Last night we watched the great William S. Hart in "Wagon Tracks"(1919), another of his Silent masterpieces. Hart plays "Buckskin Hamilton", a frontiersman riding cross country on his horse, to meet his brother "Billy" (Leo Pierson) near St. Louis. Billy is traveling by riverboat; Buckskin is going to guide him from the landing to the start of the Santa Fe trail so he can move west to become a doctor. But during Billy's trip, he gets involved in a card game with a gambler named "Washburn" (Robert McKim) and his partner "Merton" (Lloyd Bacon), who helps Washburn cheat. Merton signals him with clues to Billy's hand, and Billy catches them in the act. He pulls a gun, Washburn's sister "Jane" (Jane Novak) gets between them and tries to wrest the gun from Billy. A shot is fired - bang! Billy falls down dead. Jane Washburn passes out from shock. Her brother the card sharp, and his henchman Merton, arrange the scene to make it look like an accident.
When the boat's captain arrives below deck to investigate the sound of the shot, he is told by Washburn that his sister accidentally shot Billy. The card came is never mentioned. The two men have cleared the scene of all traces of gambling. Billy is portrayed as a man they just met, who had too much to drink and came on to Jane, who got scared and accidentally shot him. The captain accepts this, and when the steamboat reaches the landing where Buckskin awaits, he accepts her answer also, even though he is crushed by the death of his brother Billy.
Forlorn and with nowhere to go, Buckskin signs on as the leader of the wagon train that will take the boat's passengers to settled land. He's is an experienced trailmaster and can get them where they are going. He accepts that his brothers death was an accident, but there's one thing he doesn't understand about the shooting. "My brother was white", he tells Jane, meaning Billy was pure and led a clean life. He didn't drink, nor abuse women. It doesn't make sense that he would've accosted a lady he didn't know, especially one with two men at her side. As the wagon train proceeds, Jane's guilt intensifies, then comes to a head when she sees Buckskin caring for the wagon train's animals. This scene is particularly touching, as dogs and horses share a scant pail of water. It's masterfully shot and directed to accentuate the animals' cooperation with one another and lack of competition or aggression. Jane watches Buckskin tend to the critters, and internally compares him to her criminal brother and his sidekick. The guilt overwhelms her, and she approaches Buckskin to tell him she's been lying the whole time about the death of his brother.
When she names her brother and his partner as having forced her to lie about the shooting, Buckskin becomes enraged. He takes the two men out behind the wagons at knifepoint, where he ties them up and marches them them into the wasteland of the desert. This part of the movie is brutal. It becomes a war of attrition between Buckskin and the gamblers until whoever killed Billy tells the truth. Buckskin is even willing to sacrifice himself by going without water in the desert heat, just as the bad guys are doing. Whatever they suffer, he will suffer too, until they tell the truth. Finally, Washburn sees a mirage, and a fight breaks out. Merton the henchman gives up and tells Buckskin that Washburn was the one who shot Billy, then convinced his sister Jane that she did it.
Satisfied, Buckskin turns his captives around so they can all begin the long walk back to the wagon train. There, they can get water and Washburn can face justice, whatever form it will take in the middle of nowhere. But by this time, the wagon train has been surrounded by a pack of Kiowa Indians. During the standoff, one of the braves has intimidated a settler woman. She thinks he's going to attack her and screams. Actually he only wants her shawl, but it's too late; her husband shoots the brave dead, and now there's big trouble. The Kiowa Chief demands an eye for an eye. "You must give up one white man in exchange, otherwise we will attack you at dawn."
Buckskin and the two bad guys are just about back to camp by this time. When they arrive, one of the settlers explains their dilemma with the Indians. "We either turn one of us over, or their going to come back and kill us all". Buckskin thinks it over, then gives Washburn a choice : he can either kill himself and avoid being released to the Indians, or he can refuse and be turned over in the morning. Either way he's going to die; that's his punishment for killing Billy. Buckskin expects Washburn to take his offer and kill himself. That way he'll escape the Indians' torture ritual, which is horrifying. If Washburn does shoot himself, the settlers will still need a sacrificial lamb to give to the Indians, otherwise they're all gonna get massacred. Buckskin considers this, and says "I'll be the sacrifice." Man, what a powerful movie. I can't reveal what happens with Washburn, nor how the movie ends, but this is some tremendous stuff anyway you look at it, Silent film or no Silent film. If you haven't ever watched a Silent movie, I urge you to try William S. Hart. Start with this film or "Hell's Hinges". I guarantee you won't be looking at your watch, or getting bored from the lack of dialogue. The title cards will keep you up to speed on the plot, and you hardly even need them because the action is self-explanatory. The cinematography is next level, it jumps from the screen like 3D. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "Wagon Tracks, a fantastic film. William S. Hart is an expressive actor on par with any of the greats of sound cinema. The picture has been restored with an emotive soundtrack. Don't miss it, highly recommended! ////
The previous night, we saw Tex Ritter in a starring role, in his second ever film : "Headin' for the Rio Grande"(1936). Having been introduced to him as a supporting player in "Cheyenne Roundup" (reviewed last week), we thought it was time to add him to our list of regulars. He's got the goods - he's handsome, with a boyish face, he's lightning fast on the draw and he can ride a horse. He's also a legendary country and western recording artist, so you get the added bonus of music, and a different take on the persona of the fearless gunslinger. Instead of playing it macho, Tex goes the smooth route. Everything he does is smooth. Not slick, mind you. He's not a showboat but an easygoin' hombre with the confidence to lay back. His singing is like velvet, ditto his gun hand, and when he's not chasing bad guys, or shooting at 'em/punching 'em out, he's a polite helper to the underdog. "Yes ma'am, no sir". Those are his kind of phrases. He even addresses the bad guys with courtesy, as in "you'd best keep your hand away from that holster, my friend", because it's only fair to give 'em warning before they make a big mistake. As this movie opens, he and his partner "Chili" (Syd Saylor) are doing what the title says, heading for the Rio Grande, not the river but the town, to look for cowpunchin' jobs as always. Chili is getting hungry, and wants to know how Tex can sing a song when they haven't eaten for 36 hours. Then they encounter "Senator Black" (Budd Buster!) and his daughter "Laura" (Eleanor Stewart), who are traveling in a covered wagon. They've just been approached by a crook named "Rand" (Earl Dwire), who heads up a protection racket. Rand's informed the Senator that he can either spend a dollar a head on protection for his cattle, or lose the herd to rustlers who are operating in the area. Gee, I wonder who the rustlers are?
Now that Tex and Chili are riding with them, the Senator and Laura are safe for the time being. Tex demonstrates his gun skills when Rand comes back to demand the money from the Senator. Rand and his boys leave empty handed and go back to Rio, and we find out who he's working for, a saloon owner named "Travis" (Warner Richmond). Travis tells Rand not to worry about Tex. "I'll take care of him when he gets to town". In the meantime, he sends another henchman (Charles King) out to ask for a job as the Senator's foreman. King infiltrates the cattle run to find a good place for Travis to intercept it. But then Tex catches King trying to rebrand a beeve, and an extended punchout ensues. It goes on for much longer than even the long punchouts do in these movies, and I found it too long, to be honest. Tex wins, of course, even though King is a legendary Western movie thug, and outweighs Tex by at least 50 pounds. Now King returns to town, to let Travis know what they're up against. "The boy's a tough customer". Then Rand makes a further discovery - Tex is the brother of the Rio Sheriff. Rand resigns from Travis's gang, saying "I don't mind a-tellin' ya I'm skeered. That guy's too fast on the draw, and along with his brother, them two are trouble! If we don't leave town now, we'll all wind up in the noose."
Travis isn't scared, as long as his henchmen continue to do his bidding, and he's got plenty of them, even when Rand flies The Coop. He now tries another tactic, because he's aware that you don't challenge Tex to a gunfight. What he does is shoot the Senator, then he frames Tex for the job. I ask you: what would a 60 minute Western be without a frame up? The Senator's daughter Laura knows Tex didn't shoot her father, but the local Marshal believes he did. That's because Travis is like Shakespear's Iago; he's a master at pitting power players against each other. Up until now, Tex wasn't aware that Travis is behind the protection racket. Chili clues him in, and when he gets the Marshal on his side, he and his brother the Sheriff ride out to the desert, where they are met by the Marshal and a deputized Indian troop, who have been out rounding up renegades (i.e.Indian criminals). The Marshal and his Indians agree to help the brothers with the Travis cattle rustling gang, and a final battle takes place amidst a massive stampede-to-end-all stampedes.
Tex sings three more songs in the meantime, and at the end he rides off with a grateful Laura. What more in the Western world could you ask for? Two Big Thumbs Up for "Headin' for the Rio Grande". We now add Tex Ritter to our growing list of classic Cowboy Stars. The picture is razor sharp on this one, and it's highly recommended. ////
I hope you are enjoying your weekend. Tonight I am listening to "Warchild" by Jethro Tull, another of their classics. I'm reading Paul McCartney's "The Lyrics", and browsing a biography on Barbara Stanwyck, which includes a lot of detail on her years at the Marwyck Ranch, when she was married to Robert Taylor. It's fascinating stuff for Hollywood and Northridge fans, and the book includes a photo of the property, when the ranch extended from Devonshire to Lassen, with nothing else around it. Oh to have lived here then.
That's all I know for now. I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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