Movie Review: ***^King of the Pecos

King of the Pecos, Republic Pictures, 1936.

This is a black and white John Wayne movie.  This movie pits him as a lawyer against a land and water baron.  John Wayne portrays John Clayborn.  As a lad his folks were killed by Alexander Stiles (Cy Kendall) and his men.  They left Clayborn alive, but beat him good.  We then fast forward ten years and Clayborn has become a lawyer, but also has practiced pistol play every day since then.
He returns to town, hiding his identity and is intent on breaking Stiles' monopoly of all the water in the area.  He arrives the same day as a young woman, Belle Jackson (Muriel Evans) and her father.  They make a deal with the cattle baron to get started, but everyone knows he is now caught in a trap.  He will have to sell to Stiles and prices Stiles wants to pay.
Clayborn takes Stiles to court, and the judge rules most of his water claims are illegal; you can only have one claim.  However he still has a monopoly as all must go through his ranch and water to get to market.  This is the ranch he stole from Clayborn's parents.  When Clayborn reveals his true identity to Stiles the gloves are off, but by then there are enough cattlemen to make it a fair fight.
This movie has plenty of action.  It makes fun of a gentleman who is hard of hearing; but people weren't sensitive to that in 1936.  It seems they would have been more sensitive to life, but people are being murdered all over the place.  Even Jackson's father is murdered.