West of Cimarron

West of Cimarron (1941)

Genres - Western, Action, Adventure  |   Release Date - Dec 15, 1941 (USA - Unknown)  |   Run Time - 56 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Review by Hans J. Wollstein

Directed with vim and verve by Les Orlebeck, this otherwise fine entry in the "Three Mesqueteers" series may prove somewhat disconcerting to a modern audience due to several rather painful scenes featuring African-American child actor Cordell Hickman. For comedy purposes, Hickman is portrayed as having an almost abnormal appetite for watermelons, munching happily along even in the midst of a furious gun battle. In one particularly offensive sequence, Rufe Davis and Hickman enter the Union fort disguised as watermelon salesmen, a blackface Davis deliberately mangling the English language and singing "Watermelons for Sale Today." In the final scene, Hickman is handed a lit candle by Davis in order to more closely inspect the inside of a powder keg. There is the inevitable explosion and the disheveled child, to everyone's great amusement, is seen hanging from the roof of the jail. "There sure was some powder in there, Mr. Lullaby!"