Rocky Mountain Mystery

Rocky Mountain Mystery (1935)

** (out of 4)

Randolph Scott stars in this "B" picture, which is based on a story by Zane Grey. In the film Scott has to go to a small mining town where murders are taking place for what appears to be a possible future inheritance. Scott must battle the bad guys, find out who the killer is and romance Ann Sheridan. This is a rather strange film that mixed with Western and Mystery genres together but the end result isn't as good as one would hope. The biggest problem are the incredibly low production values, which usually leaves all the action to one small place. There's never any scope to the film and the low budget doesn't leave much that the cast can do. In fact it seems like the budget is so low that they can't really do much of anything except talk. The mystery itself isn't too interesting but Scott does make the film worth watching. He's certainly not his classic self here but he is good enough for the film. Sheridan is decent in her role but still a little rough around the edges. This was director Barton's third film and of course he's go on to do several Abbott and Costello films. He handles the material here pretty well even though he doesn't have too much to work with.