Movie Review: Frontier Fugitives (1945)
Synopsis: Tex Haines, Dave Wyatt and Panhandle Perkins investigate the murder of a Native American and a fur trader who was likely killed by a local gang of outlaws for a stash of furs he had hidden away. Their investigation is hindered by a fake Indian agent who is part of the gang and tries to have Tex and Dave arrested for the murders.
Who's in it? The movie stars Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien, Guy Wilkerson, Lorraine Miller and Jack Ingram.
Review: It had been a while since I last watched a singing cowboy movie so, while waiting for my daughter to get done with her theater rehearsal last night, I ended up selecting Frontier Fugitives for my morning movie. Overall, while nothing I would describe as particularly unique or special, it turned out to be a good choice.
As far as the plot was concerned, it was fairly basic and cliché. You had clear good guys and bad guys, a motive (wanting to steal furs) that made sense for the setting, an attractive frontier woman (Miller) who was obviously there to eventually be the damsel in distress and plenty of cringe-worthy Native American stereotypes, portrayed by two white guys who were pretending to be "Indians."
That all said, the movie was genuinely fun to watch, mostly because it made full use of its 57-minute runtime and crammed as much action as it could. I don't think the film went more than a few minutes (at most) between gunfights, fist fights and horseback chase scenes. And yet, it still managed to slip in two Tex Ritter song performances (not counting the one at the very end).
In fact, as far as that last one was concerned, I found it amusing how the movie slipped those songs in, the first while he was waiting in a jail cell and the other while pretending to buy a guitar and needing to see if it was tuned to fit his voice. The way the bad guys, even though they knew exactly who Tex was by that point, sat quietly and listened was almost comical, though I'll still give the filmmakers some credit for at least working it into the plot.
I think my only real complaint about the movie is I just didn't understand why Tex, Dave (O'Brien) and Panhandle (Wilkerson) went through all that effort to be undercover in the first place, even going as far as having Panhandle dress up as a Native American chief. It wasn't as though they didn't have a good idea who was behind the killings and Tex even admitted he knew the Indian agent, Allen Fain (Ingram) was an imposter from the start. It felt like they could have just flashed their badges, arrested the fake Fain and piece the rest together without all the pretense (and cultural stereotypes). Maybe that would have been too easy though.
Final Opinion: The plan to catch the bad guys was a bit convoluted but the movie itself had plenty of action and was entertaining. In other words, despite the flaws, I enjoyed it.
My Grade: B
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Here are some reviews of other westerns:
Movie Review: The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958)
Movie Review: No Name on the Bullet (1959)
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