Border Romance

"Border Romance" is a B-western whose biggest asset is that the sound, for 1929, is awfully good. As far as the rest of the story goes, it's just okay and is, at best, a time-passer you can find on YouTube.

Bob Hamlin and his buddy wander into a western town. Soon, a baddie attacks the friend and Bob shoots him in self-defense. But the guy was a baddie who has a gang who will want revenge...so the two beat it out of town. But Bob is infatuated with a local señorita...and risks his life to see her. What's next? See the film...or not.

While the sound quality is very good for 1929, films from the very late 20s tend to be a bit flat compared to movies made 1930 and beyond. Much of it is because incidental music is missing in most early talkies and decent dialog writing was still pretty rare. And, the singing at the 22 minute mark is pretty hard on the ears...also more common in early talkies. Because of these factors, the film is most likely a better bet for people who are nuts about movies and have come to expect a bit less from most 1929 productions.

Minor Western from the early years of talking pictures has only cute little Mexican firebrand Armida to recommend it. Unfortunately, leading man Don Terry towers over her so much that their romance borders on the comical.

This film essentially begins with an American cowboy named "Bob Hamlin" (Don Terry) his brother "Victor Hamlin" (Wesley Barry) and their friend "Slim" (Victor Potel) driving a herd of horses across the border into Mexico to sell at a nearby town. To that effect, upon finding a nice grazing area for the horses, they all decide to head over to the local cantina for a drink or two. Not long afterward, a fight breaks out which ends with Bob shooting and killing a man in defense of his brother. Naturally, not wanting to stand trial for murder, all three of them quickly ride out of town in the general direction to where they had previously left their herd. However, when they finally arrive, they discover that their horses have been stolen--and the only way to retrieve them is to go right back to the same town they had just left. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an interesting Western which featured a nice plot, good music and a little bit of comedy here and there as well. Admittedly, the film is quite dated, but even so, it kept my attention for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

This early effort by directorial jack-of-all-trades Richard Thorpe quickly shows its stripes as a musical-comedy western -- it opens with the Mexican army captain leading his cavalry in a cantering chorus that works very nicely.

This is a western with a little bit of something for everyone, including a clip of Rex the Wonder Horse and Ladies' Day at the swimming hole. The songs are surprisingly fresh, Babe Kane is very funny as the distaff comic side kick, and there is pretty good camerawork, particularly in the dance scene. While not for everyone -- the stereotypes are hard to take if you forget for a moment this is a farce -- if you have any taste at all for this sort of thing, you will find it enormously entertaining.