THE BAD MAN OF BRIMSTONE

US, 1937, 89 minutes, Black and white.
Wallace Beery, Virginia Bruce, Dennis O' Keefe, Joseph Calleia, Lewis Stone, Guy Kibbee, Bruce Cabot.
Directed by J.Walter Ruben.

The Bad Man of Brimstone is a cheerful western, even though Wallace Beery is an outlaw and there is an amount of violence. The setting is after the Civil War and the coming of law and order in the West. Beery and his sidekick, Joseph Calleia, hold-up a stagecoach and confront a young man and his manager, the irony being that the young man is Beery’s son, not revealed to him until the end of the film.

Beery is Trigger Bill, a gambler, outlaw, managing the town. When there is a fight and the young man kills someone, the brother, played by Bruce Cabot, arrives in town wanting vengeance. In the meantime, the young man falls in love with the daughter of an old judge, Lewis Stone, but his father arranges for money for him to do lawyers course to be paid to the judge. The young man returns to the town only to be confronted by the vengeful now-Sherriff. There is a shootout, a revelation, and a happy marriage at the end. The judge’s daughter is played by the Virginia Bruce, the wife of the director, J.Walter Ruben. Dennis O’ Keefe plays the young man.

1. An entertaining Western, after the Civil War, law and order in the West?

2. The studio work, the artificial look of the film, the roads and mountains, the trail? Musical score?

3. The title, with reference to Trigger Bill?

4. The opening, the hold-up, Bill and his sidekick, the money, Bill as a gambler, his influence in the town? Meeting the young man, seeing the watch and the picture of his wife, not revealing anything? Giving the money to the judge for his son to be educated? The coming of Black Jack, his concealing the truth about the death of his brother? The return of Geoffrey, as a lawyer, law and order, the confrontation with Black Jack, the trial, the arguments? The build-up to the shootout? Geoffrey and his manager, jovial, in the town, shot by Black Jack?

5. Geoffrey, meeting Loretta, carrying the can, attracted, the mutual attraction, her father the judge, his drinking problems, retirement? Bill approaching him about the money, the ethics, the secrecy? This backfiring during the trial, Geoffrey and his arresting the judge, the bank book and the entries for Geoffrey’s education? The shootout and the death of the judge? Geoffrey, Loretta, who welcome him back, the wedding, and Bill looking in the window?

6. Black Jack, tough, vengeful, shooting, the court case, the final confrontation? His brother and information about the killer?

7. The men in the town, authorities, justice, the court case and the lawyer, the shootout and the deaths?

8. The mines, Bill and his investment, the money, his future?

9. Popular ingredients for a 1930s Western?