Westward Ho ** (1935, John Wayne, Sheila Bromley, Frank McGlynn, Jr, Yakima Canutt) – Classic Movie Review 7153

Westward Ho (1935) is John Wayne’s first film for Republic Pictures and it is also the studio’s first production. It was a hit and hugely profitable. It cost only $35,000, or possibly only $17,000 (depending on the source) and earned $500,000, a sign that Wayne’s world was on the up and up, though it is still a cheaply produced, poverty row B-movie Western, running just 61 minutes. So, business as usual, it is just trading under a different name.

With Wayne starring, it is produced by Paul Malvern and directed by Robert N Bradbury. The three men had filmed a successful series of Lone Star B-movie Westerns for Monogram Pictures until it merged into Republic Pictures.

Wayne stars with Sheila Bromley, Frank McGlynn, Jr and Yakima Canutt, and it was shot on location in Lone Pine.

In the simple and straightforward, though serviceable plot, Wayne plays John Wyatt who leads a posse of vigilantes rounding up a gang of outlaws. But one of the bandits turns out to be his long-lost brother Jim Wyatt (Frank McGlynn Jr), leading Wayne to the cattle rustlers who killed his parents when the brothers were children, kidnapping Jim.

Surprisingly, Wayne goes back to his earlier singing cowboy days in Riders of Destiny and Lawless Range, as the song ‘The Girl I Loved Long Ago’, written by Robert N Bradbury, is played on guitar and sung by John Wayne (but dubbed by Glenn Strange). ‘Westward Ho’ and ‘The Vigilantes’, both written by Tim Spencer and Glenn Strange, are sung by The Singing Riders.

Also in the cast are Sheila Bromley as Mary Gordon, Jim Farley as herd owner Lafe Gordon, Jack Curtis as Whit Ballard, Bradley Metcalfe as John Wyatt as a child, Dickie Jones as Jim Wyatt as a child, Mary MacLaren as Ma Wyatt, Yakima Canutt as Ballard henchman Red, Hank Bell as Mark Wyatt and Glenn Strange as singing rider Carter.

It is followed by The New Frontier (1935).

Glenn Strange (16 August 1899 – 20 September 1973) mostly appeared in Westerns but is best remembered for playing Frankenstein’s monster in three Universal horror films, House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7153

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Glenn Strange.