Clevercell
Very disappointing...
Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
utgard14
Mediocre oater with some impressive stunt work and a fairly confusing script. Assuming they actually used a script. John Wayne plays a marshal out to break up a gang of bandits led by the not-that-mysterious Shadow (Gabby Hayes). Stunt man extraordinaire Yakima Canutt does the stunts and plays the role of Wayne's Indian friend. As a stuntman, he's quite good. As an actor, he's a good stuntman. The plot to this one's a mess. Wayne's character causes the death of an innocent man and doesn't seem to care. The movie never even addresses it! Only worth checking out if you're a Wayne completist. Otherwise, pass this one up.
krdement
I haven't any idea how commentators could regard this as a decent B Western. Or how one commentator said the plot was more cohesive than most. Nothing could be farther from the truth! This movie is one HUGE non-sequitur! It is an affront to the noble B Western films of the '30's. I have seen many of Wayne's early Lone Star and Republic westerns, and this one is easily the worst.The bad guy is known as The Shadow - for crying out loud! Initially, The Shadow's scheme is holding up open-sided stage coaches. Simultaneously, his gang rustles all of the cattle in the territory. Then they decide to move on to bank robbery. To do this, they need to shoot up the town with a machine gun - no explanation of why that's necessary or how he got that neato little toy!No single scheme is revealed in enough detail to suggest a plot here. The Shadow is obviously just a generally bad guy with all kinds of generally evil schemes. He imparts his instructions to his gang through a fake wall-safe. (Knock-knock, who's there?) He is apparently clairvoyant, because whenever his henchmen need to talk to him, they knock on the wall, the safe opens and - PRESTO - he's there. (I can just imagine that he has met them face-to-face and says,"I have some secret, nefarious instructions to give you about our next evil deed - meet me at the wall-safe and I'll give 'em to you.") Just why the Shadow requires the safe to communicate with his army of outlaws is, like most of the elements of this mess, never explained.He has a nifty tunnel to the ol' hollow stump across the street from which vantage point, various of his baddies perform assassinations. He also has a hidden panel NOT in his secret lair behind the fake safe, but out in the main room.When not behind the safe, he hangs out on his cow-less ranch, masquerading as rancher Matlock. We learn that he has murdered the true owners of the ranch - two brothers - and assumed the identity of one. The daughter of the dead brother has recently arrived from 1930's NYC (judging by her wardrobe), and she apparently never met her real uncle, because he dupes her, too!If you thought that bad guys always wore black hats and good guys white hats, you need to see this movie. Here, the good guys all ditch their hats in favor of white head-bands that make them look like they have all suffered head wounds before any shots have been fired! It's like a game of pick-up basketball - only Wayne has them tying bandanas 'round their heads instead of just taking off their shirts.Perhaps the weirdest of all is the ending. Immediately after subduing the Shadow and his gang, we jump far enough into the future to see Wayne and his wife (the erst-while niece) on the front porch of their home. (Never mind that there has been scant romance.) There, Yak is playing with Wayne's 3-4 year old son, dressed up in Injun garb! (Hiyoo, skookum fun!)No thanks to this nonsense, Wayne went on to become a screen legend. Only a super-star (packer or not!) could surmount this entry in a film resume. Long live the Duke!
keesha45
Pretty fair oater from the Duke's early years has some unusual casting. Yakima Canutt has his idea of some "skookum fun" as a good guy for a change from his normal villainous role, and Gabby Hayes plays against type as the bad guy. Canutt's part would seem to be an early model for another famous Indian buddy of a lawman, namely that of "Tonto." (Note also the Duke's horse could pass for "Silver.") As a resident from the same part of Yakima Canutt's home state, I was pleasantly surprised when Wayne as Travers identifies one of the Shadow's gang as a "lifer from Walla Walla" which is the site of Washington's maximum security state prison. Incidentally, Walla Walla is about an hour and a half's drive from Colfax, where Canutt was raised, and whose hometown he shares with Turner Classic Movies' host Robert Osborne. Fellow gangster Loco Frank, shown in the same scene, turns out to be Glenn Strange, who later had a famous role as Kitty's bartender in "Gunsmoke." The action scenes are not particularly outstanding, although the climactic chase scene is very distinctive involving the villain's canoe being chased downriver by the Duke on horseback. Although the title's a misnomer in that the Duke is never seen with a badge, that's the biggest fault in what I'd otherwise heartily recommend for something a bit out of the ordinary in the Duke's apprentice stage of his career. Dale Roloff
johnjredington
This is a real B movie, right down to the historical imprecision of a location featuring both stage coaches and telephones, its clichéd dialogue, a totally predictable plot straight out of the comics and enough protracted chases and gunfights to fill in the gaps left by a very thin script.The Duke and his entourage provide plenty of ironic laughs but, if you want to take the movie at face value, it is quite enjoyable. The good guys win, the bad guys get their comeuppance, the Duke gets his gal and Yakima Canutt shows his tricks all in a setting that engrossed generations of schoolboys over most of the 20th century.The Star Packers should also be of interest to students of cinema as its structure encapsulates the early movement of silent film into the talkies.
