The Cattle Thief

Here's a series western that has everything a 1936 audience would want. Ken Maynard was a popular star since the 1920s. In this one he plays not only the lead but also, in disguise, a hick peddler for some laughs. And if two roles weren't enough, Ken's also an avenging masked rider! While Gene Autry made the singing western popular, Maynard actually came out with some records singing in the early 1930s. Here, he also plays guitar and sings in authentic country style.

The settings are picturesque as this was shot in Lone Pine, California, one of the most beautiful locations for outdoor action. Ward Bond is perfect as a villain and Spencer G. Bennet provides an assured keen eye, having directed action films for over a decade at this point. This is one of Maynard's best and ironically one of his last last truly good films as a leading man. Over the next 8 years the quality of his films would decline and new western stars would become more popular.

This oater starring Ken Maynard investigating some rustled cattle while wearing a mask is curiously flat and limp. Perhaps it's because he spends so little time on the screen. Perhaps it's because James A. Marcus, who plays a peddler, offers us too little sense of motion..... he plays the characters as hunched and arthritic.

That sense of inability suffuses the movie as the ranch owner is confined to a wheelchair after a stroke, unable to speak. Add to that ex-Follies chorine Geneva Mitchell as the nurse/love interest looking sarcastic and bored. All in all, I think it's because this effort is so underwritten that the actual plot takes up maybe ten minutes and the rest of the movie lacks any sort of fun or effort to entertain.

I'm afraid my co-reviewer seems to have got himself into a bit of a muddle! As opposed to spending "so little time on the screen", doughty Ken Maynard appears throughout, either as himself or in his pedlar disguise - James A. Marcus plays a different character altogether! - as he tries to find out who is stirring up a range war between the local ranchers.

This is an above average Maynard entry: his performance as the apparently gormless pedlar is particularly good and serves as a reminder that he had a flair for comedy that was not always utilised.

There is a fair degree of action, a few scenes to justify Tarzan's billing as a "wonder horse" - he adroitly ties a villain to a tree! - and Ken gets to warble briefly, reminding us all that, pre-Gene Autry, he was sometimes classified as a "singing cowboy".

Geneva Mitchell is a bit stiff as Alice, Ken's love interest, but Ward Bond as the chief heavy is well above average for this kind of fare, his authoritative performance showing clear signs of greater days to come.