{"id":41203,"date":"2023-09-27T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T04:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41203"},"modified":"2023-09-26T20:20:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T00:20:59","slug":"western-wednesdays-fight-it-out-1920","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/27\/western-wednesdays-fight-it-out-1920\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Wednesdays: Fight It Out (1920)"},"content":{"rendered":"

SYNOPSIS:<\/strong>
\nWhile Sandy Adams (Hoot Gibson) waits for the sheriff, three thugs, led by Slim Allen (Jim Corey) conspire to frame Duncan McKenna (Charles Newton) of rustling the sheriff’s cattle by branding them with McKenna’s brand. The sheriff returns to his office only to be greeted by Allen, whom tells the sheriff that McKenna has branded one of his calves. Adams overhears this conversation and rides off.
\n<\/p>\n

The sheriff approaches the Mckenna ranch, rounds up both him and his daughter Jane (Dorothy Wood) and takes them to the shack. Meanwhile, two of Allen’s men have captured one of the sheriff’s calves and set about branding it with McKenna’s mark. Adams happens upon the shack, sees what the men are doing and heads down to investigate. He sees the Mckenna brand on the calf and pulls a firearm on the two henchmen. At gunpoint, he forces them to change the brand to that of Allen’s and then has one of them to kick the other in the rear end.<\/p>\n

This causes a rift between the two men and they fight it out while Adams stands by the sidelines, gun drawn and laughs. The sheriff, Allen and the McKennas approach the shack and see the two thugs battling it out and Adams tells the sheriff of what the two brutes were doing. Allen confronts his men and the three get in to a scuffle, to the amusement of Adams, the sheriff and the McKennas. Adams and Jane get together and walk off hand in hand.<\/p>\n

REVIEW:<\/strong>
\nIt was perhaps more than a little unfair for me to review “Fight It Out” as the edition of the film I viewed from Alpha Video, was only eight minutes in length, as opposed to the original theatrical cut which was more than double that. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, with this truncated version, there is little rhyme or reason as to why anything in the film happens. Why does Allen have it in for McKenna and what is Adams involvement in all of this? These questions would likely be answered if a more complete copy of the film were available. <\/p>\n

However, I heavily enjoyed what I saw and this is prime Hoot Gibson. I just love the fun he has watching the henchmen battle. Despite being heavily edited, Fight It Out was quite a lot of fun and it breezes by with lightning speed, I would recommend you hold out for a more complete version than the butchered edition I watched.<\/p>\n

“Fight It Out” was one of Hooter’s first two-reelers that he made when he rejoined Universal after serving in World War I. How Hoot earned his nickname is a mystery, however the story told by Hoot himself on an episode of the Groucho Marx quiz show “You Bet Your Life” is that he received the moniker during his days of working for the Owl Drug Company and his customers used to call him \u201cHoot Owl.\u201d This was eventually shortened to \u201cHoot\u201d and the name stuck. <\/p>\n

After the production of films such as “Fight It Out,” Hoot catapulted to fame by starring in “Action” for director John Ford. The film was an adaptation, one of several that were made, of the Peter B. Kyne story “Three Godfathers.” After this, Hoot never made another two-reeler. <\/p>\n

While this copy of “Fight It Out” was watchable, one wishes to see a more complete, restored print. In one of my previous articles, I commended the great Ben Model for his efforts in the restorations of the Tom Mix films “Sky High” and “The Big Diamond Robbery” and I also stated that I’d hope he could do the same for the careers of the other silent screen cowboys. If Mr. Model is not interested or unable to do so, I’d hope some others who are passionate about the silent era and are equipped to complete restorations, could pick up the mantle. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SYNOPSIS: While Sandy Adams (Hoot Gibson) waits for the sheriff, three thugs, led by Slim Allen (Jim Corey) conspire to frame Duncan McKenna (Charles Newton) of rustling the sheriff’s cattle by branding them with McKenna’s brand. The sheriff returns to his office only to be greeted by Allen, whom tells the sheriff that McKenna has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":41204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3120],"tags":[3121,938,944,1185],"class_list":["post-41203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-western-wednesdays","tag-hoot-gibson","tag-short-film","tag-silent-film","tag-western"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41205,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41203\/revisions\/41205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}