Movie Review: ***The Star Packer (John Wayne)

The Star Packer, Lone Star Pictures, directed by R.N. Bradbury 1934.
John Teavers (John Wayne) is a Federal Marshall with his Native American companion Yak (Yakima Canutt)  They have come to town to put a stop to The Shadow (George Hayes) and his gang who have been stealing, killing town sheriffs and stage drivers.  This is a mystery at its finest.  The bad guys are able to shoot the sheriffs in the middle of town, with no one noticing what happens.  It really is a puzzle that takes all the Marshall's boldness, and Yak's cunning to crack.  There are many notorious bad guys in the gang at the hide out; not only that they also have a machine gun.  Anita Matlock (Verna Hillie) has come to claim her father's share of the ranch, but her uncle is not very thrilled.  Teavers has to rescue her a couple times, and with rescuing comes love.

Movie Review: ***The Trail Beyond (John Wayne, 1934)

John Wayne, This John Wayne Western has a different twist.  It starts with Rod (Wayne) headed to Canada to find the long lost niece of his friend.  He is also going to see what happened to his friend’s brother who  disappeared some years before. 

On the train he meets an old college buddy, Wabi (Noah Beery Jr.)  His buddy is involved in a poker game that goes bad.  One of the players is shot, and the other two blame him.  He assumes the player shot has been murdered.  Wayne comes and helps him escape from the other two, and they  jump from the train into the river; but just like that they are fugitives.

They still head north, and discover the friend’s brother, dead in a cabin with his partner in a gold mine.  They find the map to the mine.  Now they are not only looking for a girl, but also gold.

They make it to the north, Where Robbie grew up, and meet a young woman (Verna Hillie) who works there.  Robbie has a thing for her.  However in the conflict between trading posts, this young woman is kidnapped, hoping she will give them the combination to the safe where Rod stored his map to the mine. 

This movie has something different—a canoe chase.  It was really quite exciting.  And when the Canadian Mountie shows up to arrest our protagonists, he is shot and almost goes over the waterfall.

There is a big battle with much conflict and shooting between one trading post, and the neighboring community who come to save the day. 

I didn’t like the abrupt ending.  Rod discovers the girl at the trading post is who he was looking for, but his friend withheld this information because he was hoping to keep her around.  He had a sense she would leave him.

This movie leaves some danglers at the end which I did not like.  It ended very abruptly like they had a time limit and were almost over their time.  However I can see why John Wayne and Western movie are so popular.  They are very exciting. 

Movie Review: ***Texas Terror (John Wayne)

Texas Terror: A Lone Star Picture, 1935.
John Wayne stars as the sheriff of a Texas town, and in a botched robbery his best friend is killed.  He was counting on courting his friend's daughter when she returns from school in the East in another year.  A gang of three actually were guilty of the killing, but they skedaddled, and left the money behind after the killing.   
However, Sheriff John Higgins (Wayne) is left with the impression he shot his friend in a shoot out, and his friend had been part of the robbery.  He leaves his job distraught, and heads to the mountains to live the hermit's life. 
A year later, when the daughter Bess Mathews (Lucile Brown) returns, in a motorized stage, the stage is robbed while she is around the corner stretching her legs.  However the driver is shot (not killed) and the robbers take off with express money.  Higgins comes upon them and retakes the express money.  (He doesn't see the girl until later.)  The robbers start following them, but he is able to hold them off.  He comes upon the girl, gets her into the car with the driver where she can drive away to safety.  (He keeps the money.)  Bess assumes he is one of the robbers with his appearance. 
She tells the current sheriff about the robber she saw, and gives his description.  In the meantime, Higgins has come to town to return the money. 
As Bess is set to run her father's ranch, Higgins takes the job of foreman, knowing when she discovers he killed her father, she will hate him.
However, at a town dance, the community gets their first break and first evidence in the robbery and murder.  Someone uses money from the robbery.  This gets Robbins back on the trail, where he can discover what really happened a year before.
I really enjoyed John Wayne's performance, however his female lead was not up to par.  She seemed a bit stiff more my taste. 

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.