The Rider of the Law

A tenderfoot arrives in a tough cowtown that's being terrorized by a gang headed by the vicious Tolliver brothers. He finds himself on the receiving end of the gang's ire when two of them are killed and he is blamed for it. However, it turns out that the tenderfoot's feet may not be all that tender.

The film packs a lot of ridin' and shootin' into less thlan an hour. Steele ie scrappy as always, Si Jenks provides comedy relief as a braggart who takes on the job of town marshal thinking it's an easy way to make money, Gertrude Messenger is pretty but doesn't have much to do, and everything gets tied up neatly at the end. It's about par for Steele's westerns for Supreme Pictures. Competently directed by his father Robert Bradbury, it's nothing special but a harmless enough way to pass an hour.

The film starts off very fun, with Bob coming to this dusty little hamlet as a greenhorn tenderfoot, not even knowing how to mount a horse. The cast, including established Gertrude Messenger, and Si Jenks, Lloyd Ingraham, and Earl Dwire, has fun with this one, playing up the humor in a mostly subtle approach. But the novelty of the unusual premise eventually transitions to more standard fare and the finale holds little surprise. S. Roy Luby is seen in credits as the editor in these films, including this one, and I have found him to be a good editor, whether in scenes indoor or out. "Rider of the Law" is generally well done and the hour spent in viewing is a pleasant one.

Watching Bob Steele ride is always a treat. Many an otherwise mediocre movie is improved just by his horseback scenes.

Bob Steele just got better and better as his acting career continued. One movie I saw recently had him without a line, without a word to say. But every time he was in a scene, he practically stole it, just standing there, looking fierce.

Here he appears in a different role, gives a great performance, even as his character changes, and shows us once again why he was such a popular performer.

His leading lady is rather pretty, but has very little to do; but the sort-of comic relief gets plenty. Si Jenks was a good foil, with more than silliness to his character.

The brother bad guys all get a chance to stand out, individually. Two, James Sheridan and Steve Clark, in particular get the opportunity to be both funny and evil. And they don't even get screen credit!

One who does is the magnificent Earl Dwire. Dwire had a remarkable range, able to portray really rotten villains, comic characters, and nice ol' gents. Here he plays the chief villain but one who hides in plain sight as a citizen.

The characterizations are somewhat different in this B Western, and the script, with this great cast, makes this a stand-out, able to overcome flaws in the directing and the production.

I highly recommend "The Rider of the Law," available at YouTube as another gift from the wonderful Westerns on the Web.

Si Jenks is appointed town marshal of Apache City, Arizona because he needs the money and all the previous ones have been killed by a bank-robbing family. The next stage brings in Bob Steele -- wearing a suit, a fedora and spectacles. Si offers to rent him a cabin, so Bob mounts a horse backwards, and rides to the cabin. There he finds two of the robbers. They fight, and in the confusion, the robbers shoot each other.

I was very pleased with the confusion and physical comedy of this B western. Director Robert Bradbury, working from a script by Jack Natteford, shows that his stock company can do pretty well; even Earl Dwire, as the brother of the bank robbers and a barber with his razor over Steele's throat, is a lot funnier than one would guess he could be. Contrary to what people might think, he was not a Gower Gulch cowboy, but a longtime stage actor who had started out in a stock company with Oliver Morosco.

The comedy disappears in the second half of the movie as the plot takes over. That's often the case with many a comedy, but it's a good story, with a fine action sequence to end the film, just as one wants in a western.

The Rider Of The Law in this film is Bob Steele. But Bob chooses quite the disguise, the better to get information and not have the outlaws take him so seriously.

The town is the grip of a gang of six brothers named Tolliver who roam in at will and conduct all kinds of robbery and mayhem. No one wants to do anything, in fact just like in Bottleneck in Destry Rides Again they get the town drunk Si Jenks to be sheriff.

Young Bob Steele arrives in town from the east, he's a tenderfoot and no one takes him seriously. He 'accidentally' kills some of the Tolliver brothers and they make him Jenks's deputy. In reality he's one of 'the deadliest starpackers in the territory".

Borrowing a bit from Destry Rides Again, The Rider Of The Law is one of Bob Steele's best B westerns. It's got lots of action and it's laced with humor, courtesy of Si Jenks.

This is a good one, despite the limited production values.