John Wayne in "The Lawless Frontier" (1934) - Lone Star Productions (#11 of 16)

John Tobin (John Wayne) arrives at his father's ranch, calls for his dad and forces open the door into a darkened cabin, then lights a match showing his own face. His parents have been killed by a colorful, ruthless, renegade bandit Mexican half breed outlaw Pandro Zanti (Western character actor, Earl Dwire). Zanti is half Apache, half white, posing as a Mexican outlaw complete with a lousy Mexican accent. After killing John's father, Zanti rides off with several head of cattle. Zanti comes upon the small ranch of an old miner, Dusty (George 'Gabby' Hayes), and his young pretty daughter Ruby (Sheila Terry). They really don't have anything worth robbing, but Ruby's smoldering eyes are something to behold, and Zanti's eyes bulge out when he meets her for the first time. Zanti gives her a long once over look that puts him in the big leagues with sexual predators and just wants an excuse to kidnap Ruby and have his way with her. Zanti decides to come back later with the intention of killing Dusty, so that he could step in and "save the day", thus making Gabby's daughter one of his conquests. Luckily, she overhears Zanti discussing the dastardly fate he has in store for her, and as a result both Dusty and her manage to escape and flee the ranch just before Zanti comes back. Dusty and Ruby live in a ramshackle old place yet they manage to have a secret passageway behind a cabinet. John is on the trail of the bandits, and arrives just as Zanti is about to murder Dusty and carry off Ruby. John joins forces with Dusty to bring the bandit and his gang to justice. John helps them to safety in a nearby town, and has an eye for the lovely Ruby as well. John catches the villain, but into the mix rides the local Sheriff, Luke Williams (Jack Rockwell), a stubborn dummy who is also in pursuit of the bandits, and immediately suspects John of being one of them. When Dusty is shot, rather than helping out, the Sheriff only makes things more difficult for John, who wants to bring Zanti to justice, and arrests John for the shooting due to a case of mistaken identity. No-one is sure which side the sheriff is on! John is eventually cleared and sets out to bring the criminals to justice. There's action, chases and one quite original piece of bodyboarding stuntwork, an excellent stunt that has John riding a makeshift log flume down through a large drainage ditch surrounded by log walls in the middle of a desert. Missing his mark, John chases Zanti on foot through the desert. Zanti drinks from a pool of water, but didn't see the sign above the waterhole that states "Don't Drink Poison". As Zanti collapses dead, John resumes his chase after the remainder of the gang, and captures the whole lot by blowing up a rock wall that seals the secret passage into Dusty's cabin. In the closing scene the new Sheriff, John Tobin, is seen on the phone talking to the new Mrs. Tobin, Ruby. Apparently, the studio was intent on Wayne getting the girl in virtually every film they made with him. This type of ending is completely predictable for almost all of Lone Star's films. A 1934 American Monogram B-Western film written and directed by Robert N. Bradbury (who was American Western star and character actor Bob Steele's father). Robert was born Ronald. He's listed as R.N. Bradbury in the credits. The cast is made up mostly from the "Lone Star Stock Company" of players starring John Wayne, Sheila Terry, George "Gabby" Hayes, an unusual showcase for perennial bad guy, Earl Dwire, hamming it up in the lead villain's role, and stalwart law of the west actor Jack Rockwell plays the sheriff. George Hayes was still a couple of years away from his grizzled old sidekick of "Windy/Gabby". In this horse opera though he looks like Gabby and sounds like Gabby but plays it straight. Hayes played a variety of character roles in this series and didn't settle into his sidekick role until he joined the "Hopalong Cassidy" series in 1935. The "Gabby" character didn't come along until he moved to Republic around 1938 to ride with Roy Rogers. As in most of Wayne's Lone Star Westerns, the level is raised somewhat by the expert stunt work of the legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt. He jumps a horse over a cliff and performs several horse falls and riding stunts in this one, as well as playing the part of Dwire's henchman Joe. With stunning photography by Archie Stout. The eleventh of the Lone Star westerns released in the 1933-35 period. This fast-paced Lone Star vehicle for John Wayne was made on a budget of $11,000, shot in less than a week at Red Rock Canyon north of Los Angeles, and released by Monogram on Nov. 22, 1934. Chases, gun battles, action, stunts, and fights hallmark these routine "B" Western oaters. There is one extended walking scene where you can see the Duke perfecting his trademark walk. The chase scenes feature realistic falls from horseback, and a desert foot-chase scene, with the towering basalt cliffs of Red Rock Canyon in the background.