Border Devils | |
---|---|
Directed by | William Nigh |
Written by | Harry L. Fraser |
Produced by | Louis Weiss George M. Merrick |
Starring | Harry Carey Kathleen Collins Gabby Hayes |
Cinematography | William H. Dietz |
Edited by | Holbrook Todd |
Distributed by | State Rights |
Release date | April 4, 1932 |
Running time | 63 or 65 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Border Devils is a 1932 pre-Code American Western black and white sound film directed by William Nigh and starring Harry Carey, Kathleen Collins, and Gabby Hayes.[1] The film is Collins's last role and her only sound film.[2]
A man, Jim Gray, is wrongfully put in jail; he escapes to prove his innocence and reveal the real criminal. In the process, Gray discovers a second criminal who has been working behind the scenes with the more obvious villain.[3]
The film was written by Harry P. Crist ( credited for "script and continuity' under this pen name is the American director Harry Fraser[4]). The story was based upon the novel Dead Man's Shoes,[5] by Murray Leinster.[4]
According to a contemporary issue of The Film Daily, certain scenes were filmed in Palm Springs, California.[1]
The film features Gabby Hayes in one of his earliest credited roles, a sidekick figure that would become his signature character.[6]
Border Devils was theatrically released in the United States on April 4, 1932.[1] The film was released on DVD in August 2011 by Alpha Video.[7]
This film has been noted for the unexpected presence in a Western, of Yellow Peril themes, embodied in the character of the villain, a mysterious 'oriental' criminal figure known as the General.[4][8][6]
Commentators generally underline the weight of the original novel, a typical Leinster tale, in this adaptation: "the massive conspiracy that figures in his sci-fi, the shifting identity of the hero, and the generally peripatetic nature of the tale as our cowboy commandos shuttle hither and yon like horsing lot attendant."[9]