Born to the West (1937) Online
Dare Rudd and Dinkey Hooley, roaming cowhands, drift into Montana, where they meet Dare's cousin, Tom Fillmore, cattleman and banker. Tom offers them jobs but they pass, until Dare sees Tom's sweetheart, Judy Worstall and decides to take the job. He is put in charge of a cattle drive, replacing ranch-foreman Lynn Hardy, who is in cahoots with Bart Hammond, rustler. Dare delivers the cattle to the railhead and is about to return when he is persuaded into a poker game by Buck Brady, a crooked gambler. Dare is almost cleaned out when Tom appears and takes a hand and discovers the dealer is switching decks.
Complete credited cast: | |||
John Wayne | - | Dare Rudd | |
Marsha Hunt | - | Judy Worstall | |
Johnny Mack Brown | - | Tom Fillmore (as John Mack Brown) | |
John Patterson | - | Lynn Hardy | |
Monte Blue | - | Bart Hammond | |
Lucien Littlefield | - | Cattle Buyer |
Due to a studio clerical error, Alan Ladd was credited for an appearance in this film. He does not, in fact, appear in it. By the time it was re-released, Ladd had become a prominent and popular player, so his name was prominently displayed, often receiving equal billing right along with John Wayne, not only on all the re-titled advertising material, but also in most television program schedules once telecasts began.
On its first reissue, the company added random stock footage of cattle drives, chases, and stampedes to bring the running time to over an hour.
This is one of 20 Zane Grey stories, filmed by Paramount in the 1930s, which they sold to Favorite Films for re-release, circa 1950-1952. The failure of Paramount, the original copyright holder, to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
The player-piano version of "You're the One I Crave" heard during the poker game is the same recording heard in the speakeasy scene of The Marx Brothers' Horse Feathers (1932), which also features Syd Saylor.
Re-titled "Hell Town," this film was first telecast in New York City Friday 8 January 1954 on WCBS (Channel 2), in Detroit Sunday 7 February 1954 on WXYZ (Channel 7), in Los Angeles Sunday 20 June 1954 on KNBH (Channel 4); in San Francisco it was first broadcast Thursday 3 March 1955 on KPIX (Channel 5).
Re-titled 'Hell Town' by Favorite Films for its 1950 re-release, this film was often shown in tandem with the re-release of The Thundering Herd (1933), re-titled 'Buffalo Stampede'.
The opening theme music can also be heard in the Harold Lloyd picture The Milky Way (1936).
Marsha Hunt and James Craig later co-starred in The Human Comedy (1943).
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