Western Wednesdays: Dawn on the Great Divide (1942)

I'm taking a break from my Davy Crockett retrospective for a week to catch up on some research. Until then enjoy this review for a Buck Jones film I watched when I was sick earlier in the month...

     Dawn on the Great Divide was released on December 18th, 1942. It is directed by Howard Bretherton and stars Buck Jones and Raymond Hatton, who reprise their roles as Buck Roberts and Sandy Hopkins from Mongram's 8-film Rough Riders series. Tragically, Jones perished in the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston, Massachusetts on November 28, 1942, making this his last film.

     The film begins with Buck and Sandy escorting a wagon train through Indian territory when it is attacked by a group of rustlers posing as Indians. It turns out that they are being lead by Jim Corkle (Harry Woods), the boss of the town to which the wagon train is headed. Corkle is being investigated by Buck and Sandy's friend Jack Carson, played in this film by Rex Bell who stands in for Tim McCoy. Carson sends a warning to Buck, who decides to break the wagon train up in hopes that the Indians will be drawn away from the settlers. Unfortunately, most of them follow the settlers, who are all wiped out.

     Among the survivors in Buck's half of the train are Sadie Rand played by Mona Barrie. Her husband, Matt (Tristram Coffin), is killed during the raid, leaving her to take care of an infant whose mother died in childbirth earlier in the film. It is revealed that this woman was married to Corkle's son, and that the child is his. She decides to use this information to blackmail Corkle, whose relatives on the wagon train treated her and Matt with condescending disdain (this film has a lot of coincidences). A romance begins to bloom between her and Buck, who takes a liking to the child and, along with Jack and Sandy they come up with a plan to thwart Corkle's aim of controlling Beaver Lake.

     I have not seen any of the other Rough Riders films and have only a passing familiarity with Buck Jones (he starred in Just Pals, which I reviewed about a year ago) but, after watching this, I'd like to check out more of his movies. The first half of Dawn on the Great Divide is surprisingly dark for a B-western from this era. It deals with a social prejudice (from the hypocritical Corkle's toward the Rand's and the mysterious woman who turns out to be their nephews bride), a mother dying in childbirth, and a massacre. The second half is much more standard series western fare, making the film a little tonally imbalanced. Still, there were some genuinely affective scenes early on, especially the funeral for the young mother, who Sadie sings a song to commemorate.

     Jones has a lot of presence, as you'd expect for a western star. He's exudes an easy confidence and a boyish charm common among literary western heroes. It's sad that he died so young. Hatton is very much in the mold of a Gabby Hayes, an old curmudgeon with a heart of gold and an intolerance for snobbery. Rex Bell, honestly, doesn't make much of an impression here, though that might be partly because he has no one to play off of. The villains are similarly one-note. Mona Barrie is quite good as Sadie, the gambler's woman who becomes a single mother. Bretherton's direction is competent throughout, and the final duel at the end is well-staged.

     If not for the jarring tonal shift, this would be an above average series western. As it is, its just ok.

Score: 7/10

Comic Reviews: Deadpool and Star Wars

Since I've been sick the last few weeks, I have not been posting as often as I would have liked. Hopefully I will pick up the pace for the foreseeable future. I have decided to start doing weekly video reviews of the comics I am reading. I post these reviews on my YouTube channel. Every two weeks I will write a blog post with links to whatever reviews I've done and briefly comment on the other books I'm reading. Over the last three weeks I've reviewed Deadpool #8 and Star Wars #59 (nothing of interest really came out last week).

I also read:

Detective Comics #995 which I liked, though it has a shocking plot development I'm unsure about.

Star Wars Age Of Republic: Obi-Wan Kenobi #1 which was pretty good and generally in line with the Obi Wan and Anakin miniseries Marvel put out a few years ago. 

Batman #62 which I have mixed feelings about. The art by Mitch Gerards was great but Tom King's story was a bit heady handed at times. I'll reserve my judgments until this arc is complete. 

Avengers #12 was a lot of fun, as we see T'challa recruit a bunch of colorful heroes, including Wasp and Ka-Zar, as the Avenger's support staff. It's a bit of a filler issue but I am excited for what's to come (Blade!). 

I also picked up the latest issues of Wonder Woman and Justice League, but I haven't read them because I am way behind. 

More to come...

Revisiting Walt Disney's Davy Crockett: Part 3 (Western Wednesdays) (Belated)

Listen to the thunder, hear the winds roar

Hurricane's a'comin', board up the door

Load up the cannon, call out the law

Worstest calamity that folks ever saw

Girls run and hide, brave men shiver

He's Mike Fink, King of the River

     After the phenomenal success of Davy Crockett Disney was eager to capitalize on its success and two additional episodes were quickly put into production. As Davy had died at the end of the first film, the writers decided to present the later episodes as a pure piece of folklore, "History remembers the name of his gun, And some of the deeds he really done, But most of his chores, For freedom and fun, Got turned into legends, And this here is one." These episodes, like the first three, were edited together and released as a feature film, Davy Crockett and the River Pirates, on July 18th, 1956.

     In this film, Davy and Georgie (played, once again by Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen), on their way to New Orleans to sell the fur pelts they've accumulated over the winter, inadvertently end up challenging the famous keel-boat captain Mike Fink (Jeff York) to a race, the winner of which will get to keep their prized furs. After winning the race (by the skin of their teeth) they are caught up in a conflict between the white river-men and Shawnee Indians who, it appears, have been attacking boats as they pass down the river.

     Of the two Crockett films, River Pirates feels more assured. The continuity errors and occasionally egregious use of stock footage are not as present here as in the first film. This is, I assume, because the latter two episodes were given a bigger budget then the first three. Additionally, as the filmmakers only had to edit together two episodes instead of three, the editing in this film is much more minimal. The pacing, in general, is more leisurely and, though lacking the distinctive three act structure of its predecessor, this film has more of a natural flow. It's more aware of its youthful audience as well, with less violent content and a more lighthearted tone.

     As a kid, I recall having a preference for King of the Wild Frontier (probably because of its battle scenes) but I watched this film at least as often. It's certainly filled to the brim with memorable sequences: Georgie swinging on a chandelier in the bar after becoming intoxicated with "Mike Fink Specials"; Davy pretending to catch a bullet in his mouth to one-up Fink, who shoots a glass of whiskey off his own head; Fink eating his red-feathered hat in shame after being defeated in the race; Davy and Georgie hanging helplessly from a deer snare; the climatic battle with the titular River Pirates. All of this provided plenty of fodder for me and my brothers backyard reenactments.

     It also has more memorable supporting characters then the original film: Walter Catlett's devious banjo player, Colonel Plug; Clem Bevans as the crotchety old keel Captain Cobb; Jocko, Fink's Popeye-esque crewman played by Kenneth Tobey (who portrayed Jim Bowie in King); and of course Mike Fink himself, played by Jeff York, who almost matches Parker's onscreen presence and magnetism with his larger-then-life performance. It helps that Fink has his own theme song to match Crockett's ballad, "King of the River'. Both songs are used to great effect in an early scene were the two crews have a bit of a dueling sing-along. Fink, like Georgie Russell, was staple of our childhood Davy Crockett play and, in a way, he was our first introduction to the anti-hero. He may be a bully, a swindler, a cheat and a braggart but, in the end, he has a good-heart.

     It does have it's shortcomings. Though the river pirates are an ever-present threat throughout the story, having the race conclude halfway through does give it an episodic feel. The dramatic score, which gave King of the Wild Frontier a more epic feel then its TV counterpart, doesn't work as well with this lighter material and is, at times, overly bombastic and out of place. The final confrontation between Crockett and the Sam Mason, leader of the river pirates, is also a bit limp, probably in part because he doesn't have a very menacing presence in the film.

     Despite this. River Pirates is probably the stronger of the two films overall, even if I prefer the mythic aspirations and more grounded tone of King of the Wild Frontier. It's an old-school adventure, with just the right blend of humor and thrills.

Revisiting Walt Disney's Davy Crockett: Part 2 (Western Wednesdays)

Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee 

Greenest state in the land of the free 

Raised in the woods so's he knew every tree 

Killed him a bear when he was only three

Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier 

     Originally released on May 25th, 1955 Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier is directed by Norman Foster and Written by Tom Blackburn. After the unprecedented success of the Disneyland miniseries the studio decided to edit the three episodes together and release them theatrically. As a result of this the film has a very clear, three act structure. In the first act Crockett fights under Andrew Jackson in the Creek Indian War. In the second act he is elected to congress and opposes Jackson's Indian Removal Bill. In the third act he goes to Texas and joins the revolution against Santa Anna.

     While the film feels, understandably, episodic at times, they did a surprisingly good job making it feel like a connected whole. Davy's experiences in the Creek Indian War inform his actions in politics. Confronting the Creek war chief Red Stick (Pat Hogan), he promises that the government will let his tribe live on their own land in peace if they give up fighting. Redstick is sketical, "White government lie." "Davy Crockett don't lie," he reassures him. Looking for a western settlement to move his family to after the war he encounters a band of land grabbers led by Bigfoot Mason (played by wrestler Mike Mazurki), who make money running Indian settlers off their land and then selling it. Crockett becomes magistrate of this town, and arrests Mason and his followers. He then runs for state legislator and later for Congress, against an opponent who is in league with the Cherokee land grabbers. In Congress he opposes President Jackson's Indian Bill, as he feels it violates the promise he made to Red Stick and the government's treaties with the Indian nations.

     This opposition effectively ends his political career. In the meantime his wife has passed away from an illness. Davy has little to lose at this point. Reading about the Texas Revolution in the papers, he decides to join with the rebels. He sees American settlers oppressed by a tyrannical government and decides he must act. So he and Georgie head down to Texas. Along the way they are joined by a riverboat gambler named Thimblerig (Hans Conried, Jr.), who is trying to escape his debts, and a down-on-his luck Comanche (Nick Cravat), who Crockett and Russell nurse back to health after witnessing him be thrown off his horse while hunting buffalo. Eventually, the group reaches San Antonio, where they join the beleaguered defenders of the Alamo. It is here, along with James Bowie (Kenneth Tobey) and William Barret Travis (Don Megowan), that Crockett meets his demise.

     Watching this film is one of my earliest childhood memories. I can distinctly remember being frightened of Red Stick the first time he appears on screen. As I previously reflected, it left a huge impact on me. I attribute this to the film's quasi-mythic portrayal of Crockett. This film is a masterwork of mythic storytelling. The use of a ballad to tell the story and fill in the blanks immediately gives the movie the feeling of a folk tale. Stories and legends about Crockett are sprinkled throughout the film. The first time we meet Davy, he is trying to "grin down" a bear, "You see, there's nothin' so absolutely unresistable as an old-fashioned, good-natured grin" he tells General Jackson, "I got so good at it, an old 'coon throwed up his hands the minute he seen my teeth. ''You got me Davy,'' he hollered and he skinned down that tree and plopped himself in my sack before I knowed what was up." His first confrontation with Redstick is filmed like an epic battle between two titans. But it's the the final shot of the film, of Crockett furiously swinging his rifle in the air to fight off the hordes of Mexican infantry, that cemented his mythic quality for me. We don't see Crockett die rather, according to the final lyrics, "Storybooks tell they was all cut low but the truth of it is this just ain't so. Their spirits will live and their legends grow as long as we remember the Alamo."

     I refused to believe, for a time, that Crockett had actually died in the battle, I saw him as a larger then life hero, incapable of being killed in combat. His mantra "be sure your right and then go ahead" was for me not just slogan, but a way of life. Later on, after I had accepted the historical fact of his death, I learned that he had possibly been taken prisoner and summarily executed, again my young brain rebelled at this idea. Surely my childhood hero would never have surrendered. I've since learned that this story is of questionable historical validity but the point is that my admiration for Crockett exceeded that of passing interest in an historical figure. Fess Parker and the filmmakers had inspired in me a lifelong devotion to this long dead American congressman.

     Despite the film's mythic overtones, the writers were careful to portray Crockett as a real flesh-and-blood person. He gets hurt, he bleeds, and he is deeply affected by the premature death of his wife. He is not a man who goes looking for greatness. He just wants to raise his family in peace but destiny seems to steer him continually into situations that require heroic action. Despite this, his efforts seem to be met with failure more often then success. As I've grown older, it's these very human qualities that have continued to endear me to Crockett, his ability to carry on and follow his conscience in the face of continued failure and finally, certain death.

     Over the years I've had other heroes: celebrities, artists, political pundits, military veterans, but, in most cases (Catholic Saints excepted), my admiration for them has faded. Not so with Crockett. Rather, the more I've learned about the real man and what he did, the more I respect him. The great figures of history were more often than not tyrants, butchers, exploitative opportunists, et cetera. Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier paints a picture of a man who refused to compromise with the corrupt ways of society and did what he felt was right no matter what the cost, a picture that, it just so happens, is fairly close to the truth. I have nothing but animus for what Disney, as a company has become. But, even if he did nothing else, I owe ol' Walt a debt of gratitude for making Davy Crockett.