Whirlwind Horseman (1938) User Reviews

Ken Maynard to the rescue!

[stevehaynie · 7/10 · 9 May 2006]

In Whirlwind Horseman Ken Maynard plays the hero, Ken Morton. Morton rides along with his sidekick, Happy (Billy Griffith), and sees a man in a wagon being chased by a gang of bad guys. Immediately Ken and Happy jump into action and fight off the gang. Ken learns that ranchers are being driven off of their land and ends up with a job to help fight the evil gang. This draws Ken and Happy into a situation that was none of their business, but Ken is looking for his partner, Cherokee (Budd Buster), who is supposed to be in the area. It turns out that Cherokee has discovered oil in the area, but no one knows where. That is why Cherokee is kidnapped and held until he discloses the location of his discovery. Not taking any chances, the bad guys are driving everyone from their land in order to take over once the location of the oil is discovered. Ken has to figure out who leads the gang and save his friend.

Whirlwind Horseman was standard for a low budget western. The story was hardly different from most other B westerns, but every element of this Grand National production was done right. Ken Maynard's star quality shined brightly in this movie. The role of the sidekick would have been a little better if Billy Griffith and Budd Buster had traded roles. As Happy, Bill Griffith was not old enough or silly enough to fall into the stereotyped sidekick persona. Budd Buster was not much older than either Griffith or Maynard, but he was able to play a scruffy looking character. Buster made the part of Cherokee interesting.

One of the better B westerns, Whirlwind Horseman is definitely worth an hour of your time.

Setting A Trap

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 18 September 2021]

"Whirlwind Horseman" was originally released back in 1938.

Anyway - As the story goes - Two cowboys are on their way to visit their friend at his gold mine when they stumble into the middle of some attacks on the local ranchers by a gang of ruthless outlaws. Suspecting that someone in town is behind the attacks, our two cowboys decide to stick around and help the ranchers.

"I never seen him before, but he can sure sling lead!"

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 17 February 2008]

By the time "Whirlwind Horseman" came out, Ken Maynard was well past his prime as a major cowboy star, winding down his career with movies for Grand National and Colony Pictures. Here, Maynard wears one of the biggest good guy white hats going, as he tries to get to the bottom of a 'sudden burst of lawlessness' with sidekick Happy (Bill Griffith). Together they're also trying to locate a missing friend and old timer named Cherokee Jake (Bud Buster), who's being kept hostage by the bad guys for the location of an oil discovery. The villains are terrorizing all the local ranchers until they can determine where the actual oil well is so they can turn in their own claim on it.

The set up for this one is about as standard as they come and the effort is fairly unremarkable. The print I viewed was hampered by some of the darkened day time sequences that plague other Westerns of the era that are somewhat annoying if you haven't seen it before and gotten accustomed to it. There's also the frequent pauses in dialog between characters as if waiting for a cue or for something significant to happen. Maynard himself is involved in his share of those and you find yourself wondering what everyone is waiting around for.

There's one bit of action that stands out, and that's when Sheriff Ken Morton (Maynard) runs a rope across the trail and trips up four horses and riders from the bad guy posse. If you stop to think about it though, there's no way you can believe that one guy can trip up four charging horses with his bare hands (even with gloves on) like that. It's another example of trip wires in use before the PETA folks got involved against cruelty to animals. All the horses got up from this one, but it couldn't have been fun.

The most recognizable baddie in the flick is perennial 'B' oater stand-by, Glenn Strange. I like to think that between him and Stanley Andrews, they appeared in just about every Western ever made in the early days. You watch any classic TV or movie Western prior to the mid 1960's and you'll probably see one or the other, and that's a good thing.

You know, the 'Whirlwind Horseman' wouldn't have been as much without a whirlwind horse. Maynard's light colored palomino was named Tarzan, and watching them gallop across the screen together was one of the thrills of their pictures. Tarzan has some good presence in this flick, even if you never hear his name mentioned.

Surprisingly literate script and Joan Barclay: Who could ask for anything more?

[morrisonhimself · 9/10 · 27 April 2018]

Ken Maynard gave one of his best performances in this very good B Western story that was also well directed by Robert F. Hill.

An excellent gang of cowboys help make this an exciting and thoroughly enjoyable movie, and be sure to watch Budd (known here as "Bud") Buster in a role that gives him some room and that might remind you of George "Gabby" Hayes -- surely one of Buster's best performances, out of the hundreds he gave.

Ken's sidekick is played by Billy (here "Bill") Griffith, of whom I knew nothing previously, and who seems to be best known for TV roles. He is not so silly or over the top as too many B sidekicks have been.

Joan Barclay, though, was one of the most talented and simply adorable of the B Western leading ladies. She reportedly didn't care a lot about being a big star and was happy just keeping busy. IMDb shows 85 credits, but with her beauty and talent, there should be more than twice that. Supposedly, by her own account, that she refused the casting couch -- which was kept busy even in the pre-Harvey Weinstein days -- might well have been an obstacle to a busier career. Our loss.

Writer George H. Plympton has more than 300 credits here at IMDb, although some seem to have been duplicated. Regardless, he was quite the busy -- and talented -- writer. And, in this script, he helped make the players show themselves A quality. He gives clever and even literate dialogue to this excellent cast.

Two complaints: I just hate to see Dave O'Brien as a bad guy, and the print I saw at YouTube is in pretty bad shape. But it's still very much worth watching. I highly recommend it.