For John Wayne, the ‘30s were ‘galley years,’ stuck on a treadmill of B-pic Westerns between a flop debut in Raoul Walsh’s pricey THE BIG TRAIL/’30 and John Ford’s ride to the rescue via STAGECOACH/’39. But all those programers weren’t monolithic, steadily advancing in budget, filmmaking & acting. With an extra 20 minutes for story & character development, this could be a major studio programmer. But since it’s a Joseph Kane directed Paul Malvern Production for Republic Pictures, there ain’t no way. (Only the villain’s stomach could be considered multidimensional.) Making a star’s delayed entrance after a surprisingly violent prologue (two parents shot dead, cute son beaten to a pulp), Wayne’s a new lawyer in the territory; long, lean & ready with the facts & fists, eager to take down Mr. Big and his illegal Water Rights monopoly. But will the independent cattlemen help? And what about the purty gal whose Dad just made a deal with Mr. Big? Not many twists along the way, but reasonably involving with plenty of time for the stuntmen, horses & wagons to execute some dangerous tricks that have Yakima Canutt’s signature all over them. One horse does a damn flip. Yikes! Sure, so does the rider, but he’s paid extra for the ‘gag.’
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Some of the earlier Wayne programmers are showing up on tv in criminally awful restorations that replace the original soundtracks with modern ‘equivalents’ that have louder sound effects, musical scores, and sound-a-like voices dubbing the entire cast. Wayne’s distinctive halting cadence coming from a voice not quite his. (At least with those colorized editions you can adjust the color down to get something approaching the original b&w, but this leaves no option.)
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