Yellow Dust

This is a little treasure that I remember from the good old days when the CBC used to show these cool second features from the RKO catalog on Saturday mornings. It's a solid, very entertaining B western featuring Richard Dix who gets mixed up in the gold rush and some owlhoots who frame him for a stagecoach robbery. Although his film is less tongue-in-cheek than a lot of these matinee westerns, there is a great scene featuring the three outlaws, who really did rob the stage, in the saloon. The bartender casually mentions that the stage got robbed, and they simultaneously spit booze out of their mouths! And there's a cool climax in a dust storm. This is a great treat from yesteryear; I hope it resurfaces again some day.

Richard Dix had a good day. He struck gold with brand new partner Andy Clyde, rescued songbird Leila Hyams from a stagecoach robbery, and the two of them fell in love as fast as two leads can in a 69-minute feature. The evening was not so good, between saloon owner and head of the outlaws Onslow Stevens framing Dix for the job, and then talking a drunk Clyde out of the location of the strike before he can file a claim.

Dix was RKO's biggest star outside of Astaire & Rogers, but the way they kept him profitable was by making some well produced but cheap westerns, then an A production every year or two. That was a good way to make money for a few years, but it cut into the long-term value of their star. They would have had to invest money into a more expensive, riskier project. 1935 had seen the international co-production, TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL, but the numbers on that had not been so good. So it was back to safe stuff, cowboy pictures, detective yarns and such, which relied on Dix' charisma, but didn't give him a chance to do anything to impress the critics. Then he ended his RKO career with a great role in THE GHOST SHIP and moved on to Columbia.

Yellow Dust was based on a flop Broadway play Mother Lode which only ran 9 performances on Broadway in 1934. Flop plays occasionally make good films, but not here.

This is not a bad film just a terribly dull one that moves at the pace of a Galapagos tortoise. Richard Dix who did some good westerns and had the look of a jut jawed hero just can't get any life into this.

Dix who is college educated geologist partners up with grizzled old prospector Andy Clyde when they make a strike. But Andy in a drunken stupor spills the beans to Snidely Whiplash like villain Onslow Stevens. Dix is also framed for a robbery by Stevens as Snidely has designs on saloon entertainer Leila Hyams.

You've seen it all before and better.

One of the most familiar B-western themes is the big bad boss...the rich guy who is greedy and wants everything! So, when you see Hanway (Onslow Stevens)....you instantly recognize him as this character. So why is it that no one in this silly town recognizes this as well?!

When the movie begins, an old guy is involved with a shootout. You really aren't sure who's in the right....and Bob Culpepper (Richard Dix) doesn't question it when one guy shoots the other...he just helps bury the loser! During this burial, however, he strikes gold and the two men have a very rich strike. Not surprisingly, Hanway wants to steal this claim...and he's already involved in several other illegalities, such as having his men try to rob the stage. Can niceness possibly prevail or is Hanway destined to run everything and everyone? And, what does the pretty lady have to do with all this?

As you can assume from what I've already written, "Yellow Dust" is a formulaic film. Fortunately, formula can still be good if you have good actors--and Richard Dix was always terrific in westerns. And, because of this and better than normal production values, this is sort of like a B+ film....better than a typical B but not quite as fancy a production nor as long as an A film.

For what it is, it's quite good and enjoyable. Though predictable, it's well made and well acted.