Roamin' Wild (1936) User Reviews

A little rough at the beginning, but really good by the end!

[stevehaynie · 5/10 · 12 April 2005]

I like Tom Tyler's movies even if he wasn't the best actor. He just looked good on screen. Roamin' Wild is not a showcase of great acting! There were some cast members that had more talent than others, but overall the movie comes across as stiff, at least in the beginning. B westerns were made in a hurry and on a tight budget, but placing a camera at an optimum position would not have cost more money. The sets were good, but the way they were filmed made them look cheap. Despite all this, Roamin' Wild manages to get better and better as it goes along. The plot builds, and the action gets better. By the end the movie is great! You wouldn't expect that from the first few minutes, though.

The character that stands out the most is Abe Wineman (Max Davidson), who travels with a wagon full of clothing, pots and pans, etc. As the bad guys attempt to steal his wares, Tom Barton (Tyler) saves him. Abe becomes the equivalent of a sidekick although I would not give him a true sidekick status. The character is essential to the plot, but not given a spotlight like a real sidekick.

I have seen better features with Tom Tyler, but Roamin' Wild is worth watching. Just be patient. The movie improves steadily toward the end.

"Get on that horse and ride for your life..."

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 13 March 2008]

I don't think I've seen a 'B' Western oater before that relied on about ten minutes of plot and forty eight minutes of aimless and endless chase scenes. All done in service to the story of course, but one almost winds up forgetting that Tom Tyler's hero character is on the trail of a bunch of crooks who want to hijack the Madison Stage and Freight Line from the daughter of it's murdered owner. Along the way, the story throws in a sub-plot regarding Tom Barton's (Tyler) brother who was ambushed and left for dead by the bad guys. He pops up in the middle of the picture to show he's still alive, but then disappears before the final outcome with no effect on the finale.

I always get a kick out of these early Westerns that utilize the eavesdropping technique for the bad guys to learn about their intended prize. In this one, it actually happens twice, and allows for the villains to learn about expected stagecoach runs with gold aboard. Today of course, a competent hacker could learn about such things by intercepting an e-mail or some other clever trick, but I guess the resources available back in the 1930's didn't allow for much ingenuity. Oh well, you have to work with what you have.

By the time it's over, hero Tyler uses the old tunnel under the cabin trick to escape his pursuers, but I had to do a quick re-wind when I saw him fall off his horse when chased by the bad guys. Why exactly did that happen? It was presented as if he was shot by one of the bad guy posse, but he gets up and dusts himself off like nothing happened and keeps running on foot. Very strange.

And what about Tyler's ruse of ambushing the last guy that was chasing him and sending him off on his own horse. The trick was in having the rest of the villain bunch think it was Barton himself attempting to run away. So why didn't the patsy just stop and turn around to identify himself? Not too much thought went into this as it turns out.

However if you're a fan of the genre, this one blows by pretty quickly and presents Tom Tyler in a finely defined heroic role. You won't be impressed by any of the acting though, most of the credit has to go to the horses that had to race back and forth for the riders to hit their marks.

Phony Marshal

[StrictlyConfidential · 5/10 · 28 September 2021]

"Roamin' Wild" was originally released back in 1936.

Anyway - As the story goes - A cowboy learns that there is trouble in the town where his brother is the Marshal so he heads off to offer some help. Upon arriving, he finds another man as Marshal in place of his brother, who has mysteriously disappeared.

Aside from seeing Max Davidson, not a lot special about this one.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 14 October 2020]

"Roamin' Wild" is a B-western starring Tom Tyler. Now it's very possible you've never heard of Tyler. After all, in most of his films he played supporting characters, such as henchmen for various baddies in westerns. He also played Captain Marvel in the famous movie serial. But he also starred in a few westerns as the hero...and "Roamin' Wild" is one of them. The film was made by tiny Reliable Pictures...a studio that eventually got absorbed into Monogram...a slightly better quality low-budget B-movie production company.

Tom Barton (Tyler) is a lawman who has been dispatched to Placerville. It seems that someone is posing as a lawman and is shaking down prospectors...and in one case even killing one of them. Tom takes the case because his brother is the marshal in that territory....and he wants to find out what's happened to him and why folks are getting away with lawlessness.

Soon after arriving in town, Tom appoints two deputies to assist him. One choice is an odd one, as Abe is played by tiny Max Davidson...about the farthest you could go when it comes to sidekicks! Davidson was famous in the silent and early sound days in comedies with Hal Roach...and he was, at most about 5'4" (but I really think he was smaller) and in his 60s and seemed about as intimidating as a tomato! Still, with my love of old comedies, I was thrilled to see him. And, having a comic playing the sidekick isn't that unusual, as a familiar sidekick in the Hopalong Cassidy films was Andy Clyde...who made tons of comedy shorts. The same can be said of Al St. John who was the sidekick in many films for a variety of cowboy stars....and he began in Mack Sennett silent comedies.

So is it any good? Well, it's not bad but also surprisingly stark. This is because the film was so low budgeted, they didn't provide any incidental music and nearly everyone you see is someone you won't likely recognize. Plus, I think Tyler played a good thug but didn't have the charisma or charm to be a hero. Overall, a flat but watchable western....and nothing more.

By the way, this film is supposedly set in Placerville. While it was actually filmed near Los Angeles, if you care, Placerville, California is about midway between Yosemite and Lake Tahoe...to the east of Sacramento. It's in the area where gold was discovered back in 1847 and a good locale for such a western.

Reliable Tom!!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 21 February 2013]

Like another reviewer I also like Tom Tyler. I think he looked exactly like a Western hero was supposed to look - in the George O'Brien tradition, he was also in Western movies from the start of his career.

Tom Barton (Tyler) is dismayed to learn his brother has become a Marshall - as he advises him, "it is all a matter of luck and one day you won't be so quick on the trigger". Time passes and he rides to Placerville to help his brother stamp out some trouble but he arrives to find his brother has mysteriously disappeared and a stranger is installed as Marshall. His "lawmen" are visiting the local miners and demanding payment of 20% of all their findings. When an old miners son is killed, the Federal men call in Tom, that's how he happens to go to town.

Of course there is always a Mary, this time played by Carol Wyndham (who?), an heiress, after inheriting money from her murdered father. Unfortunately she has put herself and her wealth in the dodgy sheriff's slippery hands. Being a Tom Tyler western you are not short changed on action, there are realistic fights, dramatic leaps onto horses and even a jump into a tree from a runaway stagecoach. That was to divert attention from the real stagecoach, driven by Mary and carrying all the gold. Tom also shows he is a friend to all by going into bat for the local peddler who has had his caravan ransacked and the Chinese community who he protects from the grasping baddies and who are able to do him a good turn by reuniting him with his brother.

A solid Tom Tyler movie.

It sometimes takes a great deal of patience to watch certain genres.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 9 December 2017]

I've seen some B or D grade westerns that move fast, have believable and challenging plots and are a pleasure to watch. Not so much for those from here today/gone tomorrow studios that released dozens of these each year, cranking them out like daily newspapers. After a while, you begin to hear every horse step, every gunshot, every wagon wheel bouncing over a rock, and wondering when there will be some dialog, something to remind you of what the plot is, and some redeemable quality in a bad guy or amusing flaw in the good guy. For this slow moving but complex western (dealing with attempts to steal a mine out from under its owners), there are some extremely long stretches of film without dialog, overly lengthy horse chases that do nothing but stretch out the time, and when they do speak, the long pauses become excruciating. Tom Tyler tries his best, and heroine Carol Wyndham is lovely, but that's not enough to keep this interesting. To quote a line from "I Love Lucy", "Speed it up a little!" No. Make that a lot.

Tyler finds Max Davidson

[hines-2000 · 10/10 · 17 November 2020]

Tom Tyler can play the lead or a henchman as good as anyone. Placerville is laden with outlaws with the likes of Al Ferguson and fixture of early westerns George Chesebro. As a result, Mary Madison (Carol Wyndham) can't make a go of the Madison Stage Line. She's thwarted at every turn by Marshal Lucas (Slim Whitaker). Also, silent screen comedian, Max Davidson has some great scenes as a clothing salesman who has a confrontation with the marauding band. Bud Osborne, Wally West, Earl Dwire, Lafe McKee and John Elliot complete this action packed western.