Dennis O’Keefe is William Malone, a Texas cowboy who missed out on the thrills of the settling of the West, fighting Indians and riding for the Pony Express. So he makes up for it by playing polo, using a tennis ball and a croquet mallet.
When a rich Easterner named Bertie Thomas buys Lone Star, his polo horse, William heads East, too. Turns out Bertie has a pretty sister named Margo, a headstrong socialite who takes an immediate dislike for “Wild Bill.” Perhaps because he accidentally runs off her horse when they meet, causing her to fall into a pool of water. Then causes her to lose her pants when he tries to haul her onto his horse by the belt that’s holding them up.
Once he’s in the East, William wins the affections of Margo’s niece and finally gets his chance to play polo. But his selfish style of play is frowned upon, so he heads off to join a Wild West show badly in need of rescue.
How does William rescue it? By staging polo matches between a team of cowboys and a team of Indians. In the process, he meets a new pretty lady, Okay Kinney (Virginia Dale), the Calamity Jane of 1939.
Review:
Wow, that plot synopsis sounds awful, but this is actually a charming little film with some snappy dialogue, a well-trained horse and a fetching leading lady.
For a long time, it looks like that leading lady might wind up in the arms of the wrong man, an egotistical polo snob named Hastings. That’s especially the case when Margo suspects William, now nicknamed “Wild Bill,” has fallen for Okay.
But everything is set straight by a wild polo game featuring the cowboys vs. the Easterners, with lots at stake even though it’s all supposed to be for a good cause.
And, yes, that really is Buddy Ebsen in one of his early roles as Snifty Edwards, providing comic relief as the cowpoke who also travels East but has trouble making it with the Wild West show until his friend “Wild Bill” shows up.
Director
S. Sylvan Simon
Cast:
Dennis O’Keefe .. William Quincy “Wild Bill” Malone
Florence Rice … Margo Thomas
John Hubbard … Bertie Thomas
Jessie Ralph … Aunt Minnie Thomas
Buddy Ebsen … Snifty Edwards
Virginia Dale … Okay Kinney
Robert Wilcox … Duke Hastings
Jack Carson … Stan Brown
Helen Lynd … Mabel
J.M. Kerigan … Farr
Tully Marshall … Adam Lambert
Runtime: 71 min.
Memorable lines:
Aunt Minnie, laying down a lecture: “You wouldn’t have a penny today if it wasn’t for me. You think your money’s going to last forever. That it lays eggs, and they hatch out baby bonds. Well, it won’t. I’ll look sweet, riding one of your polo ponies to the poorhouse.”
Maid to Wild Bill: “What do you do?”
Wild Bill: “Well, I was a cow puncher.:
Maid: “Cow puncher? How interesting. Do you punch them with your bare hands or do you use boxing gloves.”
Margo to Wild Bill: “Malone, ever since I met you, things have been happening to me, by accident. Before I met you, I figured I might live to 60 or 70. But the way things are going, I doubt that I’ll last out the year.”
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