IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Ploydsge just watch it!

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

MartinHafer In the 1930s, John Wayne made a very long string of low-budget westerns. Despite their limitations, most of these films are pretty enjoyable for what they are--films to compete with series by the likes of Gene Autry and the like. And, compared to these other films, the Wayne films are generally a bit better. However, none of the films of this genre are high art--with often silly and tissue-thin plots but plenty of action.This film irritated me a bit, as you must accept the notion that everyone in the film has an IQ lower than a tomato's! Heck, Duke the Horse is MUCH smarter than everyone else in this silly film! You see this is one of the earliest scenes where Duke is on trial(!). He's accused of being vicious as he reacts horribly--at least around certain people. No one seems to notice that he is a gentle horse and only acts up around people who turn out to be evil! No one in town seems to know who the local villain, 'the Hawk', is, but Duke sure knows--and might pay for his life because of this! A bit later, it turns out that Wayne's character is also amazingly stupid. In a badly written scene, it's obvious to every single person in the audience (including the babies) that the guy in the desert with Wayne is the Hawk. Their conversation clearly lets you know that the guy is the Hawk and people in the audience were no-doubt yelling "it's the Hawk--don't trust him!". Yet, oddly, Wayne hands this evil man his guy to 'try it out' and low and behold, he takes Wayne prisoner!! And, for that matter, the Hawk isn't all that bright either, as he ties up Wayne and leaves him instead of just shooting him in the head! I guess the Hawk knew Wayne was the hero and, as such, was invulnerable! Later still, it's obvious that Wayne is a good guy. So what do the townsfolk do? Yep, they decide to hang him despite having almost no evidence!! And, when Wayne offers to give them proof that he's innocent, they ignore him! They also won't allow him to testify in court! What a bunch of poop-brains!! Is there lead in the water or something that might account for everyone being so incredibly stupid?! Perhaps there is a stupid gene and everyone here is related to each other! To make it even worse, a nice young lady learns who the Hawk really is and tells everyone in court who the Hawk is...and they STILL want to hang Wayne!! Overall, this is a pretty terrible film--even for a B-western. Wayne went on to make some very good Bs, but his early ones for Leon Schlesinger Studios were amazingly bad. This and "Haunted Gold" are two of these dreadful films he made with them and fortunately his films made just a few years later were much, much better--such as his Three Mesquiteers series. Any film that requires characters to be this dumb to make the plot work just isn't worth seeing--except for its value as comedy!!

zardoz-13 Director Fred Allen's "Ride Him, Cowboy," a remake of the 1926 Warner Brothers' Ken Maynard western "The Unknown," toplined John Wayne in his first oater for the Burbank company as a harmonica playing hero out to break up a ring of range thieves terrorizing ranches. Essentially, "Ride Him, Cowboy" was a B-movie sagebrusher where the star's horse shows more sense than most of the characters and behaves like a resourceful canine rather than a skittish mount. Aside from a cowboy orchestra strumming a tune, "Ride Him, Cowboy" contains no orchestral soundtrack, but this western boasts better than average production values and looks more expensive than Wayne's later Lone Star westerns that he made after Jack Warner turned him loose some five westerns later. Indeed, this is John Wayne at age 25 looking skinny and rawboned as an upstanding, romantic lead. Predictable from fade-in to fade-out, "Ride Him, Cowboy" is nothing distinguished, but director-turned-editor Fred Allen makes interesting use of dolly shots and there is an interesting point-of-view shot of the sun boiling down on our hero when he is tied to a tree in the desert."Ride Him, Cowboy" opens during one dark, rainy evening as the notorious outlaw 'the Hawk' (Frank Nagney of "The General") a.k.a. Henry Sims and his henchmen attack the Gaunt ranch to steal money. A fierce horse storms up and drives the henchmen away. Jim Gaunt (Henry B. Walthall of "Judge Priest") and his granddaughter Ruth (Ruth Hall of "Monkey Business") check into the disturbance and find one of their ranch hands, Bob Webb, unconscious and in pretty bad shape. Gaunt is surprised to see Sims on his property. Sims explains he just happened to be riding along when he heard the fracas. Sims argues that the horse tried to kill Webb and ought to be destroyed. Meanwhile, the doctor thinks that Webb will pull through without harm, but the ranch hand remains in a coma for three days.The next day in the frontier town of Cattlelow in Maricopa County around the year 1900, Judge Bartlett (Charles Sellon of "Baby Face") convenes court to decide whether to destroy Duke or let the horse live. Sims offers compelling testimony against the horse and Duke rears up at Sims. Ruth rushes to Duke's defense and pleads with the judge not to destroy a horse as gentle as he is. About that time, wandering cowpoke John Drury, late of the Tumblin' Ace Ranch in Texas, rides into Cattlelow on his horse 'Buddy' playing a harmonica without a care in the world. When Drury leans about the impending demise of Duke, he intervenes and persuades Judge Bartlett to let Duke live if he can ride the ornery horse. Sims makes a one-hundred dollar wager with Gaunt that Drury cannot stay aboard Duke and loses. Ruth and Gaunt are overjoyed that Drury saves Duke and a bystander observes that Drury would be a great addition to the vigilantes in their fight against the Hawk. Gaunt invites Drury to their meeting after our hero says that he loves excitement and gives Ruth a loving eye.At the vigilante meeting, Drury suggests that the best way to handle the Hawk is for one man to tackle the villain. Drury learns that nobody knows what the Hawk looks like, except the man has ridden roughshod over the county for years now. John Gaunt persuades Sims to escort Drury into the Hawk's bailiwick. One of the best dolly shots in "Ride Him, Cowboy" occurs during this scene when Allen dollies out from a close-up of Sims to show the entire with several western characters seated around a table. The deputy, Clout (Henry Gribbon of "Yankee Doodle in Berlin"), provides top-notch comic relief as a clowning blow-hard coward. Later that evening at the Gaunt ranch, John and Ruth get to know each other and Ruth insists that John take Duke when he leaves to track down the Hawk. At the same time, Duke trots up and strips the saddle off Drury's horse Buddy. Drury rides off on Duke and meets Sims the following day at Eagle Pass. They ride into the desert and take a breather where Drury explains that his revolver is a 38 caliber gun in a .45 caliber frame dampen the recoil. They compare their ability to make difficult shots look easy and Sims tries out Drury's six-gun and gets the drop on our hero. He ties Drury to a tree while Duke restlessly pulls at his own reins after Drury has knotted them to nearby tree.The Hawk gathers his men, attacks a ranch, and kills the son of the owner and wife. Burning down the buildings, he frames Drury for the crime by leaving Drury's harmonica at the scene. Sims informs Ruth that Drury left him without a word in the night and hasn't been seen since he rode off. The vigilantes and the sheriff catch up to Drury. The only reason that Drury didn't die from exposure of the sun is that Duke pulled himself loose from the tree and untied Drury's bonds with his teeth. The authorities take Drury to a nearby abandoned town where Judge E. Clarence 'Necktie' Jones (Otis Harlan of "Dr. Socrates") convenes a hearing and pretty much railroads Drury into a noose based on Sims' testimony. Meanwhile, Webb recovers from his coma and informs Ruth that it was Sims as the Hawk who attacked their ranch. Ruth mounts up and rides like the devil to save Drury's life. Along the way, she runs into the Hawk's henchmen and fools them into following her to 'Necktie' Jones' courtroom. Ruth arrives in the nick of time to save Drury from an inevitable hanging.Clocking in at a lean, mean 55 minutes, "Ride Him, Cowboy" moves at a brisk pace and never bogs down. Producer Leon Schlesinger is the same individual who supervised the Warner Brothers' cartoons with Bugs Bunny and company.

bsmith5552 "Ride Him Cowboy" was the first of six westerns that John Wayne made for Warner Bros. for the 1932-33 season. Most were remakes of Ken Maynard silent westerns pf the 1920s thus giving the studio the opportunity to use stock footage from those films (which they did). This one is a remake of Maynard's 1926 film "The Unknown Cavalier". To match any stock footage used, the studio costumed Wayne in Maynard's costume and used a horse ("Duke") that looked the same as Maynard's "Tarzan".This first film gets the series off to a good start. Directed by Fred Allen (No, not THAT Fred Allen), the story moves along and holds the viewer's interest. Since the series was made at WB, the production values were far superior to those in Wayne's later "Lone Star" westerns.The story centers on how Wayne came to acquire his horse "Duke". The Hawk, aka Henry Sims (Frank Hagney) and his gang are robbing and pillaging the local ranchers. One particular night they hit the Gaunt ranch. The foreman, Bob Webb (Edmund Cobb) is attacked. The attack, for some reason, is made to look like Webb was trampled by Gaunt's prize palomino "Duke".The horse is about to be destroyed after a "trial" in town when a stranger, John Drury (Wayne) rides into town. He pleads with the Deputy Sheriff (Henry Cribbon), the owner John Gaunt (Henry B. Wathall) and his daughter Ruth (Ruth Hall) for a chance to ride the horse and tame him. He does this and the horse takes a shine to him. Gaunt allows Drury to take the horse as he also becomes attracted to Ruth.Drury offers his services to the town to track down the mysterious bandit. He and Sims who offers to be his guide set out in search of "The Hawk". In the desert, Sims reveals himself to be "The Hawk" and ties up Drury and leaves him for dead. "Duke", however, is able to free his master.While attacking another ranch, Sims plants Drury's harmonica and later cites him as "The Hawk". A mock trial before Judge Clarence "Necktie" Jones is held, Drury is found guilty and..................................A good series opener with little obvious use of stock footage.

CMUltra Was this clichéd when it was made? It is now, of course. Every line of script is hombre, garsh ma'am and reach for the ceiling! But, now, almost everything from the old movies is clichéd. In 1932, was this material fresh? I doubt it. Everything about this movie screams one-shot direction and fast production.But, that's okay! It does what it was meant to do in providing a fast and furious western saga. John Drury (Wayne) is new in town but wastes no time taming an angry horse (Duke), making sweet time with Ruth (Hall), and going after the film's villain (Hagney).Folks seem a little harsh in judging the acting and plot. This movie rushes along as it was meant to. There's little time (55 minutes) to waste on characterization or thoughtful pauses. What we do get is wall-to-wall action which, I believe, is what the movie was shooting for. For drama there are some double-crosses (Drury is framed for being the murderer) and tough talking.John Wayne is nowhere near as polished as we see him in later (and more successful) movies. But his charm is right there in all it's rough glory.I recommend this movie for couch-and-snacks enjoyment. 5 of 10!