The Desert Trail
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Rodeo star John Scott (John Wayne) and his gambler friend Kansas Charlie (Eddy Chandler) are wrongly accused of armed robbery at the Rattlesnake Gulch rodeo (with an admission price of $1) just after John Scott gets his rodeo prize money. The Rodeo Official is robbed and murdered by Pete (Al Ferguson) and Jim (Paul Fix) a minute after Scott and Kansas Charlie leave. Pete tells authorities he just saw John and his friend Kansas Charlie leaving the office. Now fugitives, John and Charlie flee to another town where they assume new names. There they compete for the affections of a woman who runs a store, Jim's sister Anne Whitaker (Mary Kornman). Later, John and Charlie interrupt a stagecoach holdup by Pete and Jim. But after John brings the stagecoach and its passengers back to town, Pete shows up and fingers them for the crime. John and Charlie find themselves in jail. Jim, knowing they are innocent and feeling guilty for his part in the crimes, helps bust them out. John and Charlie head after Pete to try to get a confession, with a posse riding hard behind them.

Review: John Wayne and Eddy Chandler play a strange combination of friends in The Desert Trail.
Of course when two real robbers, Al Ferguson and Paul Fix decide to clean out the rest of the rodeo cash and kill the promoter, our heroes get blamed for it and have to spend nearly the rest of the film on the run.Of course this is a Lone Star cheapie that the Duke stars in here with production values severely limited.
This early John Wayne Lone Star western has a bit more going for it than the run-of-the-mill oaters Wayne had been making for Lone Star up until that time.
For one, it has his old friend Paul Fix in it; Fix, being a much better actor then the standard Lone Star villain, brings a much needed professionalism to the surroundings instead of the usual hesitant line-readings often delivered in these oaters.
The plot, about mistaken identity, payroll robbery and murder, is as trite and perfunctory as you'd expect it to be in a 1930s low-budget western, but Wayne's strapping good looks, easygoing charm and way with a line go a long way to making this more enjoyable.
Most of Wayne's leading ladies in these Lone Star/Monogram "B's" were fairly bland and colorless, but Mary is perky, cute and, yes, sexy.
Wayne's ogling of her pert little backside as she ascends the steps, then again as she comes down, then again a few minuter later when he asks her to climb up and get him another bottle, is surprisingly racy for a film made in 1935.
It's surprising that this got past the Hays Office censors, but they were probably more concerned with the product that came out of the "main" studios rather than a cheap "B" western from some--as far as they were concerned--no-name outfit.Anyway, it's an interesting little "B", not great but not as choppy and disorganized as many of his Lone Star productions of the time.
The final gunfight isn't handled all that well, and Chandler gets somewhat irritating after a while, but all in all, it's worth a look, if only to see a cute and sexy Mary Kornman..
Pretty good B-Western of the venerable "bickering buddies" formula benefits from Duke Morrison's increasing confidence as an actor and comfort with the "John Wayne" persona, as well as from the increasing willingness to let Wayne play characters with a bit of an edge, rather than the Roy-Rogers-type goodie-goodies of his earlier films.Definitely worth a look for fans of the Duke.7/10.
Rodeo star John Wayne and his hard-gambling sidekick are forced to take Wayne's winnings from a crooked promoter.
However, the boys are too busy chasing after a young Spanish woman and a pretty shop girl to try and clear their names!Coming near the end of Wayne's contract with Lone Star/Monogram Pictures, this is more spare than some of the earlier films in the series.
It's still a lot of fun (and funny) with more comedy in this than usual, resulting in some very amusing scenes like the one where Duke leers at the shop girl's backside!The comedy here is reminiscent somewhat of the slapstick in Wayne's later films..
In "The Desert Trail" John Wayne gets to play the Moe Howard character and Eddy Chandler gets to play Curly Howard.
Playing a traveling rodeo cowboy Wayne holds up the rodeo box office at gunpoint and takes the prize money he would have won if the attendance proceeds had been good-the other riders have to settle for 25 cents on the dollar (actually even less after Wayne robs the box office).
Things get complicated at this point because the villain (Al Ferguson) and his sidekick Larry Fine (played by Paul Fix-who would go on to play Sheriff Micah on television's "The Rifleman") see Wayne rob the box office and then steal the remainder of the money and kill the rodeo manager.
Larry's sister is nicely played by a radiantly beautiful Mary Kornman (now grown up but in her younger days she was one of the original cast members of Hal Roach's "Our Gang" shorts).
Kornman is the main reason to watch the mega-lame western and her scenes with Moe and Curly are much better than any others in the production, as if they used an entirely different crew to film them.
One thing to watch for is a scene midway into the movie where Moe and Curly get on their horses and ride away (to screen right) from a cabin as the posse is galloping toward the cabin from the left.
Outside of home movies I have never seen anything like this, not because it is looks stupid (which it does) but because a competent director would never stage a scene in this manner.
The Desert Trail was an early John Wayne B-western that featured former "Our Gang"er Mary Kornman.
Well, this is the first I've seen one of John Wayne's B-westerns, pre-Stagecoach, and I watched for one reason only: It's the only one that features a grown-up Mary Kornman, formerly of the silent "Our Gang" series.
There's a funny scene in the beginning where Wayne manages to woo Carmen Laroux while Chandler has to sit silently because earlier the latter promised to act "dumb" so he wouldn't get mixed up with another woman but the way Wayne stomps on Chandler's foot every time the latter tries to punch him never became funny with me.
A later scene with the Duke asking for some tonic on the top shelf is funny though since Kornman seems partly aware of John wanting to check her out!
John Wayne plays a rodeo star who, along with his gambler sidekick, is accused of murder.
Another of John Wayne's cheapie westerns made for Lone Star in the '30s.
Wayne's given some nice banter as well as cute flirting with pretty Mary Kornman.
This time he is out to win some prize cash in a rodeo, which he does easily, so when he and his friend try and collect their winnings, they meet up with some bad guys who steal all of the rodeos proceed's then they manage to kill the promoter, blaming our hero and his friend,, so they are forced to go on the run and hideout and make a plan to try and catch the bad guys,, meanwhile the Duke and his friend argue about everything from women , to alcohol and such, the 2 lawmen appear to be an odd match but it turns out opposites do attract even in the old west..
not a bad little "b" western picture slightly better than some of the other b western that John Wayne was in..
This old B-western features John Wayne as rodeo star John Star who travels to Rattlesnake Gulch with his partner Kansas Charlie.
Also amusing is the way Wayne ogles Anne as he gets her to retrieve items from a top shelf; not what I expected in a film of the Hays Code era!
The action is okay but the lack of Yakima Canutt means we don't get the great horse stunts of many John Wayne films of the era.
Overall this isn't his best film of the time but Wayne fans should still enjoy it well enough..
Lone Star) some credit: They gave John Wayne here a chance to try some comedy, and the Duke delivers.
It's a shame the result is buried in another lame C- western with a poor script and below-par acting.Rodeo rider John Scott (Wayne) and his gambler companion Kansas Charlie (Eddy Chandler) get mixed up in a case of mistaken identity when they are blamed for stealing money from a crooked rodeo and murdering its promoter.
Lying low in another town under assumed names, they find themselves on the wrong side of the law again, thanks to the machinations of the promoter's real killers.Watching Wayne cut up here with Chandler is kind of fun, especially early on.
Director Cullen Lewis starts us off with a scene where the two are playing cards, and a tight close-up shows Kansas Charlie dealing himself an ace from the bottom of the deck.
C. hightail it to another town, where they meet pretty storekeeper Anne (Mary Kornman) and develop a new line of bickering over her.
Seeing Wayne play a rather crooked character is kind of interesting; unfortunately this Scott guy and his pal are pretty dumb, too.Wayne enthusiasts may find his performance as noteworthy as I did; they may also like seeing Paul Fix, a regular in many Wayne movies, playing one of the killers who's also Anne's brother.
Scott and Kansas aren't the only two characters in "Desert Trail" not long on brains.The film ambles along fretfully, with odd shoot-outs (odd because Wayne is often shooting at good guys) and cruel horse stunts (they tripped the horses in full gallop with wire, and a couple of the stunts here appear to have been fatal) breaking up largely comic interludes involving Scott, Kansas, and Anne.
Kornman, a fetching woman with skills honed from her childhood career in silent "Our Gang" comedies, plays well off Wayne, especially when he tries to schmooze her by making her climb a ladder for some "nerve tonic." She points out nerve tonic is something he doesn't seem to need.With some better scripting, either in the way of a coherent cowboy actioner or a more focused comedy, "Desert Trail" might have risen above the batch of cheapo films Wayne starred in in his own desert years, after "The Big Trail" and before "Stagecoach." But it just doesn't gel enough, or go anywhere interesting beyond the occasional funniness..
This is yet another of John Wayne's early B-westerns that has been mercilessly updated and is being shown on the Encore Channel.
My advice is to download the films off the links on IMDb--it costs nothing, is perfectly legal and has the original music.The film begins with Wayne and his completely dull sidekick (some bald guy with the personality of a shoe whose name I won't even bother to look up)...oh heck, it's Eddy Chandler) coming into town.
Not being content with this offer, Wayne and his bald buddy use their guns to convince the guy to pay them their due (which, from what I remember, is a lot like what O.J. is now serving time for in Nevada).
Since the two were seen leaving shortly before the murder, it appears as if they are guilty.In another town, Wayne and Mr. Dull assume new identities and blend in as best they can.
However, the dull sidekick does have an ally...and naturally everything works out just fine in the end.One of deficits for the film (apart from the music--which you can't blame on the original production company) are the reuse of both footage from another Wayne B-movie and the plot idea of a crooked rodeo from "The Man From Utah".
However, like the rest of Wayne's films of the era, it is pleasant and entertaining provided you can appreciate the niche such B-movies played.
"The Desert Trail" is one of many B-movies which John Wayne made in the late twenties and early thirties before he became a major star.
In 1935 alone Wayne starred in eight such films; in each of them he played a character with the Christian name John.
This was presumably a deliberate move by Lone Star and their successors Republic Pictures to create a distinctive identity for their leading man.The title "The Desert Trail" might suggest either a hunt through the desert for a fugitive or a group of pioneers making their way to a new life in California, but in fact the film deals with neither of those subjects.
The film concerns John Scott, a rodeo star, and his gambler friend Kansas Charlie, who are wrongly accused of murdering a man in the course of an armed robbery, and their attempts to expose the real villains.The acting is almost universally poor; Wayne is the only well-known name here, but he shows little of the talent and charisma which were later to make him one of Hollywood's biggest names.
Although the action presumably takes place in the late nineteenth century, Mary Kornman as Wayne's love-interest Anne appears throughout dressed in the fashions of 1935 rather than 1870 or 1880.By modern standards, at just under an hour, the film is absurdly short, but this was a normal length for B-movies in this period.
Falsely accused, skirt-chasing chums John Wayne (as John Scott) and Eddy Chandler (as Kansas Charlie) change identities to become "Alias Smith and Jones".
Pretty blonde Mary Kornman (as Anne), grown-up from her days in "Our Gang", is a lovely interest for Wayne.
She and Chandler have a couple of cute scenes with Wayne.
If you're not a fan of low budget John Wayne films of the 1930s, this movie won't make you one..
John Scott (John Wayne) and partner Kansas Charlie (Eddy Chandler) are trail buddies who make their way to the Rattlesnake Gulch rodeo.
Quite coincidentally, bandits Pete (Al Ferguson) and Jim (Paul Fix) decide they'd like the rest of the rodeo take; they shoot promoter Farnsworth (Henry Hall), and make it look like Scott and Kansas Charlie are the killers.
Wayne and Chandler use a running gag in the film where they're about to go at it with their fists over various trivialities.
Each time Chandler takes a wild swing, Wayne foot stomps him and knocks him silly.If you're very attentive, there's a neat Lipton's Tea ad in one of the scenes in which Scott's love interest Anne (Mary Kornman) appears.Later on in the film, the buddies are framed once again over a stage robbery.
In an unbelievable scene, Anne marches right into the middle of a gunfight between the good guys and the villains to confront the sheriff."The Desert Trail" is one of the blander John Wayne Westerns from Lone Star Productions during this era.
After having seen some of Waynes other hour-long Lone Star films,i feel that while this is not the best one its still pretty good.The plot: After having done his day working as a rodeo,Wayne and a friend go to collect there wages.When they are told that there wages have gone down from $900 to $200,Wayne decides to hold the place up and get the rest of the cash thats owed to them.Just after they leave,a gang come in come in and kill the guy at the front and take the the cash and leave fast!So everyone thinks that Wayne and his friend killed him(and that includes the law!) View on the film:The film is written by Linsley Parsons,and while the story does get slow in some parts,there are enough dark and comic parts to keep you watching.Direction:One of the downsides for director Cullen Lewis is using some really poor stock-footage of a Rodeo,but the thing Lewis does well is to have stunts (the man getting chucked thought a window by a horse!)and a really good star on a stage coach.
The cast: The main highlight of the cast(and of the film)is John Wayne.Unlike some of the other Lone Star films i have seen with him,he gives an excellent comic and slightly dark performance.
An Edgier John Wayne with Mary Kornman.
The opening scene sets the stage (literally) for the personalities of the gambler, Kansas Charlie (Eddy Chandler), and his buddy, John Scott (John Wayne) the rodeo (say Roh-Day-oh) star, both of whom are slightly randy.
The film follows their adventures, as they try to best each other in the pursuit of the Mexican Juanita, and later in their pursuit of perky Mary Kornman, who has the inevitable evil brother (though he'd been led astray by the real villain, and wants to repent).
Mary Kornman, of the twenties "Our Gang" (see 'Mary, Queen of Tots' 1925) is cute in her scenes with John Wayne, but that's about it for this one.
THE DESERT TRAIL is a somewhat unremarkable early outing for John Wayne in which the actor's larger-than-life presence, although not quite as out-there and assured as later on in his career, is the best thing about the movie.
He plays a rodeo star who finds himself accused of a crime he didn't commit, forcing him to leave town with his buddy.
One of early John Wayne's best vehicles!.
John Wayne (John Scott), Mary Kornman (Anne), Eddy Chandler (Kansas Charlie), Paul Fix (Jim), Carmen Laroux (Juanita LaRoux), Lafe McKee (Sheriff Barker), Al Ferguson (Pete), Henry Hall (Farnsworth), Archie Ricks (stage driver), Theodore Lorch (robbed stage passenger), Gordon De Main (stage passenger), Silver Tip Baker, Frank Ellis, Wally West (poker players), Frank Ball (banker), Frank Brownlee (Rattlesnake Gulch sheriff), Tommy Coats, Artie Ortego, Tex Palmer (deputies), Dick Dickinson (man watching poker game), Jack Evans, Ray Henderson (townsmen), Lew Meehan (posse rider), Fred Parker (doctor).Director: LEWIS D.
Producer: Paul Malvern.A Lone Star Western, not copyrighted by Monogram Pictures Corporation.
54 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Difficult to summarize the plot of this unusual western, concerning the adventures of a rodeo rider and his card-sharp sparring partner, who object to the champ being paid off with two bits on the dollar.
After a series of complications with the bandit hiding in the closet, the story really gets under way in a different town altogether when our hero rescues a runaway stagecoach after the driver has been shot by the very same badmen who robbed the rodeo office.
Hero and his unlikely off-sider now vie for the attentions of a pretty storekeeper, whose brother turns out to be one of the bandits who really robbed the stage and the rodeo!
Aside from obvious stock footage in the rodeo sequences, this rates as an unusually well-produced and smartly directed entry in the Lone Star series.
We also enjoyed the performances of both Mary Kornman (as the icy storekeeper who tries to put Wayne in his place) and Carmen Laroux (who turns on the heat as a Mexican vamp).
. are the best words with which you can describe John Wayne and his DESERT TRAIL sidekick.