The Lone Star Trail

In the 1930s and 40s, several studios realized that they could combine various B-list western stars into a movie to increase the marketability of the films. So, this led to films like the Three Mesquiteers and the Range Busters...films which featured three stars instead of one. Generally, these movies were pretty good...and the writing of these films seemed a bit better than usual. In the case of "The Lone Star Trail", Universal Pictures paired up Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter and Fuzzy Knight...and it's a pretty dandy film.

The story begins with Blaze (Brown) being released from prison after two years in the pokey. Since he's the hero of the story, it's safe to assume he's NOT a criminal at all and was framed for theft. Now that Blaze is out, he wants to clear his name and is assisted by his friend, Angus (Knight) and a stranger who comes to his aid (Ritter).

The acting is quite nice, the writing better than usual for a B-western and all in all it's a fun film. Interestingly, I've never particularly enjoyed Tex Ritter's solo efforts...but here with Brown and Knight, he's quite good.

By the way, the barber (Knight) talks about creating some health concoction for people to drink and he mentions the ingredients...including milk weed. Well, milk weed is toxic to humans...and I wonder if the writer knew this and that's why he included this!

Solid little oater. The plot's old hat—an innocent man (Brown) needs to search for the men who framed him and regain his good reputation. But the story is also well done, with good acting plus a nice mix of action, intrigue and trail tunes. Even the buffoonish matinée humor is pretty well handled by Fuzzy Knight. Ritter and Brown make a good team, and I like the wrinkle in Fargo's (Ritter) background—(also, check out those sterling movie names, "Blaze Barker" and "Fargo Steele"). Too bad we don't see more of the lovely Jennifer Holt, but we do see Bob Mitchum in an early speaking role and with a mustache, no less. These matinée specials may have ridden into the sunset, but they're still a lot of fun.

The Lone Star Trail pairs two B picture cowboy heroes Johnny Mack Brown and Tex Ritter in a tale of investigation and apprehension, the result of which would be to clear a man who has already served two years in prison for a robbery he didn't commit.

The innocent man is one of our heroes Johnny Mack Brown and being on parole he can't carry a six gun which would cramp the style of any cowboy hero. That's all right because Tex Ritter who is really an undercover government agent gets in enough shooting for both of them.

Lots of action is involved to cover up a poorly plotted script because the bad guys are out to get Brown even before he's set foot in town. Seems to me that all they had to do was keep a cool head and do nothing suspicious and Brown or Ritter couldn't have touched them.

Fuzzy Knight has some good scenes as the sidekick who is also the town barber and Jennifer Holt, daughter of Jack and sister of Tim, looks pretty in her cowgirl outfit as the girl Johnny Mack Brown left behind. And one of the villains, none other than Robert Mitchum at the beginning of his long and illustrious career.

For fans of B westerns and Robert Mitchum completists.

That's right. This 1943 B Western from Tex Ritter introduced "Bob" Mitchum in his first year as a credited Hollywood actor. With a few lines, spoken in that smooth baritone for which Mitchum would soon become famous, a vary young Mitchum mostly looks around a little but surprised to be in a movie!

Easy enough to view, The Lone Star Trail has nothing much more interesting to offer. Typical of the period for westerns, a few songs, a couple of fights, and good ultimately triumphs over adversity.

Tex Ritter and Johhnny Mack Brown team up in this action-filled programmer from the early 1940's. The former football star and country crooner take on some mangy cowpokes who had already framed Brown once and are about to do it again!

At this point in their careers, the pairing was intended to allow the western greats to pool their on screen strengths. The result is this standard tale of revenge and redemption on the old frontier. Ritter was always pleasant in this type of role and Brown handled the action and fistfights in a first rate manner. Overall, it was a good job.

While this was not an A-level film, it should appeal to die-hard fans of the western programmers..... I did !