Call of the Prairie: A Dusty, Familiar Ride

Should you watch this?

If you enjoy black-and-white westerns where the good guys are perfect and the bad guys are clearly marked by their suspicious facial hair, you’ll probably find this comforting. If you need complex character arcs or, you know, stakes that actually feel dangerous, you’re going to be bored to tears within twenty minutes. It’s a B-movie relic, plain and simple. 🤠

There is this moment where Hoppy just strolls through a literal wall of gunfire. It’s almost funny how the outlaws just keep missing him by inches. I kept waiting for someone to reload, or maybe just aim a little to the left, but that's not how these stories go. It’s like watching a magic trick where you already know the secret, but you stay for the hat anyway.

The pacing is… well, it’s fast enough that you don't have to think too hard. It’s not quite as energetic as The Three Musketeers, but it has that same breezy, low-budget charm that makes you wonder how they ever got anything finished on time. William Boyd carries himself with that specific kind of stoic confidence that makes you believe he could stop a stampede with a stern look.

Odd bits and pieces:

• The sound mixing is all over the place. Sometimes the horses sound like they are in a canyon, other times they are in a library.
• Gabby Hayes is there, doing his usual thing. It’s like seeing an old friend who only knows three jokes.
• There is a scene with Chill Wills and His Avalon Boys that feels like it was shoved in just to hit a runtime requirement. It’s a total gear-grinder if you just want to get back to the plot.
• The dialogue is mostly just people telling each other to get out of town.

I found myself thinking about The Trail of the Holdup Man while watching this. There’s a certain shared DNA in these old westerns where the scenery is just a backdrop for guys in hats to yell at each other. It’s not high art. It’s not trying to be. It’s just a Saturday afternoon filler.

One of the henchmen has this hat that looks two sizes too big. Every time he turns his head, the brim flops around like a nervous bird. I spent way too much time staring at that hat instead of the actual shootout. That’s the kind of movie this is. It’s the background noise of cinema history, but hey, sometimes that’s all you need on a rainy Tuesday.