Pena de Talião

John Wayne shows up just as the judge is about to rule whether a horse should be killed for being an ornery critter. Wayne offers to ride him, and does so, saving the horse and winning the admiration of Ruth Hall and her father, Henry Walthall. Walthall and his vigilante committee consult Wayne on what do do about a mysterious outlaw called the Hawk. Wayne offers to tackle him by his lonesome.

It's one of the movies that Wayne made at the nadir of his career, co-starring with this horse, called Duke. It's a remake of a silent western starring Ken Maynard, with a lot of the original footage cut in, because producer Leon Schlesinger believed in doing things on the cheap... which gives an idea of how far Walthall had fallen in the Hollywood scheme of things. Director Fred Allen was an editor when he wasn't making one of his eight directorial efforts, so the shooting is efficient and the shots well lit by cinematographer Ted McCord. There isn't much to this movie, but it kept everyone working for a few weeks and still plays all right.

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.

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!

This film was the first of a series of B westerns that John Wayne did for Warner Brothers and it was decided to give him a horse companion named Duke. Duke the horse was fine, the film left a lot to be desired.

A horse is the only witness to a robbery where another witness was beaten unconscious and lies in a coma. He went after the villain and the villain who is masked bandit known as the Hawk says the horse is a mankiller who attacked him for no good reason. Since by day the villain is a respectable town citizen everyone believes him, almost.

One of the almost is young cowpoke John Wayne who says he can tame the stallion and proceeds to do so. He even offers to track down the Hawk.

It starts to get a little ridiculous here especially in the way that the villain gets the drop on Wayne. Of course in the tradition of Trigger, Champion, Topper, and Robert Taylor's horse Varick in Knights of the Round Table, Duke rescues his friend John Wayne. Doesn't that sound a little odd.

Otis Harlan has a very funny bit as the country judge before whom Wayne is tried when he's accused of being the Hawk. And the villain does get a poetic ending.

Still it's hardly one of John Wayne's best.

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.