Mon 14 Jul 2014
A Western Review by Dan Stumpf: WILL JENKINS / MURRAY LEINSTER – Mexican Trail.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction[8] Comments
WILL JENKINS / MURRAY LEINSTER – Mexican Trail. Alfred H. King, hardcover, 1933. A. L. Burt, hardcover reprint.
Several years ago on this site I reviewed — panned, rather — a film called Border Devils (Supreme, 1932) and was richly rewarded when Steve unearthed the fact that the Murray Leinster story it was based on was in fact a serial in West magazine “Dead Man’s Shoes,†and was eventually published under his Will Jenkins by-line (given the plot, it’s interesting that this appeared under both names — read on!) as Mexican Trail. It wasn’t hard to unearth a copy and I was soon enjoying a fine read, thanks mostly to Steve.
The story is a bit rushed at first, with Ranger Pete Gray in search of an elusive Mexican drug-smuggler known only as The General, abruptly drugged, framed for murder, jailed and quickly sprung by his friends Neil Denham and Neil’s wife Ethel. Scant pages later, en route to a rendezvous with his friend to sort all this out, Pete finds Neil’s body trailside, his personal effects replaced by those of a wanted criminal — dry-gulched no doubt by the same ornery varmints what framed Pete.
Pete decides to ride Neil’s horse into town and look around for anyone trying to pass as Neil, and here the Leinster style kicks in as Pete himself is mistaken for Neil and has to assume his murdered friend’s identity. Just as quickly, he’s launched into the midst of a roiling range war fomented (as usual in westerns of this ilk) by persons unknown trying to create confusion and profit from chaos.
From this point on, Mexican Trail becomes very enjoyable indeed as Pete/Neil does some canny sleuthing, hard riding and tricky gun-fighting, pitted against a clever and unseen foe, surrounded by cowboys who distrust Neil and suspect Pete — and, as you might expect, by a doughty young range-heiress who loves him no matter who he is.
Leinster does his usual slick job of juggling identities (the plot teems with characters pretending to be other characters) getting Pete in and out of trouble, and wrapping things up with an epic gun-battle in approved Western Fashion.
After reading this, I went back and watched Border Devils again, and now that I understood the plot, it seemed like a much better film to me. There’s some clever by-play between Harry Carey and Gabby Hayes, and the whole thing is fast-moving and fairly faithful to Leinster/Jenkins’ book.
July 14th, 2014 at 2:42 pm
You shouldn’t have to read the book to appreciate a movie’s plot, but it is nice to know Hollywood recognized a good story for once, and with the help of the book you could better appreciate it.
There are less than great works, but I don’t think Leinster ever wrote anything that wasn’t worth reading, and the man knew how to plot. Even his goofy alternate classic Yellow Peril novel is fun.
Whatever the genre his work was always smart and interesting to read.
July 14th, 2014 at 5:03 pm
What was the title of his “goofy alternative Yellow Peril novel” that was fun? Sounds interesting to me. Thanks.
July 14th, 2014 at 8:01 pm
David, you have me guessing too. Are you referring to “War of the Purple Gas,” a serial in ARGOSY in the early 1930s?
If so, it’s online here:
http://www.unz.org/Pub/ArgosyWeekly-1934feb24-00002
July 14th, 2014 at 10:54 pm
Doh. That’s Part One only…
July 15th, 2014 at 12:35 am
I think its Murder Madness a semi sf thriller from Astounding in 1931. There is an article about it in either Pronzini’s Gun in Cheek or Son of …
The only other candidate would be Murder Will Out.
War of the Purple Gas from 1934 looks like a yellow peril novel though.
July 15th, 2014 at 10:07 am
Years ago in one of those decades preceded by the number nineteen, I was in a conversation with a stranger in Amherst, Massachusetts when I learnt a lesson about reviews. He was a historian and author visiting the area to research his next book. After I found out what he already had published, I mentioned that I had read a review of one of his books in the New York Times Sunday edition.
I remembered some of the points and commented on them. Then I added, “Some times the reviews in the Times are so good, a person feels as if he has gotten the information in the book and does not need to buy it.â€
If I had stepped on his toes, I might have gotten a similar reaction. For an instant the joviality left his face and he said, “Too many people think just that.â€
I understood his point and I take it more into account when I read a review is: did the reviewer make me want to read the book he is reviewing?
It is a shame that Mexican Trail is out of print. Dan Stumpf stirred up my hankering to read Will Jenkins. I like the tone Jenkins sets and how he characterizes. His skill is well suited to Westerns.
Before the embers of interest died out, I looked to see what I could find online. Since I do not have much interest in reading in Jenkins’ science fiction, the pickings were slim. From what I found, I am enjoying again “Evidenceâ€, his short-story mystery set in the West, which I read about five or six years ago.
July 15th, 2014 at 2:56 pm
Having read the bit of Purple Gas available it does sound in some ways like the book Bill Pronzini describes, but also seems to vary a bit.
Incidentally Steve, thanks for that link. I found a few complete serials including a Peter the Brazen one by Loring Brent (George Worts), a complete Jimmie Cordie novelette by William Wirt, A John Solomon novelette by H. Bedford Jones, and a really difficult to find Woolrich short, and that was just last night.
July 15th, 2014 at 5:26 pm
Dave, you sound like the Indiana Jones of pulp-collecting!