The Thundering Herd

Randolph Scott, Harry Carey, and Raymond Hatton trade buffalo hides and fend off bandits led Noah Beery, his fiancé's lecherous stepfather. Shot and left for dead when he comes for his bride, Scott wanders around with his partners, looking for a chance to claim his girl and running afoul of Indians upset at the decimation of the buffalo.

Though not as satisfying as some other entries in Paramount's Zane Grey series, it's still pretty decent with a great cast, excellent production values (for a B-western), and a fairly engaging, though somewhat darker than usual script.

One problem though, is that third-billed Buster Crabbe appears only briefly near the beginning of the film and disappears for the duration of the movie. They should have found some room for him!

Buffalo stampedes... Indian attacks... Plundering bandits... Doan braved them all when he rode into the badlands... and rode out with a beautiful girl!

Both Sprague, Jett and their crews are hunting buffalo. Doan (Randolph Scott) is with Sprague crew and is looking for the Jett outfit where his girlfriend Milly is being held against her will. In addition to the thieving Jett who is stealing Sprague's furs, the Indians are gathering to attack all the white buffalo hunters.

Thundering Herd is quite a raw and primitive western which has some drama and conflict, rugged scenery and the characters -the Jetts- are rather primitive and uncouth degenerates. They do come across real as does the landscape and experiences. There's some good camera angles - but it can be a bit ponderous and dull.

The stampede scenes were filmed at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone National Park.

There were only 24 buffalo left in the world on 1901, so Congress appropriated funds in 1902 to prevent their extinction and the few wild buffalo in Yellowstone were gradually mixed with some ranch animals from Texas and Montana.

The park rangers in the past would sometimes stampede the herd for movies and visitors.

There are now 3,500..4,000 buffalo in YNP, but any that wander outside the boundaries are shot or rounded up and sent to slaughter.

The cast of "The Thundering Herd" is very impressive...with Randolph Scott, Buster Crabbe, Harry Carey, Barton MacLane, Noah Beery and Raymond Hatton--all very familiar western actors of the day. And, the story is based on a Zane Grey story. And, it has a salacious subplot involving a step-dad that is WAYYY too interested in his step- daughter. Yet, amazingly, it's not that interesting and you could easily do better. Now this isn't to say it's a bad film...but it should have been a lot better.

The story is about a nice guy (Scott) who is in love with a nice girl. However, her sleazy step-dad (Beery) has way too much interest in her and it's obvious the film is STRONGLY implying incest. When the nice guy goes to get his girl in order to marry her, the sleazy step-dad shoots him and beats him up! The guy is too hurt to do anything but let his friends care for him and his desire to save the girl and get revenge will have to wait until he's healed AND they've gone on the buffalo hunt. This includes a lot of nice footage of the animals at Yellowstone...otherwise the big confrontation is a fizzle and the film was quite dull. The lack of any incidental music didn't help any.

As I look over the several reviews that are available about "The Thundering Herd," what hits me first is that there is such a wide range of opinion about it, from bad all the way to great. Some say the acting is great, some say bad. So, if my review were the only one present for someone who wants to get an idea about whether he or she should take a look at the film, the following is what I would say. I think it is a good film, and worth the while of fans of westerns to take a look at it for two reasons. For starters, fans of filmed westerns should take a look at it to get a flavor of Zane Grey's work, for he is the father of the old West as portrayed in literature and the media. The detail that is portrayed in this movie of western life in the buffalo days is more detailed than one will see in 99% of B-Westerns, and that is because the story originates with Zane Grey. Rarely do you see wagon trains' and buffalo hunting parties' procedures and equipment portrayed with such care as in this movie. Zane Grey's western books are very detailed and exciting, and fans of westerns should certainly read at least one of them, if not more. Second, fans of westerns can use "The Thundering Herd" to begin to make comparisons of how simple B-Westerns of the early and mid- 1930's stack up to higher-end westerns from the larger studios during the same era. This is not an A-level Western, but it is a cut above the typical "B" and does draw together a more substantial and authoritative cast than the typical "B" and it also tries to present a story with greater breadth and import than the B's. Some of the action even takes place in the snow, which is a rarity in filmed westerns of the 1930's. But because it isn't an A-level film the producers also tried to cut corners and inserted a lot of stock footage, especially of buffalo and Indians, from earlier films. This is a dramatic film, and some of the moments in the culminating scene, and elsewhere in the film, too, are surprisingly brutal. If this film had been attempted a few years later, it probably would have been less grim and the various relationships within it a little more fully explored. Randolph Scott was a young chap, just coming along in the business, but this is not a Randolph Scott "hero" film like studios produced with the likes of Bob Steele or Buck Jones during the same era. Scott in this film is integral to the movie, and is the star, yes, but other people are doing and contributing important things in this film, too. I really enjoyed the opening scene, which in setting the stage seems to be chillingly realistic, with an overview of some ramshackle buildings nestled in a smoky glen all a-bustle with wagons and horses getting outfitted for the start of the hunting trips, with trading post owner Sprague (Harry Carey) making his way among and talking with the busy folks down there. Then the scene quickly changes to one of the most exciting "you-are-there" kind of stagecoach rides one will ever see! Thank you director Henry Hathaway for getting us underway. You will also see Noah Beery in one of his most vile and disturbing roles. So go ahead and watch the film, and see if you think the middle and ending of the film keep apace with the beginning! Maybe you will, maybe you won't, but I do indeed think it is a worthwhile western to see.