Saturday Action Matinee

Scouts to the Rescue (1939), Chapter 7: “Destroyed by Dynamite”

The Resolution: Surprisingly, there is no cheat involved. Bruce is in the barn, the dynamite is in the barn, and the dynamite explodes while Bruce is in the barn. It’s a good thing, then, that these criminals who rely on dynamite so much aren’t really competent in its use. Some beams and stuff come down in the barn, and dusty smoke billows out, but when G-Man Marvin rushes in, Bruce simply coughs, hauls himself from under the wreckage which fell at such angles that it didn’t crush him, and dusts out his hair. (The explosion didn’t even take down the barn? Yeah, that’ll be a great help in warning the Indians away.)

The Narrative: I’m getting so tired of the “chasing between three locations” plotting that I didn’t take notes this time around. I figured that if a plot point fell out of my memory in the scant few hours between watching the chapter and writing up its synopsis, it really didn’t need to be immortalized.

While Marvin is gone to Bruce’s aid, Scanlon and his daugher Mary escape. Scanlon, you’ll recall, is innocent of any of the counterfeiters’ schemes, but Marvin won’t believe that, and Mary knows it, so she urges her dad to go on the lamb. It only takes a moment for them to pass a car full of counterfeiters (this deserted mountain road hasn’t seen so much traffic in forever!), who give chase. Marvin and Bruce also tail them on foot, taking the direct overland route while the cars have to tack back and forth on the switchback-filled road.

There’s only a bit of gas left in Scanlon’s car (or rather, in Marvin’s car that Scanlon and Mary appropriated, so I don’t know how he was planning on getting back off the mountain), so instead of simply pulling over and waiting to be caught, they send the car without them over the edge of a sheer drop, hoping that the counterfeiters will now leave them alone. And if only they can make it to the old log bridge across the river gorge, they can find some place to hide.

But Bruce and the rest of the Scouts (who’ve been tracking the whole thing — really, staying in camp working on merit badges is sooo boring when there are explosions going on!) determine that Scanlon and Mary escaped, and Marvin intuits that they’re heading for the log bridge. And who should overhear but delinquent Rick and the gangster he rescued last time. (As a side note: Jeez, these people can cover some distance on foot! They travel miles of mountainous terrain like they were crossing the street!) While the gangster goes to tell the rest of the gang that Scanlon’s alive, Rick tracks Marvin (and Skeets, who goes with him because of the family connection), then falls over a shallow cliff and sprains his ankle. And who’s close enough to hear his calls for help? Bruce and the rest of the troop, because the entire goings-on of this serial take place in a single acre, apparently. Rick lets it slip that the gang knows that Scanlon is alive, so Bruce takes after Marvin and Skeets to warn them.

In other words, everyone’s heading for the log bridge! First Scanlon and Mary get there and cross, then Marvin and Skeets get there, the the sets of track ahead of them, and wipe both their own and the preceding tracks as they cross so the gangsters won’t know to follow them. Then the gang arrives, concludes that they’re gotten there before anyone else, and decide to blow up the bridge (again with the dynamite!) to keep anyone from getting away from them. Then the Indians show up, largely because it’s been too long since they’ve popped up, and some of the gangsters exchange bullets for arrows as the others set the charge. Then Bruce arrives!

The Cliffhanger: Bruce stops to examine a dead or wounded Indian on the log bridge, and is (apparently) still on it when the dynamite destroys one of the bridge and sends it plummetting into the gorge…

Next Week: “Thundering Hooves:”