For what remained of his lengthy screen career, Richard Dix was always overshadowed by his work in Cimarron (1931). As a further example of this fact, this 13 December 1942 release, produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman, can be seen as a later attempt to cash in on Dix's self-sustaining image. American Empire was a surprisingly elaborate production by Pop's standards, and the New York Times reviewer astutely noted that Sherman "has climaxed an otherwise well-behaved drama with a reel that explodes in all directions." (In fact, the rest of the drama was far too sedate, far too well-behaved and far too over-primed with dull "additional dialogue" in my opinion).Anyway, after appearing as the Indian hero of The Vanishing American (1925), Dix had quite a career in the western film genre. He was Joaquim Murietta in The Gay Defender (1928) and an Indian again in Redskin (1929). After the award-winning Cimarron, resolute Richard performed similar chores in The Conquerors (1932). RKO then starred Dix as Pecos Smith in Zane Grey's West of the Pecos (1934), as a marshal in The Arizonian, and as a miner in Yellow Dust (1936). Dix then turned to comedy as a washed-up cowboy star in Columbia's It Happened in Hollywood (1936). However, Dix returned to his established form in Republic's expansive Man of Conquest (1939), playing the greatly admired Texas hero, Sam Houston. Moving on into the forties, Dix was an Oklahoma Territory marshal in Cherokee Strip (Paramount, 1940), a rancher in The Roundup (Paramount, 1941), and received special billing as Wild Bill Hickok in Badlands of Dakota (Universal, 1941). Next up, he impersonated Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (Paramount, 1942), became a gunfighter in Buckskin Frontier (United Artists), and followed up as a marshal in his final western, The Kansan (United Artists, 1943). Although first-billed in American Empire (and given more than his share of boring additional dialogue), Dix actually has the second lead. He even disappears from the plot for a spell halfway through and then re-appears to save the day at the elaborately staged, thrill-a-second climax. Although billed third, it's the boring Preston Foster who takes the reins in Dix's absence. As for Leo Carillo, he enacts his role with his usual strenuously unfunny "comic" accent even though he plays the villain. In real life, Carillo spoke in the same, quietly measured tones as Ronald Reagan. He was in fact an extremely rich man. Acting was his hobby. You'll notice I've not said anything about Frances Gifford, and that's because there's really nothing you can say about her. She's competent, but makes little impression. Alas, Cliff Edwards and "Big Boy" Williams try to take up the slack. They're given plenty of dull dialogue to cut their teeth on, but neither of them are equal to the task of making what issues from their mouths sound the least bit interesting.Fortunately, however, as noted above, that last reel is a whopper full of great stunts and other action and well worth waiting for!

This is the old time basic Western, and one interesting aspect about it is how it is one of the "models" for most later TV series.Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is by the star billing. Dix and Carillo are top billed, yet it is obvious from the start that Preston Foster and Frances Gifford are the lead romantic interests.Romantic leads were not always the standard. Top billing in "THEM!" went to the chief characters of Gwynn and Whitmore as the eccentric show stealing scientist and the policeman who was followed throughout the story. In "THE RAVEN" the two young romantic lovers play second fiddle to three with star billing in Karloff, Price, and Lorre.So it's not new. What is important is that the character played by Dix is the one who is the strong, solid, stable influence. This is the character who would be the mainstay of just about every TV Western series to follow, and most other TV shows. He was Cheyenne, Bronco, Matt Dillon, Ben and Adam Cartwright.Foster was the mistake prone fellow who lacked the solid fundamentals. He learns some bitter lessons the hard way. Unfortunately, as in real life, it is other people who pay for them. In this case, his first born son does.The villainy of the Mexicans is on the racist side. One interesting bit is that when the two good guys meet up with the villain Carillo, it is their own man who is at fault for the troubles, but they are men of experience and savvy, and recognize Carillo for what he is.Frances makes a very nice entrance, and she is very stunning. She appeals to both the male libido and the female intellect.Dix, though seemingly shadowed in the background, is no more shadowed than Bronco or Ben Cartwright were in their endeavors. They were the main character, because they were not just one man, but representative of a lot of men who would try to make things work. They weren't "Everyman". They were "Everymen".

I'm sure that the folks on the Texas/Louisiana border must have had a a good laugh or two when Paramount's B picture unit inflicted this one on the war time public. Very simply the area along the Sabine River where the film opens is cotton country just like the rest of the Deep South or at least the Deep South was post Civl War. No big cattle empires there, they're much farther west in Texas, farther than Richard Dix and Preston Foster could ride to set up their empire.The film begins with the two of them partners in a riverboat and when Leo Carrillo tries a theft of their services by not paying them for hauling his cattle, they keep the cattle. And that's the beginning of the big Ponderosa like ranch they start.Along the way Foster marries Dix's sister played by Frances Gifford and feuds with his much smaller neighbors. They also have some further run ins with Leo Carrillo.Anyway, us easterners who like westerns usually don't bother with geographical trifles and it's still a good western from the production mill of Harry Sherman who produced all those Hopalong Cassidy westerns for Paramount. The climax is a blazing, and I mean that literally, gun battle that should have maybe been used on an A production.But I wouldn't have any but western fans look at it.

Good action and an interesting story make this Western good entertainment despite a few minor flaws. The characters aren't very deep, but they're interesting, and the pace moves along very nicely as it builds up the tension and leads up to a good and often exciting climactic sequence. Richard Dix helps a lot with a pretty good performance as the key character.The story sets up a situation with a lot of possibilities. On the one hand is the hard-headed Bryce, head of the big cattle empire. Then there are the rest of the ranchers, whom Bryce has alienated and angered by his aggressive policies. Finally there is the wild card, the crafty rustler Beauchard, out only for himself. In the middle of all the conflicts is Dix's character Dan Taylor, trying to hold things together. As the story develops from there, Dix generally underplays to good effect (making a nice contrast with, for example, his better known but rather overblown performance in "Cimarron"), and lets the situation speak for itself when it should. Only some shallow characterizations and some ineffective comic relief hold it back a little at times. Otherwise, it gets pretty good mileage out of its potential, and has most of the things you could ask for in a Western.