Thunder Town

Not among Steele's best. I agree with reviewer Henchman—Steele looks a little old and haggard here. Maybe that's why we get so few close-ups. And that's too bad, because the compact cowboy had one of the best hard-eyed stares in the business. Those pale blue eyes under a bushy brow could drill holes through walls. I expect that was one reason he was cast in A-pictures like The Big Sleep (1945) and The Enforcer (1951), where he made genuinely scary bad guys. Indeed, he could do those as well as tough good guys—quite a tribute to an actor who stood only 5'5".

Anyway, PRC was about the bottom of the barrel in production values and that's about what we get here—LA area scrublands, cheap sets, and a lot of standing around talking. There's some athletic fisticuffs (Steele's specialty), but not much hard riding or gunplay. What the movie does have are some of the best veterans in the business—rotund bad guy Charles King (Rankin), along with two of Hollywood's top stuntmen Bud Geary (Wilson) and Bud Osborne (Carson). Also, Ellen Hall makes a lively and attractive love interest. Too bad she left the business early. One oddity to watch for—two sets of bad guys. Maybe PRC thought that would make up for some of the cost cutting. Anyhow, for this former Front Row kid, many of my best matinée days were spent with these oaters, cheap or not.