Heritage of the Desert

This solid Zane Grey western gets its third and final treatment on the big screen when Harry Sherman producer and Lesley Selander director took a break from Hopalong Cassidy westerns and did this version of Heritage Of The Desert. They even brought along Russell Hayden taking a break from the Hoppy series and playing Lucky Jenkins.

This film starts in the east where Donald Woods who's been something of a wastrel has been told his old man's fortune has dissipated and the properties worthless. He decides to go out west and investigate and for his troubles he gets shot down by Paul Fix working for C. Henry Gordon who manages the estate for Woods's late father.

From that position Gordon has been muscling in on a lot of other ranchers including Robert Barrat and his daughter Evelyn Venable and fourth and only surviving son Russell Hayden. They rescue Woods from quicksand after Fix shot him and he heals up and learns a few western skills at the same time. They prove handy and Woods proves he has the right stuff.

The second version of this tale starred Randolph Scott in 1932 and next to Randolph Scott, Donald Woods does not match up as a western hero. In fact he's a competent actor with a rather bland personality. Still this Zane Grey story sells itself on the big screen.

By "great cast," players of no great fame these days, I mean actors of talent and ability.

Zane Grey often badly over-wrote his stories including dialog, but Norman Houston, the script writer of "Heritage of the Desert" has put together a thoroughly believable story and dialog, apparently with the help of "additional dialogue" by Harrison Jacobs.

About 20 minutes in, the female lead, played by Evelyn Venable, explains why her family, despite the vicious opposition by the bad guys, intends to stay put, to remain on the land they have reclaimed from the desert.

Her face and her verbalizing feel so true, especially, perhaps, to me because I too love the desert and I understand very well what she means.

Russell Hayden plays the brother. He was a good-looking and very likable actor who sometimes seemed to have trouble enunciating. Here he is as close to perfect in his performance as any actor can be.

There are some wonderful relationships to watch in "Heritage," presented in poignant fashion, and not something we usually find, or find so beautifully done, in a B western. Or in any movie.

Watch, especially, "Father Naab," the daddy, Andy, played so well by Robert Barratt.

Bad guy "Nebraska" is another absolute wonder. Actor Willard Robertson has what might be his best-ever role, and does he play it to the hilt. This is an eye-opening performance.

Donald Woods is the nominal star. He is a nice-looking, mild man, a very good actor as a city boy trying to fit into the Wild West. This is a different role for him, to my knowledge, and he plays it as if he's done it a thousand times.

"Nosey" "I didn't learn how in no college" is played so beautifully by Sidney Toler, I had to look twice at the IMDb credit listing. I've never seen him in a role like this and he is just marvelous.

Either Nosey or Nebraska could be said to have stolen this movie, their roles are that good.

Paul Fix is just superlative as the breezy "Chick Chance," a happy killer and all-round bad guy. When given the chance to let his personality out, Mr. Fix can mesmerize.

Paul Guilfoyle has a really difficult role as "Snap." You will have mixed emotions about him, but I won't say more. No spoiler from me. But he does an excellent job with his character. He seems to be a trained stage actor and handled this part really well. (I plan now to read his bio here at IMDb.)

Lesley Selander is one of the great pro directors. There is one director flaw here, involving a box of dynamite, but try not to notice. It doesn't hurt the movie, just Mr. Selander's reputation for perfection.

Camera angles and editing merely add one more layer to the excitement.

All in all, from major to minor player, to the story, the dialog, the scenery, this is a great motion picture. I want to see other versions later, partly to compare, partly to enjoy again the story. And I highly recommend this 1939 version, which is available at YouTube.

Donald Woods is broke, except for some property out west, so he goes out to see what he can do with it. C. Henry Gordon, who has been running it for his own benefit, sends out Paul Fix to kill him. Fix lays him low, but he is rescued by the Naab clan and nursed back to health, although they don't know his name. He falls in love with Evelyn Venable, who is to marry Paul Guilfoyle, who has been betraying their interests to Gordon for money to buy liquor.

This B version of the Zane Grey story tries to tell the story, but what it largely does is betray it's a lot more complicated than the format allowed by producer Harry Sherman's budget. Nonetheless, he spends some money on elegant helicopter shots, and in showig us brief glimpses of highly conflicted characters among the outright sinners and would-be saints. Sidney Toler appears without his usual Charlie Chan make-up to show us a humorous and honorable fellow, and Willard Robertson offers a brief glimpse of a man who is a fighter, but not a killer. These two make me wish for a fuller version of the story. Alas, It has yet to be made.

I picked up this Western, which is based on a Zane Grey novel, because Sidney Toler was in it. I had seen a few other pre-Chan Tolers and liked them. This is a superior Western even though the lead actor (Donald Woods as John Abbott) is somewhat bland. But the script is outstanding mostly because it's not a black and white look at good and evil – there are grays even in a couple of the "bad" guys' characters and flaws in the good guys. John Abbott heads out west because he has lost his entire fortune/inheritance except for some property there. He is ambushed by the psychotic Chick Chance (no gray here – this thug seems to enjoy killing) who was hired by the corrupt manager, Holderness, of Abbott's western business holdings. He survives the attack and is nursed back to full strength by the rancher Andrew Naab and his son, daughter and ranch hand (Toler). Barrat as Naab plays a good man beset by problems as Holderness is using murder to try and get his land. His sense of honor sometimes goes too far – he insists that his daughter, played by Evelyn Venables, marry the ranch hand Snap Thornton because he had promised Thornton that he could marry her (??). She has fallen in love with the more personable John Abbott – and he with her - and runs away on her wedding day. A good script and a solid cast make this a much better than average Western.

Donald Woods, a newly broke, eastern schooled geologist goes west to find out if there's money to be had in his business holdings, currently managed by vicious crooks. Blown off a cliff by a hired killer, he's saved when he lands in quicksand and patched up by an oppressed family with the same enemies, leading to a love-triangle involving the daughter and her fiancé, a jealous, deceitful hired-hand, who happens to be a spy for the villains.

A typically entertaining entry in Paramount's Zane Grey series, well directed by Lesley Selander, this doesn't have the star power of earlier films, but the story's solid and the script well-written. Production values are pretty good too.

A personable cast is headed by the likable Woods, with excellent support by Robert Barrat as the noble family patriarch, Evelyn Venable (the original model for the Columbia Pictures logo) as his daughter, and Willard Robertson in a limited but fascinating role as a hired gun that despite his being employed by the bad guys, insists on keeping his own code of honor intact.

One of the film's triumphs is that you actually care about these characters. The rousing climax is quite satisfying too.

Recommended.