Jock solves the crime
Jock is “the greatest detective in the West”, Silver Ward Hogan, who wears a fancy rig decked out in the precious metal and uses Lone Rangerish silver bullets as well. He is hired to find out who murdered crusty old miner Ben Merriweather (Edwin Jerome). Merriweather was ambushed by three men while working his claim. He got two of them but the third escaped. He just had time to scribble a will on an old piece of a dynamite box. But he seemed to be indicating with his dying breath that one of the heirs was the guilty one. Rather odd. That’s pretty well all Silver has to go on.
There follows a lengthy investigation in which all sorts of characters are visited as inheritors and/or suspects. One of them is a glam redhead, naturally, Mary (Kim Hunter, replacing Barbara Hale, too busy on Perry Mason). She has a young son, Davy (Tim Hovey) so we pretty well know right away that Silver, Mary and Davy will become a new nuclear family, just as in Hondo, Yuma, The Tin Star and countless others. They’ll probably go to California. They usually do.
Silver meets his future family
It’s quite interesting in that all the heirs have a guilty secret but they repent and live better lives afterwards, all without violence. The film is episodic, a series of barely related sketches. It was apparently supposed originally to be a Capra-esque Christmas tale with the word dreams replacing guns, and indeed, there are residues of the Christmas spirit with the storekeeper’s sign announcing MERY CRISMAS to his customers and the boy hoping Santa will bring him some red boots (Santa obliges).
The picture was written by Montgomery Pittman (who did mostly TV work though he did write the entertaining Rails into Laramie) for director Richard Bartlett, a prolific helmsman and producer of TV Westerns who worked on pretty well every Western TV show you care to name, especially Riverboat and Cimarron City but who also did some big-screen Westerns in the mid-50s, three of them with Mahoney as lead.
Gene Evans is the sheriff and Lon Chaney surprises by being honest against all expectations. Franklyn Farnum is the (uncredited) postmaster.
One heir, known only as Judas, is especially hard to track down.
It’s a bit short on action but I found it all rather enjoyable, I must say.
7 Responses
Jeff, maybe we are around the same age as I also grew up with "THE RANGE RIDER".(I still get considerable pleasure from it today; the stunts alone are well worth the price of admission).
"MONEY, WOMEN AND GUNS" I only saw for the first time a few years ago. It is episodic and not exactly brimming with action yet I find it all rather charming. The film looks gorgeous too in cinemascope and technicolor and Jock looks great in his Silver Ward outfit.
Really though, I'll pretty well watch anything with Jock (or Jack) Mahoney!!
Me too. I don't think Jock/Jack was ever in danger of winning an Oscar but to a Western-loving boy he was the tops.
As to age, your Jeff first saw the light of day in the year of Red River, Fort Apache, Yellow Sky, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and VERY many other great movies. Not that I was yet quite old enough to appreciate them. That came later.
Jeff
Jerry turned up late in the year of "GUNFIGHTERS", "RAMROD" so just a tiniest tad older than you, Jeff.
Have you read Gene Freese's lovely biography of Jock Mahoney?
No, old timer, I ain't read that biography of Jock. If you say it's good, though, I might give it a try!
Jeff
Jeff and Jerry. Sign me up as being a fan of Jock(Jocko to his friends) Mahoney. I like to watch him on the move, whether it be running, jumping, or riding. Also, liked his TV show YANCY DERRINGER(1958-59).
What is the name of the beginning theme song?
“Lonely Is The Hunter,” written and performed by Jimmy Wakely.