ThiefHott Too much of everything

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Robert J. Maxwell Another John Wayne Monogram Lone Star Production, in which the cast is almost the same, the plots variations on evil versus good, the acting perfunctory and the whole shebang put together in a time slightly longer than it takes to read a review of it.It was filmed in Kernville, some miles north of Bakersfield, a popular place a day's drive from Los Angeles. Kernville is accessible mountainous country often used for Westerns, ambitious or otherwise. The final race between the coach and the Indians in John Ford's "Stagecoach" was shot there.Like some of Wayne's other inexpensive and hasty Westerns, this was written and directed by Robert Bradbury, the father of one of Wayne's childhood friends, later known as Bob Steele, from his days in Lancaster, California.There isn't much of substance to the movie. Horses gallop -- Yakima Canut gets prominent screen credit -- and money is mishandled and everyone carries a gun and uses it. It's of interest for fans of John Wayne or the productions of the Poverty Row studios like some people I could name. Well -- one person I could name, anyway, who took the trouble to track down the original location of studios like Monogram and PRC and photograph them as they now are. One was turned into a fast-food chicken restaurant.It's easy enough to criticize these shabby films but they kept the actors and crew employed during the difficult times of the Great Depression. With no fanfaronade, they filled double-bill slots at the local theaters too. And one must ask one's self if, after all, they were more mindless than some of the crap that now keeps American audiences glued to the television set. Are they really worse than, say, "Oprah", "World's Wildest Police Videos", or rock videos? Aren't they all at or near asymptote?

MartinHafer Like a slew of other John Wayne B-westerns shown on the Encore Channel, this one has a 'new and improved' musical track created, I assume, by the Fox Lorber company who distributed it. Frankly, the music is obviously new but not the least bit improved over the normal public domain copies of this film you can download for free. The problems with the music are many. First, the same sound track is used in many of the Wayne films--the exact same music. Second, the music is often dropped into scenes like a sledgehammer with little appreciation of whether or not it's appropriate! Third, being modern electronic music, it's totally inappropriate to the film. Fourth, the music is much louder and hollow-sounding than the rest of the film--and quite distracting.For fans of Westerns, you may or may not recognize Gabby Hayes in this one. Early in his B-movie days, he had not yet solidified his old coot persona--and his beard is absent here. I wasn't surprised, as I've seen him play villains and erudite gentlemen around this same time period--but those familiar with his days as Roy Rogers' sidekick might be surprised by his earlier personas.The starts out horribly. Wayne and Hayes are sitting by fire having a conversation that would never happen in real life. Instead of talking like two normal folks, they do a lengthy exposition where they explain the back story in only a few moments--as if they are reading a script. As I said, no one talks that way--especially when both the characters are supposed to already be familiar with what they are talking about--as it involved them! This is sloppy screen writing at its worst and was a device used to avoid the 'unnecessary' addition of a couple more moments of dialog and action to set the same foundation for the film. And, considering that these Wayne films all were under one hour long, such gimmicks for economy sake weren't that uncommon...but it's still sloppy. And, naturally, you can assume that what follows will all relate to this back story involving the murder of Wayne's father.Soon afterwords, John and Gabby come upon a woman who was accidentally shot a bit earlier. They cart her off to town for medical attention. I loved the next scene where the doctor says that they got her there just in time, as she had a severed artery. There is no way she could have survived this long with such a serious wound (she probably would have died within minutes). And, I loved when the doctor then said the wound wasn't very serious!! Crazy! I would love to know who was the medical consultant for this film....Dr. Hackenbush, perhaps?! Like "Randy Rides Alone" (also John Wayne, 1934), this film soon involves a gang and their efforts to steal land away from a nice young lady and her father. Naturally, the chivalrous Wayne will help girl and in the process catch those who killed his Pa. The only noticeable difference is that, for once, in this film Wayne is dressed in black...a departure from the usual cliché of a hero in white.Along the way, Wayne saves the life of a kid and sees that the kid's father is a bit of a sadistic brute. Naturally, the way to deal with this is to beat the snot out of him--which Wayne does with surprising difficulty considering the guy looked old and a bit pudgy. Wayne remarks that this guy's face is familiar....could it be this guy has a clue as to the identity of the gang who killed Dad?! Gosh! Aside from the black hat and a nearly clean-shaven Hayes, there really are no surprises here. In fact, compared to Wayne's other B-movies, this one is definitely a few notches below them--mostly because of the quality of the script. Sure, I can accept the formulaic aspects of the movie--heck, this is what you expect in a B-western. But everything is telegraphed and presented so poorly--that's why this one is so atrociously written. It's a shame, as with a bit of a re-write, this could have been a lot more watchable--though re-writes was a luxury not usually afforded to Bs.By the way, in addition to the dippy doctor, I also liked when the rancher told Wayne and Hayes that he'd phoned the Sheriff! Such bizarre anachronisms set in the old West were not actually that uncommon in films of the genre. Heck, Gene Autry often had such plot devices in his films--such as chasing the guys on horseback using a pickup truck!!

Jay Raskin This was the fourth of the sixteen Wayne Lone Star series. I must respectfully disagree with those on IMDb who rate it highly. I thought it was one of the worse in the series. It has all the bad elements of the series, bad acting, convoluted and dull plot,anachronisms (telephones, automobiles and women in 1930's clothes). Only the stunt work is excellent, providing the five or six interesting moments.At one point, Wayne turns to the bad guy and says that he's acting like a character out of a dime novel. He's exactly right. The bad guy and the story are stereotypes even for 1933.The series seems to move between films that basically follow straight stereotypical Western stories and films that provide funny and clever twists on the stereotypical stories. This one is played straight and thus only has interest for cinema or Western historians. The other type ("Riders of Destiny" and "the Star Packer," for example) are still quite entertaining 75 years later.

classicsoncall It appears a little more thought than usual went into this Lone Star Western, as the story line is fairly consistent and director Robert North Bradbury throws in a few elements I haven't seen yet after watching almost all of them. Wayne's character is Ted Hayden, who takes on the guise of wanted murderer Gat Ganns when it might help him get the goods on bad guy Gentry (Lloyd Whitlock). George Hayes, not yet known as Gabby, teams up with Wayne to outwit the baddies and save the day for the Winters (Lafe McKee and Virginia Faire Brown).It struck me that Wayne's appearance in the film bears some resemblance to another cowboy star, Hopalong Cassidy. His character wears all black, including the tall cowboy hat, and he rides a white horse in the story. Of course, Hoppy teamed with Gabby to round out that connection as well.The story itself is fairly formulaic, bad guy Gentry wants the Winters ranch and they aren't selling. Stealing their money and their cattle, and getting rid of Mr. Winters all sounds pretty familiar, with Gentry hiring the phony Ganns to help pull it off. Then he plans to eliminate Ganns as well, by killing him and claiming the reward money. Needless to say, the good guys figure it all out, and the payoff is a beaut. As Gentry staggers out of a cabin following a fight with Hayden, his own men gun him down by mistake - OOPS! Yakima Canutt performs some of the daring stunts he's known for, one involves bringing two buckboard horses to a halt after they've broken away from their rig, with Yak riding the hitch like a pair of water skis. There's a wilder one though, when as Hayden, he dives off his horse and through the window of a cabin in pursuit of Gentry. It's one of the better stunts you'll see Yak perform in this or any movie.Typically, John Wayne gets the girl at the end of the picture, but it's not surprising. Earlier in the story, his character Hayden remarks to Gentry - "...I'll stay at the Winters place tonight, I got a few things I want to pick up". The difference this time out though, the film doesn't end in a clinch between the new couple. Instead, they chase down young Jim Hayden after he embarrasses big brother and Fay into a match up.For trivia fans, you might want to keep that 'Wanted' poster for Gat Ganns in mind if you look up some more of Wayne's Lone Star films. It appears again tacked to a cabin wall in a scene from "The Trail Beyond". Even in the Thirties they found ways to economize.