Wed 19 May 2021
An Archived Western Movie Review: IN OLD SANTA FE (1934).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[7] Comments
IN OLD SANTA FE. Mascot Pictures, 1934. Ken Maynard, Evelyn Knapp, George Hayes, Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette. Director: David Howard.
This movie was made before Gabby Hayes was Gabby, but not before he was gabby. He’s known as “Cactus†in this picture, and he’s as prickly as old character as he ever was. Key Maynard is the star. He shoots and rides with the best of them, and is bashful around the women (one in particular), but Gene (whose first movie this may have been) outdoes him in the singing category, at least.
If it weren’t for the songs, the races, the catching of runaway horses and wagons, and the gunshooting, this 64 minute movie would have been 15 minutes long. But in those 15 minutes is hidden a halfway decent detective story: one main clue is a footprint in the dirt; the other is the caliber of the bullet that killed the blackmailer’s number one henchman.
There is also a gold robbery, and Ken is framed for it. He’s also framed for the killing of the henchman. Does he get out of all of these scrapes? Yes and no. At movie’s end the rancher’s daughter has him sewn up as tight as you could please. (To the complete disgust of his grizzled old sidekick named Cactus.)
May 19th, 2021 at 8:13 pm
The Maynard movies often had decent plots sometime including some supernatural and horror/mystery elements.
I can never think of Maynard without the story of the time my Grandfather arrested him. Maynard was touring East Texas with a Wild West show and rode his horse into a cafe after a few too many drinks. My Grandfather arrested him, and was the jailer, with my Grandmother cooking for the prisoners.
Maynard was her favorite Western star, and she wasn’t shy about letting him know she was disappointed in his behavior. They let him go with a fine the next day, but he graciously apologized to her when he was sober and signed one of her Zane Grey books she treasured for years. Until his death not too long after he sent her post cards letting her know he was doing better and had not ridden his horse into any cafes.
May 19th, 2021 at 9:27 pm
That’s a great story, David. Thanks for sharing. There’s nothing like the personal touch, albeit a couple of generations apart.
Maynard made a lot of westerns, but he retired in 1944, a number of years before I started going to the movies (Saturday afternoon matinees). So he was always a name to me, as was Tom Mix and the others from the 30s and before.
As for Gene Autry, I was correct back then when I wrote this review. It was indeed his first movie. A cowboy star of my generation.
May 20th, 2021 at 7:30 am
Maynard’s films offer many bizarre elements for film fans who can go with the scrappy look of a good 30s B-Western. His own bizarre behavior got him replaced by Gene Autry in PHANTOM EMPIRE.
May 20th, 2021 at 7:41 am
David Howard was praised by Don Miller in his book B MOVIES. One suspects that B Movie fans in general have seen some of his work. But film historians as a whole haven’t paid too much attention.
I enjoyed Howard’s last film, a Tim Holt Western DUDE COWBOY. This mixes Westerns with crime fiction. As Andrew Sarris said: “Westerns are like mineral water. They gain flavor from their impurities.”
In my Joseph H. Lewis web-book, I speculate that Ken Maynard films might have been used as a model for Lewis’ own first films, with singing cowboy Bob Baker. (Baker had plenty of talent, but his career fizzled out after splitting with Lewis.)
David’s story about Maynard is great.
May 20th, 2021 at 8:23 pm
Insider information from someone who knows, in an comment longer than the review itself. I love it. Thanks, Ed!
May 20th, 2021 at 8:11 pm
Some notes concerning Ken Maynard and IN OLD SANTA FE….
Contrary to what has been written elsewhere, Ken’s singing in this film was dubbed by Bob Nolan, long-time lead vocalist for the Sons of the Pioneers.
Mascot president Nat Levine latched onto Ken when the latter dissolved his production unit at Universal with the close of the 1933-34 release year. Levine had big plans for Maynard that included starring him in THE PHANTOM EMPIRE, the serial that made Gene Autry a star. But he told me that Maynard was impossible to handle when he got drunk, which apparently was a daily occurance.
I was friendly with Verna Hillie, Ken’s leading lady in the 1934 Mascot serial MYSTERY MOUNTAIN. Verna told me she absolutely loathed him; 40 years after they had worked together she always referred to him derisively as “MISTER Maynard.” She told me that during production he repeatedly propositioned her, even after learning she was aware he dallied with other women in his Mascot dressing room, which was next door to hers. And she hated the fact that while drunk he often beat his horses.
While still at Universal in late ’33 and early ’34, Maynard considered licensing movie rights to WILD WEST WEEKLY’s most popular series character, Kid Wolf. The Kid’s chronicler, Paul S. Powers (who wrote the series for WWW as Ward M. Stevens), kept his correspondence with Maynard. I got copies of it from Powers’ granddaughter Laurie. Unfortunately, Universal gave Ken his walking papers before a deal could be consummated.
IN OLD SANTA FE director David Howard got his start at Fox Film Corporation during the early talkie days, making foreign-language versions of the studio’s films in the days before dubbing technology was perfected. In 1932 he became the regular director of George O’Brien’s B-plus Westerns (MYSTERY RANCH, THE RAINBOW TRAIL, ROBBERS’ ROOST, et al). When Fox suspended production in 1933 due to financial reorganization, Howard began directing for Nat Levine and helmed several features and serials. When O’Brien went into partnership with independent producer Sol Lesser he called Howard back, and the two men worked together for the duration of George’s starring career. In 1940 RKO failed to renew O’Brien’s contract and replaced him with Tim Holt. Howard remained with the Holt unit but directed only two Westerns with Tim before dying at 45 in late 1941.
May 20th, 2021 at 9:37 pm
Re Gabby Hayes he was Windy in the Hopalong Cassidy films before he became Gabby.