À l'ouest des montagnes

I bought this film because a book I read stated that it was the first

film that was important in the development of the "Gabby" (George)

Hayes character who was so enjoyable in the Hopalong Cassidy &

Roy Rogers (& others) films of the 1930s & 1940s. Hayes here

plays a character named "Dusty." He has a scruffy, grizzled look,

but doesn't yet have the beard that came later. Hayes has the

same voice & intonation as he used later, but engages in none of

the comedic antics that where such a big part of his "Gabby"

character. Is it a coincidence that John Wayne rides a white horse,

wears a big 10 gallon black hat & black shirt, & has the same

sidekick as Hopalong Cassidy did, all two years before Hoppy got

started in the movies? The Hopalong Cassidy movie character

seems to bear more resemblance to John Wayne in this movie

than he does to the Hoppy character as portrayed in the Clarence

Mulford books! Blooper: John Wayne's kid brother calls him "Dad"

in one scene! This is an enjoyable film, especially if you like Gabby

Hayes. What ruined it for me was a new soundtrack (basically,

swirling organ music) that was unnecessary & detracted from the

movie. I have the SONY release, copyrighted 1985 by Fox/Lorber,

so beware of that version if you like your old movies to be

unadulterated, as I do.

John Wayne stars as Ted Hayden in this one, lithe young companion of grizzled old George 'Gabby' Hayes, who was just starting to develop into the character now so familiar to Hopalong Cassidy fans. Ted is an orphan, left for dead by the varmints who done fer his paw, and saved from beneath his father's dead body by Hayes' Dusty Rhodes. All this – and much more – is related to the viewer in the opening scene, a conversation between the pair that is nothing but a huge chunk of exposition that is as lacking in subtlety as it is replete with information. Hayden has returned to his hometown to catch the man with the mad laugh who killed his father, and poses as Gat Ganns, all-round bad egg, who bears more than a passing physical resemblance to our hero.

This is a fairly acceptable entry in John Wayne's Lone Star series of films made in the early to mid-thirties. There is quite a diverting storyline, even though the acting is as creaky as usual for these flicks. It's the stunts that stand out in all of the low budget efforts Wayne made in those days, and their success is thanks to stuntman extraordinaire Yakima Canutt. You get the impression as you watch that some real hair-raising risks were taken to capture these scenes – and you sometimes wonder whether it was worth it considering the poor quality of most other aspects of the films. Watch out for Canutt standing in for bad guy Lloyd Whitlock, who sports a full head of greying hair, in the fight with Wayne near the end of the film. Canutt had dark hair and a noticeable bald patch, but hack director R. N. Bradbury obviously didn't believe in going to the expense of making even a perfunctory effort to disguise the actors' physical differences. Oddly enough, it's this kind of lack of attention to detail that make the Lone Star films so curiously endearing.

John Wayne and George Hayes come back to the place where Wayne spent his childhood in order to find out who killed his father and what became of his baby brother twelve years earlier. Wayne and Hayes then go undercover to stop a group of ranch thieves.

There's a few good scenes and a decent climax in this entry in Wayne's Lone Star western series but mostly this is middle of the road entertainment with a bit too much talking and not enough action this time around.

However, this does have some better-than-usual acting for the series. Duke and Gabby's performances are also quite likable, as is the actor that played Wayne's young friend.

WEST OF THE DIVIDE (1933/34), a Lone Star Production released by Monogram Pictures, with story and direction by Robert N. Bradbury, stars John Wayne in his third low-budget western for the studio. Though not as classic as his latter westerns as STAGECOACH (1939) or THE SEARCHERS (1956), this minor production clocked at 54 minutes, which could have been an episode to an hourly western television series in later years, is actually not that bad. As with all his Lone Star productions (1933-1935), all resembling early talkies of the late 1920s, and lacking underscoring, the plot and action sequences along with the youthful presence of John Wayne, still learning the ropes as a movie cowboy, somehow make up for it.

Rather than having a five-minute prologue to the situation involving the central character as a 12-year-old boy, production values save time and cost by opening the story revolving the now adult Ted Hayden (John Wayne) accompanied by his friend, "Dusty" Rhodes (George "Gabby" Hayes, minus his beard that would later make him famous) resting out in the wilderness discussing the murder of Hayden's father when he was a boy. Left for dead, Ted is said to be found and taken in by Dusty, who, after two years under his care, has brought him back to heath. Ted also has a little brother whose mother died at the time of his birth, and wants to find him. During this reminiscing of the past leading to both men returning to the scene of the crime, Ted and Dusty notice a man stumbling to the ground, dying after drinking poisoned water. Finding an envelope on his person, they find the deceased to be Gat Ganns, a wanted killer with a $5,000 reward for his capture. Convinced of Ganns association with Jeffrey Gentry (Lloyd Whitlock), the man who bought his father's ranch, to be responsible for his father's death and brother's abduction, Ted, who bears a close resemblance to the deceased, poses Ganns to work under Gentry to see if his hunch is correct. In the meantime, Gentry, losing his bid to buy the ranch belonging to Fred Winters (Lafe McKee) and his daughter, Fay (Virginia Browne-Faire), schemes to get that ranch regardless. He has two of his henchmen to follow and rob Fay of the $3,000 for bank deposit to ruin for father financially. Accidentally shot while hiding in an abandoned barn, Fay is later found unconscious by Ted, who takes her to Doctor Silsby (Philip Kieffer) for treatment. Having found her money, Ted deposits it for her in secret at the bank. Now working for Gentry to do away with Winters, Ted later saves Spud (Billy O'Brien), a 12-year-old boy from a runaway coach and from the brutal whipping by his brutal father, Butch (Blackie Whitford. The closer Ted gets to his father's murder, the more his life is in danger. Other supporting players include Yakima Canutt, Earl Dwire and Horace B. Carpenter.

As with many of Wayne's early westerns, he bonds well with his co-stars, Virginia Browne-Faire, and youngster, played by Billy (billed Billie) O'Brien, another good reason the film works so well. Even with lack of production values, it still has charm. Chances are the plot summary had been used earlier or later with other western actors, but it's John Wayne, better known as "The Duke," who's the reason this and other his early westerns have remained watchable long after its theatrical releases.

Distributed on video cassette in the 1980s, the decade where this and other of Wayne's Lone Star westerns frequently played for a while on public television, WEST OF THE DIVIDE, also available on DVD, has had its cable television presentations, namely American Movie Classics (1996-2000) and Encore Westerns. Beware of prints with new and poorly constructed underscoring used during opening and closing credits, along with scoreless scenes that would be rough sledding for viewers to stop watching long before the movie comes to a close. (**1/2)

This early John Wayne western sees Wayne playing Ted Hayden, a man who was left for dead as a boy when he father was killed. In the opening scene he discusses this with the man who looked after him. As they talk a man staggers towards then; he lives just long enough to hell them he has drunk water from a poisoned well. He is carrying papers that identify him as Gat Ganns, a wanted killer who was hoping to work for a certain Mr Gentry; the man who now owns the Hayden farm. As Hayden looks rather like Ganns he takes his place and sees Gentry about the job. It turns out Gentry is trying to acquire a neighbouring ranch and wants 'Ganns' to kill the owner... he also has designs on the owner's attractive daughter. Hayden is determined to find a way to save them. He also learns the truth about who killed his father.

While this isn't exactly a great western it is rather fun. The plot may be fairly predictable but it provides some decent action; this includes fist fights and some solid horse stunts. In most films of this sort the attractive leading lady quickly falls for the handsome hero but here she doesn't even meet him till quite a way into the film... he finds her earlier but she is unconscious. There are some fairly weak points; the opening involves quite a coincidence and Hayden doesn't look particularly like Ganns; certainly not enough that anybody shown the photograph on the wanted poster, as Gentry was, would believe he was Ganns. The acting is decent enough; John Wayne is solid as Hayden and Virginia Brown Faire is suitably sparky as Fay Winters, daughter of the ranch owner Gentry had feelings for. Lloyd Whitlock was a solid bad guy although the character was almost a pantomime villain. Overall this isn't a must see but it is fun if you enjoy westerns and have an hour to kill.