Where the West Begins

Back in the 1930s, Robert Livingston was a B-western stars-- appearing in many of his own films as well as in the Three Mesquiteer series. He had a handsome brother, Addison Randall, who also wanted to be a cowboy star but he had a very bumpy road. Although he could sing nicely (the number one requirement for any cowboy), he never caught on and was soon appearing in smaller and smaller roles.

"Where the West Begins" is one of Randall's starring vehicles--and it helps show why Randall never became a household name. Although he isn't terrible in the film, the writing is so bad that I don't think folks cared if Randall was in the lead or not--they just wanted to see a better picture!

So what's wrong with this one? Well, any movie that requires you to accept that many of the characters are complete idiots has a huge strike against it! First, there is the woman who is thinking about selling her ranch and moving East. She has lots of reasons not to-- especially when Jack (Randall) warns her that the guy buying the property has ulterior motives and she should re-think the notion of selling to him. Instead of investigating further, she screams at Jack and treats him like dirt. Second, you have the Sheriff--and rarely has such an incompetent moron ever been on the screen. Twice he receives phone calls* saying that someone has committed a crime and should be arrested. With no other evidence, he locks folks up-- just based on fake phone calls! I especially love it when he declares 'we have plenty of proof'--when the only 'proof' is an anonymous call! As for the townsfolk, they aren't any better--they want to hang the hero based just on one phone call! What is with these idiots?! The bottom line is that this is a sloppily written film with one dimensional idiots as characters and a script that just never seems realistic or interesting. Easy to skip.

*Yes, this is a western and they use phones. These B-movies were an odd lot back in the 30s and 40s as many were filled with cars, trucks and phones! Not exactly the old west, huh?