Legion of the Lawless

Lawyer Jeff Toland hangs out his shingle in Ivestown, but is ordered out by a vigilante group headed by Les Harper. The vigilantes are merely a cloak under which the band of outlaws headed by Harper operate to terrorize and control the town. When it is learned that the new railroad survey takes the tracks through East Ivestown instead of Ivestown, the gang plans to drive out the homesteaders and ranchers along the right-of-way and file on the land themselves. Jeff leads the fight for the intended victims against the gang.

Legion of the Lawless (great title) is another lively western starring George O' Brien who is on top form as a lawyer. He gets tangled with lawlessness and vigilantism and Virginia Vale who plays the daughter of a vigilante leader - the good one. There's a bad vigilante played by Norman Willis who leads other bad apples in the vigilante group.

This RKO western is engaging, has some snappy and witty dialogue and a good chemistry from O' Brien and Virginia Vale - there's an intelligence to the plot, but also a little action to keep things ticking.

Jeff Toland (George O'Brien) is a lawyer about to move to a town out west. However, the town is run by a 'vigilante committee'...a group that enforces what they THINK should be the law. If that isn't bad enough, many folks within the committee don't realize that one of the leaders is scum...and he's using the committee to add legitimacy to his very illegetimate work. What is this work? Chasing innocent folks out of the neighboring town in order to get their land, as the railroad is soon coming and will promise to make him rich. So, it's up to Jeff to try to stop them...by exposing their leader and getting all the 'sheep' in town to stand together against the committee.

George O'Brien is an odd looking sort of B-cowboy, as he doesn't look anything like the big stars of the day, such as Gene Autry. In fact, O'Brien doesn't sing nor act like most cowboys of the day...and that's okay by me. It's a nice change of pace and O'Brien was a good actor.

As for the film, it's much better than most B-westerns. Although the subject matter is rather familiar, it is well done and exciting...and a step or so better than most films in the genre.

This is a typically excellent George O'Brien western from RKO -- he made just shy of twenty of them from 1937 through 1940. Although a B picture, you'd never guess it, thanks in no small part to DP Harry Wild's camera-work -- his two-shots are like portraits, there are some nice Dutch angles and he manages to fit some nice traveling shots into the budget.

The story, about how lawyer O'Brien comes to town and takes on the vigilantes has some serious things to say, but they are reserved for the subtext. The story is so good it was remade a couple of years later as PIRATES OF THE PRAIRIE with Tim Holt.

If you think that B westerns are brainless shoot-em-ups shot on six-day schedules, this one can make a good corrective to the image.