Good start, but then it gets ruined

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Amusing western starring baseball legend Lou Gehrig. The Iron Horse plays himself in this as he heads Out West to live on his (fictional) sister's ranch. There he joins forces with singing cowboy lawyer Smith Ballew to battle perennial heavy Cy Kendall and Arthur Loft, who have a nice little protection racket going. Fun stuff, although not always for the right reasons. Simple coloring book-level of intellect and craftsmanship went into this, but I can't say it isn't entertaining in its way. It's a low budget oater with a baseball player as the star. No one should expect Stagecoach.

Singing cowboy/crusading attorney Smith Ballew is looking for a brave cattleman to go up against the crooked Rancher's Protective Association, which has been shaking down local ranch owners. He finds what he's looking for in baseball star Lou Gehrig (!), who's quit baseball and along with his sister, bought a local spread.In all, this celebrity-driven production isn't half bad. It's a pleasant enough hour of entertainment, with some good action and an irresistible chance to see Gehrig at the height of his career, in his only acting gig. Evalyn Knapp, who play's his sister, is pretty cute too!As a Saturday matinée hero, the rough and tumble Gehrig is surprisingly good. One amusing scene has him taking out a pool hall full of bad guys by pitching billiard balls against their heads and another has Lou belting out a (lip-synched?) cowboy song with Ballew, while riding the trail!

It's always cool to come across an unexpected treat as I did today, looking for a film to view from my collection of 'B' Westerns put out by Mill Creek Entertainment. This one co-starred baseball legend Lou Gehrig along side singing cowboy Smith Ballew, and it was a genuinely fun picture to watch. Gehrig plays himself, heading West to Montana to relax on his sister's cattle ranch. I'm curious how baseball/movie fans of the era reacted when he pronounced early in the picture - "Take it or leave it, I'm through with baseball" - must have been a shock to the system! The plot Gehrig finds himself in is a fairly typical one though. The local Ranchers Protective Association is being run by stand in boss Ed Saunders (Arthur Loft), and he's forcing the locals to join his organization as he and his henchmen take a hefty cut of the rancher profits for themselves. The Gehrig's see no need to join, and when Saunders turns up the heat, they hook up with attorney Larry Kimball (Ballew) who's been anxious to take up the fight against the bad guys with a client willing to go the distance.This is the first film I've seen with Smith Ballew, though I'm familiar with his reputation. A popular singer in the Thirties, he appeared in a number of Westerns doing just that, crooning as a singing cowboy. One of the oft repeated trivia notes attributed to Ballew is that he dubbed John Wayne's singing voice in "Riders of Destiny", but Ballew denied that repeatedly before he died. Wayne's recollection was that it was probably Bill Bradbury (brother of Bob Steele and son of director Robert North Bradbury), who did the singing, with money earned to support his college education.Speaking of John Wayne, it struck me more than once that Gehrig might have shared a passing resemblance to the star, maybe more of a cross between Wayne and another veteran cowboy actor, Tim McCoy. Which is to say that he looked right at home in Western gear and ten gallon hat. Gehrig's portrayal is somewhat self deprecating, as he gets thrown from a horse in the early going, but when things get really wild, he reverts to his baseball wits. In a rousing bar room brawl, Gehrig winds up with a few billiard balls to knock out a bunch of bad guys. Later on, he manages to smash an upper story window of Saunders' office using a bat and ball. I thought only Babe Ruth called his shots like that.It wouldn't have been an era Western without your traditional horse chase scenes, and on that score, it was unusual to see some of the local businessmen in suits high tail it out of town on horseback. Of course, the team of Gehrig and Ballew, with a little help from sister Peggy (Evalyn Knapp), defeat the bad guys and save the day. Gehrig's earlier 'retirement' from baseball comes to an end when he gets a telegram from the Yankees saying that they met his terms. So Gehrig's movie career began and ended with this picture, but while it lasted, it must have been a blast.

Basically this is a pretty standard oater from the late 30s with the addition of baseball legend Lou Gehrig (second billed behind Smith Ballew, who plays a crooning cowboy lawyer). Sol Lesser isn't exactly know for top quality productions, and this one isn't all that great to look at (the cheap transfer to DVD that I saw didn't help), but it's fun to see Gehrig handle dialog and even a few lines of singing where he mentions his "versatility" on the diamond, which made me laugh because as far as I know the guy always played first base which is the easiest position to play in baseball. In fact Lou Gehrig sort of set the template for how the Yankees and other teams built their offense for the next several decades. He gets to show off his baseball skills in the Western context in at least two other scenes, once when he knocks a baseball through a window to stop his sister (Evalyn Knapp) from signing a contract with the evil racketeers, and even better in the bar fight when he knocks out a dozen assailants with pool balls. I guess they screenwriters didn't know that a first baseman usually can't pitch to save his life.It's sad to think of Gehrig wasted by illness just a few years after this film, because he looks and sounds great here. I mean he's not really an actor, but he could have become decent if he had made more films. I was surprised by how good looking he was; I've seen pictures of him but it's more striking on film. It makes you think that Gary Cooper wasn't that crazy a choice to play him on film after all.The rest of the cast is decent, but the plot is so predictable that anyone over the age of 6 might be bored unless they're a fan of these kind of movies like I am. Poor Knapp doesn't have anything to do but smile at Smith Ballew and of course break down and show her weakness by agreeing to sign the contract to spare Ballew's character from danger. Ballew himself I haven't really seen in anything else, he seems like a pretty generic example of the singing cowboy and doesn't even have a particularly good voice.On the whole though I enjoyed the movie. It's very short, it has all the things you need in a good standard-issue oater like good stunt riding, a couple fistfights, some gun-play, and a big cavalry ride at the end. Pretty enjoyable for an undemanding Sunday morning or whatever.