Low-budget Amity Pictures' "The Pocatello Kid" from 1931 is a creaky affair but it is hard to take your eyes away from it after it gets going. The performances might be characterized as wooden by some, but the atmosphere is great and the cinematography, if one calls it that, isn't all that bad.
Star Ken Maynard switches from one role to another early on (from a bad man to a bad man seeing the light to a better way) and is effective in playing his role in a stiff sort of way, freely employing facial expressions to communicate his evolving life concerns, especially his feelings of not being on solid social ground.
Slender Charles King makes a strong impression as a one-eyed disreputable galoot, but it is Charles Kramer who really steals the show. Kramer, he of one of the strangest vocal deliveries and cadence in the biz, always livens up any screen he appears on, and here he is a most villainous character, calculating and obviously enjoying his own evil being, one you really come to hate. And where did he learn to speak like that?
Tarzan gets to show off some sparkling talents, too. All in all, the movie making here is a bit shaky but the enjoyment passed on to the viewer can be high for tolerant fans of the genre.
Star Ken Maynard switches from one role to another early on (from a bad man to a bad man seeing the light to a better way) and is effective in playing his role in a stiff sort of way, freely employing facial expressions to communicate his evolving life concerns, especially his feelings of not being on solid social ground.
Slender Charles King makes a strong impression as a one-eyed disreputable galoot, but it is Charles Kramer who really steals the show. Kramer, he of one of the strangest vocal deliveries and cadence in the biz, always livens up any screen he appears on, and here he is a most villainous character, calculating and obviously enjoying his own evil being, one you really come to hate. And where did he learn to speak like that?
Tarzan gets to show off some sparkling talents, too. All in all, the movie making here is a bit shaky but the enjoyment passed on to the viewer can be high for tolerant fans of the genre.
