'Law of the Lash' holds at least a double primacy: for being my favorite PRC movie ever, and for being my favorite B western; it is craftily directed, it has a reasonable and smooth storytelling, it is graceful and lively, and its lead was the wonder of this humblest genre.
The legendary St John was not so much LaRue's sidekick, as a 2nd lead, and as a player he was able of a consummate self-emptying in the humbling delivery of lowbrow slapstick, but this movie seizes the decency of his job. And each of them has been given room to display his craft. LaRue was cool also in his acting style, and he possessed one.
Ray Taylor and his two players crafted this exquisite, ideal B western. It means a staple of masterful storytelling, my idea of how a graceful western should be; it may seem ordinary, but it's flawless. Perhaps it was almost the twilight of the unpretentious B westerns, as they were about to be replaced, not dethroned, but given a new chance by the TV. Some quirkier TV westerns of the late '50s and early '60s are anticipated here.
The director was a toiler who never became famous enough to gain a bad name, or a derisive moniker, like some of his colleagues.
If to some such movies are primarily childhood memories, to me they are a grownup's leisure. I have grown up with westerns from the '50s-'70s, and these earlier movies are new to me.
Perhaps by the time this movie has been shot, the pressure of both silliness and didactic-ism had decreased, the carelessness and sloppiness of the '30s, hence the freshness. Yet 'Law of the Lash' is far better than more famous westerns of the '40s, and it means to the B westerns what some action movies from the '80s mean to their genre.
The legendary St John was not so much LaRue's sidekick, as a 2nd lead, and as a player he was able of a consummate self-emptying in the humbling delivery of lowbrow slapstick, but this movie seizes the decency of his job. And each of them has been given room to display his craft. LaRue was cool also in his acting style, and he possessed one.
Ray Taylor and his two players crafted this exquisite, ideal B western. It means a staple of masterful storytelling, my idea of how a graceful western should be; it may seem ordinary, but it's flawless. Perhaps it was almost the twilight of the unpretentious B westerns, as they were about to be replaced, not dethroned, but given a new chance by the TV. Some quirkier TV westerns of the late '50s and early '60s are anticipated here.
The director was a toiler who never became famous enough to gain a bad name, or a derisive moniker, like some of his colleagues.
If to some such movies are primarily childhood memories, to me they are a grownup's leisure. I have grown up with westerns from the '50s-'70s, and these earlier movies are new to me.
Perhaps by the time this movie has been shot, the pressure of both silliness and didactic-ism had decreased, the carelessness and sloppiness of the '30s, hence the freshness. Yet 'Law of the Lash' is far better than more famous westerns of the '40s, and it means to the B westerns what some action movies from the '80s mean to their genre.