John W Chance
The high points of this film are in the extensive cattle drive campfire scene that Tex Ritter has with Mantan Moreland. In this remake of Jesse Duffy's story for 'The Cattle Thief' (1936) with Ken Maynard, Tex is Tex Lowery, a lawman, posing as Ed Carter, a despicable villain and escaped murderer. He infiltrates the evil foreman Bart Lane's ranch to prove that Lane (Jack Rutherford) is a cattle thief and the killer of ten previous deputies that had been sent there.Mantan Moreland plays Chappie the cook, and his pairing with Tex Ritter is a magical moment in film history for genre fans. On his return from 'nighthawking' the steers during a cattle drive, Tex settles in at the campfire site with the other drovers. He picks up Chappie's "good lookin' gi-tar," and they begin their immortal scene together. As one villain tells Chappie, "Make his coffee yella!" Tex tells Chappie "Color don't make any difference. Take you for example..." and then begins his speech on the commonality of human nature regardless of skin color, after which Chappie says, "You sure know the human race..." Tex then plays straight man for Moreland, and afterwards launches into 'The Boll Weevil Song' with Moreland himself singing three verses solo and the chorus in duet with Tex Ritter! (In a perfect world, Mantan Moreland should have been Tex's side kick instead of Snub Poland and Horace Murphy.)Moreland also sings in one of the non-racial buddy films he made with Frankie Darro, 'Let's Go Collegiate' (1941); in another, 'Up in the Air' (1940) he is given a lengthy spot to do a dance solo. He shouldn't just be remembered for the dozen or so 'Charlie Chan' films he appeared in, but also for his hilarious actual star turn in 'King of the Zombies' (1941), in which he has third billing.As for the rest of the movie, as expected the real Ed Carter finally shows up, and it's nicely evil sounding and looking Roy Barcroft in a brief role. Tex has the sheriff stampede the cattle back to the ranch, as they all engage in a shoot out behind boulders and rocks. Having captured Lane and his chief henchman, Tex turns them over to the sheriff, who says "We've rounded up all that wasn't flat permanent." Tex then enters the ranch house to have Chappie's dinner with the prairie flower, Martha (a small part played by Jean Joyce), the ranch owner and Chappie as the film ends. Typically standard B western fare, except for the inspired pairing of Tex Ritter and Mantan Moreland. Their campfire scene gets a 10, but the film overall is a 5.
