O Vale do Sangue

Monte Hale appeared in a number of Post-WWII singing cowboy films , of varying quality. The amiable crooner brought a pleasant voice and good ol' boy demeanor to these films. This one is one of his better efforts, with a fine overall result.

Hale does a good job in the role of the lawman impersonator and throws in a few toe-tapping musical interludes as well. Adrian Booth (Lorna Gray) turns in her usual fine performance and has good chemistry with the singer.The script and casting are acceptable, but nothing that would stand out.

All in all, a fine film that represents the non-challenging entertainment that these sort of matinée films were designed for.

Not a classic, but worth a look .......

No good deed goes unpunished it would seem in California Firebrand. Paul Hurst finds Monte Hale afoot shorn of horse and six guns and gives him a lift. Later on they find Dan Sheridan shot in the back and needing medical assistance real bad. Hale goes to town to find some.

But as it turns out Sheridan is a notorious gunslinger brought to town by villains Tris Coffin and Douglas Evans to be town marshal and keep the decent citizens cowered. This is so they can take a valuable piece of mining property owned by Sarah Edwards and her clan.

Hale learns that these people murdered his uncle who tried to help Edwards and her people. But he plays along hoping to find out just what the big picture is with the villains and whatever nefarious schemes they're hatching.

California Firebrand has the look and feel of a Roy Rogers film and in this case with good reason as it is a remake of one of Roy's films from the early Forties Sheriff Of Tombstone. Paul Hurst is every bit as cantankerous an old cuss as Gabby Hayes. And Hale is in good voice himself crooning a couple of cowboy ballads.

Enough action for any front row Saturday matinée kid in 1948. Even though soon they would start to lose that audience to the little screen that would soon start showing westerns in every American home that was rapidly acquiring televisions.

California FIREBRAND (1948) is a Republic Pictures western that was shot in Trucolor, the studio's exclusive two-color process and one that was used chiefly in Republic westerns from 1946 to 1956. Monte Hale, this film's star, made eight westerns in color during his tenure at Republic. The print of this film available for viewing on Amazon Prime is absolutely gorgeous and ranks with the better Trucolor prints of Roy Rogers westerns that I've seen on legit DVD and VHS editions (e.g. THE GOLDEN STALLION). The color values in this film rest on the red-and-blue side of the color spectrum and are a lot easier on the eyes than some of the green-and-orange two-color prints I've seen. The film itself is standard B-western fare, with a satisfactory plot and pleasing bursts of action weighed down by gratuitous comedy relief and an abundance of songs, as befitting the Republic "singing cowboy" format. Hale himself makes an amiable hero, but lacks the intensity and forthrightness one would find in the Trucolor westerns of Roy Rogers and Bill Elliott. There are some effective villains, though, as played by the formidable trio of Tris Coffin, Douglas Evans and LeRoy Mason.

Hale plays a cowboy, also named Monte Hale, who arrives in town looking to meet up with his uncle, only to learn that he's been killed. When Hale is mistaken for a hired gunslinger, he allows the deception to continue, even to the point of being appointed town marshal by the corrupt mayor (Douglas Evans), so that he can find out who killed his uncle. This puts a crimp in the romantic relationship Hale hopes to develop with the lady storekeeper, Joyce Mason (Adrian Booth), whose family is about to be evicted from their land for nonpayment of taxes, all so the mayor and his cronies can get access to the gold vein running under the Mason property. Hale is caught in the middle but eventually comes up with a plan to incriminate the mayor and his secret backer and aid the Masons. However, the real gunslinger, "Gunsmoke" Lowery (Daniel Sheridan), finally shows up and Hale and his partner Chuck (Paul Hurst) have to do some quick thinking.

Songs are provided by Hale singing solo and by musical performer Alice Tyrrell (a delightful brassy blonde who made too few movies) accompanied by the western group, Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage, who would replace Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers as Roy Rogers' musical sidekicks in 13 of Rogers' last 16 Republic westerns, from 1948 to 1951. Paul Hurst makes an excellent gun-toting "old coot" sidekick in the Gabby Hayes mode, but with a little more gravitas and not quite as exaggerated. Adrian Booth is a feisty and attractive brunette leading lady. There are some welcome familiar faces among the bad guys, including Glenn Strange and stuntmen Chuck Roberson and Dave Sharpe. The storyline was adapted from an earlier Roy Rogers western, SHERIFF OF TOMBSTONE (1941), which I still haven't seen. Hale has a pleasant personality and a good singing voice, but the plot here is strong enough to demand a more convincing and charismatic actor in the lead. Still, the Trucolor is so nice to look at I'd gladly watch this again.