Near the Trail's End

Bob Steele is a well-known gunslinger who takes a shine to Marion Shockley. She winds up in a wide-open town controlled by Hooper Atchley, and you just know that with cattle rustlers in play, there's going to be a lot of shooting.

Unfortunately, it's a very slow-paced movie. Not only do a lot of the players with small roles speak their bits slowly, but director Wallace Fox shows long entrances and exits, with people walking from their front doors, through the yard and the gate, but the horse riding sequences seem to go on forever - a common situation with these early sound B westerns. Steele and Miss Shockley speak at a good clip, which eases the impatience, and Steele has lots of tricks mounting and dismounting his horse, but this 55-minute flick could have been cut to 45 without losing anything.

While I agree with the other reviewer about most everything, I confess that I would have been disappointed if the film had had a shorter running time.

Granted, this film would never be on anyone's top 10 list.....but the older I get, the more I love these early talkies: the shootin' and drinkin' and budding romance. Oh sure, Bob Steele has had better actors than these in later films....but even with this one I found myself yearning for the good old movies of yesteryears.