bujaki
Senior HTF Member
Best Buy is selling the new Tom Mix BD release at a much better price than Amazon.With the Undercrank blu-ray release of the silent Tom Mix double-feature due out this next week, I decided to get in the proper mood by revisiting some of Mix's talkie westerns. Even though he was getting a bit long in the tooth, that series of nine Universal westerns (1932-33) he made is a pretty good batch.
Yeah, I couldn't help but start with the best of the lot, the knockout "Rider of Death Valley" (1932), which is really one of the very best westerns of the 1930s. It has Mix protecting the mining interests of an orphaned girl and her young aunt. There's a real sense of unnerving menace throughout the film (top-notch Fred Kohler villainy), leading to a grim tale of desert survival. The desert cinematography is quite stellar. And a scene where Tom has to whip his beloved horse Tony into leaving for help is a real killer. A very young Edith Fellows portrays the small girl, years before she found some minor-league stardom at Columbia. Silent actress Lois Wilson is marvelous as the pretty aunt. Wilson was mostly busy portraying moms in 1930s poverty-row, after the silent era. I've always loved her from William DeMille's "Miss Lulu Bett" (1921-Par), as well as her prime role in the classic "The Covered Wagon" (1923-Par), where she memorably took an arrow to the shoulder!
Secondly, I took a renewed look at "The Texas Bad Man" (1932), which had the familiar scenario of Mix being a marshal who goes undercover to catch a gang. Fred Kohler is present here too, as the key henchman. Things get sticky when Mix discovers that the gal he's sweet on (Lucille Powers) is the sister to the gang's leader, who goes around as a mild-mannered storekeeper. It's a pretty solid affair, with nice bits of humor and action. Mix seems to really be having fun with this one. The third and last film I rewatched, "Flaming Guns" (1933), has a very heavy emphasis on comedy. The story had good potential, but ultimately misfires a bit. In a more semi-contemporary (1918) setting, Mix is both working as a ranch foreman to a big-city businessman, and courting his daughter. The businessman is played in an overly broad way by former silent star William Farnum, whose 'comically' combustible temper ultimately overwhelmed the film and knocked it off-kilter. Sometimes I can find Farnum's old-style hamminess to be endearing, but here it just become annoying. Ruth Hall was the daughter. She was in a number of b-westerns (Ken Maynard, John Wayne, etc.), although I still think she's more remembered for working alongside comedians, like Eddie Cantor, the Marx Brothers, and Joe E. Brown. Still wish that "Flaming Guns" worked out better, as it has some interesting location work, including what seemed to be a genuine roadside gas-station in Lone Pine, amidst a great mountainous backdrop. Visually it was good fun, even if the plotline went out the door.
