Rocky Mountain Mystery

Randolph Scott is a mining engineer, with a letter to a dying mine owner, who has radium on his property. He meets deputy sheriff Chic Sales, who's trying to figure out what happened to an unidentified body. Scott goes on, and meets the bedridden George Marion, and his family, gathered around for his death. Then they start dying... and the will says that if they predecease him, their shares go to the survivors; they begin dying and disappearing, leaving Sales and Scott to figure out who is killing them.

It's a very good mystery, one of the Zane Grey westerns that Paramount was producing in this period, with some nice location shooting near Big Bear Lake, and a large stamping mill that portends a nice melodramatic ending. Sales has never been better, and it's hardly surprising, because there are some nice, long-lived performers for him to compete with: not only Marion, but Florence Roberts in a small role, and Mrs. Leslie Carter in a large one.

Charles Barton would not rank as anyone's idea of a great director, but he handles his cast and the settings very nicely, for a nice, creepy movie.

Rocky Mountain Mystery exists in that parallel universe where the old west never really ended but continued on well into the nineteen-thirties and forties, usually inhabited by Gene Autry, Roy Rodgers, Tex Ritter, and sometimes even a very young John Wayne.

The characters ride horses, use oil lamps to light their way, and seemingly live a frontier existence under territorial law, all with six-guns on their hips. The viewer either forgets or is unaware that this is supposed to take place in modern times when suddenly the cowboys encounter modern cars, telephones, radio, and electricity. I sometimes wonder if the depression era children who were the films' main audience actually believed the west was really like this.

This is an above average B-western and a great example of what modern experts are calling "horror western" due to their odd plots and sadistic mystery villains. I prefer to call them mystery or suspense westerns.

Rocky Mountain Mystery effectively mixes an Old Dark House plot with frontier themes. It's not as chilling as I'd like but it does have a creepy fiend dressed in black complete with gloves, hat, and cape; a killer that prefers to crush heads in a hydraulic press but isn't afraid to menace a pretty girl with a straight razor either! The ending is quite surprising and well plotted.

Randolph Scott at this point in his career when he wasn't doing other films was learning the western genre in a series of films that Paramount's B unit was doing from Zane Grey novels. In this particular one, Rocky Mountain Mystery, Grey tried his hand at a detective story and skilfully combined the genres.

Randy's a mining engineer, but he's turning amateur sleuth to find out what's happened to his brother-in-law, who no one has heard from. Upon arriving at the scene he meets deputy sheriff Chic Sale who's investigating the murder of the owner of a mine. The two of them decide to join forces.

The film is set in the contemporary west, at least the contemporary west of when Zane Grey wrote the story. There's reference to Chic Sale's son killed in the Great War and how Scott reminds him of his late son. When these two arrive at the mine, there's a lot of interesting people living there.

As it turns out there's quite an intricate scheme working there of which the homicide is only one aspect. I wish this film had been given a bigger budget and the A treatment because the film had potential.

Young Ann Sheridan is the female lead, this is probably one of her first films in that regard, she'd be signed by Warner Brothers next year.

However the important reason to see the film is the appearance of one of the great stage stars of the last centuries and notorious personalities. Mrs. Leslie Carter (and that's how she was billed) has the role of family matriarch of the clan at the mine and even in her old age you can tell what a beauty she was back then. Her acting is also decent, no exaggerated stage mannerisms from back in her day when she learned her craft from David Belasco.

Her divorce from her husband was one of the great scandals of the day. Divorce back in her time was scandalous in and of itself. She was left penniless by the divorce, but Belasco seeking to capitalize on her notoriety, took her under his wing and trained her in the thespian arts. People exploiting their celebrity, some things never change. You can see her story in the film, The Lady With Red Hair starring Miriam Hopkins and Claude Rains.

By the way she was billed under her former married name to take advantage of the fact that was how the public knew her and to stick it to her ex.

Even without Mrs. Leslie Carter, Rocky Mountain Mystery is a decent film, I wish had been given better production values by Paramount.

Wow, that stamping machine that pounds raw ore into dust may be the star of the show. It's scary as heck as a few unfortunates find out. The plot's an okay whodunit, taking place in modern age boondocks, sort of a mixture of six-guns and Ford flivvers. Then too, how about those run-down shacks and interiors, including the monster ore house that's a real eye-catcher. These amount to real old movie oddities.

Cast-wise, there's a sneaky family of suspects to choose from, with Mrs. Borg looking like Frankenstein's mother as the likeliest candidate. Too bad Scott-- still early in his outstanding career-- has little more to do than stand around like a handsome hunk. In short, he's wasted. Instead it's Chic Sale who gets the screen time for a series of mostly amusing antics as a deputy sheriff, no less. Whether his role appeals to viewers, however, is likely a matter of taste. Also, should mention Ann Sheridan as the sweet ingénue, still a long way from the sassy hussies she perfected over at Warner Bros.

Anyway, the plot may not be anything special, but many of the visuals are, thanks to what the pro's call "mise-en-scene". Then too, I'm glad Scott went on from his near nothing role here to the great Boetticher westerns of the 50's and 60's. So, all in all, give this novelty a try.

this is a pretty good western.but it's not just a western.it's also a mystery.actually it's probably more of a mystery than a western.it's short clocking in at around 65 minutes,but it's a pretty good movie.it stars Randolph Scott,Anne Sheridan,Kathleen Burke,Florence Roberts,Howard Wilson,Charles 'Chic' Sale,Mrs.Leslie carter,George F. Marion,among others.i thought it was well done.it had a nice atmosphere,and wasn't wholly predictable.the acting was good by all concerned,and the story was interesting,but similar to another western i remember seeing.though i can't recall weather this movie came out before that one or not.by similar story,i don't mean the general outline and formula that most westerns follow.i mean that some of the story details and specifics are similar.regardless,i liked it.for me,The Fighting Westerner is a 6/10