We're having a Johnny Mack Brown resurgence, and last night in "Little Joe, the Wrangler"(1942), he's out to stop whoever is robbing the ore shipments in the town of Lamplight. It's getting so bad that none of the ore is getting to the smelter. The owner fears he'll have to shut it down. There aren't even any suspects, which has led the citizens to call for the resignation of the Sheriff (Tex Ritter). A townsman asks that cooler heads prevail: "We elected him, let's give him one more chance". The citizens back down, but only on the condition that he produce results in four days, otherwise he'll be replaced. The Sheriff then heads out to the smelter to interview the owner, and while he's out there, a prospector (Johnny Mack) is brought in by the owner's henchmen. They claim he shot a miner named "Webb Hammond" (Robert F. Hill). They also produce gold belonging to Hammond that they say they found in JMB's saddle bag. This makes it look like he's behind all the ore robberies. The Sheriff is ready to arrest him, though Johnny says he's innocent and being framed. The Sheriff says "that's for a jury to decide". Then he brings Johnny back to town and puts him in jail. Soon, a Lench Mob arrives to string him up.
For the Sheriff, the results save his job, but he's starting to believe Johnny Mack is innocent. Johnny asks him to go find his horse; "my I.D. papers should be in the saddle bag". But they aren't, and as an aside, this presents an interesting point about I.D. Before photography, how did anyone know a person was who they said they were? Not that it's much better now, but at least we have photos (which can be photoshopped, I know), but back then, an I.D. paper only had a man's description, provided and signed off on by a reliable witness, often a person of stature. In the movie, when Sheriff Tex can't find Johnny's papers, Johnny then breaks his cover and confesses that he isn't a prospector but is really the vice president of the Monarch Mining Company, sent out to solve the problem of the ore thefts. But because his I.D. is missing, "Janet Hammond" (Jennifer Holt) still thinks he's the robber who killed her Dad. Johnny has to find his papers, which he does with the help of Fuzzy Knight, who plays "Little Joe", the Wrangler of the title. Fuzzy is indeed the local horse wrangler, but he's also an amateur inventor, whose latest contraptions are a horse-throw prevention device, and a pair of wings that he uses to attempt to fly.
Fuzzy does his comic relief bit, which is as good-natured and broad-based as usual (and bruising), and The Jimmy Wakely Trio, as in most of Johnny Mack's films, provides the music. Tex Ritter sings a song at the end, and gets in the requisite punchouts with Johnny Mack. You know how, on Star Trek, it's required in every episode that Spock rebels against Jim, that Chekov stages a mutiny, and that Sulu goes stark raving insane? Well, in the Johnny Mack Brown Westerns in which Tex Ritter co-stars, it's de rigueur that they have at least two fistfights before becoming allies. And you always get Fuzzy Knight as the goofy sidekick. The Universal Studios JMBs always have a layered script, and this time you get the lovely Jennifer Holt and Florine McKinney as sweet "Mary Brewster", the Sheriff's daughter. The only thing missing is a top notch villain, so you'll have to settle for henchman Slim Whitaker, who's behind the frameup of Johnny for murder. Ultimately, Sheriff Tex frees Johnny, and they team up to nab the Travis Gang, who're working for the local big shot "Chapin" (James Craven), who is trying to take over the mines. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Little Joe, the Wrangler". The picture is soft but watchable. ////
The previous night, we had another good one from Tom Tyler called "The Silver Bullet"(1935). Outlaw "Slim Walker" (George Chesbro) and his two pals "Pete" (Lew Meehan) and "Scurvy" (Slim Whitaker) are looking to get drunk and cause trouble. They ride in to Chico, stop at the bar and stick around to shoot the place up. Slim gets a kick out of terrorizing the citizens, and they do so until "Tom Henderson" (Tyler) stops by. He's a surveyor, on his way to look at some land, and when he bumps into Scurvy while entering the General Store, Scurvy tries decking him, which is not a good idea with Tom Tyler. He k.o.'s Scurvy, then goes inside the store to find Slim and Pete strong- arming the proprietress "Nora Kane" (Jayne Regan) into giving them free goods. Tom doesn't go for hoodlums who pick on ladies, so he shows them them the door in a most abrupt way. They retreat to the bar (again) and vow revenge on Tom, but sweet Nora is grateful for his help, and introduces him to her father, "Dad Kane" (Lafe McKee), who is blind.
Dad publishes the local paper in Chico, and decries the lack of law and order. He's been writing editorials about Slim and his gang, and since they arrived, the residents of Chico have been in their houses for five days running, so afraid are they to go outside. Tom thinks this is terrible and wishes he could do something. "You can" says Dad Kane. "You can be our new Sheriff". Tom doesn't want to; he's got land to survey, and not only that, but he's got a mule named Mary who requires a lot of attention because she's addicted to chewing tobacky: one pound a day! Dad tells Tom that he and Nora will keep Mary in chaw - "all she needs!" - if Tom will reconsider and become Sheriff. And he does.
The first person he meets on the job is the town banker, Charles King. We've said this before about early King roles, but this time he really is at his thinnest and cleanest. You'll have to see it to believe it! King tells Tom he's taking a chance by becoming Sheriff: "You know, that Slim Walker, he'll shoot you. They'll be carrying you out of the Sheriff's office feet first." Tom replies that he ain't skeered, and that "feet first" is the only way to go. King, in his role as a "legitimate" town leader, is doing his devil's advocate thing here. We already know he's gonna be implicated in the outcome, he's Charles King after all, the only bad guy who never ever played a good guy (so far as I know), but this time he's really, really trying to appear legit. Therefore, he first sows doubt in Tom Tyler's mind, and when Tom replies that he'll clean up the town in spite of Slim, King says "well in that case I wish you well", but he's such a good actor that the cynicism comes through. He actually wishes Tom nothing but death.
Meanwhile, we see Dad Kane practicing with his pistol at home, shooting cans. He's blind, so Tom can't believe he can hit anything, but sweet daughter Nora tells him that Dad shoots by sound. His assistant taps the cans with a stick and Dad fires away, he's a crack shot. In flashback, Dad tells Tom the story about how he was blinded by a gold robber, and his wife was killed in the process. He vowed ever since then to be ready for the killer "because I know I will see him again".
For a 51 minute movie, there's a truckload of stuff going on. Tom jails Slim Walker, but Scurvy and some other honchos from outside of town organize a jailbreak by posing as United States Marshals. They dupe Tom by calling on the phone to arrange a midnight meeting to transfer Slim to state prison, to avoid a Lench Mob. But in reality it was Charles King who made the call. He's about to have his own bank robbed, to keep the money and blame the robbery on Tom, who he's framing to make it look like Tom was behind Slim's jailbreak! I hope that's not too confusing, but in the movie it plays well, and is one of the best frame ups in the history of Charles King. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Silver Bullet". The picture is very good. Not a bad double bill, eh? Tom Tyler and Johnny Mack, two of our three very best. ////
That's all I know for tonight. I'm listening to "Act One" by Beggar's Opera, which as the title suggests is their first album. I'd only ever heard their masterpiece "Pathfinder", and "Get Your Dog Off Me", but this is a good one, too. I've also been listening to Wagner's "Der Miestersinger" (over the course of four nights), and I've finished reading "The Beatles' Shadow: Stuart Sutcliffe and his Lonely Hearts Club" by Pauline Sutcliffe (his sister), and I've got to say, it's one of the most affecting Beatles books I've ever read. We only ever think of Stuart Sutcliffe as this mysterious figure, a mythical Man of Cool, who quit The Beatles to pursue a career as an artist. He had the image of a foreign existentialist, inspired by his German girlfriend Astrid Kircherr, and he was all of those things, but as his sister writes it, he was also a kid, a nice Scottish boy just out of high school, like the rest of The Beatles, who became friends with John Lennon and then joined the band before they went to Hamburg. In fact it was Stu who named The Beatles, thinking Johnny and The Moondogs sounded too old fashioned. You really get a full picture of him in this book, and how his death at 21 affected his family. There's a revelation about his demise that is extremely disturbing. I won't reveal it, but you can Google it, or perhaps you already know. I neither believe nor disbelieve what Pauline says about this, in truth it's just all so tragic. He and John lived only 61 years between them, one less year than I've been alive now. One thing I do know after reading this book, which gives an incredible early history of The Beatles, is that from now on I will always think of Stu Sutcliffe as an integral member of the group, and Pete Best, too, for that matter. Neither of them were just side notes, and Stu wasn't just some mysterious artist. I can't recommend the book highly enough; it's essential if you're a Beatles fan.
I hope you are enjoying the start of your weekend, and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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