By Frank Miller
20 Mule Team
Brief Synopsis
A miner fights his way across Death Valley to beat out the competition.
Cast & Crew
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Richard Thorpe
Director
Wallace Beery
Skinner Bill Bragg
Leo Carrillo
Piute Pete
Marjorie Rambeau
Josie Johnson
Anne Baxter
Jean Johnson
Douglas Fowley
Stag Roper
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Adventure
Comedy
Western
Release Date
May
3,
1940
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 23m
Film Length
9 reels
Synopsis
In turn-of-the-century Death Valley, twenty mule teams hauled borax across the inferno of the desert floor. As the borax deposits dwindle, the Desert Borax Company faces bankruptcy and is unable to pay Skinner Bill Bragg and the other drivers their wages. Unable to pay his rent, Bill is locked out of his room at the Furnace Flat saloon by the proprietor, Josie Johnson. Josie's pretty young daughter Jean feels stifled by life in Furnace Flat, and although she is courted by Mitch, a clerk at the borax company, she longs for the romance of the city. Josie's prayers are answered with the arrival of Stag Roper, a slick city dude who persuades the bank president to extend the borax company's note in hopes of discovering a mother load of the mineral. When Stag discovers that Bill has found a bag full of borax crystals on the dehydrated body of Chuckwalla, a prospector who perished in the desert, he blackmails Bill, who is wanted for murder under the name of Ambrose Murphy. Fearful that Stag will expose him, Bill agrees to search for Chuckwalla's claim. The next day, Bill and his swamper, Piute Pete, follow Chuckwalla's trail to the claim and are met by gunfire from Mitch, the prospector's partner. After wounding Mitch, Bill returns to town and tells Stag of Mitch's resistance. Meanwhile, Josie discovers that Jean is planning to elope with Stag, and after locking her daughter in her room, Josie orders Stag at gunpoint to get out of town. In response, Stag shoots Josie and rides off with his partner, Salters, to steal Mitch's claim. Blaming himself for Josie's shooting, Bill recruits Pete and pursues Stag into the desert, where he finds Mitch unconscious, left to die by Stag. After a shootout in which the horses and Pete are killed, Bill exacts his revenge on Stag and then sends Mitch back to town on his mule, Buttercup, risking his own life by remaining behind on the fiery desert floor. Sometime later, Mitch is appointed vice president of the borax company and leaves for Los Angeles with his bride Josie, while Bill, now recovered, learns that he has been granted amnesty.
Director
Richard Thorpe
Director
Cast
Wallace Beery
Skinner Bill Bragg
Leo Carrillo
Piute Pete
Marjorie Rambeau
Josie Johnson
Anne Baxter
Jean Johnson
Douglas Fowley
Stag Roper
Noah Beery Jr.
Mitch
Berton Churchill
Jackass Brown
Arthur Hohl
Salters
Clem Bevans
Chuckwalla
Charles Halton
Adams
Minor Watson
Marshal
Oscar O'shea
Conductor
Lloyd Ingraham
Stockholder
Eddy Waller
Horsecollar
Ivan Miller
Alden
Ed Brady
Barfly
C. L. Sherwood
Barfly
Mitchell Lewis
Barfly
Hank Bell
Barfly
George Guhl
Doorman
Sam Appel
Proprietor
Henry Sylvester
Katherine Kenworthy
Ward Wing
Eddie Borden
Joe Bernard
Robert Perry
John Beck
Larry Mcgrath
Lew Kelly
Crew
Owen Atkinson
Story
Malcolm Brown
Art Director Associate
Jack Dawn
Makeup
Clyde Devinna
Photography
Robert C. Dusoe
Story
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
Horace Hough
Assistant Director
Cyril Hume
Screenwriter
Charles Hunt
Assistant Director
William Kaplan
Production Assistant
Richard Maibaum
Screenwriter
E. E. Paramore
Screenwriter
J. Walter Ruben
Producer
Bill Ryan
Assistant Director
Douglas Shearer
Recording Director
David Snell
Music Score
Gile Steele
Men's Costume
Frank Sullivan
Film Editor
Dolly Tree
Women's Costume
Edwin B. Willis
Set Decoration
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Adventure
Comedy
Western
Release Date
May
3,
1940
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 23m
Film Length
9 reels
Articles
20 Mule Team
1940 was the year Marjorie Rambeau tried unsuccessfully to step into Marie Dressler's shoes. Not only did she take on Dressler's title role in the sequel Tugboat Annie Sails Again (1940), co-starring Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan, but she stepped in to partner Dressler's most popular co-star Wallace Beery in this comic Western. Beery stars as a prospector who, with sidekick Leo Carillo, stumbles on a dying miner with information about an invaluable Borax mine. Douglas Fowley steps in to help him and court Rambeau's daughter (Anne Baxter, in her film debut at the tender age of 17), but he really means to relieve Beery of any claim his newfound bounty. The film was created to exploit Beery's popularity as a big-hearted child man, but the attempt to build a new screen team didn't work out, despite Rambeau's considerable talents at both comedy and drama (she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Primrose Path the same year). In his next film, Beery would find his second great screen partner when Marjorie Main stole another comic Western, Wyoming, right out from under his bulbous nose.
By Frank Miller
By Frank Miller
20 Mule Team
1940 was the year Marjorie Rambeau tried unsuccessfully to step into Marie Dressler's shoes. Not only did she take on Dressler's title role in the sequel Tugboat Annie Sails Again (1940), co-starring Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan, but she stepped in to partner Dressler's most popular co-star Wallace Beery in this comic Western. Beery stars as a prospector who, with sidekick Leo Carillo, stumbles on a dying miner with information about an invaluable Borax mine. Douglas Fowley steps in to help him and court Rambeau's daughter (Anne Baxter, in her film debut at the tender age of 17), but he really means to relieve Beery of any claim his newfound bounty. The film was created to exploit Beery's popularity as a big-hearted child man, but the attempt to build a new screen team didn't work out, despite Rambeau's considerable talents at both comedy and drama (she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Primrose Path the same year). In his next film, Beery would find his second great screen partner when Marjorie Main stole another comic Western, Wyoming, right out from under his bulbous nose.
By Frank Miller
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to news items in Hollywood Reporter, Bruce Cabot was originally slated for the role of "Stag Roper." Hollywood Reporter news items also note that this picture was shot on location in Death Valley, CA and Las Vegas, NV. The film marked Anne Baxter's film debut. Reviews note that the preview prints of the picture were processed in sepia.
