Mon 8 Aug 2011
Western Movie Review: THE LAST MUSKETEER (1952) with REX ALLEN.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[17] Comments
THE LAST MUSKETEER. Republic, 1952. Rex Allen, Koko (the Miracle Horse), Mary Ellen Kay, Slim Pickens, James Anderson, Michael Hall, The Republic Rhythm Riders. Director: William Witney.
Someone more knowledgeable than I about B-western movies will have to explain (in the comments, if you would, if you can) why titles of B-western movies have so little to do with the movies as they were filmed, and this one (I shouldn’t have to tell you) is about as puzzling as they come.
The son of Taskerville’s founder (with a statue of him in the town’s square, a touch I don’t remember seeing before in any western, B or not) is the villain of the piece. His reservoir is the only water in the valley, and his prices are so steep that the cattle of all of the other ranchers is curling up and dying.
A fact that Rex Allen, cattle buyer, soon discovers as he rides into town. He also discovers the local divining wizard, Slim Pickens, being beaten up by Tasker’s men. Coming to Slim’s assistance, Rex then finds himself on the outs with Tasker’s men throughout the rest of the movie, and Tasker himself.
Tasker is no ordinary villain, though. He has plans. A dam across the end of the valley, once the other ranchers have moved on, will generate electric power for the vicinity, then the whole state, then a big chuck of the entire West. No small planner, he.
You may have noticed the presence of the Republic Rhythm Riders in this movie, and if you were to infer from that that this is a singing cowboy movie, you’d be right. A good portion of this film is taken up with songs and music (including the most horrible braying, there is no other word for it, by Slim). Rex is a pretty good yodeler, though; in fact, he’s better than OK, though I’m not sure I would have agreed when I was 10 years old, which is the age level this movie was aimed for.
What I really wonder what I at that age would wondered about the ending of the movie, one in which the villain is defeated by a not-so-small case of breaking, entering and worse. By which I mean totally illegally. Foul means, unsportsmanlike conduct, and below the belt. All in a good cause, but still.
August 8th, 2011 at 6:22 am
I thought I’d be smart and google “why do movie titles have so little to do with the movie”. I came up with a link to your review…
I think it is just the typical Hollywood arrogance. They can take a great book and say sure it’s great BUT we can improve on it. Same thing with movie titles; they just can’t keep their hands off the project. They think they are smarter and know more, so they change things, then their boss changes it and his boss…Before you know it, a dozen guys have changed the movie to something else, etc.
August 8th, 2011 at 11:08 am
Walker, back in my professional writing days I worked for a production company doing a variety of jobs. One was to write commercials. I learned quickly that my boss thought of himself as a writer. He would always try to change what I wrote. So I began to put a title on my scripts. He would always change the title and leave the rest alone. This made me happy since no one ever heard the title. But it gave him a sense of ownership of the work, that he had a creative part of it.
Creative people, talented or not, want to leave a mark on the work. They want to express their own creativity and prove to their boss they are worth their paycheck.
Funny thing is the best adaptations are always the ones that stay the closest to the source material.
August 8th, 2011 at 11:28 am
Steve, I can relay one story behind how a movie got a strange title.
I was in a preview audience watching a movie called 5000. It is a story of a handsome rich man who pays a whore for $5000 for a day. The whore is a drug user but ends up giving the rich man a positive lesson in life.
While the original script was a dark comedy with scenes of drug use, it was slowly changed into a lighter story featuring an actress who anyone who watch her immediately loved.
As the story grew lighter and lighter in romantic comedy, the title of 5000 no longer fit. So the studio owned a piece of music they thought might make a nice theme song for this comedy about a lovable beautiful whore who changes a man’s life for the better.
Since the studio owned the song’s title, that is how 5000 became PRETTY WOMAN.
As for your westerns, did the title really matter? Then you went to the movies and were happy if your favorite star was playing. Didn’t some theaters’ book more by studio not movie?
August 8th, 2011 at 11:37 am
Good answers, both, but neither quite addresses why the problem of irrelevant, misleading titles seems a lot more common to B-westerns.
I’ve mentioned this before on this blog. Examples:
In PHANTOM VALLEY, there is are no phantoms in Phantom Valley.
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1026
There are no raiders in WHIRLWIND RAIDERS, or if there are, by no connotation of the word, are they “whirlwind raiders.”
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1027
And there’s no trail to be blazed (or on fire) in THE BLAZING TRAIL either:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1031
But here possibly is the easy answer. Maybe catchy titles were just a means of getting 10-year-old fannies in seats, nothing more, nothing less?
August 8th, 2011 at 11:42 am
Michael
Your comment #3 was posted before I finished typing the one I just left.
Your last line agrees with mine. You’re right. Back when I was 10, who cared?
— Steve
PS. That’s a good story about PRETTY WOMAN, one I hadn’t heard before.
August 8th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
I read somewhere that B-westerns got their title in a contest where everybody put suggestions in a hat, and the one picked was the title, and the winner got a little cash.
August 8th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
That’s a theory that fits the facts, all right!
August 8th, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Here’s a question that’s occurred to me. I’ll ask it now, but if it’s buried too far down in this set of comments for anyone to read it, I’ll ask it again sometime.
I’ve been referring to 10-year-old’s throughout the review and the comments. I’ve been thinking about that. In the small town in Michigan where I grew up, B-westerns like this one were shown on weekends, as part of double feature matinees (plus a cartoon, a serial installment and maybe a short news film.) The other feature was often a Bowery Boys movie, but there probably were some cops and robbers stuff on the bill too. My memory fails me here.
As far as I can remember, the audience consisted only of kids the same age I was, which in 1952 would have been 10, plus and minus a couple of years. No adults, unless maybe they came in with their kids. Lots of yelling when the bad guys got theirs, some booing when the good guys started singing, or the romantic stuff started.
So here’s my question. Were movies like this one ever shown in the evenings when adults were more a lot more likely to show up? Or in the 1950s were Rex Allen, Monte Hale, Lash LaRue, and the Durango Kid movies all made ONLY for the kids’ matinee market?
I have some followup questions to ask, but I’ll wait to see first what response this first one gets, if any.
August 8th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Since I was a negative two in 1952, I have only what I have learn in film history, but wasn’t the night reserved for the A films with the B films the part of the bill leading up to the A film.
Westerns with Gary Cooper, John Wayne, etc may have made the night bill, but I doubt many “Singing Cowboys” made it to the top of the bill.
Also, wasn’t length a tip off? Weren’t shorter films made to co-exist with the cartoon, movie serials, features, etc? Didn’t the target audience for these films have to go to bed early?
So, I guess I just added more questions to your question, Steve.
August 8th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Steve, my memory is the same as yours since I was also 10 in 1952. But I’ve heard that some adults did follow the B-westerns, especially in the South and the mid-west.
True the comic sidekick was silly and childish and must have been aimed at the 10 years old boys. But the whole singing cowboy thing I think was aimed for the young men and male adults who liked western music, etc. Somehow I don’t think the kids cared about the singing part. I know I wanted more six guns blazing and to hell with the singing.
And don’t forget the whole decade of 1930 to 1939 was almost all B-westerns with a very few A westerns. Adults and kids went to these movies in droves. They also read the western pulps, alot of western pulps! I have alot of them myself…
Maybe if John Wayne had a hit with THE BIG TRAIL in 1930, there would have been more A westerns. But the failure of the big budget westerns doomed the western film to the B-western and quicky, low budgets.
Then in 1939 came STAGECOACH and the A-westerns were revived.
August 8th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
What many don’t seem t realize is that there were almost 4,000 B Westerns done during the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. That’s a lot of films. The B Westerns were shot in 8 days on a budget of as little as $20,000. Rogers “Trigger Jr.” was the biggest budget at around $80,000. Not much by today’s standards. Is anyone out there old enough to remember double features? On any given Saturday your could see a Roy Rogers film as well as a Rex Allen film. Didn’t make any difference what the title was folks……you went to root for the hero!
August 8th, 2011 at 5:45 pm
Rex
Thanks so much for joining us here.
“Didn’t make any difference what the title was folks……you went to root for the hero!”
That’s what the consensus has been on our part, too. Titles didn’t matter to the Saturday afternoon crowd, mostly boys, mostly 8 to 15 years old.
That’s my guess, anyway. I don’t know if there’s ever been a book that goes into detail about the demographics of movie-going audiences for each of the various categories, A- or B-Movies, westerns, crime films, comedies and so on. As Walker points out regarding westerns, it changed over the years. In my town one theater showed the A westerns and at night; the other theater had the weekend matinees, and as far as I can recall, the B-westerns were shown only in the day.
You have to remember, though, this was nearly 60 years ago, and I didn’t take notes.
In any case, Rex, I do indeed remember your father as a hero.
August 8th, 2011 at 11:38 pm
60 years ago! I can’t believe it’s been that long. Every Saturday for many years, I walked a couple miles to the Broad Theater and stood in long lines with my quarter to see the double feature, cartoons, newsreel, and serial. Westerns and science fiction were my favorites but I went every Saturday no matter what was playing. When I went into the theater, it was bright daylight and when I came out hours later often it was night. Usually this meant I stayed to see the movies twice.
Now I seldom visit the theater. I watch just about everything on dvds.
August 9th, 2011 at 6:11 am
Republic had a certain way about them of doing misleading titles. Just two from 1939: OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS (about a greyhound-type bus line) and KANSAS TERRORS, set in the Caribbean!
August 9th, 2011 at 9:41 am
You’re quite right. I’ve not seen either, but those are a couple title doozies, that’s for sure. Both are Three Mesquiteer westerns. RAIDERS has John Wayne as one attraction, but it’s especially well-known for being the last film that silent star Louise Brooks was in.
August 9th, 2011 at 11:38 pm
My first thought in response to your first question is that Outlandish Titles were meant to help differentiate one meretricious B-western from another, in just that flood of two-reelers…though it sounds like this one has its own memorable bits.
My father, who was ten in 1947, recalled vividly through the years the two theaters in Barre, Vermont he had access to, and the Magnet, the cheaper one catering to the kids, was the one where you’d see the short westerns (where the kids would hoot at the ridiculously actual cowboy hat Tom Mix would wear) and the serials (the Crimson Ghost being my father’s favorite at the time)…the other, possibly a Bijou and aiming at a slight more affluent and adult trade, was comparatively dull with its A and B features and newsreels, and relatively few if any comic shorts and cartoons.
August 9th, 2011 at 11:38 pm
Has recalled vividly through the years…my father is still quick, rather than the alternative…