Im Tal des Regenbogens

A routine "B" western in the Lone Star series of westerns Wayne made in the 30's. What sets this one apart is John Wayne as a "Singing" Cowboy. This was the time of the beginning of the Singing Cowboy era in "B" westerns (e.g. Gene Autry). Wayne's voice is obviously dubbed. He sure doesn't look comfortable serenading the heroine or warbling a tune while riding across the prairie. Fortunately for all concerned (especially the Duke) this experiment was quickly ended.

Anyone who wants to hear the Duke's "real" singing voice should watch the opening credits of "Cahill U.S. Marshal".

This has a cast of over forty, which makes it twice as big as the usual Lonestar production.

Gabby Hayes carries much of the movie with his usual gruff-old-goat character. Unfortunatey, he's only in the first fifteen and last ten minutes of the film.

John Wayne plays a "Special Agent" John Martin who builds a road to the outlaw forsaken town of Rainbow Valley. He basically sleepwalks through the part.

As other reviewers noted, it is a bit irritating that the female characters are always dressed in 1930's fashion.

This seems to be about average for a Lonestar production. It is not one of my favorites.

Some very interesting directorial touches help this -- pardon the pun -- rather pedestrian Western: There weren't enough horses for the towns people so they had to reach the battlefield on foot.

The fight scenes were obviously pre- the great Yakima Canutt-choreographed battles, and the sound recording was almost primitive, certainly compared to what was to come.

But all together, with villains Leroy Mason and Jay Wilsey, here billed as Buffalo Bill Jr., this is a pretty good movie.

Besides, characters played by George (pre-"Gabby") Hayes and the lovely Lucile (billed as "Lucille") Brown side the hero, played by John Wayne, and they make a triumphant triumvirate.

Even this early in his career, John Wayne shows both personality and a great ability to express his thoughts and emotions, as well as the athletic ability to be one of the great action heroes of motion pictures. I do recommend this movie.

in my mind this is a fluffy,light movie,but very entertaining and fun to watch.Basically,John Wayne is stranger in town who agrees to help the men get a new road built.the workers have been continually threatened and harassed or worse,by a gang of outlaws who don't want the road built.there is no law to speak of in the town,so the gang has pretty much done whatever they please.until now,that is.this is a pretty standard western movie,which follows the general formula of westerns at that time.however,i think it it is well acted,exciting and fast paced.it's a pretty short movie(less than 90 minutes)but there'a lot jammed into the short running time.if you're in the mood to simply be entertained,you might like this movie.it's not an epic,like many of John Wayne's movies,but so what.i think "rainbow Valley" is a strong 8/10

RAINBOW VALLEY (Monogram Studios, 1935), directed by Robert N. Bradbury, stars John Wayne in his thirteenth Lone Star poverty-row western. Using the same leading players (Lucille Browne, George Hayes, Leroy Mason, Buffalo Bill Jr., Bert Dillard and Frank Ball) and same director from Wayne's previous effort of TEXAS TERROR (1935), RAINBOW VALLEY is another one of those under one-hour quickies that looks like it was filmed and put together within a few hours yet gets by as second feature entertainment.

With plot summary put together after watching it on DVD, the story starts off with John Martin (John Wayne) paying a storekeeper (Lafe McKee) $210 for his new western attire, gun and horse, along with asking directions on how to get to Rainbow Valley. John rides out sixty miles to his destination. Before arriving to Rainbow Valley, he helps the stranded George Hale (George Hayes) needing water for his overheated jalopy he names "Nugget Nell." A mail carrier by profession along with bags of gold for the miners to take to the post office, John saves the day once more for George (whom he affectionately calls "Old Timer") from being trailed and held up by four pursuing bandits shooting behind him. Arriving at Rainbow Valley, John makes the acquaintance of George's niece, Eleanor (Lucille Browne), the local postmistress. He immediately gets on her bad side when suspecting Morgan Rogers (Leroy Mason), whom Eleanor admires, as part of the gang trying to rob her Uncle George. John soon confronts another man he recognized in the attempted robbery but without proper identification from George, he's forced to let him go. With Rainbow Valley being terrorized by renegades and in desperate need of law and order, Mr. Powell (Frank Ball), an important man in town, after witnessing the way John handles himself in tough situations, chooses this young engineer by profession him to help supervise with the completion of the road construction to town. All goes well until the arrival of Austin "Butch" Galt (Buffalo Bill Jr.) and Morgan stirring up trouble to discredit John's good name among his workers. Other members of the cast include Bert Dillard (Spike). Though Lloyd Ingraham is credited, he is not seen in the final print,

With John Wayne and George Hayes teaming up together for the twelfth time certainly make a grand team. For RAINBOW VALLEY, Hayes is slightly bearded, a beard that would become his trademark for his beloved character later identified and credited as "Gabby" Hayes. Reportedly clocked at 52 or 55 minutes, it's obvious the 49-minute edition of RAINBOW VALLEY is missing opening material, based on existing picture stills with Wayne and Lloyd Ingraham identified for this production not available in circulating prints. My guess is when RAINBOW VALLEY was sold to television dating back to the 1950s, it was cut down to make room for commercial breaks to fit it into its one-hour time slot and never restored. Unlike the other Wayne/Lone Star westerns (1933-1935), RAINBOW VALLEY doesn't seem to have been televised on public television since then, considering how the others turned up after a long hiatus in the 1980s decades later on cable television as American Movie Classics or Turner Classic Movies. Though a public domain title available on home video and DVD, RAINBOW VALLEY can be seen on YouTube or found on-demand from MGM Plus Channel. Regardless of handicaps no underscoring, lackluster production and unconvincing fistfights, all this is either overlooked or forgiven thanks to another likeable presence of the youthful John Wayne. (**)