The Lone Star Trail (1943) Poster

(1943)

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6/10
Revenge is sweet
ejrjr2 August 2007
John Mack Brown plays the stereotypical bad guy/good guy framed for a crime by alleged friends. After release from prison he returns to home town to expose the real crooks. Tex Ritter is an undercover U.S. Marshal pretending to be an itinerant gunslinger who consistently saves Johnny from death.

There are some other plot twists which help maintain interest and raise the script above predictable. And of course several requisite fight scenes. The love angle is barely a minor storyline and really is just an excuse to wrap the story without resorting to the bad guys being arrested by the local sheriff.

Of course the bonus for western fans is John Mack Brown and Tex Ritter together in same movie. And that is worth the price of admission.
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5/10
Two western greats in one interesting film ..........
revdrcac7 July 2006
Tex Ritter and Johhnny Mack Brown team up in this action-filled programmer from the early 1940's. The former football star and country crooner take on some mangy cowpokes who had already framed Brown once and are about to do it again!

At this point in their careers, the pairing was intended to allow the western greats to pool their on screen strengths. The result is this standard tale of revenge and redemption on the old frontier. Ritter was always pleasant in this type of role and Brown handled the action and fistfights in a first rate manner. Overall, it was a good job.

While this was not an A-level film, it should appeal to die-hard fans of the western programmers..... I did !
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6/10
"Show's over gents, start reachin'."
classicsoncall15 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Forget the story here pardners, you'll be doing a double take when you see who shows up in this one. He's listed as Bob in the credits, but if you're a movie fan, there's no denying that villain Ben Slocum is played by Robert Mitchum! You just never know who's going to show up in these old B Westerns from the Thirties and Forties, and catching a name like Mitchum is an unexpected treat.

From 1939 to 1943, Johnny Mack Brown did twenty eight films for Universal, teaming with Bob Baker for a half dozen, going it alone for another fifteen pictures, and then joined by Tex Ritter for seven more. Along with Fuzzy Knight, they formed an unofficial trio of sorts, portraying different characters in their films together. It also wasn't unusual to see the Jimmy Wakely Trio adding some musical accompaniment to the story, along with veterans Earl Hodgins and Jennifer Holt, all of whom appeared in "The Lone Star Trail".

In the story, Brown is fresh out of jail after being framed by Slocum and his cronies, which include the Mayor of Dead Falls, Cyrus Jenkins. Jenkins is portrayed by Earle Hodgins, who usually turns up in Westerns as a comic relief character, but he plays it straight here. I prefer him in his comic bits, he just has the right looks and temperament for those kinds of roles, like he did in "The Old Chisholm Trail", another Brown/Ritter/Knight story. There he played the part of Indian Hopping Crow.

Tex Ritter shows up in an opening scene when he backs up JMB during a stagecoach attack by the outlaws. Their characters are unknown to each other at the start of the show, which is why I mentioned earlier that they were an unofficial trio with Fuzzy. Though they often share the same goals in their pictures, they don't necessarily work together, but criss-cross each other as the story plays out. In this one Fargo Steele (Ritter) has to pull Blaze Barker's (Brown) fat out of the fire more than once before it's all over.

With a lively saloon brawl and some well placed tunes by Wakely's group, this is a fairly entertaining and quick paced Western. One interesting bit of trivia - in the picture I mentioned earlier, "The Old Chisholm Trail" - Tex joins the Jimmy Wakely Trio around the campfire to sing a song called 'The Lone Star Trail' - what were the odds?!!
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Good Mix
dougdoepke22 March 2011
Solid little oater. The plot's old hat—an innocent man (Brown) needs to search for the men who framed him and regain his good reputation. But the story is also well done, with good acting plus a nice mix of action, intrigue and trail tunes. Even the buffoonish matinée humor is pretty well handled by Fuzzy Knight. Ritter and Brown make a good team, and I like the wrinkle in Fargo's (Ritter) background—(also, check out those sterling movie names, "Blaze Barker" and "Fargo Steele"). Too bad we don't see more of the lovely Jennifer Holt, but we do see Bob Mitchum in an early speaking role and with a mustache, no less. These matinée specials may have ridden into the sunset, but they're still a lot of fun.
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4/10
Should have kept a cool head
bkoganbing6 May 2011
The Lone Star Trail pairs two B picture cowboy heroes Johnny Mack Brown and Tex Ritter in a tale of investigation and apprehension, the result of which would be to clear a man who has already served two years in prison for a robbery he didn't commit.

The innocent man is one of our heroes Johnny Mack Brown and being on parole he can't carry a six gun which would cramp the style of any cowboy hero. That's all right because Tex Ritter who is really an undercover government agent gets in enough shooting for both of them.

Lots of action is involved to cover up a poorly plotted script because the bad guys are out to get Brown even before he's set foot in town. Seems to me that all they had to do was keep a cool head and do nothing suspicious and Brown or Ritter couldn't have touched them.

Fuzzy Knight has some good scenes as the sidekick who is also the town barber and Jennifer Holt, daughter of Jack and sister of Tim, looks pretty in her cowgirl outfit as the girl Johnny Mack Brown left behind. And one of the villains, none other than Robert Mitchum at the beginning of his long and illustrious career.

For fans of B westerns and Robert Mitchum completists.
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6/10
Three is better than one.
planktonrules27 October 2020
In the 1930s and 40s, several studios realized that they could combine various B-list western stars into a movie to increase the marketability of the films. So, this led to films like the Three Mesquiteers and the Range Busters...films which featured three stars instead of one. Generally, these movies were pretty good...and the writing of these films seemed a bit better than usual. In the case of "The Lone Star Trail", Universal Pictures paired up Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter and Fuzzy Knight...and it's a pretty dandy film.

The story begins with Blaze (Brown) being released from prison after two years in the pokey. Since he's the hero of the story, it's safe to assume he's NOT a criminal at all and was framed for theft. Now that Blaze is out, he wants to clear his name and is assisted by his friend, Angus (Knight) and a stranger who comes to his aid (Ritter).

The acting is quite nice, the writing better than usual for a B-western and all in all it's a fun film. Interestingly, I've never particularly enjoyed Tex Ritter's solo efforts...but here with Brown and Knight, he's quite good.

By the way, the barber (Knight) talks about creating some health concoction for people to drink and he mentions the ingredients...including milk weed. Well, milk weed is toxic to humans...and I wonder if the writer knew this and that's why he included this!
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3/10
Hey, isn't that Robert Mitchum!
movingwater1 March 2020
That's right. This 1943 B Western from Tex Ritter introduced "Bob" Mitchum in his first year as a credited Hollywood actor. With a few lines, spoken in that smooth baritone for which Mitchum would soon become famous, a vary young Mitchum mostly looks around a little but surprised to be in a movie!

Easy enough to view, The Lone Star Trail has nothing much more interesting to offer. Typical of the period for westerns, a few songs, a couple of fights, and good ultimately triumphs over adversity.
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8/10
Great cast well directed in good story
morrisonhimself21 June 2018
Tex Ritter always looked and sounded good and his Texas upbringing showed when he essayed cowboy roles.

Johnny Mack Brown, on the other hand, was not a native-born cowboy, in fact, started his movie career as leading man to such leading ladies as Joan Crawford, but he became one of the most popular Western stars, and with very good reason.

First, he was a good-looking, athletic man, having been, in fact, a college football star. Somehow, he adapted himself to the cowboy role and seemed perfectly natural in his dozens of Western roles.

In this small film, he doesn't have to stretch, except in the fight scenes, but where acting replaces action, he continues to shine.

He and Tex are sided by Fuzzy Knight, whose part stretches him a bit and he's not the silly stutterer he played too often. Really Knight made a good Western player.

Again not needing to do much but look good, Jennifer Holt as usual does that extremely well, but she always was much more than the proverbial pretty face: She came from a family of actors and never let the side down.

Jimmy Wakely, later a star in his own series, is here with his two side-men, the great Johnny Bond and Scotty Harrel.

They, as friends and allies with our heroes, must join in confronting the bad guys, including Robert Mitchum. Wow, even as a beginner, Mitchum was so smooth, so in control, that he would become a huge star just seemed inevitable in the way he handled even this type of small part.

Cast and the script by Oliver Drake make this potentially routine film something more, and they are helped by directing from veteran Ray Taylor. And music from Ritter and the Wakely trio is just icing on the cake.

I have no hesitation in recommending "The Lone Star Trail," and you can find a copy at YouTube.
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