Trail of the Vigilantes (1940)

Warren William and Franchot Tone. Scan from my collection.

Franchot starred in the western comedy Trail of the Vigilantes in 1940. I love this movie for many reasons. It allowed Franchot to take on a role in a genre not offered to him in the previous decade. It paired Franchot with my other favorite actor of 1930s films, Warren William. Finally, it's a fun movie full of physical comedy and Franchot shines in it. Unfortunately, a high quality print of it is not available to watch, but you can view the movie in its entirety on Youtube (click here.)

Author George Fenin, in his 1962 book The Westerns, wrote that the film:

happily disposed of its somewhat witless lampooning in the first four reels, and thereafter got down to the serious business at hand. Much of the action was admittedly tongue-in-cheek, but it was so well-staged with all the customary Universal zip, that no one really minded.

The 1940 publication The Movies...And the People Who Make Them deemed the picture a:

delightful comedy-action western...wild brawls, hectic pursuits and forthright romance handled with a light farcical touch lift the proceedings far above the conventional level.

Even reviewer Bosley Crowther, notorious Franchot detractor, seemed to enjoy Trail of the Vigilantes. He wrote:

And now it seems to be getting so any one who sits long enough in a movie theatre will see every actor he ever knew appear up there on the screen in a Western. This time it is Franchot Tone, that erstwhile Group Theatre hopeful and star in many a super-soigné Eastern, who is playing the rootin' tootin' hero in Universal's "Trail of the Vigilantes," which pulled up yesterday at the Rialto. And, believe it or not, he's okay...The story is pretty routine, but performance is better than average. Mr. Tone wins his spurs in a good, fast Western. 

At the moment splitting his time between the stage and the screen, Franchot told reporter George Benjamin that he was enjoying being back on a studio lot and appreciative that he was being offered different roles this time around. He said:

I enjoyed immensely playing in my first Western, Trail of the Vigilantes. Why didn't someone tell me about the horse operas before?

Franchot Tone and Peggy Moran. Scan from my collection.

Franchot's leading lady Peggy Moran, in an interview with Mike Fitzgerald for Western Clippings, shared that she was surprised to find Franchot was not a known entity at conventions in which she participated. Peggy recalled:

It was a spoof and of course a big picture—much bigger than the Bs I usually did. A few years ago, I went to Knoxville to a film festival. The late Robert Shayne had told me about stills—getting my best shots reproduced and all. I took some from each of the westerns. The scenes with Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were big sellers. But when it came to the shots of me with Franchot Tone, the fans would ask ‘Who’s that!?’ At first I was so taken aback, because he was a big star, much more so than Gene or Roy, at least at the time. But these fans know who they like—it’s Gene and Roy, not Franchot! But in its day, ‘Vigilantes’ did very well, especially in New York and the sophisticated areas. It was funny, with jokes. A real farce. Franchot would fall off a horse every time he tried to get on it. The dialogue was cute and the metropolitan areas ate it up. But at the festival, I could see what the other westerns meant in that part of the country. Franchot Tone and I dated for a while, but that was before I started going with my future husband.

I think the fact that this was a western convention had something to do with Franchot not being recognized. If it had been a pre-code or 30s-related convention, I think Franchot would've received more love. Also, had the stills been of Franchot's television work in the 1950s and 60s, convention attendees would have surely recognized the older gentleman who starred in episodes of Bonanza, Wagon Train, The Virginian, and Bitter Heritage.

The Film

After a newspaperman is murdered, special investigator Tim Mason, known as Kansas, is assigned to the case. Kansas (Franchot Tone) is required to trade in his tuxedo and city life for western wear and a horse. When Kansas arrives in the western town, it is in complete chaos. Horses, wagons and men run wild in the streets and there seem to be gunshots coming from every direction—the sheriff is even handcuffed to a building! Within minutes of arriving, Kansas finds himself strung from the ceiling of the saloon. Ill-prepared for battle, Kansas fends off the posse in a mixture of pushing, quips, and occasional punches. 

Franchot in Trial of the Vigilantes. Scan from my collection.

During the squabble, ranch hands Meadows (Andy Devine) and Swanee (Broderick Crawford) befriend Kansas and get him a job as a ranch hand on Mr. Thornton’s farm. When Mark Dawson (Warren William) arrives on the scene, it is clear to Kansas that Dawson’s word is law and his influence important. He learns that Dawson is the head of the Cattlemen’s Protective Association and receives a payment from every single rancher in town in order to keep in his good graces. But Thornton, Kansas’s new employer, has refused to join the CPA and faces regular vandalism on his property from Dawson’s gang. 

While learning the ropes (literally!) on the ranch, Kansas falls for the ranchman’s daughter Barbara (Peggy Moran). Investigating a hunch, Kansas breaks into Dawson’s office and is arrested—but not before he discovers that Dawson has been stealing money from the Cattlemen’s Protective Association. Soon, the other cowboys learn that Kansas is an undercover investigator and help him take the Association’s money (a whopping $20,000) before Dawson can steal it for himself. When Dawson attempts to paint him as the bad guy, cowboys vouch for Kansas's character and testify on his behalf.

As the movie progresses, the local sheriff becomes wise to Dawson's devious ways and Kansas must make an important decision: whether to return to the city life he's always known or remain a cowboy with Barbara by his side.

Source: The Movies and The People Who Make Them (1940)

Sources:

Benjamin, George. "Smoothie!" Modern Screen. June 1941

Crowther, Bosley. "The Screen." New York Times. December 6, 1940.

Fenin, George N. The Westerns: From Silent to Cinerama. Orion Press. 1962.

Interview with Mike Fitzgerald: Peggy Moran. http://www.westernclippings.com/interview/peggymoran_interview.shtml

Trail of the Vigilantes. The Movies and The People Who Make Them. 1940.

Her Husband's Affairs (1947)

Her Husband's Affairs. Source: my collection

1947 was Franchot's year for marriage-related comedies. He starred in Lost Honeymoon with Ann Richards and Tom Conway, Honeymoon with Shirley Temple and Guy Madison, and Her Husband's Affairs with Lucille Ball. Her Husband's Affairs was directed by S. Sylvan Simon, who would direct Franchot again in the film noir I Love Trouble the following year.

In Her Husband's Affairs, Franchot plays Bill Weldon, an advertising man looking for his big shot at wealth and fame by latching on to the hare-brained schemes of inventor Emil Glinka (Mikhail Rasumny). Bill is clever and creative, but his wife Margaret (Lucille Ball) is the real innovative problem solver in the marriage—a fact that irks Bill and causes a great deal of marital tension throughout the film, which is currently available to watch on Youtube.

Franchot, Lucy, and director S. Sylvan Simon
clown around in this on set candid. 
Source: my collection

The comedy received mixed reviews when it was released in the fall of 1947. Bosley Crowthers, New York Times reviewer and never a big Franchot fan, called the movie a "featherweight farce" and wrote:

To try to make any sense of it would be the most arrant foolishness, for it plainly was not intended to follow a coherent line. It is simply a lot of nonsense about a husband, his buttinsky wife and a thoroughly eccentric inventor...Except for occasional incidents which are good for explosive yaks—and in most of which, significantly, Mikhail Rasumny is involved—the humor is pretty labored, the going pretty rough. Lucille Ball, an able comedienne, works hard and adroitly as the wife, and Franchot Tone springs about as the husband, but they labor to little avail.

Independent Exhibitors reviewers gave the film a mere two stars and called it "an insult to audience's intelligence" and said it was "based on a premise that might have been considered funny in the days of silent two-reel comedies." But The Film Daily disagreed. Film Daily praised the film:

Tone and Ball have a field day in this wild and merry farce which rates plugging by wise exhibitors. This is one of the wildest, merriest farces to come to the screen in many moons. In addition to its laugh-provoking zany capers, it has a love story, with one or two near-censorable situations. In all, it adds up to an attraction that deserves plugging by wise exhibitors. 

The "near-censorable situations" that Film Daily refer to are many sweet, cuddling scenes in the Weldons' bed—definitely occurring more frequently than in other films of its time, and Franchot and Lucy look and act fabulous together. However, as forward as these scenes may seem in retrospect, the premise of the film—concerning a man jealous of his wife's creative ideas and not wanting her opinions, only her approval—is certainly of its time. Let's just say that the character Bill Weldon will never be upheld as an early feminist. 

 Bill (Tone) comes up with advertising ideas in the middle of the night, looking for the next big craze. He tells Margaret (Ball) that he is sick and tired of hats being sold for their durability, because what men require is a lightweight hat. As he weighs and tries on the hat and fires off possible slogans, Margaret responds with great feedback and suggestions for improvement. Bill replies:

I love you very much, but these are my slogans. Let's not collaborate...Learn to respect my ability. I don't need any creative help from you, just your approval.

Bill's so preoccupied with his work that he's postponed their honeymoon cruise to Bermuda four—soon to be five—times! With his latest lightweight hat notion, Bill knows he must stage a stunt for publicity. He aims to convince the mayor to wear the hat at the ball game and have a cameraman ready for the perfect shot. But the mayor refuses and without consulting her husband, Margaret decides to place the hat on the mayor's head during the national anthem. People grow angry with the mayor for keeping a hat on during the anthem and he responds, "I didn't know I was wearing one," exactly as Bill wanted, and all thanks to Margaret's quick thinking.

 As Bill's colleagues and supervisors praise Margaret, Bill grows jealous and embarrassed. He loses his temper and questions her, "You keep thinking I'm not able to handle my own affairs?" Margaret makes peace by calling him a genius and kissing him.

Later, Bill meets with professor Emil Glinka, who has invented an embalming fluid that "converts people into glass...Every man will serve as his own headstone." Bill is smart enough to turn this new fluid down, but is swayed by Glinka's other new formula that removes hair effortlessly and destroys the gland extract. Bill convinces his company to move quickly on the product which he has named Off Again and Mr. Winterbottom (Gene Lockhart) shuts down his shaving cream plant immediately and plans a gala that very evening, inviting 750 prominent guests and requesting that they arrive unshaven.

At the event, everyone applies the cream to their faces and is smitten with the results. Faces are soft, supple, and hairless across the room. Off Again is a success and Bill is a hero!

Bill and Margaret stay up all night dreaming of the money, maids, butlers, and trips they will soon have. But morning brings chaos. Every person who applied the cream the night before now has a full, bushy beard! One that grows back instantaneously when shaven or cut. 

Winterbottom grows angry when he realizes that he will have to compensate every single person who tried the balm and threatens to throw Weldon in jail. Margaret, as always, saves the day. She suggests that Winterbottom simply change Off Again to On Again and use it as a hair growth balm for bald men. Everyone applauds the idea except Bill, who is embarrassed that he's been rescued by his wife once more. The men laugh and tell Bill he should just go home and knit while his wife takes care of business, which causes Bill to threaten divorce. Winterbottom cautions him, "Instead of standing here bellowing like an ape you ought to go down on your knees to your wife for what she’s done.”

Film still. Source: my collection.

Soon, men all over town have full manes of hair, but Margaret's plan quickly hits a far-fetched snag. Because the formula is made of embalming fluid, it begins turning scalps into glass! Bill hides out with Professor Glinka and lets Margaret face the backlash this time.

Instead of giving up on Professor Glinka's embalming fluid inventions entirely, Bill is enthralled by the inventor's latest revelation—an unbreakable rose. Glinka may not be able to preserve human life, but he can preserve plant life! Bill enthuses, "A perpetual flower...wait! I've got a name for it. The Forever Flower!"

More outlandish hijinks ensue leading to a murder trial and more necessary meddling by Margaret.

About her husband, who is so loving and devoted at home but terribly jealous of her successes in the office, Margaret explains:

He’s really a brilliant man, Mr. Brewster, but like so many brilliant men he just runs off the track. He gets hold of an idea and it gets bigger than he is. I know he’s working on something very brilliant right now but, you see, when a man’s a genius you can’t trust him…

 As long as you can suspend reality for 84 minutes, you'll enjoy Her Husband's Affairs.  Always a skilled comedian in my eyes, Franchot is very funny in his role as Bill and does some humorous bits imitating a horse, losing his cool, and performing physical comedy. It's a silly romp that includes a lot of sweet moments and great screwball collaboration between Franchot and Lucy. The pressbook for Her Husband's Affairs had some clever ways to entice viewers and build up the film. It suggested that local radio stations hold a contest for "the most helpful wife" in which a husband submit a 50-word essay on a time his wife helped him out of a jam. Beauty parlors were encouraged to hold a contest for the married couple with the most beautiful hair. Since the film focuses on the misadventures of an advertising man, it was suggested that cinemas stage special screenings for their local advertising clubs.

Film still. Source: my collection.

Visit the Filmography page for more summaries of Franchot's films.

Sources:

 Crowthers, Bosley. "Her Husband's Affairs' Has Its Premiere at Capitol -- 'Heaven Only Knows' Opens at Broadway." New York Times. November 14, 1947.

"'Her Husband's Affairs' Insult to Audience's Intelligence." Independent Exhibitors. 1947.

"Her Husband’s Affairs." The Film Daily. July 22, 1947. 

"The Selling Approach on New Product." Motion Picture Herald. November 1947.