Drift Fence

This was made in the same year that star Buster Crabbe was off fighting Charles Middleton's menacing "Emperor Ming" and he should maybe just have stuck to that? After a bit of quite exciting rodeo action, we meet "Travis" (Tom Keene) who is chatting with the check-clad "Traft" (Benny Baker) who isn't prepared to risk his hat to run his uncle's cattle ranch, so maybe he could manage it for him? What "Traft" doesn't know is that his new friend is really a Texas Ranger and this plan could work well as he is chasing an outlaw believed to be rustling the cows. Crabbe's "Slinger" owns the adjacent property and is soon embroiled in a plot designed to make people suspicious that it's actually him that's doing the thieving, so he's going to have to act. That's really the bit that lets the whole thing down. None of them are really very good at that, and it misses the cheeky, curmudgeonly, character usually employed to inject a little comedy into it too. Crabbe is just way too earnest and although Effie Ellsler has some fun as the granny wielding a gun easily as long as she is tall, it's all a rather procedural drama with little to remember about it. I think it's called "drift" for a reason.

In this nifty Western, action opens with exciting moments at a rodeo where Jim Traft (comedian Benny Baker) is an onlooker and it is revealed that Traft is to be willed a ranch in Arizona, although he is obviously better suited for city surroundings. At the rodeo Traft is able to make an acquaintance of a wrangler whose name is similar to his, Jim Travis (Tom Keene), who he persuades to swap places with him at the ranch since a codicil in Traft's uncle's will stipulates that his nephew must learn the cattle business. When Travis arrives at the Traft ranch, he quickly impresses the crew there that he is the genuine article, and leads his hands in the construction of a drift fence, to contain his cattle and to keep rustlers and other interlopers off his spread. Successful construction of the fence is endangered by a band of rustlers headed by Clay Jackson (Stanley Andrews) who utilizes the fast draw of local rancher Slinger Dunn (Buster Crabbe) as his primary weapon. Jackson is applying pressure upon Slinger's sister Molly (Katherine DeMille) to wed him, and the grandmother of the siblings (Effie Elssler), matriarchal doyen of the Dunn ranch, approves of Jackson, which complicates matters since Travis (a Texas Ranger in disguise) is familiar with the rustler kingpin's felonious past. Based upon the novel of the same name by Zane Grey, which appeared in serial form two years prior, DRIFT FENCE benefits from the direction of Otho Lovering, a sterling film editor who utilizes fades to perfection, and the viewer feels no need for filler, as the work snaps along to an exciting conclusion. Paramount supplies an enjoyable cast and, in addition to those mentioned, Irving Bacon, Leif Erickson and craggy-faced Walter Long give solid performances. In only 55 minutes of film, this production yields an interesting story and dialogue, augmented by good acting, with comedy, romance and gunplay in the mix.

Tom Keene meets Benny Baker at a rodeo. Baker is a greenhorn who is being cajoled into riding an unridable mustang. Keene takes his place and does it. Baker makes him a proposition. His uncle wants him to go to his ranch in Arizona and learn the cattle business from the ground up. If Keene will take his letter of introduction, he'll get $100, and Baker will inherit the ranch when his uncle dies. Keene isn't interested. He changes his mind when he hears Stanley Andrews' name. At the ranch he discovers there's rustling going on. The plan is to set up a drift fence to foil the rustlers. Rancher Katherine Demille is opposed.

It's another of the score of westerns that Paramount turned out from Zane Grey novels. But while earlier ones with Randolph Scott were clearly interesting A pictures, this one clearly falls into B territory, timing in at 56 minutes, and filled with several tropes of cheaper westerns. Was it always this, or was it cut to flinders by director Otto Lovering? He had a long career as an editor. While Keene clearly has charisma and enough acting chops for the A list, it's clearly a disappointment. With Buster Crabbe, Leif Ericson, Richard Carle, and Irving Bacon.

Tenderfoot Trask gets rodeo champ Travis to take his place as the new owner of a ranch having trouble with rustlers. To stop the rustling Travis and his men build a drift fence. Out to stop them is Clay Jackson and his men led by Slinger Dunn.

Buster Crabbe gets top billing in this Zane Grey western but Tom Keene is the hero who pretends to be a tenderfoot whose father owns a ranch susceptible to rustling. Of course, we learn later on that he's a Texas Ranger, after a bad hombre behind the rustling. Crabbe isn't a bad guy but he's just well meaning, hoodwinked by the villain. Drift Fence is a nifty b western with a good cast of characters, humour and action. The finale packs a punch with gunplay.