Ride Him, Cowboy (1932) - The one where a horse goes on trial

If you have got 50 minutes to spare and want to see a very young John Wayne hanging out with a super-smart horse, Ride Him, Cowboy is surprisingly fun. But if you hate scratchy 1930s audio or simple plots where a horse gets a literal courtroom trial, you should probably skip this one.

It is a B-movie from 1932, back when talkies were still trying to figure out how microphones worked.

The plot is pretty basic. John Drury (played by a very fresh-faced Wayne) rolls into town and immediately saves a horse named Duke from being executed.

Yes, you read that right. The townspeople wants to execute a horse because they thought it killed someone.

Honestly, the horse might be the best actor in the whole thing. 🐴

Duke does these weirdly expressive head shakes and seems to understand English better than most of the extras in the background.

Once John saves Duke, he gets roped into finding a mysterious bandit leader called "The Hawk."

The Hawk has been terrorizing the area, but his identity is a secret. Though, honestly, it is not that hard to guess if you pay any attention.

There is this one scene where John Wayne does this crazy stunt, jumping off a roof onto his horse, and you can tell it is actually him doing it. Or at least, the camera angles make it look incredibly dangerous.

It has that same raw, physical energy you see in old silent dramas like Scrap Iron, where the actors just threw their bodies around for our entertainment.

But then we get these awkward dialogue scenes where everyone stands perfectly still so the mic hidden in a fake bush can pick up their voices.

The audio is so hiss-heavy it sounds like someone is frying bacon in the next room.

I noticed this one extra in the courtroom scene who just keeps staring directly at the camera. He looks so nervous, like he is afraid the director is going to yell at him.

It is those little accidents that make these old movies so charming to watch today.

The whole thing wraps up so fast you barely have time to process the ending.

The bad guy gets his, John gets the girl, and the horse gets a carrot, probably.

It is not a masterpiece, but it is a neat little time capsule.

Some weird things I noticed:

• That courtroom scene is absolutely wild. They really put a horse on the stand.
• John Wayne's hair stays incredibly perfect even after riding through a dust storm.
• The villain's disguise is literally just a hat pulled down slightly.
• The music just randomly stops and starts with no transition at all.