Fuzzys Kampf ohne Gnade

This was a pretty good B western from Producer's Releasing Corporation starring Lash LaRue and Al St. John as a pair of undercover operatives trying to stop a lot land grabbing in a certain locale in the west. They've got their work cut out for them as three former operatives who were in the open got themselves killed. Sheriff Henry Hall is totally ineffectual and just might be in with the gang.

This film borrows a technique usually used by movie serials where some master villain is never seen, but heard so you don't know his identity until the final reel. So we don't know who it is, but I guessed about halfway through the film. He left some tell tale marks from his spurs on the table in his cabin hideout. My mom always told me to keep my feet off the table.

Steve Drake who is Jennifer Holt's brother is killed by the gang after a crooked card game (they have many villainous pursuits) and that's when Lash and St. John spring into action. Jennifer is the sister of Tim Holt who was starring in his own series of B westerns over at RKO.

This is the first Lash LaRue western I've seen and reviewed. It's not a bad one, shoddy production values and all. Nice cast and a decent plot with good elements involved.

Lash and Fuzzy take on a gang led by a mysterious mastermind intent on grabbing land from local owners. Not much to distinguish this oater except a couple energetic fist-fights that are also well choreographed. Then too, we wonder who the mysterious mastermind is, but 50-some minutes is not enough time to develop a real guessing game. Too bad the lovely Jennifer Holt doesn't have more to do than pretty up the screen.

No doubt about it, in that snappy black outfit, Lash is the best dressed of all the matinée heroes. Here he cuts the proverbial dashing figure. It's a PRC production, so expect a lot of familiar LA- area scrublands as background. Fortunately, Fuzzy's not too silly as comic relief, but catch those leg contortions at fadeout. Nothing special, but enough for matinée fans of any age.

When three deputy marshals meet mysterious deaths near Buffalo Gap, the U. S. Marshal sends his top two trouble-shooters, Cheyenne Davis and Fuzzy Jones, to investigate. Judd and his gang are driving the ranchers away. When Lash and Fuzzy arrest them, the Sheriff lets them go. Lash expected this and he hopes to follow them to their leader, the person he is really after. Cheyenne rounds up the gang and its mysterious leader and restores law-and-order to Buffalo Gap.

Lash La Rue cracks his whip again in an above average oater and there's the usual spate of action, however I liked the "anonymous leader" aspect. You don't see the main boss only hear him. Guessed who it was. Needed more suspects. There's an excellent western novel called 'The Brazos Firebrand' by Leslie Scott (who wrote under the Jackson Cole moniker) which has this similar anonymous leader. Jennifer Holt also stars and adds some style.

Lash Larue appears in this Post-WWII western as the black-clad Cheyenne Kid. Along with his usual partner Fuzzy St.John, they take on and rein in the criminal element confronting them. This outing is one of their better efforts and well worth a look by all western fans.

LaRue was a little limited as an actor, but was great at action scenes------ especially when brawling with the villains. St. John was funny and could clown with the best of them---as he does here.A pretty good cast of western character actors help out in this shoot-em-up, adding an air of pleasant familiarity.

Lash LaRue's later films were often shoddy, but this one was pretty good and a great example of why his films can be fun to watch.

Jennifer Holt's brother is shot in a crooked card game and she is threatened. Lash Larue intervenes. After that introduction, we learn that someone is trying to drive out the local ranchers. Can Lash stop them despite Al St. John's help?

It's not a particularly hard mystery to figure out, and the hero's ability to be in the right spot at the right time would be uncanny in anything longer than a one-hour B western. Still, St. John does uncle Roscoe Arbuckle's cigarette-rolling gag, Miss Holt is pretty, and Ernest Miller's camerawork is up to snuff in a pretty good print. No one ever thought these were among the greatest movies ever made, but they do fill an hour.