because there's a gold mine they want all to themselves.
The wagon train settlers' saga is a plot unto itself, and - as we've talked many times about packing a ton of story into a short film format - this movie, at one hour and nine minutes, has enough story to fill a motion picture twice it's length. It's so complex, with the plot lines of the settlers intertwined with that of Jim Corkle, that to be honest I was unable to take in every detail, being used to the less complex plots of our recent White Hat/Black Hat Westerns.
The main subtheme involves a woman who dies in the back of a wagon belonging to "Sadie Rand" (Mona Barrie), a singer who - along with her husband - is on her way to Oregon to open a saloon. The dead woman leaves behind a baby that is a child of Jim Corkle's son. Corkle's brother, a crooked judge, and his harridan wife are also traveling in the wagon train, and they have a feud with Sadie Rand and her husband. Once Sadie has custody of the child, she has a wedge into the Corkles' hold over everyone in Beaver Creek. She demands half of Jim Corkle's gambling empire, otherwise, she's gonna expose his son, who has a bastard child and will no doubt have to pay child support in addition to the loss of his reputation.
Buck Jones gives a heartfelt performance in what was his last film before he died in the Coconut Grove nightclub fire, and I'll bet they passed out Kleenex when it was shown posthumously, due to the "wave goodbye" ending. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "Dawn on the Great Divide", but you've really gotta pay attention because there is twice as much stuff going on as usual. The picture is razor sharp. /////
That's all for tonight. I hope you had a good weekend and a nice Easter Sunday. I had a nice birthday yesterday, I'm listening to Jethro Tull live, and I send you Tons of Love as always!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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