Trail Guide (1952)

Please don't spend money on this.

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

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I love Chito's pick-up line to the wagon train cutie—"You know for a girl, you ain't bad looking". Now what gal could resist an endearment like that. Reviewer Fob's right: it's an average Holt entry. But an average entry's still fun for many of us front-row geezers. The question is what would these oaters do for plot if ranchers and settlers got along. Here, it's shenanigans around cattlemen wanting to drive off late-coming settlers. At the same time, real bad guy Regan (Wilcox) is looking to get rich by exploiting the situation. But guess who's working to put things right, that is, if Tim can keep Chito away from the girls long enough. There's some hard-riding, and some cold-blooded gunplay, but catch the lively barroom brawl where nobody loses his hat. I really don't know how they did it unless the Stetsons were glued on. Except for some opening stock shots, action never leaves greater LA locations, so scenery doesn't count for much. Anyway, it's a good supporting cast with several cuties instead of just one. So it's an entertaining way to pass an easy hour.

I always get a kick out of lines in a Western like the one in my summary above, they take me back to the wonderful days of Yosemite Sam in the Warner Brothers cartoons of the era. I can just see Yosemite looking down the barrel of his six-guns while drawing a bead on Elmer Fudd. Actually, the line was delivered by Silver Springs town villain Regan (Frank Wilcox) to young Kenny Masters (Robert Sherwood) on the way out of town, with Regan intending to keep Masters quiet about all the skulduggery the baddies are trying to pull off.For Tim Holt and Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin) this is a pretty standard outing, with all the usual elements present in their relationship. Tim has to keep Chito on the straight and narrow so he doesn't get waylaid by every pretty face he comes across. Trail gal Maria (Wendy Waldron) was pretty persistent in the romance department, so Chito had to be just as nimble to stay a step ahead of her.The story itself presents the age old rivalry between cattle men and homesteaders, with Tim angling for a way both sides can live in harmony with each other. Cattle rancher Peg Masters (Linda Douglas) functions as the go-between once she finds out her brother is done in by the outlaws. Standard horse chase scenes and shoot-outs complement the on screen action, but there's never any doubt the good guys will come out on top.

Trail Guide finds Tim Holt and Richard Martin doing just that, guiding a wagon train of homesteaders to new settlements. But when the job is done it's a lot of hostility that the new settlers are finding. Later on wagon master Kenneth MacDonald is shot and robbed of all the homesteaders money and more importantly the deeds to the new farms.It wouldn't be a Tim Holt or any other kind of western if the cowboy heroes didn't stay and take a hand in the fight. Of course there's a nefarious villain with a nefarious reason for wanting to keep the hostility going.Brother and sister ranchers Robert Sherwood and Linda Douglas lead the cattle people's opposition to the new settlers. Wendy Waldron is the girl with marriage on her mind where Chito Rafferty is concerned. That overactive libido working overtime again.Distinctly unfunny and at time downright annoying his Tom London as the oldtimer comic relief.Other than Mr. London, this is a good B western.

Tim Holt and Richard Martin starred in a long series of RKO B westerns from the early 1940s through the mid 1950s. Production values were good, stories generally were fine, but the directors were people like Lesley Selander, director of this effort, who knew how to shoot the scenes very well but wasn't much on directing the actors. Good actors like Holt and Martin could usually manage, although they occasionally made bad acting choices, but the leading ladies, usually up-and-coming starlets, often gave wooden readings of their lines, like Linda Douglas in this.This is a typical entry. It is, by all means, satisfactory except for one or two performances. It is well worth your time.