Randy Rides Alone

Above average fare from the Lone Star crew of worthies-- Hayes, Canutt, Dwire, and of course Wayne. Lindsley Parsons did several scripts for Wayne and Lone Star, but this one's arguably his best. Wayne's an undercover agent on the trail of an outlaw gang whose latest robbery ends in a massacre of saloon patrons and staff. The opening is a grabber as the camera surveys the corpse strewn floor, while a player piano bangs away in the background, eyes peer from holes in a painting, and a secret panel opens. The outlaw gang has a neat hideout in a hollow behind a waterfall. Their digs even includes, of all things, its own jail where the leading lady ends up! Some good hard riding, including (alas!) a trip-wire spill that looks dramatic, but I wonder if the horse survived. Canutt comes up with usual spectacular stunt as Wayne takes a fall from a ladder high up a rock face. Can't help but notice that Alberta Vaughn looks much too young to stack up as an adult leading lady, but manages okay in the acting department. The movie's unusual for rare use of a miniature as a special effect. It's pretty well done and money well spent since the ending makes unexpectedly good use of it. All in all, it's good clean fun, as they used to say.

Another Wayne/Canutt/Hayes Lone Star entry, mostly enjoyable with the usual few tedious scenes thrown in. How any 52 minute movie can have tedious stretches is down to the love interest and various characters having to walk from one location to another. Riding is much more exciting after all!

It has a good start, with Wayne entering a saloon only to be greeted with a blood-bath, or was it just a good night previous? Chin-bald Hayes plays 2 characters, one the top baddie and the other a good-guy mute who has to write his words down on scraps of paper - more tedium. The key moment in RRA is after the heroine has said no to him as the good guy he starts to scribble an answer down to try to change her mind. Then he and the scriptwriter realise it won't do any good with only 5 minutes left so he petulantly blurts out "I'm fed up with this" and becomes his True Evil Self to her.

Some nice outdoor photography, nice print, nice scenes of the skinny Duke ambling around Alone before he's suddenly smitten with love. He improved his fight techniques in the coming years!

This was a fun old time western that was well plotted and fast moving.

John Wayne enters a "deserted" bar that is host to dead men. It is eerily empty except for a player piano running through its program and a set of eyes peering through a picture. This was pretty cool stuff for a 1934 early talkie.

Shortly we find that the set of eyes belong to an attractive young female, Alberta Vaughn, who is sole owner of the tavern now that her father has been murdered. We are introduced to other major players. . The most interesting is Matt the Mute. He is played by Gabby Hayes who doesn't resemble the Gabby Hayes that we are used to. He has no beard. There are a few other differences that would give too much plot away.

We shortly find out that John is on the side of the good guys. Good triumphs over bad as it should in all good old westerns. Throw in the great stunt rider, Yakima Canutt and Earl Dwire, who looked like his character of the old time sheriff. And you've got a fun old time western.

John Wayne enters a saloon to find a player piano tinkling the ivories to a room full of dead people and is promptly arrested! The real culprit is Hayes, who masquerades as kindly Matt the mute (!) and had the men killed as part of a land grab scheme.

There isn't as much action in Randy Rides Alone as there is in some of the other John Wayne/ Lone Star productions, though there are a few good stunts courtesy of Yakima Canutt, the one where he leaps forward off a rolling horse being a particular standout.

What really makes this good is the irresistible chance to see one of the few performances in which the clean shaven George Hayes plays a black-hatted heavy.

Waynes quip, "That's the end of Matt the mute.", is priceless!

RANDY RIDES ALONE (Monogram Pictures, 1934), directed by Harry Fraser, stars John Wayne in his seventh "Lone Star" western presentation. With story/screenplay by Lindsley Parsons, production values still on a low-budget scale, but plot summary is tightly edited with everything told under an hour. Overall, it's still an interesting little item with a mixture of western and mystery.

The story introduces Randy Barlow (John Wayne), a lone cowboy riding through town to meet with Ed Rogers. Coming to the saloon called the Half-Way House which Rogers owns, Randy enters to the sound of piano playing music only to be surrounded by a massacre of dead bodies, one of them being Rogers. Unknown to him is a picture on the wall with moving eyes watching his every move. Moments later, the sheriff (Earl Dwire) and his deputies enter with Matt the Mute (George Hayes), who had earlier notified the sheriff of the gunshots. He insists the cowboy be arrested as a possible suspect connected with a gang of killers. While in jail, Randy is met with Sally Rogers (Alberta Vaughn), the niece of the deceased, whom she believes is not the guilty man. Sally arranges for Randy's escape and for him to meet with her at sunup. Sally is informed through a letter of introduction by the Adams Express Company in Denver, Colorado, that Randy is a government agent sent by Ed to investigate Marvin Black, a man pressuring him to sell him the saloon. After Randy is pursued on horseback by a posse, his escape leads him to the cave hideout of Marvin Black where he finds sally being held hostage. Supporting players include Yakima Canutt (Spike); Tex Phelps and Perry Murdock.

What makes RANDY RIDES ALONE watchable is the prescense of the unrecognizable George "Gabby" Hayes years before his bearded sidekick roles in a straight role playing a mute speaking through his written messages. Though never addressed verbally as Randy, Wayne's character is only known through camera closeup to his letter of introduction, otherwise to others he's simply a nameless cowboy who rides alone. Alberta Vaughn, the heroine in the story who hides in secret panels, whose distrust is on everybody except for a the cowboy stranger in town. Some good stunts with interesting finish make this worthwhile viewing.

A long unseen western turned up regularly on public television starting in the early 1980s, leading for its rediscovery on video cassette and later the DVD process. Cable television broadcasts include American Movie Classics (1996-2000), Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: May 1996) and Encore Westerns. Although clocked at 53 minutes, some sources time RANDY RIDES ALONE at 57 minutes, though jump cuts don't seem visible in existing prints. Beware of RANDY RIDES ALONE often shown with inferior intrusive underscoring added during its long muted sequences. (**)