As you get into this picture, the general plot might take you by surprise a little bit. Saved from a frontier lynching way back in 1802, Alexander Meade (Richard Conte) is soon revealed to be a doctor with an interest in discovering how diseases of the human body eventually lead to death. So what was he being lynched for? He was a grave robber! Although we never actually see him steal a corpse, he's sidelined when he removes a bullet from the leg of Big Jack Horner (Wallace Beery), leader of a gang who wants to make Meade his personal doctor and in effect, his personal prisoner. Jack intervenes on behalf of the doctor by having one of his henchmen go into town and retrieve Meade's equipment and medical books from the sheriff so he can continue his practice. He even detains pretty Patricia Mahoney (Vanessa Brown) from a stagecoach in order to sweeten the deal to keep the doc around. From there, the story proceeds somewhat unevenly, as Meade and Ms. Mahoney escape to the town of Montville where her father (Edward Arnold) is the mayor. In his quest to capture Meade again, Big Jack and his hoods rob the citizens of Montville, but then he turns on a dime and has a change of heart, returning the loot and quickly fading from a gunshot wound that's too severe to operate. It's just an awkward ending in a film that could have used a little more thought put into it.
Review of Big Jack
