Trail Street *** (1947, Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Anne Jeffreys, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes) – Classic Movie Review 7,049

RKO’s traditional, unassuming 1947 Western film Trail Street is lifted by a worthy cast and a rousing climactic battle between the cattlemen and the farmers. Randolph Scott is a sterling movie cowboy as US marshal Bat Masterson.

Director Ray Enright’s traditional, unassuming 1947 RKO Western film Trail Street is lifted by the worthy cast and a rousing climactic battle between the cattlemen and the farmers.

A well-cast Randolph Scott provides his sterling cowboy movie presence as US marshal Bat Masterson (a firm believer in ‘shooting first and shooting straight’) who saves the early settlers (including Robert Ryan’s Allen Harper) of Liberal, Kansas, from lawless cattle-drivers.

George ‘Gabby’ Hayes is a bit of an irritant in the broad comedy-relief role as the hero’s buddy. Also in the cast are Anne Jeffreys, Billy House, Madge Meredith, Steve Brodie, Virginia Sale, Harry Woods, Phil Warren, Harry Harvey, Jason Robards Sr, Sarah Padden, Ernie Adams, Al Murphy and Kit Guard.

As Trail Street says at the beginning: ‘The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.’ The story is based on the novel Golden Horizon by William Corcoran and has virtually nothing to do with the real Masterson, although in the movie Masterson says he has ambitions to be a journalist and in real life became sports editor of the New York Morning Telegraph.

Trail Street is directed by Ray Enright, runs 85 minutes, is made and released by RKO Radio Pictures, is written by Norman Houston and Gene Lewis, based on the novel Golden Horizon by William Corcoran, is shot in black and white by J Roy Hunt, is produced by Nat Holt and Jack J Gross, and is scored by Constantin Bakaleinikoff.

It was shot at the RKO Encino Ranch, California; Agoura, California; and the Andy Jauregui Ranch, California.

Scott and Ryan also star in Enright’s Return of the Bad Men (1948).

Masterson of Kansas (1954) tells another version of the Bat Masterson story.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7,049

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