MartinHafer The cast of "The Thundering Herd" is very impressive...with Randolph Scott, Buster Crabbe, Harry Carey, Barton MacLane, Noah Beery and Raymond Hatton--all very familiar western actors of the day. And, the story is based on a Zane Grey story. And, it has a salacious subplot involving a step-dad that is WAYYY too interested in his step- daughter. Yet, amazingly, it's not that interesting and you could easily do better. Now this isn't to say it's a bad film...but it should have been a lot better.The story is about a nice guy (Scott) who is in love with a nice girl. However, her sleazy step-dad (Beery) has way too much interest in her and it's obvious the film is STRONGLY implying incest. When the nice guy goes to get his girl in order to marry her, the sleazy step-dad shoots him and beats him up! The guy is too hurt to do anything but let his friends care for him and his desire to save the girl and get revenge will have to wait until he's healed AND they've gone on the buffalo hunt. This includes a lot of nice footage of the animals at Yellowstone...otherwise the big confrontation is a fizzle and the film was quite dull. The lack of any incidental music didn't help any.

Michael Morrison Action galore within a well-crafted and beautifully presented story make this one of the very best B westerns ever made.Randolph Scott's mustache is rather jarring, to those of us who have never seen him with one, but he gives an excellent and athletic performance, joined by one of the finest casts ever assembled in a B western.Bad guys are really bad, with Noah Beery giving one of his best performances as the worst of the bad guys ... although Mrs. Bad Guy is about as rough and evil as any woman I've ever seen in a B western.This is not only brilliant story-telling, but it is brilliant acting.And brilliant directing.Henry Hathaway surpasses other possibly better-known and more highly regarded directors with his moving camera and his shots of moving horses and wagons and buffalo. (His last years, though, saw him faltering badly as he almost ruined, with the aid of a miserable script from Marguerite Roberts, "True Grit." But admire his work here and don't think about how badly he stumbled toward the end.)One wonderful aspect of "The Thundering Herd" is an active female lead, played by Judith Allen. OK, maybe there was a stunt man, but so what? The character is one to admire, and one to wish there had been and were now more of: a strong and active female who did more than cower in her man's arms.Excellent writing, and an excellent and exciting bunch of characters, and an excellent action-packed finale."The Thundering Herd" is available at YouTube in a pretty good print. I highly recommend this movie.

rockymtvr The stampede scenes were filmed at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone National Park.There were only 24 buffalo left in the world on 1901, so Congress appropriated funds in 1902 to prevent their extinction and the few wild buffalo in Yellowstone were gradually mixed with some ranch animals from Texas and Montana.The park rangers in the past would sometimes stampede the herd for movies and visitors.There are now 3,500..4,000 buffalo in YNP, but any that wander outside the boundaries are shot or rounded up and sent to slaughter.

Snow Leopard It's not too bad, but the good cast builds up expectations for this Western that are not really fulfilled. The story is just fair, and only the occasional good action scenes keep it going. It stars Randolph Scott, and has a good supporting cast that includes the likes of Harry Carey, Buster Crabbe, and more. The story has quite a bit going on, most of it focusing on rival groups of buffalo hunters. A lot happens, but much of the time it doesn't seem to fit together that well, and there are some slow stretches that could easily have been shortened or omitted. It's worth a look for the cast if you like older Westerns, but don't expect too much.