Marked Men

The dog plays an important role. He has a handsome face, not a great build. The thing is: He isn't even listed in the credits.

The film itself is a modest Western being passed off as a film noir. OK: It starts with a prison break. A guy hides out. But he hides out in Tempe, Arizona. I felt this to be a Western.

It isn't bad. It isn't memorable either. Isabel Jewell plays the sympathetic woman who meets the escapee. Enough of the plot. No spoilers here.

The acting is pretty basic. I didn't see a good print but I didn't have the sense I was missing out on great cinematography.

It's your call, really. And the dog, who is called Wolf, is appealing.

I admit that Sam Newfield gave us much worse in the past, far worse in terms of plots, directing, subjects...This one could have been made by a William Nigh, William Beaudine, Lew Landers. That said, the plot is not new at all, it offers no surprise of any kind, everything is predictable and even a bit boring for a movie buff vet like me. But it is a Sam Newfield's film. It is short, so if you have only an hour to waste, why not trying it. There were hundreds of films like this one made before. I guess you will forget it as soon as me. Not a garbage material but only a chain produced film, using a chain used plot, destined to chain viewing film audiences.

This movie is in the public domain. A friend of mine downloaded it as "Desert Escape" and gave it, along with a batch of other public domain movies, to me as a gift. Whenever the weather is poor and I'm home I pull one out. I've been pleasantly surprised to find some interesting movies and big stars. This movie doesn't have any big stars -- at least not any I recognize -- but it has an interesting setting: Tempe, Arizona, and the surrounding desert, in modern times (1940 -- although the movie appears to have been made a little before that-- it has a late 30's feel). So many old movies are set in New York (to take advantage of sets already built?) that my interest is always piqued by an unusual setting. The story revolves around Bill Carver, who was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit -- or did he? What makes this movie worth watching is his interaction with Wolf the dog, the old-fashioned sentiments expressed by the main characters, and a scene at a picnic that appeared to use local residents as extras. Will you be riveted by the story? Maybe not. It's a fairly standard crime drama brought home, but I thought it was above average in execution and the dog (a Rin-Tin-Tin-ish shepherd) adds greatly to the story.

When there's a prison break, the escaping cons carry Warren Hull away with them. They are recaptured, but he is not, and they blame the death of a guard on him. Hull makes his way to Tempe. Arizona where, along with screen dog Grey Shadow (in his film debut), he goes to work for John Wilson and his daughter, Isabel Jewel. Yet bad luck pursues him. The marshal recognizes him and he is about to turn himself in, when the cons, who have escaped again, turn up in Tempe and rob the bank, killing a man. Hull is assumed to be part of their gang, and flees, making his way into the desert to track them down and prove his innocence.

It's an okay little picture, mostly interesting for location shooting in the Arizona desert. It's surprising to realize through the poor prints and ludicrous credits of Jack Greenhaigh -- REEFER MADNESS and ROBOT MONSTER were two of the best remembered of the almost 200 features that he shot -- that there were tremendous reserves of technical ability in Hollywood. Although he worked in the Bs for his entire career, Greenhaigh was a respected craftsman and for many years held the record for being the youngest member of the American Society of Cinematographers.

As for the director of this movie, Sam Newfield, a lot of people thought of him as a hack. Well, yes. However, he turned out over 200 movies in 30 years behind the megaphone, and made money and careers for a lot of people. In a field of commercial art, that's worth at least as much as someone who turns out beautiful movies that the critics love and no one pays to see. This one was bright, quick, decently acted, and kept me watching, unlike many a well-regarded work of art.

Although Marked Men starts rather haphazardly once it gets going it turns out to be a pretty nice drama with both men against men and men against the elements present in it.

I could never quite buy why Warren Hull was in prison, how could he be that naive? Allegedly a group of some rather rough types ask medical school student Hull to do a driving job for them. It turns out being the getaway driver in a bank robbery. Later on Hull can't make anybody believe that he got innocently roped into it.

It doesn't wear well today, but I'm guessing that those Depression Era audiences people did a lot for money and just learned not to ask questions until the consequences smacked them in the face.

In any event leader Paul Bryar likes Hull's company so much that he takes him along during a jail break when a couple of guards were killed. Now Hull is on the hook for murder, but he gets separated from the others as they pull yet another job.

Hull and a German shepherd dog start traveling together after meeting in the desert. Then Hull arrives at a small town and settles there, even meeting Isabel Jewell and her doctor father John Dilson. But he can't escape the gang and in the end goes back to the desert where Bryar and the group are fleeing after some more robberies.

What's a mediocre film up to this point becomes a fine drama in the end. All the elements of vicious greedy men with little water come to the fore. Worst of all is Bryar who cannot control his own greedy impulses. But it's here where Hull proves to be the toughest.

This one is from the poverty row studio PRC. But occasionally they turn out a decent film and this is definitely one of them.