Tockinit not horrible nor great

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Michael_Elliott Ride Him, Cowboy (1932) *** (out of 4)Duke, a horse, is on trial for killing a man and the judge is about to put him to death when cowboy John Drury (John Wayne) makes a deal. If Drury can tame the horse then it can live. Of course the cowboy comes through and soon the two of them are trying to track down the real murderer.RIDE HIM, COWBOY was Wayne's shot at stardom as this was the first of the six picture deal that he signed with Warner. The film is certainly a step up from movies like TWO FISTED LAW, which featured Wayne in supporting parts. On a technical level this might still be a "B" movie but it's still better than what we had seen the now legend in up to this point.The best thing about the picture is actually Wayne and his supporting cast of actors. I thought that laid back approach of Wayne's worked pretty well here including the scenes where he trying to smooth talk the leading lady played by Ruth Hall. Wayne and Hall share some nice chemistry together. Frank Hagney does a good job in his role of the villain and Henry B. Walthall turns in another fine supporting performance.As you'd expect, there's a lot of gun play as well as other Western trappings but they're all handled quite nicely by director Fred Allen who keeps the film moving at a nice pace throughout its 55 minutes.

zardoz-13 Director Fred Allen's "Ride Him, Cowboy," a remake of the 1926 Warner Brothers' Ken Maynard western "The Unknown," toplined John Wayne in his first oater for the Burbank company as a harmonica playing hero out to break up a ring of range thieves terrorizing ranches. Essentially, "Ride Him, Cowboy" was a B-movie sagebrusher where the star's horse shows more sense than most of the characters and behaves like a resourceful canine rather than a skittish mount. Aside from a cowboy orchestra strumming a tune, "Ride Him, Cowboy" contains no orchestral soundtrack, but this western boasts better than average production values and looks more expensive than Wayne's later Lone Star westerns that he made after Jack Warner turned him loose some five westerns later. Indeed, this is John Wayne at age 25 looking skinny and rawboned as an upstanding, romantic lead. Predictable from fade-in to fade-out, "Ride Him, Cowboy" is nothing distinguished, but director-turned-editor Fred Allen makes interesting use of dolly shots and there is an interesting point-of-view shot of the sun boiling down on our hero when he is tied to a tree in the desert."Ride Him, Cowboy" opens during one dark, rainy evening as the notorious outlaw 'the Hawk' (Frank Nagney of "The General") a.k.a. Henry Sims and his henchmen attack the Gaunt ranch to steal money. A fierce horse storms up and drives the henchmen away. Jim Gaunt (Henry B. Walthall of "Judge Priest") and his granddaughter Ruth (Ruth Hall of "Monkey Business") check into the disturbance and find one of their ranch hands, Bob Webb, unconscious and in pretty bad shape. Gaunt is surprised to see Sims on his property. Sims explains he just happened to be riding along when he heard the fracas. Sims argues that the horse tried to kill Webb and ought to be destroyed. Meanwhile, the doctor thinks that Webb will pull through without harm, but the ranch hand remains in a coma for three days.The next day in the frontier town of Cattlelow in Maricopa County around the year 1900, Judge Bartlett (Charles Sellon of "Baby Face") convenes court to decide whether to destroy Duke or let the horse live. Sims offers compelling testimony against the horse and Duke rears up at Sims. Ruth rushes to Duke's defense and pleads with the judge not to destroy a horse as gentle as he is. About that time, wandering cowpoke John Drury, late of the Tumblin' Ace Ranch in Texas, rides into Cattlelow on his horse 'Buddy' playing a harmonica without a care in the world. When Drury leans about the impending demise of Duke, he intervenes and persuades Judge Bartlett to let Duke live if he can ride the ornery horse. Sims makes a one-hundred dollar wager with Gaunt that Drury cannot stay aboard Duke and loses. Ruth and Gaunt are overjoyed that Drury saves Duke and a bystander observes that Drury would be a great addition to the vigilantes in their fight against the Hawk. Gaunt invites Drury to their meeting after our hero says that he loves excitement and gives Ruth a loving eye.At the vigilante meeting, Drury suggests that the best way to handle the Hawk is for one man to tackle the villain. Drury learns that nobody knows what the Hawk looks like, except the man has ridden roughshod over the county for years now. John Gaunt persuades Sims to escort Drury into the Hawk's bailiwick. One of the best dolly shots in "Ride Him, Cowboy" occurs during this scene when Allen dollies out from a close-up of Sims to show the entire with several western characters seated around a table. The deputy, Clout (Henry Gribbon of "Yankee Doodle in Berlin"), provides top-notch comic relief as a clowning blow-hard coward. Later that evening at the Gaunt ranch, John and Ruth get to know each other and Ruth insists that John take Duke when he leaves to track down the Hawk. At the same time, Duke trots up and strips the saddle off Drury's horse Buddy. Drury rides off on Duke and meets Sims the following day at Eagle Pass. They ride into the desert and take a breather where Drury explains that his revolver is a 38 caliber gun in a .45 caliber frame dampen the recoil. They compare their ability to make difficult shots look easy and Sims tries out Drury's six-gun and gets the drop on our hero. He ties Drury to a tree while Duke restlessly pulls at his own reins after Drury has knotted them to nearby tree.The Hawk gathers his men, attacks a ranch, and kills the son of the owner and wife. Burning down the buildings, he frames Drury for the crime by leaving Drury's harmonica at the scene. Sims informs Ruth that Drury left him without a word in the night and hasn't been seen since he rode off. The vigilantes and the sheriff catch up to Drury. The only reason that Drury didn't die from exposure of the sun is that Duke pulled himself loose from the tree and untied Drury's bonds with his teeth. The authorities take Drury to a nearby abandoned town where Judge E. Clarence 'Necktie' Jones (Otis Harlan of "Dr. Socrates") convenes a hearing and pretty much railroads Drury into a noose based on Sims' testimony. Meanwhile, Webb recovers from his coma and informs Ruth that it was Sims as the Hawk who attacked their ranch. Ruth mounts up and rides like the devil to save Drury's life. Along the way, she runs into the Hawk's henchmen and fools them into following her to 'Necktie' Jones' courtroom. Ruth arrives in the nick of time to save Drury from an inevitable hanging.Clocking in at a lean, mean 55 minutes, "Ride Him, Cowboy" moves at a brisk pace and never bogs down. Producer Leon Schlesinger is the same individual who supervised the Warner Brothers' cartoons with Bugs Bunny and company.

Neil Doyle A smart horse and a pretty girl are the hero and heroine of RIDE HIM, COWBOY, in which a very young JOHN WAYNE is a drifter mistaken for "The Hawk", a ruthless villain who's the leader of a bunch of gunfighters. Its plot sounds like something that Mel Brooks could make into one of his western satires about a villain called "The Hawk" and a weak sheriff, as well as the hero mistaken for a villain.It plays well, fast and furious with some plot devices that have become clichés over the years but manages to hold the interest throughout despite some obvious flaws and the dated look of the film itself.RUTH HALL is the pretty young woman and the smart horse is "The Duke", an amazing animal used well as the critter who identifies the masked man known as "The Hawk" and takes his revenge for the final scene. He's also involved in a clever rescue when Wayne is left strapped to a tree to die in the desert with the horse nearby, able to free himself and Wayne from the predicament.Summing up: Surprisingly good, unpretentious little western that winds up its tale in less than an hour. Easy to note how Wayne's acting skills became vastly improved over the years.

ccthemovieman-1 I figured this would be a very dated, corny and dumb B-cowboy movie, but was wrong. It was a very interesting short film that was done very well.It had action, comedy, romance and suspense all packed into a movie less that lasted only 55 minutes. It had a convincing nasty villain, a pretty girl, a talented horse named "Duke," and a crooked-but-funny judge. The horse was able to untie rope and acted almost human.The only thing that looked a bit dated - but applied to all classic westerns - is when they broke chairs over the good guy's head and it never seemed to faze him. Only in the movie can a guy get punched flush in the jaw and have a wooden chair broken over his skull, and the victim is no worse for the wear!