Robert Mitchum wandered into acting as much as making a serious effort initially.
His sister moved to Los Angeles and after working in a factory back east
that damaged his hearing, he moved out to join her. She encouraged him to
try out for parts and he was able to get some work as an extra. That led
to participating in a few of the Hopalong Cassidy Westerns and within a few
years he was lead in a few Zane Grey based Westerns. These were all B Westerns
and perhaps Mitchum would have continued in that direction but he went into
the war. When he got out after it ended a new genre reflected the mood of
America - noir - and Mitchum turned out to be perfect for this morally murky
world.
But here in this Zane Grey film he plays an easy going cowpoke who is pretty
good with a six-gun. His female co-star was to become much better known years
later as well. Barbara Hale who was to play Della Street for years on Perry
Mason was quite the looker before she became the modest secretary. Look up
some of her photo shoots early on - you will barely recognize her. She had
only been acting for a few years at this point - appearing in two Falcon
films.
Rill (Hale) is an Easterner here whose father (Thurston Hall) is advised
by his doctor to get more exercise and get out of the city. Turns out he
owns a ranch in Texas that was owned by his father. They go out with their
French maid (Rita Corday who I have run into four times lately) and immediately
run into trouble when their stage is robbed and then Rill in all her finery
is molested on the street. This inspires her to dress up as a man - which
leads to some amusing moments with Pecos (Mitchum) who keeps trying to get
"him" to undress and smoke and bathe. Pecos shoots a man in a fair
fight but has to run for it. He and his Mexican friend join up with the threesome
to run the ranch. But trouble comes looking for him. Nothing great here -
enjoyable seeing Mitchum and Hale before they hit it big but the comedy tends
to be better than the action.
