Border Feud

Just watched this on cable for the first time in about 40 years. As a really little kid I was a big fan of Lash LaRue. This was probably because his all black outfit and whip tricks were sooo Cool. He also looks and even sounds like (minus lisp) another favorite of mine Humphrey Bogart. This is your standard PRC "B" Oater of the era. Goes through all of the cliches: bad guy tricks friends into a feud for his own benefit, the feuding families have a member on either side who are secretly in love with each other, the real identity of the "evil overlord" is not revealed to the audience till near the end, the bad guy spouts lines like "now this is my plan"...and the film jump cuts to another location,guns fire forever without reloading, and on and on. The acting is up to (down to??) the usual PRC standards. Fuzzy StJohn is funny, but then he's been at this stuff since the Keystone Cops days. Lash is especially wooden in this one. Since he is given no opportunity to use his whip, there just isn't much use in having him in the movie. The plot is fairly dense for the short running time. Oddly it was written by a woman, which must have been fairly unusual for a Western at that time. All in all not a great film and not one of Lash's best outings. Still, if it's on cable and you have an hour to waste, give it a watch.

Lash La Rue as The Cheyenne Kid helps his pal Sheriff "Fuzzy" Jones (Al. St. John) stop a feud between the Condons and the Harts, despite the machinations of outlaw gang leader Bill Barton (Bob Duncan)

By Posing as an outlaw, Cheyenne is accepted by gang leader Jack Barton (Bob Duncan) and is told his job will be to continue stirring up trouble between the Harts and Condons. The plan is to make the two families kill each other off, so that a mine they own jointly, can be obtained at a price far below its value. Cheyenne later tells Fuzzy to make no arrests until the top man is found.

Lash La Rue cracks the whip once more in this adequate B western which has all the ingredients to keep you entertained. Fuzzy lends some humour and Lash La Rue takes on the bad guys through gunplay and fisticuffs.

Bob Duncan promotes a feud between the two families that own the big mine so he can buy it cheap. Sheriff Al St. John has a hard time maintaining the peace, but when his old pal, Marshall Lash Larue ride into town, matters heat up quickly.

It's a typical PRC western, shot for speed rather than excellence, but for once the print was a good one, and cameraman M. A. Anderson' strong compositions get the clarity to show off his strengths. Director Ray Walker lets the story play out quickly, and if there's too much time spent watching Larue ride over beautiful country, Larue's evident pleasure dealing with St. John humanizes both of them.

This is not too bad for a B-Western, mostly because it has enough going on to hold your interest despite the low production values. The story is put together from fairly routine plot elements, but it does move along at a reasonable pace, and it packs a fair amount of action into an hour or so.

The story starts with a feud between two mine owners, and has Lash LaRue as a Marshal who comes to help out the local sheriff (Al St. John) try to keep things from getting out of hand. A lot of what follows is fairly predictable, but enough happens to hold your attention. LaRue doesn't do too much besides look tough, but St. John, as usual, offers some amusing moments. Overall, although it really doesn't have many strengths, it doesn't work too badly.

PRC earned its reputation for bad movies, but "Border Feud" is from "The New PRC" and actually is pretty good.

Director Ray Taylor was usually capable and, except for some script supervising or directing errors, this runs pretty smoothly.

Al "Fuzzy" St. John would have been funnier -- seriously, he seldom makes a move that isn't at least a little funny -- if he hadn't been quite so intrusive, which is not his fault but that of the script or director.

Most of the characters are played by competent to even talented actors, even though most of them never became stars.

Except Al "Lash" La Rue, as it is spelled in the credits on this movie.

He seldom gets the compliments I think he deserved. Really, he is more than competent although, as another commenter said, there should have been more whip work.

La Rue and St. John were both very good cowboys, and "Lash" seems to have done most of his own stunt work.

The score wasn't always appropriate but it was always nice music and composer Albert Glasser should have been given screen credit.

To those of us for whom there is hardly such a thing as a bad western, "Border Feud," despite a misleading and pointless title, is a good one.

My copy is on a disk from "The Treasure Box Collection," and, except for being a few generations too old, is in pretty good shape.

There is also another Lash La Rue film, "Ghost Town Renegades," on the back side of the disk, although he is "LaRue" in that film's credits.