Customer Reviews

Blue Steel

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George Hayes didn't always look like "Gabby" in the early Lone Star Pictures productions from the early 1930s, but he certainly does here in Blue Steel in the role of the mustachioed, chawin' and spittin' sheriff Jake. He is hot on the trail of the Polka Dot Bandit, whose thieving ways are becoming legendary in the area. He thinks he knows who the bad guy is, having seen John Carruthers (John Wayne) messing around behind a recently emptied safe. The two men unexpectedly become partners of a sort, though, when a young lady rides up with a gang of outlaws on her tail. Both men quickly become involved with the travails of the local town, the population of which is without ammunition and almost out of food because of these same outlaws pouncing on every stagecoach that tries to approach with the necessary provisions. One of the town's most upright citizens takes the girl in and generously offers a decent sum of money to those townspeople who choose to leave rather than hang around to starve to death. There's gold in them there ranches, just underneath the topsoil, and a man who owned all of the land could do quite well for himself. Gabby Hayes and John Wayne are a dynamic duo, and the "surprises" each man holds back from the other one until the end make for some very interesting and somewhat humorous moments. Blue Steel may be your standard early western from 1934, but it is a most enjoyable movie to watch.

"Blue Steel" was the fifth of the sixteen B Westerns that John Wayne made for the poverty row studio Lone Star/Monogram from 1933 to 1935. Wayne plays U.S. Marshal John Carruthers who shows up in town just after Danti (Yakima Canutt), the Polka Dot Bandit has robbed a safe. While Carruthers is investigating the robbery he is seen by Sheriff Jake Withers (George Hayes before his "Gabby" days) and about to be arrested. But then Carruthers saves Withers' life and they learn they are on the same side. Carruthers then learns about Malgrove (Edward Peil), the big shot in town, who is trying to take over all of the ranches by having his gang stop all the wagons trains heading to town with supplies. It seems there is gold under them thar hills and Malgrove wants it all. The ranchers are about to cave in to Melgrove when the marshal and the sheriff come up with a plan to get the needed supplies to town in this above average 54-minute western.

Written and directed by Robert N. Bradbury, who did most of Wayne's Lone Star Westerns, "Blue Steel" also offers the standard passing love interest. While all of the actors mentioned above were part of Lone Star's stock company during that period, they managed to bring in a different leading lady each time. This time it is Elinor Hunt as Betty Mason, who apparently thinks she is in a silent movie. She and her father (Lafe McKee) were bringing in a load of supplies when they were ambushed. The good guys are too late to save her father, but they bring her back to town where, of course, she catches the eye of Malgrove (a nice villainous name as such things go in these films).

This is an early Wayne film and he is clearly still learning his craft, but Hayes is getting a lot closer to putting all the elements of his "Gabby" persona into place. Wayne actually seems more interested in having a sidekick than the girl, telling Hayes at one point: "I'm glad you decided to drift along with me. It's kind of lonesome trailing alone." It is hard to hear this and not think of how "Gabby" Hayes would be the personification of the western sidekick in the Hopalong Cassidy movies. Usually the attraction to these films is the stunt work by the legendary Yakima Canutt, but he sticks to his standard bag of tricks in this one.

A TOWN ON THE BRINK OF STARVATION IS SAVED WHEN A MYSTERIOUS STRANGER [JOHN WAYNE] COMES ALONG AND DISCOVERS THAT THERE'S GOLD THAT SOME CRIMINALS DON'T WANT THE TOWN TO FIND OUT ABOUT. PREDICTABLE AND NOT ENOUGH ACTION. IF THE FILM HAD A LITTLE MORE ACTION TO IT, THIS ONE COULD'VE BEEN ALRIGHT. RECCOMENDED ONLY FOR DIE-HARD FANS OF JOHN WAYNE.