California Passage (1950)

Mike Prescott (Forrest Tucker) and Linc Corey (Jim Davis) are partners in the profitable Golden Bear saloon in the town of Coarse Gold.

Oh, Mike doesn’t exactly like or trust Linc or his friends. Then again, he doesn’t like many people, or have much use for women.

Bess Martin (Adele Mara), a young lady who arrives from the East with her younger brother, might just change that opinion.

Prescott saves them from Indians when they’re separated from the rest of a wagon train by fog.

A while later, they arrive in Coarse Gold; Bess is looking for information on the death of her older brother, who owned a small mine nearby and was friends with Linc.

Turns out he was killed by none other than Prescott. Bess’s brother was a hothead who tried to start gunfights with men who weren’t his equal. The shooting was a matter of self-defense, though it takes Bess a while to come to that conclusion.

Meanwhile, someone’s been robbing gold shipments in the area, and the sheriff (Charles Kemper) is beginning to wonder if all the money being made by the owners of the Golden Bear is legal.

Forrest Tucker as Mike Prescott, trying to convince Ruth Martin that he killed her brother Bob in self defense in California Passage (1950)

Adele Mara as Beth Martin, finding herself in the frontier town of Coarse Gold after the death of Bob, the oldest of her two brothers, in California Passage (1950)

Review:

Tucker turns in one of his better Western performances, but it’s a witty script and the presence of Kemper as a portly sheriff who takes a common sense approach to his job that make this Western unique.

Example: The sheriff has a suspected killer in his jail. He convinces him to confess. Then, when the lynch mob shows up, the sheriff steps aside and lets the mob have him. He’s only one man, he later explains to Bess. And he’s trying to tame Gold Coarse bit by bit and live long enough to complete the job.

Peter Miles, who plays Bess’s younger brother, was a child actor best known for his role in “The Red Pony” (1949) with Robert Mitchum and Mryna Loy. Estelita Rodriguez belts out a couple of dance hall tunes while playing the girlfriend of Bob Martin, Bess’s other brother and the man Prescott kills early in the film.

Oh, and that fog that got Bess and her younger brother lost in the film’s opening scene returns to play a key role in the climax.

Jim Davis as Linc Corey, placing a pin in partner Mike Prescott’s scarf that just might place Prescott in jail in California Passage (1950)

Charles Kepmer as Sheriff Willy Clair, determined to find out who’s stealing gold shipment while he cleans up the town of Coarse Gold bit by bit in California Passage (1950)

Directed by:
Joseph Kane

Cast:
Forrest Tucker … Mike Prescott
Jim Davis … ‘Linc’ Corey
Adele Mara … Beth Martin
Charles Kemper … Sheriff Willy Clair
Estelita Rodriguez … Maria Sanchez
Peter Miles … Tommy Martin
Bill Williams … Bob Martin
Rhys Williams … John Morris
Paul Fix … Whalen
Francis McDonald … Joe Kane
Eddy Waller … Waiter
Charles Stevens … Pedro
Iron Eyes Cody … Indian
John Compton … Henchman
Al Bridge … Conover

Runtime: 90 min.

Peter Miles as Tommy Martin, frozen in place as he watches an Indian approach, tomahawk at the ready, in California Passage (1950)

Estelita Rodriguez as Maria Sanchez, singing in the saloon owned by Linc Corey and Mike Prescott and mourning the death of her lover, Bob Martin, in California Passage (1950)

Memorable lines:

Mike Prescott, to his horse, after scaring off the Indians chasing Beth Martin’s wagon from afar: “A girl and a kid. You might be a four-dollar broom tail Sleepy Cat, but you’ve got more brains than these immigrants. Well, I guess we might as well do down. She might be pretty. She certainly ought to be grateful.”

Beth Martin, objecting to Prescott taking the scalp of an Indian he killed defending her. “That’s barbaric.”
Prescott, laughing: “Lady, you’ve just given a pretty fair description of life in this part of the country.”

Linc Corey: “You’re mouth’s your worst enemy, Bob — once you start to talk with it.”

Mike Prescott to Bob Martin: “Get out. Before I have one of the smaller waiters throw you out.”

Al Bridge as Conover, the wagon train boss, filling Beth Martin in on Mike Prescott’s violence-filled past in California Passage (1950)

Bill Williams as Bob Martin, Beth’s oldest brother, starting another confrontation, this time with Mike Prescott in California Passage (1950)

Mike Prescott, after shooting Bob Martin: “That guy was your best friend.”
Linc Corey: “I don’t have any dead friends. What good can a dead man do you?”
Mike Prescott: “I like keeping you around. You’re so warm-blooded.”
Linc Corey: “Soft-hearted and all that.”

Marshal, inspecting a dead man’s body: “Martin finally got cured of thinking he was Wyatt Earp, eeh?”

Sheriff Willy, explaining his methods to Bess Martin: “You see, I try to civilize Coarse Gold by degrees, because there’s only one of me. I figure it’d talk two cavalry regiments to civilize her all at once.”

Adele Mara as Beth Martin and Peter Miles as her younger brother Tommy, startled by bandits who show up to rob the stagecoach in California Passage (1950)

Forrest Tucker as Mike Prescott, meeting Beth Martin (Adele Mara) after saving her and her younger brother from Indians in California Passage (1950)