The Rough, Tough West (1952)

Really Surprised!

How sad is this?

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Columbia Pictures presents another wild and rough ridin' western. Directed by Ray Nazarro, western stalwart Charles Starrett plays his familiar role as the Durango Kid, but also has screen time as Steve Holden, a former Texas Ranger that moseys into a lawless mining town looking for his old saddle pal Big Jack Mahoney(Jock Mahoney). His old friend has turned bad, and is putting together a major land deal; he and his gang are gonna grab land while the grabbin' is good. When Holden realizes his former friend's criminal ways, as you already know, will change into his Durango Kid disguise hoping he can convince Big Jack it is not too late to get away from his henchmen and become a respected citizen.Other players: Bob Woodward, Boyd 'Red' Morgan, Carolina Cotton, Ethan Laidlaw and dependable funny guy Smiley Burnette. Music is provided by Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboys.

I don't imagine very many progressive liberals watch B Westerns from back in the day, but if they did, they'd be appalled by Carolina Cotton's opening number here - "You got to get a gun to go after your guy if you want a wedding ring"! That would be deemed politically incorrect on so many levels they'd probably try to shut down the oldies cable channels that show them. Please don't say anything.Well once again, Jack Mahoney shows up in a Durango Kid flick going by his own name. A couple of Sundays ago on the Antenna TV cable station he appeared in the 1952 oater "Smoky Canyon" doing the same as a good guy framed for murder. I always liked Mahoney as an actor and cowboy, he was very cool as TV's Yancy Derringer for one season in the late Fifties.This story opens with Mahoney hiring former Ranger buddy Steve Holden (Charles Starrett) as city marshal of Hard Rock, but as Steve soon learns, Mahoney's not the honorable guy he'd known in the past. Owning a large chunk of town and several local mines, Mahoney's not above charging the competition a toll fee to carry their ore freight to market. His henchmen even set fire to the town's newspaper for trying to expose his underhanded activities, but when a young boy Mahoney loves is badly injured in the fire, his change of heart helps Holden and his alter ego The Durango Kid save the day.Speaking of that fire, Smiley Burnette's on hand here as the town fire chief and I got a kick out of him trying to sound that large circular iron gong alarm to call out the fire truck. I say that because when I was a kid over a half century ago, my little town still had one of those on display, even though it had long since been replaced by a more modern system. Ah yes, the good old days.Say this was kind of interesting, but you had to pay attention to catch it. During Durango's first appearance in the story, he gets into a scrap with some outlaws and as one of them chases him up a long staircase, Durango shoots him. As the guy tumbles down the stairs, he holds onto his hat with both hands! I guess he didn't want it to get damaged! Helping Smiley out with the musical numbers this time out are Pee Wee King and His Golden West Cowboys, and Carolina Cotton, yodeler extraordinaire who's also Jack/Jock Mahoney's love interest. Carolina did tease a yodel in her song here, but to really get a flavor of her incredible range, you'll have to catch her in the Gene Autry flick "Apache Country". When I say her voice control is incredible, that's an understatement, you just have to hear it for yourself.

Charles Starret is the Durango Kid, this time as local sheriff, appointed by his former Ranger buddy Jack Mahoney. Jock Mahoney, Smiley Burnette and Caroline Cotton co-star. Also, Pee Wee King and Tommy Ivo have small roles.Jack Mahoney has a scheme to fleece the local miners and marry the saloon songbird. He enlists the Durango Kid, his former Ranger buddy to serve as local sheriff in order to control the miners and the local newspaper publisher. This deviates from earlier fare as it features several songs by Burnette, Cotton and Pee Wee King.Well produced and directed. Many scenes shot at Iverson Ranch in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles. The print is excellent as is the sound.Western fans will enjoy.

I always enjoy watching any film from the Durango Kid series. These simple, one hour, B&W formula westerns provide the good, old fashioned kind of movie entertainment that I enjoyed in the theaters, many years ago. I'm usually not a big fan of music in my westerns but this film featured some good musicians and singers such as Pee Wee King and his band plus Carolina Cotton. However, I never liked Smiley Burnett and, as usual, his songs do nothing except irritate me.The plot is rather good as a former Texas Ranger decides that he is going to end up with total control of the only road that provides a path into and out of the town. Naturally, he will make it a toll road. The methods that he plans to use are illegal and an old sidekick of his in the Rangers comes to town, becomes the Marshall and has to go up against his old friend. The resolution of the plot is somewhat different than most of these type of movies and is both interesting and satisfying.