Sat 26 May 2018
A Book! Movie!! Review by Dan Stumpf: STEWART EDWARD WHITE – The Killer / MYSTERY RANCH (1932).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction , Western movies[12] Comments
STEWART EDWARD WHITE – The Killer. Doubleday, hardcover, 1920. Previously serialized in The Red Book Magazine, December 1919 through March 1920. Many reprint and Print on Demand editions available.
MYSTERY RANCH. Fox, 1932. With George O’Brien, Cecilia Parker, Charles Middleton, Charles Stevens and Noble Johnson. Screenplay by Alfred A. Cahn, from the novella “The Killer†by Stewart Edward White.
I picked up Stewart Edward White’s The Killer on a whim and found it an interesting hybrid of a book: the first third is a longish novelette from which the tome draws its title — about which more later — while the rest of the near-350 pages is a series of lengthy stories and true anecdotes (true-sounding, anyway) about working life on the plains in in the early 1900s: some quite amusing while others read like Hemingway before there was Hemingway.
But the opening piece, The Killer, is a genuine blood-and-thunder Old Dark House chiller transplanted out west, and grown quite well, too. White sets the mood very capably and once he’s got the background fraught with palpable menace, he proceeds to build a simple but impressive little story filled with mad killers, drug addicts, distressed damsels and doughty do-gooders — all put through their pulp-paper paces with the kind of innocent gusto that typified thrillers of the time, a tale told with charm that writers since have never quite re-captured.
As for the anecdotes that follow, perhaps they can be best exemplified by:
“Shore not, Slim,” agreed one of the group, promptly annexing the artillery. “What is it?”
“Kill that ____ ____ _____ Beck,” said Slim, owlishly. “I can do it; and I can do it with my bare hands, b’ God!”
He walked sturdily enough in the direction of the General Store across the dusty square. No one paid any further attention to his movements. The man who had picked up the gun belt buckled it around his own waist. Ten minutes passed. Back across the square drifted a strange figure. With difficulty we recognized it as the erstwhile Slim. He had no hat. His hair stuck out in all directions. One eye was puffing shut, blood oozed from a cut in his forehead and dripped from his damaged nose. One shirt sleeve had been half torn from its parent at the shoulder. But, most curious of all, Slim’s face was evenly marked by a perpendicular series of long, red scratches as though he had been dragged from stem to stem along a particularly abrasive gravel walk. Slim seemed quite calm. His approach was made in a somewhat strained silence. At length there spoke a dry, sardonic voice.
“Well,” said it, “did you kill Beck?”
“Naw!” replied Slim’s remains disgustedly, “the son of a gun wouldn’t fight!”
The Killer was made into a film in 1932, Mystery Ranch, and they did a nice job of it, with fast-paced direction, atmospheric photography by Joe August (Who cut his teeth on the early films of William S. Hart) and spirited playing from George O’Brien, Celia Parker, Noble Johnson and especially Charles “Ming†Middleton as the mad killer.
And though Middleton gets all the best lines, I have to say he wouldn’t have been nearly so menacing without Charles Stevens (Who made a cottage industry out of playing “Indian Charrlie†in various films of the Wyatt Earp legend) and Noble Johnson skulking about in the background.
Best of all, it seems everyone involved wisely decided to eschew typical B-movie complications and produced a film with the simplicity of a ballad, just under an hour of solid fun. Existing prints are a bit choppy, but they can’t obscure the streamlined beauty of a film like this.
May 26th, 2018 at 10:16 pm
One year before the Bordentown pulp convention I had several pulp collectors over to my house and we watched MYSTERY RANCH. I remember Steve Lewis, Paul Herman, Matt Moring, Ed Hulse and others viewing it.
It is one of the better B-westerns with great atmosphere and a nice touch as the villain loves to play the piano.
BLOOD N THUNDER magazine also reprinted THE KILLER.
May 26th, 2018 at 10:44 pm
White, whose most popular Western is probably ARIZONA NIGHTS, was a widely popular writer of tales of masculine adventure both true and fictional. As Dan notes he does at times echo Hemingway in spots mixed with a clean style despite the use of many pulp tropes regarding innocent heroines and not much more worldly heroes.
He is one of a handful of highly successful writers of the period who are mostly forgotten or unread today including Peter B. Kyne, James Oliver Curwood, Charles Alden Seltzer, and James Hendrix, yet their work was adapted into countless Western and adventure films well into the forties and in Kyne’s case beyond since his “Three Badmen” was adapted a number of times from a Harry Carey silent to John Wayne in John Ford’s THREE GODFATHERS. Their work did appear in the pulps, but most of them graduated to the slicks fairly early in their careers and the better paying markets there where a serialization could pay more than a hardcover edition, even a bestselling one.
White is often cited as probably the most literary of the group and certainly the closest to fine writing. and was held in some esteem for his tales however quaint some of the social background might seem now. I recall reading at least one White story in my 8th grade literature text, so well into the sixties he was still being read, however forcibly.
May 26th, 2018 at 11:39 pm
Dan’s review of novella and film is perfectly timed. This very weekend, instead of enjoying the nice weather, I’m putting the finishing touches on a book titled THE WILD WEST OF FICTION AND FILM. It collects essays on Westerns I’ve written for a variety of publications, not the least of which was BLOOD ‘N’ THUNDER. But there’s some all-new material as well, including a 5100-word piece on the making of MYSTERY RANCH — which introduces another reprint of THE KILLER.
MYSTERY RANCH is my favorite “B” Western (although it’s at the very top of that budgetary class), partly because I love the fusion of horse opera and old-dark-house thriller, and partly because I was acquainted with its two stars, George O’Brien and Cecilia Parker. In fact, it was George who in 1980 introduced me to Cecilia (whom he still called “Skippy” almost a half century after first working with her).
I’m hoping to formally announce the availability of THE WILD WEST OF FICTION AND FILM next week on the Murania Press website. Stay tuned.
May 26th, 2018 at 11:55 pm
Synchronicity strikes again! This is great news, Ed. It sounds like a terrific book, and I hope to have you tell us more when it’s out.
May 27th, 2018 at 10:21 am
In 2014 Steve Lewis reviewed Mystery Ranch — and there are quite a few comments worth reaching back for.
May 27th, 2018 at 10:46 am
You’re right, Barry. Thanks for reminding me. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=29972
May 27th, 2018 at 11:48 am
I still think of MYSTERY FILE as a magazine even if it is online as a blog. This review of the book and film shows just how excellent the comments and articles can be and the link in Comment 6 brings back fond memories of our western Gothic film noir screening 4 years ago.
This film is one of the greatest B-westerns in my opinion.
May 27th, 2018 at 1:40 pm
I remember White best as the author of a series of books that became “The Saga of Andy Burnett on THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY when I was a kid.
May 27th, 2018 at 4:37 pm
Good review with a bit of history of which I am only slightly aware. Sounds like a solid film and as you often do, you spark my interest.
May 27th, 2018 at 6:38 pm
Found “The Killer” on Gutenberg — looking forward to the read.
May 27th, 2018 at 6:48 pm
And here’s the link:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16589
Thanks, Shay!
May 27th, 2018 at 11:29 pm
“… a film with the simplicity of a ballad.” I wish I had written that line.