Whirlwind Horseman

Ken Maynard gave one of his best performances in this very good B Western story that was also well directed by Robert F. Hill.

An excellent gang of cowboys help make this an exciting and thoroughly enjoyable movie, and be sure to watch Budd (known here as "Bud") Buster in a role that gives him some room and that might remind you of George "Gabby" Hayes -- surely one of Buster's best performances, out of the hundreds he gave.

Ken's sidekick is played by Billy (here "Bill") Griffith, of whom I knew nothing previously, and who seems to be best known for TV roles. He is not so silly or over the top as too many B sidekicks have been.

Joan Barclay, though, was one of the most talented and simply adorable of the B Western leading ladies. She reportedly didn't care a lot about being a big star and was happy just keeping busy. IMDb shows 85 credits, but with her beauty and talent, there should be more than twice that. Supposedly, by her own account, that she refused the casting couch -- which was kept busy even in the pre-Harvey Weinstein days -- might well have been an obstacle to a busier career. Our loss.

Writer George H. Plympton has more than 300 credits here at IMDb, although some seem to have been duplicated. Regardless, he was quite the busy -- and talented -- writer. And, in this script, he helped make the players show themselves A quality. He gives clever and even literate dialogue to this excellent cast.

Two complaints: I just hate to see Dave O'Brien as a bad guy, and the print I saw at YouTube is in pretty bad shape. But it's still very much worth watching. I highly recommend it.