I'll tell you why so serious

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

In a horse-riding rodeo contest, some bad guys want John Weston (John Wayne) to lose. When he doesn't go along they add some insurance: a poisoned needle just under his saddle.I appreciate this film for what it is -- an early western from John Wayne before he really became a major star. Allegedly he does his own stunts, such as jumping from horse to horse. I happen to doubt he does his own singing or guitar playing, but the stunts I will grant him.Some of this is cheesy. The acting is not great, and the cinematography is incredibly jerky. Being in the public domain means it has some awful copies floating around. The one I saw on VHS was actually not too bad, though a cleanup wouldn't hurt.

Oh, brother, this one starts out with John Wayne riding his horse and singing like he's high on wacky tobacky. His singing voice is dubbed but that just makes it more embarrassing, I think. Anyway, this singing cowboy rides into town just as the bank is being robbed. He helps marshal Gabby Hayes stop the robbers and is immediately recruited to do some undercover work with a gang that's fixing rodeos...or something like that.Polly Ann Young plays the female lead and she wears 1930s clothes even though this is supposed to take place in the Old West. There are also telephone poles throughout the entire movie that they don't even try to shoot around. They use stock footage during the rodeo scenes that clearly have people in 1930s attire in the audience. Historical accuracy was not a concern to the good people at Lone Star. This is one of many B westerns Wayne made in the '30s before he hit it big. The vast majority of these were forgettable but watchable oaters with little or nothing to recommend about them. A select few were better than average and many others were worse than average. This one's kind of crappy but if you have a good sense of humor and like to poke fun at bad movies, you might like it. Beware modern copies that have a terrible electronic score that often just starts at random spots in the movie.

Forget the guitar-strumming opening. This is Wayne at his youthfully charming best, relaxed and easy-going before the pressures of super-stardom and the booze bottle began to show .This is really a rodeo picture with lots of well-integrated footage of calf-roping, bull-dogging, and more, but no gun-play. (Am I wrong or do some of the pageant paraders look like they just staggered out of a saloon.) The baddies are trying to rip-off the town sponsors of the rodeo and only Wayne and the marshal stand in their way. It's fun watching the cantankerous Gabby character trying to break out from Hayes' serious marshal role. Polly Ann Young (Loretta's sister) with a really big smile makes a fetching love interest-- watch Wayne really plant one on her at fade-out. I don't know, but I thought the girl who played the Mexican Delores had a really phony accent. Then I checked the cast and came to find her movie credits are mostly Spanish language productions! Oh well, maybe she don't speak Spanish so good. Anyway, this is average Lone Star fare, mainly for rodeo fans who like seeing a bull's big neck get stretched or a scrawny little calf get thrown to the ground.

"The Man From Utah" is another of the Lone Star Westerns Wayne made in the 30's. This one has a rodeo setting with the Duke trying to outsmart the gang behind the murders and deceptive practices occurring therein.The producers make extensive use of footage shot at some long forgotten rodeo. With the money they saved they actually were able to come up with a pleasant enough musical score, a rarity for poverty row quickies. They even were able to incorporate a left over "musical" number from one of Wayne's ill-fated "Singin'" Sandy Saunders efforts at the beginning, even though it has nothing to do with the rest of the picture.The cast includes Polly Ann (sister of Loretta) Young as the heroine and Anita Compille as the good/bad girl competing for the Duke's affections. George (pre-"Gabby")Hayes is along again, this time as a Marshal. Edward Piel Sr. is the chief bad guy and once again proving that as an actor, he made a great stuntman, Yakima Canutt.Not the best of the Lone Star series, but not the worst either.