"The Desert Trail" is one of many B-movies which John Wayne made in the late twenties and early thirties before he became a major star. Most of these were Westerns, and many of them were made for Lone Star, a production company specialising in that particular genre. In 1935 alone Wayne starred in eight such films; in each of them he played a character with the Christian name John. This was presumably a deliberate move by Lone Star and their successors Republic Pictures to create a distinctive identity for their leading man.
The title "The Desert Trail" might suggest either a hunt through the desert for a fugitive or a group of pioneers making their way to a new life in California, but in fact the film deals with neither of those subjects. It was probably just a generic Western title which could be applied to virtually any plot. The film concerns John Scott, a rodeo star, and his gambler friend Kansas Charlie, who are wrongly accused of murdering a man in the course of an armed robbery, and their attempts to expose the real villains.
The acting is almost universally poor; Wayne is the only well-known name here, but he shows little of the talent and charisma which were later to make him one of Hollywood's biggest names. The action sequences are unconvincing, including a badly choreographed fist-fight with obviously pulled punches. The story is often difficult to follow. The film-makers even seemed to lack much of a budget for costumes. Although the action presumably takes place in the late nineteenth century, Mary Kornman as Wayne's love-interest Anne appears throughout dressed in the fashions of 1935 rather than 1870 or 1880.
By modern standards, at just under an hour, the film is absurdly short, but this was a normal length for B-movies in this period. What struck me most, however, was not the film's length but how cheap it seemed, having evidently been made on a minuscule budget. It reminded my forcibly of just why studios like Monogram (Lone Star's parent company) specialising in B-movies earned the nickname "Poverty Row". It might be more accurately categorised as a C- or D-movie, as everything about it shouts out "not so much second rate as third or fourth rate". If it had starred anyone other than Wayne, that future American cultural icon, it would doubtless have long since been forgotten. 3/10
The title "The Desert Trail" might suggest either a hunt through the desert for a fugitive or a group of pioneers making their way to a new life in California, but in fact the film deals with neither of those subjects. It was probably just a generic Western title which could be applied to virtually any plot. The film concerns John Scott, a rodeo star, and his gambler friend Kansas Charlie, who are wrongly accused of murdering a man in the course of an armed robbery, and their attempts to expose the real villains.
The acting is almost universally poor; Wayne is the only well-known name here, but he shows little of the talent and charisma which were later to make him one of Hollywood's biggest names. The action sequences are unconvincing, including a badly choreographed fist-fight with obviously pulled punches. The story is often difficult to follow. The film-makers even seemed to lack much of a budget for costumes. Although the action presumably takes place in the late nineteenth century, Mary Kornman as Wayne's love-interest Anne appears throughout dressed in the fashions of 1935 rather than 1870 or 1880.
By modern standards, at just under an hour, the film is absurdly short, but this was a normal length for B-movies in this period. What struck me most, however, was not the film's length but how cheap it seemed, having evidently been made on a minuscule budget. It reminded my forcibly of just why studios like Monogram (Lone Star's parent company) specialising in B-movies earned the nickname "Poverty Row". It might be more accurately categorised as a C- or D-movie, as everything about it shouts out "not so much second rate as third or fourth rate". If it had starred anyone other than Wayne, that future American cultural icon, it would doubtless have long since been forgotten. 3/10