Heritage of the Desert (1932)

Heritage of the Desert (1932)

Plot Summary

Adam Naab (J. Farrell MacDonald) controls the pass and lets all the ranchers through except  Judson Holderness (David Landau) and his stolen cattle. When Naab refuses to sell, Holderness works on his son Snap (Gordon Westcott) who has run up gambling debts. There is more trouble when Snap becomes jealous of Naab's step-daughter Judy's (Sally Blane) attraction to the surveyor Jack Hare. (Randolph Scott) When Holderness has Snap killed, everyone heads to town for the showdown.

That's more or less an accurate description of the plot there. This is a pretty historical flick for Paramount in that it launched the feature film directing career of Henry Hathaway who directed many films over his 42 year career, mostly John Wayne westerns. The other bit of history is that this was the first western starring Randolph Scott. The western genre would be his signature for most of his career especially in the 1950s. So from humble beginnings came forth a Western superstar and well...He was pretty good in this flick. He wasn't the driving force of the film as his character more or less reacted to everything that went on and he wasn't one for words either. In a lot of ways the portrayal of Jack Hare was very much in the mold of a John Wayne, someone who's there to look good, romance a woman and save the day.

The real reason to watch the movie is for the other characters. This is a very formulaic movie but the acting was strong throughout. I especially liked J. Farrell MacDonald's portrayal of the older Naab as he had a kindly but tough persona especially early on when Holderness tried to buy his land and Naab shows him a grave site where his wife, his former partner and his wife are buried and why some land should never be sold then he threatens Holderness by pointing out a part of the grave site where 4 men who tried to take over Naab's land are buried. The implication being clear that Naab will go to any lengths to protect his property.

Holderness BTW is portrayed expertly by David Landau. I did a little research and found out he was only in Hollywood from 1931-34 as he died due to complications from a stroke he never recovered from. Landau was not the most dynamic of actors, in fact he's quite wooden but it's his voice and mannerisms that made him a treat to watch. He portrayed the cliched villain Holderness with aplomb whereas it'd come across as extremely cliched. The interaction between he and his left hand man Lefty (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) is worth the view alone. The script has some very snappy lines including one with Holderness and Snap where Snap says "you wouldn't do something like that would you?" in regards to blackmailing him and Holderness says "I do something like that every 10 minutes!". It's a great line and is a good way of showing the muahahahaha evil of his character.

Now the love angle, as i've complained about before this is a convention of Golden Age Hollywood that irritates me to no end but it's something I just gotta live with. Judy is supposed to marry Snap but when she rescues Jack from certain death as he was misled by Holderness and his men to go through the desert and is left for dead you can tell that immediately she takes a liking to him. There's a good bit of directing done here which i'll mention in a bit but as a last bit about Sally Blane she looked an awful lot like Loretta Young.....Turns out she was Young's sister!

Now the direction of this film is quite excellent. I especially loved how Hathaway had the camera on Scott from the waist down as he's going through the desert and slowly losing consciousness and when he drops to the ground the camera zooms into the empty canteen on the ground rather than focusing in on Scott. Judy saving Jack was another bit of great direction as you get a soft filter close up of her as she's reassuring him which heightens the physical attraction between the two characters at first sight. In fact, the very first time we see Judy in the movie she's looking into a mirror and again there's a soft, hazy filter to the picture which brings out the radiance of her beauty. These are techniques not used much if at all in today's movies but it's a neat touch for something from 1932 where the cinematography is pretty static.

Westerns in the 1930s tended to be short and to the point, even the bigger productions were like and they often seemed a bit idealistic compared to what would come just a decade later but there was a roughness to them that very rarely showed itself in other Westerns. The hired hands looked like actual people who did that kind of work, the buildings and such looked well worn and the dress was even more realistic than what you'd see later. This was a pretty good oater and is worth a look-see if you're a fan of the genre.

** stars