"Here was this bandit, a-strippin' these women..."
"What?!?"
"...of their jewelry."
"Oh."
The plot to this pre-Code western is a melodramatic mix of subplots, none of which are terribly satisfying, but there are a few things which made it mildly entertaining:
The plot to this pre-Code western is a melodramatic mix of subplots, none of which are terribly satisfying, but there are a few things which made it mildly entertaining:
- The magnificent California redwoods in Sequoia National Park, where filming took place.
- The equally magnificent Joan Bennett, flitting about in tight shirts, skinny dipping, and finding love. She's divine. Don't read too much into the title though, it's salacious clearly to sell tickets, and the character is actually modest and virtuous. In fact, it's a little disappointing that the "tomboy" comfortable with climbing atop a moving stagecoach is wearing a dress after falling for a handsome stranger (Charles Farrell).
- Eugene Palette imitating agitated horses.
- Raoul Walsh's style of scenes ending with the film turning a page as it's rolling, a neat little effect. He also uses it after the opening credits, when the main actors introduce themselves.
- Ralph Bellamy's character having the grace to know that the young woman doesn't truly love him and then backing off, telling her she'll know when the right one comes along instead of being aggressive, which is so often seen in these films.
- The town prostitute (Minna Gombell) brazenly introducing herself as "I'm called a lot of names, by different men," and then later mocking the hypocrisy of the sheriff and the "Purity League" he represents, probably a clever dig at the Catholic League of Decency, who a couple of years later would finally succeed in getting the Production Code enforced.
- The notable way that for the two crimes committed, the sheriff and a posse capture the men and without any semblance of a trial by jury, take them off to be executed by hanging, and no one bats an eye over this process.