The Dawn Rider (1935)

About the only reason to see most of John Wayne's Lone Star Westerns is because Wayne is in them. That's certainly true here, as Wayne's character seeks out the man who killed his father and gets caught up in a love triangle.Typically, Wayne's character here, John Mason, doesn't waste time. No sooner does he arrive in town than he gets into an argument with Ben McClure (Reed Howes). The two soon trade blows, followed by friendly drinks at the nearby saloon. Witnessing his father's murder changes the happy situation for Mason, though he still is in the mood for love when a woman McClure is sweet on nurses him back from a gunshot wound.This all happens in the first 15 minutes. Lone Star westerns were typically short, though this is a bit longer than most I've seen at 55 minutes. You have to allow for a rushed narrative, but this one really starves for oxygen, relying on clichés to get across story points.An opening scene features a hombre who is made to "dance" when another fellow shoots at his feet. Mason is warned to get out of town by four o'clock, or be shot on sight. Near the end of the movie, an out-of-luck cowpoke tells Mason that "it's getting' dark...Ain't sundown, is it? You oughta tell Alice I won't be home for dinner..."The dialogue here is quite goofy, and made worse by the strange voices of Wayne's supporting cast. Yakima Canutt's high, sneering register didn't get in the way of his Hollywood career as a premier stuntman, but it makes his villainous barkeep character here tough to take. Dennis Moore as chief baddie Rudd employs a basso profondo baritone, while Marion Burns as love interest Alice (Rudd's sister) uses a tremulous soprano. It's like a real horse opera when one of these two are on stage.Wayne is solid in the main role. Like other commenters here have noted, he had that short-stride, pigeon-toed walk working for him already here, and it's something to see from the opening moments when he strides into town. He demonstrates fine chemistry with the other actors, especially Howes, looking amiable and at ease (even if he should seem a bit edgier after seeing his father murdered in front of him.)There is one good bit in this film, when Mason and an associate (Lone Star regular Earl Dwire, a good player) set a trap for the bad guys and find themselves in a gun battle on a runaway wagon. It looks to be authentic; no back projection anyway, and for a few minutes the film kicks into a higher gear.But then the wagon crashes, Dwire's character is apparently dead and forgotten about, and Mason goes on with the increasingly pointless business of chasing down his father's killer. Soon we are back to Burns caterwauling about her brother's innocence, even if we know better. Why would Mason want such a woman? Why doesn't he confront her brother, instead of banter with him about his neckerchief? "The Dawn Rider" doesn't expect you to care any more than they did, and it shows.

Oh my gosh...listen to the little exchange that occurs about four minutes into the film. It is, possibly, the worst exchange of dialog I have ever heard--it was so dumb that even Ed Wood wold wince!! As Wayne and another dude try to one-up each other, I just couldn't help but think sooner or later one of them would say "I know you are, but what am I?!" or "I'm a rock and you're glue--what you say bounces off me and sticks to you!"--or some other ridiculously childish nonsense. Yes, it was truly that bad. Here's a real example: "...I'm gonna cloud up and rain all over you." "Yeah, you and whose army." Eventually, the two thespians decide to just bash each other's brains out--and thus begins this western masterpiece!! Believe it or not, these two geniuses buy each other drinks just minutes later! They don't write 'em like the used to (thank God).Soon after this, Wayne and his new bestest buddy go to see Wayne's father--a local rancher. In an interesting coincidence, they walk in just as Dad is being robbed...and killed. Now considering that Wayne had been away from home for years, it was a might peculiar that he would return home to witness this murder! Again, the writers were having an off day here! The rest of the film consists of Wayne trying to catch and punish the baddies responsible for this crime (I am talking about the murder, not the writing of this script!).This is perhaps one of the poorest of John Wayne's films. The writing is just dreadful at times, though the rest of the time it is pretty average (when it isn't sucking). My advice is to try some of his other Bs first--this one is clearly a letdown.By the way, is it just me or is there perhaps a bit of a gay subtext going on between Wayne and his new friend Ben?! After all, as Wayne and his lady friend are talking, she is thinking about a wedding ring...and Wayne is just thinking about Ben. This and a few other scenes (such as the apparent 'lovers quarrel' they have late in the film) do make you wonder!

As one of the last 'Lone Star' productions this is one of the best in many ways. It has more character interaction and development, and even a love triangle. As others have noted, all the scenes work toward building up to the climax. It also features three early versions of some of the great clichés of the Western.William K. Everson quotes from Variety reviews of 1908-1909 westerns that mention that those films were competently made but "It all has been done so often before, and usually better." Well, here 27 years later we get these new wonderful clichés all excellently done: 1) the hero and a stranger meet and fight, then go to the bar for a drink as pals and become 'pards' (John Wayne as John Mason vs. Reed Howes as Ben McClure in the opening scene); 2) the 'get out of town by four o'clock or I'll come gunning for ya' saloon threat by the villain (the handsome, evil voiced, quintessential bad guy Denny Moore as Rudd Gordon) to John Wayne; and then 3) the final gunfight down the middle of Main Street, during which the tension builds with good cross cutting and the fact that Mason doesn't know his own gun is loaded with blanks! To back track on the plot, Mason's father is killed by Rudd in a robbery Mason witnesses. Chasing Rudd, Mason is shot and nursed back to health, at Ben McClure's place, by Rudd's sister Alice, who falls for Mason (shown in a telling scene where he talks about boots, but she thinks he's talking about a wedding ring). Ben is in love with Alice, and thinking Mason has designs on her, puts the slugs in his gun. Ben later realizes his mistake in a moving silent sequence, and then rides off to stop, warn or help Mason in his showdown with Rudd.Yakima Canutt gets to play a villainous barkeep, and do some good stunt work as well. No George Hayes in this one, but everything works fine without him. Plus of course, we have John Wayne! You can the sense the development of his patented swagger as he walks down the street during the showdown. So, we get one of the better 'Lone Stars' here. I give it a 5.

The Dawn Rider has all the right elements for a great movie: a love triangle, loyalties between friends and relatives, revenge, right versus wrong, and a strong-willed hero. Packaged into an hour long cowboy package, everything was right for a great movie. As with nearly all B westerns the time and money required to make a great movie were not there.As John Mason, Wayne never loses focus in his pursuit of his father's killer. At the same time he is oblivious to the yearnings of his best friend's girl, Alice Gordon. Alice is unaware of her brother's criminal doings. Ben McClure is suspicious of Mason when he is around Alice. Rudd Gordon needs to stop Mason before being revealed as a murderer. All the while Yakima Canutt oversees everything as the evil saloon owner.While the story is very straight forward with no plot twists, every scene works toward the climax. While it may have been the intention of Robert Bradbury to do this, too often a cheap western got bogged down with mindless action scenes. The Dawn Rider holds up very well as a movie that clearly tells its story and gets to the point without losing the viewer.John Wayne was a strong figure on screen by 1935. His trademark swagger and delivery was still in the making, but he was genuinely the John Wayne of legend by that time. It took another four or five years for Hollywood to notice, though.