Thunder in the Desert

Bob Steele is riding the rails out to the west, where his uncle has been killed and he is to inherit the ranch. Along the way he picks up comic sidekick Don Barclay, and convinces sheriff Horace Murphy that he's in a gang of outlaws. As a result, he has the credentials to join the gang that's been destroying the ranch in this randomly-named western.

Since Steele had moved to Republic Pictures, his vehicles had become better organized than they had been under his father, Robert Bradbury, but much more standard. His athleticism had been a feature of his early talkies. Now he doesn't get to do an interesting dismount from his horse until five minutes before the movie's end, and he doesn't bust loose until until his fistfight with the top bad guy at the very end. It's a better made movie, but it's far more standard.

Director Sam Newfield certainly knew how to direct for speed when given a Republic budget. This one moves along at a good clip. He may have ranked higher when he and his brother formed PRC the next year, but the budgets there were at starvation levels.

I was curious about a couple of the co-stars. Don Barclay, who I'd never heard of, was an accomplished comedian and dialectician. He played a rather comedic sidekick to Bob Steele in this outing, and was the weak link in the chain for the film. Still, he had plenty of talent; it's just that this sort of character is a thing of the past. On the other hand, the baddie all dressed in black, Ed Brady, playing a character simply known as Reno, was a slick baddie - again, someone I'd never heard of. Well, Ed Brady made films beginning at least as far back as 1911, and the IMDb has him in at least 357 films! These guys really did work for a living!!

Louise Stanley had almost nothing to do. In the end - a ridiculous ending, may I add - it looks like she and Bob Steele are going to be possibly married: ridiculous, because she had been engaged to the guy who turned out to be the real baddie of the piece; so, how did this other love come about? Oh, well, it was a thirties "B" Western, and it played, as I already said, fine for the hour I watched. It's not something that really lends itself to repeat viewings.

"Thunder in the Desert' is another Sam Newfield directed film, and indeed shows once again how a fairly familiar story can be gussied up and reworked a bit and made highly enjoyable when a competent and veteran cast does their work from within a thought-out framework. One just feels comfortable with Bob Steele leading the cast with his earnest and expressive acting. There is no fat or filler in this film, where every scene means something. Just don't expect the title to mean anything.

The unusual opening segment sets the tone well, breaking as it does from the majority of B-western films which often open with a furious chase on horseback, or else a rider (maybe with a partner) horsing it along the trail. I really appreciated the unusual opening scene. There was also a much appreciated and unique, and subtle, too, dream scene for Steele's sidekick Don Barclay. Now if one is a Louise Stanley fan, and there may be some, don't come to this movie with great expectations. She has in this program one of the least important leading lady roles one could imagine.

This is very much an outdoor picture, with relatively little happening in interesting interior settings, and although it was made in 1938, when music in westerns was becoming standard, this film thankfully doesn't have any annoying and manipulative musical score. In sum, "Thunder in the Desert" is a nifty, well-paced adventure and will likely be satisfying for Bob Steele and B-western fans.

Start with an excellent cast in a fair story with a good mix of locations, including a railroad boxcar, the outdoors West, and a ranch, with some funny scenes -- right up to the end -- and not excessive violence, surprisingly well directed by Sam Newfield.

Bob Steele was a very good actor, but he was a great cowboy, and maybe an even greater action star. (I always loved watching him in a fight scene, and wondered how he would have fared as a boxer -- between movies.)

He was also a very good-looking man, and a viewer will see all those assertions proved in this movie.

Horace Murphy is not quite believable as a tough sheriff, but he is usually acceptable in any role. He disappointed me in one scene because he mounted his horse like a dude, not a Westerner.

Budd Buster, though, gives a superlative performance as the sheriff's bumbling deputy. Beautifully underplayed, showing skill by him and the director.

Assorted bad guys switch from clowns to serious menacers, always believably, and all of them give great performances.

As a fan of Charles, here Charlie, King, I loved watching him in this role from his slender youth. I think he is generally revered, but I don't know if he really gets his due as an actor.

In one fight, I wonder if he and his opponent (I won't say who) didn't get actually injured. Beautifully realistic with two of the ablest action stars in Hollywood history.

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