Blazing the Western Trail (1945) User Reviews

Another stagecoach race

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 17 July 2017]

The right of way and mail contract for competing stagecoach lines is the reason for the conflict in Blazing The Western Trail. Steve Clark and Al Bridge run competing lines and just by the casting you know Al Bridge will be the villain.

Bridge did a lot more than westerns. He was a favorite member of Preston Sturges's stock company, probably best remembered as the prison warden in Sullivan's Travels. When Clark is killed his daughter Carole Matthews takes over. But she gets some aid from none other than Charles Starrett going incognito as the Durango Kid with Tex Harding and Dub Taylor as sidekicks.

The Durango Kid series was most popular for Columbia Pictures right up to the mid 50s. An exciting stagecoach race where Durango foils some homicidal bad guys is the climax. Those have been popular since Ben-Hur.

Fans of the Durango Kid series should like this.

Villains come back from the dead with different names.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 10 April 2022]

It's amusing to see Al Bridge in this "Durango Kid" entry, having been a smarmy villain in an earlier film. Here, he's a ruthless stagecoach owner out to destroy the rival company recently taken over by Carole Matthews. The Rivalry is further developed by the fact that the government hasn't decided which of the companies will get the mail contract so that has Bridge and his gang out to destroy her company before it can be awarded that responsibility. Enter the Durango kid in disguise, once again played by Charles Sturridge, to save the day, and leave it to Dub Taylor to end up with a comical romantic interest with the Zasu Pitts like Virginia Sale (who also reminded me of comic Cass Daley. Good musical interludes interrupt the comic elements and the main plot, leading to a decent entry in the successful Columbia B western series.

Blazing the western Trail

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 25 February 2022]

Jeff Waring (Charles Starrett) and his friends Tex Harding (Tex Harding) and Cannonball (Dub Taylor) become involved in the affairs of two rival stagecoach lines, one of them headed by Mary Halliday (Carole Mathews) whose father (Nolan Leary) has been murdered by the gang of the rival line, Forrest Brent(Al Bridge.

Enjoyable Durango kid about competing stage lines, one of them - Brent - is crooked and causing accidents for the other line. Of course, Durango Kid comes to the rescue. Interesting aspect is that Starrett is deceptively working for Brent so he can find out what's going on.

There's plenty of action, a great pace, which isn't hindered by the four toe tapping songs. The exciting stagecoach race at the end rounds a lively entry.

More musical than Western, but good fun

[morrisonhimself · 8/10 · 4 December 2008]

There are some astonishing omissions here. For example, the chief bad guy is played by Al Bridge, the sheriff by Edmund Cobb, and they are just two of the dozens who don't get billing credit! Al Bridge was a favorite of Preston Sturges, and had a memorable voice and presence. Apparently there was some budget crunch that caused the cast listing to be so curtailed.

Charles Starrett plays the Durango Kid, who was the star of a long series, but who had several alter egos in that series. Here he is Jeff Waring, though he is Steve Martin, Steve Holden, Steve Ransom, Steve Reynolds, and many other names over the years. That seems odd, too.

Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys take up a lot of screen time, and some of the musical instruments seem anachronistic; but this is not meant as a complaint.

Carole Mathews is the leading lady, and she is a real beauty. She has a fairly long list of credits, but I would rate her as worthy of even more.

Tex Harding was the sidekick, and the one who got the girl. He was good looking, sang one of the songs (although I think actually lip-synched), and was a good cowboy. Again, I think he deserved a longer and better career.

There are lots of minor characters, helping flesh out a rather minor script, and making this a very watchable movie. I like a movie more when there are lots of speaking parts, and it's one reason I give this a high score.

A good Western & a fantastic Western hero!

[azcowboysingr · 9/10 · 22 July 2006]

I think I've seen all of the Durango Kid movies (most of them when I was a kid at the local theatre) & again on the Encore Westerns channel. The Durango Kid was always one of my favorite characters in movies. What was not to like about a masked man, dressed all in black, riding a magnificent white stallion, with a blazing sixgun? Unlike many of the cowboy stars of that period, Charles Starrett's "Durango Kid" character didn't sing a note, but he could ride, shoot and fight like a demon when the bad guys thought they were going to have an easy time of it with their nefarious plots. If, like me, you remember seeing all those wonderful B-Westerns, or even if you just like good action-packed movies, then make some popcorn, grab a Pepsi, sit down on the couch, turn on the DVD player, and watch any of the Charles Starrett/Durango Kid films. You won't be disappointed, trust me.

Decent Entry

[Michael_Elliott · 25 December 2012]

Blazing the Western Trail (1945)

** (out of 4)

The government okays mail to be taken out West and of course this brings along several robberies as bad guys take their changes on a big score. Jeff Waring (Charles Starrett) goes out to investigate and soon he has to turn into The Durango Kid to locate the ones behind the crimes. If you're looking for the work of John Ford then you're certainly not going to find it here but those just wanting to kick back with a mindless but slightly entertaining Western should find this to be decent enough to sit through. Again, there's no question that this here is "C" material but for a low-budget Western it offers up enough interesting things to help keep the 60-minute running time moving at a good pace. The story itself really isn't anything original for a Western in general but not even for the series. Pretty much every new Durango Kid movie features the same story with only a slight change in the subject. That change here is the mail going out West but history buffs certainly aren't going to find any historical drama here. The majority of the entertainment comes from the gunfights, various chases and other Western settings. Starrett does a decent job in his role and Tex Harding and Dub Taylor add nice support.

good western... similar to pony express story

[ksf-2 · 8/10 · 18 July 2017]

Another shortie from Columbia Pictures... This stars Charles Starrett as the Durango Kid, a role Starrett performed many times in the 1940s and 1950s. "Blazing the Western Trail" shows the struggle between companies vying for the mail routes. And plunk in the middle of all this are the Texas Playboys singing a couple numbers, for some reason. According to wikipedia, the Playboys were featured in quite a few films in the 1940s, and later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 ! One strange thing -- When they sing "Time changes Everything", it sure sounds like an electric guitar, but all we see are acoustic guitars. Boss-man Brent encourages his hired hands to see that the other lines run into trouble, so the battle is on! Subplot here is the crush that "Tex Harding" (played by Tex Harding...) has on Halliday's daughter Mary. Harding was the sidekick in a bunch of the Durango westerns, but only stuck around hollyweird for about five years. Carole Mathews is Mary, and she was in Hollywood for many years. Part of this was filmed at Corriganville, NW of LA. After an interesting history of owners, Corriganville is now a beautiful park. If you haven't been, it's worth a visit. You can still see where the different films were made, although most of the buildings are gone. The plot here in "Blazing" is pretty plain and simple, but everyone does a fine job. Picture and sound are surprisingly good. Nolan Leary ( Dad Halliday ) has a very slow, odd manner of speaking, but looking at his roles, looks like most of his parts were un-credited anyway. According to wikipedia, the Pony Express only operated in 1859, 1860, 1861, so this story would have taken place about ten years after that. Directed by Vernon Keays, who had worked on a bunch of these with Starrett. Shows every now & then on TCM. Pretty good film!