Ride Him, Cowboy

I figured this would be a very dated, corny and dumb B-cowboy movie, but was wrong. It was a very interesting short film that was done very well.

It had action, comedy, romance and suspense all packed into a movie less that lasted only 55 minutes. It had a convincing nasty villain, a pretty girl, a talented horse named "Duke," and a crooked-but-funny judge. The horse was able to untie rope and acted almost human.

The only thing that looked a bit dated - but applied to all classic westerns - is when they broke chairs over the good guy's head and it never seemed to faze him. Only in the movie can a guy get punched flush in the jaw and have a wooden chair broken over his skull, and the victim is no worse for the wear!

An American Action, Western; A story about a Texan cowboy who rides into an Arizona town, rescues a horse, and winds up being blamed for a recent spate of barn-burnings, a crime he did not commit. This 'B' movie is a remake of the 1926 silent film The Unknown Cavalier (1926) and based on a 1923 novel by Kenneth Perkins. This light-humoured film has its stock characters and a well-worn story about a man falsely accused. There is a satirical aspect too, about frontier justice, the rush to judgement in trial when logic suggests otherwise, and a prominent citizen who turns out to be a wrong 'un. Duke the clever horse steals the show in some instances. John Wayne fits his part nicely as the young stranger who can goof with the rest of them but has the fortitude to bring miscreants to justice.

This movie starts with a horse named Duke coming to the rescue of a man being bushwhacked. The man is cracked over the head and killed, so one of the robbers claims the horse went mad and attacked them. So the horse is put on trial for murder. I'm not kidding -- the horse is brought to town and put on trial in front of the whole town! Before he's sentenced to death, a cowboy (John Wayne) shows up and offers to ride the horse to prove he's not wild. After he does and saves Duke, the horse's owner (great character actor Henry B. Walthall) asks Wayne to help the town catch a masked bandit named the Hawk. The first of six B westerns Wayne made for WB in the early '30s. He was named John something-or-other in every movie and always had his horse Duke. They're routine westerns. Forgettable but watchable.

Ride Him, Cowboy (1932)

*** (out of 4)

Duke, a horse, is on trial for killing a man and the judge is about to put him to death when cowboy John Drury (John Wayne) makes a deal. If Drury can tame the horse then it can live. Of course the cowboy comes through and soon the two of them are trying to track down the real murderer.

RIDE HIM, COWBOY was Wayne's shot at stardom as this was the first of the six picture deal that he signed with Warner. The film is certainly a step up from movies like TWO FISTED LAW, which featured Wayne in supporting parts. On a technical level this might still be a "B" movie but it's still better than what we had seen the now legend in up to this point.

The best thing about the picture is actually Wayne and his supporting cast of actors. I thought that laid back approach of Wayne's worked pretty well here including the scenes where he trying to smooth talk the leading lady played by Ruth Hall. Wayne and Hall share some nice chemistry together. Frank Hagney does a good job in his role of the villain and Henry B. Walthall turns in another fine supporting performance.

As you'd expect, there's a lot of gun play as well as other Western trappings but they're all handled quite nicely by director Fred Allen who keeps the film moving at a nice pace throughout its 55 minutes.

A smart horse and a pretty girl are the hero and heroine of RIDE HIM, COWBOY, in which a very young JOHN WAYNE is a drifter mistaken for "The Hawk", a ruthless villain who's the leader of a bunch of gunfighters. Its plot sounds like something that Mel Brooks could make into one of his western satires about a villain called "The Hawk" and a weak sheriff, as well as the hero mistaken for a villain.

It plays well, fast and furious with some plot devices that have become clichés over the years but manages to hold the interest throughout despite some obvious flaws and the dated look of the film itself.

RUTH HALL is the pretty young woman and the smart horse is "The Duke", an amazing animal used well as the critter who identifies the masked man known as "The Hawk" and takes his revenge for the final scene. He's also involved in a clever rescue when Wayne is left strapped to a tree to die in the desert with the horse nearby, able to free himself and Wayne from the predicament.

Summing up: Surprisingly good, unpretentious little western that winds up its tale in less than an hour. Easy to note how Wayne's acting skills became vastly improved over the years.