The Telegraph Trail

Leon Schlesinger notably produced a large portion of Warners' cartoons of this time period. Notably Schlesinger even appears in a cartoon, discussing contract provisions with Porky Pig. So, let's not expect this film to be a John Ford western, ok? Expect no more than a cartoon and you won't be disappointed. The greatest stuntman ever, Yakima Canutt, plays an Indian in this film. Yak was a world champ rodeo cowboy before his film career, and he is not a Native American. Often he doubled for Wayne in dangerous scenes, and I understand he taught John Wayne how to walk, talk and fight like a cowboy. Here, Wayne had not yet graduated from Yak's acting academy, but he was well on his way.

John Wayne stars as US Cavalry scout John Trent. When the last stretch of the new telegraph lines keep getting sabotaged by Indian attacks, Trent, along with comic relief buddy Corporal Tippy (Frank McHugh), is sent to put an end to it. He soon learns that the natives, led by fierce war chief High Wolf (Yakima Canutt), are in cahoots with the villainous Gus Lynch (Albert J. Smith) who is exploiting the "random" Indian attacks to become the sole transporter of goods to and from town. Trent also finds time to woo shopkeeper's niece Alice (Marceline Day).

This was the last of the six John Wayne/Duke the Horse team-ups that I hadn't seen. I enjoyed this one more than many of the others, as it has a sharper script and better characters. I get a kick out of McHugh, and Canutt has one of his bigger roles as the tough native warrior. Some of the stunt work looks painful for the men and the horses.

This early John Wayne B-movie is apparently not in the public domain--unlike many of his early films. This Leon Schlessinger film has been released by Warner Brothers/Turner Classic Movies instead of the usual cheap public domain videos you see in bargain bins. Unfortunately, however, despite this higher pedigree (and a slightly better quality print), this isn't all it's cracked up to be--there are no DVD extras nor are there any captions. It's a rather unimpressive release for Warner/TCM.

Instead of the usual sidekicks (such as the ubiquitous Gabby Hayes), this one features Frank McHugh. While he's a very common actor in Schlessinger (whose studio was soon bought by Warner) and Warner Brothers films of the era, I can only recall a few times where he appeared in westerns. He was more of the comic relief in contemporary period pieces--though he does a very nice job here and looked pretty comfortable on a horse.

The film begins with a group of telegraph installers being attacked by American-Indians. These Indiand, however, were orchestrated by a jerk named Lynch--who wanted to keep the telegraph and civilization away in order to force the settlers to deal with only him and his over-priced supplies. Although one of the telegraph men is shot, he's still able to relay a message to the fort many miles away--and Wayne and McHugh come to investigate. The message told what was happening but the man couldn't finish his transmission--and Wayne is trying to discover who the white man is who is stirring up all the Indian trouble. This is a weak point of the film, as it's 100% obvious who is behind it--there's no suspense whatsoever! Later, a lady overhears Lynch's plans to attack another group of telegraph installers. I have no idea why she didn't just tell Wayne. Instead, she devised a ridiculously complicated and sure to fail method to alert Wayne without revealing her identity. Why....?! And, as she was a witness to the conspiracy between Lynch and the Indian (Yakima Canutt), why didn't she just tell everyone so that Lynch would be arrested and...um...lynched! Then, they all could have gone out for pizza and had a party. Instead, the film went on for another 30 minutes---climaxing with a clichéd Indian attack--which is headed off at the last minutes by (surprise of surprises) the US Cavalry! The are absolutely no major surprises in this film. As usual, Wayne is very good and McHugh was a much better than normal sidekick...but even these couldn't overcome bad writing--even by cheap B-movie standards! It is entertaining...but a bit brainless.

This early John Wayne western has the frequently used plot of some baddies convincing indians that the white men are up to no good, in this case by building a telegraph line to connect the east and west. But I still had some fun watching it, mostly because of the comedy by both Frank McHugh and Otis Harlan. In their funniest scene, they get drunk while the indians are attacking and they are bleary-eyed enough to think one bullet fells as many as 8 indians. The scene itself, in the middle of a battle in which many are killed, indicates director Tenny Wright did not direct with a heavy hand; I sensed a light-hearted touch throughout, which was a welcome change from most of these westerns. I also laughed whenever some clichéd event occurred, such as the love interest, Marceline Day, overhearing the the baddies talking about the upcoming ambush and getting the information to Wayne. And Wayne's horse, Duke, enters the fight by kicking indians when he was in a tent and observes their silhouettes against the tent wall. No wonder he was billed second in the opening credits, but I still wondered how the other actors felt about being outbilled by a horse.

The Telegraph Trail (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A company is trying to hang telegraph wire out West but their men keep coming under attack by Indians so they send John Trent (John Wayne) out there along with his sidekick Tippy (Frank McHugh). Once out there John strikes up a relationship with Alice (Marceline Day) and begins to realize Gus Lynch (Albert J. Smith) is actually the one making the Indians attack.

This "B" Western certainly shows its low-budget nature but if you're a fan of such films then there's enough going on here to keep you entertained throughout the rather short running time. If you've seen enough of these films then you already know that they rarely have much of a story or at least much of an original one. The entire bit with telegraph wire had already been done countless times by 1933 but what's one more film? The highlight is certainly the cast with Wayne in good form as he obviously has no problem playing the hero. Day is good in her role as is Smtih in his. Duke, the horse, is back once again with his name in the credits right by Wayne. I also thought McHugh added some nice support and gets the biggest laugh in the film when he gives his silly one-tone laugh.

With that said, the film comes up ultra cheap at the end when the majority of the big battle is taken from other movies. The footage is obviously from a silent movie so that takes some points away since they couldn't even stage their own scenes here.