Sick Product of a Sick System

Powerful

Boring

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Entertaining western cowboy verses bad guy story with romance & comedy mixed in. It was not expensive film to make and even if it is a trite story line the music and singing makes the short 55 minute PG movie entertaining. Notice the good guy wears a black hat in this cowboy movie.

Gee, I don't know if Eddie Dean was much of a pal to his sidekick Soapy (Roscoe Ates) in this picture; he had him wear a polka dot headband on his hat so he could be mistaken for an outlaw! That could have gotten Soapy shot, especially after the way he swaggered into a Silver Spring saloon and started hassling the locals. All done for comedic effect of course, but the consequences could have been a disaster.This wasn't the first time the polka dot gimmick had been used in a B Western. Outlaws wore polka dot neckerchiefs in two of John Wayne's early Lone Star pictures. Yakima Canutt was the Polka Dot Bandit in 1934's "Blue Steel" and a year later Dennis Moore wore one in "The Dawn Rider". Just as in this picture, once the gimmick was established, not too much came of it.Actually, you had a couple of bad guys at odds with each other in this story. Rip Caxton (I. Stanford Jolley) arrives in Silver Spring where Clark Varney (Douglas Fowley) appears to be the well heeled, nominal town boss, but when Caxton arrives he starts ordering Varney around without too much push-back. I had to chuckle when Varney used the old 'town ain't big enough for the two of us' line; it reminded me of something Yosemite Sam might have said in one of those Warner Brothers cartoons from back in the day. You can tell I've been around a long time.Ultimately things come to a head between the two baddies and Caxton shoots Varney at the Devery Ranch. Varney was attempting to swindle Martha Devery (Peggy Wynne) out of her property and both of them had Martha and Soapy held hostage while attempting to outwit Eddie Dean. When Eddie arrives with a posse, a nifty shootout breaks out between the good guys and the bad guys which was kind of interesting. The good guys took cover behind boulders while the outlaws stood out on the front porch! Seems I've seen the same thing occur in another Western but I'll be darned if I can figure out which one. I watch just too many of these.Well all's well that ends well for Eddie and Soapy, as Martha Devery tries to put a romantic lasso on our hero before the final fade. It didn't work, as Eddie's a traveling troubleshooter, riding off into the sunset while singing 'Ain't No Gal Got a Brand on Me'. Seems he would have to use that one again the following year in "The Tioga Kid" when Soapy tries to set him up with Jennifer Holt.

My co-reviewer is grumpy indeed! Admittedly, Wild Country is no classic but, if this is the worst western "seen to date", I must assume he hasn't watched too many.What we have here is standard B western fare with roving marshal Eddie Dean rounding up the bad guys with the help of horse Flash - Dean had different "named" horses in other movies - and sidekick Soapy (Roscoe Ates). The flamboyant villain with the polka dot scarf round his hat is played with sinister gusto by the ever reliable and much under-rated I. Stanford Jolley.Of course there are the "obligatory songs": why wouldn't there be when Eddie Dean was known as a singing cowboy and he did have an excellent voice. They are no more "out of place" than in other B westerns or, for that matter, major musicals. Sadly, there are only three, all good, but I particularly liked "The Saddle with the Golden Horn".Leading lady Peggy Wynne is a bit feeble and funny man Ates is somewhat "limited" but there are more than enough chases, fist fights and shoot-outs to keep things bubbling nicely for the short running time.

This is the worst western I've seen to date. Poor editing, technically inept, lame dialogue and a wooden protagonist, to name a few problems. And of course, being a 40s western we must have the obligatory songs that are out of place. At least it's short...