Westward Ho

An American Western; A story about a boy who saw his parents murdered and his younger brother kidnapped by a gang of cattle thieves and bandits. Years later, after forming a vigilante group, he sets out to find his long-lost brother. This is a low-budget B-movie with low production values that show. It has a simple, straightforward, and serviceable plot, but it keeps up the tension on a main note of mystery. John Wayne plays the grown-up crusader and leader of cowboys with a penchant for a singalong. The editing was clumsy, which made the verbal exchanges in many of the scenes awkward, but it is directed competently otherwise, and it has some good location photography.

first, we got people singing a song like watching a play on a stage. then the funny things showed up one by one. by watching this 1935 film i was unable not to think about what the hongkong shaw brothers did to their Chinese kung-fu movies, always with stupid screenplays, weird attires, costumes, hairdos, make-up, terrible acting... pretentious and unrealistic dialog.....all of those horrible arrangements shown in shaw brothers kung fu movies were accidentally matched this pathetic western genre b movie. all the people in this pioneering westward movie wore nice, clean and ironed costumes, even in gunfights, good guys led by john wayne were riding on white horses, wearing white shirts, while the bad guys' horses were just a mixture of different colors. there were so many laughable and pretentious scenes and dialog in this horrible film.

This wonderful example of the early B western is tarnished by some pitiable horse falls that would not be tolerated in today's films. Two scenes in particular show the poor animals somersaulting and going down in a horrendous heap, sometimes on top of one another. Even knowing that the movie is over 70 years old; the sight of the poor animals in such distress still made me heart sick. The Running W appears to have been used liberally in this picture, which is otherwise well acted and produced. John Wayne gives an excellent performance along with a strong supporting cast, while the Owens Valley and Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine provide a realistic backdrop to the story.

Westward Ho finds the Duke on the trail of as many outlaws as he can kill or capture in search of the gang that killed his parents and kidnapped his young brother.

A prologue to the main film finds the young Wyatt boys on the trail with their parents while they were driving their cattle herd to market. The young Duke is thrown clear from the wagon and thought killed and the brother is taken by outlaw leader Jack Curtis.

When the boy grows up to be John Wayne, he's got himself a mission. In a premise similar to the Lone Ranger, Wayne with official territorial permission organizes his own group of law enforcers called the Vigilantes. So they know each other in a fight with large outlaw bands, Wayne has them dress in black, but ride white horses. The get up isn't for style and Wayne instead of one lone Indian sidekick has forty or so men who have sustained similar family losses.

Of course as things go he does eventually meet up with his grown up brother and the gang that kidnapped him. For what happens you have to watch Westward Ho.

Hardly the best or the worst of Wayne's Poverty Row oaters. In fact Westward Ho has some nice production values because it is shot on location and not on the studio back lot. Unusual for a B western of the Thirties.

Not of course to be missed by the many fans of the legendary Duke.

Separated during an attack on their family's covered wagon, one boy is taken and raised by the murderous bandits, while the other becomes a man (John Wayne) and leads a group of vigilantes against the outlaws and his own brother.

In 1935, the Lone Star unit was sold by Monogram to the fledgling Republic Pictures, who gave producer Paul Malvern a bigger budget to work with and it really shows.

While this has basically the same formula as Wayne's earlier work for Lone Star, the production values are far greater, with some really nice photography, excellent locations, and a nice little stunt-filled finale. It's always good to see Glenn Strange play a good guy too.

Thrown in are some decent songs, including another odd lip-sync performance from the Duke. Also pretty goofy is the dedication at the beginning of the movie, a salute to the vigilantes of the old west!