Winds of the Wasteland (1936)
0h 54m | PG-13
The arrival of the telegraph put Pony Express riders like John Blair and his pal Smoky out of work. A race will decide whether they or stageline owner Drake get the government mail contract.
Director: Mack V. Wright
Studio: Republic Pictures
Genre: Western
Video: 720p
Cast
John Wayne
as John Blair
Phyllis Fraser
as Barbara Forsythe
Lew Kelly
as Rocky O'Brien
Douglas Cosgrove
as Cal Drake
Lane Chandler
as Larry Adams
Sam Flint
as Dr. William Forsythe
Reviews
Just what the lawless West needed - a US Government race, with $25,000 to the winner, for the company that can deliver the mail the quickest. That's just the tonic John Wayne and Larry Adams need as the business they recent paid "Cal Drake" through the nose for is already suffering from the decline of their local mining town (It has one resident for each side of the street!) and of the encroaching telegraph. Now we've got all sorts of devious goings-on as teams scheme for this lucrative contract and the portrayals - with Phyllis Fraser adding some love interest - are all quite good fun. There is loads of action, a stagecoach race, and the sometimes quite witty dialogue helps keep this from dragging. It smacks of a little better production values - it is still cheap and cheerful, but the lighting and audio are distinctly better than in some of Wayne's earlier work. Nothing much original here, though - but worth a gander on a wet afternoon.