Men of America: A dusty, scrappy little Western

Is this thing worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for grainy, black-and-white B-movies from the early thirties, you will probably find something to like here. If you need snappy dialogue or, you know, a budget that covers more than two locations, you might want to look elsewhere. It is essentially a "good folks vs. bad guys" story, but it feels like it was filmed in someone’s backyard, which is kind of the charm.

William Boyd holds the whole thing together, obviously. He has that look of someone who has seen everything twice and isn't impressed by any of it. Watching him deal with these city slickers is a bit like watching an adult try to teach a toddler how to behave in a library. Except the toddler has a Tommy gun.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Men of America (1932) through its definitive frames.

The vibe is… well, it’s definitely a movie from 1932.

There is this one scene where the gangsters are trying to act tough, but they just look like they’re waiting for a bus. It’s odd. You can tell they aren't used to the open air of the West, and the camera lingers on them for an extra second or two, just to make sure we get that they feel out of place. It borders on awkward, but it works.

I found myself wondering if they actually built the town sets or if they just found an abandoned dirt road and put a few crates out. It feels so small. There isn't much of the epic scope you see in The Scarlet Streak or those bigger productions of the era. It’s just people standing around in the dirt, talking about rights and wrongs.

Random notes from the couch:

• The sound quality is a bit crunchy. You might have to turn your volume up if you want to catch the insults.
• I’m pretty sure the same two extras were in the background of every single scene. One of them keeps adjusting his hat every time he walks by the lens.
• It moves fast. There is no fluff here, just people getting angry and then eventually shooting at each other.
• The pacing is weird. It goes from 0 to 100 in about ten minutes, then spends twenty minutes having a conversation about nothing.

It’s not as polished as Railroaded, but it has this nervous energy to it. It’s a bit like a rough draft of a better movie that never got finished. That’s not a bad thing, though. Sometimes the mess is the point. I kept waiting for the local authorities to show up, but honestly, I almost forgot they were coming because the town folks were doing just fine on their own. It’s a scrappy little flick. Don't go looking for deep meaning, just enjoy the ride.