Thrilling Days of Yesteryear: Almost the Truth—The Lawyer's Cut

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Jungle Queen – Chapter 7: Trip-Wire Murder


OUR STORY SO FAR: Each Saturday here at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear, we present for your edification Serial Saturdays, and I'm currently making my way through the 1945 serial Jungle Queen, a thrill-a-minute saga of Nazis attempting to take over part of Africa to ensure their winning a war they technically haven’t started yet.  (Oh, but they will, my friends…they will!)  Now…I have to shoulder most of the responsibility here—it has been my experience that any chapter plays featuring the Third Reich are usually good for a look-see because Nazis are pretty much the world’s most perfect villains…but if I had any idea how much of a stinker this was I would have waved myself off of it at the first opportunity.  Seriously—if this doesn’t pick up soon, I may resort to kidnapping the chief villain in The Phantom Creeps (1939), currently under review at She Blogged by Night.

So here’s the poop: intrepid American puddinghead Bob Eliot (Edward Norris) is looking for his sidekick, Chuck Kelly (Eddie Quillan) and their traveling companion, Pamela Courtney (Lois Collier) on board the Silver Star, a schooner piloted by skeevy Captain Drake (Oliver Blake).  Chuck and Pam were sticking their noses where they most certainly do not belong—trying to trace the origin of a knife that ended up in the back of her uncle Alan…who didn’t have it removed until he was quite dead.  (Quite.)  Courtney, a British explorer who’s pretty chummy with the Tongghili tribes that populate what is known as “the middle jungle,” was eliminated by a team of ruthlessly inefficient Nazis headed up by faux Swedish botanist Dr. Elise Bork (Tala Birell) and her diabolical agent Lang (Douglass Dumbrille).  Lang is attempting to foment confusion among the tribes by kidnapping Godac (Clinton Rosemond), the “judge” of the Tongghili…who despite his incredible powers (thanks to knowing the secret of The Sword of Tongu) has allowed himself to be held prisoner by Lang’s questionably competent Nazi henchmen.

But because this is a Universal serial, we have to go the expository long way around, and Chapter 7 (I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this, but despite the title no one gets murdered by a trip-wire) kicks things off with this title card (which admittedly made me giggle):


“Yeah, those darn warmongering Germans…”  We then find our favorite unseen Nazi, Obergruppenführer Heinrich von Doodler, once again diligently working on his skull-and-crossbones drawing.  If the war does go badly for the Germans, we can rest assured that he can ply his talents at one of the many fine art correspondence schools here in the U.S…because if history is any indication, we’ll let this war criminal into the country after we make Russia the new bad guys.  Von Doodler is addressed by his trusty aide-de-camp, Herr Heel Clicker:

HEEL CLICKER: Your Excellency!

“You’re not zo bad yourself, Emil…vat iss it?”

HEEL CLICKER: Tambosa advises that control of the middle jungle can now be guaranteed
VON DOODLER: German control of the middle jungle is essential to our plan for gaining control of all Africa!  And strategists agree that the European nation which controls Africa controls the approaches to all Europe!  Anything else?
HEEL CLICKER: Dr. Bork has been informed that the two Americans are volunteer agents helping the British…


You have no idea how reassuring it is to hear this.  I thought for one brief moment that the U.S. was in such desperate straits that they actually drafted Bob and Chuck.  But now it’s off to Tambosa, where the aforementioned Dr, Bork is commiserating with another skeeve who’s popped up in this serial—the weaselly “grog shop” owner known as Tambosa Tim (Cy Kendall):

TIM: It’s going just like you want, Dr. Bork…
BORK: Let me judge that…how about Eliot?
TIM: The second American?  Hmm…I sent him to Captain Drake aboard the Silver Star…he’s looking for his friend and the English girl

If you were here last week, you’ll remember that it was Dr. Bork who made the suggestion that Tim send Bob on that wild goose chase…so I can’t figure out why they’re rehashing all this crap, unless the audience suffers from that same malady that plagued Guy Pearce in Memento.  But now that we’re up to speed, you’ll also remember that Bob got the drop on Cap’n Drake and was forcing him to take him where he had Chuck and Pam stashed.  Thanks to a “husky deck sailor” whom I also suspect has some news for himself, a cargo being lifted onto the ship was strategically dropped on top of Bob, who narrowly avoids being hit by…sidestepping it, then jumping overboard.  (I should point out in all fairness that had Bob not jumped out of the way he probably wouldn’t have suffered too serious an injury—the cargo was composed of shipments from Tambosa’s ping pong ball factory.)

Husky draws his weapon and gets a bead on Bob, but Captain Drake tells him to put it away—even if Bob does come back with the police, “what can they do?”  In Drake’s quarters, Pamela tends to an unconscious Chuck (oh dear God please let him stay that way for the rest of the serial), guarded by the same crewman (Perc Launders) who turned out Charles’ lights to begin with.

CREWMAN: It wasn’t much of a rap I gave him, miss…not with the handle butt of a knife…now if it had a-been with this revolver…

“That woulda really been something…his head would have caved in like a rotten cantaloupe!”  Skipper Drake then enters his quarters.

DRAKE: Skull cracked?
CREWMAN: No…I was just telling her…it ain’t that thin

Okay.  I did laugh at that.  Drake walks over to the bunk in his quarters and bending down, opens up a secret panel door that reveals a small bit of storage space underneath.  He then looks over at Pamela, who starts to get a bit uncomfortable.

PAMELA: I suppose you know you’re aiding Nazis, Captain Drake…
DRAKE: We might be thought English or American, mightn’t we, ma’am?  Well, me and my men have other names back in Germany

What’s the German word for “douchebag?”

CREWMAN: We stow ‘em dead…or alive?
DRAKE: Alive…for if Kelly refuses to answer questions we can use Miss Courtney to persuade him…

Chuck groans at this point, which means he’s gradually coming to (damn it!).  Leaning over the still horizontal Chuck, Drake’s crewman warns him: “Don’t give me no trouble…”

The scene then shifts back to the quaint little bistro of Tambosa Tim, as His Sweatiness returns to his office to report to a waiting Dr. Bork.

TIM: Well, it ain’t as bad as we thought at first…Drake has things all tidy again…
BORK: What has he done now?  Let Kelly and Miss Courtney escape?
TIM (laughing): Ah, Drake’s a smart one…uh…you know Eliot’s going to be greatly surprised when he comes back with the police
BORK: I want to know about the other two…
TIM: Uh…you can question them just like you want later…
BORK: If you’re sure of that, I’ll go to Chatterton’s and question Eliot now…

“…that should eat up another twenty minutes of this thing with more unnecessary expository dialogue.”  Tim escorts Dr. Bork to his secret exit, and the scene then fades in on a shot of Braham Chatterton (Lester Matthews), Royal Commissioner and Clipper of Coupons, talking to someone on the phone in his office.  (His back is to the camera, but he soon swivels his desk jockey chair in our direction.)  He greets Dr. Bork, and then excuses himself while he finishes his phone call, all with that typical English politeness.

CHATTERTON: Section Ten?  Oh…hello, Milo—Chatterton here…yes…yes, I want you to patrol the usual boundaries… (Hangs up receiver) And that does it…
BORK: Does what, Mr. Chatterton?
CHATTERTON: It shows me that my constabulary is searching the vicinity for Mr. Kelly and Miss Courtney…

I’m beginning to get why this guy is named “Chatterton”—he can’t keep his big bazoo shut.

BORK (with phony concern): You mean those two have disappeared?
CHATTERTON: Worse, Doctor, worse…they’ve fallen into some sort of trap
BORK: Mr. Kelly’s right, then…Nazis are here in Tambosa…
CHATTERTON: Yes…as well as in the jungle…

Goddamn Nazi insects…you spray and spray, and they just come back bigger and bolder than ever…

BORK: And the other man, Mr. Eliot…have you heard any more details about his death?
CHATTERTON: He wasn’t killed by the natives after all, ma’am…
BORK: He’s alive!  Are you certain?
CHATTERTON: He just left here…came in here to change his clothes…he took some of my men with him…

Oh, come now—Bob’s a big boy, he’s capable of dressing himself.  Chatterton decides to while away precious minutes of this chapter play by throwing a few questions at Doc Bork, and since I recognized this right off as more boring plot exposition (sample question: “What about Godac—the all-powerful judge of the middle jungle tribes?”) I’ll spare you the deets and instead venture back to the Silver Star.  Bob has by this time returned with three of Chatterton’s cops…and since this print of Jungle Queen is so murky I couldn’t tell you who played these guys even if they were Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis I’ll just refer to them in the transcribed dialogue as First Cop, Second Cop, etc.

BOB: I’m beginning to think Captain Drake expected me back and didn’t want to be questioned…
FIRST COP: Or his crew either, sir…
BOB: Where’s your other man?
SECOND COP: Tom went below, sir…
BOB: Oh…well, I’ll join him…you two stay here…my friends were on this tub…and if we find Drake, I think we’ll find them with him…

Well…Third Cop has been identified as “Tom,” so he gets a name after all.  (By the way, while this was all going on…Drake was snuggled in a hidey-hole, eavesdropping on the exchange.)

BOB: Any luck?
TOM: None, sir…not a sign of anything wrong anywhere…
BOB: Have you looked around this cabin?
TOM: Just coming to do it, sir…
BOB: Better take a squint aft…I’ll look around here…

“Not necessary, sir…I took care of that before we left.”  So Bob starts shaking down Drake’s quarters, unaware that both Chuck and Pamela are bound and gagged and stowed away in the secret compartment under the captain’s bunk.  Curiously, Bob even gives the bunk a going-over and for a brief second, when he lifts up the mattress, it looks like he can actually see where his two friends are (as I said before, it’s a really muddy print) but he soon re-straightens the mattress and continues on his merry way.  (I’d like to think he actually did see them there and then, realizing he would have to interact with annoying Chuck for six more chapters, decided it would be more prudent to have them stay put.)  Until he comes across…this…


Now—I sort to have to explain the significance of Bob finding this little trinket seeing as how I glossed over it in Chapter 1 (because I thought the dialogue exchange between he and Chuck was pretty inconsequential).  The writers established from the get-go that Chuck is an astrology nut, obsessed with the charts and all, and since Bob has found what looks to be a Sagittarius medal (an in-joke referring to their initial plans in the first chapter “to go hunting”), he knows he’s on the right track!

BOB (to Tom, as he enters): This belongs to Mr. Kelly…he’s interested in astrology…that’s the sign of the Zodiac he was born under!
TOM: He’s not on this schooner, sir…not unless…he’s in the hold
BOB: You better have a look…
TOM: Yes, sir…

I see Bob is still giving orders to folks who don’t even work for him.  Bob returns topside to boss around the two other cops, telling Second Cop to start searching the hold since he found Chuck’s doodad.  Then there’s some more pointless expository—Bob mentions the business about the knife that killed Alan Courtney and First Cop hilariously asks: “That happened in the jungle, didn’t it, sir?”  (Bob: “Yes…it gave us our necessary connection between the Nazis and Drake.”)  When Second Cop reports that Tom has found nothing in the hold, Bob then decides the four of them will “get off this scow”…but that they’ll post a lookout on shore to keep watch for any suspicious activities in the interim.


We need a change of scenery, and this next screen cap provides it with a radio tower that made me burst out laughing (“Radio Free Nazi is on the air!”).  It’s stationed outside the hideout of our jovial Nazi pal Lang, who with the help of dedicated radio engineer Weber (Louis Adlon), is talking to Dr. Bork by secret-fireplace-telephone.  The call is cut short when Weber reports an incoming message from Berlin, and there is a quick cut to Bork and her ingenuous “foreman” Denker (Walter Bonn) at the Nazi Agricultural Farm, aka Bork’s headquarters.

BORK (on the phone): Very well…I’ll wait until you decode it… (She hangs up the receiver, then addresses Denker) Weber just received another message…
DENKER: Suppose we started the war?
BORK: So much the better!

I thought Elise’s attitude here was kind of funny—“Stupid man…we’re Nazis…war is what we do…it’s all we do!”  Well, the action drifts back to Lang and Weber in the radio room, and after intercepting the message:

WEBER: It’s only a routine…

“Who’s on First?”  “Slowly I Turn?”

WEBER: What does Dr. Bork want now?
LANG: Well, Drake is holding one of the Americans and the English girl…the other American got out of the jungle and suspects Drake
WEBER: I never liked Drake…is he reliable?
LANG: Bork doesn’t feel she can trust him any too far…
WEBER: What about the ship and the Mausers?
LANG: Oh, the rifles are safe…but Chatterton knows more about Godac than Bork thought he did…
WEBER: You mean he knows where we are holding Godac?

What’s this “we” business, Aryan man?  You’re just a guy sitting in front of a radio console all day…you’re not doing any of the heavy lifting.

LANG: No…but he’s found out why Godac is so important…and Bork wants immediate action to forestall any move of the British…and I’m going to give it to her!

Oh…there’s an image I did not need burned onto my retinas.  With an optical wipe, we find Lang meeting up with Maati (Napoleon Simpson), the pliable Tongghili native who is doing his bidding in a desperate effort to become “judge of the tribes” and more well-liked despite his habit of chewing food with his mouth open.

LANG: All right, Maati…I’m taking you to the place where I’m keeping Godac a prisoner…then you’ll rescue him…
MAATI: Then Godac will like me…make me the next judge and tell me the secret of the Sword of Tongu…then I will kill Godac…

“Tell me about the rabbits, George…”

LANG: That’s what I want…with the aid of Germany, you’ll rule the people of the middle jungle…how about this mystery queen, Lothel?

Yeah—how about that mystery queen Lothel?  Because as Maati and Lang continue with more dialogue padding, the mystery monarch herownself (Ruth Roman) has turned up in the cave where Lang and his confederates (George Eldredge, Peter Helmers) are holding the all-powerful judge of the Tongghili tribes hostage—give it up for Godac!

LOTHEL: Now do you believe that I am a true friend of all warrior Tongghili?
GODAC: Yes, Lothel…I’m sure of you now…
LOTHEL: Then you and I can save your people from these strangers…and from Maati, the traitor
GODAC (taken aback by this revelation): Maati…?
LOTHEL: These men plan to let Maati save you…that is why you were brought here…they believe that you’ll be grateful, and that you will choose Maati to succeed you…
GODAC: Maati will never learn now where the Sword of Tongu is hidden…

“He’s dead to me!  I will break him…he’ll never work in this jungle again!”

GODAC: What is it that you want me to do?
LOTHEL: Bargain with these strangers…
GODAC: Oh, I see…

I wish I did.  If Lothel is that much of a badass, you’d think she’d have these Nazis rounded up by now so that we can all go home.

GODAC: …you’re playing for more time…to do what?
LOTHEL: To get your people and bring them here…so that they can save you…see for themselves who are enemies and who are traitors!

Speaking of traitors, Lang and Maati start making their way up the cliff face to where the cave entrance sits—and I’ll bet the Nazis are wishing they had thought to install an elevator before choosing this particular hideout.  They’re accompanied by Noma (Emmett Smith) and a small army of warriors, who are all told by Lang to wait there “until one of my men signals, then you come and get Godac.”  Lang then enters the cave where his men are playing cards (it’s often difficult to pass the time when you’re engaged in mundane activities as trying to takeover Africa, you know).

GODAC (as Lang and his men enter): Mr. Lang…I’ve been expecting you…
LANG: Expecting me?  Why?
GODAC: I’m impatient to leave here…and I know that now you’ll let Maati take me back to Tong-Gara…
LANG (irritated): Did you two fools talk loud enough so that he could hear you?
HEINKEL: We’ve never said a word in these caves…either about Maati or the plan…
GODAC: They speak the truth…

Check and mate, you Nazi bastards!

LANG: Well, in that case, Godac—you’re going to be sorry that you let me know you can read minds…
GODAC: There’s no need to torture me yet…
LANG: What do you mean?
GODAC: I’ve decided to tell Maati the secret…
LANG: You’ll tell Maati where the Sword of Tongu is hidden?  Why?

“Yes, I know it’s been my plan all along…but when you really stop to think about it…why would you do that?  Maati’s an idiot…”

GODAC: To save my life and my power…I will choose Maati to succeed me as you desire…
LANG: You mean you’ll cooperate with us fully?  Is that it?
GODAC: That is the bargain I offer you…

“It’s just that I didn’t think it would be that easy!”  Lang agrees to the arrangement, and so it’s back to Chatterton’s office, where his assistant Rogers (Cyril Delevanti) rushes in to report a shortage of paper clips.  Chatterton has no time for this, as he is still coordinating the Kelly-Courtney rescue attempt on the phone.

CHATTERTON (on the phone): Well, send out every available man…there’s no doubt that Mr. Kelly and Miss Courtney are in the hands of Nazi agents!  (He hangs up the receiver) That was Milo…up river…
ROGERS: Mr. Eliot doesn’t think they’ve left Tambosa, sir…he’s gone to search the Silver Star again…
CHATTERTON: Why, the man’s mad!

“And come to think of it…so am I!  I’m the Commissioner here…I should be calling the shots!”

ROGERS: Mr. Eliot is convinced, sir, that Mr. Kelly and Miss Courtney have been hidden by Nazis somewhere aboard the schooner…

“And he’s issued orders to mobilize all available manpower to prove his point.  Kind of overstepping his bounds, if you don’t mind my saying so, sir…”  On board the Silver Star, we find the resourceful Captain Drake inside one of the ship’s storage spaces working on this little baby—a honkin’ big automatic rifle that will gun down the first idiot foolish enough to activate it by tripping on a wire he has concealed in a companionway.  There is then a cut to an establishing shot of Dr. Bork approaching the vessel, then back to Drake as he’s opening the secret panel to the space under his bunk that has provided a DIY prison cell for the still bound and gagged Chuck and Pam.

DRAKE: Well, my hearties…a bit stiff, huh?  “Drake’s coffin” I call your little nest…may have to bury you right where you are at that…

There are footsteps heard in the ship’s companionway, and Drake reveals to his prisoners his diabolical scheme involving the trip-wire and the rifle.  “Drake don’t let no flies on him, no sir,” he tells them gleefully…though from the looks of that filthy outfit he’s wearing I don’t know how else he could keep them away.  As he closes the secret panel, we watch Dr. Bork make her way down the passage until she reaches the wire…and then she gingerly steps over it to avoid the mayhem that would result.



BORK (as she enters Drake’s quarters): I’m glad Tambosa Tim warned me about the trip-wire…
DRAKE: Oh…so am I…but they’re watching the Silver Star from shore…somebody’ll be after you sure…
BORK: The guard has been removed…how did you get back here?
DRAKE: A good captain never leaves his ship…does he now?  I had an empty packing case ready for emergency…

I had originally planned to insert a Costa Concordia joke here…but comedy is tragedy plus time.

BORK (pointing to the “coffin”): Are they in there?
DRAKE: No place else…
BORK: I’ll speak with them later…
(As Drake and Bork walk over to his desk, inside the space, Chuck frantically struggles to loosen his bonds)
DRAKE: Oh, I say question them here…kill them, but let me join your men in the jungle…
BORK: I don’t want the ship abandoned…you will prove to Chatterton that it is Nazi…and may lead to the discovery that you’ve been running guns on her for the natives…
DRAKE: I can’t face the authorities, Dr. Bork…I don’t think they’ll believe me!
BORK: Is that the knife that lead them here?
DRAKE (looking at the knife, then removing it from its sheath): That’s the ripper…

Studying the knife, Bork responds after a moment of reflection: “It killed Courtney…it might as well be used to kill his niece.”  Pleased that Bork is seeing things his way, Drake goes over to unlock the “coffin”…and Bork buries the knife in his back where no one will think to look for it.

Topside, we find Bob and one of Chatterton’s men revealing that the guard that was, according to Bork, “removed” was actually shooed away on their orders in the hopes that Drake would return to his craft (though he was on the Silver Star the entire time).  So Bob heads down to Drake’s quarters as Bork furiously tries to get the “coffin” open.  Making his way down the companionway, clumsy Bob trips on the wire and a hail of bullets greets him…

"...in this business there's only one law you gotta follow to keep out of trouble: Do it first, do it yourself, and keep on doing it..."


You’re going to have to brace yourselves for this revelation…because I know there are a number of people who are simply not going to believe this.  The very first time I saw the 1932 gangster film classic Scarface—which celebrates its 80th anniversary today—was on the USA cable network.  Honest to my grandma, I’m not making this up.  Once upon a time, the channel whose notoriety today resides in how many Law & Order: Special Victims Unit or NCIS marathons they can run in the span of a week actually showed older movies: among the TDOY faves that I first caught there were Cat People (1942) and Targets (1968).  (And a fistful of features that rarely turn up on any outlet today: Taking Off [1971], Your Three Minutes are Up [1973],  Citizens Band [1977, aka Handle With Care] and—as Bill Conrad used to say on Rocky & His Friends—“a host of others.)

Despite my enthusiasm for the other two movies in the “Gangster Trilogy”—Little Caesar (1931) and The Public Enemy (1931)—Scarface is my favorite of the three; a work of intense thematic complexity and good old-fashioned pre-Code naughtiness that introduced me to two of my favorite unsung actresses, Karen Morley and (heavy sigh) Ann Dvorak.  I leapt at the opportunity to toast the film at Edward Copeland on Film…and More, so while I’m putting the finishing touches on today’s riveting installment of Jungle Queen (1945), I invite you to saunter on over and have a look at your leisure.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

B-Western Wednesday: Brand of Fear (1949)


One of my Facebook saddle pals offered up this editorial comment on last week’s review of Sons of New Mexico (1949): “Gene Autry...UGH.”  I told him that I’d be sure to warn him when the next Autry flick was spotted on Thrilling Days of Yesteryear’s B-Western horizon…but I’m thinking that it might not be a bad idea to give him a heads-up that today’s movie features the poor man’s Gene Autry, B-western/country music legend Jimmy Wakely.  Jimmy actually appeared with “America’s favorite cowboy” in one film, 1942’s Heart of the Rio Grande, but today he’s probably best remembered as Gene-Lite in a series of 28 oaters he made for Monogram between 1944 and 1949.  Commenting in retrospect on the comparisons between him and Autry, Wakely observed: “Everybody reminds somebody of someone else until they are somebody.  And I had rather be compared to Gene Autry than anyone else.  Through the grace of God and Gene Autry, I got a career.”

Born James Clarence Wakeley on February 16, 1914 in Mineola, Arkansas (he dropped the second “e” when he became a teenager), Jimmy fulfilled his aspirations for a singing career in 1937, when he formed a musical aggregation known as The Bell Boys (named after their sponsor, Bell Clothing).  This group underwent a few permutations but generally, as a rule, was known as The Jimmy Wakely Trio.  (One of the members of the group at one time was country singer Johnny Bond, who would have his own successful music career as well as roles in films and on TV.  His biggest hit was the novelty tune Ten Little Bottles in 1965.)  The man to whom Wakely would later be compared, Gene Autry, hired the group to appear on his Melody Ranch radio program in 1940, after seeing them on a tour of Oklahoma in 1937.

It was Autry’s rival Roy Rogers who gave Jimbo a chance to break into the movies; his film debut was in the “King of the Cowboy’s” Saga of Death Valley in 1939, and after that he and the Trio made appearances in B-westerns featuring Hopalong Cassidy, Charles “The Durango Kid” Starrett, Don “Red” Barry, the Range Busters and Johnny Mack Brown and Tex Ritter.  With Song of the Range in 1944, he graduated to his own starring series of Westerns for Monogram, with solid support from such sidekicks as Lew “Lasses” White, John “Dusty” James, and the straightest serial hero of them all, Dennis Moore.  With 1947’s Ridin’ Down the Trail, Jimmy inherited Dub “Cannonball” Taylor as his saddle pal (Taylor had previously backed up Starrett, Barry, Russell Hayden and “Wild” Bill Elliott) and the two men appeared in a total sixteen features.  I had thought about looking at Oklahoma Blues (1948) for today’s choice of oater, but one of my two go-to compadres for the B-Western genre (the other is Chuck Anderson at The Old Corral), Boyd Magers at Western Clippings, has singled out Brand of Fear (1949) as being one of Wakely’s best.

Jimmy plays himself in a stirring sagebrush saga that finds longtime B-Western player Tom London as “Black” Jack Flint, the tough sheriff of an Arizona town called Oreville…presumably because there’s a lot of that precious metal about.  (London, by the way, played more lawmen in movie westerns than most of us have had hot dinners.)  Black Jack has coaxed his ward, Anne Lamont (Gail Davis), into taking a job as the new schoolmarm in Oreville…though I’m not entirely certain why this is the case because the only other female in the cast of this movie is Davis—and if what my father says is true, I don’t know where the heck the kids will come from.  (Okay, I just gave that a little more thought…and maybe I’m sorry I did so.)

Trouble starts in Oreville when a tough hombre named Jeffers (Myron Healey) shows up in town, and Black Jack runs his butt out of that burg faster than you can sing Streets of Laredo.  Jeffers, it would appear, is stoogeing for a guy named Tom Slade (William Ruhl), an outlaw who has designs on shaking down Oreville because he can’t find a legitimate line of work.  Slade and another one of his goons, Butch Keeler (Holly Bane), eventually arrive in Oreville and there’s a confrontation between Flint and Slade in the local saloon, thanks to blacksmith Cal Derringer (Marshall Reed).  You see, Derringer’s actually running a racket of his own in that sleepy little hamlet, but he has the common courtesy to do it on the fringes of town.  Slade just wants to come and foul his nest, and he can’t have that. 

Flint shoots Slade and goes after Keeler (with Jimmy’s help) and as Slade is drawing his final rations, he tells Derringer that he knew Flint when he was Jack Lamont, a notorious outlaw who’s been wanted nearly 20 years for the murder of a lawman.  The good news is—Flint is innocent of the murder; it was actually Slade who did the deed.  (It is also revealed that Anne is Jack’s daughter, whom he sent east as a child so that she would be free of the taint from her outlaw pa’s name.)  Derringer quickly surmises that Slade’s information could come in handy in his own racket, and so he speeds Slade along toward his dirt nap.  Later, Cal tells Black Jack that he knows he’s innocent…he knows about Anne…and he knows that if Jack knows what’s good for him, he’ll allow Cal to depend on him from time to time for “favors.”

Cal and his gang are in the process of robbing a stagecoach when Jimmy and his trusty sidekick Cannonball (Dub) put the smackdown on that little plan.  They manage to capture one of Cal’s gang members, Jed Mailor (Boyd Stockman), and naturally Jed is going to have to be set free, explains Derringer to Marshal Jack, otherwise Anne is going to get an earful.  Later, as Jed is making good on his attempt to flee his jail environs, he’s caught by Jimmy but Jed is shot before he can reveal who he’s working for.  When Cal gets word from the stagecoach driver that another important shipment is going out (a $15,000 payroll) he and his men once again go into action, and Flint helplessly stands by and allows Cal to ride off with the swag.

Jimmy and Cannonball have the horse sense to let C.B. trail the mount of one of the bandits shot and killed during the pursuit, who leads him back to Cal’s stable.  They then question Cal, only to learn that the horse originally belonged to Derringer before he sold it to the dead bandit guy…and he conveniently produces a bill of sale in the crook’s saddlebags.  Jimmy, keeping his cards close to his chest, is still not convinced Cal isn’t involved.  Meanwhile, Flint is relieved of his position by town head (not a banker, and not in cahoots with Cal, surprisingly) Frank Martin (William Bailey), and Flint goes to confront Cal because he no longer cares about his outlaw past; he won’t put his friends in jeopardy.  Cal and his henchies are getting ready to dispose of Black Jack when Jimmy and Cannonball arrive on the scene, engage in a spirited round of fisticuffs, and then end up giving Cal his just desserts by shooting him.  (As Cal prepares to ride off to the corral in the sky, he clears Jack’s name…and they all live happily ever after.)

Maybe I was expecting a little more from Brand of Fear than it was capable of delivering (Boyd gives it 4 stars, and I think that’s a little generous) but I thought in the long run that despite some good casting the movie isn’t something you need to rush right out and see.  I was amused by the fact that in this picture Jimmy inherited Gene Autry’s favorite leading lady in Davis, but I’ve seen her do more memorable work in other pictures.  London is solid but unremarkable as Black Jack, and though I am well aware that Marshall Reed had a lengthy and prosperous career in films and TV (he was one of the stars of the TV version of radio’s The Lineup, also known as San Francisco Beat) I can’t help but scratch my head in amazement as to why (he’s more wooden than Kaw-Liga).  I take a backseat to no one in my love and admiration for Dub Taylor (“I always did say that whorehouse was a gold mine!”) but if Dub didn’t have the material (and he doesn’t here), there’s only so much he can do.

The highlights of Fear are two musical numbers performed by Wakely (with an off-screen assist from Ray Whitley), one of them the Sons of the Pioneers standard, Cool Water and the other a tune written by SOP Tim Spencer, There’s a Rainbow Over the Range.  And with the writing on the wall that the TV western was going to sound the death knell as far as movie B-oaters were concerned, Jimmy went back to performing, racking up huge hits in the process.  Wakely was the artist who originally had the big hit with the Eddie Dean-penned One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart) in 1948 (I forgot to mention it in the write-up for Dean’s Check Your Guns) and he also scored another country chart topper that same year, I Love You So Much It Hurts.  But the following year (about the same time as Fear’s release), Wakely recorded a duet with pop diva Margaret Whiting that hit the top spot on both the country and pop charts, Slippin’ Around.  The duo racked up an additional eight country smashes between 1949 and 1951, two of them also landing in the pop Top Ten (I’ll Never Slip Around Again and A Bushel and a Peck).  Wakely finished out his career wearing many hats—TV star, Grand Ole Opry performer, record producer, comic book icon(!)—before his death in 1982, and though Brand of Fear was described by All Movie’s Hans J. Wollstein as a “tightly packaged piece of Western hokum” it’s as good an introduction as any to a certified Western movie legend.