Frontier Days

Frontier Days was never considered for any Oscars I'm sure because it has no originality in anyway. It's just a cut and paste story with a lot of footage from Dodge City used and Truman Bradley to narrate the gaps.

With Robert Shayne and Dorothy Malone deliberately wearing costumes that look like Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland, I'm sure this was just another way for Jack Warner to keep a couple of his young contract players working. It would take eleven more years for Dorothy Malone to win her Oscar and shorter than that for Bob Shayne to gain television immortality as Inspector Henderson on Superman.

Why Errol and Olivia didn't get any billing is a question. The thing is shoddily put together that you can plainly recognize them. Olivia in fact is shown driving the wagon from the scene wear Bobs Watson is dragged to his death. They should have given young Mr. Watson a credit as well.

The plot such as it is has Shayne as a former Indian agent taking on the job as marshal to tame Civilization, Kansas where Dorothy has already taken the job as sheriff in place of dad who's been killed by the same gang Shayne once had arrested when he was an Indian Commissioner.

Jack Warner just didn't have the knack for this. Now Herbert J. Yates at Republic, there was a man who could reuse stock footage over and over and get the most out of it.

Jack you were out of your league.

The saloon brawl and the runaway horse team scenes are from Dodge City (1939) with Errol Flynn and Victor Jory. Both Jory and Guinn Big Boy Williams can be seen if you look quickly enough. What a waste of film. On the up side it did provide some pay checks for a few out of work actors and other studio employees. As usual, after the big deal fist fight between our hero sheriff and the villain the villain's face is bloody and our hero's face doesn't have a mark. But in as much as the short was made to entertain little kids and to sell popcorn it served it's purpose. It's not like they were out to make Gone With the Wind or Ben Hur. It would be interesting to hear what the producer and director had to say about why they made it and how they got permission to use film from other movies.

This western short starts promisingly, with a rather generous (for the time) view of the Indians. However, once Malone shows up as a pistol-packing daughter of a murdered sheriff looking for payback, it goes downhill. This is because she's portrayed as a complete ninny who is incredibly inept, and the Jim Blake character treats her in the most patronizing and sexist fashion (often for "humorous" effect). Also, the film feels like a Reader's Digest version of a longer film, since every scene is linked to the next by lengthy voiceovers, interrupting any momentum it might try to generate from its standard action setpieces (train heist, saloon brawl, etc.). What a waste of Malone!

In the old days, Marshall Robert Shayne had put Rory Mallinson's gang in prison. But civilization came to the west, and when the gang was let out, they came to the town of Civilization Kansas to seek their revenge. So Shayne pins on the badge again.

In the middle of the 1940s, Warner Brothers turned out a series of two-reel westerns. They plundered their 1930s A Westerns -- this one uses a lot of clips from DODGE CITY -- and shot new footage under the direction of Jack Scholl, starring Robert Shayne. The result is decent, with lots of narrations to make the new story hang together in its short length.

Clay Stacy (Rory Mallinson) and his mob have been mercilessly massacring the buffalo illegally. The Indians are forced to fight back but end up killing peaceful settlers. Federal agent Jim Blake (Robert Shayne) is able to capture the Stacy mob and bring the fight to an end. The west develops with the arrival of the railroad and cattle and more settlers. Blake is told that the Stacy mob has been released and he agrees to join the Marshals. Martha Mercer (Dorothy Malone) vows to avenge her sheriff father against the Stacy men.

This spins quite a tall tale to start. It's interesting to place the blame of the buffalo annihilation to a group of fictional bandits. This is a short which seems to be edited down from other movies. The narration keeps driving and driving story along. It's not given much space to breath. It does have a couple of highlight stunts which are probably the most worthwhile scenes.