The Star Packer

Several reviewers have praised the stunts. I hope they are referring to stunts done by the actors and not the horses. These were the days of trip wires being used to cause horses to fall. While running full speed they make dramatic falls on camera, but they often crippled or killed the horse. Fortunately, for the most part, the practice was stopped in the early 50s. (But I did see movie made in 1952 where a trip wire was used.) Other than this criticism, it was pretty standard early John Wayne stuff.

This is an early John Wayne oater. It is very typical for that era. John Wayne, of course, plays the good guy and a lawman, and Yakima Canute, who is in a ton of John Wayne's early movies, usually as a bad guy, plays a good guy for a change. even it it is a very stereotypical Indian sidekick, (insensitive by today's politically correct idiots). Of course this movie is in black and white, since color was still on the horizon, so some of the video does leave a bit to be desired but I did and still do enjoy the good guy versus bad guy movies where most things are pretty clear. I also like his later movies that had a bit more suspense.

This is a real B movie, right down to the historical imprecision of a location featuring both stage coaches and telephones, its clichéd dialogue, a totally predictable plot straight out of the comics and enough protracted chases and gunfights to fill in the gaps left by a very thin script.

The Duke and his entourage provide plenty of ironic laughs but, if you want to take the movie at face value, it is quite enjoyable. The good guys win, the bad guys get their comeuppance, the Duke gets his gal and Yakima Canutt shows his tricks all in a setting that engrossed generations of schoolboys over most of the 20th century.

The Star Packers should also be of interest to students of cinema as its structure encapsulates the early movement of silent film into the talkies.

JOHN WAYNE is slim and lithe as a cowboy who anoints himself sheriff after the bad guys rub too many of the town's citizens out. From then on it's like watching a Hopalong Cassidy movie except this one is from Lone Star and is obviously a poverty row project with a few interesting moments for anyone who stays with it for 53 minutes.

The tree stump idea puzzled me, as did the wall vault which served as the device behind which The Shadow gave orders--and the whole plot is so rushed that there's little time to digest any of the backstory that leads up to the main storyline. A pretty girl is the romantic interest for Wayne but has little to do and GEORGE HAYES is beardless for this one before he grew his trademark stubble.

Actually, the slender story seems like something borrowed from a Zane Grey western--the one where the girl is part owner of a ranch, the bad guy is actually someone she knows but never suspects, and a cowboy with strong capabilities comes along and rescues her when she's in danger.

The covered wagon going over the cliff into water is a neat sight toward the end and some of the stunt work involving riders and horses is on the mark. YAKIMA CANUTT is fun to watch as Wayne's Indian sidekick, a sort of Tonto to Wayne who rides a white horse.

Passes the time quickly, but is clearly John Wayne as an apprentice actor.

Definitely the best of John Wayne's million early films, although the acting and production values were of the usual B Western standard the plot was probably more cohesive than usual and more watchable. And almost believable, too! The Lone Star Saloon in Lone Star Town also had a good part in this one.

It's pretty obvious who the baddie will turn out to be (yet again!) - you can almost hear the boos from the kids in the audience from the mid-'30's when he makes his appearance, again as a beardless two-faced sidewinder. I assume here that unlike nowadays kids back then knew the difference between good guys and bad guys and right and wrong. Yakima Canutt is playing a Tonto character in here, Wayne is as dashing as always, the chases and ambushes are everything to be desired, in fact especially hair-raising. However, I can't actually remember now Wayne actually packing a Star, if he did he didn't make the same song and dance about it as he did in Rio Bravo! And everything is corny, contrived and creaky - but I love it just the same.

As far as I'm concerned it's a very pleasant way to fill an hour - a lot is "packed" into an hour. If you forced yourself to watch Star Packer in its entirety and found it dreadful you'll never get that hour back, but my friendly observation is you certainly won't like any of Wayne's other films for Lone Star.