Patas Trovejantes

Thundering Hoofs (1924)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent Western has good guy Dave Marshall (Fred Thomson) framed by bad guy Luke Severn (William Lowery). The battle goes to Mexico where Marshall has fallen in love with a beautiful Senorita (Ann May) but her father is under the impression that he's a bad guy so he must clear his name and defeat the bad one as well. This plot detail sounds like hundreds of other "B" movies that the genre would release at one per week once the 1930s came along. It's somewhat hard not looking at this film as being unoriginal but I'm going to guess that the plot was somewhat fresher in 1924, although today it comes off terribly dated due to all the other films that have been released since. Overall I had a decent time with the movie, although much like those "B" Westerns of the 30s, you're not going to be missing a Holy Grail if you decide not to watch it. The most memorable sequence in the film is when a robbery goes wrong and the stagecoach carrying the woman goes off on its own and Marshall must ride up to it and jump onto the horses. This scene was featured in the Hollywood documentary as the stuntman was seriously injured and it's easy to see why as the accident footage is still in the film. You can still clearly see where he misjudged his jump and ended up going under the stagecoach. This action scene is without question the highlight of the film. Fred Thomson was one of the bigger names in the genre back in the day but this was my first time seeing him. It's hard to judge someone by just one film but I thought he was mildly entertaining and at least was able to carry himself in front of the camera. Lowery is pretty good as the bad guy who hates the horse Silver King. Yes, even this era of Westerns had the special horse. Silver King isn't any better or worse than the various other horses out there but he certainly takes a beating in a few scenes including the over-the-top ending where our bad guy throws him into a bull ring. In the end there's not enough to recommend this to general or casual fans but I think those interesting in the genre will probably find enough to keep them entertained.