Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

MartinHafer 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!

dougdoepke Catch Nelson McDowell as the lanky black-clad undertaker at movie's start. He's got the only face I've seen that appears to be assembled in sections. The eyes go in one direction, the nose in another, while the mouth bounces around like a Kleenex in a windstorm. He's fascinating. I wish we would see more of him.Other reviewers are right. This is an average Wayne entry in the Lone Star series. Buddies Mason (Wayne) and Ben (Howes) do play off one another well and I like the way they bond after their fist-fight. It's now a friendship based on mutual respect. And when they fall out over the same girl (Burns), we feel the loss. There's also Wayne doing his patented "gunman's walk" before he duels it out with Canutt and Moore.However, there's not much stunt work or hard riding. But the biggest problem is Dennis Moore as the chief baddie. Catch that scene that pairs up Wayne in a 2-foot hat with Moore in a 6-foot hat. Too bad Moore just doesn't measure up. Then too, the locations don't get outside greater LA, so we don't get the usual great Southern Sierra scenery. But never mind, an ex-Front Row Kid like this old geezer still gets a thrill when that great Lone Star logo pops up on the screen. Yes indeed, the Duke rides again!

John W Chance 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.

bkoganbing If John Wayne didn't say that in The Dawn Rider he should have because the film is a tale of mixing bringing a killer to justice and getting a little payback vengeance in the process.Wayne arrives home just in time to witness his father being killed in an express company holdup. He only knows that the killer wore a polka dot neckerchief and with that clue in mind, he begins the hunt.It leads him to places he doesn't like going especially when it turns out the killer Dennis Moore is the brother of Marion Burns who is nursing the Duke back to health when he gets wounded. Added to that is a nice little romantic triangle going on between Wayne, Burns and Reed Howes who has become Wayne's best friend.Yakima Canutt plays the saloon owner and head of the gang that did the robbery and Yakima worked overtime doing the stuntwork as well. There's pretty good sequence involving a foiled robbery when Wayne takes out a gold shipment. Lots of hard riding and shooting and fighting all in a day's work for Yakima Canutt and his fellow stuntmen.I have a version that is only 54 minutes long and I suspect a lot has been cut from it as I believe originally it ran 68 minutes. I suspect the film would have been better with the director's cut.