20 MULE TEAM
US, 1940, 84 minutes, black-and-white.
Wallace Beery, Leo Carillo, Marjorie Rambeau, Anne Baxter, Douglas Fowley, Noah Beery Jr .
Directed by Richard Thorpe.
A mixed drama, set in Death Valley in 1892, a focus on the Borax industry, the collection of Borax from the desert floor and the possibility of developing crystal resources for industry around the world. In some ways it plays like a western, especially the town of Furnace Flat, the inhabitants and the hotel.
The film is of interest mainly for historical reasons, another Wallace Beery star turn, the first film of a very young Anne Baxter (who would have an Oscar in six year’s time for her role in The Razor’s Edge), character portrayal by Marjorie Rambeau, an eccentric performance by Leo Carillo as a Native American and the appearance of Noah Beery Jr, the nephew of the star.
Beery does his usual turn, gruff, amiable, with the touch of the sinister, collecting the Borax and carrying it through Death Valley with his 20 mule team, assisted by Piute Pete, Carillo as the Indian, with a lot of comment, jokes about Native Americans and their abilities or not, Beery mouthing off so much of the time, yet, at his death, feeling very emotional.
There are difficult times for the company, wanting to close down in Death Valley, unable to pay their workers. An old prospector goes out and finds better crystals, leaving a claim which Beery finds but is left to the young man, Mitch, Beery Jr. Mitch was in love with Joan, who wanted to move to the big city, hampered by her mother, Marjorie Rambeau, who had similar experiences in her past but could not confide these to her daughter.
There are complications with Beery’s past, wanted for a killing, and finding at the end that there had been an amnesty for eight years, and a partner from the past, Douglas Fowley, who has a hold over Beery and manipulates him about the claim. He also manipulates the young girl who wants to run away with him – a quite a melodramatic ending, especially with the shooting of her mother.
As might be expected, Mitch returns, Joan really loves him, the mother survives, and Beery lives yet another day after a shootout in the mountains with the criminals.
Directed by Richard Thorpe was to go direct many genre films at MGM.
