{"id":5554,"date":"2019-06-14T18:53:22","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T17:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/?p=5554"},"modified":"2019-06-14T19:29:34","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T18:29:34","slug":"john-wayne-the-dawn-rider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/john-wayne-the-dawn-rider\/","title":{"rendered":"John Wayne 1930s Western Review – The Dawn Rider"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Barely five minutes into the film and stranger-in-town John Mason, played by John Wayne, is already engaged in a bout of fisticuffs with one of the locals, Ben McClure, played by Reed Howes.<\/p>\n

\"JohnThe Dawn Rider (1935)<\/b> Lone Star, Dir: Robert N. Bradbury, b\/w, 53m
Cast:<\/strong> John Wayne, Marion Burns, Denny Meadows, Reed Howes, Joe DeGrasse, Yakima Canutt<\/p>\n

They punch each other to a standstill then end up as friends as they have a drink together in the nearest watering hole, a scene Wayne would play over and over again in later films such as \u201cThe Quiet Man\u201d, \u201cDonovan\u2019s Reef\u201d and many more besides. Coincidence being the main ingredient as usual, it turns out Ben works for JWs dad, old man Mason.<\/p>\n

While all this is going on the local express office is being held up, an express office that just happens to be run by JW\u2019s dad.<\/p>\n

JW and his new mate Ben arrive at the office just in time to be held at gunpoint and end up witnessing the murder of poor old man Mason. JW gives chase to the departing gang, shooting three of them in the back.<\/p>\n

Yes, you read it right. John Wayne shoots three men in the back, but his halo remains intact on account of his victims are obviously no-good scum-sucking varmint trash what deserved all they can get. And I\u2019ll fill anyone full of lead who says otherwise, gosh-darn it.<\/p>\n

JW takes a bullet from the rest of the gang and is trundled off to the nearest doctor to recover.<\/p>\n

Going away from the story for a moment, I know these films are generally referred to as Poverty Row productions due to the paucity of their budgets, but this is the first one of these films I\u2019ve seen in which a woman, in this case, local town gal Alice, played by Marion Burns, wears a dress that looks as though it\u2019s been made from the same material as the curtains behind her.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard of cutting costs but let\u2019s be honest, that\u2019s just plain mean.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a touch of \u201cLiberty Valance\u201d about the story, poor old Ben ending up with a case of the Tom Doniphon\u2019s when it comes to unrequited love for Alice, who in turn is in love with JW, here cast in the role of Ransom Stoddard.<\/p>\n

The situation is further complicated by the fact that old man Mason\u2019s killer is none other than Rudd Gordon, the brother of Hallie \u2013 sorry, Alice. If the love triangle isn\u2019t resolved by Ben having to die, then I\u2019ll eat my ten-gallon hat.<\/p>\n

Rudd and the nefarious saloon owner, played by Yakima Canutt, decide to try and stir things up a bit between Ben and JW, Yak telling him he thinks JW is taking too long to recover from his wound and using it as a cover whilst he \u201cmakes love\u201d to Alice.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m assuming that phrase didn\u2019t have the same connotation in 1935 as it does these days, even though it still gets Yak a biff on the nose by an offended Ben.<\/p>\n

JW recovers enough to take on the role of shotgun for the latest gold shipment from the town, replacing the gold with rocks in an effort to thwart the gang that\u2019s constantly been holding it up every single time.<\/p>\n

As JW prepares to set off he and the driver, who also happens to be the sheriff, realize they\u2019ve got a couple of outlaw stowaways in the back of the wagon. There follows a fairly exciting chase sequence in which JW turns the tables on bad brother Rudd and tracks him down to Alice\u2019s ranch.<\/p>\n

By the time JW gets there the brother has moved on and JW and Alice argue, forcing JW to put his arms around her to stop her being angry with him. At that very moment, wouldn\u2019t you just know it, Ben turns up intending to ask Alice to marry him, see\u2019s Alice in JWs arms, puts two and two together, comes up with eighty-seven and rides off in a huff.<\/p>\n

In a tense stand-off between JW and Rudd, Ben arrives just in time to shoot Rudd and to then get shot himself by Yak \u2013 love triangle solved which thankfully means I don\u2019t get to eat the hat.<\/p>\n

JW takes out Yak then tends to a dying Ben who asks him to tell Alice he \u201cwon\u2019t be home for dinner\u201d.<\/p>\n

The film then rather callously cuts immediately to JW and Alice getting spliced, whilst poor old Ben\u2019s corpse is still not yet cold in the ground. I guess them\u2019s the breaks when you play second-fiddle to JW.<\/p>\n

Not bad. Not brilliant either but watchable all the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[107],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5554"}],"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=5554"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5560,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5554\/revisions\/5560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}