Broadway to Cheyenne

1932 "The heroic idol of young America!"
4.8| 0h52m| G| en
Details

A cowboy detective goes up against a gang of big-city thugs trying to set up a protection racket out west.

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Reviews

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.
Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
bkoganbing Rex Bell who married Clara Bow and then went on to be Lt.Governor of Nevada after leaving the screen stars in this film with cowboys versus gangsters. This was done for Monogram Pictures with a minuscule budget and a lot of stock footage.Nevertheless the film has its interesting points concerning the cowboy and gangster culture clashing in the modern west of 1932.Bell's gone east to be a newspaper reporter and gets himself shot in the middle of a gang shootout. Rest is what the doctor prescribes and Bell goes back to his old ranch a little bit away from Cheyenne.Where he finds that the local Cattleman's Association is just a dressed up protection racket and run by one of the gangsters he left on Broadway. All I can say is that the ending clearly marks this as a pre-code picture. And look to the classic story in the many versions of The Virginian to see how things were handled.Bell's no great actor, but he looks good tall in the saddle. Clara Bow sure thought so. Preston Sturges regular Al Bridge is one of the gangsters and Gabby Hayes has a scraggly beard, but a huge walrus mustache and his character is named just that, Walrus.B western fans might like this.
MartinHafer This B-western stars Rex Bell--a man who made quite a few Bs and also married silent star, Clara Bow. For a very interesting account of this woman's life and her marriage to Bell, try reading "Clara Bow: Running Wild"--a very interesting biography.Now to the story. Like so many B-westerns of the era, this one is an odd combination of the old and new. The film is set in the present time and is about gangsters and the like in New York. When the mob tries to kill Breezy Kildaire (Bell), he hightails it back to his family ranch out west. From here on, the film is filled with cowboys and the like--things you'd expect to be seeing around the latter portion of the 19th century. This odd juxtaposition of the old and new is not uncommon in B-westerns. Heck, I remember seeing a Gene Autry film chock full of cowboys chasing pickup trucks on their horses as well as making phone calls! Odd, but not all that uncommon. It is also odd that these cowboys in "Broadway to Cheyenne" drink beer--it IS during prohibition. Talk about anachronistic! Once out west, Breezy learns of a 'protective association'--a group of mobsters selling 'protection'. In other words, if you don't pay them, then you can expect to have a life-threatening accident or have your cattle machine gunned!! This is all very modern and odd in such a western setting--and something you might expect to see in a Jimmy Cagney or Edward G. Robinson flick. I know I sure felt a might confused! So is the film worth seeing? Well, considering Hollywood made 1472950823 B-westerns, I don't think it's particularly good--especially for the casual viewer. Now if you are a huge B-western fan, it is probably worth seeing--even if Bell has a very stiff persona and the film has little to distinguish it from the crowd. Watchable but not particularly inspired or interesting.By the way, you may or may not recognize Gabby Hays in this film. In the early portion of the 1930s, he still hadn't perfected his old coot sidekick persona--and here he looks a bit like this guy but not quite as he's sporting a mustache instead of his usual beard. In fact, Hays played many different types of roles during this time in westerns--erudite gentlemen, crazy old coots, villains or whatever else was needed in the movies. Regardless, he's the best thing about this film--and is quite good in his small role.
FightingWesterner Detective Rex Bell is shot by gangsters in a New York nightclub. Coming home to his father's Wyoming ranch in order to recuperate, he trades his city-slicker outfit for a cowboy hat and jeans. Rex soon finds the gang that shot him, trying to muscle there way into new territory by selling "protection" to the local cattlemen.A fun little cowboys-versus-gangsters picture, this combines two of the nineteen-thirties most endearing B-movie genres into a neat little package. One scene has vengeful gangsters mowing down cattle with a Tommy-gun!The following year, Monogram Pictures and producer Paul Malvern launched a new line of B-westerns under the Lone Star moniker, featuring their new contract star John Wayne. Much in the same vein as the Wayne vehicles, Broadway To Cheyenne has some decent action scenes and appearances by western stars George "Gabby" Hayes and Earl Dwire.
Tom Willett (yonhope) This movie has cars and horses and nightclubs and pool table saloons. Machine guns and cows and big city mobsters who have a beef with the beef ranchers. High steaks, but the only T bone you will see is a trombone just before the lights go out. Really you have to see it. This movie has phone booth violence and wide open spaces chases and gunfights in the Rockies. It actually has a drive by shooting. I won't give away any of the plot but I will tell you Clara Bow had excellent taste. Young Rex Bell here, still in his twenties, does a strip scene which probably got everyone in the theater to buy another ticket to watch again to see if what they saw was for real. At about 17 minutes into the movie watch for Rex to be stripped by a bunch of cowboys. All in good fun, of course. These are manly men who just want to take the young guy's clothes off. Then go watch some football. Not only do they strip him down to his white boxers, but apparently this was before they had learned how to sew the opening of those boxers ( or maybe loose briefs ) closed. No tape was used to conceal anything. Nothing major is showing except maybe that opening might be more clear in the first editions of this movie. I watched a fuzzy image... fuzzy might be the key word. This movie is actually good enough for most people who are able to accept black and white. I think Rex Bell could be a star today if he looked like this and acted like this. He is very charming. When I first moved to Nevada in the early 1960s Rex was the Leutenant Governor and he was very much liked by Nevadans. I recommend this and be sure to watch any Clara Bow movie to see Rex's wife Clara. Look up their story. They had amazing careers plus wild private lives. There is one suicide in this movie and it was realistic for its time.