Blue Steel (1934)

Written by CinemaSerf on June 13, 2022

Rather a bland little western this one - salvaged to some extent by a grumpy Gabby Hayes as the sheriff. He spots a suspicious character (John Wayne) near the safe, and when he discovers the payroll has gone decides to trail his potential culprit. It is only when he discovers things are not quite as they seemed and they join forces, does he realise that it is a local bigwig who is hijacking supplies to the town - in the hope that he can starve out his fellow landowners and buy them out for a song. It's done on a shoestring, the dialogue isn't really up to much and as with many of these old B westerns, a lot of single camerawork limits it significantly. It doesn't hang about for 50 minutes, but still manages to drag at times.