Sagebrush Trail (1933)

• 
  
  July 28, 2008

  phantopp

  Escaped convict "John Bramt" (John Wayne) has been chased out west by a couple of lawmen. After giving them the slip, "Brant," who did not do the crime for which he was serving time for, joins up with an outlaw gang who have been on a crime spree.
  
  What the gang doesn't realiz... read moree is that the man they know as "Smith" is doing whatever it takes to thwart the gang's criminal efforts as he and one of the outlaws (Lane Chandler) compete to get the attention of the young daughter (Nancy Shubert) of the local shopkeeper (Henry Hall).
  
  I believe this is the first John Wayne movie I've seen in its entirety, and I am somewhat disappointed. The story itself is pretty typical of Westerns from this era, and is pretty predictable.
  
  One thing that sticks out is the audio quality. In many outdoor scenes, you have to strain to hear the dialogue when there are other, much louder sounds in the scene. It is painfully obvious that natural sounds are used and no sound effects are used to sweeten the audio. Another problem is that the audio quality has not aged well. Much of the prerecorded music sounds quite muffled.
  
  Another problem is the that many of the interiors are obviously movie sets. The gang's hideout appears quite cramped, and the rock walls in the "mine" are obviously fabricated.
  
  There are some weak performances in this film, even from Wayne. Many times in this film it sounds like they aren't trying to make the dialogue believable.
  
  The movie was edited in a terrible way. At the start of the movie, the director opted for extremely brief scenes to set up the story. There were also a lot of sudden close-ups of performers as they delivered their lines. The cinematography, as a whole, was not done well at all in fact.
  
  The fight scenes were also done pretty poorly. Many of the punches appeared to have landed on their intended target a lot more softly than the target reacted. The fights were also contained in a small area at times. They are some of the worst fights I've seen filmed.
  
  None of the scenes truly stood out. The outdoor scenes didn't even use any shots that made you say "Wow, that's beautiful," in fact. The movie lacked any scenes that are memorable at all.
  
  Character development is seriously lacking in this film. None of the characters, minor and main, are developed enough to either care for or hate. They are also one-dimensional. At least 99% of the characters are completely forgettable.
  
  Personally, I would watch this on television when there is absolutely nothing else on that is worth seeing. I wouldn't even add it to my movie collection unless I was a hard core John Wayne fan to complete my collection of his films.

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• John Wayne as John Brant
• Hank Bell
• Lane Chandler as Joseph Conlon (Jones)
• Earl Dwire as Blind Pete
• Art Mix as Henchman
• Hal Price
• Nancy Shubert as Sally Blake
• Hal Taliaferro as Deputy Sheriff
• Wally Wales as Deputy Sheriff

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