Last night, we hit the John Agar jackpot, with "The Lonesome Trail"(1955), a post-Civil War Western in which he plays a half-breed Army soldier named "Johnny Rush", who's just returned from rounding up "stragglers", lone Indians resistant to settlement, and guiding them to the reservation. The Army likes Johnny for the job precisely because he's half-Indian and thus more sympathetic and persuasive. But we never see any of this, only meeting him after he returns, to find his small homestead burned to the ground and still smoldering. Barbed wire fencing has been put up all around the valley, with tags bearing the name of the new landowner, "Hal Brecker" (Earle Lyon), a wealthy local.
This is the thanks Johnny gets for serving his country, burned out and kicked off his land by a shady swindler. He goes to see his nearest neighbor and old friend "Dan Wells" (Edgar Buchanan), who pretends he knows nothing about the takeover. Then, after some prodding by Johnny, who has eyes for Dan's daughter "Patricia" (Margia Dean), the old man admits he knows about the land deal, and only escaped being burned out himself by Patty's agreement to marry Brecker (shades of Rod Steiger the other night). Dan advises Johnny to leave town. "C'mon, son. I don't want to see you killed. Brecker has too much money and too many men to stand up to." He's also got a crooked sheriff in his pocket, and the "legal" deed to all the land in the valley.
Johnny leaves, disappointed in Dan Wells, but understanding his position. Next he goes to visit another friend, an old coot named "Crazy Charlie Bonesteel" (Douglas Fowley), a Gabby Hayes type whose other best friend is an Indian named "Gonaga" (Ian MacDonald of King Crimson and Foreigner fame). Crazy Charlie lives in a shack in the hinterland, and has been promised by Hal Brecker that he can keep it and his small plot of land if he'll help keep squatters away. He's not a threat to Brecker because he's just an old timer. Gonaga the Indian calls him "Old Crazy White Man". He and Charlie also tell Johnny it's best to leave town, but he won't do it. It's a "High Noon" setup; someone's gotta take a stand against the bad guy. Johnny next heads over to the town's saloon, to inquire about meeting with Mr. Brecker, whose Sheriff is there and picks a fight. Johnny kicks his butt, but the Sheriff then lays in wait and shoots him in the back when he rides away. He assumes Johnny is dead and informs Brecker.
But he isn't dead, only shoulder-shot, and for the middle third of the movie, after he's rescued by Gonaga and taken back to Charlie's shack, he realicecooperates. They nurse Johnny back to health. Charlie teaches him to shoot a bow and arrow while Gonaga rolls homemade cigarettes, a white man treat. Johnny becomes a dead-shot archer. He plans an eventual showdown with Brecker and his men, but before this can happen, other plot threads unwind, including that of Brecker's hot-tempered hussy, "Mae" (Adele Jurgens), who can put away whiskey like water. She's there mostly for sass, and to presage Brecker's downfall, which begins when she starts a gnarly bar fight with Dan Wells' daughter Patty upon learning of their engagement. Bar owner "Dandy Dayton" (Wayne Morris) gets a kick out of watching two gals battling it out (me, I don't like it), and after Mae leaves Brecker in a huff, his Sheriff is shot dead by one of Johnny's arrows, and his empire starts to crumble.
This is a slow burn plot, with lots of waiting, biding time, healing, and training. Planning for all-out war, because it's gonna be one man against many. It's John Agar's best acting job yet, and I think by now we have to rescind our original assessment of him. We originally liked Agar because he was so "bad/good" in all those Monster Brain sci-fi movies. Also, he had presence, and smugness. He must've thought: hey, I'm married to Shirley Temple! How'd I wind up in "The Brain from Planet Arous"? While we love that film, and all the Agar sci-fis, our reassessment is akin to the one we we made on Roger Corman, when we were stunned to realize he was not only not "one of the worst filmmakers of all time" (which we thought because of "Little Shop of Horrors"), but actually one of the best and most crafty, considering his budgets. We've now seen John Agar in two highly dramatic roles in the past week, and he was excellent in both. He's quite restrained as Johnny Rush, not ready to kill until he's pushed.
But the best acting in the movie goes to Douglas Fowley (Kim's Dad), as "Crazy Charlie". I was stunned to discover this on IMDB, because I didn't know who played him until I looked it up. We mentioned a while back our regard for Fowley, who had talent, and wasn't your run-of-the-mill cinematic bad guy. But here, he shows he's a fully-rounded thespian, only 44 in real life, but convincingly playing a 75 year old crippled, crazy coot, who of course has more horse sense than anyone else in the movie. Even Gonaga the Indian looks up to him. Charlie appears short, affecting a bowlegged gait. He's also toothless and bearded, and when you realize this is Douglas Fowley, who was reasonably tall and straight-backed in his B-Noirs and crime movies, you have to tip your hat. No wonder Kim was jealous of his Dad; he had actual talent. Wow. But who knew he also had false teeth?
For a B-Western (though not Poverty Row), this is some very good stuff, minimalist like the aforementioned "High Noon". Thus we award it Two Huge Thumbs Up. John Agar finally gets his due. The picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night we had murder on a train, in "Halfway to Shanghai"(1942). Right away, we should point out that George Zucco is in the cast, leaving little doubt of who the villain will be. As noted a few blogs ago, Zucco might as well have a sign on him saying "Murderer" because he's always the heavy, in every movie he's in, the most typecast actor of all time. As this one opens, he and a partner are driving a truck, hell bent for a train station in Rangoon, Burma, arriving just in time to jump onto a choo-choo departing for Shanghai. They don't have tickets or reservations; the conductor thinks they're shady but laughs at Zucco's joke: "Of course my passport is fake, I'm a German spy!" Sometimes the truth hides in plain sight, so in fact he is a German spy, but he and his friend are posing as two Dutch businessmen, and Zucco's cash bribe gets them separate berths with random passengers: Zucco with a Humorous Chinese Man, the friend with a squirrelly artist, who turns out to be the man they're looking for; the reason they boarded the train in the first place.
The artist, "Mr. Peale" (Charles Wagenheim), has a satchel he keeps clutched to his side. At dinner, he's paired with "Frederick Barton" (Kent Taylor), a suave gent who has just run into an old flame named "Vickie Neilson" (Irene Hervey), who was stuck in Burma (as a prostitute? dance hall girl? we don't know). She was broke, and - needing a way out - singed a contract to marry "the second richest man in Asia", according to her chaperone, who's on board to make sure she goes through with the marriage. But she wants out of this contract and sees Barton, her old boyfriend, as her ticket to freedom. Her handler, a mustashioed meddler, follows her every move through the train's corridors, reminding her, "You must be in your finest gown for the master to whom you are beholden!"
There's also an older British Chap on board, a former colonel, who just wants a good game of poker, "Tut-tut and all that. Pip-pip!" An aviatrix is present, "Caroline Rawlins" (Charlotte Wynters), an Amelia Earhart type but very arrogant. She's writing a history of the Burma Road for a magazine and rattles off dictation to her secretary, whom she refers to by her last name: "Mills! Write this down!" Miss Rawlins has a secret: She's a Nazi sympathizer.
The artist, Mr. Peale, has an encoded drawing of a secret Chinese munitions dump. George Zucco and friend intend to take it from him and turn it over to the Japanese, which will allow them to bomb it and take China out of the war, greatly enhancing the advantage of the Axis powers. And as the train rolls across the countryside, the Japanese indeed try to bomb it, as well. The conductor pulls the emergency brake and orders a blackout, during which Mr. Peale is murdered.
We already know who did it; the trick is in catching him. Leading the investigation is the onboard detective, "Major Vinpore" (J. Edward Bromberg in brownface makeup), an interesting character reminiscent of Hercule Poirot. He takes us though vignettes of the characters' motivations, all of which tie into the plot. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Halfway to Shanghai", and a high recommendation. The picture is very good. ////
And that's all for tonight. My blogging music is more Beach Boys, random songs from the early albums. I also watched a cool Beach Boy guitar tutorial from their original rhythm guitarist, David Marks, who played on the first six Beach Boys albums (pre-Al Jardine), beginning when he was only 14 years old. The four part video was recorded ten years ago when Marks appeared at Hawthorne High. He's an interesting and very talented guy. My late night music is the Alexander Balus Opera by Handel. I hope you had a nice weekend, and I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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