In last night's Western, "Whirwind"(1933), Tim McCoy is wandering the wilderness with his buddies "Pat Patrick" (Pat O'Malley) and "Injun" (J. Carrol Naish). They're rootless because seven years earlier, a Sheriff named "Hurley" framed Tim for murder in the town of Sagebrush. He got away, with the support of his two pals, and they've been in hiding ever since, but now they're back because there's a rodeo in town. All three are top riders. They figure they can win big money and while they're at it, they're gonna settle the score with Sheriff Hurley, who's nothing more than a crook. Injun in particular wants a crack at him. He's a very tough hombre played by Naish using Pidgin English ("me shootum Sheriff"!). Injun tells Tim he'd better get Hurley first, otherwise: "once me gettum, nothing left to get."
When the boys arrive in town, after a breakfast of Patrick's rock-hard flapjacks, they register for the rodeo, and Tim meets sweet "Molly Curtis" (Alice Dahl) of the Curtis Ranch, where the rodeo is being held. She confides to Tim that her Dad is gonna lose the ranch to Sheriff Hurley, who has a two thousand dollar lien on the property. Tim promises to acquire enough money to pay off the lien, and Injun and Patrick have already cleaned up at a card game. Tim tells Molly he'll get the rest by winning the rodeo, and all three of the boys win their special events (calf roping, bronco busting etc). But when the rodeo is over, they still don't have enough cash, so Tim challenges Sheriff Hurley to a wrestling match: one throw wins all, his money against the lien on the Curtis Ranch.
Now, if you're expecting an impromptu wrasslin' match in the middle of the street, or maybe the town square, that's not what happens. Instead, it's a full on main event, at what could be the Olympic Auditorium. Holy Sampson Movie, Batman! All of a sudden, Tim is in the ring, exchanging hammerlocks with the Sheriff, who goes down for the count in front of a sold out house. Talk about your Hybrid Westerns. But at least he's saved Dad Curtis's ranch, right? Well, no, because Sheriff Hurley has a contingency plan set up with "Blackton" (Lloyd Whitlock), the town banker, so when Tim comes in to pay off the lien, Blackton empties the safe and robs his own bank. He blames the heist on Tim, and now the whole town is after him because he was previously framed for a murder. His reputation has been hard to shake. Blackton and Sheriff Hurley are even richer, and the account holders at the bank are dead broke, including Dad Curtis, who in addition to losing his ranch, now hasn't got a cent to his name.
Tim's own dad, an angry, distrustful Irishman, is leading the posse of townsfolk who are out gunning for him. Dad has never defended his son, even after the original frame up. Now he finds Tim, Injun and Patrick, and threatens to kill them where they stand. But Injun, bad man that he is (and we do love that Pidgin English) saves the day when he shoots Dad's gun from his hand. Tim then turns the tables, and catches Blackton the banker trying to leave town with the stolen bank deposits. Blackton in turn names Sheriff Hurley as the mastermind, and all is well again in Sagebrush. But I mean, c'mon......a pro wrestling match, in the middle of a 60 minute Western? We need to do a whole Sampson Movie retrospective! Two Big Thumbs Up for "Whirlwind". The picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night, Johnny Mack Brown was back yet again (hooray!), in "Chip of the Flying U"(1939). Somewhere in that title is a pun, but anyhow, JMB is the Chip in question, a ranch hand at the U who, as the movie opens, is tasked with picking up the payroll and also "Margaret Whitmore" (Doris Weston), the ranch owner's sister, a recent graduate from medical school, who's arriving to become the ranch doctor. Before Johnny Mack heads out, a schemer named "Duncan" (Anthony Warde) orders two of his honchos to head Johnny off at the pass. They don't care about Miss Whitmore, but Duncan wants them to steal the payroll because he wants to own the Flying U. If Dad Whitmore can't pay his workers, he'll soon be out of business, and with the stolen money, Duncan can then buy the ranch for cheap. Nice plan, eh? You can always count on Western crooks to be efficient. But Duncan also has a boss to answer to. He's under the thumb of an even bigger criminal from the East, a saboteur who's stealing munitions. It's implied that this gent has the Mob behind him, and even the toughest Western bad guys don't wanna mess with La Cosa Nostra.
The munitions schmuggler wants Duncan to stash his crates of dy-no-mite! in an unused shack at the edge of the Flying U Ranch. But a knucklehead henchman, who's stolen the payroll money, has already slung the bag of cash in there, so when Johnny Mack Brown goes searching for it, he finds the dy-no-mite!, too. There lots of good music by Bob Baker, who co-stars as Johnny's sidekick "Dusty", and there's comic relief aplenty by the ever reliable Fuzzy Knight, who plays the ranch cook. "Chip" doesn't have the complex plot of JMB's other Universal Westerns, but it still earns Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is soft but watchable. ////
And that's all I know for this evening. I'm trying out the music of a piano composer named Kaikhosru Sorabji, who I read about in the Charles Ives book. In mentioning other abstract composers, to compare them with Ives, the author Kyle Gann said that Sorabji was even more complex. I hate to say it, but he's doing nothing for me as I listen while writing this blog. Ives had melody within his obtuseness; Sorabji sounds dry. Sorry but it just ain't my thing, reminds me of Iannis Xenakis, no can do. Time to put on Alban Berg's "Wozzeck" for a change of pace. There's a 1970 film version on Youtube that is highly recommended. I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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