An Exercise In Nonsense

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

George O'Brien stars as B movie cowboy Jeffrey Carson in this B Western that was directed and co-written (with Dan Jarrett) by Ewing Scott. While shooting a movie in Wyoming, Carson gets involved in a range war ostensibly between wealthy ranchers and their cattle wranglers, before he later discovers that the conflict has been exacerbated by some gangsters (led by Charles Middleton) that had been run out of their city by the 'new administration'.After his movie wraps, Carson runs into a writer friend he calls Shakespeare (played by Joe Caits), who's on the run from a Hollywood scandal, and the two begin a hunting trip to lay low for a while. But after Carson rescues pretty Joyce Butler (Cecilia Parker) from some of Kramer's (Middleton) thugs, he and his friend end up working for her tough mom Violet (Maude Eburne), who has so far resisted paying the 1% graft to Kramer's Cattlemen Protection Agency. Naturally Carson is attracted to Joyce, as she is to him, especially per the contrast between the handsome actor and the less than manly rancher Courtney (Frank Milan) that had been courting her.Of course, Kramer and his thugs are no match for Carson, who employs a Hollywood stunt pilot (Lester Dorr) to force down the gangster's plane and pilot (Walter De Palma), who'd been terrorizing the other ranchers by driving off their herds and bombing water troughs and even a dam.

An odd oater, with little hard riding and no fast shooting or flying fists. Instead combat takes place between two old airplanes, plus well-aimed lassoes. Hollywood cowboy Buck (O'Brien) shows his grit off-screen by helping ornery old rancher Violet Butler resist a shakedown by conniving city slicker Kramer (Middleton). Most of the storyline, however, is taken up with talk, maybe too much. But there is some good footage of the fabled Alabama Hills and scenic eastern Sierras. Also, some good bird's-eye footage of the maneuvering airplanes interspersed with process footage of the pilots against a backscreen. O'Brien's cowboy is more affable than tough, a rarity for matinée heroes, while Parker makes a comely blonde sweetie who'd make any guy stick around. Too bad the deliciously evil Middleton doesn't get more screen time, even though he's more subdued than usual. Anyway, it's definitely not a formula western, but has enough appealing novelties to satisfy an old matinée fan like me.A "6" on the Matinée Scale

I saw this picture under the title "Wings Over Wyoming", opening with a nod to the Franklin Roosevelt administration as newspaper headlines demand that 'Rackets Must Go'! With the heat on, mobster Doc Kramer (Charles Middleton) moves his enterprise out West, forming a racket called the Cattlemens Protective Association. If you're a Western fan, you've probably run across that name dozens of times in dozens of Westerns, although in 1937 it probably wasn't as generic as modern day fans know it today.So as common as the theme is, the picture gives it a bit of a twist with the identity of the principal player. George O'Brien portrays a 'picture actor' who's just wrapped up filming a movie, and is persuaded by film writer G. Gatsby Holmes (Joe Caits) to take some time off to go camping and fishing. Holmes' real motivation is to dodge a high profile divorce case brought by his wife, and it doesn't take much to talk Jeff Carson (O'Brien) into taking some time off.Once that's all established, it's a fairly routine good guys/bad guys story, with O'Brien's character falling for pretty Joyce Butler (Cecilia Parker), daughter of shrewd cattle rancher Violet Butler (Maude Eburn). Old Vi isn't falling for the protection racket business, even if Kramer's going rate is a penny a pound. I don't know, that sounded pretty reasonable to me, except for the fact that it was a shakedown with no value offered in return. It might have been worth it though just to have the guy get lost.The finale was a fairly inventive affair, as one of Kramer's henchmen who was about to stampede the Butler herd one more time using an old fashioned biplane became engaged in sort of a duel with a single wing aircraft enlisted by the cattlemen. It looked cool, but I didn't really see the point of it all, because there was no way they could have made contact with each other without both planes crashing. The way the film writers got around that was for the villain to run out of gas, thereby being forced to land. Meanwhile, the sheriff's posse on the ground ran down the rest of the baddies and hogtied them into submission. The best part about that was seeing the sixty two year old Butler lady lasso one of the villains, as Carson demonstrated the old 'ride off into the sunset' with the younger Miss Joyce.

Although the events setting the stage for the plot are unusual, once this newness wears off you'll probably realize that this is a pretty standard B-movie Western. It's a decent time-passer, but not much else.George O'Brien plays a cowboy movie star on location in Wyoming. While he's finishing a film, the local ranchers are being victimized by mobsters (in Wyoming?!) who are convincing everyone that it's the work of strikers. In return, the mobsters offer "protection" to the ranchers to get their cattle to market unharmed. Soon after George's friend 'Shakespeare' arrives (Joe Caits), the two are pulled into the battle between mobsters and ranchers--none of which know George is a movie star (apparently none of them ever went to a movie). Not surprisingly, by the end of the film, the baddies are captured by O'Brien and he gets the girl--exactly like you'd see in any other B-Western of the time.No real surprises here--just a fairly typical baddies in the contemporary West getting theirs from the hero. Well made and watchable but not a film to rush to see.