Tue 5 Aug 2014
A Western Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE SPOILERS (1942).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[8] Comments
THE SPOILERS. Universal Pictures, 1942. Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, John Wayne, Margaret Lindsay, Harry Carey, Richard Barthelmess, George Cleveland, Samuel S. Hinds. Based on a novel by Rex Beach. Director: Ray Enright.
The Spoilers stars John Wayne, Randolph Scott, and Marlene Dietrich in a tale about claims jumping and legal corruption during the Alaskan gold rush. Based on a Rex Beach novel and directed by Ray Enright, the film is a slightly above average period Western. There’s some great onscreen chemistry between Wayne and Dietrich, a beautifully filmed scene of a locomotive at night, and one of the most extensive saloon fight scenes that I’ve come across in recent memory.
Set in Nome, Alaska, the story follows the conflict between miner, Roy Glennister (Wayne) and a corrupt gold commissioner by the name of Alex McNamara (Scott). The two men also each have their eyes on saloon owner beauty, Cherry Malotte (Dietrich), who has yet another suitor in the lovesick Bronco Kid (Richard Barthelmess).
McNamara’s underhanded attempts to achieve title to Glennister’s gold mine sets the story in motion. Aiding him in his task are corrupt Circuit Court Judge Horace Stillman (Samuel S. Hinds) and his lovely niece, Helen Chester (Margaret Lindsay), who grows increasingly ambivalent about her role in the whole sordid scheme.
Both Wayne and Dietrich are quite good in their roles. More importantly, each of them appears to be having a good time working on the project, making their screen time together a fun experience for the viewer. It’s Scott, however, who steals the show in his portrayal of the villainous McNamara. There’s just something so incredibly devious about his character. He’s sort of what you’d imagine a frontier claims jumper would have been like — a bit genteel, at least on the surface, but also ruthless and more than willing to get his hands dirty should the need arise.
Maybe that’s why in the film’s final sequence, when he and Wayne’s character get into a lengthy, brutal bar fight, you both want to see him get his butt kicked and to see him get in a few good punches himself. He’s a bad guy all right, but not one without his charms.
Given that The Spoilers benefits from great cast, a decent plot, and a good amount of rugged frontier action, you’d think that it would have more of a critical reputation than it does. Part of this likely stems from the fact that the two male leads, John Wayne and Randolph Scott, each went on to much bigger and better projects, leaving affairs like this in their dust.
The fact that The Spoilers can feel considerably dated at times doesn’t help matters, either. Case in point: the film’s blatantly transparent attempt to utilize racial humor. This is exemplified in a scene in which Wayne’s character is effectively wearing blackface and fools Cherry’s maid into thinking he is Black. It was surely intended to induce guffaws from the audience, but now it just falls flat. While I do recognize that there was likely no conscious decision to be derogatory toward Blacks in the film, I don’t believe most audiences today would find value in the movie’s usage of blackface for comedic relief or think Wayne in blackface was particularly humorous.
In conclusion, The Spoilers is a solid frontier Western with some very good scenes and a notably strong performance by Randolph Scott. It’s by no means a bad film. It just doesn’t stand the test of time that well.
August 5th, 2014 at 3:34 pm
The Spoilers was a box office hit. Both Wayne and Scott lobbied for the part of Glennister, obviously Wayne won the part but Scott the better billing. The following year, the three Dietrich, Scott and Wayne were reunited in Pittsburgh. In that, Wayne had the better and more colorful character but he was also the antagonist, and lost the fight and girl to Randy. Personally, I prefer Pittsburgh but it was unsuccessful, in relative terms. The Spoilers deviates all over the place from Rex Beach’s book, which by the way, is fun reading.
August 5th, 2014 at 3:43 pm
THE SPOILERS from Silents to the last version with Jeff Chandler and Rory Calhoun has always been noted for the fight sequences (the silent one between Elmo Lincoln and William Stage Boyd is legendary). The one in this version ranks with the bar fight in SHANE and the Gregory Peck/Charlton Heston brawl in THE BIG COUNTRY as among the finest and most brutal of their types, certainly in westerns.
I don’t know about modern opinion, but THE SPOILERSS has always had good reviews whenever it was filmed, and you may have to distinguish between critics and reviews (not the same thing)in that regard. It has always been a big brawling Northwestern from the bestselling Rex Beach novel to the latest film version (uncredited, NORTH TO ALASKA is largely THE SPOILERS plot).
I grant it is difficult, but you have to take the racial humor of these films for what it was, and we can be too sensitive forgetting many of the black actors in these films were respected in their community and in the business. Any number of black friends have mentioned over the years having fond memories of Mantan Moreland and Amos and Andy on television. The problem is not that there were Stepin Fetchit’s, but that those were the only roles for black actors.
If you are going to watch these films I don’t think you can imbue them with too much of a twenty first century eye. Accept the racial aspect is unfortunate and uncomfortable, even warn future viewers, but take it in context. This is not BIRTH OF A NATION, it is just unfortunate stereotyping.
Education rather than offense is the best way to approach the problem, otherwise you probably will want to limit your viewing of old movies to nothing older than 1950.And we can’t speak for others.
I have black friends who are huge Johnny Weismuller and Tarzan fans. In a way we aren’t giving people today credit for being able to see the cultural differences between then and now and distinguish. In my childhood alone I saw black actors evolve from Willie Best and Amos and Andy to character actor Juano Hernandez to leading men Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier. That happened within a single decade.
And I do think we undervalue those black actors from the past. I always thought Mantan Moreland’s attitude in any Charlie Chan or horror film was highly enlightened and the hero a monumental lunkhead.
August 5th, 2014 at 3:48 pm
Re Scott and Wayne
The two men worked together a third time. Seven Men From Now was prepared by Batjac (one of John Wayne’s several production arms) for himself, but The Searchers came along, and Batjac, at Wayne’s suggestion, reached out to Randy Scott. Worked out well for all concerned.
August 5th, 2014 at 4:22 pm
Wayne definitely had the more colorful character in this, but it was good to see Scott portraying a villain rather than the stoic, morally upright hero. In many ways, Mark Harmon’s portrayal of the villain in the made-for-TV film, “Crossfire Trail” based on the Louis L’Amour novel reminds me a lot of Scott’s portrayal of the bad guy in this one.
August 5th, 2014 at 7:58 pm
There’s a story (possibly apocryphal, but knowing Marlene’s reputation, perhaps not) that when Deitrich first spied John Wayne walking across the commissary floor, she turned to the director next to her (Fritz Lang? Josef Von Sternberg?) and cooed, “Oooh, Daddy–buy me that.”
I can hear her saying it!
August 6th, 2014 at 3:08 am
The story is that she whispered it to Tay Garnett as they were casting for SEVEN SINNERS (1940) Wayne & Dietrich’s first film together.
August 6th, 2014 at 1:57 pm
Dietrich rather famously slept with many of her leading men including Gary Cooper. During the war she was juggling Jean Gabin, Yves Montand, and General Mark Clark with Ernest Hemingway a friend with benefits though he claimed never to have collected on it.
She was always her own woman, female to the core, but with a masculine view of sex.
August 6th, 2014 at 3:24 pm
She also had a long-term relationship with John Gilbert (Damn! how lucky can one guy get?) and all but adopted his daughter when he died.