Beyond the Last Frontier (1943)
Beyond the Last Frontier was the first entry in Republic's "John Paul Revere" western series. Journeyman actor Eddie Dew stars as Revere, a Texas Ranger who goes undercover to smash an outlaw gang. Meanwhile, the villains install an informer amongst the Rangers, meaning that Revere will have to take care of this guy before he can complete his assignment. While Eddie Dew was OK in the lead, his thunder was stolen by the young actor cast as "Trigger Dolan"-future superstar Robert Mitchum. The plot was a bit too complicated for a film of this nature, thus future John Paul Revere installments were a bit easier to follow.
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I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
This is representative of the sort of bread and butter fodder that Robert Mitchum, still being billed as Bob, worked his way through during his early apprenticeship at Republic before moving up the ladder and being taken on at RKO. The picture is absolutely no different from any of the multitude of oaters that lower rung studios like Republic churned out ceaselessly to fill the theatres lower half of a double bill. Man with a mysterious past? Check. Goofy sidekick? Check. Righteous sheriff who wants to keep the peace? Check. And on and on. Unless you're a fan of these programmers the only reason to catch this one is to observe the indefinable thing that is star quality. Robert Mitchum had it in spades. Whereas everyone else in the picture is adequate to passable Mitchum is already his fully formed laconic self, relaxed and charismatic like no else in the picture can even approach effortlessly pulling focus whenever the camera turns his way. He's the reason to watch this short shoot em up but once your curiosity is satisfied you'll never watch it again.