As indicated by the title, 20 Mule Team is all about pioneering borax miners in territorial Arizona.
Wallace Beery goes through his usual paces as Skinner Bill Bragg, a fugitive from justice who forms an uneasy alliance with slick outlaw Stag Roper (
Douglas Fowley). The two scoundrels plot to jump a valuable borax claim in Death Valley, but Bragg changes his minds when Roper begins to have unsavory designs on virginal heroine Jean Johnson (
Anne Baxter, in her film debut). Ever on the prowl for a new
Wallace Beery-
Marie Dressler screen team, MGM pairs up Beery with
Marjorie Rambeau this time out, with mixed results. 20 Mule Team was originally released in Sepiatone, a tinting process MGM had previously utilized in the "Kansas" scenes of
The Wizard of Oz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide