Ambush Valley

Silent film cowboy Bob Custer whose career foundered when sound came in shows us part of the reason in Ambush Valley. I swear I could have done his dialog better.

And that's a pity as far as this film is concerned. It's quite a bit above the usual Saturday matinée fare. It was the story of a range feud started by some killings.

Big rancher Jimmy Aubrey has lovely daughter Victoria Vinton who is engaged to local sheriff Bob Custer and one punk of a son in Eddie Phillips. Before he shoots a young homesteader in the back we see him murder two others. Since he did that second one in front of witnesses, the sheriff even with impending ties to the family has his duty clear.

But Aubrey and friends make it real hard for Custer to bring Phillips in. And the homesteaders led by the dead boy's mother Vane Calvert have had just about enough.

Calvert gives the most interesting performance in the film. In a bigger budgeted film which this story deserved, I could see her part being played by Jane Darwell.

All this one needed was a better lead.