Now I know how Bosley Crowther got his job at The New York Times. He's really on the ball, that guy. He managed to follow the plot of The Law West of Tombstone with only a quarter of the trouble I had. I couldn't make head or tail of the movie at all. Come "The End" title and I was still up in the air, so I started to watch the film again. Half an hour in, I still couldn't catch on to the plot, so I threw in the towel. Is Harry Carey supposed to be a good guy pretending to be a bad guy or a bad guy pretending to be a good guy? Bosley infers that the Carey character is supposed to be both! Now why didn't I think of that? In fact, Bosley goes many steps further. He even tackles the Tim Holt character as well. I couldn't for the life of me sort out whether Tim was a good guy pretending to be a bad guy or a bad guy pretending to be a good guy. But Bosley infers that Tim was playing a good guy who becomes a bad guy who becomes a good guy. See, it's easy if you know your movies! Bosley even sorts out what Evelyn Brent is doing in the story. I assumed her character was a just a bit touched in the head. But no! Bosley tells us that she is actually the Carey character's daughter who is unaware that Carey is her dad – and that in any case, she thinks he is dead. It's absolutely wonderful how you can infer all this just by watching The Law West of Tombstone! I didn't get any of these points at all. I found the screenplay both utterly dull and wholly confusing. Of course, Bosley had an RKO Press Book to keep him on the right track, but I just slapped the excellent Warner Archive DVD on to the machine without doing any research at all. I don't like to know a movie's plot in advance. I like to watch it unfold without having any ideas as to how it will all turn out. That's a stupid quirk, I know, but I guess I'm stuck with it!
Review of The Law West of Tombstone
