Mon 13 Aug 2018
An Archived Western Movie Review: POWDERSMOKE RANGE (1936).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[11] Comments
POWDERSMOKE RANGE. RKO Radio Pictures, 1936. Harry Carey (Tucson Smith), Hoot Gibson (Stony Brooke), ‘Boots’ Mallory, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams (Lullaby Joslin), Bob Steele, Tom Tyler. Based on the novel by William Colt MacDonald. Director: Wallace Fox.
Three roving cowboys (not yet called The Three Mesquiteers) come to the aid of a friend (Bob Steele) who’s been thrown in jail on trumped up charges. Tom Tyler is the fast gun hired by the gambler who’s trying to take over Steele’s ranch, and it’s eventually up to Harry Carey to face him down.
In spite of what was probably an all-star cast in 1935, this is not a very good movie today. It has a lot of the right ingredients, but the art of acting has changed dramatically. I’m no expert on such things, but I think it’s the extra beat everybody takes to react to the line just before.
August 14th, 2018 at 2:14 am
So The Three Mesquiteers comes from a novel by William Colt MacDonald. Who’s he, and what is the book title? I see that this is an RKO film. So, is this a series, which RKO just got the rights to one story? Allowing the newly formed Republic Studios, which had more interest in Western series than the major studios were, to pick up the rights to the characters so quickly they were able to released the first film in their own Mesquiteers series that same year? In which Harry Carey would be recast as Roy Corrigan, Hoot Gibson by first Robert Livingston and eventually John Wayne, and “Big Boy” Williams’ character would be eventually be a ventriloquist.
August 14th, 2018 at 10:43 am
For more on William Colt MacDonald, a fairly well known western writer, here’s the link to his Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Colt_MacDonald
The title of the book was the same, POWDERSMOKE RANGE. For more on “The Three Mesquiteers,” here’s the Wiki leak for the entire series of Republic movies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Mesquiteers
August 14th, 2018 at 7:32 am
I like this film quite a lot. The all-star cast (“B” stars that is) work quite well together and the action scenes handled efficiently. Mostly though, it’s a chance to see Harry Carey in a lead role away from Poverty Row.
August 14th, 2018 at 10:46 am
In spite of the negative opinion I had of the movie back at the time I wrote this review, I’d be perfectly willing to watch this one again, mostly because of the cast.
August 14th, 2018 at 11:14 am
Steve, I do not believe your assessment of the acting, or acting styles, is correct. Certainly harry Carey, Bob Steele and Big Boy Williams had careers of some significance after this thing. Steele in Of Mice and Men, The Big Sleep, Pork Chop Hill and a lovely cameo in hang ’em High. Carey in many films, including Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Shepherd of The Hills, Angel and the Badman, and Red River. Big Boy, not as great, but present till the time of his death. However, I do agree with you that Powdersmoke Range stinks. What a tedious thing to get through.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:19 pm
Until I see the movie again, I’m going to stick with my assessment of it at the time I watched it. All of the players, I agree, had long solid careers after this one, and maybe even before. In this one, though, perhaps they were only doing what the director wanted.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:54 pm
Exactly — part of direction is to present the talent.
August 14th, 2018 at 6:35 pm
MacDonald was one of the big names in the pulps who continued to be regularly in print well into the late seventies, but here the cast is the best part of the film.
Odd to see Hoot playing Stony, a part later played by Bob Steele, Robert Livingston, and John Wayne.
MacDonald in the day was up there with Raine, Mulford, Coburn, and even Haycox in terms of name recognition with Western readers second tier only to Zane Grey and Max Brand and some of the big names like Stewart Edward White, Charles Alden Seltzer, Bower, and Jackson Gregory.
August 17th, 2018 at 4:15 pm
Good lord! I didn’t realize there had been so many books and films in this series! I once had many of them and might not have continued collecting had I known there were 51 films, but I didn’t so I did.
August 17th, 2018 at 4:19 pm
Steve, I read your review too quickly or I would have noticed you mispelled the author’s name. It’s William COLT MacDonald, not William Cold MacDonald
August 17th, 2018 at 4:37 pm
Ha! No one else noticed either!
And they won’t ever notice, now that it’s fixed. Thanks, Randy!