{"id":4859,"date":"2019-01-03T20:57:40","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T20:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/?p=4859"},"modified":"2019-01-24T12:49:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T12:49:12","slug":"john-waynes-1930s-western-movie-reviews-the-lucky-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/john-waynes-1930s-western-movie-reviews-the-lucky-texan\/","title":{"rendered":"John Wayne’s 1930s Western Movie Reviews – The Lucky Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Another 1930s western movie where John Wayne as Jerry Mason, comes back from college. College? What did he study? Riding shotgun? \u201cGabby\u201d Hayes plays a character called \u201cGrandy\u201d Benson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John<\/a>
source<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Lucky Texan (1934)<\/strong> Lone Star, Dir: Robert N. Bradbury, b\/w, 54m<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cast:<\/strong> John Wayne, Barbara Sheldon, Lloyd Whitlock, George \u2018Gabby\u2019 Hayes, Yakima Canutt, Eddie Parker<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I guess he\u2019d be out of his depth if he had a name without quotations around it. He and Gabby find that their crick is full of gold. They innocently take their find to a crooked assayer, Harris, played by Lloyd Whitlock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris immediately starts figuring out how to take the gold away from Duke, or \u201cGabby\u201d Wayne as he should have been called, on account of him telling Harris about the strike without checking first if Harris was on the square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally<\/g> they get swindled, Harris first getting Gabby, or Stupid as he ought to be known, to signing over the deeds to his ranch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of that, not only does Harris short-change Gabby on payment for the gold, but he\u2019s also realised<\/g> Gabby is the gift that just keeps on giving, having previously tried to drive the old galoot out of the cattle business after rustling his herd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, Al Miller, the sheriff\u2019s elderly son, hits up his dad for a loan. I know the feeling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabby compounds his idiotic ways by standing outside the local bank and counting the money he\u2019s made from the gold right in front of Junior\u2019s eyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just when you thought it couldn\u2019t get any worse, Gabby then gets framed for murdering the local banker, only it was Al what really did it when he stole the money Gabby gave to the banker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an interesting camera technique used by cinematographer Archie Stout that features a couple of times in the film. Whenever JW jumps on his horse and starts galloping away, the camera suddenly tracks either to the left or the right and the scene instantly changes to show he\u2019s arrived at his destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d like to think it\u2019s an early version of the jump-cut, a visual device championed by French Wave director such as Jean Luc Godard in the 1950s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bearing in mind how cheap these early Wayne movies cost to make though, I\u2019m guessing it\u2019s more of a cost-cutting exercise to save on film. Still, an intriguing thought for all you film studies students out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one seems to know how to work out when anyone is dead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sheriff thinks that the seriously wounded banker doesn\u2019t need a doctor, and Harris and his sidekick Joe Cole, played by Yakima Canutt, reckon Gabby has bought the farm after Joe shoots him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Didn\u2019t anyone know how to check for a pulse in the Old West? I guess not.  A wounded Gabby tells his faithful dog, Friday, to go and fetch JW. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dog must have been trained at the same animal school as Wayne\u2019s horse, Duke,<\/g> because the dog understands every damned word that Gabby says. Which actually makes the dog cleverer than me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I heard Gabby tell JW to \u201copen up that trunk and get out my makeup kit\u201d, words I thought I\u2019d never actually hear<\/g> Mr. Hayes utter, JW pulls out a full-length dress from it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s good to know that in the new world of diversity and gender fluidity we now found ourselves living that 1930s Hollywood acknowledged the existence of transgender people in the days of the Old West. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it turns out that Gabby \u201cGrandy\u201d used to be an actor. That\u2019s what he reckons anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somehow or other Duke gets framed for killing his sidekick and ends up on trial for murder. Gabby dresses up as a woman \u2013 any excuse I guess \u2013 and engages in conversation with the men who actually did try to kill him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, his makeup is that good they don\u2019t recognise<\/g> him. He \/ she<\/g> informs Harris and Cole that given the choice he \/ she<\/g> would rather suffer the electric chair than the noose, so I guess we\u2019re in that strange \u201ctime-tunnel\u201d frame again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which also explains why JW had the opportunity to go to college. Glad we got that one cleared up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabby suggests that the sheriff doesn\u2019t let anyone leave the courtroom as he \/ she<\/g> knows who tried to kill the man that JW has been framed for murdering.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Gabby reveals himself as the dead man the two villains leave through the window, thus eluding the sheriff who expected them to leave via the front door. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There then ensues a horse chase with Yakima Canutt doubling as Wayne and ending up chasing himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chase then morphs from equine to motorised<\/g> as Harris and Joe abandon their steeds and try and make a getaway on a small petrol fuelled<\/g> railway cart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabby joins the chase in a jalopy and, whilst Duke and Yak duke it out, he engages in fisticuffs with Harris, albeit still half-dressed as a woman. They should have called it The Lucky Transvestite instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the dust settles Gabby insists that from now on he wants to be known as Georgina \u2013 actually it\u2019s Veronica but let\u2019s not quibble over details. On top of that, he also wishes to identify as a woman but only between the hours of 9:00AM<\/g> to 5:00PM<\/g> on a Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this is actually true, but what a great ending it would have made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, and there\u2019s a girl in it as well, and she and JW get married.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I liked this one. More in the same anarchic vein please.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another 1930s western movie where John Wayne as Jerry Mason, comes back from college. College? What did he study? Riding shotgun? \u201cGabby\u201d Hayes plays a character called \u201cGrandy\u201d Benson. The Lucky Texan (1934) Lone Star, Dir: Robert N. Bradbury, b\/w, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307,11],"tags":[107],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4859"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4870,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4859\/revisions\/4870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}