The Painted Desert

Two men traveling west find a baby boy in the desert and quarrel over which one will raise him. One steals away with the boy and becomes a wealthy rancher while the other stays put beside a waterhole and remains an impoverished homesteader.

Years later the boy has grown up to become a fair-minded man who tries to reconcile the two bitter enemies, partnering with his father's old friend in a mining operation beset by mistrust due to unexplained sabotage.

The Painted Desert is mostly remembered nowadays for featuring future Hopalong Cassidy star William Boyd and the first talking performance by Clark Gable.

Though undoubtedly harmed by having nearly all it's action sequences carved up as stock footage for later films, it's still worth watching and has a nice Hollywood sheen not seen in later B-westerns.

The star of this film is William Boyd, who made a bunch of westerns for Pathe in his time. As a matter of fact, on the opening credits,Clark Gable isn't even listed. Later, when they name the entire cast he is mentioned, but he comes way behind top rated Boyd and even now largely forgotten Helen Twelvetrees.

Two pioneers, Cash Holbrook and Jeff Cameron, are trekking across the desert when they find a deserted encampment with one survivor, a baby boy. The two fight over where to go next. Jeff Cameron wants to stay at the waterhole because "it is a grub stake" - all people driving cattle through will need this waterhole. Cash Holbrook wants to continue on to grazing land so he can raise cattle. He calls Jeff stubborn, and takes the baby too, daring Jeff to shoot because if he does, the baby will fall from Cash's arms and break his neck.

About twenty years pass and Cash has become a wealthy cattleman. Not being ambitious in the old west has cost Jeff. He married, but his wife died in this harsh environment, and all he has left is his daughter, Mary Ellen (Helen Twelvetrees). In all of this time Cash and Jeff have agitated one another - Jeff is still angry at Cash for stealing the baby boy that is now a man, refusing to let Cash's herd use his watering hold for any price and makes him go 27 miles around. One night it is coming to a showdown. Cash is going to stampede his cattle to Jeff's watering hole and show him who is boss. Jeff and his daughter are prepared to shoot it out to stop him. Along comes a stranger - Gable as Rance Brent, and with him instantly taken with Mary Ellen, Rance decides to back them up in the shootout.

Cash's adopted son comes out and stampedes the cattle away from the watering hole to prevent the deadly shootout. Cash is angry, and throws Bill (Bill Boyd) out. Bill went to mining school, discovers tungsten on Jeff's land, and enters into a mining partnership with his dad's sworn enemy.

Now this is where the movie is weird. Bill is acting Gandhi-like saying that he takes neither side, he just wants Cash and Jeff to be friends again and that neither is bad or wrong. I beg to disagree, because to me Cash IS a bad man up to this point. First he uses Bill the infant as a human shield, and when Bill keeps something from escalating into bloodshed, Cash throws that son out of his life.

In the meantime, Jeff and Bill's mine is yielding lots of ore, and out of nowhere - certainly not out of any dialogue that I could perceive - Bill and Mary Ellen are in love. Meanwhile somebody is sniping at the drivers who are taking the ore into town to the railroad, and then some dynamite disappears and the mine is blown to smithereens. Everybody on Jeff's place blames Cash, and it is up to Bill to stop another potential showdown and shootout. I'll let you watch and find out what happens.

This film has absolutely no background music, which was common in early films, and much of the dialogue is very pedestrian. However, it is a good chance to see Gable in his first sound film, and although he hardly utters a word, you can see the beginning of "that Gable style".

THE PAINTED DESERT (Pathe, 1931), directed by Howard Higgin, stars William Boyd, billed simply as Bill Boyd, in a slightly atypical western story set in the landmark territory of Arizona. For Boyd's first western which has nothing to do with sand painting, it was his introduction to a genre for which he become famous. Before achieving fame and popularity as "Hopalong Cassidy" on both screen (1935-1948) and later TV series (1952-54), Boyd was a blond-haired actor assuming all sorts of character parts since the silent era of the 1920s. For THE PAINTED DESERT, Boyd was the center of attention, supported by notable veteran silent screen actors as J. Farrell MacDonald and William Farnum, along with Helen Twelvetrees, the only female credited in the cast. In later years, however, it's earned the reputation as being the early screen appearance of future major star, Clark Gable, who's strong presence and distinctive voice helped rise above the level of being just another mediocre outdoors western.

The ten minute prologue begins with an written diary passage which reads, "Feb. 25 ... Four months since we headed west into the Painted Desert, about sundown today, we come to a deserted camp." Jeff Cameron (J. Farrell MacDonald) and "Cash" Holbrook (William Farnum), are introduced as two prospecting pals who encounter an abandoned covered wagon. Inside they find a baby boy, the sole survivor of a possible massacre. Jeff asks, "Give me a hand with the boy." Cash replies, "You know I will." While the infant initially brings the two men closer together in roles as father figures, he also splits them apart when one claims custody of the boy. With Jeff wanting to name the infant, "Daniel Boone Cameron," it's Cash who takes "Buffalo Bill Holbrook" as his own, thus starting a lifelong feud between two best friends. Next diary passage: "Well, looks like after all these years, me and "Cash" Holbrook was coming to a showdown. He's had all the luck, but he ain't never going to get this water hole." For the rest of the story, Cash, who has converted the land around the water hole into a cattle ranch, has raised Bill on his own son while Jeff, now a widower, has raised his daughter, Mary Ellen (Helen Twelvetrees). The Carters soon encounter a stranger, Rance Brett (Clark Gable), drinking water on their property. Brett, from Montana, heading for New Mexico way, having lost his horse, is stranded. Becoming attracted to the presence of Mary Ellen, Brett stays, becoming partners with Cameron. As for the adult Bill Holbrook (Bill Boyd), having been educated in mining school, finds himself ordered from home by his adopted dad for creating a cattle stampede that was, in Bill's point of view, to keep both Holbrook and Cameron from killing each other. As Bill vies for the attention of Mary Ellen from Brett, he assists Jeff with his Cameron Mine Company. Problems arise when vicious rumors about Jeff and Cash spread around town, causing Bill going through extremes to end this feud before it's too late.

Slow pacing with lack of underscoring quite common in 1931 talkies, the proposed original screenplay by Howard Higgin and Tom Buckingham breaks away from traditional western form of staged Indian massacres, bank robberies, chase scenes on horseback or extended bar room brawls and dancing saloon gals in favor of "Romeo and Juliet" courtship prevented by family rivalry, in this instance, two fathers. Granted there's typical comedy relief thrown in for good measure, one acted by old geezer Charles Sellon as the gossiping Tonopah, and another briefly played by former Mack Sennett comedy player by the name of Al St. John as Buck. One great advantage THE PAINTED DESERT has is the fine use of black and white photography for its location scenery of the badlands and mountain view of the Painted Desert.

Though the leading players occasionally act their roles in low-key manner, it's the up-and-coming Clark Gable who plays his part with natural conviction. Though Gable westerns were few and far between, it was that same genre that marked the end of his thirty year movie career with John Huston's THE MISFITS (United Artists, 1961). His presence with unshaven face, high hat, rolling of cigarettes and horseback riding are enough to draw attention whenever he's on, especially the confrontation sequence between he and Bill Boyd that would be clipped as part of the many Gable movies inserted into the 1968 documentary narrated by Burgess Meredith titled "Dear Mr. Gable" (ABC television network.

Close to being forgotten, THE PAINTED DESERT earned its rediscovery during the wake of home video in the early 1980s with VHS cardboard boxes using either still photos of Clark Gable (giving the impression that he was the star) or of Gable and Boyd's face-to-face confrontation on the package. Some prints consist of its sold to television Movietime introduction logo in place of the original Pathe Studios presentation while all prints clock at 75 minutes as opposed to 80. THE PAINTED DESERT did have its share of television broadcasts in the late 80s either public or local broadcasting systems, usually during the after midnight hours, before commonly found on cable television's American Movie Classics (prior to 1999) and Turner Classic Movies, especially during some of its Clark Gable tributes.

Contrary to sources indicating the 1938 release of PAINTED DESERT (RKO Radio) starring George O'Brien as being a remake. The title and setting may indicate the same, but story and character names are overall different, bears no connection whatsoever with the earlier but slightly better western package. Will William "Bill" Boyd make good as a movie cowboy? You know he will. (**)

The Painted Desert is best remembered as Clark Gable's first substantial role for good reason. The future King of Hollywood's natural, dynamic style of acting stands out in this extremely creaky early talkie Western. In an unrewarding heavy role Gable speaks in his trademark relaxed, cocky manner, while other, more experienced actors such as J. Farrell MacDonald, early silent era star William Farnum, and a stiff-as-a-board Bill Boyd deliver their lines one distinctly enunciated word at a time as if speaking toward a microphone hidden in a cactus. Admittedly Boyd wasn't much of an actor in spite of his good looks and sunny disposition, but MacDonald and Farnum were. Blame an under-financed sound department and uninspired direction by Howard Higgins, who also co-wrote the murky script for this lumbering oater. Those who would excuse the stiff direction and acting as caused by unavoidable problems with early sound equipment should first take a look at Joseph Von Sternberg's Morocco (1930), released the year before The Painted Desert, but showing a marvelously sophisticated and artistically pleasing use of sound. Other than Gable, the only other actors who managed to rise above the restraints of the over-compensating sound technicians and Higgin's stodgy direction were gorgeous leading lady Helen Twelvetrees and Boyd's beautiful white horse.

That's not to say that The Painted Desert doesn't have some good points -- especially for die-hard Western fans. Most of the low, low budget must have been spent carting the actors, crew, and equipment around several scenic Arizona locations, including the sure-enough Painted Desert. Sets by art director Carrol Clark and costumes by Gwen Wakeling were well turned out and authentic looking. Oldblackandwhite, who is one of the vanishing breed of Texans still preferring the Stetson style to the ubiquitous Beaver Cleaver ball cap, wishes he could find the hatter Ms. Wakeling used for this picture. The sets and costumes, along with a folksy, real-to-life dialog, as plodding as the delivery was, gave the movie an authentically quaint, rustic 19th century ambiance missing in many a better produced Western.

Best of all, and almost worth the price of a DVD -- a cheap one anyway -- was having a tense, climactic, sixgun showdown between two elderly gentlemen! But there wasn't much else to get excited about in The Painted Desert. Mainly for curiosity seekers, dedicated Clark Gable fans, fanatical Western aficionados, and the usual desperate insomniacs. Neither the best nor the worst from Old Hollywood's Classic Era.

Two long time friends find a baby boy left behind within an abandoned camp in old Arizona, and their conflict over who should take charge of the infant quickly lowers their relationship to the freezing point, where it remains for over 20 years although they are neighbouring ranchers, and the grown youth's attempt to bring about a reconciliation forms the heart of this interesting early western. William Boyd, later renowned as Hopalong Cassidy, is featured as the young man, Bill, raised by Cash Holbrook (William Farnum), with J. Farrell MacDonald as Jeff Cameron, the other of the feuding pair, and when Bill, a mining engineer, discovers a valuable lode of tungsten ore on Cameron's land, he forthwith fosters a mining project which he believes will be putting an end to the longstanding conflict. Actually filmed in Arizona's scenic Painted Desert region, the work is efficiently directed by Howard Higgin, who is abetted by the fine camerawork of Edward Snyder, with excellent sets arranged by Carroll Clark, and the cast generally performs well, a strong performance being given by Clark Gable as a completely unrepentant villain, only the tasteless characterization by Helen Twelvetrees as Cameron's daughter tainting the production.