User Reviews

Encore Westerns had a couple of back to back flicks this morning featuring Fuzzy St. John, this one where he teams up up with Lash LaRue and a follow up with Buster Crabbe in "Outlaws of the Plains". This is not Mensa material folks, but if you like this kind of stuff there's a million of them. Or pretty close anyway.

In your classic plot line involving an evil town boss, bad guy Judd (Jack Ingram) and his henchmen are pulling out all the stops to grab the last piece of land needed to complete their own mini-empire in the town of Buffalo Gap. After her brother is killed, pretty Betty Walters (Jennifer Holt) welcomes the help of undercover marshal Cheyenne (Lash La Rue) and his partner Fuzzy. What I found interesting was that Cheyenne's last name was never mentioned in this film, even though he appeared as the same character Cheyenne Davis in pictures before and after this one.

The hook for this film is the shadowy figure of a mastermind behind Judd, gambler Grayson (Terry Frost) and the crooked sheriff (Heny Hall). If you've seen enough of these oaters you'll figure it out too, so let me just pose this question in the meantime. Remember when the bad guys shoot their fellow outlaw Grayson from a distance? Why wouldn't they have shot Cheyenne and Fuzzy instead and save their buddy to keep the swindle going? I guess matinée audiences of the day weren't supposed to think about these things too deeply.

Well with the revelation of Uncle Bob (William Fawcett) and the capture of the outlaws, Cheyenne's job is done and Fuzzy's made the new sheriff of Buffalo Gap. Hopefully he won't leave the jail cell key in the door after locking up the bad guys like Henry Hall did. Make sure you pay attention in the early scene when Fuzzy decides to roll his own cigarette - his technique will make you do a couple of double takes.

PIONEER JUSTICE is another short and snappy western made just after WW2. This one stars genre regular Fuzzy St. John playing the same character he plays in all of these productions, although Buster Crabbe doesn't appear this time around. He's replaced by the striking Lash La Rue, playing the black-clad Cheyenne Kid, who takes the fight to a gang of bad guys in plenty of thrilling fight scenes and the like. You know what to expect from a programmer like this: lots of action, a simple story, and some laughs.