Henry Hathaway would go on to direct popular films like TRUE GRIT, NEVADA SMITH, HOW THE WEST WAS WON in the 1960s but by 1933 he was at the start of his directorial career, after beginning as actor, and he was cranking out B Westerns like TO THE LAST MAN.
The copy that I watched was poor, but cinematography seems well short of inspired.
The rather disjointed script at least includes some good one-liners.
The detail that I found truly curious was that as a new actor would come on screen, so his/her name and character would appear. I had never seen that method before. The main male lead, Randolph Scott, only rocks up about 20 minutes into the movie and he also gets identified in that manner.
Shirley Temple, shortly to become the darling child of US cinema, actually has a scene in which she pushes around a little pony interfering with her play.
The script focuses on a feud between the Haydens and the Colbys, with the latter stealing horses from the former. Evil Jack La Rue wants to marry stunningly beautiful, tomboyish Ellen Colby, but she has her heart set on Randy Scott, who proceeds to buy her dresses and call her "lady".
Her father, played rather grossly and menacingly by Noah Beery, wants none of that. He had killed the Hayden family head, done 15 years behind bars for it, and he returned with vengeance on the mind, first stealing horses and cattle, and then planning to murder the entire Hayden clan.
There are some good fisticuffs and shootouts, a momentous dynamite explosion, and a happy ending.
For a B from 1933, not bad!
The copy that I watched was poor, but cinematography seems well short of inspired.
The rather disjointed script at least includes some good one-liners.
The detail that I found truly curious was that as a new actor would come on screen, so his/her name and character would appear. I had never seen that method before. The main male lead, Randolph Scott, only rocks up about 20 minutes into the movie and he also gets identified in that manner.
Shirley Temple, shortly to become the darling child of US cinema, actually has a scene in which she pushes around a little pony interfering with her play.
The script focuses on a feud between the Haydens and the Colbys, with the latter stealing horses from the former. Evil Jack La Rue wants to marry stunningly beautiful, tomboyish Ellen Colby, but she has her heart set on Randy Scott, who proceeds to buy her dresses and call her "lady".
Her father, played rather grossly and menacingly by Noah Beery, wants none of that. He had killed the Hayden family head, done 15 years behind bars for it, and he returned with vengeance on the mind, first stealing horses and cattle, and then planning to murder the entire Hayden clan.
There are some good fisticuffs and shootouts, a momentous dynamite explosion, and a happy ending.
For a B from 1933, not bad!