Sheriff of Las Vegas (1944)

Posted on Dec 19, 2007 under Kidvid, Western |

Directed by Lesley Selander
Written by Norman S. Hall
Starring
- William “Wild Bill” Elliott
- “Bobby” (Robert) Blake)
- Alice Fleming
- Peggy Stewart
- Selmer Jackson

And we’re back for another adventure with Red Ryder and Little Beaver, again played by William “Wild Bill” Elliott and Bobby (later known as Robert) Blake. That’s notable, because four actors played Red Ryder in the twenty-eight features produced about the character in the ’40s, accompanied by three different Little Beavers.

Also along for the ride are the Duchess (Alice Fleming), Red’s aunt, and schoolteacher Ann (Peggy Stewart), boarding at the Duchess’ ranch. Which is in… Las Vegas? In the last Red Ryder feature we covered, everyone was living happily in the environs of Dodge City. If this were merely the tale of an itinerant cowpuncher and his Indian sidekick, then they could show up just about anywhere in the American West and I wouldn’t say boo, but the presence of the Duchess’ ranch makes it harder to be peripatetic. I’m starting to believe that the Hollywood writers who cranked these things out either believed that the Old West took place in an area fifty miles square, or thought that their juvenile audience believed that and had no wish to disabuse them of their truncated awareness of geography.

“Oh Ann, every woman gets that not-so-fresh feeling sometimes…”

This time out, the inciting incident to the story is, yup, a bank robbery in town, with the desperadoes riding off with the loot just as Red and the rest of his housemates get to town. The sheriff is one of the first people to catch a bullet, so Red steps in and starts shooting down robbers, then rides out in pursuit of them until he kills the robbers whose saddlebags hold the money. He’s a peaceable man, as he makes sure to mention at least once each movie, but he’s also a crack shot.

So impressed is territorial Judge Blackmore (John Hamilton) with Red’s performance that he appoints him interim sheriff until they can get another one properly elected. And that means that Red’s going to be there when the two main sides of the plot start coming together.

On the one side, the two surviving bankrobbers report to a man named Dan Sedley (William Haade) about their failure. You can tell he’s no Dark Lord because he doesn’t snap their necks while berating their incompetence. No, Sedley’s going to snoop around town to feel out Red’s stand on things.

Hasn’t yet put his eye out.

On the other side, Judge Blackmore’s son Tom (Jay Kirby) is a boy in a man’s body, spending his dead mother’s inheritance on drink and other tomfoolery. Schoolteacher Ann is in love with Tom, but the Judge, alas, is not, and arranges with the banker Stanton (Selmer Jackson) to rewrite his will and kick Tom’s butt to the curb. (And just to make sure that all of our main characters are involved, Judge Blackmore asks the Duchess to act as his witness.)

And how do these two situations converge? Well, Mr. Stanton goes to find Tom to urge a reconciliation before the Judge is supposed to sign the new will at 9pm. And when he explains this to Tom, the latter is sitting a card table with… Sedley. Yup, the wrong person is getting all the right information.

So later that evening, Tom goes over to the Judge’s office for the supposed reconciliation, though father and son end up Alpha-Maling at each other, and Tom leaves in a huff. No sooner is he gone than Sedley slips in and shoots the Judge, hoping to pin it easily on Tom.

At least Batman and Robin never went THIS far.

And it would be easy, really. With so many people willing to attest to the general bad blood between the two, plus the immanent threat of disinheritance which Stanton admits he warned Tom of… Looks prit-tee bad.

Bound to do his duty, newly-minted Sheriff Ryder easily tracks Tom out to the Duchess’ ranch where Tom is visiting Ann and takes him into custody. But something doesn’t strike Red right; he knows Tom as a callow wastrel, but not a murderer. So he takes it upon himself to find the real killer (even if he has to search every golf course in the Los Angeles area! Wait, that’s someone else). He also has to deflect the sentiment that Sedley is starting to stir up; afraid that Ryder might actually uncover some evidence to exonerate Tom, Sedley charges that Ryder’s a conniver in league with Tom, and that only a good old-fashioned lynching will answer the ends of justice.

You may notice an odd thematic similarity to the previous Red Ryder feature I covered, Vigilantes of Dodge City (1994); there as well, Red Ryder got himself into a criminal conspiracy (though this time out, the reasons for Sedley’s actions — and who he’s really working for — are played close to the vest until the end). The biggest departure is in how Little Beaver is used. You may have noticed his absence from the plot described above; he does come slightly into play in the last reel, though he never contributes as much as any of the rest of the cast. So what’s his sidekicky purpose here? Why, comic relief, of course! And more than just his lame “Little Beaver makum heap big helper!” diction. No, whenever things start slowing down otherwise, Little Beaver does something wacky:

“Jumpin’ tarnation, didn’t ANY of your mamas ever tell you to take your hat off inside?”

- We first see him when he’s just been knocked into a grain bin, with the sluice dumping on his head! Hah!

- When he and Red run into the robbers just coming out of the bank, Little Beaver dives from his pony into the water trough and holds his breath until the shooting’s stopped! Hah! Comedy!

- Once Red is made sheriff, he shows Little Beaver how “man-hobbles” — handcuffs — work, by cuffing him! Hah! (Then Little Beaver cuffs the Duchess, and extorts extra dessert from her! Double-hah!) (And then when Ann finds “Deputy” Little Beaver playing hooky in the sheriff’s office, she cuffs him to drag him off to school! Triple-hah!)

- Once in school, Little Beaver doesn’t know the name of the U.S. President during the Civil War, so he has to wear a dunce cap — right over his feathered headband! Hah! And then when another student flings a spitwad at him, he responds by pulling out his throwing knife and SKEWERING THE OTHER KID’S TEXTBOOK! (Take THAT, all you zero-tolerance types!)

“Here! Let me round out your education!”

Yeah, I know, there’s almost no place for the real story in between the moments of hilarity. But no one expected or expects depth out of Red Ryder features; give us some horse-riding (check), some good shooting (check), and at least one good knock-down-drag-out fistfight (check — demolishing the desks in the schoolhouse along the way), and we’re happy.