Wyoming Outlaw

John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Raymond Hatton, Pamela Blake, LeRoy Mason ...( see more  ) , Charles Middleton

In 1939 the Great Depression was still raging: unemployment, foreclosures of homes, farms, and businesses, hunger, a lot of desperate citizens near the end of their tether. Interesting to see some of ...( read more  )that painful reality reflected by Mr Yates' Republic Studio, following in the footsteps of Warner Brothers. Both studios make a tragic hero out of an Angry Young Man, with a chip on his shoulder and a grudge against the world. If this description of Don "Red" Barry's sympathetic young criminal in "Wyoming Outlaw" ('39) sounds reminiscent of John Garfield's angry young men starting one year earlier at Warner Brothers ("Four Daughters," '38 and several others), it's no accident. Garfield's unforgettable screen debut was a natural model to be imitated, including even a little "B" western in the Three Mesquiteers series. It might also be noted that little Adele Pearce (a.k.a. Pamela Blake & Mrs Bud McTaggart), playing the impoverished sister of Barry's character, steals money from one of the heroes. But that crime, too, committed out of desperation, is condoned by the Mesquiteers, and by Yates' Republic Studio -- which in this film, at least, seemed to have developed real social consciousness...