Son of Oklahoma

What starts in prevarication and confusion: goes through the trials and ends happily for all -- except the bad guy! The film's score, though brief, is enchanting. A worthy period Western with great original sound, very good photography, only three years into talking films. Restoration & preservation is in order, if not already done.

Wonderful story with great acting by all. Josie Sedgwick played a great role as the alienated mother of Dan Clayton (Bob Steele). Great to see Earl Dwire, a good friend of Steele and very familiar face in these early westerns. Julian Rivero was actually Shakespearean trained and played a big role in these classics. Who can forget Si Jenks, usually on second fiddle next to Gabby but nonetheless he could hold his own with the best.

There is, alas, a lot of idiot plotting in SON OF OKLAHOMA. A small boy falls out of a Conestoga wagon in the Oklahoma desert,and cries for his parents to stop. They don't, but he's rescued by Julian Rivero, who takes him home to his wife and daughter, noting that the boy has found the gold mine Rivero has been looking for. Meanwhile, Earl Dwire shoots down Earl Homans (who crawls away, unnoticed), and returns to Josie Sedgwick.

Seventeen years later, the small boy has grown into Bob Steele. Rivero is about to register the secret mine in Steele's name, because Rivero is a Spaniard; they've been pulling ore out in secret, covering their trail. Dwire goes to Sedgwick, who's now running saloons; it turns out she only went with him to prevent him from killing her husband, Homans. He tells her that if she'll get the information on the mine from Steele, he'll go find the boy, whom he gave to a family on their way to California. When Steele turns out to have the note she wrote to her husband seventeen years earlier, she knows he is her boy, doesn't tell him, and never does anything about it until the plot requires it.

If you ignore these -- ahem! -- minor flaws, and the gold mine in Oklahoma, it turns into a minor western. I fear I could not, much as I enjoy Steele's movies directed by his father, Robert Bradbury. Also, Miss Sedgwick's line readings are pretty poor. This was her last movie.

I enjoyed this film very much. It is grim and intense, with bleak and dimly-lit indoor settings and even bleaker and quite harsh outdoor desert settings. It is hard to imagine that life's comforts for most of us are so far removed from those days of 150 years ago! That stagecoach was rocking like the real thing, and indeed it probably was! The cast carried off their assignments quite well, a varied mix of characters and emotions on display. Sure, there are a few messy items that are tidied up a bit too easily, but heck, they only had an hour! One can be transported to the time of the old West very easily by giving this film a chance. The print I saw hard an underlying noise in the soundtrack, which only served to make the film more intriguing and atmospheric.. Earl Dwire was one heck of a presence back in the day...somehow he inexplicably got last billing in this one. This is a fine film (for its era and budget) to watch.