Desert Gold

It's obvious that Alpha Home Entertainment spends quite a bit of time designing clever, catchy, and colorful DVD cases. It would be nice if the same care and consideration were afforded to some of the films I have viewed inside those cases."Desert Gold" is another example of a beautifully designed DVD case that contains a movie with a picture that has a light and dark contrast that is often washed out. The sound, while not great, is okay. As for the content of the film itself, "Desert Gold" is a rather mundane and annoying adaptation of the Zane Grey novel.Tom Keene plays the hero, a geologist who is looking for a lost gold mine that is supposedly on land owned by the local Indian tribe. But in "Desert Gold," he just seems to give a bored and uninspiring portrayal of a Western hero.A very young Robert Cummings is terrible as Keene's assistant who is there to provide some comic relief in the movie. The only relief is when he is not on screen. He is supposed to be someone who is afraid of his own shadow and not very bright, and all of his eye-popping ham acting wears thin in a hurry.Buster Crabbe, one of my favorite B actors, is totally miscast as a young Indian chief who knows the location of the gold mine and is not about to tell the outlaws, even after he is captured and tortured by them. Crabbe's overly stern expression on his face with his arms crossed during most of his scenes was an image of a Native American that had been basically discarded in Westerns, even back in 1936 when this one was made.The only two bright spots in this Western are the great Raymond Hatton who plays a crusty, old doctor, and his daughter played by the very beautiful Marsha Hunt. Both of these actors light up the screen and provide a little luster to "Desert Gold."So if you happen to be a fan of Raymond Hatton, Marsha Hunt, or Buster Crabbe, then "Desert Gold" may be worth a passing glance and adding to your collection. And speaking of Marsha Hunt, as of this writing, she is still very much alive and active at the age of 93.

This movie is for fans of 1930s westerns. For me what is special about the best of these movies are the images of period homes, period clothes and outdoor scenes of a long-gone America. This movie isn't one of the best, but it was good enough.

This story is not in any way the same story as the novel by Zane Grey. This film is a ridiculous and stupid comedy that was not funny. The novel was a serious and beautiful thing. And this filmmaker ruined it for me. A comedic Farce with idiocy and slapstick is all I can say.

good old time western

Good.

Typical flick of the era. Good watch!

Not quite as great as I expected but worth watching once

ok

ok