This Columbia B western starring Tim McCoy will never be confused with the more famous Sam Goldwyn 1940 Western starring Gary Cooper, but it's actually a pretty decent programmer. McCoy is a rodeo contestant badly injured in a horse accident, but it's not really an accident so he finds out. He retires from rodeo performing to buy a ranch, and finds that there are rustlers out to scare him and fellow ranch owner Marion Shilling off her land. The leader of the rustlers is a little closer to Shilling than she realizes. That leads to a murder charge against McCoy. At under an hour, it's entertaining (if a bit creaky in spots oldbecause of its low budget) and fast moving, although I wish the actors were directed to speak their lines a little faster. A decent production design helps make it look a notch above the usual quality of most other quickly turned out horse operas. McCoy isn't as memorable a B western hero as Wayne, Rogers or Autry, but it's nice to see a heroine in a western programmer that does nothing more than wring her hands or become a victim of the villains.
Review of The Westerner
