The Dawn Rider (1935)

Written by CinemaSerf on June 19, 2022

John Wayne ("Mason") arrives in town to visit his father, but before he can catch up with him, he gets embroiled in a fight with Reed Howes ("McClure") which, when it ends amicably enough, leads them to have a few drinks and become firm friends... Now he goes to visit Pop, but the freight office where he works is being robbed and both he and his father are shot; the latter is killed. The Duke is put in the capable hands of Marion Burns ("Alice") to recuperate; she being the beau of "McClure" so we soon have a silly love triangle as well as a team effort to track down the murderous robbers. There's nothing wrong with this cheap and cheerful B-western; there are a few heavily staged fisticuffs and the dialogue is repeated a bit too woodenly from the script, but it is an enjoyable, simple, 55 minutes with quite an entertaining rough and tumble conclusion....