Edgar Allan Pooh . . . is the over-riding lesson of THE LUCKY TEXAN. When they have their Druthers, they'll rustle your cattle, swindle you out of your ranch, and swipe your gold mine, too, TEXAN teaches us. If these Fat Cat Robbers slip up enough so that there's a whiff of Crime in the air, they'll finger any surviving VICTIMS for these peccadilloes, with their legal lapdog sheriffs and judges only too eager to make such Trumped-up charges stick. All of the above takes place in TEXAN, as whistle-blower John Wayne yet again unmasks "The Men Behind the Curtain" (before he himself fell prey to Bad Influences, such as the infamous Yellow-Striper Ford, who back-shot Jesse James--or was it Dalton Trumbo?--when JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN). Good may appear victorious over Evil as TEXAN concludes, since it predates--by decades--Wayne's Evil Triumphant Trilogy (THE ALAMO, RIO BRAVO, and CHISUM), all of which feature a lawless Wayne killing good guys by the dozens. Too bad TEXAN writer\director Robert N. Bradbury did not put out ALL John Wayne movies.

utgard14 John Wayne and Gabby Hayes strike it rich with a gold mine. Inevitably some villains want to take it from them. This is one of the most interesting of the many B westerns Duke made in the '30s. For one thing, there are surprisingly few gunshots fired in this one. Everyone seems to settle their problems by fisticuffs or by chasing one another. There's a lot of chasing in this one. This leads to some good Yakima Canutt stunts, though. Also, I'm not sure what era this was supposed to take place in. Lone Star wasn't known for caring about historical accuracy in these cheap B westerns. There were usually shots of telephone poles and the like in the background. In this one we not only have the usual background stuff but we have a Keystone Kops-style climax that features Gabby Hayes driving a car after the bad guys! This western, like the other B's made in the '30s, will seem pretty much like kids stuff today. But there is some fun to be had with it.

Jay Raskin Gabby Hayes irascible sidekick performance and Yakima Canutt's excellent stunt work make this one quite watchable. Gabby is delightful, especially when he puts on a dress to testify at his own trial. The horse transfer stunt that doesn't work is really special. Yakima (doubling for Wayne) jumps on a fleeing horse from his own galloping horse, he misses and ends up rolling down a hill. One gasps and hopes he wasn't hurt.With likable characters and a plot that keeps moving, this one is quite professional and on a par with a good Lone Ranger episode two decades later.

classicsoncall Jerry Mason (John Wayne) is fresh out of college and has sought out old friend Jake Benson (George pre "Gabby" Hayes). Together they open up a blacksmith shop, but wind up prospecting a gold strike after following up on a quartz nugget removed from a lame horse's hoof. Their mining work allows them to while away some time as they wait for Jake's granddaughter Betty (Barbara Sheldon) to arrive home from school.The film offers the obligatory bad guys, this time in the form of the crooked assayers, Harris and Cole (Lloyd Whitlock and Yakima Canutt). The pair conspire to steal Jake's ranch by having him unknowingly sign the deed over to them, while looking for a way to hijack the gold strike as well. They think they have it made when they shoot Jake in the middle of the desert, and frame Mason for the murder when he gets into town.There's an interesting sequence in both this film and another Lone Star Wayne film, "The Lawless Frontier", where Wayne's character pursues a bad guy by riding a makeshift flume through a drainage trough, heading him off at the pass so to speak. Although innovative, it's not very believable given the setting. When it comes time for Mason to stand trial for Jake's murder, Jake shows up incognito, dressed in a woman's clothing. As he gets ready to testify, he trips over his dress and reveals who he is, as Harris and Cole attempt their getaway through the courthouse window. What follows is a Keystone Cop style sequence, with the baddies hijacking a rail car, Benson in an auto, and Mason giving chase on horseback. In true Lone Star style, the picture closes with John Wayne's character winning the girl, and a fumbling wedding photographer ready to capture the moment. This time, Wayne even gets to give her a kiss.John Wayne made a little over a dozen Westerns for Lone Star Productions from 1933 to 1935. They all followed a similar formula as outlined above, some obviously better than others. For fans of the series, I would recommend "Riders of Destiny" and "Sagebrush Trail" as two of the better entries.