RIDE HIM, COWBOY (1932) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Fred Allen
John Wayne, Ruth Hall, Henry B. Walthall,
Frank Hagney, Otis Harlan, Harry Gribbon
John Wayne rides into town playing "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" on a harmonica, and the first thing that happens is that a horse is about to be sentenced to death for being a mean horse, but John Wayne persuades the judge to let the horse live if he can ride him, which he does, so the horse goes free, and he's a really smart horse and he becomes John Wayne's horse, and wouldn't you know it, the horse's name is Duke. The rest of the movie has Duke and the Duke riding out after a no-good varmint called the Hawk, and it's pretty routine - a hard-ridin' two-fisted B movie from Wayne's salad days. He was a good-lookin' kid back then, not far removed from "The Big Trail" and the football team at USC. It's just hard to believe he was ever that young.
