Outlawed Guns

Buck Jones, his kid brother Pat J. O'Brien, and Frank McGlynn Sr. -- looking nothing at all like Abraham Lincoln -- are driving a thousand head of cattle to market. Jones and McGlynn head into town, and Roy D'Arcy rides up to O'Brien and demands payment of his gambling debt. Since O'Brien won't have any money for months, he signs over the cattle to D'Arcy, then takes off to join a gang who rob a stage coach of a lot of gold.

1935 was not a particularly good year for B westerns, but this one, directed by Ray Taylor, is a humdinger, with good action sequences, fine day-for-night photography, some real emotional sequences, and a fast pace in the editing. The sequence in which Jones breaks O'Brien out of jail is worth the price of admission on its own, and this makes me wish that Ruth Channing had gone on in her career, instead of calling it quits after this one. She had rarely gotten a screen credit, and being married to Hamilton McFadden seemed enough for her. She died in 1992, aged 88.

"Outlawed Guns" is another somber Buck Jones film, who seldom ventured into profiling fun and lighthearted men. Jones was perhaps the most serious of our B-western heroes, and one who could actually impart pathos through his acting. In this one he rarely even cracks a discernible smile.

The story has a tragic undertone as it tackles the universal problem of bad things happening to good people, while the film overall has a grim and at times mysterious air about it, helped along by subdued cinematography and poorly-lit scenes. The arguably comedic high-point is surprisingly supplied by Silver, Jones venerable horse. The atmospheric opening scene in the brothers' cabin is stark and serves to set the tone for the rest of the production. On the other hand, I was disappointed that the "unusual spurs" device was not as well developed and utilized as in some other films.

But the movie has some nice moments showing us the town and its citizens, and the adventure's culminating chase shows Jones riding at full-tilt with framing scenery that includes towering and turbulent cumulus clouds roiling over the Eastern Sierra. The film even has a rudimentary musical score that wells up from time to time.

All in all, "Outlawed Guns" is an adequate entry in the Buck Jones library and provides a slightly better than average film for B-westerns of 1935.

The movie starts out stronger than many B-westerns I've seen. There's a real plot and some character development. It's definitely on the serious side. I really began to care about seeing Buck's younger brother stay out of trouble (unfortunately he doesn't). By the middle, though, it becomes a regular old B-western with lots of action, and it's a little tough to follow. The first half is a bit slow for kids, but I liked it. The second half was less satisfying, but overall, I would rate it slightly above the average 1 hour B-western.