A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Ride Him, Cowboy (1932) *** (out of 4)Duke, a horse, is on trial for killing a man and the judge is about to put him to death when cowboy John Drury (John Wayne) makes a deal. If Drury can tame the horse then it can live. Of course the cowboy comes through and soon the two of them are trying to track down the real murderer.RIDE HIM, COWBOY was Wayne's shot at stardom as this was the first of the six picture deal that he signed with Warner. The film is certainly a step up from movies like TWO FISTED LAW, which featured Wayne in supporting parts. On a technical level this might still be a "B" movie but it's still better than what we had seen the now legend in up to this point.The best thing about the picture is actually Wayne and his supporting cast of actors. I thought that laid back approach of Wayne's worked pretty well here including the scenes where he trying to smooth talk the leading lady played by Ruth Hall. Wayne and Hall share some nice chemistry together. Frank Hagney does a good job in his role of the villain and Henry B. Walthall turns in another fine supporting performance.As you'd expect, there's a lot of gun play as well as other Western trappings but they're all handled quite nicely by director Fred Allen who keeps the film moving at a nice pace throughout its 55 minutes.

During the 1931/1932 movie release season, Columbia Pictures had Buck Jones under contract to do a series of Westerns. During the same period, they also signed up a young John Wayne, perhaps to groom for future leading roles. However with the signing of yet another Western hero, Tim McCoy, Wayne became expendable after appearing in three films that featured Jones and McCoy.So Wayne was picked up by Leon Schlesinger over at Warners, resulting in a series of six films; "Ride Him, Cowboy" was the first. Long after seeing all sixteen of Wayne's Lone Star Westerns (1933 to 1935) he made right after the Warners gig, I've been diligently seeking them out, and lo and behold, all six appeared on the Turner Classic Movie Channel this past week, aired in the order of their original release. Sometimes the movie gods smile down favorably.The film opens with Wayne galloping into view atop his horse 'Duke', perhaps not as dramatic an entrance as he made in the opener for "Stagecoach", but impressive nonetheless. What's interesting is that the picture serves as the origin story for Wayne's horse, who appeared in all six of the Warners sagebrush yarns and released as 'Four Star Westerns'. In the story, Duke is put on trial! for being a menace to the community of Cattlelow in Healer Valley, Maricopa County. The film's captioning stated the town's name as 'Catalog', but I use another reviewer's description since it seems to make more sense.Duke, who's owned by the Gaunt's (Henry B. Walthall and Ruth Hall), is saved by harmonica playing John Drury (Wayne) after successfully staying on board the bucking Duke to prove that the horse is manageable. That scene of Drury taming down Duke was handled using stock footage from an earlier Ken Maynard film atop his horse Tarzan. Duke himself, a white horse, was selected because of his resemblance to Tarzan for just such an eventuality. One more note of interest - Duke appeared to have some sort of brand or mark on his left hindquarter, and depending on the camera angle, the mark looked like 'A1' or '/H', a little difficult to tell, although in the follow up picture, "The Big Stampede", it definitely looks more like 'A1'.Duke proved invaluable in the later going when it became necessary to save his new master from dying in the desert after the villain Hawk (Frank Hagney) tricked Drury into giving up his gun. Duke managed to uproot the tree he was tied to and undid the rope securing Drury so he could bring the Hawk and the rest of his rustling gang to justice. Before that though, Drury had to stand trial for a raid on the Gordon Ranch, having been implicated by his harmonica placed at the scene by Henry Sims, the Hawk. A newspaper headline touting 'Dewey Captures Manila' in the office of Judge 'Necktie' Jones (Otis Harlan), places the date of this story some time after May 1st, 1898.Riding hard to make the save, because Duke couldn't actually speak, one of the few things he wasn't capable of, Ruth Gaunt arrived just in time after outwitting a trio of Hawk's henchmen. In a story made credible only by the standards of these early B Westerns, Drury and his gal Ruth close things out with a kiss, establishing a tradition that would carry through the remaining Four Star Westerns as well as the Lone Star films to follow.Addendum**** 6-7-2016 - Doing a little research on 'Duke', you can see a pretty good screen capture of the brand noted in my review here at: http://www.b-westerns.com/hoss-jwayne.htm. Apparently it's a combination of the letters AH as one can see from the picture.

Ride Him, Cowboy was John Wayne's debut film for Warner Brothers from 1932. Wayne stars as a drifter who happens upon a small town besieged by the "Hawk", a vandal terrorizing the townsfolk for a reason that's never fully revealed. A horse named Duke (of all names) joins up with Wayne in thwarting the "Hawk". The film is a remake of an even older Ken Maynard film, and the plot and characters are creaky. The film moves at a brisk pace, but Wayne never gets to show his stuff much and is upstaged by Duke the horse, as is everyone else in the film. Frank Hagney plays Henry Sims, in one of the few credited roles he played; most of his later roles in his long career were uncredited bit parts. Cornball comic moments are provided by the deputy played by Henry Gribbon and Judge "Necktie" Jones played by Otis Harlan. Film is not up to later Wayne standards, even for a programmer. *1/2 of 4 stars.

This film was the first of a series of B westerns that John Wayne did for Warner Brothers and it was decided to give him a horse companion named Duke. Duke the horse was fine, the film left a lot to be desired.A horse is the only witness to a robbery where another witness was beaten unconscious and lies in a coma. He went after the villain and the villain who is masked bandit known as the Hawk says the horse is a mankiller who attacked him for no good reason. Since by day the villain is a respectable town citizen everyone believes him, almost.One of the almost is young cowpoke John Wayne who says he can tame the stallion and proceeds to do so. He even offers to track down the Hawk.It starts to get a little ridiculous here especially in the way that the villain gets the drop on Wayne. Of course in the tradition of Trigger, Champion, Topper, and Robert Taylor's horse Varick in Knights of the Round Table, Duke rescues his friend John Wayne. Doesn't that sound a little odd.Otis Harlan has a very funny bit as the country judge before whom Wayne is tried when he's accused of being the Hawk. And the villain does get a poetic ending.Still it's hardly one of John Wayne's best.