It's kind of amusing that here we are, 3/4 century after this throw-away B-western was filmed, not only sitting through it, but writing serious, heartfelt reviews. I'm sure the folks at Lone Star would have been amused. So a couple of quick reactions: I'm kind of surprised to read that some of us think this is perhaps the best of Wayne's '30s westerns. I hope that's not true. I have seen two Mascot serials and found them both quite a bit better than this - esp The Hurricane Express. Like reviewer Dan Phillips, I couldn't make sense out of the beginning either. I read it the same way Dan did and came away wondering what I had missed. I guess 12 year olds in 1934 had a sharper eye than either of us. I love it when characters are given the actor's name. Yak is the most obvious one here, but not the only one. Just how typical was that? As some of you pointed out, the movie's name had no bearing on the plot. Truth is, it's just a great name with no utility beyond that. That hardly makes it unique. Think about Republic serials. Remember Zombies of the Stratosphere? Not a zombie to be seen. Just a killer title. It's pretty well established that the guys who named these things were not necessarily the ones who wrote them. I, too, love the ending. We go from a chaste "relationship" (if it was that) between Wayne and the actress to marriage and parenting! Another vote for immaculate conception. Then again, it meant the 12 year olds didn't have to sit through any of that mushy stuff. Ugh! Available in a Wayne collection (including the serials) and a Western collection from Millcreek Ent.

I haven't any idea how commentators could regard this as a decent B Western. Or how one commentator said the plot was more cohesive than most. Nothing could be farther from the truth! This movie is one HUGE non-sequitur! It is an affront to the noble B Western films of the '30's. I have seen many of Wayne's early Lone Star and Republic westerns, and this one is easily the worst.The bad guy is known as The Shadow - for crying out loud! Initially, The Shadow's scheme is holding up open-sided stage coaches. Simultaneously, his gang rustles all of the cattle in the territory. Then they decide to move on to bank robbery. To do this, they need to shoot up the town with a machine gun - no explanation of why that's necessary or how he got that neato little toy!No single scheme is revealed in enough detail to suggest a plot here. The Shadow is obviously just a generally bad guy with all kinds of generally evil schemes. He imparts his instructions to his gang through a fake wall-safe. (Knock-knock, who's there?) He is apparently clairvoyant, because whenever his henchmen need to talk to him, they knock on the wall, the safe opens and - PRESTO - he's there. (I can just imagine that he has met them face-to-face and says,"I have some secret, nefarious instructions to give you about our next evil deed - meet me at the wall-safe and I'll give 'em to you.") Just why the Shadow requires the safe to communicate with his army of outlaws is, like most of the elements of this mess, never explained.He has a nifty tunnel to the ol' hollow stump across the street from which vantage point, various of his baddies perform assassinations. He also has a hidden panel NOT in his secret lair behind the fake safe, but out in the main room.When not behind the safe, he hangs out on his cow-less ranch, masquerading as rancher Matlock. We learn that he has murdered the true owners of the ranch - two brothers - and assumed the identity of one. The daughter of the dead brother has recently arrived from 1930's NYC (judging by her wardrobe), and she apparently never met her real uncle, because he dupes her, too!If you thought that bad guys always wore black hats and good guys white hats, you need to see this movie. Here, the good guys all ditch their hats in favor of white head-bands that make them look like they have all suffered head wounds before any shots have been fired! It's like a game of pick-up basketball - only Wayne has them tying bandanas 'round their heads instead of just taking off their shirts.Perhaps the weirdest of all is the ending. Immediately after subduing the Shadow and his gang, we jump far enough into the future to see Wayne and his wife (the erst-while niece) on the front porch of their home. (Never mind that there has been scant romance.) There, Yak is playing with Wayne's 3-4 year old son, dressed up in Injun garb! (Hiyoo, skookum fun!)No thanks to this nonsense, Wayne went on to become a screen legend. Only a super-star (packer or not!) could surmount this entry in a film resume. Long live the Duke!

JOHN WAYNE is slim and lithe as a cowboy who anoints himself sheriff after the bad guys rub too many of the town's citizens out. From then on it's like watching a Hopalong Cassidy movie except this one is from Lone Star and is obviously a poverty row project with a few interesting moments for anyone who stays with it for 53 minutes.The tree stump idea puzzled me, as did the wall vault which served as the device behind which The Shadow gave orders--and the whole plot is so rushed that there's little time to digest any of the backstory that leads up to the main storyline. A pretty girl is the romantic interest for Wayne but has little to do and GEORGE HAYES is beardless for this one before he grew his trademark stubble.Actually, the slender story seems like something borrowed from a Zane Grey western--the one where the girl is part owner of a ranch, the bad guy is actually someone she knows but never suspects, and a cowboy with strong capabilities comes along and rescues her when she's in danger.The covered wagon going over the cliff into water is a neat sight toward the end and some of the stunt work involving riders and horses is on the mark. YAKIMA CANUTT is fun to watch as Wayne's Indian sidekick, a sort of Tonto to Wayne who rides a white horse.Passes the time quickly, but is clearly John Wayne as an apprentice actor.

This epic 'Lone Star' effort has a huge cast (of riders), but seems too squeezed for its 53 minutes. It is filled with serial trophes (mystery villain, hidden gunshots, hollowed tree, 'ghostly' haunts, a final mass posse chase to capture the villain), but in contrast to most other Lone Star films, it tries to do too much in too short a time. It seems rushed. This one could have used a sprawling 90 minutes to: flesh out all the evil henchmen introduced by name, including 'Chuckawalla' Red, 'Slippery' Williams and 'Spike' Morgan; show the back story of how George Hayes took over the ranch; give the faithful Indian companion,"Yak," (played by Yakima Canutt himself!) more to do; and give development to the romance between the interesting blonde, Verna Hillie (showcased in a subtle bed sequence), and John Wayne --the last scene shows their domesticity with their now five year old son! (Contrast this with the last 30 seconds of Buster Keaton's 1927 'College'!) Yak, skin darkened to look more 'Indian,' speaks in Tonto talk: "We do-um," and "Hi you skookem! Big fun!" But mostly John Wayne just tells him to "Stay here and keep an eye out..." You can see even more of the versatility of the pre- 'Gabby' George Hayes as a REALLY despicable villain in the clunky serial 'The Lost City.' Finally, even though the movie moves along interestingly enough, suddenly, everyone in town is going to chase after the villain and his gang. The cutting and pace of the film abruptly quickens, and while we see in the final epic sequence hundreds of riders (well, maybe only about 40), it came up too fast for me, and the film ended too quickly.I'll give it an E for Epic, in other words, a five.