Friday, December 21, 2018

The Way of the West (1934)

An unexceptional B-movie western. It has a reasonable story though the dialogue is oddly stilted in delivery. Wally Gordon (Wally Wales aka Hal Taliaferro) is a government agent who stumbles upon a conflict between cattlemen and sheep farmers the Parker family which include Firey (Myria Bratton) who provides the love interest.

Parker has the best grazing land in the area for his sheep and the cattlemen want to get rid of him. They hire in an ornery gunman called Cash Horton (William Desmond) to do the job - this is a bad guy so hardcore he has a swastika on his back! (You wouldn't get away with that in a few years...) Wally meanwhile decides to help out and find out exactly what's going on...

So the story isn't that original but it's a decent enough movie, except for the rather shoddy editing. The "humour" with the kid Little Bobbie (Bobbie Nelson) falls a little flat. The action especially some of the horsemanship is pretty good.