In the world of the B-Western, there are only so many plots
to go around. You can only have a
certain number of times when unscrupulous wealthy people want to rape the
people’s land for precious minerals (or just take their ranches regardless of
whether there’s gold, copper, silver, etc. present) or fighting Indians on the
warpath or thwarting stagecoach hold-ups.
Occasionally, filmmakers who churned out oaters would get a little
creative…and a popular diversion would be building the movie plot around the making of a B-Western.
The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™ recently aired Scarlet River (1933) as part of their
month-long tribute to Myrna Loy; this Tom Keene programmer features our hero as
a cowboy actor who comes to the aid of real-life ranchers, and there are very
brief cameos from RKO stars like Myrna, Bruce Cabot, Rochelle Hudson, and Joel
McCrea. A better example is a fun little
Roy Rogers vehicle, Under California Stars (1948), in which Roy not only plays
himself (he returns to his ranch after wrapping up shooting on his latest
feature) but is joined by the likes of fellow Republic co-workers Monte Hale,
Allan “Rocky” Lane, and Don “Red” Barry.
One of the Gene Autry features I managed to snag during our
Starz/Encore/Movieplex “freeview” was The
Big Show (1936); this western casts “America’s favorite singing cowboy” as
both himself and a silver screen star named Tom Ford. Gene doubles for Ford’s stunts in his
pictures, and is pressed upon to keep impersonating the actor at the 1936 Texas
Centennial celebration when Tom takes a fishing vacation. Show
is an entertaining little romp—one of the best early Autrys—though it does
suffer from that irritating quality present in Gene’s films when the narrative must
come to a screeching halt so that our hero (or someone else in the cast) can
warble a song.
Mack V. Wright is credited as the director of The Big Show, and interestingly enough
served as the production manager of a movie that’s quite similar to Show: 1937’s Hollywood Round-Up. Round-Up features Grant Withers as
Grant Drexel, the box office champ of Crown Pictures, a studio that specializes
in cranking out oaters. Though Drexel is
the idol of many a kid who enjoys a Saturday matinee, in real life he could use
some coaching in the social skills department…because he’s a bit of a
prick. When Carol Stephens (Helen
Twelvetrees), an on-the-wane star is loaned out to Crown because she’s “box
office poison” at her home studio, Drexel starts taking a few liberties during
one of their love scenes.
Grant is soon set straight on this matter by Buck Kennedy
(Buck Jones), the genuine article when it comes to cowboys…and a man who’s
forced to demean himself as Drexel’s double to keep groceries on the table and
oats in his horse Silver’s feedbag.
Kennedy has a thing for Carol himself, particularly after befriending
her younger brother Dickie (Dickie Jones), and the romantic rivalry between
Buck and Grant for Carol’s attentions eventually comes to a boil, prompting “the
star” to have his stunt man fired. Buck
is only temporarily in the unemployment line, however; he’s hired by a rival
studio to appear in their production…which includes filming a hold-up on the
town bank. The only problem is: the
hold-up is real—the company are really a gang of outlaws, and they’ve left Buck
holding the bag!
 |
| I like Dickie Jones, so I was kind of sorry to see him in The Grey Bar Hotel. (Why don't these things ever happen to She Who Must Not Be Named?) |
I really believe Hollywood
Round-Up to be a superior picture to The
Big Show…primarily because there’s no musical numbers to slow down the
action, and primarily because star Buck Jones is one of the most likable
individuals to ever sit tall in the saddle.
Buck was one of the major assets in our Serial Saturdays presentation
of Riders of Death Valley (1941), a
chapter play that paved the way (along with the 1941 Columbia serial White Eagle) for the former silent
movie hero to appear in a series of Monogram oaters known as The Rough Riders franchise. (Jones was one of the many victims—close to
500 in all—who perished in the infamous Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston on
November 28, 1942.) Jones has been
described as the middle point between Tom Mix and William S. Hart, and I find myself
becoming more and more of a fan with each movie I see him in. He has a wonderful sense of self-deprecating
humor, and makes for a first-rate sagebrush hero without resorting to the moralizing of many
of his peers.
TCM ran Hollywood
Round-Up as part of a day-long feting of Helen Twelvetrees, who is also one
of the movie’s pluses. The scene where
Helen’s Carol Stephens is told by Federal studio boss Lew Wallace (Eddie Kane)
that he’s loaning her out to Crown is very well-done (Carol is visibly upset,
and Twelvetrees nails it without being mawkish), and though despondent at
first, Carol demonstrates she’s a trouper by showing her professionalism and
making lemonade out of her situation. (I’ll
take a moment here to remind folks that if you’re interested in learning more
about Ms. Twelvetrees you should check out fellow CMBA member Cliff Aliperti’s
biography Helen
Twelvetrees: Perfect Ingénue—available as an
actual book or e-book at an Amazon near you. Yes, I could use a check this month.) Twelvetrees also has a solid chemistry with
her leading man.
Hollywood Round-Up
was comedian Shemp Howard’s first film for Columbia. (Shemp plays Oscar Bush, the assistant
director, and generates much mirth despite Scott Clevenger’s dissenting
opinion.) Howard was so well-received in
Round-Up that he appeared in an
additional Buck Jones vehicle, Headin’
East (1937) …and that started him on his long association with the studio—appearing
in Andy Clyde shorts (often as Andy’s obnoxious brother-in-law) and The Glove Slingers comedies before
starring in his own series of two-reelers and then replacing brother Curly in
The Three Stooges. I am not going to lie
to you: I DVR’d this film solely on Shemp’s participation, and I’ll freely
admit that I’m fond of it because he’s always welcome ‘round Rancho Yesteryear. But Round-Up
turned out to be a pleasant surprise, and it features familiar Columbia players
in Kane and Monte Collins (perfect as Withers’ fast-talking agent).
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