Sunset Range (1935)

Undescribable Perfection

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Hoot Gibson (Reasonin' Bates), Mary Doran (Mary Shea), James Eagles (Eddie Shea), Walter McGrail (Grant), John Elliott (Dan Caswell), Ralph Lewis (sheriff), Eddie Lee (Ling Fong), Kitty McHugh (Della, the maid), Horace B. Carpenter (Joe Jackson), Slim Whitaker, Goober Glenn, Bill Hickey, Jim Corey, Ed "Pardner" Jones, George Sowards, Lem Sowards, Freddie Gilman, Bill Gillis (themselves), Fred Humes (Teddy Dove).Director: RAY McCAREY. Story and continuity: Paul Schofield. Photography: Gilbert Warrenton. Film editor: Ralph Dietrich. Music director: Abe Meyer. Production manager: Leon D'Usseau. Assistant director: George Sherman. Sound recording: Hal Bumbaugh. Copyright 15 March 1935 by First Division Productions, Inc. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 3 April 1935. 6 reels. 60 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Two cowpokes have saved up almost enough money to buy the ranch at which they work, when a new owner suddenly arrives from the east. A female to boot!COMMENT: Starts off slowly but soon develops into a rather charming comedy/romance with a slap-up chase climax. Deftly shot on location by director Ray McCarey (brother of Leo), this little western has much to recommend it, not least the attractive performances rendered by almost the entire cast, led by Hoot Gibson, Mary Doran and John Elliott.

Maybe we mostly go to B Westerns for the action, gun play and saloon fights and horseback chases. At least I do.But "Sunset Range" has something else: Charm.And good humor.And extremely likable ranch hands who suddenly find themselves employed by a city-slicker girl who herself just oozes charm.The joy of "Sunset Range" begins with a wonderful story, by Paul Schofield, of whom it is very difficult to find any information.That story is presented by director Ray McCarey, and it must run in the family, directorial excellence, because he was brother to Leo McCarey.McCarey is gifted with not only his own skill but with a cast that is about as close to perfect for this cine-play as a cast could get.Many of the performers play characters with their, the actors', names, such as Goober Glenn and George and Lem Sowards.One stand-out is John Elliott, who has credits starting in 1919 and running till 1956! He gives what must be the best performance in this movie, and one of the best I've ever seen in a B Western.The ranch-hand characters are dirty and dusty and unshaven fellows suddenly presented with a city-slicker girl as their new boss, because her brother bought her the ranch, and their reaction is priceless.One hand, though, is resentful. Even this lovely and adorable girl is still a girl and he just don't like 'em. Girls, that is.That hand is the estimable Hoot Gibson. I have only recently -- February of 2016 -- re-discovered Hoot and I am just enthralled. Maybe I'm speaking too soon, but so far I believe he is one of the most likable movie performers, probably in all of Hollywood history.He is not our standard rough and tough cowboy hero, but in real life he had been a cowboy who became a movie stunt man, an early one.He earns our admiration and liking by his personality and not just his fisticuffs.He and his cowboy colleagues in "Sunset Range" make us awfully glad we tuned in to watch them and the charming and adorable Bonnie, played by the charming and adorable Mary Doran.A good story so well played by this perfect cast is really quite a surprise to someone expecting a shoot-'em-up, but it should be a very pleasant surprise.By the way, there IS plenty of action, too, and director McCarey uses his cameras very well in capturing it.I highly recommend "Sunset Range" which is available at YouTube.

There's a lot more humor in Sunset Range than you would find in most B westerns. And I mean humor not at the expense of some dopey sidekick. Hoot Gibson and Mary Doran are a well matched pair of leads and the comedy is on the level of some of the better Roy Rogers/Dale Evans westerns which also had a battle of the sexes.Mary Doran has come west to live on a ranch purchased by her brother James Eagles. Eagles is a racketeer albeit not a very good one. His rackets boss Walter McGrail hides $100,000.00 in stolen loot in Doran's trunk in a secret compartment to get it out of town while they wait until the heat cools down. Doran doesn't know she has it.In the meantime she settles in on her new ranch where she has to win over the men headed by Hoot Gibson who had hoped to buy the place for himself. Gibson and Doran are not quite Tracy and Hepburn, but they do have their moments. There's a funny tooth pulling scene and later on Doran gets Gibson to wear a pair of wool chaps that drugstore cowboys would normally wear. She does it by using some loaded dice on the unsuspecting Hoot.The reason the scenes play so well is that the director here is Raymond McCarey, Leo's brother. The younger McCarey never got the acclaim that Leo did, he never graduated into A feature pictures. But he did do a lot of comedy shorts for Hal Roach. Ray McCarey's comedic touch is a sure one that those years with Roach would have taught him.McCarey also did do B westerns and he does have a really furious climax with the city bandits who have taken Doran hostage in Sunset Range. All in all Sunset Range is a really excellent B western, way out of the league of the normal poverty row product.

I'll admit I enjoyed this movie WAY more then I should have. Hoot Gibson is starting grow on me for some odd reason, it seems he wanted to be a western star without really resorting to guns to resolve feuds. In this movie, he plays a hired hand who realizes the land, Sunset Ranch, he wanted so desperately to have has been sold! To a woman to boot! So he's rather annoyed about that, but of course, being a western and all, the woman starts getting more charming by the minute. But the woman's brother who also owns the land, is a bit shady, he's in the mafia you see, and his activities spill over into the Ranch. So it's up to Hoot and his gang to do something about it! I hate to say this, but I found this to be one of the better written B westerns out there, full of funny dialogue and cute one liners, this had me from the get go, so I would definitely recommend this if you're looking for a great B western.