The Man from Utah ** (1934, John Wayne, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Polly Ann Young, Anita Campillo, Edward Peil Sr, Yakima Canutt, George Cleveland) – Classic Movie Review 8235

Young John Wayne sits tall in the saddle in director Robert N Bradbury’s 1934 The Man from Utah, another average, low-budget Thirties Western from the Duke.

In the story and screenplay by Lindsley Parsons, Wayne stars as John Weston, a sharp-shooting saddle tramp from Utah who rides into a small town seeking work and is taken on as a lawman after gunning down three men robbing the bank. He is then sent by the old sheriff Marshal George Higgins (George Cleveland) to go undercover at a crooked rodeo to catch a ring of greedy, murderous bad guys. Unco-operative rodeo riders have mysteriously died of snake bite, so Wayne better watch out for that poisoned needle under his saddle. Barton (Edward Peil Sr) is the guy who has organised the rodeo and intends his rider will win against Weston, come what may, by fair means or more likely foul.

The Man from Utah is a routine, ultra-cheap quickie, with regulars George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Yakima Canutt and Cleveland in the bright cast, and the film is fleshed out by atmospheric rodeo footage and a song filmed for another Wayne picture. Female leads Polly Ann Young as Marjorie Carter and Anita Campillo as Dolores compete for the heart of Wayne.

Despite a certain amount of enthusiasm and vigour, The Man from Utah is no more than just par for the course of Wayne B-movie Westerns. It is one of six films that Wayne made that year for economical poverty row studio Monogram Pictures, who also used the film’s rodeo footage many times in later movies.

Also in the cast are Edward Peil Sr, Artie Ortego, Earl Dwire and Archie Ricks.

The Man from Utah is directed by Robert N Bradbury, runs 55 minutes, is made by Lone Star, is released by Monogram, is written by Lindsley Parsons, is shot in black and white by Archie Stout, is produced by Paul Malvern and is scored by Lee Zahler.

The Man from Utah is in the public domain and available for free download at the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/TheManFromUtah

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8235

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