Item: Young Blood
Rating: 6.2
Author: Archivist John

If you have about an hour to kill and you like seeing guys in big hats get into trouble, Young Blood is a decent enough pick. It’s perfect for anyone who misses the days when movies were short and the villains were obviously evil because they had thin, greasy mustaches.

You’ll probably hate it if you can’t stand grainy film or if you expect a plot that makes 100% sense. It’s a B-western through and through, which means it moves fast and doesn't worry too much about the details.

Bob Steele plays Nick, who the movie calls a 'modern' Robin Hood. I’m not entirely sure what was supposed to be modern about it even in 1932, but he’s got that high-energy vibe.

He’s always moving, always looking like he’s about to jump over a fence for no reason. He has this intense way of staring at people that makes it feel like he's had way too much coffee before every take.

The movie starts with Nick splitting up from his gang because they’re getting too mean and violent. Then there is this Sheriff who is just the absolute worst.

The Sheriff ends up killing a Countess, which is a surprisingly dark turn for a movie that feels this light otherwise. He frames Nick for the murder, which is the classic setup we've seen a million times, but it works here because the Sheriff is so easy to hate.

One thing I noticed was how loud the horses are in the audio mix. Sometimes you can barely hear what the actors are saying because of the clop-clop-clop sound effects that sound like someone hitting coconuts together right next to the microphone.

It reminds me a bit of the weird pacing in Huck and Tom, where things just sort of happen one after another without much breathing room. It doesn't have the grand scale of something like The White Hell of Pitz Palu, but it isn't trying to be art.

The Rope and the Note

The climax is definitely the best part of the whole thing. Nick is literally standing on the gallows with a rope around his neck, looking very sweaty.

He thinks he has the Sheriff’s written confession in his pocket to save his life at the last second. He reaches for it, and it’s gone.

The look on Bob Steele’s face in that moment is actually pretty good acting. You can see the 'oh crap' moment in his eyes as he realizes his plan just evaporated.

I won't spoil how he actually gets out of it, but let's just say it involves some very convenient timing and some people who probably should have been guarding the prisoner better. It’s the kind of logic you only find in these old Saturday afternoon serials.

The Sheriff, played by Harry Semels, is almost too good at being a creep. He has this way of leaning into the frame that makes you want to reach into the screen and push him away.

Some of the background actors look like they just wandered in off the street and were told to stand still. There’s a guy in the back of one town scene who just stares directly at the camera for a solid five seconds with a completely blank expression.

It’s hilarious once you notice it. I wonder if the director, Phil Rosen, even saw him when they were editing this together.

The writing by Wellyn Totman is pretty basic. It gets Nick from the desert to the jailhouse efficiently enough without any fancy metaphors or deep thoughts.

I found myself wondering about the Countess, though. We don't really get to know her before she's gone, so her death doesn't feel as sad as it should; she’s just a plot device to get the hero in trouble.

If you’ve seen On a Sunday Afternoon, you know how these older films can sometimes feel a bit stiff and slow. Young Blood avoids that mostly because Steele is so physically active.

The stunt work is actually pretty impressive for 1932. There is a fall from a horse that looked like it actually hurt the guy doing it.

Is it a masterpiece? No way. But it’s a fun way to see how they used to churn these out for audiences who just wanted to see the bad guy get punched.

It’s definitely better than Nobody Home in terms of keeping your attention for the full hour. The ending feels a bit rushed, like they realized they only had two minutes of film left in the camera.

Everyone just kind of shakes hands and the movie stops. It's very abrupt.

I liked it, though. It’s an honest little movie. It’s not trying to be a 'meditation' on anything deep; it’s just a story about a guy trying not to get his neck stretched.