Shooting Straight

It borders on tragedy (for true film buffs, at any rate) that there aren't more Richard Dix films shown on TCM, and that the ones that are shown are mostly from the latter portion of his career (though there are a few gems there such as Death Ship). While not a Clark Gable or Spencer Tracy leading man, Dix had a special quality about him that gave many of his films an almost riveting simplicity and directness right out of the comkic strips of the day. The guy looked like the role model for Dick Tracy and Captain Easy. When his hair was slicked back against his scalp (Wildroot Cream Oil?) he looked positively two-dimensional: no-nonsense rugged and solid, nothing pretty pretty about him. When the bad guys worked him over, he had the mane of a wild man. With a hat on he was Dick Tracy's double.

In this film he gets to display all the best traits of a 1930s lead: He's smart with is adversaries, generous with his friends, compassionate with gentle folk and tough as nails with his enemies.

The plot is simple and generic as a biblical tale, moves along at a brisk pace, serves its purpose, which is to demonstate the workings of Good vs. Evil.

One thing did stand out for me. In a key scene on a train when he is leaving behind some unpleasant business, he introduces himself to a stranger as "Mr. Farnsbarns". The name rang a bell; I could hear another familar voice from the past saying it. Watching the remainder of the film, I churned through my mental vault of old films but it wasn't until I looked up the name online that I came up with Ricardo Cortez in The Phantom of Crestwood in which he spends the first half of that movie introducing himself as Mr. Farnsbarns. Phantom turned out to be directed by the same man as Shooting Straight: J. Walter Ruben. Turns out he directed another Richard Dix movie in which Boris Karloff temporarily identified himself as Mr. Farnsbarns.

Gotta love it.