Sunset Range

Maybe we mostly go to B Westerns for the action, gun play and saloon fights and horseback chases. At least I do.

But "Sunset Range" has something else: Charm.

And good humor.

And extremely likable ranch hands who suddenly find themselves employed by a city-slicker girl who herself just oozes charm.

The joy of "Sunset Range" begins with a wonderful story, by Paul Schofield, of whom it is very difficult to find any information.

That story is presented by director Ray McCarey, and it must run in the family, directorial excellence, because he was brother to Leo McCarey.

McCarey is gifted with not only his own skill but with a cast that is about as close to perfect for this cine-play as a cast could get.

Many of the performers play characters with their, the actors', names, such as Goober Glenn and George and Lem Sowards.

One stand-out is John Elliott, who has credits starting in 1919 and running till 1956! He gives what must be the best performance in this movie, and one of the best I've ever seen in a B Western.

The ranch-hand characters are dirty and dusty and unshaven fellows suddenly presented with a city-slicker girl as their new boss, because her brother bought her the ranch, and their reaction is priceless.

One hand, though, is resentful. Even this lovely and adorable girl is still a girl and he just don't like 'em. Girls, that is.

That hand is the estimable Hoot Gibson.

I have only recently -- February of 2016 -- re-discovered Hoot and I am just enthralled. Maybe I'm speaking too soon, but so far I believe he is one of the most likable movie performers, probably in all of Hollywood history.

He is not our standard rough and tough cowboy hero, but in real life he had been a cowboy who became a movie stunt man, an early one.

He earns our admiration and liking by his personality and not just his fisticuffs.

He and his cowboy colleagues in "Sunset Range" make us awfully glad we tuned in to watch them and the charming and adorable Bonnie, played by the charming and adorable Mary Doran.

A good story so well played by this perfect cast is really quite a surprise to someone expecting a shoot-'em-up, but it should be a very pleasant surprise.

By the way, there IS plenty of action, too, and director McCarey uses his cameras very well in capturing it.

I highly recommend "Sunset Range" which is available at YouTube.

I watched this just because the name "Reasonin' Bates" struck me as hilarious. It does have decent plot, and the fashions, both cultural and physical, are interesting to watch. The direction is slowly paced, with long pauses (perhaps for audience reaction?) that seem unnecessary. Not like today where a moment of silence is simply not permitted. How Hoot Gibson gained any credence as an actor I'll never know--another glimpse into the standards at that time I guess. The bit players must have been gathered from the neighborhood bars, quite a collection of bizarre cowboy types. Also poignant is the treatment of the woman--a mixture of deference, embarrassment, resentment, and curiosity--as though women were a strange sort of being beyond understanding. And everyone is skinny.

Not a bad film.

Hoot Gibson and John Elliott want to buy the Sunset Range ranch, and are disappointed when they find out it's been sold to an Easterner. Hoot is even more disappointed when the new owner turns out to be Mary Doran, who wants him to dress like a movie cowboy, but some loaded dice settle that matter, and the good humor of both is on the point of sealing any rifts. However, it turns out that Miss Doran's brother has been dealing with some bank robbers, who have put stolen bonds in her luggage. When they show up, shoot the brother and kidnap the girl, it's up to Hoot and the ranch hands to settle the matter.

This is a fine Hoot Gibson movie, directed by Leo MacCarey's under-rated brother, Ray. It shows off Hoot's sly good humor, and AD George Sherman, a couple of years before he began to take the director's chair, directs the action and stunt sequences very well. A clear winner for Hoot's fans.

"Sunset Range" seemingly is a production made just for fun, springing from a serious and plausible premise staged in Chicago. But once the scene changes to out Arizona way, the film's cast and crew enter into a innocently-played frolic and seem to have quite the fun time of it. The viewer should sit back and accept being taken for a good and fun ride. The final house-cleaning seemed surprisingly strong to this viewer after having been swept up in the film's established breezy tone. But it is the good time had by all that will be remembered most as the last chuckle fades to black. A fun hour!

There's a lot more humor in Sunset Range than you would find in most B westerns. And I mean humor not at the expense of some dopey sidekick. Hoot Gibson and Mary Doran are a well matched pair of leads and the comedy is on the level of some of the better Roy Rogers/Dale Evans westerns which also had a battle of the sexes.

Mary Doran has come west to live on a ranch purchased by her brother James Eagles. Eagles is a racketeer albeit not a very good one. His rackets boss Walter McGrail hides $100,000.00 in stolen loot in Doran's trunk in a secret compartment to get it out of town while they wait until the heat cools down. Doran doesn't know she has it.

In the meantime she settles in on her new ranch where she has to win over the men headed by Hoot Gibson who had hoped to buy the place for himself.

Gibson and Doran are not quite Tracy and Hepburn, but they do have their moments. There's a funny tooth pulling scene and later on Doran gets Gibson to wear a pair of wool chaps that drugstore cowboys would normally wear. She does it by using some loaded dice on the unsuspecting Hoot.

The reason the scenes play so well is that the director here is Raymond McCarey, Leo's brother. The younger McCarey never got the acclaim that Leo did, he never graduated into A feature pictures. But he did do a lot of comedy shorts for Hal Roach. Ray McCarey's comedic touch is a sure one that those years with Roach would have taught him.

McCarey also did do B westerns and he does have a really furious climax with the city bandits who have taken Doran hostage in Sunset Range. All in all Sunset Range is a really excellent B western, way out of the league of the normal poverty row product.