While it certainly isn't a great Western, I liked this movie considerable more than the previous reviewer, Mr. Chance did. I agree that this is only sort of a Western given the long scenes about prize fighting. Even so, it has everything: handsome, athletic hero (Tyler), pretty and forthright heroine (Marion), a faithful dog (Alexander in the film, played by the unfortunately named "Wimpey"), a funny sidekick (Sammy Cohen), Bluebell the horse, a swindler (Forest Taylor), and a nasty ranch foreman (Charles King). The plot is overly reliant on coincidence but easy to follow and entertaining. Scotty McQuade (Tyler) is drugged by the unscrupulous promoter Lew Slater (Taylor) and loses the fight. Fed up with boxing, he heads out with his dog Alexander. On his trek, the western scenery is beautiful with mountains in the background. The terrain pictured in this movie is probably now all highways, houses and strip malls. At any rate, while out in the middle of nowhere, an old jalopy driven by Frozen-Faced Cohen (Cohen) comes careening towards McQuade. Cohen is a ranch hand at Colonel Hayden's Double Y Ranch. McQuade decides to apply for a job there and while driving to the ranch via a narrow canyon road, inadvertently blocks the way of a roadster driven by a pretty young woman. She and McQuade have words and of course she turns out to be Colonel Haydon's daughter. Haydon hires McQuade and the first thing he does is to break the horse Bluebell – something the other ranch hands were unable to do and which irritates the foreman who later picks a fight with McQuade. Lo and behold, soon after McQuade starts up at the ranch, Slater shows up and talks the colonel into betting his ranch on a horse race and then a prizefight. McQuade (and Bluebell) win the race and McQuade wins the prizefight after the Sheriff lets him out of jail because he has money on the other fighter to lose. All's well that ends well.
Sammy Cohen as the sidekick was great with a refreshing naturalness about him that was entertaining (although the bit about his posing as McQuade's "wife," while mildly amusing was not believable). Tyler and Marion work very well together. For me, this was a better than average Western and one that I'll probably watch again since it's so readily available on Internet Archive.
Sammy Cohen as the sidekick was great with a refreshing naturalness about him that was entertaining (although the bit about his posing as McQuade's "wife," while mildly amusing was not believable). Tyler and Marion work very well together. For me, this was a better than average Western and one that I'll probably watch again since it's so readily available on Internet Archive.
