Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #237593 in DVD
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Running time: 54 minutes

Customer Reviews

Another excellent Monogram western.
Another excellent entry in John Wayne's list of Lone Star/Monogram westerns. Blue Steel involves John Wayne attempting to prevent a thief from committing continuous wrongdoing. In his way, he befriends a sheriff that is also after the bandit (George Hayes). The bandit, stuntman Yakima Canutt is in cahoots with a gang, lead by the notorious Malgrove, who is attempting to starve out a nearby town. Joh Wayne and Gabby Hayes quickly embark to stop the gang. In the end, a chase scene involving a horse carriage and the gang on horseback, leads to the death of Yakima Canutt's bandit. Finally, John Wayne sets a trap for the malefactors in the middle of the desert. He comes off destroying them, (including character actor Earl Dwire) with a box of explosives. When he discovers a claim in the desert dunes, he reports to the town and continues to stock it up with provisions.
There two VHS transfers of this film on the market. One is the older and less clean Madacy Movie Classics release. The other is the superior print, made recently by Republic Pictures. Though both are in EP mode, they differ in sound and picture quality. I own the Madacy version, which is acceptable, but could have been shaped up with more material. But, no matter which version you happen to purchase, take a look at John Wayne's old days and discover what made him famous.

An excellent early western with John Wayne
George Hayes didn't always look like "Gabby" in the early Lone Star Pictures productions from the early 1930s, but he certainly does here in Blue Steel in the role of the mustachioed, chawin' and spittin' sheriff Jake. He is hot on the trail of the Polka Dot Bandit, whose thieving ways are becoming legendary in the area. He thinks he knows who the bad guy is, having seen John Carruthers (John Wayne) messing around behind a recently emptied safe. The two men unexpectedly become partners of a sort, though, when a young lady rides up with a gang of outlaws on her tail. Both men quickly become involved with the travails of the local town, the population of which is without ammunition and almost out of food because of these same outlaws pouncing on every stagecoach that tries to approach with the necessary provisions. One of the town's most upright citizens takes the girl in and generously offers a decent sum of money to those townspeople who choose to leave rather than hang around to starve to death. There's gold in them there ranches, just underneath the topsoil, and a man who owned all of the land could do quite well for himself. Gabby Hayes and John Wayne are a dynamic duo, and the "surprises" each man holds back from the other one until the end make for some very interesting and somewhat humorous moments. Blue Steel may be your standard early western from 1934, but it is a most enjoyable movie to watch.

Great for a '30s movie.
This movie shows Wayne at his "B-movie" best, but to the average Wayne fan, this unrealistic movie (in plot and action) is just a waste of time and money. On the other hand, it does show Wayne as a character who nobody knows about, and has an excellent and surprising ending that will get everybody who has not already seen it.