Sur la piste des vigilants

"Trail of the Vigilantes" is a very odd film simply because of the strange casting of Franchot Tone in the lead. This is strange because Tone is possibly one of the last actors of his day who I would have expected to see on horseback...aside, perhaps, Charles Boyer! Yet, oddly, he and Warren William are in what is essentially a nice B- movie! How peculiar.

As for the plot, it's similar to many Bs of the day. It begins with the President talking with Tim Mason (Tone) about the lawlessness and rise of vigilante justice in the west. Mason is sent to investigate one particular town and dubs himself 'Kansas' and tries to blend in by taking on a job as a ranch hand. There he makes a few friends and notices that since the formation of some cattlemen's association, cattle rustling has stopped. However, members of the association are paying dues in what essentially amounts to a shakedown and this shakedown is led by the baddie, Dawson (Warren William). So it's up to Kansas to get the goods on this guy and find out who he really is.

There is nothing particularly outstanding about this film other than the casting. In many ways, it plays like an old Roy Rogers movie but without the musical interludes. For the lack of singing, I give the film an extra point! My advice is to look for this film only if you love the idea of seeing Tone try (in vain) to pull of the cowboy act. But if you just watch it, it's not a bad film at all...a decent enough time-passer.

If you like westerns you must absolutely get this film if it ever gets released on DVD. It's a comic western with plenty of exciting western action. Two actors who rarely made westerns, Franchot Tone and Broderick Crawford, star as an eastern U.S. Marchall and a good-old boy cowboy respectively, who have to deal with organized cattle rustlers. The Cattlemen's Protective Organization is actually rustling cattle from ranchers who won't join the organization. Peggy Moran is a rancher's daughter who aggressively pursues her man, Franchot, although today we'd consider her a stalker. Andy Devine and Mischa Auer are the comedy relief, in a film that needs no relief because everyone has great comic scenes.

One of the mysteries of Allan Dwan's career as a director is that his lead actors frequently seemed to be having a good time. That pleasure of performance is fairly rare in the movies, even though it adds considerably to the pleasure of the audience. Georges Melies seemed to enjoy his movies; more recently, Annette Bening in THE American PRESIDENT is clearly enjoying herself as Sidney Wade. Yet in the fifty years of Dwan's career, again and again, performers clearly enjoy themselves: William Crane in David HARUM; Gloria Swanson in ZAZA; Bill Robinson in ONE MILE FROM HEAVEN; Dennis O'Keefe in BREWSTER'S MILLIONS; and, of course, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in their frequent collaborations.

Outside of Dwan projects, only the Barrymores and occasionally Fredric March showed that spark. Apparently it is an artifact of stage performances. Possibly it is the unworried understanding that if this performance is not successful, there can be another take. Judging by conversations with cast and crew, everyone had great confidence in Dwan's abilities and they could relax and let that enjoyment come through.

Franchot Tone is clearly enjoying himself here. He does things he never did elsewhere. He tries a couple of stunts. He is outright silly. As a result, he makes this very silly western a lot of fun. Broderick Crawford and Andy Devine as his sidekicks are enjoying themselves, too.

Back to Dwan: he had begun as a director of Westerns thirty years before, but hadn't made one for at least twenty years at this point and he pulls out all the stops. Universal was trying for a follow-up to the previous year's DESTRY RIDES AGAIN and although this one is not as amazing a result as that, Dwan plays with all the B-western conventions of the era with a clearly A budget. I expect you'll enjoy it.