The Spoilers. 1942. USA. Directed by Ray Enright. Screenplay by Lawrence Hazard, Tom Reed, based on the novel by Rex Beach. With Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Margaret Lindsay, Harry Carey, Richard Barthelmess. 35mm. 87 min.
Rex Beach’s 1906 Klondike adventure had already been filmed three times by the time Universal produced this version, the most lavishly cast. The setup is elemental: Gold miner Roy Glennister (John Wayne) and saloon owner Cherry Malotte (Marlene Dietrich) find their claims threatened by the newly appointed gold commissioner Alexander McNamara (Randolph Scott). Despite a substantial budget, the film is largely confined to studio interiors, which director Ray Enright does his best to energize with an aggressive use of whip pans. The action finally explodes in a sustained barroom brawl that ends in the muddy streets outside, a set piece already in Beach’s novel and a staple of every adaptation. (Ross Hunter produced a nearly scene-by-scene remake of this version in 1955, the fifth and so far final.)
Wayne is here in the first flush of his delayed stardom (before Stagecoach, he’d spent a few years developing his craft in Universal Bs) and he is newly in command of his own mythology. Dietrich, returning to the Western after Destry Rides Again revived her career, plays Cherry as a shrewd survivor, her dialogue a near-continuous stream of double entendres delivered with amused, seen-it-all authority. Scott, in a rare villainous role, is smoothly sociopathic. Produced by veteran Frank Lloyd, the film showcases some fine late-career performances from silent stars Richard Barthelmess, Harry Carey, and William Farnum, who played Wayne’s role in the initial feature in 1914.