Malandro de Sorte

Following their auspicious debut as a couple in "Wyoming" (1940), it was inevitable that the marvelously inelegant Wallace Beery and his apt counterpart, Marjorie Main, would make six more films together. This was the 4th of the 7 and included J. Carrol Naish as Signor O'Callahan and cute, little Darryl Hickman, who is unaware that Just Baggot (Beery), who he idolizes, was his father's killer. Baggot woos Tiny Tucker (Main), a temperance advocate, who, in a blow for women, levels him with a right hook and kicks him down a flight of stairs. The performances are fine. Main has two song-and-dance numbers and the script is a bit talkative, but we are rewarded with many comical expletives. This wonderful team was a fine antidote to Hollywood's unremitting glamour elsewhere.

This is the second or the Beery's mule pictures in the early 1940's. I enjoyed it. Not because it's a great western - it's not. It's simple B fair. But what it is seems to transcend the normal B schlock and it's mostly due to Beery and Main. If you don't disect it - you'll love it!

I was fortunate to watch all three (3) of actor Wallace Beery's various western roles as a gruff, conniving but lovable hoodlum and robber. Jackass Mail (1942), Bad Bascomb (1946) and Big Jack (1949) were films of Wallace Beery that he starred in as a cowboy robber and thief, but yet still always portraying a lovable and jolly old feller'.

In Jackass Mail, Beery plays Marmaduke 'Just' Baggot who befriends a young boy named Tommy Gargan (actor Darryl Hickman best known as Dobie Gillis) and an interested female companion named Clementine 'Tiny' Tucker (Marjorie Main).

In this Beery film (the first of three of his last western portrayals) Just Baggot has intentions of robbing the US Mail carrier but when he takes a personal interest in the young and easily influenced Tommy Baggot has a sudden change of heart and wants to turn around from being a robber to being a hero and maybe even becoming a husband to the doe eyed Clementine 'Tiny' Tucker.

This is a very simple story line which has been done a thousand times before and a million times since, but yet I am still impressed with the chemistry portrayed between these actors on screen as well as the simple story line of good versus evil.

I give the film a deserving 7 out of 10 IMDb rating.

The repartee between Beery and Main is great, and between Beery and Naish, it's even better. Wallace is in top late-career form in this silly, but not too silly, and frantic comedy. His character will make you laugh for weeks after you see it. Tom Weeks has a nice supporting bit, and Marjorie Main is marvelous.

Wallace Beery played the same basic role in countless movies from the 1930s through much of the 1940s. In each, he was a somewhat amoral galoot who had a soft spot for kids--and ultimately gains redemption by the end of the movie. Back in the 30s, he made quite a few successful films of this sort with Jackie Cooper (such as "Treasure Island") and in the 40s with Margaret O'Brien ("Bad Bascomb") and in this film with young Darryl Hickman. From what I have read (such as Cooper's autobiography), Beery actually hated kids and was a hard-drinking guy with a temper like a badger with a toothache! But the public didn't know this and adored this formula. Because of this, "Jackass Mail" certainly is NOT original, but it still is pleasant viewing.

The film begins with Beery playing a horse thief with a strong desire to steal gold shipments. He soon meets up with another crooked guy (J. Carrol Naish) and together both of them try to be dishonest, but their better natures and luck conspire to keep them honest. Along the way, Beery (naturally) inherits a kid and soon begins a weird relationship with Marjorie Main--one where he initially wants to use her to get to the gold shipments but he eventually ends up falling for her. It's all a lot of fluff--but very enjoyable fluff. Well done but formula all the way. with no surprises...none.