O Inválido Poderoso

The heirs of the dying owner of a valuable radium mine are being murdered as a mining engineer tries to uncover the killer and clear his cousin's name.

Though set in 1934, this film is set in a western parallel universe with only an automobile at the end giving it away. It's a tautly-strung mystery with an enticing creepy atmosphere, some good characters especially the scary looking Mrs Borg, and that horribly sounding stamping machine. It's quite nail biting at times. Scott, in his early appearance, does well as does the sheriff he helps. It's creaky at times, but that can add to the creepiness.

Randolph Scott at this point in his career when he wasn't doing other films was learning the western genre in a series of films that Paramount's B unit was doing from Zane Grey novels. In this particular one, Rocky Mountain Mystery, Grey tried his hand at a detective story and skilfully combined the genres.

Randy's a mining engineer, but he's turning amateur sleuth to find out what's happened to his brother-in-law, who no one has heard from. Upon arriving at the scene he meets deputy sheriff Chic Sale who's investigating the murder of the owner of a mine. The two of them decide to join forces.

The film is set in the contemporary west, at least the contemporary west of when Zane Grey wrote the story. There's reference to Chic Sale's son killed in the Great War and how Scott reminds him of his late son. When these two arrive at the mine, there's a lot of interesting people living there.

As it turns out there's quite an intricate scheme working there of which the homicide is only one aspect. I wish this film had been given a bigger budget and the A treatment because the film had potential.

Young Ann Sheridan is the female lead, this is probably one of her first films in that regard, she'd be signed by Warner Brothers next year.

However the important reason to see the film is the appearance of one of the great stage stars of the last centuries and notorious personalities. Mrs. Leslie Carter (and that's how she was billed) has the role of family matriarch of the clan at the mine and even in her old age you can tell what a beauty she was back then. Her acting is also decent, no exaggerated stage mannerisms from back in her day when she learned her craft from David Belasco.

Her divorce from her husband was one of the great scandals of the day. Divorce back in her time was scandalous in and of itself. She was left penniless by the divorce, but Belasco seeking to capitalize on her notoriety, took her under his wing and trained her in the thespian arts. People exploiting their celebrity, some things never change. You can see her story in the film, The Lady With Red Hair starring Miriam Hopkins and Claude Rains.

By the way she was billed under her former married name to take advantage of the fact that was how the public knew her and to stick it to her ex.

Even without Mrs. Leslie Carter, Rocky Mountain Mystery is a decent film, I wish had been given better production values by Paramount.

Rocky Mountain Mystery (1935)

** (out of 4)

Randolph Scott stars in this "B" picture, which is based on a story by Zane Grey. In the film Scott has to go to a small mining town where murders are taking place for what appears to be a possible future inheritance. Scott must battle the bad guys, find out who the killer is and romance Ann Sheridan. This is a rather strange film that mixed with Western and Mystery genres together but the end result isn't as good as one would hope. The biggest problem are the incredibly low production values, which usually leaves all the action to one small place. There's never any scope to the film and the low budget doesn't leave much that the cast can do. In fact it seems like the budget is so low that they can't really do much of anything except talk. The mystery itself isn't too interesting but Scott does make the film worth watching. He's certainly not his classic self here but he is good enough for the film. Sheridan is decent in her role but still a little rough around the edges. This was director Barton's third film and of course he's go on to do several Abbott and Costello films. He handles the material here pretty well even though he doesn't have too much to work with.

Rocky Mountain Mystery exists in that parallel universe where the old west never really ended but continued on well into the nineteen-thirties and forties, usually inhabited by Gene Autry, Roy Rodgers, Tex Ritter, and sometimes even a very young John Wayne.

The characters ride horses, use oil lamps to light their way, and seemingly live a frontier existence under territorial law, all with six-guns on their hips. The viewer either forgets or is unaware that this is supposed to take place in modern times when suddenly the cowboys encounter modern cars, telephones, radio, and electricity. I sometimes wonder if the depression era children who were the films' main audience actually believed the west was really like this.

This is an above average B-western and a great example of what modern experts are calling "horror western" due to their odd plots and sadistic mystery villains. I prefer to call them mystery or suspense westerns.

Rocky Mountain Mystery effectively mixes an Old Dark House plot with frontier themes. It's not as chilling as I'd like but it does have a creepy fiend dressed in black complete with gloves, hat, and cape; a killer that prefers to crush heads in a hydraulic press but isn't afraid to menace a pretty girl with a straight razor either! The ending is quite surprising and well plotted.

This is definitely a "B" type western, but Randolph Scott does his normal star role as Randolph Scott. "Chic" Sale's performance as the "old timer" is very entertaining, the plot is decent, and everything moves along. Some interesting little add ins, like the two dogs. You can also see Ann Sheridan before she learned to act.

All in all a little better than average for this era.