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Randy Rides Alone!
Another sensational Lone Star Duke western. It can also be easily enjoyed on the big screen, since the DVD transfer is quite stellar, and the negative has been obviously cleaned up and remastered for new music.
Randy Bowers (Wayne), finds a saloon full of corpses, and is caught inside by the lawmen. He is accused of the crime, and locked up in prison. A young woman decides that Wayne is not part of the murdering gang, and bails him out. He decides to join the guilty outlaws to search out the genuine killer. George Hayes co stars as "Marvin Black", or "Matt the Mute." Wayne discovers that Black is responsible for this, and brings the outlaw to eventual justice.
A western that should be appreciated by all, especially John Wayne fans.

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John Wayne rides the danger trail in an early B Western
John Wayne has the title role in "Randy Rides Alone," a 1934 Lone Star western done for the poverty row Monogram studio. Directed by Harry L. Fraser from a story and screenplay by Lindsley Parsons, this seventh Wayne film in this series has a similar story to the second, 1933's "Sagebrush Trail." Once again our hero, this time named Randy Bowers ("He rode the Danger Trail!"), is in jail for a murder that he did not commit. However, Randy gets sprung by his gal, Sally Rogers (Alberta Vaughn) and as is usually the case ends up undercover with the real outlaws in an effort to bring the gang and its leader, Marvin Black (George Hayes) to justice.

Actually, Black is the more interesting character because he pretends to be the mute Marvin Matthews, the owner of the local General Store. Of course, seeing Gabby Hayes without his beard (and technically before he had really evolved his sidekick character made infamous by the Hopalong Cassidy westerns), takes a bit of getting used to. The charade allows him to keep tabs on what the sheriff (Earl Dwire) is up to and plan accordingly. The set up is fairly standard and so is the way the action plays out in the end. Legendary stunt man Yakima Canutt is Spike, and he doubles for pretty much anybody doing anything worthy watching in terms of the stunts.

"Randy Rides Alone" is a below average one of these Lone Star films, probably because usual director Robert N. Bradbury is not around for the fun, but it is also one of the better preserved of the B Westerns Wayne did while learning his craft in the early 1930s. That probably explains why in 1985 it was given new original music and distributed for television by Fox/Lorber. There is also a (gasp) computer colorized version for people who like turning a sow's ear into a purse.

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One of The Duke's most memorable early films
Randy rides alone; heck, he's John Wayne, and John Wayne can take care of himself. In this Lone Star Pictures 1934 production, he does make a couple of mistakes early on, though. First, he wears a black hat - this has nothing to do with what happens, but it just doesn't seem like a good idea for a good guy to be wearing a black hat. Second, he decides to do a little investigating on his own when he walks into the Halfway House and finds everyone inside dead. This opening scene is really quite memorable. Nobody bled from gunshot wounds in the 1930s, of course, but there is a mysterious someone behind the wall using the old "holes in the eyes of the picture" ruse to watch Randy as he looks around, giving the scene a nice little creepy touch. Randy is arrested for the murders, of course, but it's really Marvin Black ("master of disguise" Gabby Hayes) and his gang of desperadoes responsible. Spunky Sally Rogers (Alberta Vaughn) refuses to reveal the location of her uncle's stash in the Halfway House to the bad guys, and she also doesn't fall for the shenanigans of Matt the Mute when he tries to buy the joint from her, putting herself in great danger. Randy manages to get out of jail (secretly, of course), accidentally runs into Marvin Black's gang in their secret hideout, and puts his wily do-gooder mind to work in an effort to nail the bad guys, save the day, and get the girl. This is an early movie made five years prior to Stagecoach, but it definitely shows us flashes of The Duke as America and most of the rest of the world would come to know and love him.