Trail Street (1947)

Too much of everything

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

As Good As It Gets

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Randolph Scott's westerns were always more serious than average, starting with himself, always speaking only the necessary. This recurring quality is what makes them still so watchable and entertaining today. Trail Street made in 1947 has Scott as a convincing Bat Masterson set up to clean the town of Liberal, Kansas. Robert Ryan is the good guy Allen Harper who is trying to bring progress through stimulating agriculture and Steve Brodie is the villain, Logan. There are two leading ladies, two beauties, Anne Jeffreys and Madge Meredith. Jeffreys is Ruby, the girl gone astray, which ran away from home, becomes the saloon singer, and is attached to Logan. Madge Meredith is Susan the materialistic "respectable"girl who is dating Allen, but is tempted by Logan's wealth which will allow her to move. Gabby Hayes is Billy Burns, comic, but also helpful to Bat and Allen. The film is fast moving, with numerous shootouts and a nice black and white cinematography.

Except for two things, it's a fairly routine Scott Western, which means it's still better than most horse operas. First, I'm betting the drought resistant strain of wheat that keeps the farmers on the land is fact-based. Anyway, it's an interesting take on farming for a city boy like me, and is woven effectively into the plot. The second thing is Robert Ryan, one of my favorites. Now, I've seen him as a scary bad guy or a hard-looking good guy in a thousand movies. But I've never seen him as a nice guy until this movie. He's not only good, but nice too, and even gets the girl as a reward. It's Ryan as you've likely never seen him before (It's also early in his career, 1947).Scott's his usual strong-jawed self, and a persuasive Bat Masterson, while the one-and-only Gabby sports a beard that looks like it's eating his face. And check out the obscure ingénue Madge Meredith's (Susan) bio in IMDb. There's a reason why she's obscure. Then too, the 300-lb. Billy House makes a slimy bad guy and a can't miss six-gun target. I guess my only reservation is with Steve Brodie as the chief baddie. He doesn't have quite the gravitas to be a chief, which is likely why most of his career was as a henchman.Anyhow, it's a well-stocked horse opera with good action and a nicely worked-out script. For Scott fans, myself included, it's an enjoyable 90-minutes.

Do a title search on Randolph Scott and TRAIL STREET is the one film missing from the list you've seen. One of 4 films Scott made at RKO during his prime (1947) the others are always easy to get. Liberal, Kansas is just southwest of Dodge City and is a powder-keg about to explode between the trail-riders who drive the longhorns into Trail Street, the town's main street, and the sod-busters who feed our bellies. It'll take a strong man like Bat Masterson to step between the two groups and bring the town to order. More I won't say, except that Scott movies usually have just one pretty girl and this one has three. RANDOLPH SCOTT always played men you could look up to for their sense of honor, courage, level-headedness and willingness to do the right thing. Fifty years ago parents could send their kids to a Scott movie with confidence they'd learn positive values. ROBERT RYAN co-stars in this film, playing a good guy for a change. In real life, RYAN was one of the many WORLD WAR II HEROS who starred in America's movies. How sad what we get these days. George Clooney teaches our young that we ought sympathize with suicide bombers, while Steven Spielberg teaches there is no moral difference between the Olympic athletes murdered in 1972 in Munich and the Palestinian terrorists who killed them. Hollywood 2005 derives their moral compass from too much cocaine and too much commitment to the wacky left. I wonder how all this plays out in Liberal, Kansas. Liberal, after all, was not a dirty word 150 years ago when the city was named.

After cleaning up Dodge City (with a little help from Wyatt Earp) Bat Masterson goes to Liberal, Kansas where they've got a nice little range war going. Plus a rather interesting scheme of sharecropping.Randolph Scott is Bat Masterson and he's after villains Billy House and Steve Brodie who are driving homesteaders off their farms. The homesteaders they are driving off are in a sharecropping scheme financed by Robert Ryan. Seems as though he's staking the various farmers to a parcel of land to homestead for a percentage of profit from their crop. Ryan's about to lose his shirt as a result of all the shenanigans.As portrayed by Scott, Bat Masterson is a stand-up western hero who has a passion to go east and become a reporter which we all know he did later in life. Anne Jeffreys and Madge Meredith are involved in a romantic subplot involving Brodie and Ryan which is a little silly and does detract from the action. Anne Jeffreys does sing nice though.Of course Gabby Hayes as always provides the great comic relief.A good addition to the Randolph Scott collection of westerns. Also interesting because his later western films don't have him as wearing a hat as white as the one here.This review is dedicated to Kasey Hayes of the Professional Bull Riders who is a proud resident of Liberal, Kansas, a town with a great tradition whether Bat Masterson marshaled there or not.