Item: In Old Cheyenne
Rating: 6.4
Author: Archivist John

Alright, so In Old Cheyenne. If you’re looking for something big and splashy, maybe skip this one. But if you’ve got a soft spot for really old Westerns, the kind from the early 30s, this could be a fun, quick watch. It’s got that simple charm, though anyone used to modern pacing might find it a bit… quiet. For fans of classic B-movies and horse operas, definitely worth a peek. Others? Probably not your jam. 🤷‍♀️

The whole thing kicks off with a classic premise: a wild stallion, Starlight, is getting blamed for all the missing horses around the Sutter ranch. Our hero, Jim (Rex Lease), shows up and immediately just knows something’s off. He’s that quiet, observant cowboy type, not much for words, but you can tell he’s got a good heart.

Clyde Winslow (Harry Woods) is the foreman, and oh boy, he’s your quintessential sneaky villain. He’s got that look, you know? Always glowering, always scheming. You can almost feel the movie trying to convince you this guy is bad news every time he squints at Starlight.

Helen Sutter (Dorothy Gulliver), the ranch owner's daughter, is mostly there to be worried. She's kinda caught in the middle, believing her dad's foreman but also maybe a little smitten with Jim. Her main job seems to be looking distraught when things go wrong.

That Horse, Though! 🐴

Starlight the horse, honestly, might be the most compelling character here.
The shots of him running wild are actually pretty nice.
You really want Jim to clear his name.

The plot itself is pretty thin. It’s a remake, apparently, of a 1930 film called “Phantom of the Desert.” And get this, they remade *this* story like, four more times by 1940! People really liked that horse-blaming narrative, I guess. It’s wild how often these simple stories got recycled.

One scene, Jim just watches Starlight for a bit, and that’s it. He just *knows* the horse isn't a rustler. No big detective work, just pure cowboy intuition. It’s almost sweet in its simplicity.

The action scenes are what you’d expect from this era. Quick punches, a bit of a tumble, then someone's knocked out cold. No elaborate stunts, just straightforward cowboy brawls. Sometimes a shot lingers a bit too long on a punch that clearly missed. It’s kinda endearing.

In Old Cheyenne scene — Scene from In Old Cheyenne

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of In Old Cheyenne (1931) through its definitive frames.

The dialogue is super direct. Nobody wastes words. It's all 'Yep,' 'Nope,' and 'Git outta here.' Which, for a 1931 Western, feels just right.

You can tell it was a quick production. The sets are basic, mostly just the ranch house and some open range. But it works. It doesn’t try to be anything more than it is.

“Sometimes a movie just needs a good guy, a bad guy, and a noble horse.”

Jim’s efforts to prove Starlight’s innocence involve him riding around, getting into a few scrapes, and eventually confronting Winslow. It’s all very predictable, but in a comforting way, if that makes sense. You know exactly where it’s going, and you’re just along for the ride.

There’s a part where Winslow tries to trick Jim, and it’s so transparently evil, you almost laugh. It’s not subtle. No nuance in these villains, which is kinda refreshing in its own way. He's just *bad*.

Overall, In Old Cheyenne is a little slice of early Western filmmaking. It’s not gonna blow your mind, but it’s a decent enough watch for what it is. It's a testament to how enduring these simple stories can be, even if they were churned out pretty fast.