FILM REVIEW OF "BRAND OF THE DEVIL" (1944)

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“Brand of the Devil” qualifies as a second-rate horse opera about three heroic Texas Rangers working undercover. They are trying to flush a gang of rustlers out that have been preying on a defenseless female rancher.  “Randy Rides Alone” director Harry L. Fraser helmed this thoroughly ordinary nag from a screenplay by Elmer Clifton. If you’re counting, “Brand of the Devil” is the fourteenth entry in the long-running PRC Texas Rangers franchise.  PRC produced 22 of these epics.  Incidentally, not only was "Brand of the Devil" (** out of ****) the last Texas Rangers movie starring Jim Newill but also it was his final film.  This saddle-sore sagebrusher unfolds with this noble foreword: "Dedicated to the law officers of the Old West, who led the fight for law and order in the pioneer days of the country in 1880."  Actually, our heroes have a rather easy time turning the tables on these owlhoots. Essentially, the good guys know their quarry because they have been investigating him. Nevertheless, the chief adversary is wily enough to last 57 minutes.  Texas Rangers Jim Steele, Tex Wyatt, and Panhandle Perkins appear separately in the town of Willow Springs so they don't look like friends.  Fraser establishes the identity of the villain early on while our heroes align themselves with the rustlers-plagued, damsel-in-distress.   Nothing spectacular occurs in “Brand of the Devil.” The most unusual thing occurs when the villains frame the frontier gal for rustling. One of her own treacherous ranch hands dresses up in drag like Molly. The owner of the cattle being rustled spots him and jumps to a hasty conclusion.  Earlier, Tex and Jim encountered him, and he asked them to serve as witnesses that Molly was rustling.

“Brand of the Devil” opens as one of our heroes, Jim Steele (Jim Newill of “Spook Town”), attempts to infiltrate the gang of rustlers. The tight-lipped  chieftain, duded-up Jack Varno (I. Stanford Jolley of "Backlash"), refuses to hire him, even after Jim triumphed over an opponent in a bar room brawl.  Meanwhile, Panhandle Perkins (Guy Wilkerson of “To Kill a Mockingbird”) masquerades as "Branding Iron" McGee.  He claims he can forge branding irons that no rustlers can duplicate. Later, angry rancher Molly Dawson (Ellen Hall of "Voodoo Man") storms into the Gold Ace Saloon in Willow Springs.  She claims Duke Cutter (Reed Howes of "The Walking Hills") has purloined her white stallion. Molly starts throwing liquor bottles at the bar. Varno urges his henchmen to restrain Molly before she destroys his entire stock. Our gallant protagonists, Tex Wyatt (Dave O'Brien of “Reefer Madness”) and Steele, intervene for Molly.  Varno's gunmen tangle with Tex and Jim.  Adroitly, Jim blows the gun out of Panhandle's fist and then blasts out the saloon lights out. Jim is incredibly adept with his revolver. Molly, Tex, and Jim skedaddle into the night.  After Molly, Jim, and Tex have cleared out, Varno discovers a card with the mark of the devil's brand on it. Varno supervises a band of gunmen rustling beef in the territory.  The sight of the card unnerves Varno since the devil's brand serves as the emblem of his gang.  Moreover, only Varno and his three partners know about the symbol. The actual symbol is a white devil’s pitchfork against a black background. Mind you, the Texas Rangers aren’t advertising their official presence until they feel that it is necessary. Eventually, the villains to learn about their true identity, but not before Panhandle manages to infiltrate their ranks.  

The next morning our heroine rides back into Willow Springs. She locates her stolen white stallion along with its saddle in the stable where Duke had stashed him the night before for Varno to inspect. Panhandle watches with concern as Molly saddles her horse.  He suggests she contact the authorities.  "A lot of good the law does," Molly retorts defiantly, "Why in two months rustlers have taken most of my cattle.  I've complained and even written to the Rangers asking for help, and do they show up, they do not. From now on I'm taking the law into my own hands," Molly informs Panhandle as she appropriates her stolen horse.  "And if they want to stop me, just let them try."  No sooner has Molly ridden off on her horse than Varno and his henchmen pursue her.  Tex and Jim gallop up just as Varno and company have halted Molly.  "You two seem mighty interested in other people's business," Varno observes.  Varno's men invite Tex to look at the brand on the stallion. Tex admits the animal could belong to anybody because it has two brands. Molly pleads with our heroes. "There's not much anybody can do unless you can prove he is yours," Jim concedes.   "I'd like to give you two a friendly tip," Varno warns them.  "Keep out of my business, and you'll live longer." At this point, Tex and Jim have become Varno's mortal enemies. "You know," Tex states, "I didn't like you when I first saw you and right now I like you less because I think that horse belongs to Miss Dawson." Tex knocks Varno to the ground with a single blow when he tries to draw on him. Varno is pretty fed up with our heroes now and threatens them. "After that warning, we'll be sure to keep our backs away from you." Reluctantly, Tex allows Varno to ride away on Molly's steed.  Of course, Molly isn't happy with the outcome.  "You'll get your horse back," Jim assures her.  "You bet I will," she  vows,"but after what's just happened, I can see it won't be through you two."

 After our heroes have a rendezvous with Panhandle, they ride up onto a valley where they meet another fellow, Jeff Palin, who explains that his cattle are being rustled.  He gives Tex a set of field glasses to view the rustling.  From a distance, it appears that a woman is supervising the rustling when in fact it is Molly's ranch hand Henry Wilburn (Budd Buster) doing it.  Our heroes run down Wilburn and they give him to Panhandle. Meanwhile, the sheriff arrests Molly and puts her in jail.  Varno has a conference with his cronies and they pick cards to see who will "silence" Molly.  Bucko gets the task but cannot do it so Varno takes it.  Later that evening, Varno shoots into the jail cell that Molly occupies.  Afterward, Varno learns from the sheriff that Tex and Jim are Texas Rangers and they have taken Molly into custody.  Varno decides to set a trap for the Rangers and uses Panhandle to set it.  When our heroes show up at a cabin in the old cottonwoods, Bucko is waiting for them.  Tex and Jim go after the cattle while Panhandle rides off to protect Molly.  Bucko catches our heroes at the cabin while Varno and his henchmen chase Panhandle after he exits Molly's ranch. Varno leaves the chore of disposing of the Rangers to Bucko.  Up till now Bucko has been portrayed as a straightforward villain but he reveals his buffoonish nature when he is left alone with the Rangers to kill them. 

 Ostensibly, this low-budget, lightweight western is about defending the weak from the wolves.  Just as the heroes have standards, so do the villains.  When Varno asks his hired gunman Bucko Lynn (perennial western heavy Charles King) to "silence" Molly, Bucko balks.  He has no qualms about killing guys, but he draws the line at the opposite sex. Elmer Clifton's screenplay is satisfactory up until Bucko is left with Tex, Jim, and Panhandle tied up and ready to die.  The cretinous Bucko decides to strum a guitar while Jim warbles a lackluster version of "Old Paint."  So engrosses is Bucko in the melody that he keeps his eyes shut while Panhandle and Tex work their way out of their bonds and jump him.  Sadly, "Brand of the Devil" is available only as a scratchy public domain print.  This lame sagebrusher is strictly a potboiler, though Wilkerson is pretty funny. 

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG' (1935)

The 1935 Monogram Pictures' release "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" (**1/2 out of ****),with Bela Lugosi and Wallace Ford, clearly didn't deserve any Oscars, but neither does director William Nigh's poverty-row crime thriller qualify as ghastly. This low-budget, black & white whodunit about a series of murders occurring in the Chinatown section of an anonymous metropolitan American city is incorrigibly xenophobic. Remember, when this movie came out, Americans harbored paranoid fears about the so-called 'Yellow Peril' that Chinese immigrants represented as they poured into the west coast. Any multi-culturally minded liberals who partake of "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" are going to be not only appalled but also offended this movie's conspicuous, racially charged invective.

Clocking in at a meager 63 minutes, this melodrama never wears out its welcome. Prolific director William Nigh, who helmed 120 movies in a career spanning thirty-four years, and his writers keep things clicking. Lew Levenson adapted author Harry Stephen Keeler's story "The Twelve Coins of Confucius," and Nina Howatt penned the screenplay with James Herbuveaux contributing additional dialogue. Neither Howatt nor Herbuveaux wrote anything after "The Mysterious Mr. Wong," but the dialogue sounds pretty snappy, slang-riddled, but quotable. The action itself resembles a twelve chapter serial pared down to the bare essentials. Secret passageways, concealed doors, underground sanctums, exotic coins, and torture chambers permeate this yarn.

"The Mysterious Mr. Wong" opens with expository information from an encyclopedia about the fabled twelve coins of Confucius and how the person who possesses them will rule a province called Keelat. A newspaper story about a murder appears next. Indeed, newspaper accounts of homicides in Chinatown recur throughout the film. Three slayings occur in rapid succession in the first few minutes. The police believe that the Tongs are on the warpath. The first victim staggers out into a street and collapses. A man searches his body, finds a perforated coin, and plants a note with a Chinese letter on the corpse. The second victim has been hanged and hands rifle his pockets to acquire a coin. The third man is strangled as he sleeps—yes, he is strangled perhaps too quickly, but the Production Code censors might have forced Nigh to accelerate this lurid death scene—and hands plunder his body, extract the coin from a shoe and leave the usual note on his body. Meanwhile, agents of the Keelat province show up in town to thwart Mr. Wong. Phillip Tsang (E. Alyn Warren of "Chinatown Squad") heads up the operation. Eventually, Tsang crosses paths with Mr. Wong and Wong takes him hostage.

A cynical newspaper reporter, Jason Barton (Wallace Ford of "Freaks"), investigates these murders. The authorities are convinced that the Tongs are responsible. Barton disagrees in a news story, and his editor Steve Brandon (Lee Shumway of "The Lone Star Ranger"), packs him off to find a Chinaman named Wong. "Did you ever run into a Chinaman by the name of Wong?" Brandon inquires. "Have I ever run into any that ain't named Wong?" Barton retorts. Our journalistic hero ventures into Sam Toy's Laundry where he encounters an Irish cop, Officer 'Mac' McGillicuddy (Robert Emmett 0'Conner of "Picture Snatcher"), who seems to be the only policeman walking a beat in the district. He shares Barton's racism and refers to the Chinese as "monkeys." None of the other reporters are interested in the murder. Barton checks over the body and learns that Toy died with a pencil in his hand. A breeze blows through the laundry when Mac opens the door and Barton finds a message written in Chinese. He visits the herb shop of Mr. Lysee (Bela Lugosi), but Lysee plays dumb when Barton quizzes him. Barton visits a nearby university where Professor Chan Fu (Luke Chan) works as a translator. Lysee sends one of his minions to steal the note from Barton, but Barton eludes him. Later, Barton ransacks Toy's laundry and finds the last coin, but an assailant gets the drop on Barton and steals the last coin. When Barton recovers, he learns another Chinaman has died. "Say, this is getting monotonous," Barton complains, "I'm supposed to bring in real live news, the best I can do is run down dead Chinamen." Later, Barton and the newspaper switchboard operator, Peg (Arlene Judge of "Flying Devils"), have dinner in a restaurant and Barton discovers that the man who stole the coin from him is trying to return it. This man dies in the booth next to Barton and Peg. Afterward, Mr. Wong's murderous minions capture Barton and Peg. Eventually, Wong takes them to his underground torture chamber where he plans to stick bamboo shafts up Peg's finger nails unless the reticent Barton surrenders the last coin. Just before the torture commences, Wong and company leave our hero and heroine alone long enough for Barton to find a convenient telephone and call his boss. "I'm somewhere back of old Lysee's herb shop. It's a matter of life and death. There's a secret panel on the back of the counter. You better come well heeled. These babies don't play with marbles." Nigh was no stranger to directing movies about Asians with white actors impersonated Orientals. He directed all four Boris Karloff mysteries in the "Mr. Wong" franchise: "Mr. Wong, Detective" (1938), "The Mystery of Mr. Wong" (1939), "The Fatal Hour" a.k.a "Mr. Wong at Headquarters" (1940), and "Doomed to Die" (1940). Later, Nigh directed Lugosi again in "Black Dragons" during 1942.

Of course, "Dracula" star Bela Lugosi was atrociously miscast as Mr. Wong with his obvious Hungarian accent. More than likely, Monogram cast Lugosi because Universal had cast Bela's biggest rival Boris Karloff in their 1932 epic "The Mask of Fu Manchu." Nevertheless, Bela delivers his lines with reasonable credibility and doesn't bump into the furniture. He looks pretty sinister as an Asian villain and he is up to his ears in intrigue and murder. "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" wallows in racial prejudice that was part and parcel of its time. Nevertheless, it still ranks as an entertaining B-movie.

FILM REVIEW OF ''KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL" (1952)

“Dark Alibi” director Phil Karlson’s “Kansas City Confidential” (***1/2 out of ****) qualifies as a crisply-made, smartly-plotted, entertaining heist caper about the perfect crime. This imaginative, 1952 release from United Artists and producer Edward Small about an innocent man framed for a robbery that he didn’t commit teems with interesting characters, a seasoned cast, edgy predicaments, and a fine resolution. Good guy John Payne musters considerable credibility as the flawed protagonist who is punished for the crime, while a dream cast of classic heavies--Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, and Neville Brand—enjoy their ill-gotten gains until our hero can pay them back with interest. “Red River’s” Coleen Gray plays Payne’s love interest, but her character is strictly peripheral in the greater scheme of the action. Yes, she does figure into the plot, but she isn’t front and center like the rest of the cast, including Preston Foster as the mastermind of the a million dollar hold-up.

“Narrow Margin” lenser George E. Diskant’s moody black & white photography is first-rate, and several camera angles stand out, enhancing the thrills and chills. Rowland Brown and Harold Bruce provided the basis for the story, while Harry Essex and George Bruce penned the tightly-knit screenplay with uncredited assistance from both Karlson and Payne. Clocking in at a trim 99 minutes, “Kansas City Confidential” doesn’t squander a second and never wears out its welcome. Moreover, some commentators have described it as a film noir entry when it really isn’t film noir. The interesting thing is that Karlson’s crime thriller seems a little ahead of its time with its post-modern spin on events. The cops are portrayed as pretty ruthless and the mastermind has a back story that makes him a tragic character. All in all, “Kansas City Confidential” delivers more than the usual 1952 thriller about a robbery.

The film opens with this foreword: “In the police annuals of Kansas City are written lurid chapters of criminals apprehended and brought to punishment. But it is the purpose of this picture to expose the amazing operations of a man who conceived and executed a ‘perfect crime,’ the true solution of which is not entered in any case history, and could well be entitled ‘Kansas City Confidential.’”

The action occurs in three parts. The mastermind checks his plan. He has decided to rob an armored car as the cops tote the money sacks out to the vehicle. A florist truck usually parks near where the armored car is parked. The florist delivery man, Joe Rolfe (John Payne of “Tripoli”), parks his truck and takes flowers into a building. The mastermind, Tim Foster (Preston Foster of “Guadalcanal Diary”), has been planning the heist fastidiously as a close-up reveals a time table of events he has made. For example, he notes the times that police squad cars cruise past, the arrival and departure of the Western Florist Delivery truck as well as the Bank Armored cars. Foster has timed everything at least five times for pin-point accuracy. He has calculated that he will need between two and four minutes to pull the job. He picks three criminals, Pete Harris (Jack Elam of “The Comancheros”) a trigger-happy, chain-smoking, dice gambler; ladies man Tommy Romano (Lee Van Cleef of “High Noon”) who is a habitual criminal, and Boyd Kane (Neville Brand of “Riot in Cell Block 3”) a cop killer who chews bubble-gum.

The second part involves the bank hold-up. As Foster has planned it, the criminals slip up beside the armored car and in unless than four minutes, they appropriate the money bags and hightail with one guard snapping off a couple of rounds at them. Predictably, the Kansas City cops pull over Joe, search his florist delivery truck, and haul him off to the station for some police brutality. Eventually, the authorities discover the abandoned florist delivery truck, but by then Joe has lost his job. “Thanks for nothing,” he utters contemptuously.

We learn that Joe fought in World War II hero and saved a man’s life on Iwo Jima. Joe’s grateful pal provides Joe with a tip about Harris’ whereabouts through a third party. What Joe doesn’t realize until he catches up with shifty-eyed Jack Elam is that Foster planned the crime wearing a mask. He almost entrusted each criminal enough money to leave the country until he thinks thing have cooled down enough to divide the loot. None of them knows what Foster looks like and they don’t know what the others look like because Foster forced them to always wear masks in front of each other. “I’ve made you cop-proof and stool-pigeon proof,” Foster brags. He gives them each a tore playing card in case he doesn’t make it to the split-up. Later, Tijuana authorities get the drop on Harris as Joe and he are about to leave for the Central American hamlet of Borados. Harris tries to shoot his way out and dies. Somehow, Joe appropriates Harris’ luggage with the mask and the torn poker card that Foster gave each of them.

What sets “Kansas City Confidential” apart from most B-pictures about the perfect crime is mastermind Tim Foster’s motivation. He spent 20 years on the KCPD and he was forced to retire because of politics. He engineers this perfect crime so that he can weasel his way back into the good graces of the department. Even his daughter has figured out a way for him to get another shot at being a cop. However, Foster has gone beyond the point of no return. Nevertheless, he almost pulls it off. Tracking down Foster and company is no picnic for Joe, but he manages to clear himself in the end rather neatly. Karlson does an outstanding job pacing this little thriller and revealing only a bit at a time. The scene where Joe loses his revolver at the swimming pool and finds himself pitting against Kane and Romano in his bungalow is terrific.

Critically speaking, “Time” magazine observed that “Kansas City Confidential” “combines a ‘perfect crime’ plot with some fair-to-middling moviemaking.” However, the November 10 review added: “After a few brawls and beatings, both justice and love emerge triumphant. Obviously, the ‘confidential’ of the title does not refer to the picture’s plot, which is a very model of transparency.” Meanwhile, “The Nation” magazine on November 8, 1952, opined: “For a fairly good movie you can see “Kansas City Confidential,” which in general burglarizes another burglar movie, “The Asphalt Jungle,” adds a few wrinkles picked up from the Brink robbery, and passes over probability faster than any movie in memory. But unlike any of the above films, it tells a story with gimmicks or short cuts, and all the people involved—director Karlson, actors Elam, Van Cleef, Brand—were not only concerned with the best way to express the material on hand but obviously enjoying themselves.” “The Saturday Review” stipulated that “for all its titular hints at daring political expose, is really just another cops-and-robbers thriller, somewhat better done than most and far more absorbing than many, thanks to its taut and logical story.” “The Saturday Review” went on to say: “There are some surprisingly explicit hints at police brutality, a good deal of gratuitous violence all around. The director, Phil Karlson, keeps his action whipping along at full tilt, aided considerably by George Kiskant’s clean, imaginative camera work. “Newsweek” magazine in its December 8, 1952, review avers that after the set-up for the crime that the film slid down hill. “From this point on George Bruce’s and Harry Essex’s script loses in tension and gains in elaboration and incredibility. The picture never recaptures the cold, fast drama that director Phil Karlson got into the sinister masquerade of the earliest footage.”

Altogether, “Kansas City Confidential” is worth watching again and again.