Riders of Destiny/Lucky Texan

Rating:
Summary: A couple of early-B Westerns with John Wayne & Gabby Hayes
Review: This DVD offers a pair of the Lone Star/Monogram westerns that a young John Wayne made in 1933-35. "Riders of Destiny" was the first of those poverty row westerns and is of additional historical value because this is John Wayne as a singing cowboy. Granted, the singing is dubbed by Bill Bradbury, one of the twin sons of writer-director Robert North Bradbury (although since there is no official credit the matter remains a disputed issue), but still, you have to admit it is a rather mind boggling notion, like how the title really has anything to do with the plot.

In this 1933 film Wayne stars as Singin' Sandy Saunders, who also happens to be a government agent. James Kincaid (Forrest Taylor) has taken control of the water in the area and is willing to grant water rights to other ranchers at exorbitant rates. One of those being exploited is the lovely Fay Denton (Cecilia Parker), so Sandy takes a special shine to her. Meanwhile he plans on sinking Kincaid's operation by opening up a lost river and sending the bad guy to a rather ironic but richly deserved fate. Our hero also does some pretty fancy shooting in the requisite gunfight near the end.


In "Lucky Texan" (1934), Wayne plays Jerry Mason, who partners up with the old friend of his father, Jake "Grandy" Benson (Hayes) on a gold strike. But as they work their claim in secret the local accessor, Harris (Lloyd Whitlock) and his henchman Joe Cole (Yakima Canutt), are trying to find out where the strike is so they can kill the old man. This one also has a rather funny chase scene that involves an early automobile and a railroad handcar, while the Duke is on a horse, that will have you thinking more of the Keystone Cops than John Ford, but it actually sort of works because these are really the sort of films you would want to see at a Saturday matinee.

Written & directed by Robert N. Bradbury, the prime attraction of "The Lucky Texan" is both the young John Wayne before he fully develops his heroic cowboy persona and the stunt work of the legendary Yakima Canutt (the best one is where Mason leaps for a bad guy, misses, falls into a ravine, and ends up catching the guy at the other end). The print copy is less than stellar, but then it was not like they were working with first rate production values to begin with at Lone Star. I keep expecting these to be really bad, but they are more than halfway decent (so far).