Heritage of the Desert

Though he had a tendency to verbosity, Zane Grey wrote some good Western adventure stories, and this one is quite decent too. Donald Woods is "Abbott" the last of a once wealthy family who is told by his lawyer that all that is left is some inhospitable land in the desert. When he goes off to invest ... igate, he is shot - lands in some quicksand, and is lucky to be rescued by the "Naab" family. A bit of a love triangle ensues, as our determined young man decides to reclaim his property from those scheming to take it (and it's wealth). This is a much better than average effort. The screen adaptation from Norman Houston keeps the dialogue focussed and there are a couple of stronger performances from the star; C. Henry Gordon (the unscrupulous "Holderness") and Evelyn Venable (the feisty "Miriam"). The photography is also quite lively, too - allowing the story more fluidity than many films I've seen. The romance does stifle it for me, though - takes just a little too much of this 75 minutes and detracts from the more interesting action elements of the crooked land grabbing. Features Sidney Toler, too - albeit infrequently - and that rather shows up his really limited skills as an actor, and the editing isn't the best. Enjoyable, though, with a few extra twists to keep it interesting. read more