Rocky Mountain Mystery

Randolph Scott is a mining engineer, with a letter to a dying mine owner, who has radium on his property. He meets deputy sheriff Chic Sales, who's trying to figure out what happened to an unidentified body. Scott goes on, and meets the bedridden George Marion, and his family, gathered around for his death. Then they start dying... and the will says that if they predecease him, their shares go to the survivors; they begin dying and disappearing, leaving Sales and Scott to figure out who is killing them.

It's a very good mystery, one of the Zane Grey westerns that Paramount was producing in this period, with some nice location shooting near Big Bear Lake, and a large stamping mill that portends a nice melodramatic ending. Sales has never been better, and it's hardly surprising, because there are some nice, long-lived performers for him to compete with: not only Marion, but Florence Roberts in a small role, and Mrs. Leslie Carter in a large one.

Charles Barton would not rank as anyone's idea of a great director, but he handles his cast and the settings very nicely, for a nice, creepy movie.

My primary interest in seeing this movie was to catch an early appearance by 'Sheridan, Ann' (qv) where she actually appears in a few scenes and not just in a bit part. She does a nice job with this early effort but is hampered by some fairly clunky dialog. I'd dare any actress to make this dialog come alive, never mind one who is just starting out.

Aside from Miss Sheridan, Randolph Scott is good as the lead but he is also a victim of a story, and script, that doesn't have much to offer. But at a running time of only an hour and combined with an early glimpse of a future star, there are worse ways you could spend an hour.

Wow, that stamping machine that pounds raw ore into dust may be the star of the show. It's scary as heck as a few unfortunates find out. The plot's an okay whodunit, taking place in modern age boondocks, sort of a mixture of six-guns and Ford flivvers. Then too, how about those run-down shacks and interiors, including the monster ore house that's a real eye-catcher. These amount to real old movie oddities.

Cast-wise, there's a sneaky family of suspects to choose from, with Mrs. Borg looking like Frankenstein's mother as the likeliest candidate. Too bad Scott-- still early in his outstanding career-- has little more to do than stand around like a handsome hunk. In short, he's wasted. Instead it's Chic Sale who gets the screen time for a series of mostly amusing antics as a deputy sheriff, no less. Whether his role appeals to viewers, however, is likely a matter of taste. Also, should mention Ann Sheridan as the sweet ingénue, still a long way from the sassy hussies she perfected over at Warner Bros.

Anyway, the plot may not be anything special, but many of the visuals are, thanks to what the pro's call "mise-en-scene". Then too, I'm glad Scott went on from his near nothing role here to the great Boetticher westerns of the 50's and 60's. So, all in all, give this novelty a try.

The heirs of the dying owner of a valuable radium mine are being murdered as a mining engineer tries to uncover the killer and clear his cousin's name.

Though set in 1934, this film is set in a western parallel universe with only an automobile at the end giving it away. It's a tautly-strung mystery with an enticing creepy atmosphere, some good characters especially the scary looking Mrs Borg, and that horribly sounding stamping machine. It's quite nail biting at times. Scott, in his early appearance, does well as does the sheriff he helps. It's creaky at times, but that can add to the creepiness.

Rocky Mountain Mystery exists in that parallel universe where the old west never really ended but continued on well into the nineteen-thirties and forties, usually inhabited by Gene Autry, Roy Rodgers, Tex Ritter, and sometimes even a very young John Wayne.

The characters ride horses, use oil lamps to light their way, and seemingly live a frontier existence under territorial law, all with six-guns on their hips. The viewer either forgets or is unaware that this is supposed to take place in modern times when suddenly the cowboys encounter modern cars, telephones, radio, and electricity. I sometimes wonder if the depression era children who were the films' main audience actually believed the west was really like this.

This is an above average B-western and a great example of what modern experts are calling "horror western" due to their odd plots and sadistic mystery villains. I prefer to call them mystery or suspense westerns.

Rocky Mountain Mystery effectively mixes an Old Dark House plot with frontier themes. It's not as chilling as I'd like but it does have a creepy fiend dressed in black complete with gloves, hat, and cape; a killer that prefers to crush heads in a hydraulic press but isn't afraid to menace a pretty girl with a straight razor either! The ending is quite surprising and well plotted.