The Lawless Nineties

John Wayne as a government man aims to bring free elections to Wyoming with the help of Lane Chandler. Who had star power of his own and a stalwart of television Westerns. Harry Woods did an admirable job as the Chairman of the Committee of Law and Order but behind the scenes is up to some dirty deeds. Hard to believe that the clean shaven newspaper man is actually Gabby Hayes. His daughter the beautiful Ann Rutherford was outstanding as the newspaper lady fighting for voting rights. In another irony, she was not actually allowed to vote until years later. Although they played lesser roles it was great to see 'Snowflake' Toones, a standard bearer for Republic and Etta McDaniel.The Lawless Nineties is another fine western from Republic Pictures.

Federal agent John Tipton heads for Wyoming to supervise the vote on whether to join the Union. One group of locals is using dynamite to terrorize the populace and a local newspaper editor is killed.

Better production values, an interesting story and of course John Wayne lifts this above average. It's entertaining and has a seamless pace, though the two African-American characters didn't seem to add much to the story; they were there for comic relief I guess.

This film was a pretty entertaining film and being a B-film, it was over in under one hour. In other words, it accomplished its modest goals just fine. While this means that compared to other, A-films, the movie might seem awfully simplistic, it was simply meant as a second film on a double-bill. These second features were often made by lesser-name studios and featured lower budgets and actors/directors/writers who hadn't yet established themselves in Hollywood or couldn't make the jump to the higher-level films--hence, the name "B-Movie". For years, John Wayne did many Bs and this one is certainly better than most (such as his "Singing Sandy" and "Three Mesquiteers" films). It gets the job done and the acting, for Bs, is very good. By the way, the role of the Major was played by George Hayes--that's "Gabby" Hayes and wow does he look and sound different playing a more serious role!

An American Western; A story set in the 1890s about a Federal agent who travels to Wyoming territory to supervise the vote on statehood where he faces danger from the leader of an insurgency who is out to make sure the vote fails by terrorising the populace. With a general theme about the democratic vote being mightier than the gun, this is a fair production with some intrigue and good pacing. John Wayne plays the lead role in a commanding way, dealing out the medicine to the night-riding vigilantes and guerillas; George 'Gabby' Hayes as the respectable newspaper proprietor lends some poignant moments and Harry Woods is suitably cunning and deceitful. While their roles are very stereotypical Fred Toones and Etta McDaniel have great presence when they appear. The story is slight but reasonable for a short feature and tension builds quite well before diplomacy and duplicity gives way to a noisy shootout finale. And an amusingly rapid tying up of loose ends in epilogue.

Marred slightly by rear-screen projection and stock footage, "The Lawless Nineties" still rates very high for its superior cast, starring John Wayne, and script and directing by Joseph Kane.

There is only a little historical accuracy here, but that is irrelevant in this exciting production, made even more exciting by the usual excellent stunt work by the greats Yakima Canutt and Cliff Lyons.

Just one example of superlative acting is provided in a scene where Etta McDaniel is holding a broom, standing at the back of a meeting room. Right next to the spittoon.

One of the meeting attenders turns around to spit, and she watches carefully. And in turn she needs to be watched carefully, she and the spitter.

The expression on her face is priceless.She was a marvelous actress, and part of the famous acting family that included her more famous sister Hattie and her brother Sam.

All up and down the list of players is quality, including the prolific Tom London and the great villain Charles King.

Some other reviewers must not really know much about the history of B Westerns since they kept expressing surprise at the appearance of George W. Hayes as the editor, called usually "Major" Carter but at least once "Colonel" Carter.

His daughter is played by the adorable Ann Rutherford.

There is a good print at YouTube, apparently recorded from a presentation by AMC. I highly recommend "The Lawless Nineties."