Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The first must-see film of the year.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The worst of the Lone Star John Wayne westerns is a real drag to watch, whether you like John Wayne or just have better things to do with 50 minutes.That Pedro Zanti (Earl Dwire) is one crafty villain. We are told he is half-white, half-Apache, but pretends to be a Mexican for some reason, which means he imitates Ricardo Montalbán even when issuing orders to his gang during a cattle-rustling job. He's so crafty he even fixes it so the theft takes place both at day and at night, depending on which camera is shooting. He speaks English fluently, yet is undone in the end because they don't write warning signs in bad accents.The nominal hero of the piece, John Tobin (John Wayne), is the son of one of Zanti's victims, as seen in the opening, when he discovers his dead father after lighting a match. Wayne grimaces as if he had a bad meal, which is about all the emotion he bothers to project. You think you are getting a revenge film, but after pretty Sheila Terry shows up needing rescue in a nearby river, that element gets flung by the wayside as Tobin decides to help her out. Luckily for him, this is a film chock-a-full of bad coincidences, so he can bag Zanti and the girl without as much as a cutaway shot.Dwire, a solid performer in other Lone Star films, narrows his eyes and smiles a lot, looking ridiculously out-of-place in his charro outfit and spindly legs.Everyone seems to be sleepwalking in this one. Director Robert N. Bradbury aims for the youngsters, with hidden doors and lots of shooting and dangerous-looking horse falls. About the only half- interesting plot element to be found in "The Lawless Frontier" is a sheriff character who doesn't much care about doing his job, announcing "I don't trust nobody!" He blames Tobin for everything, steals credit for Zanti's capture, and stupidly allows Zanti to escape by handcuffing his boot to a bedpost, as if he thinks the boot is part of his foot. The sheriff is so stupidly incompetent, he's the one character in this film that almost works."He started off alright, but he's sure gone to seed," says a fellow named Dusty played by George (not yet "Gabby") Hayes.You can't say the same for "Lawless Frontier," not after its confused day-for-night-for-day opener. It never goes to seed but stays bad right up to the silly ending where Tobin manages to trap a gang of bad guys with a crate of dynamite that just happens to be lying around. I guess it gave the little nippers a bang, and let the adults in the theater know it was time to wake up.

What distinguishes some of the 'Lone Star' films (and many others in western and adventure films of the early thirties) was their lack of what we recognize as formulaic story telling. To be sure they had good vs. evil (the basic element of any Western), boy meets girl and some stock characters, such as the old rancher and his beautiful daughter or grand daughter, and sometimes the evil banker or other businessman, but the way the action played out was often different from film to film.'The Lawless Frontier' features Earl Dwire in his big star turn (not) as (for some inexplicable reason) Pandro Zanti, a 'half Apache, half American posing as a Mexican who speaks the language fluently.' His biggest posing as a Mexican seemed to be his outrageous mariachi clothes. The only plot seems to be that he wants to steal Ruby, the granddaughter of "Old Dusty" (Gabby Hayes). When meeting her for the first time, Dwire gives her a long once over look that puts him in the big leagues with sexual predators. You'd think that because the opening scene shows Zanti killing John (Wayne) Tobin's father off camera, it would play a bigger part in the film. It doesn't. Too much chasing back and forth between heroes and villains.We get many good stunts, though, from Yakima Canutt, including pulling Ruby up on his horse when he rides by, jumping on 'renegades' and knocking them off their horses, a horse leap off a cliff into a lake, and even the same slide down the sluice sequence that was in "The Lucky Texan" (1934), although this time the Mighty Yak uses a body surfing log instead of straddling a tree bough, and its inclusion is just as illogical this time too, since they are in a desert.The high point is clearly John Wayne's measured and methodical well photographed walk across the desert after the fleeing and stumbling Zanti with those fantastic basalt cliffs of Red Rock Canyon (seen in countless serials, westerns and science fiction 'moon' movies) framed behind him. No final gun duel at fifty paces with the heroine running from the wooden steps of the bar to embrace and kiss the conquering hero in this movie! When John Wayne finally catches up with him, Zanti drinks poisoned water from a waterhole and dies.After a couple too many chase sequences, Zantai's gang is finally captured in Dusty's cabin, emerging one by one from behind a swivel cabinet that apparently leads to a canyon, now blocked off by having been dynamited. No riding off into the sunset or obligatorily kissing the girl: The final shot is Ruby, now Mrs. John Tobin, on the telephone to the now Sheriff John Tobin, "What would Sheriff Tobin like for dinner?" The film also has poor lighting and editing at the beginning, the pacing is slow, some parts with the sheriff cause it to drag, and the horse chases fill up the film. So despite the different and unusual elements, it comes off as one of the weaker Lone Stars.

The one scene that I think is great is where JW calls for his dad and forces open the door into a darkened cabin then lights a match showing his own face. The lighting of that scene, strong shadows and bright highlights on JW is nicely done. It seems to be the case with many of these early westerns made on tight schedules and budgets that talent was there, just not given the time or money to flourish.I liken them to the difference between a sketch artist and a portrait painter. Both may be talented and capable but where the portrait painter can spend the time to nuance the shade and tone of a back-lighted cheek the sketch artist must leave the paper untouched. Also, I remember seeing one of these B-westerns on a Saturday morning where the hero mounted his horse by putting his foot in the stirrup and standing straight up in one real smooth move and swinging his leg over and nailing his boot into the other stirrup as his hands took the reins and the horse took off at a gallop. Never did the cowboy hunker down or jerk his shoulders or kick his spurs. Start to finish it was polished with no wasted motions. To a 10 year old it looked COOL. I got out of the movie theater and went to the bicycle rack. I think that's when I realized you really have to practice the little things to truly finesse them.Spoiler spoiler******************************* *******************************Trivia question from this movie.Did John Wayne ever use a body board to hydroplane on water?? Skeleton Style??So maybe not a great movie but it does has some nifty scenes in it.

John's parents are killed by a renegade bandit, played to the hilt by perennial bad guy, Earl Dwire. Dwire injures Hayes, who joins with John to bring him and his gang to justice.The local sheriff, Jack Rockwell, is convinced that John's one of the gang, and when Hayes is shot, arrests John for the shooting.There are the usual chases, gun battles, and fights that hallmark these "B" Westerns. There is one extended walking scene where you can see the Duke perfecting his special walk that became a trademark.An excellent stunt has John riding a log down a large drainage ditch. Pretty amazing, and not without danger to the actor.Beware though, the DVD copy looks as if they took the print from an Extended Play (EP) VHS copy. Very disappointing, but, a classic from John Wayne.