Saturday Action Matinee

Scouts to the Rescue (1939), Chapter 10: “Battle of Ghost Town”

The Resolution: As much as I complain about cheating, sometimes the non-cheating way out of a cliffhanger isn’t any better. Scanlon and Bruce in the Indian’s cage are protected from the dynamite blast because they are in the cage. What Indians there are scurry away out other tunnels. G-Man Marvin comes in another tunnel and meets Scanlon and Bruce just as they’ve gotten out of the cage and are on their way to safety.

I should note that, having gone to the trouble of dynamiting the cave to scare the Indians away from the radium, one of the thugs opines, “Hey, let’s stick to counterfeiting.” Wanna bet that the radium subplot won’t even be mentioned in the next two chapters? (Except that the government will want to take over the area, a fact that Bruce mentions along with the obvious “medicinal properties” which the radium surely has as he, Scanlon and Marvin skirt the edge of a bubbling, radium-fueled pool on their way out of a tunnel. Hope you weren’t planning on having a little Scout of your own, Bruce.)

The Narrative: It’s back then to Ghost Town, where Marvin and Scanlon (who Marvin has finally started trusting) want to put the press out of commission. Bruce finds his horse Scout, which has hasn’t seen since the stampede at the start of the last chapter, munching in the abandoned stable, and decides to take him back to the Boy Scout camp and fill the rest of the Scouts in on the goings-on. But juvenile delinquent Rip is still in town and sees then, and runs off to warn the other gangsters. He gets the word to a couple, and continues to tell Turk somewhere in the hills.

But, see, Rip’s been reading the Scout Manual he has, and he’s been wondering if maybe he’s on the wrong side. After all, the Scouts tie knots and stuff! As he runs out of town to tell the gangsters, he sees Bruce on his horse, and “fakes” that he’s simply been wandering in the woods since the horse stampede spooked him, and his leg is acting up (say, that’s right — wasn’t his leg supposedly “broken” one something? The medicinal properties of radium!), and he just wants to get back to Scout camp. Bruce obligingly gets down and helps him up onto his horse Scout for them both to ride back to camp, but Rip ties to take off on Scout are soon as he gets on. Scout’s a well-trained horse, though, and at a whistle from Bruce he rears and throws Rip off. Bruce runs over to Rip, helps him up, and gives him a drink from the canteen.

Well, that’s just too much for Rip. How can Bruce be good enough to help out a guy who just tried to steal his horse? (That’s still a hanging offense in some parts, you know.) Is it Scouting? Does Scouting instill that kind of nobility in the human soul? Could Rip ever change enough to be like that? Could he ever atone for what he’s done? I’m a sucker for themes of redemption, but it’s odd to see a conversation of that kind of sincerity which doesn’t involve a Bible.

Convinced that Rip has turned over a new leaf, Bruce sends Rip off to camp on his horse to get the rest of the Scouts to help against the gangsters who will soon overwhelm Marvin and Scanlon at Ghost Town. He even gives Rip his Scout ring to show the boys, and scrawls his “totem” on the back of Rip’s shirt so they’ll believe him.

Back at Ghost Town, Scanlon and Marvin have almost loaded up the press and equipment, but unknown to them, the building is being surrounded by gangsters, two at the front and two at the back, who plan to rush them. Bruce arrives and scrawls a note on a rock to throw through the window… in Morse code? Seriously? Isn’t it just quicker to write something in Roman characters and toss it? It’s not like anyone’s going to intercept the message. Relax, Bruce, you’ve proven your Boy Scout bona fides; you don’t have to show off for us like that.

Forewarned now, Scanlon and Marvin hole up in the upstairs of the hotel building, while the gangsters try to shoot them out. But Rip has gotten back to Scout camp, where the rest of the Scouts were practicing archery, and brought them all on a march over to Ghost Town. (Seriously, it’s got to be a couple hundred yards from Scout camp to Ghost Town, tops.) Bruce knows that Marvin and Scanlon are running low on ammo, so his plan is to have the Scouts whoop it up and shoot arrows so the gangsters will think the Indians have come back, while Bruce tries to get a couple of boxed of cartridges he lifted from an unattended gangster car to the upper floor of the hotel.

The Cliffhanger: Bruce shinnies up a tree to the top of the building next to the hotel, intending to toss the cartridge boxed in through the second-story window. (It’s a good thing the gangsters didn’t think of that, or they could have just shot the men through the window.) But just as he’s tossing the cartridges over, the cornice he’s standing on gives way!

Now. The chapter’s over, but I wanted to point out to you something I noticed a while back on the title card at the end of the chapter:

See it? Here:

That’s right, it’s Comic Sans — not only one of the most reviled typefaces in the world, but one which was only designed and released in 1994. In other words, the cards at the end of each episode for at least the last couple (what, you expect me to go back and check it out?) are reconstructions. Why? Who knows? Where the last few feet of footage shredded on each reel? Was there a sponsor’s advertisement in the original title card that can’t be released now? I dunno. I just thought it was interesting.

Next Week: “Hurtling Through Space”