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"The Lawless Frontier" is another of John Wayne's Lone Star westerns released in the 1933-35 period. As in many of the other entries in the series, this one was written and directed by Robert N. Bradbury (who was Bob Steele's father by the way.) Again the cast is made up mostly from the "Lone Star Stock Company" of players.

The plot has young John Tobin (Wayne) arriving at his father's ranch just after he has been killed by a gang of rustlers headed by bandit Pandro Zanti (Earl Dwire) and his gang. Zanti, who for what it is worth, is half Apache, half white, is posing as a Mexican outlaw complete with accent.

Zanti comes upon the small ranch of Dusty (George Hayes) and his comely young grand daughter Ruby (Sheila Terry), and decides to take the girl unto himself. Arriving just as Zanti is about to murder Dusty and carry off Ruby, Tobin arrives and joins forces with Dusty to bring the bandits to justice. Tobin has an eye for the lovely Ruby as well. Into the mix rides Sheriff Luke Williams (Jack Rockwell) who is also in pursuit of the bandits. In true "B" western fashion, the good guys win out over the baddies and guess who gets the girl.

As in most of Wayne's Lone Star Westerns, the level is raised somewhat by the expert stunt work of the legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt. He jumps a horse over a cliff and performs several horse falls and riding stunts in this one, as well as playing the part of Dwire's henchman Joe.

In the world of poverty row quickies, re-takes almost never happened. This film is no exception. Watch the scene where Wayne chases and takes down Dwire. As they get up out of the dust, Wayne's gun and holster suddenly switch from his right side to his left and back to the right again as he mounts his horse.

George Hayes was still a couple of years away from his grizzled old sidekick of "Windy/Gabby". In this film though he looks like Gabby and sounds like Gabby but plays it straight. Hayes played a variety of character roles in this series and didn't settle into his sidekick role until he joined the Hopalong Cassidy series in 1935. The "Gabby" character didn't come along until he moved to Republic around 1938 to ride with Roy Rogers. John Wayne was still learning his trade at this point but if you watch closely you can catch glimpses of his future on-screen persona emerging.

Average "B" western lifted a notch or two by the excellent stunt work.

One of the other reviewers was right--this film was horribly edited--as if by a blind guy on crack! I assume this was NOT how the film was originally released--as even for a low-budget B-movie it was pretty shabby. In addition, some knuckle-heads at Fox-Lorber decided to 'improve' this public domain film by adding a new musical track--a musical track that was just god-awful. The instruments are new and very electronic, the music was used indiscriminately (and often inappropriately) and it was the exact same track used in many John Wayne B-westerns--exactly the same! It was just dreadful but you can't blame the people at Lone Star Pictures who made the film.

"The Lawless Frontier" was a below average Wayne outing--mostly due to the terribly dumb Sheriff--no one can be that dumb or incompetent! An outlaw named Zanti is posing as a Mexican--why, I have no idea. The main problem with catching him is that the local Sheriff is an idiot and seems to have no desire to do anything. Naturally, Wayne will save the day.

The only pluses for this film are the wonderful stunts--even better than you'd normally see in these Wayne B-films. A few of the stunts were just stunning and you have to see them to believe them. But, a dumb villain and Sheriff, a stabbing that somehow leaves Gabby feeling a-o.k. and some choppy elements to the film make this very tough to watch. If you do want to see it, download it from IMDb for free--it's much better than seeing the yecchy version by Fox-Lorber shown on the Encore Channel.

John Wayne and Gabby Hayes team up to take on bandit and (for some unexplained reason) fake Mexican, Pandro Zanti. What a name. Anyway, Wayne is out for revenge because Zanti killed his parents in the film's opening scene. Gabby Hayes also has a pretty daughter, played by Sheila Terry. Zanti's eyes bulge out when he first sees her so you can assume what that means. Hayes and Terry live in a ramshackle old place yet they manage to have a secret passageway behind a cabinet. There's also a deeply stupid sheriff to complicate things for our hero. Pretty corny stuff, for the most part. As with most of the B westerns Wayne did for Lone Star around this time, the highlight is the stuntwork of Yakima Canutt. Animal lovers prepare yourselves there's some rough-looking stunts for the horses in this one.

Secret passages, dynamite explosions, lots of hard riding, and the great team of Hayes and Wayne, so what else can a front-row kid turned old geezer ask for. Nothing. The movie's got it all. Okay, the plot's got more crazy twists than a corkscrew and Earl Dwire's Mexican accent is the worst until Larry Storch's Gunfever (1958), but who cares. It's Wayne at his likable peak and Hayes's Gabby is about three-quarters complete. Some great stunts, as expected from a cast that includes maestro Yakima Canutt, along with a leading lady who really can ride (one bad trip-wire stunt, my only complaint). Watch for the unexpected and humorous twist when Wayne takes a short-cut to nail Dwire. Sometimes these programmers can surprise you. I guess kids don't play cowboy anymore. Computers have taken away imaginary play. Too bad. Now, if I were just x years younger, I'd strap on my cap pistol, get my stick horse and join up with the posse. But first I got to get me one of those really big, big hats.

The most die-hard worshippers of John Wayne will cringe when they watch The Lawless Frontier. Even for a poverty row studio, this one is one stinkeroo.

Unusual for a western we have a criminal who is a sex crime perpetrator. Earl Dwire plays a halfbreed white and Indian who for reasons that are not explained, pretends he's a Mexican, hokey accent and all. Dwire sounds like the Frito Bandito of advertising fame back in the day.

He and his gang happen upon Gabby Hayes and his daughter Sheila Terry. They really don't have anything worth robbing, but Dwire just wants an excuse to kidnap Terry and have his way with her. She hears the dastardly fate she has in store and she and Hayes flee the ranch.

Where they happen to meet John Wayne who's on the trail of the bandits. They also run into one very stupid sheriff who believes Wayne is one of the bandits. Again for reasons I can't quite fathom.

It was a tough way to earn a living grinding out horse operas like these for the Duke. Fortunately better things were on the way.

This is probably Wayne's poorest movie; at least the poorest in which he had a starring role. It's just incredibly bad. The editing is especially awful; it really appears that the editor (if there was one)literally picked up pieces of film off the floor and pasted them together. The opening has to be seen to be believed. John Wayne must have cringed every time it was mentioned! I know there are "B" films - but are there "H" films? If so, this one's an example. And I say this as a devoted JW fan.

The worst of the Lone Star John Wayne westerns is a real drag to watch, whether you like John Wayne or just have better things to do with 50 minutes.

That Pedro Zanti (Earl Dwire) is one crafty villain. We are told he is half-white, half-Apache, but pretends to be a Mexican for some reason, which means he imitates Ricardo Montalbán even when issuing orders to his gang during a cattle-rustling job. He's so crafty he even fixes it so the theft takes place both at day and at night, depending on which camera is shooting. He speaks English fluently, yet is undone in the end because they don't write warning signs in bad accents.

The nominal hero of the piece, John Tobin (John Wayne), is the son of one of Zanti's victims, as seen in the opening, when he discovers his dead father after lighting a match. Wayne grimaces as if he had a bad meal, which is about all the emotion he bothers to project. You think you are getting a revenge film, but after pretty Sheila Terry shows up needing rescue in a nearby river, that element gets flung by the wayside as Tobin decides to help her out. Luckily for him, this is a film chock-a-full of bad coincidences, so he can bag Zanti and the girl without as much as a cutaway shot.

Dwire, a solid performer in other Lone Star films, narrows his eyes and smiles a lot, looking ridiculously out-of-place in his charro outfit and spindly legs.

Everyone seems to be sleepwalking in this one. Director Robert N. Bradbury aims for the youngsters, with hidden doors and lots of shooting and dangerous-looking horse falls. About the only half- interesting plot element to be found in "The Lawless Frontier" is a sheriff character who doesn't much care about doing his job, announcing "I don't trust nobody!" He blames Tobin for everything, steals credit for Zanti's capture, and stupidly allows Zanti to escape by handcuffing his boot to a bedpost, as if he thinks the boot is part of his foot. The sheriff is so stupidly incompetent, he's the one character in this film that almost works.

"He started off alright, but he's sure gone to seed," says a fellow named Dusty played by George (not yet "Gabby") Hayes.

You can't say the same for "Lawless Frontier," not after its confused day-for-night-for-day opener. It never goes to seed but stays bad right up to the silly ending where Tobin manages to trap a gang of bad guys with a crate of dynamite that just happens to be lying around. I guess it gave the little nippers a bang, and let the adults in the theater know it was time to wake up.

So what can you say about a film that has the villain hamming it up with a lousy Mexican accent, an opening that has an atrocious editing job(mixing day and night footage in the same scene)and a dumb sheriff who wants to arrest the wrong man and botches his handcuffing of the real villain? For all its faults, it's actually not too bad. The chase scenes actually are quite good, with realistic falls from horseback by the girl and the villain in separate sequences. In real life, galloping over rough terrain, often with people shooting at one another, would cause those spills frequently. Once you get past the horrendous opening, Archie Stout's photography is pretty good for a B movie. I especially liked the desert foot-chase scene, with the towering basalt cliffs of Red Rock Canyon in the background. All told, the action sequences and sometimes stunning photography kept this and other John Wayne potboilers from being dull and gave depression-era audiences their money's worth, which was what made B westerns so popular in the first place. Just like audiences back then did, I sat back and enjoyed the ride, bumpy though it may be at times. Dale Roloff

Lawless frontier is not one of my favorite John Wayne movies but considering the year that it was made and all the action of jumping on and off the horse it was still worth a 7 out of 10 stars to me.

Starring John Wayne, Gabby Hayes, and Buffalo Bill Junior (no relation to buffalo bill. On imdb, he's listed as Jay Wilsey !) Wayne had started getting credited roles in 1930, and in this one, he's Tobin, who comes to the aid of an old guy and his daughter. the town goes after the outlaw Zanti. The first few scenes are very dark, but this one is so old, i guess we're lucky to still have it at all. Jack Rockwell is the sheriff, and no-one is sure which side the sheriff is on! lots of horses galloping, chases through the desert. Writer /Director Robert Bradbury was born Ronald, and must have started about the time the film process was invented. In this one, he's listed as R.N. Bradbury in the credits. It's a VERY typical western, where someone jumps to the WRONG conclusion, and someone is blamed for something he didn't do.... meh. what else is on?

You have to be a diehard John Wayne fan to watch some of these lonestar productions he did early in his career. Some are actually pretty good and others not so much.

In this one it's difficult to tell what's going on most of the time and it's laugh out loud funny as they keep riding back and forth on their horses about the last 15 minutes of the film. Twice would have been suffice but it felt like they cut back and forth to them riding on their horses about a million times (which they do a lot in Wayne's Lonestar production films, but it seems the most in this one)

THE LAWLESS FRONTIER (Lone Star Production released by Monogram Pictures, 1934), written and directed by Robert N. Bradbury, stars John Wayne in his tenth poverty-row western for the studio. By this time having many of the same stock players and scenery would make these films hard to tell one film from another yet being a John Wayne starrer early in his career, it still earns interest viewing from his fans. In spite of Wayne heading the cast, the scene stealer happens to be Earl Dwire playing a central villain who'll stop at nothing to get what he wants.

The story begins with a view of a wanted poster offering a $5,000 reward for the capture of Pancho Zanti (Earl Dwire), cattle rustler, described as being half white, half Apache Indian, posing as a Mexican who speaks the language fluently. Assisted by henchmen (Yakima Canutt and Buffalo Bill Jr.), he continues his work as cattle rustler on land property and shooting down its ranch owner. Returning home is cowboy John Tobin (John Wayne) finding his father's body on thefloor with vengeance on his mind. Later Zanti, posing as Don Yorba, approaches ranch owner Dusty (George Hayes) asking for water and pretending to be his new neighbor. In reality "Yorba" obtains information he regarding the owner and ranch before doing his cattle rustling by night. Dusty's granddaughter, Ruby, suspects something wrong after noticing a couple of men on horseback on top of the hill waiting for "Yorba." After overhearing their plans of killing her grandfather and abducting her in the process, Ruby warns her grandfather. Padlocking their home, Dusty hides Ruby in a sack on top of the horse, only to be followed at a distance by the Zanti gang. When Ruby still in the sack falls into the water while crossing the river, she is rescued by the passing John. Learning of their plans and hoping to meet Zanti face to face, John and Dusty come to Polk City for assistance by Sheriff Luke Williams (Jack Rockwell). Suspecting John to be connected with the Zanti mob, the sheriff trails after John instead. Also in the cast are George Wood, Gordon DeMaine and Lloyd Whitlock.

Though not the greatest western ever made and lacking any sort of underscoring, THE LAWLESS FRONTIER overall is acceptable time filler with agreeable plot and chase scenes that come across as highlights. Production values are so limited that there's hardly enough plot to make this suitable story satisfying. Reportedly clocked at 55 minutes, circulating prints available are 49 minutes, indicating missing scenes in need to assist with the plot development. Everything happens so fast that there's hardly any time for slow spots. With George Hayes appearing slightly bearded this time around, it would be a matter of time before he'd be more recognizable in future westerns playing with his trademark beard that would turn him into a lovable sidekick known as "Gabby."

Available on video cassette and DVD format, THE LAWLESS FRONTIER, formerly shown on American Movie Classics (1996-2000) can be viewed occasionally on either Encore Westerns or Turner Classic Movies. Beware of prints that offer colorization intrusive underscoring that doesn't make the movie appear any better. (**)

Oh, there are many worse Wayne movies. This movie is edited poorly but it has a campy element that makes watching it enjoyable. The villain is an Anglo actor who sports ridiculous Mexican clothes and affects an over-the-top Mexican accent which is hilarious. The girl is dressed like a Jean Harlow wannabe, this is 1934 after all. At least the location shots are beautiful and enjoyable.

Watch it and laugh. Don't expect a serious western, but rather a lightweight and superficial story with poor acting but occasional flashes of camp humor. Wayne is almost ludicrously young and handsome and one can see his acting ability blossomed years after this regrettable venture.

Half Apache Pandro Zanti is wanted Dead or Alive. The fake Mexican and his gang attack the Tobin ranch and steal their cattle. John Tobin (John Wayne) loses his parents. He saves Ruby and her father Dusty from Zanti who wants to kidnap the beauty.

This is John Wayne in his 20's. He looks much younger than the John Wayne that I'm familiar with, but he sounds exactly like him. There is a lot of horse riding around in rural California. There is one poorly edited stunt. It looks like they pushed a horse to dive into water with a dummy strapped to his back. There are some better horse riding stunts. It's an old cheap western. It is a little interesting that the villain is half-Apache and fake Mexican. They seem to be trying for two spots on the bingo card.

John's parents are killed by a renegade bandit, played to the hilt by perennial bad guy, Earl Dwire. Dwire injures Hayes, who joins with John to bring him and his gang to justice.

The local sheriff, Jack Rockwell, is convinced that John's one of the gang, and when Hayes is shot, arrests John for the shooting.

There are the usual chases, gun battles, and fights that hallmark these "B" Westerns. There is one extended walking scene where you can see the Duke perfecting his special walk that became a trademark.

An excellent stunt has John riding a log down a large drainage ditch. Pretty amazing, and not without danger to the actor.

Beware though, the DVD copy looks as if they took the print from an Extended Play (EP) VHS copy. Very disappointing, but, a classic from John Wayne.

An American Western; A story about a Mexican outlaw who kills a rancher's parents. The rancher catches the villain but he is falsely accused of a crime himself, by a sheriff, and has to prove his own innocence. This is a routine oater which portrays the dark side of outlaw life but has a rudimentary plot. George 'Gabby' Hayes is reliably avuncular with a little of his trademark eccentricity but played straight, and John Wayne leads the show but doesn't figure too heavily on screen and his performance is a bit stilted at times, not helped by the clichéd lines he's given. Earl Dwire shows some flair as the bandit and Jack Rockwell brings a force to all his scenes but his character seems ludicrous for his mistakes. Shiela Terry's smouldering eyes are something to behold but she has not nearly enough screentime for her character and her romance to play out properly. Despite the poor script, this film has lots of action and chases and one quite original piece of bodyboarding stuntwork.

Another cheap and cheerful Lone Star outing for the Duke - this time avenging his murdered father with the ever-helpful Gabby Hayes at his side. The culprit is the evil rustling bandido Zanti (Earl Dwire) and his gang and they are soon firmly set in his sights. The glamour comes from a really rather shrieky Shiela Terry with eyes that make up most of her visage. The plot and the acting are rudimentary, it's got a great secret hideaway and the star is still exactly that. I'm not entirely sure the filming is all entirely original - some scenes seemed oddly reminiscent of others in the series, but it passes away an hour without any serious cerebral effort required.