The Desert Trail (1935)
Framed for the robbery and murder of a rodeo official they didn't commit, rodeo star John Scott and his sidekick Kansas Charlie flee under assumed names, only to find the real killers, and the woman both men fall for, waiting in the very town where they've hidden out.
The Desert Trail is a minor footnote for a major later collaboration: it paired Wayne with Paul Fix, a supporting player here who’d go on to become one of his closest friends and most reliable character actors across three more decades of films, including Rio Bravo and The Sons of Katie Elder.
Background
The Desert Trail is a 1935 Monogram western directed by Lewis D. Collins, written by Lindsley Parsons and produced by Paul Malvern, with cinematography by Archie Stout. Released April 22, 1935, and running 54 minutes, it stars John Wayne as rodeo star John Scott, who is framed with his sidekick Kansas Charlie for a robbery and murder actually committed by other men; the pair flee under assumed names and find both the real killers and the woman they both love, Mary Kornman’s Anne, waiting in the town where they hide out. The film took in about $27,500 at the box office.
What to watch for
Paul Fix, playing one of Wayne’s friends here as a supporting player, went on to become one of his closest real-life friends and most dependable character actors, turning up alongside him decades later in Rio Bravo and The Sons of Katie Elder; this is one of their earliest pairings. Collins and cinematographer Archie Stout keep the outdoor rodeo and chase sequences as the film’s visual center, typical of how these Poverty Row westerns stretched a small budget by relying on action staged in open country rather than built sets or elaborate plotting.
