The Roaring West: A Buck Jones Serial That's Just… A Lot of Western

So, is The Roaring West worth your time today? Look, if you’re a die-hard fan of 1930s cowboy serials, the kind where a cliffhanger actually means something for 10 minutes, then yeah, maybe. If you like your heroes stoic and your plots simple, you might find some fun here. But if you’re expecting anything resembling modern pacing or nuanced characters, you’ll probably just get annoyed and wonder why everyone keeps riding in circles. 🤠

Buck Jones, as 'Montana,' is our guy. He’s got that classic Western hero vibe, all quiet confidence and quick draws. He spends most of these 15 episodes trying to get control of a situation that frankly, feels pretty out of control from the jump.

The whole thing kicks off with a land rush, which is always chaotic fun. Then it's quickly about gold mines and these maps that everyone just has to get their hands on. Seriously, how many times can one map be stolen? It’s a lot. Like, a surprising amount. It felt like every other episode, someone was either losing a map or finding one.

The villains are pretty stock, which is fine for a serial. They're mostly just *bad guys* trying to mess things up for Montana and the honest folks. Stanley Blystone shows up as a henchman in a few different episodes, sometimes with a slightly different hat. It’s a little funny if you’re paying attention.

One thing that really sticks out is the action. There are a lot of horse chases. A *lot*. It’s like they had a quota for how many times Buck Jones had to gallop across the screen. Sometimes, it feels like the same shot just edited into different scenes. You can almost feel the budget constraints waving at you. 👋

And the fistfights! Oh boy. They are exactly what you’d expect from the era. Lots of wild swings that rarely connect cleanly, followed by someone dramatically falling over. It’s charming in its own way, but not exactly realistic. You know it’s coming when two guys just start circling each other.

Montana’s horse, Silver, honestly deserves an acting credit. That horse does some serious work, carrying Buck Jones through countless perils. Silver always seems to know exactly where to go, even when Montana himself looks a bit bewildered.

The cliffhangers are the heart of a serial, right? And The Roaring West delivers. Almost every episode ends with Montana in some ridiculous bind. He’s tied up, he’s about to fall off a cliff, a fuse is burning down to some dynamite. You just *know* he's going to be fine, but the setup is often pretty fun. The solutions are usually quick, sometimes a little too quick, in the next episode's recap.

What I found most interesting was the sheer repetition. The same plot points, like the stolen map or a trapped hero, pop up over and over. It's not necessarily a criticism; it's just how these things worked. It’s like a comfort food Western. You know what you're getting, and you're mostly okay with it. 🥔

There's this one scene where Montana is trying to sneak into the bad guys' hideout. He hides behind a rock that is clearly too small to conceal him, but the bad guys just… don't see him. It's these little moments of delightful absurdity that make watching something like this a unique experience. You can't help but smile.

The dialogue is pretty straightforward. No big monologues, just folks saying what they need to say to move the plot forward. It’s mostly about land, gold, and who’s cheating whom. There's not a ton of depth, but then again, that's not what these serials were aiming for. They wanted thrills, and they mostly deliver those.

Ultimately, The Roaring West is a time capsule. It’s a testament to a different kind of filmmaking, one focused on episodic adventure and simple heroism. It’s a little clunky, a little repetitive, and sometimes just plain silly, but it has a certain charm if you let it. Don’t expect a masterpiece, but do expect a lot of Buck Jones on a horse. 🐴

Didja notice?

• The amount of dust kicked up in almost every scene.
• How often someone gets knocked out with a single punch but wakes up totally fine a minute later.
• The same few landscape shots get reused for different 'locations'.
• Buck Jones’ hat never seems to fall off, even during intense fights.
• The dramatic music that swells whenever something remotely exciting happens.
• That one guy who always plays the shifty saloon owner or foreman.