JohnHowardReid
James Warren (Adam Lariott), Richard Martin (Chito Rafferty), Audrey Long (Jeanie Collinshaw), Robert Barrat (Jim Collinshaw), Robert Clarke (Jay Collinshaw), Harry Wood (Guerd Eliott), Minerva Urecal (Mama Rafferty), Harry D. Brown (Rafferty), Tommy Cook (Chito as a boy), Harry McKim (Adam as a boy), Jason Robards (saloon owner/dealer), Fred Aldrich, Ethan Laidlaw, Sam Lufkin, Sammy Shack, Lou Palfy (gamblers), Cecil Stewart (piano player), Larry Wheat (station master), Nan Leslie, Tanis Chandler, Jimmy Jordan (bits), Gordon Jones (sherioff), Allan Lee (stage driver), Dick Elliott (turnkey and records clerk), Myrna Dell (gambler's girl), Sammy Blum (bartender), Beverly Bushe (girl), Budd Buster (hotel proprietor). Directors: WALLACE GRISSELL, EDWARD KILLY. Screenplay: Norman Houston. Based on the 1923 novel by Zane Grey. Photography: Harry J. Wild. Film editor: J.R. Whittredge. Art directors: Albert S. D'Agostino and Lucius Croxton. Set decorator: Darrell Silvera. Music: Paul Sawtell, Roy Webb. Music director: Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Dialogue director: Leslie Urbach. Assistant director: Sam Ruman. Sound recording: Richard Van Hessen, Roy Granville. RCA Sound System. Producer: Herman Schlom. Executive producer: Sid Rogell. Copyright 28 September 1945 by RKO-Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Gotham: 28 September 1945. U.S. release: 18 October 1945. U.K. release: 26 August 1946. Australian release: 9 May 1946. 6,194 feet. 67 minutes. SYNOPSIS: An orphan, raised by a kindly sheepherder, seeks out the murderer of his father.NOTES: The Zane Grey novel was first filmed in 1924 and again in 1935. It's of little use making cast comparisons with this movie, except to say that Jack Holt played Adam in the silent feature, while Dean Jagger essayed the role in 1935.COMMENT: I came late for this one, just as the credits had finished unfolding. It was obviously an RKO picture. The glossy photography, the pleasing music score both attested to the superiority of the RKO "B" product. Soon, I was equally certain that the screenplay was written by Norman Houston. The leisurely pace and the ingratiatingly well- rounded characters were definitely products of Houston's pen.But I couldn't pick the director. The staging was too fluid for Lesley Selander, but the fine cinematography seemed like the work of Harry J. Wild. I recognized James Warren as the hero and Richard Martin in his third outing of what was to become a customary role. (Martin first played Chito in Bombardier in 1943 and then in Nevada in 1944). The lovely heroine was that spirited lass, Audrey Long. All told I got almost everything right. And no wonder I could not pick the director. Two people were involved – neither of them particularly distinguished!
bkoganbing
I'm agreeing with the previous reviewer in that I'm sure the Zane Grey novel from where this film came had a lot more depth to it than the almost 70 minute B western made from it. I'm sure a young James Stewart or John Wayne in the title role could have done a great deal more than James Warren did. Nevertheless Wander Of The Wasteland is a bit more than average for a B western.Warren as a kid was found wandering in the desert by the migrating Raferty family and taken after his parents found dead on the desert, father shot and mother dead in their covered wagon. All young Harry McKim remembers is the brand on the horse which the rider road who shot the father.McKim grows up to be Warren and stepbrother Tommy Cook grows up to be Chito Rafferty played by Richard Martin. Now Chito's character is always fun in films, especially after he partnered with Tim Holt, but I know he was not part of Zane Grey's novel.When both go out searching for the brand they find it belongs to the Collinshaw family. Uncle in a wheelchair Robert Barrat, nice Audrey Long and nephew Robert Clarke together with a nasty foreman played by Harry Woods. Just the casting alone should tell you who are villains are.The rest of the story concerns Warren his search for the truth about his parents and what he does. There are also some more contemporary problems involving the younger Collinshaws as well.I would like to have seen this as an A budget film, but this one was all right.
zeppo-2
This is one of those films which make you want to read the book it came from to get the complete picture. There is a lot of 'fill in between the lines' in this,adding more characterisation as you do.This is a bit unfair to this movie which is quite good for it's type,and no film ever catches the complete nuances of a novel. Compared on it's own merit, it's a pretty decent 'revenge' thriller,as our hero sets out to find the man who shot his paw! But when he does, he realises that it wasn't exactly as he thought it would be. The love he feels for his target's daughter, complicates matters.No academy award winning acting on view here, but the stars do their parts well and Chita (Richard Martin) as the hero's adopted brother, is particularly good, more interested in chasing girls than revenge gun-play, he stands beside his 'brother' just the same and backs his play.Nothing earth shaking and I still feel like I should read the book!
