Marshal of Heldorado

According to the aphorism, "No one in Hollywood sets out to make a bad movie."

It wants to be true, even though thousands of bad movies HAVE been made.

"Marshal of Heldorado" has a lot going for it: very talented cast members, good scenery, good photography, and a good print at YouTube.

Alas, like all the rest of the world, the script needed a much better editor!

In fact, the final print also needed a better editor.

Things happen that just plain shouldn't. That, in fact, couldn't.

For example, in one chase scene, the chaser suddenly is not only ahead of the chasee, but he's managed to climb a tree and somehow just happens to be right where the chasee will ride exactly underneath!

As I understand, this stock company -- of, again, excellent performers -- produced several movies at one time.

Surely it would have been easy for actors, directors, and the rest of the crews to get confused as to which script they were supposed to be following. Maybe the writers, if such there were, got confused also.

Anyway, I don't tell anyone "Don't see this film" because I like the people in it. But they sure hit a clinker this time.

The team of James Ellison and Russell Hayden and their stock company star in Marshal of Heldorado for Lippert Pictures. In this one Jimmy Ellison poses as an eastern dude to bring in the notorious Tulliver Brothers who are terrorizing a local town. Actually Ellison is of course a US Marshal and a deadly shot.

Which he doesn't need in dispatching the first two Tullivers who obligingly shoot themselves, but with Hayden's bragging help it does give Ellison a reputation of a man to be feared.

All the Ellison/Hayden films for Lippert were remakes of other poverty row westerns in this case one that starred Bob Steele. I think Bob's version is slightly better because Hayden's role was kind of shoehorned into the film.

I am very grateful for the review by bkoganbing, which enlightened me as to the existence of a James Ellison-Russell Hayden team which exploited/spoofed other Westerns.

I must say that Ellison is in very good form here, always with a friendly smile but ready to punch if the push comes to the shove, as happens with two Tulliver brothers who shoot each other in the process. Physically, Ellison even reminds me of Clark Kent as personified by Christopher Reeve some 25 years later. That resemblance deepens with the knowledge that he is in Heldorado Town passing off as an unarmed and jobless nerd when in fact he is a gun-ready US Marshall coming by to rid the place of the nefarious Tulliver gang.

I like the comical touches about the film, notably when the main Tulliver villain receives Ellison in his tonsorial den. He covers Ellison's face with a towel and goes through his pockets and hat, establishing Ellison's identity and rank as US Marshall. Armed with that information and a sharp barber's knife, the baddie is poised to slit the marshall's throat as the mayor happily and unwittingly strides in. Ellison actually apologizes for the inconvenience caused to the barber by the intruder!

Lovely Julie (Betty in the credits) Adams is the love interest but another thorn threatens to burst the happy bubble: her daddy is in league with the Tulliver cutthroats.

Thankfully, no muss or fuss: in-form Ellison lays the whole matter to rest without any excessive force and only a few corpses among genial exchanges between the leads and the rest, goodies or baddies.

I really enjoyed this C pic from Lippert, which opens with four horsemen riding their beasts in a manner that may well have inspired the famous introduction to the Bonanza series which began in 1959.