The Painted Desert *** (1931, William Boyd, Helen Twelvetrees, William Farnum, Clark Gable, J Farrell MacDonald) – Classic Movie Review 12,285

Writer-director Howard Higgin’s 1931 low-budget Pathé Exchange black and white Western film The Painted Desert stars a pre-Hopalong Cassidy William Boyd as Bill Holbrook, a mining engineer going back to his Painted Desert home to settle a feud between former cowboy buddies – Cash (William Farnum) and Jeff (J Farrell MacDonald).

Years earlier the duo found a baby and fell out over who was to bring him up – Cash (William Farnum) did – and Jeff (J Farrell MacDonald) now has a grown-up daughter in Mary Ellen Cameron (Helen Twelvetrees). Bill Holbrook (Boyd) must win Mary Ellen (Twelvetrees) back from villainous Rance Brett (Clark Gable).

It is fascinating to see Gable as a supporting bad guy. It is Gable’s acting debut in the sound era, released 20 days before MGM’s The Easiest Way (1931), which landed him his MGM contract.

Produced by E B Derr, it was shot mostly on location in Arizona.

Director Higgin, who also co-writes the screenplay with Tom Buckingham, films atmospherically on pretty scenery, with superior cinematography by Edward Snyder, and it is a good cowboy yarn with an explosive climax.

Ninety percent of the film was shot in Arizona, between the Painted Desert in Dinosaur Canyon, and Tuba City, Arizona, as well as an Indian reservation near by.

Also in the cast are Charles Sellon, Hugh Adams, Wade Botelier, Will Walling, Edmund Breese, Edward Hearn, William Le Maire, Richard Cramer, Al St John, Jim Mason, Clem Beauchamp, George Burton, Edgar Dearing, and James Donlan.

Though produced by Pathé Exchange, the film was inherited by RKO Radio Pictures after it bought the studio on 29 January 1931, and it took over its distribution, releasing it on 18 January 1931 only 11 days after the takeover.

It is remade by RKO, much changed, as Painted Desert in 1938, with George O’Brien, Ray Whitley and Laraine Day. RKO cut several action scenes directly from the negative of the first version to put into the remake.

There are many budget public domain releases on VHS and DVD. Though restored for release in 2109, all home video releases are of its edited 75-minute reissue version, missing the action scenes taken for the remake.

It runs 85 minutes or 75 minutes in the edited reissue.

The cast are William Boyd [credited as Bill Boyd] as Bill Holbrook, Helen Twelvetrees as Mary Ellen Cameron, William Farnum as Bill ‘Cash’ Holbrook, J Farrell MacDonald as Jeff Cameron, Clark Gable as Rance Brett, Charles Sellon as Tonopah, Hugh Adams as ‘Dynamite’, Wade Boteler as Bob Carson. ore wagon #1 driver, Will Walling as Kirby, Edmund Breese as Judge Matthews, Guy Edward Hearn as Tex, William Le Maire [William LeMaire] as Denver, Richard Cramer as Provney, Al St John as Buck, Jim Mason, Clem Beauchamp, George Burton, Edgar Dearing, and James Donlan.

The film entered the public domain in the US in 1958 because of the copyright claimants’ failure to renew the copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.

Boyd and Gable narrowly escaped serious injury from falling rock after two tons of explosives went off with huge force in Dinosaur Canyon, some 70 miles northwest of Flagstaff, Arizona. Rocks and boulders rained down between where they were standing 200ft from the blast. Between 12 and 40 actors were seriously injured in a dynamite explosion when the charge went off early during filming, and two crew members were killed. Some 15 technicians were taken to hospitals in Flagstaff and Tuba City, and director Higgin, suffered a broken ankle and various cuts.

The 14-month-old baby playing the infant Bill Holbrook, died on location, of unreleased causes. The infant was Thais Baer was from Glendale, Arizona.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,285

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