Tue 28 Apr 2020
DARK MOUNTAIN. Paramount Pictures, 1944. Robert Lowery, Ellen Drew, Regis Toomey, Eddie Quillan, Elisha Cook Jr. Director: William Berke.
Robert Lowery may have been the nominal star of this film, but it’s the villain of the piece, played exceedingly well by Regis Toomey, who takes home the acting honors, and by a landslide. Lowery plays a stalwart but not exceedingly bright park ranger, or shall we say not terribly swift on the uptake, who when he gets a promotion, finally asks his girl (Ellen Drew) to marry him.
He, of course, has waited to long to make his affection in this regard known, and she has already married another. Regis Toomey, that is, and you know immediately, once he walks into the room, that he’s an out-and-out no-good-nik. Lowery bows out gracefully, or at least his character does. But when Toomey’s character shows his true colors, kills two people, and takes Drew with him on the lam, Lowrey is there to aid and assist and eventually pick up the pieces.
It does take a while, but even so, to fill out the running time, the film still needs some comedy mixed in with the suspense, which is minor to begin with. Comedy provided courtesy of Eddie Quillan, Lowery’s fellow ranger who in one scene plays checkers with himself for well over five minutes, or what seems like it, his moves on either side of the board assisted by the knowing nods or disapproving shakes of his dog’s head.
Reading back what I’ve written so far, I should caution you that the movie isn’t as bad as I’ve probably made it sound. Regis Toomey, in particular, is just as fine as the kind of smooth-talker operator who could have someone like Ellen Drew fall in love with him as he is the kind of villain who can wipe out anyone who crosses his path without thinking at all about it. Most of his career, I suspect, was spent in secondary roles such as this one and doing them well.
April 28th, 2020 at 5:24 pm
Those of my generation probably encountered Robert Lowery first on the “Circus Boy” TV series with Mickey “Braddock” (ne Dolenz). Lowery was always good in undemanding leading-man roles. I suspect that he, like Rory Calhoun a bit later, had some advantage in looking a little like Clark Gable. Regis Toomey as a sociopath? That’s reason enough by itself to check this one out.
April 28th, 2020 at 6:01 pm
Lowery had a long successful career in B-Movies in al kinds of roles. I thought it peaked with his leading role in the 1949 Batman & Robin serial, but I never somehow never recognized him as the star of the CIRCUS BOY series on TV, so I’m glad you told me about that. On the screen he always seemed to play a hunky good-natured kind of guy. I wonder if he ever played a sociopath? I just can’t see it.
April 28th, 2020 at 8:14 pm
Lowery was a villain in a few films, often in the ones where he wore a mustache for some reason (like Bob Livingston who was more likely to play a villain when he wore one on screen). Eventually he ended up a character actor usually playing heavies (or jerks like the governor courting Maureen O’Hara in McCLINTOK).
He’s the main bad guy in COWBOY G-MAN, CROSSWINDS, BORDER RANGERS, THE DALTON GANG and often on television.
Like so many leading men of that period he had a decent career in mostly B fare, but by mid Fifties he mostly played character parts.
But Toomey as a psychopath is just one more example of how good he really was.
April 28th, 2020 at 8:26 pm
I’ve probably seen Lewery in a few westerns over the years without even putting his name to his face. I assumed in my previous comment that he’d played bad guys in some if not a majority of them, but there’s a big jump from being a bad guy or even a villain and being a psychopath.