The Lone Star John Wayne westerns are a weak series in the main; this early effort proves no exception despite a promising opening.Randy Bowers (Wayne) rides to an isolated saloon to talk to the proprietor, only to find him and two others shot to death inside. Moments later, the law arrives and takes a protesting Randy into custody. Can Randy clear his name and bring the true perpetrators to justice?"You don't look like a killer," says the proprietor's niece, in what amounts to Randy's only interrogation."Well, I'm not," he answers. "Just give me a chance. I can prove it."The opening sequence is a mini-masterpiece of mood setting. We see Randy enter the saloon, his face suddenly registering the carnage inside. In addition to the bodies, there's an open safe and a player piano still playing a happy tune. Real eyes follow him from the cut-out eyeholes of a portrait; next to the safe is a shot-up wanted poster with a warning: "Lay off sheriff, or you'll get the same thing..."But director Harry L. Fraser is pretty much out of bullets after that. Instead, we are treated to a double role by George (not yet "Gabby") Hayes, as a genial mute storeowner who secretly runs the gang of villains behind the triple murder.Why is Randy there? Why is the sheriff so quick to slip the cuffs on him? Why does the niece keep her silence about Randy's innocence? Most critically, why is the town so easily taken in by "Matt the Mute's" fake mustache, while his scowling face decorates so many wanted posters?"Randy Rides Alone" is not a film for such introspection. It's designed as a brief boys-own escape from Depression-era miseries, with many elements that would be used in other Lone Star Wayne vehicles before and after. There are secret passages, double identities, horse chases, a lazy sheriff, and a nasty henchman, the latter two played by Lone Star regulars Earl Dwire and Yakima Canutt, respectively. Randy manages to win the girl's affections, another trope.There are moments you feel like Fraser was having fun with the formula. The opening is unusually effective, and watching Hayes finally tire of his "Matt the Mute" charade in a showdown with the niece (Alberta Vaughn) with his last line ("No one makes a fool of Marvin Black") has a silly zest about it.What kills the film is the outrageously slow pacing. Others point out the scenes where we have to wait for "Matt" to write out one of his messages, but the whole film moves like that, slowly and with a kind of counter-energy. Fraser may have had a talent for mood-setting, but directing for action seems beyond him. The final showdown is a major letdown this way. We see the villainous outlaws surrounded in their hideout, and have been told the area is littered with hidden dynamite. Sounds promising, but the shooting fails to trigger any explosions and is over quickly while Randy chases Marvin/Matt for a final scene that strains credulity. Instead of escaping, Hayes' character goes back to the saloon to get the loot he believes is there, only to get a faceful of splinters for his trouble.At least Wayne is in good form, and seems to be having fun in this B- picture outing. That's more than I could say for me.

Like the other John Wayne B-westerns I recently saw on the Encore Channel, inexplicably someone has added a recent musical accompaniment. Using electronic instruments, loud and often inappropriate music punctuates scenes like a 2x4 upside your skull! Why, oh, why?!The film begins with Randy (John Wayne) arriving at a bar--only to find all the people inside dead and the safe ransacked. Soon, the Sheriff and a posse arrive and arrest--and they just assume he killed everyone--though there really isn't any reason to believe this. You just need to assume he and the rest are total idiots, as the idea of one man killing everyone AND Randy's gun still loaded would sure seem to indicate he was not the murderer.The bar owner's niece (the only really smart person in the film) realizes Randy is innocent when he provides documentation that he's a secret agent and helps him escape from jail. Wayne does NOT want the rest of the town to know his identity, however, as he wants to try to investigate the actions of the evil gang responsible for the killings.Interestingly, Gabby Hayes plays a baddie--something he did occasionally in earlier B-movies but simply never would have done during his later years as a crazy coot sidekick. Here, however, he wears his false teeth and is clean-shaven--and those unfamiliar with this persona from his earlier films might have a hard time recognizing him. I liked the plot device of having him pretending to be a harmless mute shop owner, though the fact he was evil was telegraphed by the message Randy finds scrawled on a wanted poster only a minute or so into the film--so they really tipped their hat, so to speak, too early.In addition to the goofs listed on IMDb, I noticed a few others. When Mat the Mute wrote his notes, you see him very rapidly writing. Yet, when there's a closeup, it's obviously a different person writing at half the speed. Also, after Randy jumps in the river and then discovers the gang's hideout, he's miraculously dry in the next scene. Oddly, however, the gang offer him a set of clothes to change into, so they didn't totally blow this scene.Despite the goofs and the film seemingly too rushed and too straight-forward, it is pretty good for an early B-western. The plot isn't bad, the ending is nice and violent (yay, violence!) and the leading lady was clever and not a total idiot! Not great but still watchable after all these years.

There were many 'spooky' westerns made in the 30s and early 40s, and although this has a strong beginning, it isn't one. Randy Bowers (John Wayne) stopping at a 'Halfway House' saloon, finds it to be full of dead bodies, the bartender's corpse draped over the bar holding a gun, eyes watching Randy from behind holes cut through eyes in a picture, and a player piano playing "The Loveliest Night of the Year." It was the result of a robbery by the Marvin Black gang, to get Ed Rogers' $30,000. Randy is an investigator who "works alone," who wastes little time in getting arrested, escaping (with Ed's daughter Sally's help) and literally landing in the midst of the Black gang's hideout behind a waterfall. It all moves along fairly quickly. Only one too many chases after Randy slow it down.We even get George Hayes, clean shaven and playing two parts-- Marvin Black, the vilest villain, as well as the Good Citizen, Matt the Mute, who communicates via handwritten messages. Having him play two opposite roles was a good idea, but the writing down of messages thing gets old real fast, even for him, as he finally gives up doing it near the end saying to Sally, "Ah, I'm fed up with this!" You can find George playing a vile, vile, double crossing villain in the serial "The Lost City" (1934).I think this is the only 'Lone Star' film in which the title relates to, or is mentioned in the film! Sally offers her hand to Randy and says, "He's not alone anymore!" Then cut to their arms around each other as they look out facing a lake. Sally's running off with Randy seems too abrupt and not sufficiently prepared for. Too much time spent on horseback escaping the sheriff.Not that bad considering everything, but not that great either. I'd really give it a 4 and a half.

Another Wayne/Canutt/Hayes Lone Star entry, mostly enjoyable with the usual few tedious scenes thrown in. How any 52 minute movie can have tedious stretches is down to the love interest and various characters having to walk from one location to another. Riding is much more exciting after all!It has a good start, with Wayne entering a saloon only to be greeted with a blood-bath, or was it just a good night previous? Chin-bald Hayes plays 2 characters, one the top baddie and the other a good-guy mute who has to write his words down on scraps of paper - more tedium. The key moment in RRA is after the heroine has said no to him as the good guy he starts to scribble an answer down to try to change her mind. Then he and the scriptwriter realise it won't do any good with only 5 minutes left so he petulantly blurts out "I'm fed up with this" and becomes his True Evil Self to her.Some nice outdoor photography, nice print, nice scenes of the skinny Duke ambling around Alone before he's suddenly smitten with love. He improved his fight techniques in the coming years!