6/10
A moderately engaging western.
16 October 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is now known as "Wings Over Wyoming", which in some ways is a better title because the film's most impressive scenes are those in which cattle are stampeded by a diving airplane – an original device if nothing else! Director Ewing Scott handles these action scenes with considerable flair, but both his screenplay, written in collaboration with Dan Jarrett, and his handling of it are less satisfactory. In fact, the many long dialogue exchanges without music or sound effects, remind us of independent westerns made at the very beginning of the sound recording era rather than major studio endeavors as late as this. Also the plot device in which the hero's rival is stupid enough to confuse a movie poster with the real thing doesn't ring true unless it's first established that the man is a moron or at the very least a bigot who hates movies with all the ignorance-is-bliss fervor of a revivalist preacher. Charles Middleton handles the role of the villain with his usual panache, Cecilia Parker makes a grand heroine, Maude Eburne is a wonderful foil, but Frank Milan is at best a rival of no account whatever.
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