Warren Hull, a decent actor with a face that is neither handsome nor ugly but as interesting as a hard-boiled egg, escapes from jail somewhere in the East. He manages to hitch hike his way to southern Arizona where he meets a dog he calls Wolf in the middle of the Sonoran desert.First things first. This really IS the Sonoran desert, not a studio mock up. It's surprising, almost shocking, to see location shooting like this in a B movie. Yet there it is in all its overheated glory -- saguaro cactus, cholla, ocotillo, palo verdes, and rocky bluffs that don't look the slightest bit Californian.Hull is trailed through the desert by a half dozen howling wolves, but one of them detaches himself from the pack and joins Hull as a companion. "Wolf" isn't really a wolf. He's a German shepherd apparently kicked out by his owner. This is some dog. His ears are so big they're almost fluorescent and they stand straight up like Batman's. And that TONGUE. Wolf constantly slavers away with this organ hanging a foot out of his mouth.They say a man's best friend is a dog, but I consider that to be no more than propaganda perpetrated by dog people. Cats don't have that disgusting habit of panting and drooling hydrophobia all over the place. And they don't make a lot of noise either, not if you kick them properly once in a while. I camped several times in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument with my cat Bandido. There were no wolves but in the evening Bandido and I heard the far-off yipping of coyotes. Well, man, did Bandido's hair stand on end or what. I couldn't stop laughing. He was frightened too by the numerous Western Diamondback rattlesnakes that emerged at twilight, but it must be admitted that they were fiendishly defensive when approached.Anyway, back to Warren Hull and Wolf, baking in the desert, both pretty chipper considering their circumstances. Finally they reach town -- Tempe, Arizona, just southeast of Phoenix. Tempe, home of Arizona State University, was a small town when this was shot, and even when I stayed there a generation or two later, with a chuckwalla squeezed into every other rock crevice in the vacant lots, a charming, laid back little city with vest pocket parks and Mexican fan palms. Now it's a pristine and expensive example of urban sprawl.Hull meets Isabel Jewell, a nice young blond who invites him in for a snack. She's not a Hollywood beauty nor a bravura actress. Her high, piping, girlish voice is a handicap but she's still appealing in her innocent in her lust for a bourgeois life with a husband and a cottage to call home. As I watched Hull sitting there, chatting with Jewell, I couldn't help wondering why he was so well dressed and groomed -- clean shirt, tie, proper haircut -- and what exactly he'd been eating while hitching across the country without any money. Well, some things man was never meant to know. Jewell's father happens to be a doctor in need of a handyman and Hull fits the bill.Hull becomes a popular fellow in town and he and Jewell decide to marry. Alas, the local cop twigs to Hull's identity as an escaped convict and -- well, then things get really improbably. The same gang with which he broke out of the slams shows up accidentally in little Tempe and robs the bank. Hull feigns joining them, in hopes of finding a way to prove his innocence. He succeeds and marries the girl wearing stockings with seams that run up the back.I've kind of made fun of it but it's not a bad movie. It's diverting in its unpretentious way and not without some charm. It isn't helped, though, by clumsy editing, crude direction, impossible coincidences, and loopholes in the plot.

Although Marked Men starts rather haphazardly once it gets going it turns out to be a pretty nice drama with both men against men and men against the elements present in it.I could never quite buy why Warren Hull was in prison, how could he be that naive? Allegedly a group of some rather rough types ask medical school student Hull to do a driving job for them. It turns out being the getaway driver in a bank robbery. Later on Hull can't make anybody believe that he got innocently roped into it.It doesn't wear well today, but I'm guessing that those Depression Era audiences people did a lot for money and just learned not to ask questions until the consequences smacked them in the face.In any event leader Paul Bryar likes Hull's company so much that he takes him along during a jail break when a couple of guards were killed. Now Hull is on the hook for murder, but he gets separated from the others as they pull yet another job.Hull and a German shepherd dog start traveling together after meeting in the desert. Then Hull arrives at a small town and settles there, even meeting Isabel Jewell and her doctor father John Dilson. But he can't escape the gang and in the end goes back to the desert where Bryar and the group are fleeing after some more robberies.What's a mediocre film up to this point becomes a fine drama in the end. All the elements of vicious greedy men with little water come to the fore. Worst of all is Bryar who cannot control his own greedy impulses. But it's here where Hull proves to be the toughest.This one is from the poverty row studio PRC. But occasionally they turn out a decent film and this is definitely one of them.

Although I have often said that the films of tiny PRC Studio stink, this is an exception. While "Marked Men" is not a great film, it does not stink and there are some likable qualities in this low-budget B-movie. So I will amend it to 'they stink...most of the time'."Marked Men" starts just after a prison break. One guy, Bill Carver (Warren Hull) has made the break along with the rest of the men but he is different--he WAS actually innocent and his 'friend' who orchestrated the break had set him up to take the rap. Soon the police arrive and kill or capture five of the escapees--and Carver manages to evade them.Carver wanders many states away and chooses to head to the Arizona desert (?!). Eventually he makes it to Tempe, Arizona and sets down roots in the community. Soon, he and his dog 'Wolf' manage to become beloved citizens--but Carver is always wary that his past might come back to haunt him. How Carver manages to prove his innocence (along with the help of his trusty Wolf) is pretty entertaining and the final portion of the film is great.This is an odd film because it seemed a lot like an old Rin Tin Tin film from the silent era melded with a more modern crime drama. An odd combination, certainly, but it does manage to entertain. This is not high art, but for a super-low budget B it manages to work well and has a more than satisfying ending. I give it an 8 because although low budgeted, it managed to make the absolute most of the few dollars spent on it.

This movie is in the public domain. A friend of mine downloaded it as "Desert Escape" and gave it, along with a batch of other public domain movies, to me as a gift. Whenever the weather is poor and I'm home I pull one out. I've been pleasantly surprised to find some interesting movies and big stars. This movie doesn't have any big stars -- at least not any I recognize -- but it has an interesting setting: Tempe, Arizona, and the surrounding desert, in modern times (1940 -- although the movie appears to have been made a little before that-- it has a late 30's feel). So many old movies are set in New York (to take advantage of sets already built?) that my interest is always piqued by an unusual setting. The story revolves around Bill Carver, who was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit -- or did he? What makes this movie worth watching is his interaction with Wolf the dog, the old-fashioned sentiments expressed by the main characters, and a scene at a picnic that appeared to use local residents as extras. Will you be riveted by the story? Maybe not. It's a fairly standard crime drama brought home, but I thought it was above average in execution and the dog (a Rin-Tin-Tin-ish shepherd) adds greatly to the story.