Saturday Action Matinee

Scouts to the Rescue (1939), Chapter 3: “Trapped by the Indians”

Huh. Interesting. According to the screencrawl recap that starts this chapter, Pat Scanlan is a former government engraver. That’s good information to have, but it still doesn’t seem kosher to insert new information in the recap. That’s even lazier storytelling than the revision of last week’s cliffhanger to get the hero out of certain death! Maybe that’s the producers’ way of making sure that people read the danged crawl each time. After all, someone put a lot of work into writing a concise summary of the previous chapters, and it’d be a shame for their effort to be wasted, so they’ve put an “easter egg” of info in each one. I’ll keep you updated in future chapters as to whether this trend continues to hold true, as I’m sure you’re anxious to know.

So where were we? That’s right, the Incans (referred to as “Indians” for the time being) have released a booby trap consisting of logs, rocks, and half the non-snow avalanche footage produced in Hollywood to that point to block the road beneath and keep the cars from coming up into what they consider “their territory.” Never mind that they apparently didn’t mind when bulldozers and other heavy equipment invaded “their territory” to build the road in the first place. The first car, carrying gangster Turk and his cronies, makes it past before the avalanche strikes the road; Heroic Scout Bruce half-climbs, half-falls down the slope to warn off Marvin in the following car, and the he stop just in time — literally, with boulders resting against his bumper.

The rest of the scouts get to the car for a general “Gee, Mr. Marvin, what’s going on?” session. Then they all find hiding places as another truck shows up. The driver and his copilot get out and spill some nice exposition — “Hey, is that Turk’s car?” “Well, we’d better be getting to Ghost Town” — so before the other truck leaves the vicinity, Marvin sneaks into the back (canvas-top trucks were really convenient for that. Not only does he get a free ride to Ghost Town to see the rest of Turk’s gang, but he gets and eyeful of what’s in the back: Boxes of counterfeiting equipment.

Ghost Town’s the scene of plenty of activity. Turk arrives with Scanland and his son Skeet in tow, to set up a counterfeiting operation with Scanlan as the spotlight engraver under duress, since Skeets makes a perfect hostage. Young miscreant Rip, now considered a full part of Turk’s gang, takes charge of Skeets to keep out of the way, but doesn’t hold too tight a leash, because where’s he gonna go? But Marvin, sneaking around, tags Skeets and points the way to the scout camp. Then, as a distraction to get to Scanlan, Marvin starts a fire at the other end of town. Then with Turk and his crew battling the blaze, Marvin sneaks into Counterfeiter HQ to rescue Scanlan.

Excuse me, did I say “rescue”? I meant “arrest.” As far as Marvin knows, Scanlan’s in full cahoots with Turk’s gang, and what’s more Marvin blames Scanlan directly for the death of Marvin’s partner last chapter. Showing an admirable reserve for federal law enforcement personnel, Marvin doesn’t pistol-whip Scanlan, or even sodomize him with a broken plunger; he merely hustles him at gunpoint into the waiting truck, with its key conveniently left in the ignition.

However, the Indians/Incans are still hovering around, showing their displeasure at the inadvertant invasions at inopportune moments. They decide to drop another set of logs and rocks on the road in Marvin’s path, and they even have the nerve to reuse most of the same stock footage! The truck goes off the road, and both Marvin and Scanlan are thrown free. A couple of bad guys who had been on their trail, who didn’t see Marvin and thought that Scanlan had been making a break on his own, scoop him up and hustle him back to their car; Marvin, coming to himself from far enough away that he can’t hear their dialogue, only sees Scanlan accompanying them back up to the road.

That’s all well and good, you say, but seriously: What about the scouts? And you’re right; the scouts are what this serial is ostensibly concerned with, so we ought to be spending more time with them. Well, we’ve seen them from time to time in insert scenes, but so far they’ve only done inconsequential stuff (that will no doubt develop into a more promising plotline for them in the future). When Bruce and his scouts get back to camp, they find out from those who were left behind that the horses got spooked and ran off; Bruce reacts phlegmatically, noting that they’ll probably all just go home to his ranch, so they don’t have anything to worry about (except having no transportation off the mountain, but that’s not an immediate concern). We also get bits of some scouts being spooked by the odd sounds reputed to come from the mountain caves (which we know to be the Incan drums sending messages back and forth), and the lonely coyotes calling all over (which we also know to be how Incans communicate over large distances when they don’t have a drum handy).

Eventually, though, something happens that rouses even easy-going Bruce: A golden eagle lands in their camp and snags one of their foodbags before flying off. Even that wouldn’t be so big a deal, except it happens to be the bag in which the radio set and earphones were stowed! So with no transportation and no communication, Bruce decides they’d better get the radio back. How? Well, eagles like to build their eyries on the highest point, so obviously they need to hike to the top of the mountain!

Fifty years later, the mouldering bodies of the scouts who had starved to death while lost in the mountains are finally found… No, wait, that’s not what happens in this alternate reality. It turns out that the eagle is trained and works for the Indians, who examine the food bag and contents, then put together some kind of scheme that they only explain to each other in their own language. They send the eagle out to a visible tree, and hang the food bag in the same tree. Bruce, being the crack scout tracker that he is, soon brings the scouts close enough to find the eagle; and with a couple of deputies and their bows and arrows, they try to surround the tree. (Please tell me that this scout is not about to shoot an arrow at an eagle. Boy Scouts of America will excommunicate you or shun you or something if you do that!)

But as soon as Bruce is separated from the other scouts — Boom! He’s chased by a bazillion Indians! And I have to say, it’s about time that the Anglo characters finally become aware of these Incans watching them and dropping logs on them from the mountains. Bruce runs and falls right through a concealed pit trap. Why, he’s — he’s — trapped by the Indians! And as we’ve reached the justification for this chapter’s title, it must be time for our cliffhanger!

Next Week: “River of Doom”