Border Vengeance: Just another dusty ride

Is this worth your afternoon?

If you love those old-school black and white westerns where the horses are better actors than the humans, you’ll probably get a kick out of this. If you need logic, pacing, or someone to whisper what’s happening, stay away. It’s a 1935 quickie that feels like it was filmed in a weekend, which is exactly why it has a weird, twitchy charm.

The plot is basically: someone dies, someone gets blamed, and then a whole lot of riding happens. Nobody sits still for more than thirty seconds. It’s like the actors were worried the camera might stop rolling if they stood in one spot too long.

The vibe is... dusty

Rex Bell is doing the heavy lifting here, and he looks like he’s perpetually squinting at a sun that isn't there. There’s this one sequence near the border where the editing gets so choppy I thought my player was skipping. It’s not, though. It’s just the movie rushing to get to the next punch-up.

I noticed a guy in the background of the town scene who clearly forgot he was on camera. He’s just standing there, picking at his fingernails while a dramatic confrontation is happening two feet away. It’s hilarious if you’re actually looking.

• The horses look like they’ve seen too many of these.
• The dialogue sounds like it was written on the back of a napkin during lunch.
• There’s a fight scene that lasts for what feels like an eternity of missed swings.

Watching this, I kept thinking about The Wildcat of Paris. Not because they’re similar, but because the pacing in that one is so much more deliberate. Here, everything is just go, go, go without any of the heart.

The bad guys are the real highlight, mostly because they wear their hats at such ridiculous angles. You know exactly who is stealing the cattle because they look like they’re trying to hide their faces from the sun, the law, and the cinematographer all at once. 🤠

Is it a masterpiece? Absolutely not. It’s a scrap of film that survived the dustbin of history. Sometimes that’s enough.