I started to become suspicious when the opening credits rolled out to "Baby, Where Can You Be", a popular hit song of the day, popularized by Bing Crosby.
This is an extremely "talkie" Western. Made at a time when stage actors and elocutionists were taking over Hollywood - let's just say that when the cowboys talk, you can understand every word they say - they know how to E N U N C I A T E!!! The narrative does not flow smoothly and there are even titles linking the scenes (a hold over from the silent period).
The Apache Kid (Jack Perrin) is a former outlaw trying to go straight. When his friend, Gus, impersonates him and holds up a mail stage, the Kid finds a letter to himself from his sister, saying his mother is very sick and they won't accept anymore money from him unless it is "honestly" come by.
In the next scene that is completely forgotten about and the story unfolds concerning one of the hands, Ted, from the ranch the Kid has a job on. Ted is in love with Jane (Josephine Hill, Jack Perrin's real life wife), but he has just found out he is a foundling. In desperation he impersonates the Apache Kid and is jailed for robbing a stage. To give Ted an alibi, the Apache Kid puts on his disguise one last time.
The acting is very wooden with the emphasis being on enunciation rather than action. Jack Perrin was definitely a second stringer from the silent era - who, even in this 1930 film, wasn't comfortable with dialogue.
There are a couple of exciting stunts - at the beginning the Kid gallops his horse over a cliff and into a river to avoid being captured, and there is also an exciting fight that starts on a railway track (complete with an oncoming train) then finishes on a cliff edge where only one person walks away.
The real star is "Starlight", a beautiful palomino who is called on to speed up the film with some fancy tricks.
This is an extremely "talkie" Western. Made at a time when stage actors and elocutionists were taking over Hollywood - let's just say that when the cowboys talk, you can understand every word they say - they know how to E N U N C I A T E!!! The narrative does not flow smoothly and there are even titles linking the scenes (a hold over from the silent period).
The Apache Kid (Jack Perrin) is a former outlaw trying to go straight. When his friend, Gus, impersonates him and holds up a mail stage, the Kid finds a letter to himself from his sister, saying his mother is very sick and they won't accept anymore money from him unless it is "honestly" come by.
In the next scene that is completely forgotten about and the story unfolds concerning one of the hands, Ted, from the ranch the Kid has a job on. Ted is in love with Jane (Josephine Hill, Jack Perrin's real life wife), but he has just found out he is a foundling. In desperation he impersonates the Apache Kid and is jailed for robbing a stage. To give Ted an alibi, the Apache Kid puts on his disguise one last time.
The acting is very wooden with the emphasis being on enunciation rather than action. Jack Perrin was definitely a second stringer from the silent era - who, even in this 1930 film, wasn't comfortable with dialogue.
There are a couple of exciting stunts - at the beginning the Kid gallops his horse over a cliff and into a river to avoid being captured, and there is also an exciting fight that starts on a railway track (complete with an oncoming train) then finishes on a cliff edge where only one person walks away.
The real star is "Starlight", a beautiful palomino who is called on to speed up the film with some fancy tricks.