Part of John Wayne's appeal was that men liked him but many of the films he made were romances, where he often battled wills against a feisty dame.
Here the dame is Martha Scott who has a decent character to play - she's a teacher run out of town for writing a romance novel who wants to see the world. That's a fantastic set up. The film doesn't really develop it in an interesting way - or maybe I was biased because I wasn't a fan of Scott, who seemed to yell a lot. She also got shunted out of the action in the second half. However it is a better role than would be found in many John Wayne periods - two of the writers were women.
Albert Dekker isn't really good looking enough for his role since he has to be a romantic rival with Wayne for Scott. However he's a strong actor at least and is a formidable opponent. Although, why have the final fist fight off screen?
The support cast includes Gabby Hayes and Dale Evans (who would be Roy Rogers' partner). There's also Sidney Blackmer, playing President Teddy Roosevelt - who rode with Wayne in the Rough Riders (a good idea for a film).
On that Roosevelt note, this isn't a Western per se - it's set in 1906, during the oil boom. There are horses and Indians (getting kicked off their land for oil) and shoot outs but also oil.
Plenty of production value and pace. They didn't quite get the script and the cast right for me.
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