Outlaws of the Plains

Al St. John is fooling around with a crystal ball. An Indian voice advises him to go look for gold in a specific spot. The gold turns up, and he forms a company to buy the location, taking in money for the purpose without telling anyone where it is.

All of which reminds me of Special Purpose Acquisition Corporations, which have had a renewal of interest in the past ten years. There are various names for it, but what it comes down to is some entrepreneurs raise a pool of money, and then select a company to buy, frequently a privately held one. It's a way to take a company public, but my examination of several near the beginning of the current cycle indicates a very poor deal for the outside investors, since almost half of the money goes to pay the organizers, and they wind up with a lot of shares; outside investors get about a 45% haircut at the start.

That's assuming no outright fraud. Of course Fuzzy, it quickly being hoodwinked. Fortunately, Buster Crabbe, King of the Cowboys -- it says so right in the credits -- is on hand to look around and, the audience hopes, save the day. Sam Newfield directs competently but with no particular flair. St. John isn't particularly funny, and the usual crowd of western habituees show up.

Though produced on a shoestring, this Buster Crabbe/Al St. John outing has some good lines with an interesting plot. I use the term low budget kindly. For example, if the viewer notices when the chases take place, the horsemen pass the same clump of trees four or five times. At the end of one of the chases, Henchman Joe Dayton (John Cason), is tied to one of the trees in the clump by Billy Carson (Buster Crabbe). So the wide open spaces were somewhat confined on the set used.

Fuzzy Q. Jones (St. John) this go around is a psychic, a swami with a crystal ball, who is told by an Indian spirit, Standing Pine, that a certain land claim has gold on it. Fuzzy asks the wraith, "Where are you standing, Pine?" and the fun begins. Seems the outlaws are in a room next door to Fuzzy's, speaking through a tube that connects to a speaker hole where the would-be swami is standing tall. Fuzzy's pal, Billy Carson rides into town. When Fuzzy tells him part of the story about the spirit, Carson goads him, " A spirit. Fuzz, you better keep that cork in the bottle. Those spirits are going to get you in trouble." He's right about that. The rest of the film involves Billy Carson, working with the sheriff, trying to round up the spirits and put them in jail before they swindle Fuzzy and his backers (most of the town) out of their hard earned money.

Fuzzy is always a joy to behold. A master of slapstick comedy from the silent film days, Fuzzy could take a pratfall with the best of them. I would vote him next to Gabby Hayes as one of the best cowboy sidekicks ever. Athletic Buster Crabbe was a fine action hero for many a movie. There are also some of the meanest bad guys in the B westerns to provide the cause for the chases and fisticuffs. There's action aplenty with some good stunt work as a bonus.

If you enjoy action-packed cowboy antics with no singing and lots of humor, you should like "Outlaws of the Plains."