Richard Dix was one of those lucky players with a deep a resonant voice that easily made the transition to sound. Usually strong willed heroes occasionally he went over to the dark side. Here he kind of straddles the fence as a gambler on the run from the NYPD on a murder rap.
In a small whistle stop town he's mistaken for a well known reformer type and taken in by the local preacher James Neill. In his new guise but past skills, Dix turns out to be just the man to rid the small town of a bad element. He also wins the heart of Neill's daughter Mary Lawlor when he saves her from a fate worse than death. Her brother William Janney has run up some really big gambling debts in Matthew Betz's clip joint and Betz is willing to let Lawlor redeem them in kind if you get my drift. Very Victorian, the cad.
That Victorian type mindset that permeates this film plus a really bad and contrived cop out ending prevents Shooting Straight from being a great film. But it's reasonably entertaining.
In a small whistle stop town he's mistaken for a well known reformer type and taken in by the local preacher James Neill. In his new guise but past skills, Dix turns out to be just the man to rid the small town of a bad element. He also wins the heart of Neill's daughter Mary Lawlor when he saves her from a fate worse than death. Her brother William Janney has run up some really big gambling debts in Matthew Betz's clip joint and Betz is willing to let Lawlor redeem them in kind if you get my drift. Very Victorian, the cad.
That Victorian type mindset that permeates this film plus a really bad and contrived cop out ending prevents Shooting Straight from being a great film. But it's reasonably entertaining.