A tale of two young lovers amidst a tale of range war, cattle rustling and double crosses, this early 30's western features appearances by a who's who of B Westerns of the day. Headlined of course by the legendary Buck Jones as a sheriff trying to keep the peace, John Wayne as his younger adopted brother, Harry Woods as an excellent sleazeball and perennial bad guy Glenn Strange in an uncredited role.
A slight western that only works on the strength of Buck Jones' presence, with a young John Wayne in a supporting weaker role as a love struck suitor who is incapable of taking care of himself, constantly requiring Buck to get him out of whatever mess.
The basic story involves the titular range feud between two families, cattle rustling, and frame ups that land Duke in jail, where he languishes until a lynching party drags him helplessly to be hung. BUT WAIT! Buck rides in at the last minute and reveals that the slimy Woods is the culprit and all is well in the end.
This definitely more of movie for fans of the legendary Buck Jones than for fans of the Duke. As a John Wayne movie it's extremely disappointing, but taken at face value as a Buck Jones movie it's a fun ride.
Aside from that quibble, this is well produced B western that I definitely recommend for fans of the genre or lead actor.
This was one of the pictures Duke made as he tumbled down into poverty row stardom after the failure of his debut lead role The Big Trail (1930), which had nothing to do with him at all, but still tainted him as poison for nearly a decade.
The other thing that derailed his career at this stage was the tyrannical Harry Cohn who falsely believed that Duke was sleeping with a starlet that Cohn himself had designs on. He kept putting Duke lower and smalls and played out his contract upon which time he spread rumors that Duke was a heavy drinker and frequently showed up drunk on sets.
Duke never forgave Cohn for this and swore he would never make another picture for Columbia.. And he never did. Even when he became the biggest star in Hollywood and Cohn came crawling back with all sorts of enticements and tried desperately to get Duke to make a movie for his studio.
Buck Jones remained fairly popular for the rest of his career despite his descent into lower quality pictures over the next decade.
He made a handful of successful serials and eventually rode off into that western sunset with the Rough Riders series which teamed him up with the equally legendary Tim McCoy, with Raymond Hatton as the comedy relief partner.
It's unknown how much longer his career would've lasted had he not died tragically as a result of club fire in the early 40's. Popular legend says he perished a hero to the last, trying desperately to save others in the fire. In the end though he was just one of the 492 victims of the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston, MA. He passed away in the hospital Nov 30, 1942. 2 days after the fire. He was 50 years old.
No comments:
Post a Comment