Old Overland Trail

"Old Overland Trail" (1953) is a spectacularly bad example of one of Republic's Bill Witney directed Rex Allen "trail"westerns. Witney made a series of "trail" westerns with Allen including "Iron Mountain Trail" and South Pacific Trail". His Roy Rogers westerns were called "old" westerns because that word was often in the title.

Rex (Rex Allen) is a Bureau of Indian Affairs investigator sent out to look into a sudden outbreak of Apache trouble. He traces the trouble to a railroad construction company. The company has subcontracted with the Indians to cause trouble in ways that will increase its profit on a government contract. Rex's brother Jim (Gil Herman) is part owner of the company and suspects that his partner is behind the Indian attacks.

Although very bad, 'Old Overland Trial" can be quite entertaining from a movie making and nostalgia perspective. Watch for Roy Barcroft, a bad guy here who would go on to play nice Mr. Logan, the owner of the Triple R Ranch on "Spin and Marty". Barcroft was also a semi- regular on "The Lone Ranger", playing the sheriff who regularly got to answer the question "who was that masked man?" at the end of each episode. Then there is a young Mr. Spock with long hair and regular ears (actually you can't tell) playing the bad Indian. And of course there is Slim Pickens who plays Allen's sidekick of the same name, arguably the best (and certainly the most talented) of all western sidekicks.

Other entertaining items are the abrupt scene changes, as harrowing sequences cut without transitions to Allen and the cast singing a pleasant western song. And you should watch for the extensive use of second unit and stock footage, all outdoor stuff shot wide so it is difficult to tell that none of the cast members are present. They were all back on the indoor sound stage shooting close-ups and medium shoots with outdoor paintings for background. The editor would then assemble this into a relatively logical sequence. Even a first time viewer eventually wonders why the film stock, lighting, and backgrounds keep changing within the same scene.

Finally there is yet another sequence of seemingly suicidal Indians riding around a circle of covered wagons.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Indian agent Rex Allen must protect local citizens and a tribe of volatile Native Americans from unscrupulous railroad contractors--including his own brother.

Rex Allen has a natural charm as a cowboy - Indian agent here - and he croons well too. There's a good fight scene between him and his brother, and the plot is adequate with some decent action sequence such as the wagon train attack (stock footage me suspects). There's an odd scene, though, when the blonde lady tells Rex about his brother being dead after the she singing with him and others - but hey maybe she didn't know how to break it to him. A little singing might just calm her nerves. Guess who plays the villain here? You got it right - it's Roy Barcroft.

The presence of Leonard Nimoy as a hotheaded, but not terribly bright Indian chief is what makes this Rex Allen western any kind of memorable. It's not one of his better efforts and the script kind of wanders all over the lot.

Roy Barcroft is a rather greedy villain in the sense that he thinks all people are rubes, white and red alike. He's building a railroad in partnership with Gil Herman playing Rex Allen's brother Jim.

From the start I'm really thinking Barcroft is all over the map. He needs cheap labor for his railroad so what does he do, stir up the Indians with a few guns, promise of more and a lot of liquor. He talks Nimoy into an attack on a wagon train of settlers, kill a few of them, then break off the attack. With the train burned and provisions gone the settlers will work for wages to replenish their train.

Sounds good so far although Rex Allen is mighty suspicious about an Indian attack that breaks off suddenly with no apparent reason. And the Indians as a rule don't go in for limited victories. Rex is the new Indian agent sent out by the federal government to see who's stirring things up. Little does he realize he's going to get into a bad situation with brother Jim.

Not only that Barcroft who presumably wants to get his railroad finished starts robbing the payrolls and issuing scrip that store owner Harry Harvey, Sr. will only pay 25 cents on the dollar. That's no way to build a railroad. Are you surprised that it doesn't get built?

Slim Pickens is Rex's sidekick again who has a negative view of Indians and his usual leading lady Mary Ellen Kay is along for the ride.

I think the writers went a lot overboard in Barcroft's villainy. It makes Old Overland Trail somewhat incoherent.