a5c7b9f00b U.S. Marshal Clay Stacy brings law and order to a frontier community terrorized by an old Nemesis. Indian Affairs agent Jim Blake captures a band of thieves and rustlers preying on the buffalo herds of the Kansas plains, and the Indians, and has them sent to jail, with the gang-leader, Clay Stacy, vowing vengeance. Later,Blake resigns his government position with the intent of becoming a rancher. But he is asked to become a U. S. Marshal and clean up a town that is now being terrorized by the same gang he had sent to prison. His hardest opposition comes from Martha Mercer, who has taken over the job after the former sheriff, her father, was killed by the gang. Which is what Errol Flynn usually spent 10 minutes doing in each of his westerns explaning how he acquired his accent while "punching caws down on the Rye-Ohh-Gran-dee", including 1939's "Dodge City" which is where most of the footage (of any value or had more than two people in the scene) of this 1945 short came from. Of course, it's disjointed and choppy; one can't stuff 90 minutes of film into a 20 minute bag without the use of a narrator. For those who have lots of time to waste, then watch "Frontier Days" and "Dodge City" and match up costumes and scenes. Hey, no big deal, just one of those things Warners used to peddle to the exhibitors for filler. The only complaint here is that they didn't just use the whole 20 minutes with the camera on Dorothy Malone showing just how a two-sizes too-small western shirt should be worn. The saloon brawl and the runaway horse team scenes are from Dodge City (1939) with Errol Flynn and Victor Jory. Both Jory and Guinn Big Boy Williams can be seen if you look quickly enough. What a waste of film. On the up side it did provide some pay checks for a few out of work actors and other studio employees. As usual, after the big deal fist fight between our hero sheriff and the villain the villain's face is bloody and our hero's face doesn't have a mark. But inmuchthe short was made to entertain little kids and to sell popcorn it served it's purpose. It's not like they were out to make Gone With the Wind or Ben Hur. It would be interesting to hear what the producer and director had to say about why they made it and how they got permission to use film from other movies.
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347 weeks ago