Law Men

Two US marshalls go undercover to bring down the gang of outlaws behind a series of bank robberies, one joining the bandits and the other masquerading as a cobbler at the next town they are targetting. They discover the gang has a mysterious accomplice who is tipping them off.

Law men is an average b- western with a familiar plot, however It's competently made, got good action sequences, though it can be quite plodding at times, but Johnny Mack Brown and his side kick makes this watchable.

This film stars Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton--two very familiar B-western stars. While Johnny was a star, Raymond made a huge number of films at the #2 or #3 friend--and here he plays Brown's friend and colleague. The pair arrive in town to investigate some stage coach robberies and like so many of these B-westerns, the pair are US marshals AND go incognito. Brown insinuates himself into the gang in order to figure out who 'Mr. Big' is (again, a familiar plot element) and Hatton is a good-guy who has come to town to make boots (a job he is ill-equipped to do). Between the two of them, they manage to avoid death when Brown's secret is exposed AND make he actually care because I felt like I'd seen this film many times before. Why? Well, I think there are two main reasons--there was no singing to clutter the film (which sometime seemed to get in the way of plot in some of Roy Rogers' and Gene Autry's films) and the acting was very good. Hatton was wonderful as always as a funny but surprisingly competent sidekick and Brown was his usual solid self. All in all, an enjoyable film that kept my interest.

By the time this skillfully made six reel western was released, Johnny Mack Brown, as Jack "Nevada" McKenzie, and Raymond Hatton, as his sidekick Sandy Hopkins, had established a pedigree as the most often filmed set of partners (eventually 45 titles) in cinematic cowpoke history and here the two, as undercover U.S. Marshals, employ their customary system of splitting up in order to better assay the capabilities of their criminal rivals. As they arrive at the troubled town to which they have been assigned, a bank robbery is in progress, after which event Sandy takes up the tools of a recently deceased cobbler in order to gather rumours and other intelligence of the bandits, while Nevada, with Brown's characteristic shrewdness, aggressively infiltrates the gang, as the partners' activities dovetail toward an exciting conclusion. LAW MEN is directed by Lambert Hillyer, whose smooth ability at all types of action fare avoids the temporally parochial badge worn by some "B" western helmsmen, is photographed in atmospheric fashion by undervalued Harry Neumann, while Glenn Tryon's script largely avoids the hackneyed, and capable character actors Edmund Cobb and Robert Frazer are present in key roles, with the dialogue between the two leads full of happily easy conceits.

In another of the series of westerns that Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton did for Monogram, the two US Marshals are undercover once again. It's the pattern apparently of all the westerns they did in this series.

Brown pretends he's an outlaw to infiltrate the gang that Edmund Cobb the saloon owner is running. They're getting a little too good at holdups so it's obvious Cobb has an inside man. Hatton takes over the town bootmaker's shop and with absolutely no experience in the trade makes a holy mess of it.

Law Men is a competently made B western that I'm sure the Saturday matinée crowd of kids enjoyed immensely.