Law of the Lash

U.S. Marshall Lash Larue cleans up a town consisting of a dozen henchman and one drunk -- Jack Evans plays the drunk -- using his whip and Al St. John. Director Ray Taylor has a couple of sequences of Larue riding which go on for quite a while.

Larue, real name Alfred, came to Hollywood hoping that his uncanny resemblance to Humphrey Bogart would yield a career. It did, also comments from Hollywood players. Actress Sarah Padden asked him if his mother had ever met Bogart. When his PRC stardom ended, he continued on with supporting roles in TV. He trained Harrison Ford in handling a whip for Indiana Jones, and was featured in a popular comic. He died in 1996, age 78.

The man in black Lash LaRue cracks his whip again in this lively addition to his filmography which has a leisurely feel with a nice enough plot. It's a simple story but engaging enough. Could have had a bit more action, though. Fuzzy knight co stars again as Lash's sidekick.

When I found a free download of "Law of the Lash" I was happy. I had watched a movie of that title many years ago at a film festival in San Diego, and it was one of the most exciting movies I had ever seen.

There was lots of action, especially of Lash and his whip.

Watching it today, I discovered this film was not the same one. It has far less whip action, but there is an attention to detail by both director Ray Taylor and writer William L. Nolte that merits a very high rating.

Sound effects are also very good.

Al St. John was a great cowboy and probably the best of the intendedly funny side-kicks. Be sure to watch for him scratching his foot in this movie. His last scene, though, could have been edited out.

Lash LaRue actually could act, and he shows it here.

Perhaps most fascinating of all, everybody's favorite villain, Charles King, gets to play a good guy, a sheriff even!

So it's not "Gone With the Wind," it's a great 'B' western.

La Rue tells Fuzzy St. John, "Your letters always start the same way, 6 plugs of chewin tobacco." In this one, a henchman gets a major role for a change as Lee Roberts plays Henchman Lefty. Roberts makes the best of it as the outlaw caught between La Rue and his boss Jack 'Blackjack' O'Shea. Mary Scott is the fetching leading lady standing up to Lefty which causes the first fisticuff with La Rue. Sheriff Rand (Charles King) is hot on the trail of the Decker gang and has an opening when Lefty exposes some key evidence at Dad Hilton's (John Elliot) store. Some great fight scenes with La Rue whipping things up as usual and a great 'telegaram' scene where Fuzzy tries to connect the wires with his tongue. Plenty of action, laughs and a good storyline with a wonderful cast.

As a kid, seeing dusters like this made my day. I loved them then and I still do now. A staple lower half or 'kiddie' matinée fixture, they were churned out on an assembly line, probably in pre-production for three or four weeks, shot in three or four days, and then wound up with another three/four weeks of post production prior to release. They looked cheap and they were cheap, especially when cranked through the PRC sausage factory. Making matters even worse, the Alpha Video transfer of this cheapie Poverty Row opus is grainy and at times bleached, making a bad situation even worse. Still, it's fun watching our boy crack the whip as he herds another gang of baddies towards their just desserts, toothless Fuzzy Knight along for comic relief.

Storywise, there is nothing much original about this one that pits your garden variety robber/town terrorizer against the skills and determination of incognito lawman Larue and sidekick Knight. What is a little more original is the higher quality acting one gets from our two heroes, definitely a cut above the usual phoned-in nonsense one usually finds in these sagebrush programmers. Indeed, Larue's most notable rival at the time, Monogram's incredibly wooden Whip Wilson could only watch in envy.

'B' programmers like "Law of the Lash" may not be high art, but they are entertaining and that's all that counts. It's just too bad the look of this one is so decrepit. Otherwise, it might have at least merited a five instead of the three it got.