The Utah Kid

Rex Lease was a cowboy star who is mostly forgotten today. Part of it is that his characters lacked the charisma of the later singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Part of it also is likely due to many of his films being silents. However, "The Utah Kid" is one of his later talking pictures.

When the story begins, outlaw Cal Reynolds (Lease) is on the run from the law. He is able to eventually meet up with a criminal gang where he is welcomed. However, after the gang capture a young woman, Cal tells them she's his fiancee in order to save her from the slobbering gang members. But they call his bluff...forcing him to marry her. Little do any of them know that she is actually the Sheriff's girlfriend! What's next? Well, a lot of punching and lovin'...and more.

This is a very brief B-picture, running at only 45 minutes. It could be that the film was trimmed to that length, but it's just as likely it was always 45 minutes, as some Bs were that brief.

So is it any good? Well, it's okay...neither bad nor good. Lease certainly ain't a pretty singing cowboy but he is realistic in is subdued performance. As for the story, it's decent and interesting. Plus, the short run time prevents you from being bored! Worth seeing but far from a must-see.

By the way, Boris Karloff plays a henchman in the film but you'd hardly recognize him unless you are paying attention. It's not that he's barely in the movie (he's in quite a bit) but his part and his acting are a bit on the subdued side.

1930's "The Utah Kid" was a Poverty Row Western from Tiffany Pictures, a small outfit that did over 100 features between 1921 and 1932 (one of their last was Bela Lugosi's "The Death Kiss"). The star was Rex Lease, a veteran of oaters on screen and television for five decades, but whose starring career would already peter out before the 30s were over. Here he's in his prime as wanted outlaw Cal Reynolds, managing to escape the sheriff's posse to make his way back to ringleader Butch (Tom Santschi) and the gang at the aptly named 'Robber's Roost.' No sooner does he walk through the door than henchman Baxter (Boris Karloff) enters with a rare treasure in these here parts, a pretty (and pretty desperate) maiden named Jennie Lee (Dorothy Sebastian), eyed lasciviously by every desperado in sight (the funniest bit in the picture). Naturally, Cal decides to challenge the status quo and proclaim the young beauty to be his fiancée, which would normally be enough except that the Roost happens to have its own parson (Lafe McKee), forced to perform the wedding ceremony on the spot. Jennie's dignity remains intact after a chaste honeymoon, galloping off with her husband's horse to her destination as schoolteacher. What she hasn't told Cal is that she's engaged to the sheriff on his trail, who wants not only him but the entire outlaw gang as well, rightly figuring that the horse knows its way back to the hidden Roost. Seems like a lot to occupy a mere 45 minutes (it's possible that 12 minutes could be missing but all you truly need is present), but it's a breezy and easy affair, despite the primitive outdoor techniques for fisticuffs. Dorothy Sebastian is hardly taxed by this standard 'girl in peril' who finds love in the strangest places, a career that deserved to be so much more than what she got. For today's audiences, the main interest is clearly seeing Boris Karloff in his sole talkie Western, often cast as villains during the silent era, later playing Native Americans in Cecil B. De Mille's "Unconquered" (set in the Ohio Valley of 1763) and Universal's "Tap Roots" (set in Mississippi during the Civil War). His voice sounds the same and he rides his horse with some confidence, plus it's one of his more sizable roles before "Frankenstein" with over five minutes on screen. This would have been a happy reunion between Dorothy and Boris, after recently costarring in Lionel Barrymore's creaky "The Unholy Night" aka "The Green Ghost," she the hysterical heroine, he sadly unbilled as her lovelorn solicitor.

This reviewer won't address the quality of this Tiffany release versus other Rex Lease oaters. My main motivation for seeking out this otherwise forgettable antique was to view Boris Karloff in one of the many different roles he took between 1929 and 1932.

The film opens with white-hatted Rex Lease (as Cal Reynolds) being chased by a posse. [Given the number of splices in this print, the film may be missing footage] His crime is never revealed and his horse clearly steals acting honors during this sequence, sending the posse the wrong way. Fortunately, Cal evades the law, gaining sanctuary at the "Crook's Hideout". Karloff (as Baxter) drags in a young woman at this point. Her presence is unexplainable, saying she followed Cal, but not why or how she's a better tracker than the posse. Enter Tom Santschi (as Butch) to claim the girl. Baxter objects and gets punched. Now, there was a time before sound effects made cowboy fists sound like firecrackers and this was it. Santschi punched Karloff. Hope they got it in one take! Anyhow, Cal MARRIES Jennie (played by Dorothy Sebastian) to save her from the black hats. Wish Jennie'd told Cal she's engaged to the sheriff...

It's classic antique talkie fodder, complete with scenes filmed at silent speed, out-of-focus shots and the cacophony of early RCA photophone. Karloff's got plenty of screen time and where he rides his horse into a scene watch him crash into Santschi's horse. Makes you wonder why Raoul Walsh's "The Big Trail" didn't clean-up at the ticket window that year.