Border Cafe (1937)

 

Last week, we looked at the short story "In the Mexican Quarter," by Tom Gill. Today, we'll look at the movie based on that story, 1937's Border Cafe.

The original story is indeed short and fairly straightforward. Billy Whitney is driven to drink and runs away to Texas because he feels he can't live up to his family's expectations. He redeems himself at the end by single-handedly pursuing rustlers.

Well, the movie is only 67 minutes long, but still needed to expand upon the original story. Billy's name is changed to Keith--I have no idea why--and we get a few scenes back East to see how badly he's messing up his life. When he gets to Texas, he takes up residence just across the border in a cafe, playing piano in exchange for a room and drinking money.

Movie Keith is initially a bit more of a rotter than story Billy. Both versions of the character wrote home to falsely claim becoming partners in a ranch, but Keith actually asks for money from his Dad to finance this. He then blows the money on drinks and gambling.

The two biggest changes are:

1. Introducing a love interest for Keith, the fiery tempered Domingo. She's played with charm by Armida. She's at first revolted by Keith, but then gradually warms to him after both go to work at the ranch. She's a great character. I'll admit I fast-forwarded through her brief musical numbers--but that's more a matter of personal taste rather than a commentary on her talents as a singer. Otherwise, Armida gives her character a strong personality and brings a lot of humor into her role.

2. In the story, the rustlers just show up at the end with no foreshadowing. The movie introduces them pretty much right away--converting them into Chicago gangsters who are organizing a combination rustling/protection racket. The big boss is played by the great character actor J. Carrol Naish, whose performance overcomes his cliche-storm dialogue to bring a real sense of menace to the role.

Keith, by the way, is played by John Beal. The rancher he eventually teams up with is named Tex Stevens and played by Harry Carey, who is in full surrogate-dad role. This is the sort of role Carey could pull off, making his efforts to encourage Keith to man up believable if still predictable.

When Keith's parents and his old girlfriend come to visit, the various plot elements come together. Keith's dad disapproves of Domingo, but Keith impresses us when he doesn't even briefly consider buckling under. This foreshadows that the time he's spent working on the ranch really has manned hin up.

And that's a good thing. When the gangsters, whose racket has been busted, kidnap Keith's dad and Domingo while they try to flee the state, Tex and Keith are going to have to work together to save them.

The movie also benefits from its humor. Keith and Domingo play nicely off each other to get some laughs. Keith's attempts to catch and saddle a horse on his first day at the ranch are hilarious, as is a later scene when Tex and Keith's dad (both a bit drunk) trade increasingly unlikely tales about how awesome their respective ancestors were.

One criticism I have of the movie is that the final shootout, though mostly fun, suffers from severe Red Shirt Syndrome. Several ranch hands are killed along with the gangsters, but their deaths are immediately forgotten, allowing for the heroes to immediately joke with each other after the shooting is over.  Oh, well. 

The extent to which Border Cafe expands on the original story makes each its own thing and it's not really fair to say one is better than the other. Both serve their own purposes and do so quite well.