Written and Directed by Richard C. Kahn, based on his story
Starring Herb Jeffries, Artie Young, Rollie Hardin, Clarence Brooks, F.E. Miller, Lucius Brooks, Spencer Williams, Lee Calmes, Earle Morris and The Four Tones
USA, 1939
This singing cowboy movie stars Herb Jeffries who rides into town with his posse to help an old friend who has disappeared. Turns out there’s an evil rancher who has taken him captive in an attempt to get his land out from under him – land that has gold! Luckily the old friend has a cute sister on hand for Jeffries to both woo and help as he and his posse save the day.
About half the movie’s run time is taken up with comedic side characters played by Lucius Brooks as Jeffries’ sidekick and F.E. Miller as a ranch hand who’s trying to rip him off by convincing him his mule can speak. This sounds lame but I have to admit it was pretty great.
In fact, the whole movie’s pretty great, if humble in its aspirations. It doesn’t want to be anything other than a serviceable western, and it mostly accomplishes that. Jeffries looks dashing and cool in his cowboy gear, the villains are appropriately terrible, especially Spencer Williams as the trigger-happy muscle, and there’s even some nice western tunes. The only thing that wears out its welcome is the drawn out gun battle at the end, which could have been cool but lacks the imagination a bigger production could afford.
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