After Stagecoach it took John Wayne around ten years to really rise to the top rank (with Red River) but his films during this part were consistently enjoyable, none more so than this, made at Universal in that studio's unpretentious way. Almost 20 years before North to Alaska the Duke is running around Nome during the Gold Rush trying to fight off claim jumpers and being involved with a "fast" woman (Marlene Dietrich who teams marvellously with Wayne - so well, in fact, that Randolph Scott, as a con man antagonist, is hardly a threat).
There is a fast pace, plenty of grizzled character actors, a slightly distasteful portrayal at how bad the judicial system is opposed to good old fashioned just taking over land and fighting people off, a really distasteful scene where Wayne puts himself in black face to hide the baddies and Dietrich's black maid thinks he's a black and flirts with him (seriously), a famous brawl between Wayne and Scott at the end (which I thought would be an all-in one along the lines of Dodge City but is actually just the two of them slugging it out while everyone watches, but is still well done).
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