Stagecoach Buckaroo

The plot is formula, but more than the usual amount of imagination went into the storyline. As a former Front-Row kid, I've seen hundreds of these Saturday afternoon horse operas. But this is the first time I've seen a stagecoach turned into an armored car, courtesy of metal plates. So, the bad guys get a big surprise out of that western cliché, the stage hold- up, thanks to an imaginative screenplay.

Still, the bad guys could have triumphed had they broken a paramount taboo—they could have shot one of the stagecoach horses and ended the chase right there. But then thousands of us Front Row kids in 1942 would have stormed the screen and ripped it down. It's okay to shoot as many guys as needed, but shoot a horse and America's kids would come after you, no holds barred. Okay, I exaggerate, but not much. Nor was this taboo confined to kid westerns. Check out John Ford's epic A-western, Stagecoach (1939). There you'll see the same set-up—Indians chasing a stage, taking big casualties, but never once shooting a horse. Some things, it seems, are just too sacred to do, regardless of budget size.

I digress, but the taboo remains an interesting point, and on clear display in this 60-minutes. Anyway, the movie's a pleasant mix of action, song, and bad guy intrigue. Watch for hulking Glenn Strange, the bartender from the Gunsmoke TV series (1955-1975), as the chief henchman. I also like the actress Nell O'Day who has maybe the best name for a western belle that I've seen. Anyhow, this Johnny Mack Brown special remains an hour of old time fun for this now Front Row geezer.

Johnny Mack Brown and Fuzzy Knight rescue the runaway stagecoach with Anne Nagel in it. It's just been held up by a gang led by Herbert Rawlinson, the town's banker who seems to,spend all his time playing poker. Miss Nagel is his stepdaughter, but she thinks he's her father. After she almost gets Brown and Knight almost hanged, and rescued by Nell O'Day, the gents go to work for her coach line.

It's an exercise in singing, Knight's clowning, Brown's stalwart heroism, and three, count 'em, three runaway stagecoach stunts, with some mighty good camerawork - I thought Brown did the actual stunt work on at least the first. There are no fancy fillips here, just one of the sharp little B westerns that Universal turned out under the direction of Ray Taylor, but for fans of the genre, it's a pleasant hour.

Saved from a lynching party when Molly Denton (Nell O'Day) and Nina Kincaid (Anne Nagel) bring proof of mistaken identity, roving cowpuncher Steve Hardin (Johnny Mack Brown) is offered a job as a stagecoach guard by Molly's father Joseph Denton (Henry Hall). When Denton is ambushed and killed in an attempt to get a gold shipment through to the next town, Steve signs on himself and his sidekick, Clem Clemmons (Fuzzy Knight), as driver and guard for the stage line.

An enjoyable b-western with some nice touches such as the armour-plated Stagecoach and guards dressed as women. It has a steady plot, a rather cold head villain who is willing to use his daughter to learn about shipments and some nice songs. It has some energy and the shootin' is lively.