Blue Steel ** (1934, John Wayne, Eleanor Hunt, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Yakima Canutt) – Classic Movie Review 6041

John Wayne and his best pals George ‘Gabby’ Hayes and Yakima Canutt team up yet again in writer-director Robert N Bradbury’s acceptable but undistinguished and run-of-the-mill quickie 1934 Western from poverty row studio Monogram. It was the very rut that Wayne was desperate to get out of – but it would take till Stagecoach in 1939 to do it.

Wayne plays John Beaumont posing as US marshal John Carruthers, who is a witness to a safe payroll robbery in Yucca City. Hayes plays Sheriff Jake Withers, who suspects that Beaumont might be the culprit and trails him. Canutt plays Danti, the Polka Dot Bandit.

Beaumont saves the town from its leading citizen Malgrove (Ed Peil Sr) who is planning to rob everybody of the riches on their ranches when he reveals the bad guys’ secret: that the hills hide a rich seam of gold just waiting to be dug up. A little bit of Western action and gunplay plus a couple of decent stunts help to keep the routine tale rattling along.

The three stars undoubtedly help too, and so do support players Eleanor Hunt, George Cleveland, Ed Peil Sr, George Nash, Hank Bell, Lafe McKee and Earl Dwire.

It runs just 54 minutes, is shot in black and white by Archie J Stout and produced by Paul Malvern for Lone Star.

Eagle-eyed movie buffs have noticed that Malgrove’s house is the same one as Juanita’s in The Desert Trail (1935) and the Matlock ranch house in The Star Packer (1934).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6041

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