boblipton Hoot Gibson isn't the Hard Hombre, a bad man who's "killed a man for every year he's been alive", even though everyone thinks he is. He's William Penn "Peaceful" Patton, a mama's boy, who goes to work for widow Lina Basquette and trades on the bad man's reputation, until his impersonation is discovered.This early B Western by Otto Brower has a few bright moments and some nice riding and stunts, but it's definitely a weaker effort, despite Gibson's usual, relaxed moments. Miss Basquette, driven into the B ranks by the death of her first husband, Sam Warner, and the persecution of her in-laws, offers a decent Mexican accent and a few sultry moments, but not much else. It's definitely a lesser movie for Hoot Gibson, but one that his fans will want to see.

classicsoncall Well I was surprised to see three reviews already posted for this film by the time I got here; it's not unusual to find one of these obscure B Westerns that no one has opined about yet. This one seems to have been written for a bit of tongue in cheek humor, but a lot of it falls flat with the uninspired performances of the principal players. Hoot Gibson had already had a successful career in silents, but at thirty nine years old, he doesn't look much like a cowboy hero, much less a 'Hard Hombre'. The casting for a lot of these older flicks manages to raise a head scratcher or two, in this one, Gibson's character looked like he was about as old as his mother, while in fact, actress Jessie Arnold portraying Mrs. Patton was only about eight years older. Which means on the flip side, Lina Basquette (Senora Martini) in her mid-twenties didn't seem like a reasonable match for her heartthrob hero.Of course the crux of the story rests on a case of mistaken identity, as William Penn 'Peaceful' Patton (Gibson) assumes the identity of an outlaw called Hard Hombre after he goes to work for Senora Martini. The thing that gets me is that at any time, a dozen tough guys in the proximity of the Hombre could have taken him down whenever they would have wanted to. Having Gibson posture with his squinty eyes and mean look would never have worked with a real hard case, and for half the picture, he didn't even wear a gun! Didn't Barlow (G. Raymond Nye) or any of his henchman notice that? Geesh! Aside from the actual story, keep an eye on the scene right after Gibson grabs Miss Martini off her horse and rides over to the old settlers' place. Gibson ties his horse to a tree, but as the group of folks walks out of camera range, the horse simply follows - the tether to the tree is simply gone! By the way, Gibson rode a variety of horses in his movie Westerns; the name of his sharp looking palomino in this one was appropriately named Goldie. No screen credit though, you just have to look these things up.The biggest kick I got from this otherwise bland film was when the 'real' Hard Hombre (Frank Winklemann) showed up and made the mistake of pushing Mrs. Patton around. In stand up fashion, Gibson's character brings the fight to his namesake, shouting out at the top of his lungs - "Keep your hands off my mother"! Yeah, that'll show him.

JoeytheBrit About 20 minutes into this ultra-low budget early thirties oater it struck me that it might actually have been intended as a comedy, although nothing I had seen on screen had made me laugh. A slightly podgy chap named Hoot Gibson plays the lead character, a nice mother-loving, churchgoing (i.e. dull) cowboy called Peaceful Patten who bears an uncanny resemblance to a tough guy known only as The Hard Hombre. Patten applies for a job with the comely Spanish widow Martinez (the also-comely Lina Basquette) who gives him the task of recovering her 30 head of cattle stolen by evil pot-bellied Joe Barlow. Evil Joe mistakes Patten for the hard hombre and, having sold the cattle, meekly hands over a roll of bills.Now it's pretty obvious by this point that all Patten has to do is pretend to have threatened evil Joe for the money to have the grateful widow Martinez leading him to her boudoir by the hand, but sadly he's a little slow on the uptake – in fact, the film is nearly over before he realises how he can put the case of mistaken identity to good use (and even then it's not to get himself in the Signora's boudoir).Poverty Row film crews must have been falling over each other back in the early thirties as they roamed the Californian hills filming their 'b' movie westerns. Most of these films weren't very good, but this one is worse than most. Otto Brewer's direction is truly bad – he seems to have no idea of where best to place a camera or how to move it, and simply seems to have planted his cameraman in front of the actors and hoped for the best. It's one of the few westerns I've seen with virtually no gunplay, and the absence of any music is particularly noticeable in the so-called action scenes. Hoot Gibson makes an insipid hero – neither funny nor heroic – and looks like a middle-aged caretaker who still lives with his parents.Even by Poverty Row standards this one's a dud.

Spuzzlightyear Fairly numbing western here, about a guy "Peaceful Patton" who's not afraid to wade into the middle of a gunfight to ask them to "come on out and talk it over peaceful!" Nothing doing! They're in the middle of a land war! Patton decides to get a job with a "mexican" lady And by "Mexican" I have to put that in quotes because Lina Basquette does, well, a BAD Spanish accent here. (Supposedly she was Hitler's favorite actress!). Anyways, there's rumblings around that Hard Hombre, a deadly criminal, is in the area. Somehow Patton is thought to be Hombre, and then everyone bows down to him, instead of treating him like the joke he is. Oddly enough, Patton DOESN'T deny at first he was Hombre, making this either believe that this was a brilliant twist, or just plain bad writing. Soon, Patton (as Hombre) brokers a land deal between the cowboys, until of course, the real Hombre comes along.,. Hoot Gibson (!!!) is alright I guess, but the script here is just awful, trundling from one boring scenario to another. You can tell when it's cheap by looking at the strange exterior scenes and how everything looks like it was filmed in an upscale neighborhood, when it's supposed to be a midwest town..