Evening star., 1942-03-01

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Is something new, at long last in the
celluloid's wild and woolly West.
For instance, the heroes aren't
being played straight SO much.
They're kidding the Autrys and the
Rogers and the Haydens.
Gene Autry falls of a horse, for
comedy's sake, in one opus. Russell
Hayden, in another, doesn't win
every fight, as has been his custom,
but, as the script declares in true
screen writing parlance, "Gets the
hell beat out of him."
Something else you're going to
see in some Westerns, and equally
strange it is to them, too, is an
explanation why these fellows who
are so all fired handy with their
shooting irons aren't on the front
lines knocking of Japanese instead
of singing purity to the heroine.
Bill Hart may come storming
down of his mountaintop when he
hears that at least one Western,
the very kind he set the pace for so
many years ago, has a lady villain.
Yes, sir; the villainess in Man From
Cheyenne" is pretty, well bred,
we'll dressed Lynn Carver, the
brains of a cattle-rustling mob. 1t
required courage for that.
Not Even Armed.
The chief antagonists in two 9TH
ers are not the thieving double
dealers of yore, but two very young
ladies. In dusk on the Painted
Desert" Edith Fellows is a brattish
14-year-old who makes every one
despise her while vacationing on
Autry's dude ranch. The plot, as
in, Gun Smoke in Paradise" in
which Russell Hayden contends with
the "villainy" of 12-year-old Eileen
Brewer, is based on the reform
theme.
Rex Beach's heavy in 'The Spoil
ers" is a genuine, dyed-in-the-
leather exponent of the double cross,
but in the version now afllming, he
is played by handsome, polished,
soft-spoken Randy Scott, and he
doesn't even carry gun.
There wasn't any villain, in the
usual sense, in Sierra Sue" another
Autry adventure. There was only a
misguided" rancher. The misguid-
ance allowed for gunplay and rough
and tumble fighting. but in the end
he was neither killed nor Jailed
he was reformed.
Whether the die-hard action fans
will take to these new-fangled no.
tions is something Hollywood doesn't
know yet. The changes are too re-
cent.
Crime Must Not Pay.
The war probably will be given
some credit for affecting these
changes; every one is agreed that
now more than ever we need light
entertainment with escapist themes.
But principally, writers of Western
scenarios say, the censor boards are
indirectly responsible for the devia-
tions from pattern.
These boards have exerted a tre-
mendous influence during the last
few years, and to win their ap-
proval a picture must meet rigid
requirements. If the heavy, for ex-
ample, is thorough villain-a bank
robber, a desperate or a ruStler-
the only possible climax is one in
which he is killed or jailed. Crime
doesn't pay must be pointed up
in stories dealing with crime, so
the heavy can't repent or mend his
ways. He must be punished.
Even more serious is the way the
censors have cramped the hero's
style. In the good old shootin' days
OF Hart and Tom Mix, he personally
dispatched at least half dozen of
the bad men. Now he must be much
less bloodthirsty. He can't shoot ex-
cept in self-defense. And when the
ranking bad boy is killed, the hero
can be only indirectly responsible.
In a Box Canyon"
The Western is noted for shootin'
and chasin'. There's no limit to
the number of miles the hero can
pursue the rustlers Cunless the S. P.
c. A. objects to the wear on the
horse, but there is on the amount
of shooting. Unnecessary gunplay is
forbidden.
Too brutal" says the censors,
"and bad for the youngsters"
Thus stripped of many of their
standard thrill-getting devices, the
makes of Westerns find themselves,
as they say in their scripts some
times, in a box canyon.
Westerns account for 20 to Is per
cent of Hollywood's total product, so
to avoid triteness they must find new
approaches. If they continue to use
the stock characters, then they're