dfwesley An entertaining film made possible by big stars, John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich, and Randolph Scott. It was difficult to get accustomed to seeing Scott in a villain's role or Samuel S. Hinds, either, for that matter. You kept waiting for them to turn into good guys a little later on. Now one can never remember Percy Halton ever playing anything else but evil, or a grouch, at least. The scene with the three of them plotting and scheming, took me by surprise. Marlene Dietrich was her usual sultry self that we have come to expect. I hadn't seen Margaret Lindsay in a long while, and I appreciated her good looks and creditable performance.Did you wonder how Harry Carey could fire that single shot flintlock so rapidly? I don't even recall him loading it either.Included was one of the longest brawls you can imagine between Scott and Wayne. Scott was evidently knocked out but Wayne emerged bloody but happy in Dietrich's arms, as the film ended.

MARIO GAUCI Rex Beach's Western tale was much filmed over the years – including twice during the Silent era, and an early Talkie version co-starring Gary Cooper; my brother had watched the 1955 color remake, which was O.K. but uninspired. This earlier adaptation, however, stands as a prime example of the genre from the more innocent pre-war era; in fact, starting from the year after – with William A. Wellman's THE OX-BOX INCIDENT (1943), to be exact – the Western achieved sudden maturity that would lead to any number of masterworks in various veins (noir, psychological, elegiac, revisionist) till it died out towards the late 1970s.Anyway, this is a quite splendid film with all three stars (Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott and John Wayne) in good form; incidentally, all of them had just come from impressive individual work in the genre – DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939), Fritz Lang's WESTERN UNION (1941), and STAGECOACH (1939) respectively. Having preceded the film by the trio's subsequent (though lesser) teaming, PITTSBURGH (1942), it was interesting to see Wayne and Scott take turns playing the unsympathetic role (in the case of the latter here, he emerges to be an out-and-out villain – if a charming one, and to which he would return for his swan-song two decades later in Sam Peckinpah's RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY [1962]). Incidentally, in both THE SPOILERS and PITTSBURGH, Scott is clearly depicted as being interested in Dietrich – but she seems to prefer Wayne (maybe because she did one other title with the latter, SEVEN SINNERS [1940], which is to follow).The supporting cast is also quite strong: Richard Barthelmess and Harry Carey (both of whom had been stars in the Silent era and had since settled in character roles) appear as Dietrich and Wayne's sidekicks respectively – the former is shady and the latter hot-headed, and each prefers to settle arguments with a weapon (Barthelmess a flick-knife and Carey the shotgun he calls "Betsy"). Scott's gang of crooked associates is made up of Charles Halton, Samuel S. Hinds and, the latter's niece, Margaret Lindsay (who was intended to seduce Wayne for the benefit of their scheme, but ends up falling for him – the actress had been a leading lady of Warner Bros. pictures during the previous decade, but her poignant Other Woman role here is surprisingly well-written).The compelling narrative extends to many an exciting (and, often, action-oriented) development – trial, bank robbery, jailbreak, train wreck, various instances where law officers face off or shoot it out with miners, and culminating in the famously brutal lengthy fistfight between the two male stars (though this is somewhat spoiled {sic} by the obvious use of doubles in longshots).

Neil Doyle Formula stuff, but entertaining story of bad man RANDOLPH SCOTT and good guy JOHN WAYNE brawling in lusty western style over Yukon saloon queen MARLENE DIETRICH in the 1800s, with Dietrich looking like a glamorized queen of the 1940s era. It's a tidy western directed by Ray Enright in good Warner Bros. style.MARGARET LINDSAY is pretty but merely decorative as Dietrich's rival for Wayne and RICHARD BARTHELMESS is shockingly aged looking as Dietrich's admirer. He's the one with the boyish good looks who began films in the silent period. You have to wonder what happened to him at 47.It's a pretty thin story with a very predictable finish. As the bad guy, RANDOLPH SCOTT is stuck with a badly written role which has him assuming a wicked gleam in his eye and a sly grin--but that's about the extent of his characterization. JOHN WAYNE has much more to work with and he fills the role to a T. Both men appear to be in their physical prime, as does Miss Dietrich.At any moment, I expected saloon queen Dietrich to do either a dance hall number or belt out a song in her own inimitable style, but no such thing. She has a straight dramatic role and never looks anything less than ultra glamorous or stunning throughout with never a hair out of place. The men have the tough roles and the big brawl at the conclusion must have kept the two stunt men busy earning their pay.

counterrevolutionary One of the many good-but-not-great westerns (or would this be a "northern"?) that John Wayne made between *Stagecoach* and *Fort Apache*, *The Spoilers* has top-billed Marlene Dietrich more or less reprising her role from *Destry Rides Again* (they even play an instrumental version of "Little Joe" in the background of one scene).But the truly inspired bit of casting is Randolph Scott as McNamara, the Mining Commissioner.McNamara is established immediately as Wayne's rival in love and a little later as a business obstacle. Given the conventions of the genre, we would assume his villainy from the beginning...except, you know, it's *Randolph Scott*. I mean, that would be like...well, like making John Wayne the villain.So when it turns out that he is the villain, it's a genuine surprise (for the longest time, I kept thinking that he'd have one of those Hollywood conversions right at the end and help Wayne to set things right before dying in a hail of gunfire).And of course, Randolph Scott couldn't be expected to lose easily to some young whippersnapper named "Marion," so they were almost required to do the excellent brawl which ends the film.(Another inspired piece of casting which I didn't know about until I looked it up is Robert W. Service playing Robert W. Service.)