Sun 11 Jul 2021
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE RETURN OF WILDFIRE (1948).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[19] Comments
THE RETURN OF WILDFIRE. Lippert, 1948. Richard Arlen, Patricia Morison, Mary Beth Hughes, James Millican, Reed Hadley, Chris Pin-Martin, Stanley Andrews and Mike Ragan. Written by Betty Burbridge and Carl K Hittleman. Directed by Ray Taylor and Paul Landres.
Whence the title? Return of Wildfire isn’t a sequel, and the eponymous stallion never actually leaves anyplace, so the issue of returning doesn’t arise here. Well never mind, it’s a bit draggy at times, but well played, and with a terrific finish.
The story opens on a ranch owned by Stanley Andrews, the widowed father requisite in B-Westerns, with two daughters (Mary Beth Hughes and the lovely Patricia Morison.) Andrews raises horses, and suffers from the depredations of outlaw horse Wildfire, who keeps running off with his stock. But his real problem is with dress-heavy Reed Hadley, who aims to corner the market and will stop at little or nothing to get his hands on Andrews’ herd.
About this time driftin’ cowpoke Richard Arlen blows in, helps out Ms Hughes, who has been injured hunting Wildfire, and is promptly hired on. He also takes a yen for Ms Morison, which leads to some very tiresome complications with Hughes, but before things can get too bogged down, Hadley makes his play and things liven up.
Andrews gets murdered by his own foreman (James Millican, in a well-judged role as a vacillating bad guy) Hadley jumps in and scarfs up the horses in a dirty business deal, and when Arlen whips up replacements from Wildfire’s herd, Hadley just plain steals them, too.
Up to this point, The Return of Wildfire has run on the tepid side, but from here on out, it’s non-stop action, with a running gun battle across the Sierra Peloma Mountains, capped with an exhausting fistfight that recalls similar moments in Winchester 73 and The Naked Spur. And I have to say directors Taylor and Landres do it just as well as Anthony Mann could have. Quite a surprise coming from producer Lippert, and one that makes for fine viewing.
I said The Return of Wildfire was well played, and it is. Besides Millican’s wavering, we get Arlen’s type-cast toughness, and Reed Hadley’s sepulchral villain. And best of all, there’s Patricia Morison, who makes any film she’s in a delight to watch.
July 11th, 2021 at 9:04 pm
The always underrated Hadley, the best narrator in the business.
July 11th, 2021 at 10:27 pm
I saw Return of Wildfire in 1948 and loved it. Two thoughts re Dan’s review. The title is a film reference as Wildfire was a name frequently used for fictional, and real, movie horses. As for Patricia Morison, you can have her, I will take Mary Beth Hughes any hour or day. Oh, and no one working inHollywood is ever underrated. Working in movies for movie money is all that it is cracked up to be.
July 11th, 2021 at 10:49 pm
It’s a tough choice. Patricia Morison on odd-numbered days, Mary Beth Hughes the rest of the week. That’s the best answer I can come up with.
July 11th, 2021 at 11:59 pm
I love the phrase ‘he made his play’ (descriptive) or ‘make your play!’ (declarative or imperative, when two western characters challenge each other).
If this blood-curdling threat goes back as far as this movie, I appreciate it even more.
I first heard it in the Gunsmoke radio series, heard it talked about in the liner notes as if it was ‘coined’ by series writer John Meston. Colorado-born Meston had a yen for such lingo.
It is used to phenomenal effect in audio, and I presume it comes from the context of card-playing which ruled the territories. But essentially, it’s “en garde” from from the great era of European dueling in the 1500s-1600s.
“You either make your play …or you get down off that wagon.”
That kind of thing.
July 12th, 2021 at 12:09 am
“a running gun battle… capped with an exhausting fistfight”
It’s odd how many Westerns have this sequence, just as SF films feature death rays and end up with fights with swords or light-sabres. All of the high-tech weaponry as a background to hero and villain getting close and personal.
July 12th, 2021 at 1:15 am
Francis M. Nevins wrote a book “Paul Landres, A Director’s Stories” (2000).
See:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2973657-paul-landres
People should read film historians. We all can learn a LOT from them.
July 12th, 2021 at 1:23 am
Croupiers in French casinos always instruct the roulette customers “faites vos jeux” (make your plays) It’s their way of telling the customers “place your bets”.
I completely condemn gambling.
But know about this from reading all those old mystery books set in casinos!
July 12th, 2021 at 10:08 am
Gunman, gunman,
Time grows short –
Run or make your bid!
Who’ll be first to draw upon
The Silver Dollar Kid?
The Silver Dollar Kid …
– From The Slowest Gun In The West (1960), sung by Bud & Travis.
Remember some years back, when we here celebrated the Phil Silvers/Jack Benny/Nat Hiken CBS Western spoof?
Back In The Day, it was imbedded here, but the copyright police pulled it; you can, however, find it once more at the YouTube mothership (several times over, in fact …).
Should you check this out, be sure to listen to the whole ballad, quoted above – you’ll hear another familiar phrase as you go on.
… And now you know what a True Classic is …
July 12th, 2021 at 12:05 pm
It isn’t a sequel to this earlier Lippert production?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire_(1945_film)
July 12th, 2021 at 2:35 pm
You may have something there. Dan will have to answer that, since I’ve not seen either, but they *are* both Lippert productions. As for me, I can’t see much in common in terms of cast, characters or story lines, but we are talking movie production people, so why might that matter?
July 12th, 2021 at 3:42 pm
“I’m shocked, shocked! To discover gambling going on in this establishment!”
–Louie Renault, Rick’s Cafe, Casablanca
I’m gonna look up that Jack Benny sketch. Wonder if it’s similar to, ‘The Ballad of Irving, 142nd Fasted Gun in the West’.
July 12th, 2021 at 5:36 pm
Robert Meserve, your research out-gunned mine. I guess this was indeed a sequel.
Lazy Georgenby, I found a penetrating review of SLOWEST GUN IN THE WEST here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=56679
July 12th, 2021 at 9:05 pm
“When you call me that, smile.” is of course from THE VIRGINIAN and Owen Wister, no idea where “Make your play” comes from, but it is entirely possible it is authentic and came from the Poker table and the number of games that ended in gunsmoke.
Actual Western speech was much more colorful and florid than what we see or read in most films and books, full of Victorian flourish and almost Shakesperian drama. The real Westerner was not as lean and tough as Hammett, he was as outrageous and colorful as Oscar Wilde (who toured the West, befriended Wild Bill Hickcok and was fairly popular with those he met).
A truly authentic Western recreating the actual way they spoke would probably have audiences in the aisles rolling with laugher.
July 12th, 2021 at 10:00 pm
No blog post should have exactly 13 comments.
July 13th, 2021 at 2:50 am
No blog post should have a comment posted just to make sure it doesn’t have exactly 13 comments.
July 13th, 2021 at 8:08 am
An axiom of life!
July 13th, 2021 at 10:09 am
For Lazy Georgenby, FYI:
The Slowest Gun In The West was NOT a ‘sketch’.
This was an hour-long TV episode (OK, 55 minutes without commercials), produced on film at Revue Studios (now Universal City), in ‘affectionate’ tribute to the multitude of oaters being made there (and elsewhere) during that period.
Nat Hiken, the writer/producer, was filling out a contract with CBS for specials starring Phil Silvers at the time; reportedly he had to do some horsetrading with the network to let him do a Hollywood Western (as opposed to a stage-based show in front of an audience).
But CBS gave in, and Hiken, Silvers, and Jack Benny went to Revue, where they were joined by an all-star Western cast, on the sets and lots where the show were really filmed, and did a letter-perfect satire of the genre.
It wasn’t perfect, by any means: being on CBS in 1960, they were stuck with B&W, and there was that verdammte laugh track that some suit or other insisted on – but against those odds, Nat Hiken & Company came up with a little classic.
LG, should you come upon Slowest Gun>/i> on YouTube, be sure to reserve a full hour, make allowances for ’60s tech issues – and just enjoy …
July 13th, 2021 at 5:56 pm
Learned sumptin’ new. Thank ye.
Benny of course had a long-running western spoof (‘Buck’ Benny) on his radio show, so I very mistakenly assumed it was of the same ilk.
Hard to envision Lee Van Cleef and Jack Benny in the same kinetograph. Sounds a hoot.
July 13th, 2021 at 10:30 pm
To LG:
– This was a Phil Silvers special – so you won’t get lost looking it up.
– … with not only Lee Van Cleef, but also Bruce Cabot, Jack Elam, Ted DeCorsia, Bob Wilke, John Dierkes, and a bunch of others I’ll remember just as soon as I hit Submit.
– And while you’re at it:
You might like to check out Lee Van Cleef’s guest appearance on My Mother, The Car.
Episode 5, “Burned At The Steak”, from 1965.
(Wait ’til you see the part Lee plays here!)
Find both shows at YouTube …