Terra di fuorilegge

An early b/w "two reeler" John Wayne western. It is a fun shoot 'em up, that is pure escapism. Don't look for a deep meaning. The stunt work in these early John Wayne/Yakima Canutt films is the equal of any, including those films being made today.

"I've made a lot of changes in my life but this is the first time I went from a jail bird to a star packer". Is he John Middleton coming to the rescue or notorious bank robber John Allen? I loved this very action packed Duke movie with a great group of supporting actors. Directed by the one and only Robert N. Bradbury and featuring stuntman extrodanaire Yakima Canutt. The Wranglers and Glenn Strange provide great songs in between the action. Great to see western favorite Sheila Bromley who for some reason kept changing her surname and great charactor actor Earl Dwire.

"Lawless Range" is a B-western with little to distinguish it but one thing....John Wayne. While many today don't realize it, Wayne was in B-westerns and serials during most of the 1930s and only graduated up to A-films in the early 40s. All the B-westerns shared a few things in common: they were quickly made, had very low budgets and recycled the same sorts of plots again and again. In this case, the recycled plot is the cliched secret baddie who is trying to buy up all the land and force the settlers to leave. Why? What is the big baddie's aim? See the film to find out.

In addition to seeing Wayne, you can also see a silly thing movie makers TRIED with him...to make him a singing cowboy. He couldn't sing at all...so they dubbed him with a very deep baratone voice that sounded nothing like Wayne.

Overall, this is just an ordinary western, at best. Wayne poses as someone else while investigating....again, very familiar stuff. And, indifferently handled.

In the beginning, John "Middleton" is roping a calf, then a steer. When told his times are fast enough for the Cheyenne rodeo, it seems that's the ultimate goal in this movie. Then Dad calls him over and says his long-time friend Hank Mason has requested help.

As it turns out, there's gold in the valley and some outlaws - along with the ring leader from the bank - are intercepting incoming supplies and doing all they can to drive the population out of the Pequeno Valley.

It's a decent story and where Hank Mason comes into play is that he ends up kidnapped by the outlaws. When Middleton's kidnapped and stashed in the same spot as Hank, they end up untying one-another and saving the day.

In the end, John gets the girl... who is Hank Mason's niece.

There's a couple singing scenes for John Wayne in which the singing is dubbed in, and it's pretty bad. The video is grainy and the sound is typical as this film isn't that far removed from the silent era. So if you can tolerate all that, the movie is quite entertaining.

I do wish they'd finished everything in time to get to the rodeo, but they just dropped that part of the storyline, which I thought was disappointing.

I've seen this a couple of times and I'll watch it again. But if you haven't seen any of these earlier films, there's a lot of redundancy.

John Wayne tries to stop the bad guys, he almost always fights (throwing big looping hook punches), usually kisses the girl. The End. Still, I like to see the evolution of Wayne. All this will lead to Stagecoach and Red River. While I'm not looking to watch all his movies, I am having my DVR record all Wayne movies. I've seen a lot and I have a ways to go so check back if you want insight about his other oldies. I have some reviews yet to do, but some I want to watch again.

John Wayne sets out to aid an old friend of his father, who disappeared amid a series of attacks by bandits and a bit of mysterious business involving the local bank. Along the way, he's deputized and leads a revolt against Yakima Cannutt's villainous gang of outlaws.

One of a few Paul Malvern produced John Wayne vehicles, released by Republic Pictures before his becoming a full-fledged Republic contract star, it's nothing you haven't seen before, though it's easygoing enough entertainment, with a few nice location shots, a few rousing action sequences and and some good songs.

Speaking of songs, there's a few ludicrously dubbed cowboy tunes, featuring a deep-voiced singer, lip-synced by Wayne, while strumming an old guitar. Didn't they learn their lesson with the Duke's previous turn as "Singing Sandy"?