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