Border Devils is a 1932 pre-Code American Western black and white sound film directed by William Nigh and starring Harry Carey, Kathleen Collins, and Gabby Hayes.^[1] The film is Collins's last role and her only sound film.^[2]

Plot

A man, Jim Gray, is wrongfully put in jail; he escapes to prove his innocence and reveal the real criminal. In the process, Gray discovers a second criminal who has been working behind the scenes with the more obvious villain.^[3]

Cast

• Harry Carey as Jim Gray
• Kathleen Collins as Marcia Brandon
• Gabby Hayes as Dude Sanders
• Niles Welch as Tom Hope
• Olive Carey as Ethel Denham
• Albert J. Smith as Inspector Bell
• Merrill McCormick as Jose Lopez
• Art Mix as Bud Brandon
• Tetsu Komai as The General

Production

Script

The film was written by Harry P. Crist ( credited for "script and continuity' under this pen name is the American director Harry Fraser^[4]). The story was based upon the novel Dead Man's Shoes,^[5] by Murray Leinster.^[4]

Shooting

According to a contemporary issue of The Film Daily, certain scenes were filmed in Palm Springs, California.^[1]

Cast

The film features Gabby Hayes in one of his earliest credited roles, a sidekick figure that would become his signature character.^[6]

Release

Border Devils was theatrically released in the United States on April 4, 1932.^[1] The film was released on DVD in August 2011 by Alpha Video.^[7]

Themes

This film has been noted for the unexpected presence in a Western, of Yellow Peril themes, embodied in the character of the villain, a mysterious 'oriental' criminal figure known as the General.^[4][8][6]

Commentators generally underline the weight of the original novel, a typical Leinster tale, in this adaptation: "the massive conspiracy that figures in his sci-fi, the shifting identity of the hero, and the generally peripatetic nature of the tale as our cowboy commandos shuttle hither and yon like horsing lot attendant."^[9]