Tonight’s Movie: Between Men (1935) and Lone Pine Locations

After watching THE MAN FROM UTAH (1934) during our recent visit to Lone Pine, I next watched another film shot in Lone Pine, BETWEEN MEN (1935).

BETWEEN MEN is a Western melodrama, with enough plot packed into its hour running time to fill twice as much movie! The story is a bit complicated, with multiple characters aging and/or changing their names over time, but despite that it all hangs together pretty well and I found it an interesting watch.

As the movie opens, John Wellington (William Farnum) kills the man who accidentally shoots his little boy Johnny (Barry Downing); mistakenly thinking Johnny is dead, John flees west from their Virginia home.

Johnny survives and is raised by kindly Sir George (Lloyd Ingraham), who has been mourning the fact that his daughter married a man he didn't approve of, Winters (Frank Ball), and left for the west.

As an adult Johnny (Johnny Mack Brown) heads west himself looking for Sir George's daughter, but his quest is made more difficult by the fact that Winters has changed his name to Gentry. Winters/Gentry is now a widower with a daughter, Gail (Beth Marion); they live at a remote ranch watched over by kindly outlaw Rand, once known as John Wellington.

Although Rand is protective of the Gentrys, he has some very bad men working for him, led by Trent (Earl Dwire), who wants Gentry's ranch and daughter. Oh what a tangled situation...will all the right people connect while fending off Trent and his men?

BETWEEN MEN has some vague overtones of Blackmore's LORNA DOONE (I reviewed the 1951 version) or Zane Grey's THE RAINBOW TRAIL (1932), with a young girl raised at a remote location mixed up with outlaws and a handsome outsider.

The film might not be to everyone's taste, but I like Brown and Marion, there's plenty of action, and I found it an enjoyable hour.

Incidentally, there's an interesting interview with Marion at Western Clippings; she was married to stuntman Cliff Lyons for a number of years. She passed on in 2003.

I especially enjoyed the plentiful Lone Pine locations seen in BETWEEN MEN, which filmed in both the Alabama Hills and at the Owens River site I toured at the festival.

About 40 minutes into the movie there's some very impressive "under the horses" stunt work by Yakima Canutt, foreshadowing his famous STAGECOACH (1939) stunt, which Western fans will doubtless appreciate. At the conclusion of the stunt the wagon goes over these cliffs:

The cliff face has gouges, seen in the movie, which are still there today:

Much of the action in the last third of the movie is centered around these cliffs:

The scene above took place roughly here:

Some in our group walked to the top, and I got a shot from below:

BETWEEN MEN was directed by Robert N. Bradbury, who also wrote the story. It was filmed by Bert Longenecker.

BETWEEN MEN is in the public domain and available on several different DVDs. It can also be found streaming online.

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