Battle of Greed (1937) User Reviews

Another one of those B westerns that tried for something different.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 17 February 2024]

This film dealing with silver mining rights and the court case it causes (watched over by a completely corrupt judge and an illegally influenced jury) could easily have been an A film at one of the major studios as it's much more ambitious than its budget implies. Tom Keene is the honest attorney on the side of justice who discovers the illegal actions of judge William Worthington and tries to convince his daughter (Gwynne Shipman) that dad is a criminal.

The presence of a youngish Mark Twain (James Bush) provides witty commentary on the proceedings, reminding me of Will Rogers. There's also Jimmy Butler as a handicapped young man impacted by the goings on, a friend of both Keene and Shipman's who has to deal with her sudden abduction. The low budget makes this appear inconsequential, but once the story and intentions of the film are made clear, the viewer will be much more intrigued.

Through the eyes of Mark Twain

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 23 April 2016]

Tom Keene whose career started with the lead in Cecil B. DeMille's last silent film The Godless Girl was now toiling in poverty row studios having found his Hollywood niche there as a B western star. Battle Of Greed has some pretensions to history, but in fact it's a poorly crafted B western.

The subject here is the founding of Virginia City and Keene's conflict with Ray Butler the chief heavy who has a nicely honed craft of claim jumping. Butler tries everything legal and illegal and Keene's younger brother Jimmy Butler is shot and now paralyzed below the waist.

Keene is a lawyer and just as handy with a six gun as with a courtroom brief. Battle Of Greed is seen through the real life character Samuel Langhorne Clemens who while in Virginia City started writing humorous fiction and took up the pen name of Mark Twain. He's played here by James Bush.

Jimmy Butler gets the acting honors here with a fine performance as the crippled young man not wanting to be a burden on his big brother. Sad that it's wasted in a poverty row western.

Little-known gem, starring Tom Keene, has clever script and talented cast and an early representation of Mark Twain

[morrisonhimself · 8/10 · 17 July 2015]

Excellent acting, in every part, carries a cleverly created story -- with a tee-niny bit of history as its basis.

Tom Keene was one of the most likable movie heroes, and it puzzles me constantly why he is not a household name today, except among hard-core western fans.

Here his character, John Storm, is supported by his younger brother, beautifully played by Jimmy Butler, and by Virginia City's newspaper editor Mark Twain, very interestingly played by James Bush.

This is an early portrayal of Twain, and the earliest I know of. The Twain persona became part and parcel of Americana in several versions of a one-man show, "Mark Twain Tonight," with Hal Holbrook probably the most famous portrayer.

Opposing Storm is the brains heavy, Hammond, whose first name is apparently never given, and the brawn heavy, Bates, fascinatingly played by Ray, or Rafael, Bennett.

Helping mark this film as a great one in its class is continual interplay among the minor characters, especially when they tease Bates about his upcoming battle with Storm.

There is some absolutely marvelous back-and-forth among the hangers-on and Bates and his fellow henchmen.

Apparently this is a little-known movie, since for now there are no other reviews, but it is available in a mediocre print at YouTube, which is where I watched it late 15 July 2015.

I want to see every Tom Keene movie available, and hope you will seek out those opportunities, too. He is watchable, likable, talented, and his movies are well done, with generally high production values.

So far, every Keene movie I've seen has had a good script and talented cast and crew. I highly recommend them all, including "Battle of Greed."