TRAIL OF THE VIGILANTES
(Universal)
IKE Marlene Dietrich, Franchot Tone is another star who suffers somewhat from Hollywood’s idée fixe that success at the box-office
can be purchased at the cost of a large bill for smashed furniture and broken limbs among the extras. The bar-room brawls in Trail of the Vigilantes are only slightly inferior in extent and violence to those in Seven Sinners; but if Universal had the idea-lI think they very probably did — that Franchot Tone would be able to emulate James Stewart and that this picture would be a second Destry they were greviously mistaken. If Tone succeeds in anything it is in giving a poor imitation of Ned Sparks; and his doleful tones are probably a true index of his feelings at having to play in such a picture as this, and at having to endure such antique slapstick as being tripped into a horsetrough, and wallowing about in a mudpuddle with the rest of the cast. Tone is-or was-a good actor, and Mischa Auer, Broderick Crawford, ‘and Warren William, who appear with him, are not without reputation either. Without them in the cast, Trail of the Vigilantes might have got away with it as just an average, run-of-the-mill Western about. bad men and cowboys, but their presence, among other things, makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that Universal started out after something pretty big but missed the trail at the beginning and never once picked it up, alee
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19410328.2.32.1.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 92, 28 March 1941, Page 17
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245TRAIL OF THE VIGILANTES New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 92, 28 March 1941, Page 17
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