Like most B westerns of the 1930s, this is pretty much one of the dumbest films ever made. They were basically live-action comic strips, ultra-simple in plot and as quick and clumsy as teenage sex. Sometimes the bad guys even have super villain names. In this one we get The Shadow, the mysterious (though you’ll figure out his identity about two seconds after the film drops the first clue like an anvil in one scene) leader of a gang of robbers and murderers. A lean and young John Wayne, before he was a star, is the new sheriff in town who works to put a stop to it all.
At barely fifty minutes long, this thing cuts corners all over the place. I’m still not sure what the point of the opening scenes are in which we’re led to think Wayne is the villain.
For all their faults, these films do have their curious little cult. Among that crowd, this one stands out a bit for its relatively grandiose chase scene climax, which includes a stagecoach tumbling off the edge of a steep cliff, as well as stuntman, and frequent villain, Yakima Canutt playing a rare good guy role as Wayne’s sturdy Indian sidekick, Yak. We also get a young and unrecognizable Gabby Hayes as Wayne’s nemesis.