Harmony Trail

This WWII era western features the great Ken Maynard in one of his later films and Eddie Dean in one of his first featured roles. Both are Marshals investigating a payroll robbery during the days of the Wild West. Also featured are Max Terhune (of 3 Mesquiteers fame) as well as Glenn Strange.

Maynard was one of the great silent film cowboy stars, but did not fare so well in the talkies. In this one, he seems over the hill and a bit dis-interested. Eddie Dean does well in his role and would go on to his own film series.

I enjoyed seeing the unique casting in this western, despite a standard script. For fans of classic era westerns, this one is worth seeing for that alone ......

Lawman Rocky Camron recruits old pals Ken Maynard, Eddie Dean, and Max Terhune to help ferret out a gang of big-time bank robbers. The quartet take cover in a medicine show in order to get close to the villains, with each man doing his particular specialty for the show.

A final starring role for Maynard, this and other later pictures get a lot of flack because of Ken's weight. However, this semi-remake of the John Wayne vehicle Paradise Canyon (written/directed by the same writer) is actually quite entertaining, with Ken still a lot of fun to watch, performing some of the same cowboy tricks on the medicine show that initially attracted the attention of Hollywood some twenty-years earlier.

Also, Eddie Dean belts out a handful of great songs and Max Terhune brings along his dummy. Rounding out the cast is western character actor and final Frankenstein Monster Glenn Strange, pretty Ruth Roman, and eternal heavy Charles King, a villain who seems to have come back more times than Freddy Krueger!

Instead of being Maynard's last, it should have been the first in a Three Mesquiteers/Range Busters type series. I would have paid money to see it.

Ken Maynard even does rope tricks in a story that had been used earlier by John Wayne in "Paradise Canyon."

Wayne's character was also a sharp shooter, as is Maynard's, but the Duke didn't do rope tricks.

Nor in the Duke's version was there an Eddie Dean to sing, nor Max Terhune with his puppet (sometimes referred to as ventriloquist's dummy) Elmer.

Never mind: It's a good enough plot device to get the story moving, and different enough in the two movies not to matter the least little bit.

Even more surprising than Maynard's doing rope tricks -- a surprise to this viewer who obviously needs to learn more about Ken Maynard movies - - was a very young Ruth Roman's appearing in a B western. She even does a little dance!

Many a budding star, such as Rita Hayworth and Jennifer Jones (using different names), began in B westerns, but it was a surprise to me, again, to see Miss Roman. She would be acting 45 more years after this.

Some of the classic western performers are in "Harmony Trail," including Glenn Strange and Charles King, along with Bud Osborne and John Cason.

Nothing new, perhaps, but the very good cast is well directed in a good story. I recommend "Harmony Trail."