Cowboys vs. Gangsters!

Sometimes, you just gotta watch a movie!

I caught the end of the 1932 RKO film Men of America on TCM recently. I was just in time for the finale, in which William Boyd (not playing Hopalong Cassidy) leads a group of cowboys into combat against big-city gangsters armed with tommy guns.
Cowboys vs. Gangsters? I need to see this film in its entirety. There is--clearly--no other option.

Since I'm getting married soon, I no longer have free will. But my girlfriend is awesome and agreed to the purchase of the DVD. Which, by the way, is a double-feature disc with a movie featuring a riverboat captain fighting Tartar bandits. Gee whiz, it literally can't get any better than this!

Men of America has a run time of 57 minutes, but (like all good B-movies) wastes no time in setting up its premise and establishing its characters. A quick montage shows us that Smokey Joe Miller, now the elderly owner of a general store and the local "character," had a long career during the days of the Wild West fighting Indians and outlaws.

It's a good way to start things off. Smokey is played by Chic Sale, who is best known for comic roles. Playing Smokey in a comedic manner is appropriate to the story and the character, but its important for us to know that he really does have the chops to stand up to bad guys in a fight.

Smokey has a granddaughter named Anne (played by Dorothy Wilson, who is pretty in that unique way that only women in the 1920s and early 1930s ever were). Anne is in love with a newcomer to the area--Jim Parker (Boyd), a vet of the Great War who is trying to make a go of a goat ranch. He's still dirt poor at the moment, so isn't quite ready to pop the question to Anne.

Like most B-movie and serial Westerns set in "modern day," the setting is still in many ways the Old West. Despite the presence of cars and telephones, old-fashioned cattle ranching and cowboys toting six-guns and Winchesters are still common. Smokey and Jim are meant to represent the Old versus the New, but Jim is as much a traditional cowboy as Hopalong Cassidy would be.

But the new-fangled world is creeping in. Things get dangerous when a criminal gang begins hiding out nearby. These are escapees from Leavenworth who have also robbed a bank. But the take from the bank is all easily traceable $1000 bills, so the crooks are essentially broke. They get by via stealing supplies and foods from local ranchers.

Jim, being a newcomer, is suspected of the thefts. And when the gangsters eventually kill a man, circumstances make Jim look guilty. But, by golly, whether or not he's yet Hopalong Cassidy, William Boyd has presence. He faces down a potential lynch mob and is soon leading them into battle against the gangsters.

In the meantime, Anne has been kidnapped by the gangsters. When Jim and Smokey manage to obtain sniper position and take out a few tommy gunners, the lead gangster tries to use Anne as a shield while he escapes. It's up to Jim to make a perfect rifle shot in order to save the girl he loves.

This movie is more fun than a barrel of tommy guns. It makes good use of location photography, gives us inherently likeable actors to play the protagonists, and then proceeds to tell its story with style and skill. It even has a thematic idea running through it as the ways of the Old West clash with more modern things.

It does suffer from chronic Red Shirt syndrome, as several (mostly) unnamed locals get killed in the final battle, but are quickly forgotten once the gangsters are defeated. But that, in the end, is a minor quibble. Men of America is a prime example of why I love the B-movies from this era and will defend them to my dying day as quality storytelling.