The Fighting Westerner (1935)

Overrated and overhyped

hyped garbage

Best movie of this year hands down!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

"The Old Dark House" has moved from Wales to the west coast of the United States, and Randolph Scott shows up in the middle of a murder investigation. It seems that the relatives of a dying patriarch (who hires Scott to work in his laboratory) have gathered around, waiting for the old coot to die. But one by one, members of the family start to drop dead themselves. As always happens in these films, the hero (Scott) falls in love with one of the more innocent members of the family, and in this case, that heroine is none other than Ann Sheridan, the future "Oomph Girl" in one of her first major roles. Several years off from beginning to shine as one of Warner Brothers' top actresses of the late 1930's and 40's, Sheridan had yet to show her potential, but what made her movie star material is evident. Scott, seen the same year in the Astaire/Rogers musical "Roberta", moved between "A" films and low-grade western/action films. Even though he's seen through most of the films in chaps, this isn't really a western, in spite of its setting.In the supporting cast, "Chic" Sale adds some amusement as the self-sworn in sheriff, while stage actress Mrs. Leslie Carter makes a rare screen appearance as the family matriarch. Coming off like Eva Moore in "The Old Dark House", Carter would be much better off five years later when Miriam Hopkins played her in Warner's biopic "The Lady With Red Hair". Her acting here is best described as something out of the gaslight era, overly dramatic and unintentionally campy. Willie Fung, as usual, is typecast as the effeminate servant.There are some interesting developments in the slow-moving and creaky pacing, particularly the contraption used in several of the demises. Otherwise, the film is entirely forgettable, and strictly for fans of the "Z" budget bottom of the bill programmers or for fans who want to see Scott and Sheridan early in their career.

Much of the effort that went into screen writing in the thirties had to do with exploring the role of the detective. Most of that was playing with the detective story. Watching many films from this era is fun just from the experimental nature of the narrative.This is nominally a western. That is, there are horses, cowboy revolvers and hats. Our hero struts like all the other cowboys busy in other films establishing that genre. He has an honest heart, appears on the scene with no baggage and gets the girl. Otherwise, this is a standard detective story. Because it wants to make the case clear, it features a radium mine, something about as alien from the old west as possible. Judged as an experiment, it is pretty clever mix of genres. Judged as a detective story, it is slightly more complex than the ordinary. There is misdirection of a kind that seems predicable today but was likely a surprise then. (The murdered man had his face crushed in a mining press, so you know the body is not who it is claimed to be.) There is a surprise conspiracy.The version I saw had the title "The Fighting Westerner," and I suppose they tried to market this both as a western and a mystery.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Rocky Mountain Mystery exists in that parallel universe where the old west never really ended but continued on well into the nineteen-thirties and forties, usually inhabited by Gene Autry, Roy Rodgers, Tex Ritter, and sometimes even a very young John Wayne.The characters ride horses, use oil lamps to light their way, and seemingly live a frontier existence under territorial law, all with six-guns on their hips. The viewer either forgets or is unaware that this is supposed to take place in modern times when suddenly the cowboys encounter modern cars, telephones, radio, and electricity. I sometimes wonder if the depression era children who were the films' main audience actually believed the west was really like this.This is an above average B-western and a great example of what modern experts are calling "horror western" due to their odd plots and sadistic mystery villains. I prefer to call them mystery or suspense westerns.Rocky Mountain Mystery effectively mixes an Old Dark House plot with frontier themes. It's not as chilling as I'd like but it does have a creepy fiend dressed in black complete with gloves, hat, and cape; a killer that prefers to crush heads in a hydraulic press but isn't afraid to menace a pretty girl with a straight razor either! The ending is quite surprising and well plotted.

Randolph Scott at this point in his career when he wasn't doing other films was learning the western genre in a series of films that Paramount's B unit was doing from Zane Grey novels. In this particular one, Rocky Mountain Mystery, Grey tried his hand at a detective story and skilfully combined the genres.Randy's a mining engineer, but he's turning amateur sleuth to find out what's happened to his brother-in-law, who no one has heard from. Upon arriving at the scene he meets deputy sheriff Chic Sale who's investigating the murder of the owner of a mine. The two of them decide to join forces.The film is set in the contemporary west, at least the contemporary west of when Zane Grey wrote the story. There's reference to Chic Sale's son killed in the Great War and how Scott reminds him of his late son. When these two arrive at the mine, there's a lot of interesting people living there.As it turns out there's quite an intricate scheme working there of which the homicide is only one aspect. I wish this film had been given a bigger budget and the A treatment because the film had potential.Young Ann Sheridan is the female lead, this is probably one of her first films in that regard, she'd be signed by Warner Brothers next year.However the important reason to see the film is the appearance of one of the great stage stars of the last centuries and notorious personalities. Mrs. Leslie Carter (and that's how she was billed) has the role of family matriarch of the clan at the mine and even in her old age you can tell what a beauty she was back then. Her acting is also decent, no exaggerated stage mannerisms from back in her day when she learned her craft from David Belasco.Her divorce from her husband was one of the great scandals of the day. Divorce back in her time was scandalous in and of itself. She was left penniless by the divorce, but Belasco seeking to capitalize on her notoriety, took her under his wing and trained her in the thespian arts. People exploiting their celebrity, some things never change. You can see her story in the film, The Lady With Red Hair starring Miriam Hopkins and Claude Rains.By the way she was billed under her former married name to take advantage of the fact that was how the public knew her and to stick it to her ex.Even without Mrs. Leslie Carter, Rocky Mountain Mystery is a decent film, I wish had been given better production values by Paramount.