Frontier Justice (1935) User Reviews

It's Richard Cramer Again!!

[kidboots · 5/10 · 29 April 2013]

Hoot Gibson, who had made over 100 westerns for Universal, was almost at the end of the trail. In the change over from silent to sound Universal panicked as regard the feasibility of sound westerns and dropped Hoot. He continued for a few years but these films were not up to the Universal standard even though, with his name, they continued to make a profit. His last few films were released for Diversion, "Cavalcade of the West" being the best but "Frontier Justice" really scrapped the bottom of the barrel. Plotwise it had Hoot playing breezy Brent Halston who rides into town with a million practical jokes and determined to rescue his father who has been incarcerated in an insane asylum all for being a bit too quick on the trigger.

It's hard not to reveal spoilers when any old Western aficionado knows within two minutes who the villain is. Before Halston Snr. is carted off to the asylum, "good friend" Gilbert Ware (Richard Cramer) appoints himself power of attorney. Cramer, who was never anybody's friend in Westerns, even gets to say that immortal line "We'll arrange a little neck tie party". Anyway, before the old codger is carted away, he keeps ranting about a $5,000 bed. Brent realises that's where the bonds are hidden.

There's not a lot of action in this movie apart from the cattle breaking into the Halston ranch. There is the obligatory girl, Jane Barnes, who looks as though she would be more than capable of sorting out this pretty average movie on her own. Not one of Hoot's finer moments.

Hoot's "Frontier Justice" is Less than his Best

[glennstenb · 5/10 · 13 September 2019]

It is as if the gang at the studio had an obligation to put one more film on the shelf before the year closed, so "Frontier Justice" was hurriedly shot and thrown together. It seems even that dialog was developed without a crafted story and the spoken lines handed out to the actors to utter as best they could. That the hero returns to town after a long time away with a penchant for practical jokes gives the program a little something different to hang its hat on, but in general nothing much happens that western fans can't see clearly coming. As usual, Hoot Gibson is involved in little gun play or fisticuffs, relying instead on his wits, cleverness, and his way with horses to advance his heroics.

We have a leading lady played by Jane Barnes who looks totally out of place in this World War I-era wild west world. There were two memorable things for me in this film: first was the frequent sounds of cattle and sheep vocalizing, which after a while can get a little irksome. Second, by way of contrast, there was the pleasantly surprising orchestral appearance of the song "La Golondrina" as a backdrop to Hoot coming unexpectedly across the girl in the forest idyll. Was the music backdrop planned before the shoot or was it an inspired drape-over later?

Unfortunately, however, this is not a Hoot Gibson movie to recommend. He made others in the mid 1930s that were much more interesting and enjoyable, so if one is in need of a rich 1930s B-western experience, one might consider moving along to another.

Exposing The True Culprit

[StrictlyConfidential · 5/10 · 1 October 2021]

"Frontier Justice" was originally released back in 1935.

Anyway - As the story goes - A cowboy returns to his father's ranch to find the man has been committed to an insane asylum by a local doctor. What the son doesn't realize is the doctor is working for an unscrupulous sheep rancher who has his sights set on the cattleman's ranch.

"Go get 'em boys, don't shoot unless you have to!"

[classicsoncall · 3/10 · 4 September 2008]

Hoot Gibson was admittedly one of the top screen cowboys of the silent era, perhaps second only to the legendary Tom Mix. So to see him in 1936's "Frontier Justice" is probably a terrible injustice to his legacy; the picture is a veritable chore to sit through. Well past his prime as a matinée idol, Gibson comes across almost as a caricature, a practical joker who more closely resembles a comedic sidekick than a Western hero. In fact, one of the film's heavies refers to him as 'That saperoo', a goofy enough line by itself, but one that describes the picture and it's hero pretty well.

As for the story, it's one that's been done time and again in the genre, that of feuding cattle men against sheep herders, with land and water rights hanging in the balance between the warring factions. Brent Halston's (Gibson) father has been committed to an insane asylum, and the man who sent him there, Gilbert Ware (Richard Cramer), is in league with James Wilton (Roger Williams), who conveniently frames Brent for a murder to give the edge to the sheep men. Halston works it all out of course, but watching how he gets there proves to be something of a stretch. Like the old 'drying rawhide trick' that he uses to get Ware to confess his involvement in a land swindle against the elder Halston. You really have to suspend your disbelief to accept that a band of rawhide would crumple a hard gourd in a matter of seconds the way it did on screen. I can't even imagine that theater goers of the Thirties might have bought it, much less someone watching today.

Or how about the film's use of the black character Snowflake, portrayed by Fred Toones. Probably intended as comic relief, the cook's role was embarrassingly underplayed and dull, to the point of being insipid. The few minutes it would have cut from the film, already under an hour, would have been worth it.

Say, keep your eye on that scene near the end of the picture when a group of men congregate to inspect the thirty thousand dollar note that villain Wilton is looking to foreclose on. Ethel Gordon (Jane Barnes) simply vanishes from the screen!!! She doesn't walk away or wind up missing during a scene change, she just disappears! I replayed it a number of times to be sure I had it right, and sure enough, as in the best tradition of David Copperfield, she's just gone - amazing!

One scene that did get my attention though had to do with a rampaging buckboard that breaks apart to the point where all that's left is a chariot like remnant with a lone rider standing to guide the horses pulling it. The scenario had me looking for Yakima Canutt's name in the uncredited cast list and I couldn't find it, but boy, it sure looked like something he would come up with.

I guess if you're a Hoot Gibson fan, what I've reviewed isn't good news, but I guess every actor is entitled to a clunker. That's not to say that all of his later pictures were poor - check out his 1936 film "Lucky Terror". It will probably surprise you, as it did me, with elements you probably haven't seen in a Western before, including some incredible riding and stunt work by Gibson, showing some of the form that made him a star a couple of decades earlier.