Edgar Allan Pooh . . . inattentive viewers of this flick probably will ask. My fashion consultant swears that Cilia Parker's bubble butt riding pants would clearly define her as female from a mile away, but the DUMB AND DUMBER henchmen featured in RIDERS OF DESTINY--"Bert" and "Elmer" (almost Muppets, but no cigar)--mistake her for a dude when they're just a block off. They assassinate Cilia's horse, enabling John Wayne to step into her lurch and spread her biscuits. Since DESTINY involves more twists and turns over water rights than CHINATOWN, this may all sound kind of sexy. Rest assured that incest is hardly hinted at among "The Dentons" (Ms. Parker and her Pops, Gabby Hayes). Having a ranch and gold mine in her family is more than enough to titillate John, on top of "Fay Denton's" tasty biscuits and buns. But the cut from wounded Sheriff Baxter to the shot of Fay being dismounted is both abrupt and perplexing. The one saving grace is that this early conundrum only takes half an hour to resolve, since DESTINY runs less than 53 minutes.

utgard14 John Wayne as Singin' Sandy. If that doesn't make you snort milk out of your nose, I don't know what will. If you're a fan of the Duke but not very familiar with his early B westerns, the opening moments of this will probably have you staring at the screen in disbelief. I have seen quite a few of Duke's movies from this period and still my mouth hung open in shock. The plot is about government agent Singin' Sandy Saunders (audible groan from me just typing that) trying to put a stop to a bad guy withholding water from ranchers. Sandy also catches the attention of Andy Hardy's sister (Cecilia Parker), who's the daughter of Gabby Hayes.Now, as shocking as John Wayne doing the Gene Autry routine is, the bigger shock is that this actually isn't a bad movie! For a B western of the time, it's better than average. Wayne is personable and believable as the hero, of course. Parker is pretty and likable; one of Duke's better love interests in these cheapies. Some highlights are Gabby Hayes' enthusiasm for biscuits, Yakima Canutt's stunts, and all of the laughable scenes where Duke lip-syncs. But the single best scene is when Sandy is called out for a shootout and the townsfolk suddenly realize who he is. "Why, that's Singin' Sandy," someone says with a straight face. Unreal.

dbborroughs John Wayne in one of his early singing (well dubbed) cowboy flicks stars as a government agent under cover trying to get to the bottom of a water scam that has a bad guy controlling the water in an area refusing to let anyone have water unless they pay him sky high fees. Wayne comes into the mix by helping a girl who robs a stage coach in order to get back the money taken from her father. It's a rambling mess where 20 minutes pass with a minimal amount of plot transpiring while the two stage coach drivers wander about being silly in an attempt to capture the robber. The film then kind of settles down at that pint, with Wayne romancing the girl and taking on the bad guys. Its twenty minutes of plot stretched to 55 minutes and for me its intolerable. Things just ramble onward in such away that you can't believe its taking as long as it is. I wanted to scream. Actually I reached for the remote and began scanning through the romance and horse riding bits. Sure Wayne is clearly a star but the film he's in is a crashing bore. I'd avoid it unless you like this sort of thing.

dougdoepke Forget the lame opening of Singin' Sandy (Wayne) warbling a tune that sounds about as much like Wayne's singing voice as mine does. This is still a solid Lone Star programmer. There's not a lot of hard riding or fast shooting, but there is a strong story-line, along with that stellar cast of Lone Star regulars-- George Hayes (before Gabby), Yakima Canutt, Earl Dwire, and Forrest Taylor, excellent as the head bad guy.I expect the plot really resonated with Dust Bowl audiences of the time. Bad guy Taylor wants to use water rights to buy up all the little farmers in the valley. The effects of water returning to the valley are quite well done for a programmer. Also the crowd scenes look like real farmers, while the 30 seconds of the plain-faced frontier woman appealing to the crowd should be studied by A-grade Westerns.Wayne is quite engaging as the good guy, looking every inch the part. Also, look for Al (Fuzzy) St. John, sans whiskers, as one of the bad guys, no less. One complaint-- there are two really tumbling trip-wire scenes that send the poor horses head over hoofs. I hope they survived. That was one real problem with these 30's Westerns. Anyway, it's still an entertaining 60 minutes for fans of Wayne and Lone Star.