"The Gunman From Bodie" is the second in a series of eight Rough Riders films from Monogram Studios that paired three aging veterans of 'B' Western flicks from the Twenties and Thirties - Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Ray Hatton. The trio had a pretty cool chemistry together in the RR flicks, and the stories themselves were decently written with good production values. This one takes it's name from Buck Jones' character - Bob 'Bodie' Bronson, an alias he assumes to smoke out a passel of villains masterminded by Larabie town boss Wyatt (Robert Frazer). The story actually has a fairly intricate plot that you have to pay attention to as you follow the action, as Bodie's smokescreen identity as a bad guy is the only one known to most of the players. He manages to pull off the ruse nicely while having to think on his feet as a few curves are thrown his way.
The further you go back in time, the more comical it sounds to hear one of those cliché lines that were parodied in the Warner Brothers cartoons of a decade or two later. In this case, I'm thinking of bad guy Bill Cook (John Merton), who when pressed by Marshall McCall (Tim McCoy) in the bar scene, declares - "One move and I'll let ya have it". Actually, I thought it was pretty dumb for McCoy's character to let Cook get the upper hand the way he did, even if only momentarily. But I did get a kick out of the marshal's hanging story.
I also got a kick out of the way Tim McCoy strikes those affecting postures whenever he's at the center of a scene, as if recalling moments of past glory. I guess it was a way for him to convey equal status between himself and Buck Jones, who was top billed in these Monogram featurettes. You have to admit, he did look cool in all black, especially with the outer frock coat.
The theme for virtually all of the Rough Riders films follow a similar basic pattern - Buck assumes an alias as his partners, all fellow marshals, get enough on the bad guys to bring them all to justice by the finale. In this one, that sentiment is echoed by Circle B ranch foreman Joe Martin (Dave O'Brien), who after suffering his share of lumps in the story, winds up with the assessment - "And to think the three of ya were workin' together right along!"
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