Boothill Brigade

Johnny Mack Brown was a decent B-western actor. His natural demeanor was a sharp contrast to the pretty-boy cowboys of the era and he generally played likable good guys. However, with this film, Brown is stuck with a dull script and very indifferent direction. The bottom line is that it should have been a lot better than it was.

When the film begins, Lon returns to his old town and agrees to work for a rancher. However, he doesn't know the score--this new boss is crooked and has some very crooked friends. Soon Lon quits and sides with the small-time ranchers who are afraid this bully-boy and his friends will toss them off their land.

So why isn't this film better? Well, first the idea of a big boss- man trying to take everyone's land is one of the oldest and most over- used plots in westerns. Second, the resolution of this crisis is so incredibly easily worked out that there is no real tension-- none. It's as if everyone is sleepwalking through the dull movie!

First of all, "Boothill Brigade" is a meaningless title for this picture. Second, the viewer never really gets brought into and involved in the film. There is plenty of action, mostly of the horses and riders kind, and without the action from start to finish I would have been tempted to bail out of watching it along the way. In fact, I am considering trying to figure out, just for fun, how much of the film's time is consumed by horses running at full tilt. ..or just how much time is spent with people on horseback in view...just so there are benchmarks for future comparisons. The story of a rancher being coerced into selling is such a familiar formula, and unfortunately it is told here antiseptically. The acting and character development is lackluster, as well. Of course, Johnny Mack Brown is always a pleasure to spend time with, but this program doesn't serve him especially well. At least the outdoor setting of oak-studded hills with plenty of shading vegetation is refreshing. But I got to thinking as I watched all the men, including the older ones, and the girl, too, getting on and off horses and riding them so often... folks in the Old West really had to be hardy to withstand so much punishing time on horseback. It must have made people old real fast (as in "oh my aching vertebrae!"). Anyway, this is not a bad movie, but I just wouldn't want novice B-western viewers to judge B-westerns as a group by this one.

Boothill Brigade has Johnny Mack Brown as a rancher trying to help a neighbor at the behest of the neighbor's daughter Claire Rochelle who Brown has a thing for. She's worried because her father Frank LaRue has fired all his old hands and replaced them with gunmen. When one sees perennial western villain Dick Curtis as the new foreman at the LaRue place any B western fan knows that something is afoot.

Truth is that LaRue is in some deep debt to Ed Cassidy who holds notes on his property and is using it as a base from which his hired guns can threaten all the other ranchers. Cassidy's a greedy villain, he wants the whole area.

This one is a subpar western where possibly a lot may have been left on Republic's cutting room floor. You have to bridge a whole lot of gaps in Boothill Brigade for it to make some coherent sense. In fact motivation for a lot of the characters is missing from the film.

Not the best product of Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures nor of Johnny Mack Brown.

Other reviewers must have seen a different movie. Except for some mis-firing "comedy" by Horace Murphy, and except for the generic title, which does actually have a reference in the dialogue, "Boothill Brigade" is another good Johnny Mack Brown B Western.

Olmstead's stories usually hold up well, even after 80-plus years, and George Plympton's script adaptions are generally impressive.

This low-budget company usually produces enjoyable movies with good scripts and good production values, especially considering the budgets. And "Boothill Brigade" is no exception.

Despite the carping from other reviewers about the land-grabbing premise, this one is handled differently, and well.

Among the glories of these films are the number and variety of characters with speaking parts. These characters are mostly played by more-than-competent veterans who make their roles and the story come alive and seem plausible.

No, it's not perfect, but it's darn good and I highly recommend "Boothill Brigade," of which there is good enough print at YouTube.

Johnny Mack Brown plays Lon Cardigan a moral preaching cowboy who uses his wits and fists rather than six-guns to battle a land-grabbing villain who is exploiting homesteaders through frontmen. The storyline is heavy on moral epithets rather than action. Unfortunately, unlike some other western films, the script does not deal with the underlying conflict throughout the West between ranchers and homesteaders. Meanwhile, the alleged villain's pretty, young daughter is part of the equation with the usual predictable twists.

This film is one in a collection called Cowboy Heroes of the Silver Screen from Marathon Music and Video. The source print was a 16mm dupe in fair condition with missing frames. The transfer is slightly soft but not irritating. There are some sporadic wash marks but surface noise is minimal. The sound is very good.

This is low-budget fare without much redeeming quality. And, even Johnny Mack Brown cannot save the story.