Water Rustlers (1939)

Director:

Samuel Diege

Writers:

Lawrence Meade (story) and
Don Laurie (story) ...

Release Date:

6 January 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Western

Tagline:

A true sweetheart of the West!

Plot:

Shirley Martin finds that Weylan has diverted the water from the valley and her cattle are dying. First she and her foreman Bob Lawson go to court...

Plot Keywords:

Avalanche | Lasso | Swimming | Plunger | Attorney

Cast

Dorothy Page	...	Shirley Martin
Dave O'Brien	...	Bob Lawson
Vince Barnett	...	Mike, the cook
Stanley Price	...	Robert Weylan
Ethan Allen	...	Tim Martin
Leonard Trainor	...	Andy Jurgens, rancher
Warner Richmond	...	Wiley, crooked foreman
Edward Gordon	...	Henchman (as Edward R. Gordon)
Edward Peil Sr.	...	Lawyer (as Edward Peil)
Lloyd Ingraham	...	Judge
Merrill McCormick	...	Sheriff

Runtime:

54 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Coronado Films Inc.

Soundtrack:

I Feel at Home in the Saddle

"Even the nightingales stopped singing so they could listen to you."

Basically only a vehicle for Dorothy Page (as Shirley Martin), but I found it entertaining enough. The plot simply involves the villain (Weylan, played by Stanley Price) diverting water from the Martin's property so that their cows don't have water and so that he can get rich later on. Wiley, the foreman for the Martins, also turns out to be working for Weylan. A little "give-us-our-water-back" war ensues throughout, with both legal (via the court system) and illegal (let's just shoot at everyone) methods. But it has the expected sappy ending. Sorry, make that HAPPY ending.

The attempted (notice I said attempted) comic relief comes from Vince Barnett (Elmo, from the Andy Griffith TV Show) as Mike the cook. Mike the cook speaks with an oddly unique form of broken English, which is somewhat annoying, such as "We must got to hurry to save fences, maybe now is the house gone". The would-be comic relief involves accidentally knocking his plate of food on the ground and grimacing at it, trying to catch his horse to mount it and falling down, putting his elbow in his stew as Dorothy sings "Let's Go On Like This Forever" - with his entire head falling into it a moment later, and knowing what dynamite is one minute and not knowing what dynamite is a little later on.

Strangely, in my opinion, Dorothy Page has a much better singing voice than a talking voice, as when she talks, it sometimes grates on my nerves a little. (I guess the pitch seems a bit strained as if she is trying to talk an octave higher than her natural lower voice pitch.) All in all, entertaining enough to watch in my opinion.

6 out of 10... "Oh, the nightingales and meadowlarks have come home to the valley again. Why don't you say hello to them?"