In watching many of Mickey Rooney's later films after his heyday, he's almost unbearable to watch, bellowing his lines in efforts to steal the scenes, and only believable when he is seemingly directed to tone it down. Fortunately in the case of this Western B film, three times it down a bit after some bellowing early on and a few moments afterwards, searching for outlaw brother Robert Stack with the help of sheriff Robert Preston. Along comes Mexican senorita Wanda Hendrix, one of Rooney's oddest leading ladies as far as lack of fire between them is concerned.
The most interesting thing about this are some unique art deco sets, pretty glamorous for a programmer, let alone a cheapy western. I didn't believe Stack and Rooney as brothers for a second, and if it wasn't for Stack and Preston, I would give this a lower rating. There are a lot of stereotypical cliches in this with the hard accented Mexican characters speaking like cartoon characters, and making it unbelievable that Rooney could survive even a day out on his own in the middle of nowhere. Stack is rugged and handsome, and Preston commanding and authoritative. Compared to them, Rooney acts like he's in a completely different movie, snarling when he should be showing a bit of subtle fear and underplaying when he should be doing a bit more promoting. Hendrix tries too hard to be cute and that just makes her more intolerable. Outside of the few good points I mention, a public domain disaster that's easy to pass on by unless you have to see everything that Rooney's ever done. Frankly I found it very dull.
The most interesting thing about this are some unique art deco sets, pretty glamorous for a programmer, let alone a cheapy western. I didn't believe Stack and Rooney as brothers for a second, and if it wasn't for Stack and Preston, I would give this a lower rating. There are a lot of stereotypical cliches in this with the hard accented Mexican characters speaking like cartoon characters, and making it unbelievable that Rooney could survive even a day out on his own in the middle of nowhere. Stack is rugged and handsome, and Preston commanding and authoritative. Compared to them, Rooney acts like he's in a completely different movie, snarling when he should be showing a bit of subtle fear and underplaying when he should be doing a bit more promoting. Hendrix tries too hard to be cute and that just makes her more intolerable. Outside of the few good points I mention, a public domain disaster that's easy to pass on by unless you have to see everything that Rooney's ever done. Frankly I found it very dull.