Wild Country

Entertaining western cowboy verses bad guy story with romance & comedy mixed in. It was not expensive film to make and even if it is a trite story line the music and singing makes the short 55 minute PG movie entertaining. Notice the good guy wears a black hat in this cowboy movie.

Stanford Jolley escapes from prison. Authorities think he'll avenge himself on the sheriff who arrested him, so they send Eddie Dean and Roscoe Ates to track him down. Eddie begins by getting Roscoe thrown in jail for being Jolley, goes to see the sheriff and learns from his daughter, Peggy Wynne, that he has been killed, so he sings her a song and she's happy. Meanwhile Douglas Fowley doesn't want anyone killed.

It's a mildly incoherent entry in Dean's short career as a singing cowboy. I suspect director Ray Taylor was in no shape to direct (he wrote elliptically) because Miss Wynne seems to be in a fine mood for a girl who's lost her father. It's all rounded up with a long horseback chase-and-gunfight, and Dean leaving Miss Wynne, singing. I wonder what happened to Ates.

My co-reviewer is grumpy indeed! Admittedly, Wild Country is no classic but, if this is the worst western "seen to date", I must assume he hasn't watched too many.

What we have here is standard B western fare with roving marshal Eddie Dean rounding up the bad guys with the help of horse Flash - Dean had different "named" horses in other movies - and sidekick Soapy (Roscoe Ates). The flamboyant villain with the polka dot scarf round his hat is played with sinister gusto by the ever reliable and much under-rated I. Stanford Jolley.

Of course there are the "obligatory songs": why wouldn't there be when Eddie Dean was known as a singing cowboy and he did have an excellent voice. They are no more "out of place" than in other B westerns or, for that matter, major musicals. Sadly, there are only three, all good, but I particularly liked "The Saddle with the Golden Horn".

Leading lady Peggy Wynne is a bit feeble and funny man Ates is somewhat "limited" but there are more than enough chases, fist fights and shoot-outs to keep things bubbling nicely for the short running time.

This is the worst western I've seen to date. Poor editing, technically inept, lame dialogue and a wooden protagonist, to name a few problems. And of course, being a 40s western we must have the obligatory songs that are out of place. At least it's short...