hyped garbage

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

John Wayne (John Brant), Nancy Shubert (Sally Blake), Lane Chandler (Bob Jones), Yakima Canutt (Ed Walsh, and stunt double for John Wayne), Bob Burns (Robert E. Burns) (Sheriff Parker), Wally Wales (deputy sheriff), Art Mix (henchman), Hank Bell (outlaw with chair), Earl Dwire (Blind Pete), Henry Hall (Blake), Slim Whitaker, Robert Walker, Tex Phelps, Blackjack Ward (henchmen), Ted Adams (Taggart), Silver Tip Baker (townsman), Hal Price (train driver), William Dyer (Blind Pete), Julie Kingdon (town girl), Archie Ricks (stage driver). Director: ARMAND SCHAEFER. Screenplay: Lindsley Parsons. Story: Lindsley Parsons and Will Beale. Photography: Archie Stout. Film editor: Carl Pierson. Art director: E.R. Hickson. Sound recording: John A. Stransky, Jr. Balsley & Phillips Sound System. Producer: Paul Malvern. Executive producer: Trem Carr. A Lone Star Western, copyright 1 December 1933 by Monogram Pictures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: 15 December 1933. U.K. release: 4 March 1935 (sic). 6 reels. 54 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Unjustly convicted murderer escapes from prison to hunt down vital missing witness.NOTES: The second of Wayne's 16 Lone Star Westerns. Negative cost: a measly $10,900, comprising only 3 days of location work and but a single day of studio interiors.COMMENT: Although it doesn't hold a candle to Wayne's Republic westerns in any department, this is still a most entertaining Lone Star Western. Nice to see Lane Chandler in a featured role, for once, and acquitting himself with honor too. Wayne is great as always, even here showing the sort of charisma and star power that would later delight so many millions of fans. The rest of the players are not much, though Yakima Canutt has a sizable on-camera role as leader of the outlaw band. Despite limited production values and obvious technical deficiencies, plus some clichéd and rather clumsily delivered dialogue, one can still enjoy the reasonably picturesque locations and the action spots, complete with stunt-work and fast panning, which are nothing if not most enthusiastically staged.

. . . riddle SAGEBRUSH TRAIL. First off, this flick is set in the 1900s. Its precipitating incident is a "murder" at a "love nest" in which a cuckolded husband guns down his wife's paramour. No American jury convicted guys for such "justifiable homicides" in the previous century, as the O.J. verdict proved. But somehow this Baltimore murder rap is hung on a random by-stander bozo, played by John Wayne, for reasons never even hinted at. So Wayne breaks prison and hops on a West-bound train "to look for the Real Killer." Unlike O.J.'s fruitless search of America's golf courses, Wayne is spooked off the train at a random hamlet and steals a horse, galloping off in a random direction closely pursued by a couple lawmen. As these "star packers" close in, Wayne dives into a pond and eventually is pulled out of the water by the Real Killer! Since both of these Baltimore strangers are somehow expert rodeo stunt riders, they're hired by the local outlaw gang, where Wayne dons an apron to fry breakfast eggs. At this point, a few minutes into SAGEBRUSH TRAIL, the movie starts to get implausible. Proceed at your own risk.

In the 1930s before he made it big with Stagecoach, John Wayne made a lot of low-budget B westerns. Most are entirely forgettable and some are even terrible. But the one constant in all of them was Duke's wonderful screen presence. This is one of those westerns. The plot's about an escaped convict (Wayne) who heads out west to prove his innocence by finding the man who really committed the crime he was convicted of. There's some surprisingly good stunt work in this, some of it by Duke himself. I also liked some of the twists the plot takes that keeps it from being a standard black hat vs white hat horse opera. Very good of its type.

Great stunt when Wayne, concealed in a camouflaged niche in the road, grabs onto the axle as the buckboard passes over him. Looks like a Canutt engineered trick and looks also like it's Wayne and not a double that executes it. Then too, the wheel spacing has to be perfect otherwise it's road-kill for a young superstar—he really earned his money in those early days.The movie belongs to Lane Chandler almost as much as Wayne. Together, they're a youthfully exciting team, but my guess is that they were too much alike to stay partnered. So eventually, along comes old coot Gabby Hayes and the screen gets one of its really great all- time pairings.Pretty good story from writer Lindsley Parsons, his first screen credit, who later became a prolific producer of B-films. Over time he scripted a number of Wayne oaters with plots generally more involved than most. This one involves Wayne infiltrating gang of robbers to clear himself of a murder charge. There're several nifty episodes-- Wayne hiding out underwater as a menacing boot almost steps on him, the script making him a cook (of all things) for the gang. Note too, the opening scene of Wayne dodging railway dicks after hobo-ing it into town—I expect that resonated with 1933 audiences when half the country was riding the rails.Some good hard riding and a spectacular crash. Too bad, however, that producer Malvern couldn't get the boys up to Lone Pine for that marvelous Sierra scenery. Instead they get to race around the scrublands of greater LA, not nearly as much fun. Note the frequent use of the Bronson Canyon cave for entrance to the gang's hideout. Despite appearances, it's only a few miles from downtown LA and the studios, and was thus a favorite for tight-budget productions, especially sci-fi from the 50's. Also in passing—this is Nancy Shubert's only screen credit, unusual for a leading lady. I wonder what her story was.Anyhow, it's a fun trip down memory lane for us geezers and for those younger folks who appreciate action done by real people instead of blue screens and digital computers.