Fri 2 Mar 2012
Western Movie Review: PARTNERS OF THE SUNSET (1948).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[5] Comments
PARTNERS OF THE SUNSET. Monogram, 1948. Jimmy Wakely, Cannonball Taylor, Christine Larson, Steve Darrell, Marshall Reed, Jay Kirby, Leonard Penn, J.C. Lytton. Screenplay: J. Benton Cheney. Director: Lambert Hillyer.
Just so that we’re squared away with this right from the start, the title of this movie is purely generic. It has nothing to do with the story line at all.
And for a movie that’s only 53 minutes long — and that includes five songs — it’s as full of as much villainous treachery, all-around bad-guy-ism and men on horses running here and there as any aficionado of the good old-fashioned B-Western could possibly want.
Plus the comedy antics of Cannonball Taylor, not usually one of my favorite sidekicks, but he makes good use of a fishing pole on several goofy but well-timed occasions in Partners of the Sunset.
What more could you want? As an actor, Jimmy Wakely was an awfully good singer, and when the singing cowboy began to disappear from the big screen in the 1950s, so did his movie career. Not that he probably noticed very much. As I say, he was maybe the best singer of all the singing B-Western cowboys, and he’s in good form here.
He plays the foreman of a horse ranch in this movie, and working under budget constraints, Cannonball Taylor seems to have been the only ranch hand. The story begins in earnest when the owner of the ranch comes home with a new bride perhaps half his age, played by the beautiful Christine Larson. The ranch owner’s son (Jay Kirby) expresses a different opinion of the lady and is forcefully kicked off the ranch.
Complications begin to mount precipitously from there, but it turns out the son is right. The lady may be beautiful, but she’s certainly no lady. She’d not even be out of place in a tough guy crime drama. Except for Cannonball talking too much out of turn, Jimmy Wakely’s plan may have…
But watch the movie. It’s no High Noon, but even the kids at the Saturday matinee may have realized this particular entry in the Wakely resume may have been one of his better ones.
(A small caveat, or Truth in Advertising: I haven’t watched them all, only this one and one other, which was fairly dull and uninteresting and will not be mentioned further.)
As for screenwriter J. Benton Cheney, I don’t know much about him, but in 1948 alone, he wrote 12 small epics just like this one, presumably all for Monogram. By 1950, however, he was out of the business until TV really came along.
Director Lambert Hillyer was equally busy in 1948; by my count he was at the helm of 11 western dramas, also presumably all for Monogram. But once again, after six more films in 1949, that was it for him until 1953. He had a short career in TV from then on, known most perhaps for directing 39 episodes of The Cisco Kid between 1953 and 1956.
March 2nd, 2012 at 1:37 pm
I’ve always had a weakness for these western B-movies. I’d rather the hero did not sing and I also wish the comic sidekick would get shot or disappear, but I guess it’s nostalgia kicking in. As a kid paying a quarter to get into the movies, I loved these films. I would go into the theater on a bright summer day and emerge hours later in the dark, sometimes having stayed for second viewing of the double feature. I still miss the serial installment, cartoons, and newreel when I attend movies nowadays. Of course I seem to be going to less and less movies. Now just about everything I watch is on dvd.
March 2nd, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Both this movie and the other Jimmy Wakely movie I didn’t name are included in the Warner Archives box set Monogram Cowboy Collection, Volume One. A Volume Two has already been released.
Included in Volume One are four Jimmy Wakely movies, four with Johnny Mack Brown, and one with Rod Cameron. With some shopping around, you can get the set for $25 or so. It’s quite a bargain, IF you’re a B-Western fan.
I’m not positive, but I think Wakely is the only singing cowboy of the three. I don’t know if Johnny Mack Brown had a comic sidekick, but he probably did. Raymond Hatton? I’ve not seen one of their movies since I was a kid like you were, Walker.
March 2nd, 2012 at 4:10 pm
I checked on the internet to be sure that Cannonball Taylor was actually Dub Taylor and as I suspected he was. I also learned that his son Buck Taylor played Newly O’Brien on Gunsmoke. I had forgotten this or had not known it.
March 2nd, 2012 at 6:31 pm
Buck Taylor was Dub Taylor’s son? I never knew that. Never dreamed there was a connection. Thanks!
March 2nd, 2012 at 6:39 pm
I was just checking some of the movie and TV credits for both Dub and Buck Taylor and was amazed to see that Dub Taylor’s last appearance in a movie was the Mel Gibson MAVERICK film (1994) when he was 87. He died later that year. It was the last of 243 onscreen credits.
Also surprising is the fact that Buck Taylor is still active. His most recent movie appearance was in COWBOYS AND ALIENS, which I have not yet seen. (Should I?)