The Fighting Marshal (1931) is basically a sitcom premise with more guns

You should probably watch this if you have a soft spot for those early 1930s westerns that feel like they were filmed in someone's very dusty backyard. It’s perfect for a rainy Tuesday when you don't want to think too hard. If you hate movies where the hero is magically good at everything, you will probably want to throw your remote at the wall.

Tim McCoy plays Tim Benton. He has this very intense stare that makes it look like he's trying to see through the camera and into your living room.

The movie starts with him in prison. He’s innocent, of course, because heroes in 1931 didn't do crimes. He escapes pretty easily, which makes you wonder if the prison guards were just there for the free coffee.

Then he gets to this town. Through some weird logic that only exists in movies, he gets mistaken for the new lawman. He just puts on the badge and starts bossing people around. 🤠

I love how nobody asks him for ID. In 1931, I guess a firm handshake and a clean shirt was all the resume you needed to run a whole town's police force.

The town itself looks like it was built about twenty minutes before they started filming. You can almost see the fresh paint drying on the saloon doors. It has that empty feeling you get in movies like The Silent Call where you wonder where all the other people are hiding.

Dorothy Gulliver is the lead actress here. She has these very wide eyes that still feel like they belong in a silent movie. She does a lot of looking worried while standing near fences.

There is a guy named Glenn Strange in this too. He’s a legend in these b-westerns. He’s got one of those faces that just says "I am going to be a problem for the hero later."

The audio is... well, it's 1931. There is a constant hissing sound like there's a very angry snake hiding behind the scenery. You get used to it after ten minutes, but at first, it's all you can hear.

One scene that really stuck out to me was when Tim is riding his horse. The way he sits is so stiff, like he’s worried he might break the horse if he moves too much. It’s actually kind of impressive how still he stays while galloping.

The pacing is actually pretty fast. It’s only about an hour long. They don't waste time on things like "character development" or "explaining why things are happening."

If you’ve seen Draft 258, you know that early talkies can be a bit of a slog, but this one keeps moving. It’s mostly just guys in big hats pointing fingers at each other and shouting.

I noticed one extra in the background of the saloon scene who just stares directly at the camera for like three seconds. He looks totally lost. It’s the best part of the whole scene. 😂

The final shootout is exactly what you expect. There is a lot of smoke. People fall down very dramatically. Tim McCoy doesn't even get his hat dusty, which is the most unbelievable part of the whole thing.

Speaking of hats, they are huge. Like, distractingly large. I spent a good five minutes wondering how they stayed on during the chase scenes. Maybe they used a lot of glue.

It reminds me a bit of the vibe in The Soul of Broadway, even though that’s a totally different genre. There’s just this raw, unpolished energy to it that you don't get once movies became more "professional."

The villain is fine, I guess. He’s very mustache-twirly. You know he’s bad because he sneers a lot and wears dark clothes. Subtlety was not a big thing in 1931 Columbia pictures.

Is it a masterpiece? No. But it’s got that weird charm where you can tell everyone was just trying to figure out how to make a "talkie" western without the camera making too much noise.

I found myself actually rooting for Tim to not get caught, even though the stakes felt pretty low. The movie doesn't really do a good job of making the prison threat feel real. He’s just a guy having an adventure in a new town.

There’s a scene where they are eating dinner that feels like it goes on for a year. They just chew. And look at each other. It’s very awkward. I think they forgot to write dialogue for that part.

Anyway, it's a solid 60 minutes of cowboy stuff. It’s better than The Book Agent if you want action, but it’s not exactly high art.

One more thing—the horse is a great actor. Seriously. It has more personality than some of the deputies. It does this little head toss whenever Tim says something particularly heroic. 🐎

The ending is very abrupt. It just kind of... stops. The conflict is solved, Tim gets the girl (probably), and then the credits roll before you can even blink. They really knew how to get out while the getting was good back then.

If you're looking for a deep dive into the human soul, go watch something else. If you want to see a guy with a shiny badge outsmart some goons in the desert, this is your movie.

I’ll probably forget most of the plot by tomorrow. But I’ll remember those hats. They were truly magnificent.