This time the movie is Blue Steele with John Wayne, Eleanor Hunt, and George Hayes made in 1934. John Wayne is a Marshal looking for the Polka Dot Bandit (Yakima Canutt). First thing Wayne does is hide himself in a hotel lobby to watch the goings in the hopes he can catch the Bandit. George Hayes is the Sheriff and he is shown to a room with a hole in the floor where he can watch everything that goes on, too. The Bandit sneaks into the hotel and cracks the safe, stealing $4,000, but Hayes sees only Wayne looking into the safe after the Bandit leaves and thinks he stole the money, so he sets off on his trail. He finds Wayne alone in a cabin cooking beans and instead of arresting him, Wayne talks him into having a bowl of beans and they become "Pardners".
The real plot of the movie is that a local businessman is holding the town hostage to get the gold mine that the town sits on and prevents any supplies from reaching town. His gang robs a supply train and kills Eleanor Hunt's father and takes her hostage. Wayne and Hayes interrupt the holdup and chase off the thieves with Wayne falling in love with the girl before the robbers steal her away and lock her up in a hideout owned by the big businessman. After three or four shootouts between the good guys and the bad and three or four fist fights between Wayne and the bad guys, Wayne frees the girl, takes the provisions to town and alerts the townspeople about what is really going on and arrests the Polka-Dot Bandit, and everyone is free to enjoy life again.
The black and white photography leaves a little to be desired in places, but the acting is fine and Wayne looks like a teenager. This version has the Title misspelled, e.g., Blue Steele not Blue Steel. Steel never enters into it anyway and why it's named Blue Steel is beyond me unless they are referring to the pistols used.
A fun romp through an early Western.
I saw a much much later movie by that title, with Jamie lee curtis in it. Never seen this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it was better than this one, the photography anyway.
DeleteI watched the same movie Charles did. I would like to see the older one.
ReplyDeleteIt's available free from the Internet Archive.
DeleteThere was a truckload of Wayne/Canutt movies in the 1930s, with Canutt doing Wayne's stunts. Wayne is still the hard-working young actor learning his trade. Some have some clever moments in them; some of the stunts are death-defying. The plots never make a gd bit of sense, but who cares.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that.
DeleteCanutt often played the bad guy in addition to being Wayne's stunt double. In chase scenes, he sometimes ended up chasing himself.
DeleteI always assumed that the title "Blue Steel" referred to the guns (both in the John Wayne "B" Western and the Jamie Lee Curtis cop movie).
ReplyDelete