User Reviews

There are several things that endear this film to me. It's a fun little movie that packs a lot of plot into slightly over an hour. First there's a dog, a smart dog, and then another cute little dog who becomes his bud, and neither one gets killed. Second Wolves in Tempe, we've got Coyotes in the hills, but Wolves? Third, filmed on location in Tempe, AZ in the 40's. I don't remember one outdoor scene that appeared to be filmed in a studio setting. Well maybe some desert backdrops, but no phony desert shots. Fourth, good guy is vindicated, bad guys loose out in the end. Fifth, a simplistic story of right's triumph over wrong, with lots of opening gunfire. Sixth, A town full of people who don't hesitate to turn on a hero at a perceived indiscretion, you gotta love that. I always get a kick out the portrayal of survival in the desert in movies, especially older films. Laying down on the desert floor on a blistering day isn't much different than laying down on that proverbial sidewalk that folks fry eggs on. A small canteen of water is good for a couple hours when it's 115 and you don't have shade, at least for me.

Warren Hull is a prison inmate who ended up being forced by a gang of fellow inmates to escape with them from a prison hospital, and is the only one not rounded up upon their initial escape. He travels through the desert, befriends a wolfhound, is lucky enough to be offered a job by the daughter (Isabel Jewell) of a doctor and finds himself settling into the community as if he had lived there all his life, everybody in town preparing for him and Jewell to wed even before they have had their first full date. But the gang escapes again, his true identity is discovered, and now he does everything he can to prove his innocence.

While this is obvious hokum, it is charmingly written and acted, and those excesses are quite forgivable. Hull and Jewell are an appealing couple, not looking like movie stars playing regular folks, and are surrounded by a dozen small-town types who don't seem to be acting, just "being". Wolf, the dog, is very well trained, and the thought of him romancing Jewell's smaller pooch is just sillier than the plot line. In fact, the final fade-out will have you rolling your eyes, yet amused by the implications.

MARKED MEN is a B-movie thriller with an unknown cast and brief running time. The setting is the desert, where an escaped convict hides out while being pursued by the authorities. The story develops when another, more murderous convict turns up at the scene with his old gang, and there's unfinished business between the two men. All of this material is ordinary and predictable, but where MARKED MEN works is in the presentation of a loyal and heroic German Shepherd called Wolf who saves the day time and again. He's one of the most adorable screen dogs I've seen in a while.

Warren Hull, a decent actor with a face that is neither handsome nor ugly but as interesting as a hard-boiled egg, escapes from jail somewhere in the East. He manages to hitch hike his way to southern Arizona where he meets a dog he calls Wolf in the middle of the Sonoran desert.

First things first. This really IS the Sonoran desert, not a studio mock up. It's surprising, almost shocking, to see location shooting like this in a B movie. Yet there it is in all its overheated glory -- saguaro cactus, cholla, ocotillo, palo verdes, and rocky bluffs that don't look the slightest bit Californian.

Hull is trailed through the desert by a half dozen howling wolves, but one of them detaches himself from the pack and joins Hull as a companion. "Wolf" isn't really a wolf. He's a German shepherd apparently kicked out by his owner. This is some dog. His ears are so big they're almost fluorescent and they stand straight up like Batman's. And that TONGUE. Wolf constantly slavers away with this organ hanging a foot out of his mouth.

They say a man's best friend is a dog, but I consider that to be no more than propaganda perpetrated by dog people. Cats don't have that disgusting habit of panting and drooling hydrophobia all over the place. And they don't make a lot of noise either, not if you kick them properly once in a while. I camped several times in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument with my cat Bandido. There were no wolves but in the evening Bandido and I heard the far-off yipping of coyotes. Well, man, did Bandido's hair stand on end or what. I couldn't stop laughing. He was frightened too by the numerous Western Diamondback rattlesnakes that emerged at twilight, but it must be admitted that they were fiendishly defensive when approached.

Anyway, back to Warren Hull and Wolf, baking in the desert, both pretty chipper considering their circumstances. Finally they reach town -- Tempe, Arizona, just southeast of Phoenix. Tempe, home of Arizona State University, was a small town when this was shot, and even when I stayed there a generation or two later, with a chuckwalla squeezed into every other rock crevice in the vacant lots, a charming, laid back little city with vest pocket parks and Mexican fan palms. Now it's a pristine and expensive example of urban sprawl.

Hull meets Isabel Jewell, a nice young blond who invites him in for a snack. She's not a Hollywood beauty nor a bravura actress. Her high, piping, girlish voice is a handicap but she's still appealing in her innocent in her lust for a bourgeois life with a husband and a cottage to call home. As I watched Hull sitting there, chatting with Jewell, I couldn't help wondering why he was so well dressed and groomed -- clean shirt, tie, proper haircut -- and what exactly he'd been eating while hitching across the country without any money. Well, some things man was never meant to know. Jewell's father happens to be a doctor in need of a handyman and Hull fits the bill.

Hull becomes a popular fellow in town and he and Jewell decide to marry. Alas, the local cop twigs to Hull's identity as an escaped convict and -- well, then things get really improbably. The same gang with which he broke out of the slams shows up accidentally in little Tempe and robs the bank. Hull feigns joining them, in hopes of finding a way to prove his innocence. He succeeds and marries the girl wearing stockings with seams that run up the back.

I've kind of made fun of it but it's not a bad movie. It's diverting in its unpretentious way and not without some charm. It isn't helped, though, by clumsy editing, crude direction, impossible coincidences, and loopholes in the plot.

I watched it because it is the only known movie ever filmed in my home town of Tempe, AZ. Not a lot of the town is shown, mostly open desert, and a ton of information about the characters is missing or illogical. For instance, the heroine falls all over herself meeting the guy on the run - never gonna happen. Then without much interaction she falls in love with him - nope. Not much logic to this story. Fun to look for places and things of my youth but otherwise not worth the effort.

Although I have often said that the films of tiny PRC Studio stink, this is an exception. While "Marked Men" is not a great film, it does not stink and there are some likable qualities in this low-budget B-movie. So I will amend it to 'they stink...most of the time'.

"Marked Men" starts just after a prison break. One guy, Bill Carver (Warren Hull) has made the break along with the rest of the men but he is different--he WAS actually innocent and his 'friend' who orchestrated the break had set him up to take the rap. Soon the police arrive and kill or capture five of the escapees--and Carver manages to evade them.

Carver wanders many states away and chooses to head to the Arizona desert (?!). Eventually he makes it to Tempe, Arizona and sets down roots in the community. Soon, he and his dog 'Wolf' manage to become beloved citizens--but Carver is always wary that his past might come back to haunt him. How Carver manages to prove his innocence (along with the help of his trusty Wolf) is pretty entertaining and the final portion of the film is great.

This is an odd film because it seemed a lot like an old Rin Tin Tin film from the silent era melded with a more modern crime drama. An odd combination, certainly, but it does manage to entertain. This is not high art, but for a super-low budget B it manages to work well and has a more than satisfying ending. I give it an 8 because although low budgeted, it managed to make the absolute most of the few dollars spent on it.