Prairie Thunder (1937) User Reviews

Nice little racket

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 30 March 2019]

Dick Foran who co-starred with John Wayne in Fort Apache and Donovan's Reef steps into the Duke's boots in a remake of his The Telegraph Trail which in turn is a remake of a Ken Maynard silent The Glorious Trail.

Foran plays an army scout with a corporal played by Frank Orth as a sidekick. He and Orth go out to repair a telegraph line and run into Albert J. Smith head of freighting outfit who has a nice little racket going with Chief Yakima Canutt who raids all other outfits supplying the area but Smith's. He gets to then charge outrageous prices for goods.

Of course Foran gets to dispatch him in cowboy hero fashion. Typical B western for the Saturday matinee kids. One thing though, Orth was one of the worst sidekicks ever. He was usually playing fussy, officious little men in all kinds of movies. But western sidekicks was not his thing.

Me Heap Big Chief....Stock Footage Tribe!

[bsmith5552 · 5/10 · 16 July 2018]

"Prairie Thunder" was the 12th and final entry in the Warner Bros. Singing Cowboy series starring Dick Foran. It must have had a miniscule budget because most of the action scenes involving Indian attacks are clearly from stock footage from God knows where.

Rod Farrell (Foran) is "a lineman for the county" or a cavalry scout who looks out for the new telegraph wire and railway workers along with his pal Wichita (Frank Orth). Lynch (Albert J. Smith) owns a freight line and fears a loss in business if the telegraph and rail line go through. To prevent this he is selling guns to the Indians led by Chief High Wolf (Yakima Canutt). Along the way, we meet the child like Joan Temple (Ellen Clancy with whom Farrell is in love...awwwww.

Farrell captures Lynch and his gang and has them locked up at the Temple ranch. Lynch's cohort Marson (George Chesebro) who was not captured, goes to Chief High Wolf and has him send his stock footage Indians to release Lynch and his gang. Later when Farrell goes to the Chief to try and talk peace, he himself is captured and is tied to a stake. Rather than finish Farrell off, Lynch convinces High Wolf to send his stock footage Indians to attack the line and rail camps. How Wichita manages to free Farrell has to be seen to be believed.

Well anyway the Indians attack and Farrell circles the stock footage wagons to fend them off. Will Col. Stanton (J.P. McGowan) and the stock footage soldiers get there in time?

You would think that having Yakima Canutt in the cast, there would have been some of his signature stunts on display. But with the over use of stock footage, he never got the chance. Instead, we were treated to his "acting" talents.

Foran as usual gets to sing his three songs and ride off with the heroine. I always thought that his rich baritone was a little too much for a singing cowboy. His was more in the Nelson Eddy style. It is curious as to why Warner Bros. didn't capitalize on this.

The over all series was better than average and the singing usually didn't get in the way of the story. They utilized Warner's vast closet of stock footage many times throughout the series. I would have thought that they might have used more of the Warner Bros. recognizable character actors and up and comers than they did. This turned out to be Warner Bros. final "B" western series. Dick Foran would go on to a lengthy career playing mostly supporting roles lasting into the 60s.

Dick Foran doubles for John Wayne....and the results are dreadful.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 26 June 2022]

"Prairie Thunder" is a remake of a John Wayne film, "The Telegraph Trail" and both films are B-westerns. However, while the Wayne film is decent entertainment, "Prairie Thunder" is just awful!

The story itself isn't bad. A scumbag named Temple has made friends with the local Native tribe. They are afraid of the trains and telegraph lines and he convinces them they are evil and must be destroyed. And, to help them in this task, he gives them guns and ammunition! When Rod (Dick Foran) discovers this, he arrests Temple and his gang. However, soon a lone member of the gang wasn't caught...and he goes to enlist the help of his tribal friends to attack and free the criminals from jail. What's next?

Why did I dislike this film so much? Well, I can think of four good reasons. While Dick Foran was a decent screen cowboy, it's hard to equal or surpass John Wayne! Also, the film is a remake...meaning that unless the remake corrects some mistakes in the first film, it really isn't necessary...which it isn't. And, finally, MUCH of the film consists of old footage from some silent film!! This is a problem since the old footage is grainy AND because crank speeds were slower than the 24 frame standard for sound movies, the silent portions move too fast...and look a bit silly. Finally, the American Indians in this film are pretty dreadful--very stereotypical and completely unrealistic. Overall, I can see absolutely no reason to watch this film...none.

"Braves like many fire sticks . . . we go . . . "

[cricket30 · 8/10 · 18 April 2019]

. . . to town with them, is how this quote from PRAIRIE THUNDER could have ended, had not "Chief High Wolf" been cut down in his prime. PRAIRIE THUNDER documents the ravages against the Proud Warriors of the West wrought by corrupt White Trader "Lynch." This mercenary miscreant has sold the local Tribe 620 rifles with which to defend their Homeland, but only one box (or 144 cartridges) of ammo. As Indian Freedom Fighter "Gandhi" once observed, "All the firearms in the World are totally worthless without any rounds in the chambers." Sure enough, High Wolf's entire Band of Brothers soon gets decimated by the better stocked settler folk. Today's students are frequently stumped by the question of, "How could the Native Americans lose pretty much an entire continent, when they held Home Field Advantage?" The answer, of course, is that the Indigenous Peoples brought bows, arrows and hatchets to a shooting match. By the time many of the initial survivors began packing heat, it was already too late. All of the "early rounds" had been fired--and won--by the more up-to-date newcomers, who had latched onto gunpowder from the stay-at-home Asians AFTER the latter group's trekking element had cross the land bridge from northwestern Russia to the Americas. The rest, as PRAIRIE THUNDER depicts, is a tragic tale of woe for the Johnny-come-Early's.