The Theodore Huff Memorial Film Society

This melodramatic highlight from the climactic reel undoubtedly makes this film look a good deal better than it really is; this sequence apart, the film is mainly notable as an example of the earliest Ray Milland, and for the footage involving the Flying Scotsman - once the pride of Britain's locomotive fleet, and now reduced to touring the world to sell British goods. (It was in New York a few years ago). Castleton Knight, who directed, was essentially a rather dull Newsreel man and documentarian, who optomistically pictured himself as a British Leni Riefenstahl. How inadequately he achieved that ambition can be seen by a quick look at his Technicolor Olympics feature.

Fox's George O'Brien westerns are a variable group, some, like Mystery Ranch and Rainbow Trail elaborate and a beautiful mixture of action, plot, scenics and fine production values. But they simply cost too much for their market, and by 1933 their quality began to fall off. However, thanks to O'Brien's personality, acting ability and athletic knowhow, they still remained very satisfying films, if not always very actionful ones. Smoke Lightning is based very loosely on the Grey story, and seems to owe at least as much to Cameo Kirby. Without looking cheap, it's an economical film: good-looking standing sets are used, and the outdoor locations are all very close to home, with none of the grandeur of the locales used only the prior year in Mystery Ranch. It's carefully made, but not meticulously made, viz there being just one bar in the window of George's prison cell, but the shadows of three bars on the wall. It's leisurely paced too, which wouldn't matter so much if there wasn't a little too much bantering comedy byplay. However, there are compensations: the villainy is formidable, and Douglas Dumbrille trying to ingratiate himself with a child is a joy in itself. The action is all held for the last two reels, but it's worth waiting for, with George performing sundry stunts on horse and train clearly without a double. The print by the way is one prepared for the Spanish market (but before subtitles were added) and there are occasional inserts (letters, documents etc.) in Spanish.   

The 3-reel Napoleon's Barber apart, The Black Watch (later remade after a fashion as an early CinemaScoper, King of the Khyber Rifles) was Ford's first talkie. While he hadn't re-seen it when the Bogdanovich interview book was done, he was somewhat critical of it, blaming most of its shortcomings on Lumsden Hare, who dialogue-directed some scenes. Admittedly Hare was a pompous actor, typed in pompous parts and it's reasonable to assume he might be a pompous director too. Certainly he favors himself in a long opening speech. On the other hand, Ford used him later on, so couldn't - at the time - have harbored too strong a grudge. In any case, Ford being as unreliable and cranky as he was, it's difficult to know if his complaints about Hare's re-shootings are true or justified. Admittedly, there IS a stiffness to some scenes which is not typical of other and more relaxed early Ford talkies, especially Salute and The Seas Beneath. On the other hand, these dialogue exchanges - given the florid nature of the lines - are really no worse than others being turned out by experienced directors in '29, and if anything they are a little less exasperating than the prolonged bagpipe recitals, these even going on into the heat of battle! It's an interesting film as it's all studio-made, and a Gunga Din devoid of genuine exteriors is stylistically fascinating if a bit cramped. The film is full of Ford images, Ford types, Ford situations, and some marvellously rich and fruity villainy from Roy D'Arcy and Walter Long. Loy is quite lovely, and though long, the film in continually interesting and a much more successful debut in sound by a major silent director than those of Ford's contemporaries at Fox, Walsh, Howard and Borzage. Made from a stunning 35mm original, print quality varies from reel to reel, and though acceptable for study purposes, is a tragic object lesson in the monumental disservice to film history currently being perpetrated by the laboratories that reluctantly undertake the current preservation work. (There appears to be a minor cut as Walter Long joyously announces a "Dance of the Virgins", but since the cut was made in Fox's ‘29 preservation copy, presumably it was missing from the start!)

- W.K. Everson -