WESTERN HERITAGE

WESTERN HERITAGE (1948), is the kind of B Western that RKO and other studios cranked out by the hundreds in the '30s, '40s and '50s. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about this formulaic story of good guys vs. bad guys. The good guys in this one are Ross Daggert (Tim Holt) and his Hispanic sidekick Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin). The bad guys are led by Joe Powell (Harry Woods). The plot concerns a fake Spanish land grant which will give the bad guys total control over an Arizona valley. It's up to Daggert and Rafferty to stop them. 

What is interesting about this film is star Tim Holt. Holt made dozens of these types of westerns over his long career. They're all pretty much the same but Holt and his pictures (cheaply and quickly made though they were) proved to be enormously successful and popular. Popular enough to earn Holt his own comic book, entitled TIM HOLT,  from Magazine Enterprises that ran from 1948-1954 and lasted over 40 issues. 

While Holt is best known for his B pictures, he did appear in several A features over the course of his career including John Ford's immortal STAGECOACH (1939), Orson Welles' s sophomore effort THE MAGNIFCENT AMEBERSONS (1942), another classic Ford film, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946), John Huston's masterpiece THE TREASUE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948) and the offbeat noir HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951) with Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. Fans of '50s science fiction films will recall Holt's appearance in THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD (1957). 

If you're looking for character development, thematic concerns and any trace of an interesting visual style, keep on moving down the trail because those things are not to be found in WESTERN HERITAGE. The more adult, psychological westerns of the '50s were still on the horizon at this point in American film history. But if you're a fan of Holt or B Westerns in general, you can't go wrong with this one.