Wallace Beery is Marmaduke Baggot, who thinks of robbing the mail wagon, but winds up chasing off other holdup men instead.
And hence he meets Clementine “Tiny” Tucker and one of her customers, young Tommy Gargan (Darryl Hickman). From the start, he has a flirtatious love-hate relationship with “Tiny.”
And Baggot takes Tommy under his wings after his dad has been killed; he doesn’t tell Tommy he’s the one who killed his dad.
While Clementine rakes in the dough from her mail business and her investments in the railroad, Baggot struggles to stay out of trouble, because of his fondness for liquor and the constant tempting of an acquaintance (J. Carroll Naish as Michel O’Sullivan), who would like him to rob something to cash in on Baggot’s relationship with Clementine.
As for Clementine, she shows an uncanning ability to adjust to the times. She starts off owning a saloon; then advocates temperance. But before giving up the saloon, there are two scenes in which she’s the barroom songbird with a cast of background dancers.
Review:
The film starts promisingly enough, but loses momentum somewhere along the way. Bottom line: It’s not one of the better Wallace Beery Westerns.
The fact that it’s told in flashback takes away lots of the suspense. After all, the first scene shows a statue in the Baggot City town square, honoring Marmaduke and Clementine as founders of the town.
Young Darryl Hickman had already appeared in nearly 20 films by the time this movie was released. He’d go on to have key roles in three Westerns of the 1950s — “Southwest Passage,” “The Iron Sheriff” and “The Persuader,” — had a starring role in the Vincent Price cult film “The Tingler” and continued acting into the 1990s.
Directed by:
Norman Z. McLeod
Cast:
Wallace Beery … Marmaduke Baggot
Marjorie Main … Clementine “Tiny” Tucker
J. Carrol Naish … Michel O’Sullivan
Darryl Hickman … Tommy Gargan
William Haade … Red Gargan
Dick Curtis … Jim Swade
Hobart Cavanaugh … Gospel Jones
Joe Yule … Barky
Wade Boteler … Doctor
George M. Carleton … Pastor
Runtime: 79 min.
Memorable lines:
Baggot: “You know, I wouldn’t tell anyone else but you, but my first name’s Marmaduke.”
“Tiny”: “Where’d your mom dig that up? Out of a seed catalogue?”
Baggot: “Naw, that goes way back to the Marmadukes of Scotland. I belong to one of them Scottish clams.”
Clementine Tucker to Baggot: “I’m gonna make an honest mail out of you if I have to blow your head off to do it.”
“Tiny”: “I was gonna say Tommy, if’n you ain’t made no other plans, maybe you’d like to come and live with me.”
Baggot: “Ah, he’s been used to living with his pa. He don’t want to go messin’ around with no woman ’til he’s old enough to defend hisself.”
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