Jerry Mason, a young Texan, and Jake Benson, an old rancher, become partners and strike it rich with a gold mine. They then find their lives complicated by bad guys and a woman.
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The Lucky Texan will appeal most to baby-boomers. This should be my type of movie. However, young John Wayne does not appeal to me in this western. I like westerns. This would have satisfied me as a child growing up. Now, the westerns are more sophisticated in almost all aspects. The movie to me was almost comedic. I do like Gabby Hayes in the movie. He did remind me of me being a child watching these types of westerns. It is thankfully short. So, if you have an afternoon and want to watch a bit of nostalgia, then bring on the popcorn. Otherwise, I found most of the acting lacking and the script boring. The Lucky Texan is worth watching to see how much growth John Wayne did as an actor. I thought Stagecoach was better. Enjoy.
When John Wayne & George "Gabby" Hayes strike it rich in the mine, a group of mustache twirling villains become determined not only to find the location of the mine, but to get Gabby's property as well. Over a long stretch of 53 minutes, the Duke is framed for murder, but "Gabby" has a trick up his sleeve in his old costume box-the dress from a production of "Charley's Aunt" he uses to outwit the villains. So if anybody ever asks you what John Wayne movie has a man in drag, you can tell them Gabby Hayes in this one. There is also a silly sequence where Wayne rides across the range while someone else is sliding over a waterway on what appears to be some sort of stick. (Broomstick, perhaps?) Fortunately, it's all over and resolved in less than an hour, and results in some laughs-at the film's expense.
John Wayne and blacksmith George "Gabby" Hayes strike gold in a nearby creek, prompting crooked gold office employees into tricking Gabby into signing his property over to them in an attempt to get closer to the gold. Complicating things is the no good son of the town's sheriff who frames poor Gabby for attempted murder.Another good film from the Duke's tenure as a Lone Star/Monogram contract star, this is fast-paced, well edited and a heckuva lot of fun.As well as playing the chief heavy, Yakima Cannut appears to have performed every stunt in the movie himself. For example, in the scene where Wayne confronts the sheriff's son, the escaping villain turns into an easily recognizable Cannut who does a flying leap onto his horse. Wayne runs after him and also turns into Cannut. He then leaps onto White Flash and begins chasing himself!A great climax begins with scene-stealer Gabby in a dress. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought he really was an old woman!
This one combines some of the usual aspects of the Lone Star films (evil businessmen, blonde (grand) daughter, (twice) falsely arrested for murder) with elements of comedy. Jerry Mason (John Wayne) works with 'Old Timer' Benson (George Hayes) (Hey! Wasn't he the same age as John Wayne?) at a blacksmith shop and then panning for gold with him. The evil assayer and his henchman Joe (Yakima Canutt) conspire to steal the deed to the ranch, but are foiled in a courtroom scene where George Hayes is in drag, 'looking' and speaking like a woman. This was his big star turn. If you want to see him as a vile, vile, villain, check out the clunky serial "The Lost City" (1935). John Wayne and George Hayes share lots of screen time together. If you like that, it's a plus; otherwise, it's a long 55 minutes. And why is Barbara Sheldon shown making strange faces with her head cocked sideways looking in a store window? For some reason, we get bizarre chase sequences: Mason(actually the Great Yak) riding a tree branch down a tunneled sluice to capture a runaway villain (interesting though very unlikely given the locations); the evil doers escaping down railroad tracks in a motored rail car while being pursued by Mason on horseback and by Benson in an old hand cranked Tin Lizzie that keeps criss crossing the tracks as if they were all in a Keystone Kops or an Our Gang comedy.I think only one gunshot was fired in the whole movie! The cowboy chases on horseback across wide open spaces shooting back and forth at each other were nowhere to be seen in this Western! Since it was made in 1933, perhaps these stock sequences of later westerns hadn't yet been written in stone. I guess we have to give it an E for effort. It looks, though, like a film made by committee. For me, all these disparate elements did not combine into a coherent film.
