We’re back!
Jim and Tombstone give
Davis and his fake deputies a thorough beating, then head back to meet the
wagons.
“The Wolf” and his
pack, attempting to run down Jim and Tombstone, force them into the teeth of a
terrific electrical storm in a wild mountain canyon and…
I know, I know, I’ve been away from Serial Saturdays for a long time; the last chapter was covered back in early January. But the screen capture above kind of explains why it took me a while to get back into the spirit of these things since the Chapter 13 cliffhanger would seem to suggest that there are supernatural forces at work in the serial world; the Chapter Play Gods have been angered at how long it’s taken Riders of Death Valley (1941) to unfold, and have meted out their vengeance accordingly. (I’ll bet they’re as sick of hearing Fingal’s Cave as I am, too.)
So after having struggled with the metaphysical implications
of such a chapter ending, I have overcome my crisis of faith and am prepared to
continue…because, believe me, no one is more anxious to quickly put this thing
to rest than I am. (And I’ll tell you
right now: while I’m still trying to decide which serial will be the next in
the spotlight—I’m torn between revisiting The
Black Widow or checking out one I’ve not seen, Government Agents vs. Phantom Legion—it’s not going to be one that I have to endure for fifteen chapters.)
 |
| "Avert your eyes!" |
PANCHO: Don’t you know the
lightning come from upstairs don’t care who it hits?
JIM: I know all about that…but what
I’m worried about is how we’re gonna get that ore across with the bridge out!
This does seem to present a problem. Well, the amigos do a “let’s went” and a fade
finds us back in the office of Joseph Kirby (James Blaine), the ineffectual
head of operations who engages in dickish villainy because he’s so darn good at
it. He discusses his latest failed
scheme with his second-in-command, the pathetic Rance Davis (Monte Blue).
KIRBY: No…tear up that fake warrant…if
it got in the wrong hands, it’s be pretty hard for all of us… (Rance starts to look through his pockets) What’s the
matter?
DAVIS: I guess I’ve lost it!
KIRBY (standing up): You sure
Benton didn’t get a hold of it?
DAVIS: Well, he might have…when I was knocked out…
Well…here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into. Outside Kirby’s saloon, we observe Wolf and
his gang riding up…and the six men walk into the saloon, whereupon the boss
orders them to “Get yourself a drink.”
Wolf then takes Butch with him inside Kirby’s office.
WOLF: No…we were right on his tail
at Mud Creek when lightning wrecked the bridge and cut us off…
DAVIS: Lightning this time…eh?
WOLF: Yeah…things do happen, don’t they?
There seems to be just a soupçon of animosity between Davis
and Wolf throughout this serial…and yet the filmmakers convey this ever so
subtly.
KIRBY: Wolf—if you listened to me once in a while…
WOLF: Well, what have you got to
offer?
KIRBY: Uh…I don’t know…
I hurt myself laughing at that exchange. (“Ah…I got nothin’, big guy.”) But all are in agreement that they have to do
something to stop Benton. The scene then
shifts back to our heroes, who are still stymied with the dilemma of getting
the ore to the smelter “without anyone getting wise.” Providence arrives in the form of a grizzled
old prospector who answers to “Cactus Pete”; Pete is played by serial stalwart
Ernie Adams, whom you might know from Raiders
of Ghost City (1944) (the subject of several posts at the award-winning
blog of my BBFF, She Blogged by
Night) as Hans Plattner (a.k.a. Bill Jasper) and also from Brenda
Starr, Reporter (1945) as Charlie the Stoolie.
CACTUS: Say, Jim…I heared you struck it rich and I was thinkin’ on another grubstake…
PANCHO: Yeah…but I don’t think you
get no more grubstake from Mister Jim…
JIM: I haven’t seen you for a long
time, Cactus…
TOMBSTONE: Where ya been hidin’
yourself?
CACTUS: Well, I’ve been down on
Flat Creek…say…I thought I’d struck
it rich when I found these…
Cactus Pete pulls a sack out of his pocket and shows it to
the Riders…the contents comprise some pieces of gold ore that Pete hypothesizes
might have dropped by another prospector (“Found a skeleton close by, so…I
reckon it was him”).
JIM: Hey, Cactus…you didn’t show
those to anyone else, did you?
CACTUS: No, si-ree…I didn’t want to
start no stampede where there weren’t no gold now…
PANCHO: Hey, you know I think if
you started stampedes…everybody gonna leave Panamint, then we go get the gold
with the wagons…
“Listen, I think you got something there, Pancho,” responds
Tombstone enthusiastically. “There’s
something that comes out of that adobe brain of yours besides cucarachas.” (Oh, brother…the racism…it
burns…) So Jim, the brains of the outfit
(snicker), devises a plan whereupon Cactus will mosey on into town and show the
quartz to Kirby. Benton gives Pete a
note to give to Judge Knox, and emphasizes that Kirby and Kirby alone is the
only one who should be made aware of the quartz…because all they need to do is
make certain that Kirby and his men are the ones to ride out of town. Pancho (Leo Carrillo) volunteers to follow
Cactus into Panamint, and Jim suggests he take Borax Bill (Guinn “Big Boy”
Williams) along as well.
Back in Panamint, Wolf has devised a cunning plan to rid
everyone of Jim Benton and his riders once and for all…and it’s only taken him
fourteen chapters to do it.
WOLF: We’ll trap ‘em at Funeral
Pass…
KIRBY: We’ve got to be sure this time…if you fail again, Benton
will get his gold ore into town…
WOLF: We won’t fail…Butch will take half the men, I’ll take the other…we’ll go at
‘em from both ends of the pass…where there ain’t room on the trail to turn a burro around…
There is a knock on the door, and Trigger (Jack Rockwell),
one of Reade’s goons, brings Cactus in for a chinwag.
KIRBY: Whaddya want?
CACTUS: I think I hit on somethin’
big, Kirby! And I thought maybe you’d
like to grubstake me…
KIRBY: Get out…you think I have
nothing to do but finance you desert rats?
WOLF: Waitaminnit…see what he’s
got…
So Cactus pulls out the quartz and shows it to Kirby, who
takes the bait like a mouse with a Gouda addiction. He reveals the “location” to Kirby, and Kirby
promises him a stake of $100 plus fifty percent of what they dig out…providing
he keeps everything on the Q.T. Another
moment of unintentional hilarity occurs when Kirby threatens Pete: “If you
do…you’ll never prospect again.”
“Trigger,” adds Kirby, “tell the barkeep to give him all the
liquor he wants.” Okay, new plan,
everybody!
KIRBY: The richest I ever saw anywhere…
WOLF: We gotta move fast on
this…I’ll get the boys ridin’ to Dry Creek and stake out Blue Gulch from one
end to the other!
DAVIS: What about Benton?
KIRBY: Benton can wait…
WOLF: His wagons are still plenty miles from town…come on, Butch…
Shouldn’t that be “Come on, Woim”? Knowing that the only way Benton can pay off
Kirby’s note involves Jim’s ability to get advance money from Judge Knox via
his ore, Kirby decides to pay the ethically-challenged magistrate a visit at
the Panamint Savings and Loan. In the
meantime, Wolf and Davis gather up the crew to head for Dry Creek—and as the
pack heads out of town, they are watched from a safe distance by Pancho and
Borax Bill.
PANCHO: Hey…that Wolf and his men
are in big hurry to get to Dry Creek, no?
I guess that joke that Cactus Pete he make worked, eh?
BORAX: Sure looks like it…we’d
better hightail it out of here and tell Jim!
PANCHO: Let’s went!
Back at First Panamint Trust, Kirby enters and presents
Judge Knox (James Guilfoyle) with the fruits of Cactus Pete’s labor.
KNOX: Yep! Jim’s got good
security…and if the quartz he’s bringing in measures up to the sample he showed
me…you’ll get your money, all right…
KIRBY: That’s just the point,
Judge…I don’t want him to pay me yet…on
account of another deal I’d like to make with him…thought I could persuade you
to hold off a little…
“That’s why I came in the front door with this wheelbarrow
filled with money…”
KNOX: You did, eh? How?
KIRBY: By cutting you in on the
richest strike ever made in Death Valley…look… (He pulls the sack out of his
suit pocket) Did you ever see gold ore like this before?
KNOX (examining the quartz) Yep…saw
some like this this morning…same ore exactly…
KIRBY: You did? Well, who showed it to
you?
KNOX: Jim Benton…this ore’s from
Jim Benton’s Lost Aztec Mine…and it’s
the sample on which I offered to advance him money…
Ha ha! Ya burnt,
Kirby! To add insult to injury, Cactus
Pete staggers into the bank (of course he’d be staggering—he’s no doubt drank
his fill and then some at Kirby’s watering hole), wanting to cash the $100
check Kirby gave him for the grubstake.
Kirby threatens to add a few pounds of lead to the “old reprobate’s”
frame but is warned off by Knox, who asks: “Did Jim Benton put one over on
you?” This is rather a curious
development insomuch as earlier in Riders,
Knox appeared to be siding with Kirby when he refused to lift a finger to help
late bank president Lafe Hogan (Jack Clifford) hold onto his financial
institution. There are several different
conclusions we might reach from this development: either Knox is several chess moves ahead of Kirby, scheming to take over the Lost Aztec Mine for his own evil judicial purposes, or he's had a Road-to-Damascus conversion and has renounced his wicked magistrate ways. (Or maybe he just didn't like Lafe Hogan in the first place. Which would seem to make the most sense, since he took over his friggin' bank even before the body was cold.)
Judge Knox tells Cactus that Kirby’s check is legitimate and
instructs one of the bank’s underlings to get the grizzled old prospector his
$100. But also in the same breath, he
advises Pete to “make yourself scarce in Panamint for a while.” Cactus then gives Knox the note from Jim.
Kirby returns to his saloon, pissed off to the max, and
spies Trigger sitting at a table. The
two men go into Kirby’s office—I’m guessing because he doesn’t want the regular
barflies to hear the instructions he’s going to give Trigger. (Which doesn’t make much sense—most of them
are three sheets to the wind anyway.)
KIRBY: Everything! That strike of
Cactus’ was a fake to get my men out
of town!
TRIGGER: Fake? Why, that quartz Cactus had looked real to me…
KIRBY: Aw, shut up and listen…you
ride to Dry Creek…overtake Wolf and the men…tell the Wolf we’re going through
with that attack at Funeral Pass as we planned!
I’ll have some men there to meet him…
TRIGGER: But they got too long a
start! Besides, that horse of mine is
lame—I could never catch ‘em…
KIRBY: All right, take my horse!
“Don’t bother me with details! Honestly!”
The scene then shifts back to Benton and his Merry Men as they join up
with Pancho and Borax; Pancho is still laughing at the prank that they pulled
on Kirby as if it was the greatest in the history of practical jokes.
BORAX: Sure did! We seen the Wolf and his pack hightail it out
of town toward Dry Creek…
JIM: Good! Then we can take a chance and take this stuff
through Funeral Pass…
MARY: But, Jim…if that gang ever
finds out that poor ol’ Cactus double crossed them his life won’t be worth an
ounce of fool’s gold…
TOMBSTONE: Hey, don’t you worry
about that old desert rat…he’ll be harder to find than the gold he’s huntin’ for…
Pete ought to hide in a bathhouse…they’d never think to look
for him there. So as Jim and the Riders
continue into town, we shift to a scene where Wolf and his men ride into a
clearing…and a split second later, Trigger comes riding up after firing off a
few rounds to get their attention. If
Trigger was able to catch up to that group in such a short amount of time
riding Kirby’s horse…maybe Kirby should consider entering that nag in a few races.
DAVIS: So he could get his wagons
into the smelter! We’d better head back
to Panamint…
TRIGGER: No…Kirby says to catch ‘em
at Funeral Pass…he’s sendin’ some other men to meet ya there…
WOLF: Right!
DAVIS: Well, I’ll head back to Panamint to make sure they’re on their way…
WOLF: Take care of yourself,
Davis…I’ll worry about ya…
Oh, that sounded
sincere. Well, as Jim and his band of
brothers head toward Funeral Pass (that cartographer had a macabre sense of
humor) they discover that said pass has been blocked by some
strategically-place rocks…so the wagon crew and riders get to movin’ them
boulders. No sooner has the stone
excavation started when eagle-eyed Mary (Jean Brooks) spots Wolf and his homies
off in the distance. That’s the serial’s
cue to do what it seemingly does best (and really, what it’s done throughout
the previous thirteen chapters): feature an indeterminately long chase sequence
with the two warring camps.
After a minute or two of some really smashing stock footage,
Wolf and the pack take up residence at a vantage point that looks remarkably similar
to the rocks they hid behind in the last chapter…
 |
| Last chapter. |
 |
| This chapter. |
PANCHO: Hey—the Wolf pack is come
from both sides…I wish I was twins!
BORAX: I don’t…one of you’s enough!
Pancho then gives him a few choice words in Spanish, and
though my college Español is a little rusty, I translated it as “You always
hurt the one you love.” Surveying the
fine kettle of fish they’re in, Jim feverishly formulates a plan:
JIM: Hey, Tomb…they’re too well-covered…suppose I go up in those rocks and smoke ‘em out for ya…
TOMBSTONE: What you’ll miss I’ll
get!
Can you smell what the rocks are cookin’? Must be the testosterone. Naturally, Jim’s retreat to the rocks does
not go unnoticed by the Wolf man:
WOLF: Benton’s headed for that ledge…he’ll pick us off like a lot of blackbirds…follow me, Trigger…
More shooting follows, but I did want to point out this
poignant scene…
…yes, despite no longer possessing a corporeal form, Ghost Smokey (Noah Beery, Jr.) continues to assist his comrades. What a great guy.
Okay, most of the remainder of the running time in this
thing is shooting and Jim’s scrambling to get a better position so that he can
go blackbird hunting. Wolf follows him,
and they eventually engage in a mano-a-mano
struggle that leads to this cliff…
…which presents Trigger with an ethical dilemma. What if he hits Wolf by mistake?
Well…Trigger never was really good at ethical dilemmas.
1 comment:
For what it's worth, I vote for "Govt. Agents." Fresh outrage is always more fun than the refried variety (even with Brother Theodore thrown in). Nice to be back in Death Valley, btw. Thanks, Ivan
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