Paroled - To Die (1938)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Fresh and Exciting

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

So let me see if I got this right - Doug Redfern (Bob Steele) is arrested for bank robbery, found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in the State Pen in just about the course of a single afternoon, and is paroled, oh, the NEXT DAY!!! I know these programmers liked to come in at just around an hour, but the story itself should probably have taken just a little longer.With some hundred plus films to his credit, Karl Hackett had just the perfect weasely look to be the main villain here. Not the first time one of these stories would have the town's banker rob his own establishment to try and pin it on the hero, but he really needed to put a little more thought into this.I know Bob Steele was a major cowboy film star dating back to the silent era, but I just don't detect the charisma. It probably didn't hurt that his father was director Robert North Bradbury. I guess he holds up his end of the picture well enough, but there's nothing here to write home about, even if I just did. Keep your eyes (and ears) open for futile comic sidekick Lucky Gosden (Horace Murphy). This is the only Western flick I've seen that utilizes that goofy sound effect gimmick that Lucky uses, which I'm sure was a hit with the matinée fans of the day.

A crooked banker, tired of having Bob Steele thwart his repeated attempts to steal from his own bank and angry that Steele stole the girl he was interested in, frames him and has him thrown in prison. Bob gets a very quick parole though (The phrase, "revolving door" comes to mind.), coming back to straighten things out, once and for all.Paroled - To Die (great title) isn't as atmospheric as other Republic B-westerns and has a few lapses in logic. However, it's fast-paced enough and Bob Steele, one of the most atypical in looks and mannerisms of all the Saturday matinée western stars, is always a lot of fun to watch.Some of the best scenes involve Steele's crashing of the town dance and his cat-and-mouse games with the bad guys, in the hills outside of town.

As Douglas Redfern, Bob Steele just isn't engaging. He's handsome and a decent actor (most times), but he doesn't have the energy or charisma that a role like this needs. Everybody else in the cast is extremely wooden, rarely doing anything other than recite their inane dialogue as though they were porposefully repressing any and all desire and ability to actually act. The camerawork is fairly static and in only a few scenes do the filmmakers attempt to show off the beautiful countryside the movie was shot in. So, yeah, the jokes aren't funny, some of the acting is (when it shouldn't be), the characters are as flat as cardboard cutouts and the story is predictable and slow. Only for Bob Steele fans and hard-core 1930s B-Western affectionados.