Sur la piste de l'Ouest

Generally, the B-westerns from Warner Brothers are a qualitative step up from most from the cheaper B-studios, such as Monogram, Republic and Columbia. However, in the case of "Trailin' West", I was shocked at the cost-saving moves Warner did for this film and it seriously impacted my enjoyment of the movie.

The story is set during the US Civil War. The president is worried, as unrest with the Indian tribes out west are helping destabilize the nation and is hurting the Union's war effort. Someone is apparently arming the tribes and getting them to attack settlers....and Lt. Red Colton (Dick Foran) is set undercover to investigate.

Shortly after his arrival out west, Red is jumped and beaten...and his papers proving who he is and who he works for are stolen. In fact, the local baddie who is stirring up the natives takes Red's papers and convinces the local Cavalry commander that HE is working for the Secret Service. And, soon the Cavalry is out trying to arrest Red as a spy! What's next? See the film.

The story is good and enjoyable....so why did I only give the film a 5? Well, many times old footage from other westerns is inserted into the movie to save money. The worst part is that it IS very noticeable....and makes the film look cheap and second-rate...particularly during the Indian attack scene near the end.

Trailin' West casts Dick Foran as a Union officer in the west on detached duty as a spy to ferret out a nest of Confederate sympathizers. It's a tried and true plot premise used by Warner Brothers on a bigger scale. Foran gets his mission from no less than Abraham Lincoln played by Robert Barrat and Lincoln's spymaster Allan Pinkerton.

Foran has no better luck than previous agents from Pinkerton's own ranks who get caught and sometimes killed. He loses his credentials and has to rely on his own wits to complete his mission. That and an extraordinary amount of luck which cowboy heroes seem to be able to draw on like a six shooter if needed.

But this is a western made for the Saturday matinée kid crowd and Foran was Warner Brothers B picture western star when he wasn't in A films like The Petrified Forest or The Sisters. And Dick Foran was a good singer who even got to Broadway in a revival of A Connecticut Yankee later on. This film and his other westerns are to exhibit him as a singing cowboy.

Not a great spy, but he's got some nice notes.

This is perhaps the dumbest spy movie I've ever seen. Everything possible is done to violate basic security procedures.

Maybe Civil War era spies weren't as sophisticated as they are now (or as the average movie fan), but it's impossible to imagine that they'd have been as stupid as they are depicted in this film. Maybe the script was written for Wheeler and Woolsey.