The Cariboo Trail (1950)

By CinemaSerf

'Gabby" Hayes can always be relied upon to liven things up, and here he comes very much to the rescue of this otherwise rather hum-drum pioneer western adventure. Top billing goes to the rather sterile Randolph Scott ("Redfern") who, with his pals "Evans" (Bill Williams) & "Ling" (Lee Tung Foo) encounter old-timer "Grizzly" as they head into British Colombia with some farming and gold-panning on their minds. They are not there for long, though, before local cattle baron "Walsh" (Victor Jory) and his men stampede their cattle causing "Evans" an injury that costs him his arm - and costs the operating "Redfern" their friendship. Now facing hostility from just about every side, his only hope is to find some gold in them thar hills. Karin Booth provides the occasional, and lively, love interest - a shrinking violet she isn't, and the rest of the narrative follows a well trammelled storyline peppered with the odd gunfight, before quite an exciting head-to-head. Aside from the rather wooden Scott, this features quite a characterful cast with enough action and a minimum of romance and wordy dialogue to pass eighty minutes amongst some fine cinematography (Colorado not BC) enjoyably enough.