The Apache Kid's Escape (1930) User Reviews

When cowboys went to Harvard!!!

[kidboots · 4/10 · 24 November 2008]

I started to become suspicious when the opening credits rolled out to "Baby, Where Can You Be", a popular hit song of the day, popularized by Bing Crosby.

This is an extremely "talkie" Western. Made at a time when stage actors and elocutionists were taking over Hollywood - let's just say that when the cowboys talk, you can understand every word they say - they know how to E N U N C I A T E!!! The narrative does not flow smoothly and there are even titles linking the scenes (a hold over from the silent period).

The Apache Kid (Jack Perrin) is a former outlaw trying to go straight. When his friend, Gus, impersonates him and holds up a mail stage, the Kid finds a letter to himself from his sister, saying his mother is very sick and they won't accept anymore money from him unless it is "honestly" come by.

In the next scene that is completely forgotten about and the story unfolds concerning one of the hands, Ted, from the ranch the Kid has a job on. Ted is in love with Jane (Josephine Hill, Jack Perrin's real life wife), but he has just found out he is a foundling. In desperation he impersonates the Apache Kid and is jailed for robbing a stage. To give Ted an alibi, the Apache Kid puts on his disguise one last time.

The acting is very wooden with the emphasis being on enunciation rather than action. Jack Perrin was definitely a second stringer from the silent era - who, even in this 1930 film, wasn't comfortable with dialogue.

There are a couple of exciting stunts - at the beginning the Kid gallops his horse over a cliff and into a river to avoid being captured, and there is also an exciting fight that starts on a railway track (complete with an oncoming train) then finishes on a cliff edge where only one person walks away.

The real star is "Starlight", a beautiful palomino who is called on to speed up the film with some fancy tricks.

OK story ruined by bad acting, bad directing, bad editing

[morrisonhimself · 5/10 · 31 January 2022]

Jack Perrin had all the makings of a cowboy star, except apparently the ability to act.

He wasn't the only one in this film: Every scene looks to be a first run-through.

Dialogue is hesitant, with stilted language, and misplaced pauses.

Probably even one rehearsal would have helped, but lack of budget money, or something, makes this look like an amateur production.

It's damaged even further by the posses' whooping and yelping when they're supposedly chasing some bad guy, and also apparently the same shots are used repeatedly.

Jack Perrin deserved better.

The audiences deserve better.

Probably this movie should be seen only by Westerns fans wanting to view every possible Western film, but don't expect much pleasure.

"Keep 'em high you pathetic coyote".

[classicsoncall · 1/10 · 12 April 2011]

Oh man, this was just awful, with a capital 'T' for terrible. Even by 1930's standards, this one misses the mark on so many levels it gets downright hilarious. As when The Apache Kid (Jack Perrin) comes upon former outlaw partner Buck Harris (Bud Osborne), looks down, and all of a sudden finds a letter from his sister admonishing him for sending stolen money home to help out the family. Forgetting a moment about how improbable this would have been, you would think this was the set up for Apache to make his way home and set things right with his mother and sister. Nope, never happens.

Instead, Apache, now going by no last name Jim, makes friends with Ted Conway (Fred Church), a poor schlep of a cowboy who figures to cash in on a Wanted Poster and impersonate The Kid robbing a stagecoach. There's a sub-plot involving Ted's banker father, who for reasons of his own, declares Ted to be a foundling, thereby nullifying Ted's prospect of marrying Jane Wilson (Josephine Hill). Old man Conway wants to marry Jane himself, and is willing to pay Jane's father a large sum in addition to writing off his debts.

You know, the longer this went on the less sense it made to me. On top of that, the film suffers from being right on the cusp of the transition from silents to talking pictures. The actors don't really seem to grasp the concept in the way they over-enunciate their lines, then look around for a few seconds waiting for the next character to pick up their cue. It feels totally unnatural, and you wonder why the players and director didn't 'get' it in terms of being realistic.

So on that score, the best acting award for the flick goes to Starlight the horse, with young Sally Wilson coming up second since she was young enough not to be confused by everyone else around her. As for the checkered scarf gimmick, I kept wondering why it would have been impossible for anyone else to have one, seeing as how it was positioned as the defining characteristic of the Apache Kid. Any other time I would have said you can't make this stuff up, but here quite obviously, they did.

I can see why this is the one and only 'Apache Kid' movie!

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 4 February 2017]

When I first read about Jack Perrin, I was amazed. After all, he has well over 400 screen credits...yet I never heard of the guy. Well, after seeing "The Apache Kid's Escape" I can see why he is pretty much unknown today and why they never made any more Apache Kid movies! To say it was terrible is clearly an understatement!

The story begins with the baddie Buck committing a robbery and being chased by a posse. He soon is met by the Apache Kid (Perrin) who is angry. After all, they both used to be partners before the Kid went straight (with the law) and they both agreed to go separate directions...but this was the Kid's territory. Soon it's apparent that Buck is not only a baddie but a jerk and it's up to the Kid to teach him a lesson. Soon a brain-addled sheriff arrives and finds Buck...with the stolen letters on him. Despite this, the sheriff is EASILY convinced by Buck that he's not guilty and the guilty man is the Kid! Eventually, the Kid bops the sheriff and escapes.

Soon the scene changes and the Kid has taken a young man, Tim, under his wing. He is trying to reform Tim...just like he himself reformed years ago. But first he has to return what Tim has stolen and clear his name.

So what's to like about this movie? Nothing. Sorry to say it but the acting is about the worst I've ever seen in a cheap western....and that's saying a lot because I've seen hundreds of terrible old B-westerns. Perrin makes even the worst movie cowboys look like John Gielgud or Laurence Olivier by comparison! In addition, the production is stodgy and cheap and has nothing to offer other than complete boredom. They just don't make them any worse than this one!!

Watch this as an unintentional comedy. You'll enjoy it much more.

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 27 June 2019]

In watching this, I couldn't help but think of "Singin' in the Rain" that showed early bad talkies being filmed and everything they did to try and make it better, which often failed. this doesn't fail because it is slow and creaky. This fails because the acting is beyond wretched. It feels like they filmed the first rehearsal and accidentally threw away the film. Fred Church is the son of a local sheriff, impersonating the Apache Kid for no apparent reason, and all of a sudden being told by his father that he can't marry the girl (Josephine Hill) whom he loves, and that his father (who claims not to be his father) is going to marry kill himself. He's a fat old letch who goes out of his way to block Hill and her sister's path, oggling them uncontrollably. In the meantime, the real Apache kid (Jack Perrin) shows up, confronts church and goes out of his way to make things right so church can marry the girl he loves.

This is actually very funny if you watch it with comical intentions, because at times the film speeds up in ridiculous ways and has some very silly looking sequences. There is a scene where the Apache kid literally drives his horse off of a cliff and it seems like it's part of a keystone cops sequence. I'm also glad that they explained that the telephone lines were actually telegraph lines. Another extremely stupid segment is a fight scene where two men are literally wrestling around on a railroad track as a train speeds towards them, and they roll off just in time. They then head to the top of a steep cliff and continue the fight, creating even more silliness. I have to call this one of the funniest westerns since one of John Wayne's B movies where he went over a waterfall hanging onto a stick that look like a broom.

One Step Ahead Of The Law

[StrictlyConfidential · 2/10 · 30 September 2021]

"The Apache Kid's Escape" was originally released back in 1930.

Anyway - As the story goes - The Apache Kid is a former outlaw who is trying to stay on the straight and narrow, while avoiding any further problems with the law. While trying to stay ahead of the local sheriff, the Kid takes a job as a ranch hand. When one of the fellow hands impersonates the Apache Kid and robs a stage, the Kid must clear his name and make the hand reform his ways.