Robert J. Maxwell One of a series of repetitious and unpretentious Westerns that Monogram put out in the 30s. They fed the public's desire for movie fare, kept actors and crew employed during the Great Depression, and were inexpensive enough to keep the studio itself sufficiently solvent to keep grinding them out. As a kind of ancillary benefit they gave John Wayne a chance to be seasoned and develop his later screen persona.He's not really the iconic John Wayne here. He's broad shouldered, trapping, tall, and athletic but his acting is rudimentary. He hadn't yet learned to express something by repressing it. His walk is still the walk of an ordinary man, although an unusually tall one.He couldn't have gotten much help from the director, Robert Bradbury, but little could have been expected, given the constraints on time and budget. It's hard to imagine that any of the scenes required more than one or two takes. There is an elemental quality to the action. Horses never walk, they always gallop, leaving clouds of dust behind them. Almost all the punches are roundhouse rights, although one does notice a few jabs, probably the contribution of Yakima Canutt. Canutt may have been the best physical actor in the Western business but isn't prominently featured in this effort.The director, Bradbury, had made a number of earlier Westerns near Lancaster, where Wayne lived, and Wayne had a chance to see the filming taking place, alongside his childhood friend, Bradbury's son, who later became known as Bob Steele. (He was Curly in "Of Mice And Men.") The movie is mostly of historical interest, though not badly done for its purposes.

MartinHafer Oh my gosh...listen to the little exchange that occurs about four minutes into the film. It is, possibly, the worst exchange of dialog I have ever heard--it was so dumb that even Ed Wood wold wince!! As Wayne and another dude try to one-up each other, I just couldn't help but think sooner or later one of them would say "I know you are, but what am I?!" or "I'm a rock and you're glue--what you say bounces off me and sticks to you!"--or some other ridiculously childish nonsense. Yes, it was truly that bad. Here's a real example: "...I'm gonna cloud up and rain all over you." "Yeah, you and whose army." Eventually, the two thespians decide to just bash each other's brains out--and thus begins this western masterpiece!! Believe it or not, these two geniuses buy each other drinks just minutes later! They don't write 'em like the used to (thank God).Soon after this, Wayne and his new bestest buddy go to see Wayne's father--a local rancher. In an interesting coincidence, they walk in just as Dad is being robbed...and killed. Now considering that Wayne had been away from home for years, it was a might peculiar that he would return home to witness this murder! Again, the writers were having an off day here! The rest of the film consists of Wayne trying to catch and punish the baddies responsible for this crime (I am talking about the murder, not the writing of this script!).This is perhaps one of the poorest of John Wayne's films. The writing is just dreadful at times, though the rest of the time it is pretty average (when it isn't sucking). My advice is to try some of his other Bs first--this one is clearly a letdown.By the way, is it just me or is there perhaps a bit of a gay subtext going on between Wayne and his new friend Ben?! After all, as Wayne and his lady friend are talking, she is thinking about a wedding ring...and Wayne is just thinking about Ben. This and a few other scenes (such as the apparent 'lovers quarrel' they have late in the film) do make you wonder!

John W Chance As one of the last 'Lone Star' productions this is one of the best in many ways. It has more character interaction and development, and even a love triangle. As others have noted, all the scenes work toward building up to the climax. It also features three early versions of some of the great clichés of the Western.William K. Everson quotes from Variety reviews of 1908-1909 westerns that mention that those films were competently made but "It all has been done so often before, and usually better." Well, here 27 years later we get these new wonderful clichés all excellently done: 1) the hero and a stranger meet and fight, then go to the bar for a drink as pals and become 'pards' (John Wayne as John Mason vs. Reed Howes as Ben McClure in the opening scene); 2) the 'get out of town by four o'clock or I'll come gunning for ya' saloon threat by the villain (the handsome, evil voiced, quintessential bad guy Denny Moore as Rudd Gordon) to John Wayne; and then 3) the final gunfight down the middle of Main Street, during which the tension builds with good cross cutting and the fact that Mason doesn't know his own gun is loaded with blanks! To back track on the plot, Mason's father is killed by Rudd in a robbery Mason witnesses. Chasing Rudd, Mason is shot and nursed back to health, at Ben McClure's place, by Rudd's sister Alice, who falls for Mason (shown in a telling scene where he talks about boots, but she thinks he's talking about a wedding ring). Ben is in love with Alice, and thinking Mason has designs on her, puts the slugs in his gun. Ben later realizes his mistake in a moving silent sequence, and then rides off to stop, warn or help Mason in his showdown with Rudd.Yakima Canutt gets to play a villainous barkeep, and do some good stunt work as well. No George Hayes in this one, but everything works fine without him. Plus of course, we have John Wayne! You can the sense the development of his patented swagger as he walks down the street during the showdown. So, we get one of the better 'Lone Stars' here. I give it a 5.

classicsoncall As in John Wayne's earlier film "Blue Steel", a polka dot neckerchief figures in the plot of this Lone Star production. It belongs to Rudd Gordon (Dennis Moore), the man who killed John Mason's (Wayne) father in a botched hold up attempt. Racing after the bandit gang, Mason is injured, and is nursed back to health by Rudd's sister Alice (Marion Burns). Alice is the object of Ben McClure's (Reed Howes) affection, but it seems she has eyes for Mason. It doesn't take long for Mason to sort things out, and in a final gun battle, McClure takes out Rudd who lies in ambush for Mason, while the saloon owner portrayed by Yakima Canutt guns down McClure.As in most of the Lone Star films, Wayne's character gets the girl in the end, even when he's not trying. In fact, Mason encourages McClure to propose to Alice, even after the engagement ring Ben bought for her winds up stolen. Nevertheless, the film closes on a wagon leaving town, Mason and Alice aboard with a sign on the back reading "Just Hitched Up".If you're a John Wayne fan, you'll give this film a try, but don't expect much. It suffers from clumsy editing, and as typical with Wayne's other Lone Star films, the title has nothing to do with the story.