Blue Steel

"Blue Steel" is one of a series of "B" westerns made by John Wayne in the 1933-35 period. As with most entries in the series, these Lone Star productions had a stock company all their own.

Robert N. Bradbury (father of Bob Steele) directed most of them. The supporting cast usually consisted of George "Gabby" Hayes, Earl Dwire and Yakima Canutt playing various roles. A definite asset to the series was Canutt who doubled Wayne and perfected many of his legendary stunts in these films. Unfortunately, he also "acted" in many of them.

This one starts out amid a driving rain storm. John Carruthers (Wayne) seeks shelter by sneaking into a hotel run by a sleeping Hank (George Cleveland). Also seeking shelter is Sheriff Jake (Hayes) who is after The Polka Dot Bandit. As luck would have it, the bandit (Canutt) robs the safe while everyone is sleeping and Jake sees Carruthers going through the safe after the bandit escaped and thus blames him for the robbery.

Jake trails Carruthers to a cabin and is about to arrest him when they hear shots. Now it seems town boss Malgrove (Edward Piel) and his gang are preventing supplies and ammunition from reaching town. Betty Mason (Elinor Hunt) and her father (Lafe Mckee) are attempting to bring in the latest shipment when they are ambushed and the father is killed. Carruthers and Jake rescue Betty and bring her to town where it seems Malgrove has taken a special interest in her.

Well, needless to say, Carruthers sorts things all out by the final fade out and everyone except the bad guys, lives happily ever after.

Wayne was still honing his skills at this time and it shows at times, but he was getting better with each picture. Hayes played a number of roles in this series from villain to father of the heroine to sidekick to lawman. He had not yet arrived at his "Gabby" character although Sheriff Jake was pretty close. Earl Dwire has a minor role as one of Piel's henchmen.

This western was the second significant film in the development of George "Gabby" Hayes' cantankerous character who emerged as the old whiskered comedy sidekick in the Hopalong Cassidy films. Gabby plays it straight here as a sheriff who even shoots a baddie. The only "funny" things about him are the hole filled hat he wears, his big walrus mustache, & his typical slurred speech. The acting is good all around, except for Eleanor Hunt, who has that cute Clara Bow look, but she's brought that old silent film style to this movie. I love the old B westerns, & aside from my favorite, Hopalong Cassidy, to me the early John Wayne series is the next best. This is not one of Wayne's best, but it's a must-see for Gabby Hayes fans. I rate it 6/10.

What a wacky opening scene. The thunderstorm's got to be the loudest on record-- and why is Wayne sneaking into the hotel lobby. I guess he doesn't want to pay for a room. Then there are the newly-weds right out of the aw' shucks school of acting. And most curiously of all-- how did they get the groom's"I couldn't find it" snippet past the public watchdogs. This amounts to an astonishing innuendo, and no doubt one for the boys-- in the movie, that is. Probably there are more than a few audience 10-year old's still puzzling over that one. In all likelihood, it was someone's private joke that made it to the screen on a bet.

Lone Star popped for some great location photography. The boys get to ride around the Alabama Hills with the scenic Southern Sierras in the background. The story doesn't make a lot of sense, but who cares, especially when the canyon explodes in a really great effect worthy of an A production. Also, some good crowd scenes of ordinary looking people. When they talk about getting forced off their homesteads, I expect more than a few folks in 1934 wished they had a Wayne on their side.

As others point out, this looks like an early stage in the evolution of Hayes' unforgettable "Gabby" character. He's not called that, still the crusty old coot is definitely coming out. How delightful the Gabby-Wayne pairing proved over the years, especially in their masterpiece Tall in the Saddle. Wayne always seems genuinely amused by the ornery Gabby. Watch some of his reactions here. Those broad grins are not acting.

Great final shot that still brings a tear to the eye.

The 5th of John Wayne's 14 Lone Star Westerns is nothing if not a lively piece. True, it gets off to a remarkably slow start, but once the bandits arrive on the scene the pace picks up no end. Although the heroine is somewhat lacking in thespian talent, she's pretty enough and has little to do or say anyway. It's Wayne and Hayes who set the action rolling and keep it up—interspersed with some spectacular Canutt stunt-work—right to the finish line. And it's good to see Yakima Canutt in a sizable role on camera as well as doubling Wayne in the action spots.

Director Robert North Bradbury has a grand time once the action switches to the wide open spaces. You can virtually see him riding the camera car as it swoops along with galloping-hell-for-leather riders in super-fast tracking shots. And I love those whip pans!

Photographer Archie Stout, a specialist in location work, is also most at home with awesome vistas of wide open plains, ringed by rugged mountains and fleecy clouds in the Alabama Hills, Ca.

Blue Steel finds sheriff Gabby Hayes on the trail of a bandit known as the Polka Dot Bandit by his distinctive polka dot neckerchief. After a robbery at a local hotel, Hayes has reason to suspect a tall stranger played by John Wayne as the bandit.

But before he can act on his suspicions both of them get themselves involved in foiling a scheme by a group of outlaws who are starving out a town and they're an especially murderous bunch, attacking supply trains and killing everyone on the trains.

It's not too hard to figure out who's behind all this dirty work, especially when you hear one of the town's leading citizens make a 'sacrificial' offer for everyone's land. Wayne and Hayes come to the same conclusion as the audience does and spend the rest of the film foiling the dastardly scheme.

Blue Steel has lots of action in it, the action covers up some of the holes in the storyline. The villain also has designs on the daughter of another town leading citizen and Eleanor Hunt plays the daughter in the best Little Nell manner of all those Victorian morality plays.

Still John Wayne and Gabby Hayes work well together and it's not the best or the worst of Wayne's Lone Star films.