The Lawless Frontier (1934)

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

A fake-Mexican bandit plots to have Gabby Hayes killed so that he could step in and "save the day" for Gabby's daughter, thus making her one of his conquests. Luckily, she overhears their plans and John Wayne is nearby. Unlucky for Wayne, the local sheriff is a stubborn dummy who immediately suspects him of being one of the bandits!This is one of the best and faster-paced of Wayne's Lone Star vehicles, with lots of action and stunts, great locations, and a colorful ruthless villain played nicely by Earl Dwire.I don't know where all this bad editing everyone is complaining about went, but I didn't witness it. Then again, the print I saw was shorter (49 minutes, 40 seconds) than the ones listed. Maybe someone fixed it.

The one scene that I think is great is where JW calls for his dad and forces open the door into a darkened cabin then lights a match showing his own face. The lighting of that scene, strong shadows and bright highlights on JW is nicely done. It seems to be the case with many of these early westerns made on tight schedules and budgets that talent was there, just not given the time or money to flourish.I liken them to the difference between a sketch artist and a portrait painter. Both may be talented and capable but where the portrait painter can spend the time to nuance the shade and tone of a back-lighted cheek the sketch artist must leave the paper untouched. Also, I remember seeing one of these B-westerns on a Saturday morning where the hero mounted his horse by putting his foot in the stirrup and standing straight up in one real smooth move and swinging his leg over and nailing his boot into the other stirrup as his hands took the reins and the horse took off at a gallop. Never did the cowboy hunker down or jerk his shoulders or kick his spurs. Start to finish it was polished with no wasted motions. To a 10 year old it looked COOL. I got out of the movie theater and went to the bicycle rack. I think that's when I realized you really have to practice the little things to truly finesse them.Spoiler spoiler******************************* *******************************Trivia question from this movie.Did John Wayne ever use a body board to hydroplane on water?? Skeleton Style??So maybe not a great movie but it does has some nifty scenes in it.

Even die hard John Wayne fans will have to concede that this film is a mess. Wayne's character, John Tobin is after the gang that killed his parents, led by half Apache, half white renegade Pandro Zanti (Earl Dwire), posing as a Mexican. There are almost too many silly plot points to count, but those that stand out include Sheriff Williams (Jack Rockwell) cuffing a captured Zanti around his boot, so all Zanti has to do to get free is remove his boot! Tobin's friend Dusty (George pre-Gabby Hayes) takes a thrown knife in the back, and comes back good as new for the rest of the story. In a chase scene, Tobin rides a makeshift log flume through a drainage trough surrounded by log walls in the middle of a desert, and missing his mark, chases (actually walks after) Zanti on foot through the desert. Zanti seeks relief and drinks from a pool of water, but OOPS!, he didn't see the sign above the waterhole that states "Don't Drink Poison". As Zanti collapses dead, Tobin resumes his chase after the remainder of the gang, and captures the whole lot by blowing up a rock wall that seals a secret passage into Dusty's cabin - how convenient.In the closing scene, the new Sheriff Tobin is seen on the phone talking to the new Mrs. Tobin (Sheila Terry), Dusty's daughter Ruby, who earlier in the film was a kidnap target of Zanti's gang. Apparently, the studio was intent on Wayne's getting the girl in virtually every film they made with him, as this type of ending is completely predictable for almost all of Lone Star's films.

John's parents are killed by a renegade bandit, played to the hilt by perennial bad guy, Earl Dwire. Dwire injures Hayes, who joins with John to bring him and his gang to justice.The local sheriff, Jack Rockwell, is convinced that John's one of the gang, and when Hayes is shot, arrests John for the shooting.There are the usual chases, gun battles, and fights that hallmark these "B" Westerns. There is one extended walking scene where you can see the Duke perfecting his special walk that became a trademark.An excellent stunt has John riding a log down a large drainage ditch. Pretty amazing, and not without danger to the actor.Beware though, the DVD copy looks as if they took the print from an Extended Play (EP) VHS copy. Very disappointing, but, a classic from John Wayne.