KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

MartinHafer One of the other reviewers was right--this film was horribly edited--as if by a blind guy on crack! I assume this was NOT how the film was originally released--as even for a low-budget B-movie it was pretty shabby. In addition, some knuckle-heads at Fox-Lorber decided to 'improve' this public domain film by adding a new musical track--a musical track that was just god-awful. The instruments are new and very electronic, the music was used indiscriminately (and often inappropriately) and it was the exact same track used in many John Wayne B-westerns--exactly the same! It was just dreadful but you can't blame the people at Lone Star Pictures who made the film."The Lawless Frontier" was a below average Wayne outing--mostly due to the terribly dumb Sheriff--no one can be that dumb or incompetent! An outlaw named Zanti is posing as a Mexican--why, I have no idea. The main problem with catching him is that the local Sheriff is an idiot and seems to have no desire to do anything. Naturally, Wayne will save the day.The only pluses for this film are the wonderful stunts--even better than you'd normally see in these Wayne B-films. A few of the stunts were just stunning and you have to see them to believe them. But, a dumb villain and Sheriff, a stabbing that somehow leaves Gabby feeling a-o.k. and some choppy elements to the film make this very tough to watch. If you do want to see it, download it from IMDb for free--it's much better than seeing the yecchy version by Fox-Lorber shown on the Encore Channel.

edavid2d The one scene that I think is great is where JW calls for his dad and forces open the door into a darkened cabin then lights a match showing his own face. The lighting of that scene, strong shadows and bright highlights on JW is nicely done. It seems to be the case with many of these early westerns made on tight schedules and budgets that talent was there, just not given the time or money to flourish.I liken them to the difference between a sketch artist and a portrait painter. Both may be talented and capable but where the portrait painter can spend the time to nuance the shade and tone of a back-lighted cheek the sketch artist must leave the paper untouched. Also, I remember seeing one of these B-westerns on a Saturday morning where the hero mounted his horse by putting his foot in the stirrup and standing straight up in one real smooth move and swinging his leg over and nailing his boot into the other stirrup as his hands took the reins and the horse took off at a gallop. Never did the cowboy hunker down or jerk his shoulders or kick his spurs. Start to finish it was polished with no wasted motions. To a 10 year old it looked COOL. I got out of the movie theater and went to the bicycle rack. I think that's when I realized you really have to practice the little things to truly finesse them.Spoiler spoiler******************************* *******************************Trivia question from this movie.Did John Wayne ever use a body board to hydroplane on water?? Skeleton Style??So maybe not a great movie but it does has some nifty scenes in it.

bkoganbing The most die-hard worshippers of John Wayne will cringe when they watch The Lawless Frontier. Even for a poverty row studio, this one is one stinkeroo.Unusual for a western we have a criminal who is a sex crime perpetrator. Earl Dwire plays a halfbreed white and Indian who for reasons that are not explained, pretends he's a Mexican, hokey accent and all. Dwire sounds like the Frito Bandito of advertising fame back in the day.He and his gang happen upon Gabby Hayes and his daughter Sheila Terry. They really don't have anything worth robbing, but Dwire just wants an excuse to kidnap Terry and have his way with her. She hears the dastardly fate she has in store and she and Hayes flee the ranch. Where they happen to meet John Wayne who's on the trail of the bandits. They also run into one very stupid sheriff who believes Wayne is one of the bandits. Again for reasons I can't quite fathom.It was a tough way to earn a living grinding out horse operas like these for the Duke. Fortunately better things were on the way.

TEXICAN-2 John's parents are killed by a renegade bandit, played to the hilt by perennial bad guy, Earl Dwire. Dwire injures Hayes, who joins with John to bring him and his gang to justice.The local sheriff, Jack Rockwell, is convinced that John's one of the gang, and when Hayes is shot, arrests John for the shooting.There are the usual chases, gun battles, and fights that hallmark these "B" Westerns. There is one extended walking scene where you can see the Duke perfecting his special walk that became a trademark.An excellent stunt has John riding a log down a large drainage ditch. Pretty amazing, and not without danger to the actor.Beware though, the DVD copy looks as if they took the print from an Extended Play (EP) VHS copy. Very disappointing, but, a classic from John Wayne.