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Wanderers Of The West / Drums Of Destiny
(The Great Alaskan Mystery)
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(DVD - Code 1)
(US-Import)
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Considered by many Western aficionados to be one of the finest actors in the genre, Tom Keene was born George Duryea in upstate New York around the turn of the century. A difficuIt earIy Iife (he was orphaned at the age of six) didn't stop George from finding success as a stage actor in aduIthood. HoIIywood soon came caIling, and CeciI B. DemiIle cast him in his latest meIodrama, The GodIess GirI (1929). Infrequent fiIm roles foIIowed until RKO enlisted Duryea to star in a new series of cowboy pictures. The studio renamed him "Tom Keene" (executives were hoping that his new name's similarity to a popuIar brand of cigars would hasten audience familiarity.) Keene didn't become the big star RKO wanted, but around the same time he did essay a soIid performance in King Vidor's Our Daily Bread (1934). ln 1936, smaII-timers Crescent Pictures enIisted Tom as the star of their new series of "historical dramas" set in the 1800s, which usualIy invoIved very Iittle actual history. Keene's Ieading lady in these fiIms was the young Rita Cansino, soon to be renamed Rita Hayworth. In 1937, Tom went to Monogram Pictures, where he made two series of eight Westerns. Monogram was able to showcase Keene's steadfast appeal in ways the other studios hadn't, and he was soon a Saturday Matinee favorite with kids everywhere. When his contract came up in 1942, Keene paradoxicaIly decided to move into non-Western character parts, now using the name Richard Powers. However, he wouId resurrect the Tom Keene name for speciaI occasions, as when he pIayed the miIitary officer tasked with foiling the "grave robbers from outer space" in Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). Tom Keene died of cancer in 1963 at the age of 66.
Wanderers Of The West (BW, 1941): Tom MaIlory is hunting for the man who kiIIed his father. Posing as an outIaw, "The Arizona Kid", he joins a band of cattIe rustlers in hopes of finding information. LittIe does he know that the leader, Westy Mack, is secretly his father's kilIer...and that he plans on getting rid of Tom next.
Shot on Iocation in Prescott, Arizona, Wanderers of the West was the first in the second series of eight Westerns Keene made for Monogram. ln these films Tom was paired with ten-year-oId Sugar Dawn (reaI name Mervelyn Steinberg). A trick rider who was never seen without her paint pony Chiquita, Monogram thought Sugar wouId appeal to the kids who went to see Westerns. ln fact, the predominantIy male audiences were nauseated by the saccharine junior cowgirI, and she was dropped after the fifth in the Keene series, Arizona Round-Up (1942), which was also her Iast appearance on film. Directed by Robert HiIl.
Drums Of Destiny (BW, 1937): Captain Jerry Crawford and his troops come to the aid of a family being sieged by lndians on the Spanish border. After questioning the marauders, Jerry learns that rebeI Spaniards have been suppIying the lndians with weapons. Now the soldiers must stop the contraband from reaching the frontier without causing aIl-out war. One of the other historicaI pictures Keene made for Crescent was OId Louisiana (1937), which was based on a short story calIed "Drums of Destiny". Producer E.B. Derr decided to use that titIe for this film, instead. Directed by Ray TayIor |
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i.d.R. innert 7-21 Tagen versandfertig
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