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!!
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!!