Everyman's Law

Johnny Mack Brown stars in this poverty row western from Supreme Pictures in a tale with a resemblance to 3 Godfathers. Brown has a letter from sheriff Horace Murphy and so do Frank Campeau and John Beck a pair of outlaws. Now why a sheriff is sending for outlaws is a curious question. But our sheriff is in the pay of cattle baron Lloyd Ingraham and the local Ponderosa owner wants to drive out a bunch of homesteaders. Included in that is Beth Marion and a baby who Brown takes a fancy to.

When our trio doesn't do the job, Ingraham and Murphy hire the infamous Lobo Joe and his gang played by Roger Gray. That's when the action heats up as our 3 heroes along with Marion and the baby are trapped in a cabin without their weapons. How they came not to be with weapons is what I won't reveal. It's a good action sequence though.

What stunned me though was that the folks at Supreme Pictures thought it was a really cute gag to have the baby sucking on the barrel of Johnny Mack Brown's six gun. All I could say in this day and age when too often you read of kids accidentally shooting kids was YOIKES. The NRA will love it though.

But for that I might give Everyman's Law a higher rating.

"Everyman's Law" is one of a parade of popular westerns Johnny Mack Brown starred in for Supreme Pictures in the mid-1930s. It isn't particularly noteworthy, but, as usual, it has a certain rustic charm and introduces a series of interesting characters that make it worth watching for fans of the B-western genre.

The film's primary challenge is to successfully make the many relationships in it easy to follow and enjoy, which it does. Leading lady Beth Marion, who was active for just a short while in the 1930s, pops up in these mid 1930s horse operas every now and then; she has an engaging and natural beauty that makes it seem as though she could easily fit into 21st century society.

But of all the goings on in the film, the most memorable moments might belong to the infant, who, through no fault of its own, is placed in harm's way just a little too uncomfortably for some viewers, and in more ways than one.

In summary, this is a fairly good and gritty little adventure for fans of JMB.