Hollywood Cowboy

Hollywood COWBOY George O'Brien does battle with carpetbagging gangsters from the city who are trying to set up a protection racket in Wyoming. Can O'Brien beat the gangsters (led by "Ming the Merciless", Charles Middleton) with their airplanes and tommy-guns, with just a six-shooter and a sidekick named Shakespare trying to avoid a divorce subpoena?

OK, the plot here, with the odd combination of the current day and old fashioned western action, is more than passing strange, but it does have the advantage of being something different. George O'Brien (the lead in F.W. Murnau's Sunrise and Michael Curtiz's Noah's Arc) also is several acting leagues above the average western star. As a result, the film is a bit better than average for a B, particularly as O'Brien does not take his role particularly seriously, and always seems about to burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all. What might be a problem for the B western fan is that there is no pleasant western music (sorry Autey, Rogers and Ritter fans), nor is there a lot of typical western action (sorry Tom Mix fans). Instead, the better parts of the movie are played for laughs, and the action scenes appear to have been lifted from more expensive dramas.

The result is OK, with almost a Wild Wild West feel, but it is a dead end as far as a genre film is concerned. (How can you do a series of films, when the lead characters seem invested in the absurdity of the whole enterprise?) It's probably not surprising that later westerns done by O'Brien for RKO are more serious.

An odd oater, with little hard riding and no fast shooting or flying fists. Instead combat takes place between two old airplanes, plus well-aimed lassoes. Hollywood cowboy Buck (O'Brien) shows his grit off-screen by helping ornery old rancher Violet Butler resist a shakedown by conniving city slicker Kramer (Middleton). Most of the storyline, however, is taken up with talk, maybe too much. But there is some good footage of the fabled Alabama Hills and scenic eastern Sierras. Also, some good bird's-eye footage of the maneuvering airplanes interspersed with process footage of the pilots against a backscreen. O'Brien's cowboy is more affable than tough, a rarity for matinée heroes, while Parker makes a comely blonde sweetie who'd make any guy stick around. Too bad the deliciously evil Middleton doesn't get more screen time, even though he's more subdued than usual. Anyway, it's definitely not a formula western, but has enough appealing novelties to satisfy an old matinée fan like me.

A "6" on the Matinée Scale

This is not a great movie but it is a hoot. I mean where else can you see gangsters coming from the big city using aircraft to bomb their prey and disrupt a cattle drive. The accuracy of those ex-World War I pilots was uncanny and the secret ability of a hand grenade to blow up a dam should be exploited for modern day ordnance specialists who can only dream of such power in a small package. And all these gangsters wanted was a penny a pound to "protect" cattle from threat of non-delivery – very reasonable I would think.

Silent film star George O'Brien is effective as the hero and enjoyable to watch in his role. His biography is most interesting and worthy of your time. Charles Middleton is excellent as the heavy but I still prefer him as Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon serials. Maude Eburne turns in another great character actor performance.

The film quality of the version "Wings Over Wyoming" that I just saw on TCM was a bit grainy but the joy at watching such a unique B movie more than compensated. Some of the aviation sequences were likely lifted from other filming but what the heck, who cares. Better than most B Westerns and worth watching because it is so different.

In Hollywood Cowboy George O'Brien plays a B western star a whole lot like George O'Brien who after shooting a picture on location decides to take a camping trip with script writer and buddy Joe Caits. Though Caits is a city boy he'd like to get as far into the forest primeval as possible as he's ducking a subpoena.

Somebody else has left the big city as well, one Charles Middleton whom we all know as Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon has also moved west and is establishing an old fashioned protection racket involving cattle rustling. He tries to move in on owner Maude Eburne, but she's a tough old bird.

O'Brien gets involved when he saves Eburne's niece Cecilia Parker from some of Middleton's men and O'Brien also starts some moving in on his own.

Nothing too terribly complex about the part, a story that's been unaccountable times in Hollywood. But O'Brien does this one with tongue firmly in cheek. It's almost like he was setting a mold for James Garner to follow in the future.

I think some non-western fans will like this one.

The story has some unusual twists including Kramer, a white-collar criminal who plots to exploit a feud between cattlehands and cattlemen plus fleece cattlemen of money through a dummy Cattlemen's Protection Association.

George O'Brien plays Geoffrey Carter, a Hollywood cowboy shooting a western film at Lone Pine, CA. He just happens to rescue Joyce, a cattlewoman's daughter from the city gangsters and falls for her. Then he goes to work for her mother as an anonymous cattlehand.

The most interesting plot element is the use of a single-engine, dual wing biplane to frighten cattle and then a subsequent air dual with an aircraft from Hollywood flown by Carter's friend.

Final roundup of the criminals has a nice twist but the ending is standard Hollywood schmaltz. There are some holes in the story never resolved. But nothing out the ordinary for a 1937 RKO Radio Picture.

George O'Brien is adequate but the supporting cast never have opportunities to rise above predictable or pedestrian, which is simply a fault of the script. However, this is a 64 minute, low-budget B-western, so there was little time or reason to worry about character development. This is a rare film and not many prints exist either as Hollywood Cowboy or Wings Over Wyoming. Showcase Media of Studio City California 91604 has one, good, complete 16mm dupe print.