John Wayne in "Rainbow Valley" (1935) - Lone Star Productions (#13 of 16)

Riding to the small mining town of Rainbow Valley, John Martin (John Wayne) meets George Hale (George "Gabby" Hayes), the mailman for the area, who is looking for water for his old jalopy, Nellie. Martin, surprised to see a car, gives George his canteen of water. Farther down the road, highwaymen have set up an ambush for George. Martin, who is following on horseback, drives off the highwaymen.

Martin takes George to the town doctor. Eleanor (Lucile Browne), the postmistress, is suspicious of Martin, but George explains how he fought off the gang. The townspeople are tired of being terrorized by the highwaymen. They are circulating a petition to the governor for assistance in completing their road and ridding it of the gang, which is led by Rogers (LeRoy Mason), a wealthy landowner whose goal is to drive out the townspeople and buy their land cheaply.

Martin went to school for engineering, and volunteers to take charge of the road work. With Martin's encouragement, the road workers start defending themselves against gang attacks. A shoot-out occurs, and George uses dynamite to fend off the attackers.

Rogers walks into the Post Office and steals the road petition, substituting another petition to release a gang member, Butch, from jail. The gang also steals all the remaining dynamite.

Two weeks later, Martin and George wonder why they have not heard any response to the petition. At the gang hideout, the pardoned Butch wants to see Martin, who was his cellmate in jail. Martin seems happy to hear that Butch is in town, and meets with him. He agrees to destroy the road in return for a cut of the profits when the townspeople sell out.

The community gathers and talks about how Martin has betrayed them. Powell issues a call to arms. George and Eleanor find a letter from the governor. Martin is actually an undercover agent who is trying to bust the gang.

The mob approaches the gang and Martin. A shoot-out begins between the townspeople and the gang. Butch sets off the dynamite, killing Rogers and all of his men. Martin arrests Butch and explains his undercover assignment to the townspeople.

George drives his car up to the hill and remarks on the road's success. In the back seat of the car, Martin and Eleanor are kissing.

A 1935 American black & white B-Western film directed by Robert N. Bradbury, produced by Paul Malvern, written by Lindsley Parsons, photographed by Archie J. Stout and William Hyer, starring John Wayne, Lucile Browne, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Jay Wilsey, LeRoy Mason, Lloyd Ingraham, Frank Ball, Bert Dillard, Art Dillard, Frank Ellis, Fern Emmett, Herman Hack, Lafe McKee, Buck Morgan, Artie Ortego, Tex Palmer, Tex Phelps, Henry Roquemore, Eddie Parker, Tommy Coats, Jack Evans, and stunts by Yakima Canutt.

Jay Wilsey and LeRoy Mason make good appearances as villains. American actor Jay Wilsey (1895-1961) was a star of the silent Western and later appeared in B to Z Westerns. His first studio called him 'Buffalo Bill Jr.', although he had no connection whatsoever with the real Buffalo Bill, William F. Cody. Wilsey appeared in nearly 100 films between 1924 and 1944.

These Westerns had no complexes about having automobiles in them, and were set in some indeterminate age when cowpokes wore six-guns and rode the range, yet women in 1930s dresses and hairstyles drove cars. There’s a picture on the post office wall of Theodore Roosevelt so we must assume the story is nominally set during his presidency (1901 – 1909).

Wayne’s Western career had various phases. The first phase was the three pictures he made with Fox, two as an extra and one, "The Big Trail" (1930), as the star. The second phase consisted of the B-Westerns he made all through the 1930s: three for Columbia, a handful for Warners, but sixteen released by Monogram Pictures, then twenty-four at Republic Studios.

Fans of John Wayne should know exactly what to expect from a Lone Star western from 1935. For those who don't know, it means a quickly made western where young Wayne plays a good guy, gets the gir,l and is accompanied by some familiar faces especially George (not quite Gabby yet) Hayes. These movies which rarely went past the hour mark were churned out one after another with the same actors often appearing in one movie after another. The acting and action is the usual,

This modest, quickly made 1935 Lone Star Production was the thirteenth of the 16 westerns released by Monogram, starring John Wayne made between 1933-1935. Same crew, many of the same actors, and even the same plot. John Wayne smiles and is the secret good guy whilst Gabby Hayes ends up his wily friend. There is nothing out of the ordinary going on here but it is a solid representation of these sorts of movies.

These Lone Star Productions are for the John Wayne and B-Western completists. But for everyone else it is a quickly made movie on a tight budget. Don’t expect too much. Just enjoy the rootin’ and tootin’ and shootin' along with Wayne's roundhouse punches.