I enjoy the heck out of these old time Westerns, but every now and then you run across one that doesn't seem to make much sense, at least in the way the characters behave throughout the story. In this one, siblings Ann Howard (Phyllis Blanchard) and her brother Tom (Steve Drake) wind up changing their minds and attitudes about things almost at the drop of a hat and it makes you wonder why. For example, when they first meet Eddie Dean strumming his guitar at their newly acquired ranch house, Ann is generally friendly and welcoming while Tom is a real pain about even being there in the first place. But after Tom gets hoodwinked by town villain Larson (Bob Duncan), instead of going ballistic, he agrees to learn the ropes as a cowboy with Eddie as his teacher. Meanwhile, sister Ann thinks Eddie is part of the bad guy bunch and tells him to shove off. The way this all transpires is rather baffling.
Best not to think about it too much. Just like you shouldn't think too much about Soapy's (Roscoe Ates) comment to Tom Howard in one of his sullen moments - "There's one born in every family and you're both of 'em". What does that mean? I was still thinking about that when one of Larson's henchmen pulls a gun on Eddie at the Howard ranch, and Eddie just turns around and slugs him! How do you explain that one to the boss when the question comes up?
Well when you're making as many as a half dozen of these oaters a year the way the cowboy stars did in the Forties, I guess it's no surprise that story writing took a hit at the expense of action. Eddie has a pretty good brawl with Larson at the Silver Palace in this one as Soapy plays solitaire under an upturned table. As he usually would, Eddie offers up a handful of tunes, including an unusually titled 'When Shorty Plays the Schottische' to close out the picture. I thought it was a musical instrument so I had to look it up; it's actually a dance of continental-European origin that's something like a slowed down polka. Can you imagine hearing about something like that in an Eddie Dean Western?
Best not to think about it too much. Just like you shouldn't think too much about Soapy's (Roscoe Ates) comment to Tom Howard in one of his sullen moments - "There's one born in every family and you're both of 'em". What does that mean? I was still thinking about that when one of Larson's henchmen pulls a gun on Eddie at the Howard ranch, and Eddie just turns around and slugs him! How do you explain that one to the boss when the question comes up?
Well when you're making as many as a half dozen of these oaters a year the way the cowboy stars did in the Forties, I guess it's no surprise that story writing took a hit at the expense of action. Eddie has a pretty good brawl with Larson at the Silver Palace in this one as Soapy plays solitaire under an upturned table. As he usually would, Eddie offers up a handful of tunes, including an unusually titled 'When Shorty Plays the Schottische' to close out the picture. I thought it was a musical instrument so I had to look it up; it's actually a dance of continental-European origin that's something like a slowed down polka. Can you imagine hearing about something like that in an Eddie Dean Western?
