Touches You

Absolutely the worst movie.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This story opens on an interesting note. Check out the movie theater marquee for the film starring 'Tex' Drexel called "Tex Rides Again". There's no move that goes by that name in the IMDb database, but the other feature showing at the venue was "The Shadow Strikes" which did come out about the same time as this film in 1937. So that was pretty cool. By the way, I've seen it, and the only connection to the iconic Shadow character is in name only.This was actually a fairly good flick for a B Western, with Buck Jones heading the cast but seeming at times like a support player to Grant Withers' character. This was my first look at actress Helen Twelvetrees who other reviewers have mentioned here that her role took on a real life quality of a leading actress on a downhill slope. She seemed competent enough, but that's about all. Very cool name though. Interestingly, I first came across a Twelvetrees character in some old time comic book series, either 'Turok, Son of Stone' or 'Magnus, Robot Fighter'. If I figure it out, I'll delete the incorrect reference.Westerns about film companies making a Western weren't all that unusual for the Thirties and Forties. Gene Autry appeared in a handful with slightly different story lines in each. They were 1940's "Shooting High", 1941's "Down Mexico Way", and "Sioux City Sue", probably the best of them all released in 1946. The story here has self absorbed leading man Grant Drexel (Withers) opting out of scenes that might cause him physical harm, while going for the facial powder to enhance his appearance after getting slapped by co-star Carol Stevens (Twelvetrees). He was too full of himself for his own good.Say, check out that jail scene right after Buck Kennedy (Jones) gets arrested in a frame up for the bank robbery. When Buck lassoed the sheriff out of his chair and hung him upside down, it looked to me like Buck already had the jail key in his hand because he didn't have to take it off the lawman. That came off as a bit clunky.Well this flick had a creative resolution in as much as Buck uses his lasso one more time to take out the rudder of the bandits' getaway plane, with young sidekick Dickie Stevens catching the whole thing on his film recorder. This might be the earliest movie in which I've seen actor Dickie Jones, who had an uncanny resemblance at ten years old to contemporary Spanky McFarland of all those Our Gang shorts. Seeing him ride a pony in this story along side Buck Jones was an early preview of how competent he became as the Range Rider's sidekick in the early Fifties. Until proved otherwise, I consider Jones the best trick rider I've ever seen in any Western format.

"Hollywood Round-Up" is a supposed look behind the scenes at the making of a cheap B-western. It's a nice change of pace for the genre and Buck Jones is, as usual, very good in the lead.When the film begins, Buck Kennedy (Jones) is a movie stand-in who does all the dirty scenes for the star, Grant Drexel (Grant Withers). Despite looking similar, Drexel is the opposite of the nice-guy Kenney. Drexel is obnoxious, a bully and a liar and makes Kennedy's life miserable throughout this movie. Drexel also cannot keep his filthy paws off his leading lady, Carol Stevens (Helen Twelvetrees)...a once leading lady whose career has turned downward...and so she's forced to appear in the so-called 'horse operas'.Late in the film, Drexel gets Kennedy fired and a group of crooks convince Kennedy that they are filmmakers. But, as they rob the bank, it is NOT being filmed...it's real! And, Buck is left holding the bag. in a twist much like a B-western of the era, Buck soon breaks out of prison to catch the baddies himself...and yet Drexel steps in and acts as if HE is the hero! Is there anything anyone can do to prove Buck Kennedy is a hero and Drexel is a real zero?!This is a very interesting B-western because I've seen at least a thousand and they mostly consist of about 3 or 4 plots...but this one is much more unique and enjoyable. I did NOT like the whole fake filmmakers portion because it simply didn't make sense. But the rest of the film was just great--very enjoyable and it was nice to see Drexel get his!By the way, a couple interesting things about the movie are the casting of Twelvetrees and Dickie Jones (who played her brother). Twelvetrees played a once leading actress forced to be in a B-western--and that is EXACTLY what happened with this film. Soon she'd be out of movies completely and, sadly, a decade later she'd kill herself...presumably, in part, due to her career. Also, Jones is interesting because just a few years later he'd star as the leading voice actor in "Pinocchio".

This 54 minute western for Columbia pictures is a nice Buck Jones vehicle. Helen Twelvetrees plays an aging star Carol Stevens, who gets the chance for a comeback; but she is scheduled to be in a quickie western starring wild west hero Grant Drexel(Grant Withers). She isn't happy being in a "horse opry", but its work. Drexel is a major star that does not do his own riding and daring stunts. That job goes to Buck Kennedy(Jones). The two get into an argument over how Drexel is treating Stevens and it leads to Buck getting fired. The talented Buck, out of work, is fooled by a fake production company to film a bank robbery. The real bank robbery lands Kennedy in the pokie. Who will be the hero rescuing the real western hero?Also in the cast: Shemp Howard, Monte Collins, Eddie Kane and Dickie Jones.

There is a rather strange scene early on in this picture.the character played by Helen Twelvetrees goes to see the studio boss initially to complain that she has not made a picture for the studio in over a year.In reality Twelvetrees only made this film in 1937.The boss then admits that she had had 4 box office failures in a row and therefore he wanted her to go into this western.In reality Twelvetrees was virtually at the end of her film career with only a couple more films to go.Bearing in mind of course that between 1929 and 1936 she had appeared in around 30 films.So one can only assume that someone at Columbia had a malicious sense of humour or was paying off for past insults.Based on her performance in this film it is difficult to understand why her star slipped so quickly.She would probably be completely unknown now if it weren't for her unusual surname.This is an entertaining film with the bonus of a behind the scenes look at how B Westerns were made in the 30s.Well worth a look.