Marked for Murder (1945)

Such a frustrating disappointment

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

For the most part it was these B films from minor poverty row studios that made it to television first. And when they did they were usually butchered in the cutting room to make it fit the program length for television. But Marked For Murder seems to have really not survived the surgery well.The version I saw is only 47 minutes and it begins clearly in the middle of the film. Tex Ritter is a former gunfighter now turned attorney and some would argue the gunfighter is higher on the social scale. But he's pals with Texas Rangers Dave O'Brien and Guy Wilkerson. All three are involved in preventing a range war between the cattlemen and the sheepmen. It's the same plot used in a gazillion westerns, but in this case the editing makes the film almost indecipherable. You really have to fill in the blanks in your head with this one.

It's really hard to rate these old B-movies. It's because with the advent of TV, many of these films were cut severely so the film could fit into a one hour format (including commercials). So, while a Roy Rogers film might seem pretty dumb, it might just be because of some overly stupid editing job. I am sure that is part of the problem with "Mariked for Murder". At only about 46 minutes, you can only assume a LOT of the film was cut, as a western like this usually is about 65 minutes long--more of less.The music in this film is find of weird. Near the beginning, they play a tune that sounds more like something you'd hear from a 1930s cartoon! And, as the film progressed, I noticed that the music was actually a good thing, as the plot wasn't particularly good and the songs, for what they were, were catchy. Tex's singing style was pleasant and folksy--though his screen presence otherwise was a bit wooden. He is no Gene Autry or Roy Rogers! The plot is pretty familiar--there's a range war brewing between the sheep and cattle men. But in this case, the REAL culprit who is manipulating all this is a baddie who wants to start this war for his own evil gains. Again, a rather familiar story element. Along the way, Tex's sidekick is amazingly bland and useless and the story seems, at times, very talky. Not a great or enjoyable film by any standard.

Singing cowboy great Tex Ritter stars in the B-Western favorite from the 1940's. In this one, Tex appears again with frequent co-star Dave O'Brien . The two are caught in the middle of a frontier spat between sheep men and ranchers. In between a few homespun cowpoke tunes, lawyer Ritter helps to restore order amongst the various feuding factions.Ritter was not much of an actor, but always seemed at home on the range. His personable, witty style here fore-shadowed the lovable characters his son John Ritter would also make famous a few decades later. He was a great singer/songwriter, which made this a very enjoyable western programmer.