BY JOHN M. WHALEN
Kino Classics and the film preservationists at France’s
Lobster Films have dug up three interesting, if obscure, old “classics†that,
if nothing else, definitely would have qualified for presentation on Art Fern’s
old Tea Time Movie skits from Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show". Names like Helen Twelvetrees, William Farnum, J. Farrell
MacDonald, Lowell Sherman, Wade Boteler, Louis Wolheim, and Evelyn Brent appear
in the films gathered together here on one disc under the title, “RKO Classic
Adventures.â€
The first is “The Painted Desert†(1931) starring Helen
Twelvetrees and Bill Boyd (who at this early date had not yet played Hopalong
Cassidy, and went by Bill rather than William). The story starts out as a cross
between John Ford’s “3 Godfathers†and Sam Peckinpah’s “Ballad of Cable Hogue.â€
Cash Holbrook (William Farnum) and Jeff Cameron (J. Farrell MacDonald) are two
cowboys who discover an abandoned wagon in the Arizona desert containing a baby
boy. The two argue over who will take care of him, with Holbrook pulling a gun
on his partner and riding off with the infant. Cameron intends to stay put on
the spot where he found the boy because it’s got the only water between town
and the railroad. Years go by and the two men become bitter enemies. Cameron
married and had a daughter, Mary (Helen Twelvetrees), while Holbrook raised the
boy, now called Bill. You don’t need much imagination to figure out what’s
going to happen with this set up. However, a complication arises, when Clark
Gable, in his first talkie appearance, shows up as a drifter named Rance Brett and
takes a job on Cameron’s spread. He has eyes for Mary. There’s an interesting
subplot regarding a mining operation that unites the two old enemies
temporarily only to have it blow up in their faces, literally.
“The Pay-Off†(1930) is, as Kino’s liner notes say, “a cool-minded
gangster movie directed by and starring Lowell Sherman as an honorable mobster
in a dishonorable racket.†Sherman was a popular star in the silent era and on
stage, often playing suave villains. He directed films starring Katharine
Hepburn and Greta Garbo. In “The Pay-Off,†he’s Gene Fenmore, the head of a
jewelry heist ring. His main problem is keeping control of his gang. His
leadership is being challenged by younger and ruthless rival, Rocky (Hugh
Trevor). Rocky has no scruples about robbing a young couple he accosts in a
park when he learns they have $250 they intend to use to get married. The kids
turn the tables on him however because they recognize him and follow him to
Fenmore’s apartment where the gang is meeting (Pretty nervy of them, I’d say!) The kids bumble the attempt to get
their money back and Rocky wants to waste them but Fenmore has a soft spot for
the youngsters and takes them under his wing. Things go bad when Rocky, unknown
to Fenmore, turns the young couple into the fall guys in a jewelry store heist.
It’s a lot of sentimental hooey from there, but has a certain charm.