Rodeo

This film holds up better than some of the early westerns. John Wayne is a hero in this - all the way. His Weston character is a well drawn two fisted hero who can do it all. Of course you have to watch the film until the ending to find out who his character really is. That is what I mean about the plot being good- it keeps you guessing exactly who Wayne is until the end.

The DVD I saw of this has some very dark sequences. A fight sequence is dark deliberately, but some of the other ones really should be better lit. Think this had to do with the tight shooting sequences of these films. There were times in this era when these films would be shot in the matter of just a few days.

Overall, while the special effects are crude & some of the sequences a loosely tied, if your a fan of the Duke or like these old westerns, this is a pretty good film. It is not on the level of The Searchers, but it was not meant to be. This is one of many early films Wayne did to establish himself as a true cowboy hero of the silver screen.

This film essentially begins with a cowboy named "John Weston" (John Wayne) riding into a small town to inquire about a job. While he's talking, however, he notices that the local bank is being robbed by three men. With the local marshal out-gunned, John decides to return their fire which results in two of them being killed and the other one wounded to the point that he immediately surrenders. Quite impressed, "Marshal George Higgins" (George 'Gabby' Hayes) promptly offers John a job as his new deputy. After accepting the job offer, John is then sent to investigate a fraudulent rodeo circuit in another town which has already resulted in the deaths of three other cowboys--all by snakebite. However, to get to the bottom of this mystery, John has to volunteer as a participant in the same events as the other three cowboys. What he doesn't realize, however, is the overall level of corruption and the exact number of men that are involved. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I found this to be a rather amusing film due in large part to the antiquated techniques involved in its production--with the recycled background noise during the rodeo scene being especially noticeable. Likewise, having the film start off with John Wayne strumming a guitar and supposedly singing while on horseback was equally entertaining. Admittedly, this film is extremely dated and certain allowances are almost certainly required as it pales in comparison to modern standards. Be that as it may, while it certainly wasn't a great film by any means, it managed to pass the time well enough and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

At the start of this Lone Star cheapie, the Duke strays into Roy Rogers territory as he warbles in a worryingly light voice while trotting along on his trusty steed - and one can only speculate on how foolish he must have felt. Thankfully, our hero quickly becomes too involved with a crooked rodeo gang to 'entertain' us with any more serenades as he 'bulldogs' and 'Roman Rides' and does all the other things an honest cowboy has to do to get in with a gang of crooks.

Subsequent fame has given us a kinder opinion of Wayne than he probably deserves in terms of his potential in these early days. Ford saw something there, but nobody else in Hollywood did, and Wayne spent most of the 30s trudging from one no-budget potboiler to another. He's better than most of the cast in this flick, but there's little to indicate the massive star power he would one day possess - it's only his size that seems to give him a presence (and that, if truth be told, is what Wayne was - a screen presence rather than an accomplished actor).

All these flicks were padded out with interminable shots of cowboys riding very fast on their horses, and this one's no different. But in this one we're also treated to lengthy scenes of rodeo riders - which are actually more interesting than the horse-riding fillers, even though the numerous shots of men twisting steers' necks to near-impossible angles in order to floor them and prove their macho status are not pleasant to watch. And the Indians - who were rarely a feature in the Lone Star flicks - are relegated to the status of rodeo sideshow acts here.

THE MAN FROM UTAH is by no means the worst of the Lone Stars pics (of the ones I've seen, that particular wooden spoon is reserved for RANDY RIDES ALONE) although the superhuman status given to Wayne's character is a bit over the top. Probably the best from this era is THE LUCKY TEXAN, so if, for some bizarre reason, you're in a position to choose between the two, be sure to plump for the Texan.

Here's another of the cheap B westerns that John Wayne starred in between THE BIG TRAIL and STAGECOACH. He's singing - voice provided by Jack Kirk - on a slow horse with his last dollar. Marshall Gabby Hayes gets him to look into some baddies. Wayne romances Polly Ann Young and gets into a fixed rodeo.

The copy I looked at was pretty good, with some nice camerawork by Archie Stout, one of twelve he was DP on that year. This being a Paul Malvern production, little money was spent on anything, and the soundtrack was so odd, atypically filled with romantic violas and blaring brass, that I concluded it was added decades later, along with the Foley work.

It's directed at a good clip by Robert Bradbury, but no one was getting a fat contract with a major studio off this one. John Ford would rescue Wayne in 1939, and Stout, who had been DP on Demille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, a few years later.

In this low budget oater from Monogram we've got John Wayne helping U.S. Marshal Gabby Hayes bring down some bank robbers in the very act of same. Gabby liked the way young man handled himself so he takes him on as an undercover agent to smash a rodeo racket.

You heard it folks, a rodeo racket. This bunch comes to a given town sets up a rodeo, take in bets from the locals on their best cowboys and the gang's cowboys always seem to win by hook or deadly crook. They also do a few other things on the side like bank robbery, rustling, your usual western crimes.

They've also got a unique way of dispatching competition into eternity which I won't get into. The Duke was lucky to discover what they had in store for him. I will say that modern forensic science would have had the mystery solved.

This was one of those films where they tried to make John Wayne a singing cowboy. The film begins with him on a white horse, strumming a guitar, singing some forgettable ballad. Some Nelson Eddy wannabe's voice is dubbed in and you know it isn't Wayne. It's so bad that even audiences in 1934 would have known this wasn't John Wayne, And this was before he became JOHN WAYNE.