The Painted Desert (1931)

Two friends (J. Farrell MacDonald, William Farnum) are traveling through the desert when they come across an abandoned baby (Thais Baer) in a covered wagon. They take the child with them but they fall out over who would be a better father to the baby. Jump some twenty years ahead and the baby is now a young man (William Boyd) who has been fathered by Farnum but the bitter rivalry between the ex-friends is still strong. Complications arise when the young man falls for the daughter (Helen Twelvetrees) of MacDonald. Directed by Howard Higgin, this pre code western moves as slow as a turtle. Higgin seems to hold many a shot longer than necessary and one becomes impatient. The B&W cinematography by Edward Snyder does justice to the Arizona locations but the movie still creaks! It's interesting seeing a young Clark Gable in a supporting role as a baddie and he's certainly the only one with presence in the cast. Boyd makes for a bland hero and he's not much of an actor but he would go on to fame as Hopalong Cassidy. With Charles Sellon and Hugh Adams. A sidenote: the baby playing the young Boyd died mysteriously on location and no cause of death was ever given. Such an incident would cause an outrage today!