Director: PHIL ROSEN. Screenplay: Philip Graham White. Story: Leete R. Brown. Photography: Harry Neumann. Film editor: Mildred Johnston. Production manager: Sidney Algier. Sound recording: L.E. Tope. RCA Sound System. Recorded at Tec-Art Studios. Producer: M.H. Hoffman Jr.
Not copyright by Allied Pictures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: 17 January 1932. 66 minutes.
COMMENT: Another wonderful Hoot Gibson outing in which our personable hero is joined by a fine array of ingratiating support players including Edward Peil as a delightfully aphoristic Chinaman (shades of Charlie Chan) - a far cry from his villainous role in The Avenger, - ever-reliable Lafe McKee as a dissipated old rancher, and gloriously nasty Roy D'Arcy as one of the most melodramatic heels ever to have designs on both the heroine bare and her domicile fair! Plus Charles King in one of his best roles ever as a surprisingly ingratiating turncoat whose vanity unwittingly proves his undoing.
Beautifully photographed by Harry Neumann from a script combining plenty of action with lots of wit, humor and even romance, - Miss Merna is a fetching lass, - this so-called "B" certainly puts the lie to the oft-repeated claim that Gibson's Allied pictures markedly declined in quality from levels set by his Universal output. If this effort represents that decline, Hoot's Universals must have been remarkably splendid indeed!
Not copyright by Allied Pictures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: 17 January 1932. 66 minutes.
COMMENT: Another wonderful Hoot Gibson outing in which our personable hero is joined by a fine array of ingratiating support players including Edward Peil as a delightfully aphoristic Chinaman (shades of Charlie Chan) - a far cry from his villainous role in The Avenger, - ever-reliable Lafe McKee as a dissipated old rancher, and gloriously nasty Roy D'Arcy as one of the most melodramatic heels ever to have designs on both the heroine bare and her domicile fair! Plus Charles King in one of his best roles ever as a surprisingly ingratiating turncoat whose vanity unwittingly proves his undoing.
Beautifully photographed by Harry Neumann from a script combining plenty of action with lots of wit, humor and even romance, - Miss Merna is a fetching lass, - this so-called "B" certainly puts the lie to the oft-repeated claim that Gibson's Allied pictures markedly declined in quality from levels set by his Universal output. If this effort represents that decline, Hoot's Universals must have been remarkably splendid indeed!
