The Spoilers (1942)

The Worst Film Ever

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is one of the few films where you see that Randolph Scott can act. The reason being is that he is an antagonist against John Wayne who wins the affections of Marlene Dietrich. Scott is better as an antagonist when he is playing against a good protagonist. Wayne works well with Dietrich because both of them are just class. They worked well together in 'Seven Sinners' previously, but Wayne didn't have a strong enough antagonist to play against. Here Scott steps up to the mark. To demonstrate that Scott makes a better antagonist than protagonist watch 'Pittsburgh' where the roles are reversed. Wayne is the antagonist in that film, and despite how despicable his character is, he still brings class to that role. Whereas Scott is the protagonist is bland.The performances in this film is far superior to the plot. There are times when the film plods along and drags its feet, but the tension between Wayne and Scott maintains your attention. Scott has a chiselled face with lines engraved in stone which means he looks better as an antagonist than a protagonist. There is a scene where Wayne looks at Scott and says to him: 'any objections?' The way he delivers that makes it quite clear that he is issuing a challenge to Scott. However, when Jeff Chandler said it to Rory Colhoun in the 1955 remake it was just a dead line. It shows that it's not the writing that makes this film but the performances, and both Wayne and Scott stand out in this film as delivering good performances.The fight scene at the end is the best fight scene ever delivered in a Wayne film.

John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich made three movies together. Director Ray Enright's "The Spoilers" was the second one they co-starred in after Tay Garnett's "Seven Sinners" (1940) and then later Lewis Seiler's "Pittsburgh." Furthermore, "The Spoilers" was the second time that Randolph Scott co-starred with Wayne. The action takes place in Nome, Alaska, in 1900, when a new Gold Commissioner and a judge arrive in town. As Cherry Malotte, Dietrich is not only the most popular dame in town but also she operates a saloon. Wayne is cast as heroic protagonist Roy Glennister. He is a partner in a mine with Dextry (Harry Carey of "Angel and the Badman") who refuses to let a crooked judge take away their mind. Cherry and Roy are an item until Roy returns from Seattle with a sweet-looking gal who turns out to be the judge's daughter. It doesn't take Judge Horace Stillman (Samuel S. Hinds of "Cobra Woman") long to turn the town upside down with the corrupt gold commissioner Alexander McNamara (Randolph Scott of "Virginia City") and before long, they convince Roy to let them check up on the legitimacy of their mine. Shotgun toting hard-case Dextry would rather shoot than let the villains have their way, but Roy considers himself a law-abiding citizen, especially after the solemn judge assure him that they will clear matters up in no time. Meanwhile, Cherry isn't too happy with Helen Chester (Margaret Lindsay) and the effect that she is having on Roy. Helen is living in a fantasy until she discovers that Alexander and her father are a couple of chiseling thieves. Things come to a head when the law throws Roy in jail and the villains decide to let him escape so he can run smack into an ambush. Happily, Cherry and her henchman, Bronco Kid Farrow (Richard Barthelmess of "Only Angels Have Wings"), have their own surprise. Director Ray Enright stages fistfights, shoot-outs, and train crashes with appropriate gusto in this World War II era western. "The Spoilers" represents one of those rare times when Randolph Scott played a villain.

Aided by saloon owner Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne and his cantankerous partner Harry Carey Sr. battle claim jumping of the legal variety, perpetrated by villainous bureaucrat Randolph Scott.A sometimes painfully slow first half, partially due to Dietrich's role being stretched out to fit her top-billed status, is redeemed by an engrossing and exciting second half, including a rousing climax at Wayne and Carey's mine and a helluva great fist-fight between the Duke and Scott.Harry Carey easily gives the best performance of the film. He and his rifle steal every scene they're in!

One of the many good-but-not-great westerns (or would this be a "northern"?) that John Wayne made between *Stagecoach* and *Fort Apache*, *The Spoilers* has top-billed Marlene Dietrich more or less reprising her role from *Destry Rides Again* (they even play an instrumental version of "Little Joe" in the background of one scene).But the truly inspired bit of casting is Randolph Scott as McNamara, the Mining Commissioner.McNamara is established immediately as Wayne's rival in love and a little later as a business obstacle. Given the conventions of the genre, we would assume his villainy from the beginning...except, you know, it's *Randolph Scott*. I mean, that would be like...well, like making John Wayne the villain.So when it turns out that he is the villain, it's a genuine surprise (for the longest time, I kept thinking that he'd have one of those Hollywood conversions right at the end and help Wayne to set things right before dying in a hail of gunfire).And of course, Randolph Scott couldn't be expected to lose easily to some young whippersnapper named "Marion," so they were almost required to do the excellent brawl which ends the film.(Another inspired piece of casting which I didn't know about until I looked it up is Robert W. Service playing Robert W. Service.)