Tumbleweed Trail

In the early 1940s, Bill 'Cowboy Rambler' Boyd, Lee Powell and Art Davis starred in several 'Frontier Marshal' westerns. The pairing was intended to compete with Republic's 'Three Mesquiteer' and Monogram's 'Range Buster' series films. But the trio never caught on and only made about a half dozen of these films. Now considering the films were made by PRC (which specialized in making mostly bad super-cheap B-movies) and that the actors had zero charisma, I can understand why this series never caught on with the public. They could sing okay...but the rest were not especially good.

The film begins with Bill and Art doing what all real cowboys do (at least in films)...singing as they ride. Soon some jerk begins shooting at them and the pair are able to apprehend him and they take them into town to turn him over to the sheriff. Oddly, however, the sheriff is belligerent and tries to arrest them...so he's either totally corrupt or a complete idiot! The take Bill in to jail and Art manages to disappear. When Marshal Lee Powell arrives to free Bill, the sheriff is, once again, a total jerk so Lee takes him anyways...holding his gun on the sheriff in case he had the notion of stopping them. What gives with this town?

The acting is stilted, the action is almost slow-motion at time and there isn't a lot to make this a must-see film. I only saw it because it came on a DVD with a Tim McCoy movie...and I really like McCoy films.

By the way, I noticed in bkoganbing's excellent review that he thinks this one is practically "Citizen Kane" compared to the other PRC films....which makes me dread seeing another Frontier Marshal movie!!

The Frontier Marshals, PRC's cowboy hero trio are in Oklahoma Territory from Texas to bring in a prisoner. It sounds like a simple extradition case. But when they arrive at their destination they look around and see a few familiar wanted outlaw faces walking around with no effort to apprehend them. And when Art Davis and Bill Boyd try to get the sheriff to arrest their guy, it's Boyd who winds up in the calaboose.

These upholders of law and order have to do a little extralegal thinking to set things right and get their man. Lee Powell is of course all business. But the other two who sing as well as fight, fight over the attentions of the saloon owner's daughter.

It all comes out in the end. For a PRC release Tumbleweed Trail is practically Citizen Kane. But no tumbleweeds sighted.