Customer Reviews

Tom Keene Double Feature: Rebellion (1936) / Where Trails End (1942)

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Rebellion, with Tom Keene and Rita Hayworth (Margarita Cansino) is a typical Poverty Row programmer of the mid-1930's.
That said, even in its own time and for audiences of that era, it is a pretty weak film. It purports to show the adventures
of a special presidential envoy, Tom Keene, cleaning-up the corruption of politicians and land owners in California during
the era of colonization. It's main merits, although a weak costumer, is the portrayal of the plight of the Hispanic colonists
against Anglo-American politicians seeking to take their colonized land. There is a little bit of western action and a couple
of instances of humor, plus the recreation of California Colonial Era Spanish dance fiestas, which are nicely staged.
I frankly ordered this movie because I was interested in seeing some of the early work of the legendary Rita Hayworth.
For that purpose, alone, the DVD movie, Rebellion, is mildly interesting. She does more than the average female supporting
actress would in a low-budget film of that time and has more speaking parts than in her other 1930's westerns. That is about
the only interest that the western, Rebellion, had for me. As far as Tom Keene goes, he did an adequate job as a leading
man, but one who's career apparently didn't have any future. Today he is an all but a forgotten western hero by all but the
most ardent B-western movie fans. It's interesting, though, to see what could be done on a modest budget in the 1930's.

Concerning the technical quality of the DVD; well, it's pretty sad. The transfer apparently was made from an existing 16mm
film print that is showing its age and wear. There are numerous splices in the original used for telecine transfer.
Unfortunately, and lamentably, the distributor released this DVD as a "two-fer", that is including another B-western in
advance of the Rebellion film. This was a mistake because Rebellion is by far the stronger film. The first western has an
even poorer telecine transfer than Rebellion because it was transfered unaligned and slightly out-of-focus. A miserable quality
product! The cover art of the DVD box is beautiful; it might lead you to believe that the film had been made in color, which
it wasn't. It's really too bad that the film itself doesn't match that box image's artistic quality! Rebellion is interesting for
observing the early career and development of Rita Hayworth, but the production, itself, is really "camp" and corny story
material alongside the more developed entertainment vehicles of today. The ending montage sequence is the very essence
of "kitsch" and has to be seen to be believed. This could be a DVD of interest to those researching the early career of Rita
or Tom Keene, although as compared to modern movie entertainment, it's just nothing. The companion western is even worse.