MartinHafer Like the other John Wayne B-westerns I recently saw on the Encore Channel, inexplicably someone has added a recent musical accompaniment. Using electronic instruments, loud and often inappropriate music punctuates scenes like a 2x4 upside your skull! Why, oh, why?!The film begins with Randy (John Wayne) arriving at a bar--only to find all the people inside dead and the safe ransacked. Soon, the Sheriff and a posse arrive and arrest--and they just assume he killed everyone--though there really isn't any reason to believe this. You just need to assume he and the rest are total idiots, as the idea of one man killing everyone AND Randy's gun still loaded would sure seem to indicate he was not the murderer.The bar owner's niece (the only really smart person in the film) realizes Randy is innocent when he provides documentation that he's a secret agent and helps him escape from jail. Wayne does NOT want the rest of the town to know his identity, however, as he wants to try to investigate the actions of the evil gang responsible for the killings.Interestingly, Gabby Hayes plays a baddie--something he did occasionally in earlier B-movies but simply never would have done during his later years as a crazy coot sidekick. Here, however, he wears his false teeth and is clean-shaven--and those unfamiliar with this persona from his earlier films might have a hard time recognizing him. I liked the plot device of having him pretending to be a harmless mute shop owner, though the fact he was evil was telegraphed by the message Randy finds scrawled on a wanted poster only a minute or so into the film--so they really tipped their hat, so to speak, too early.In addition to the goofs listed on IMDb, I noticed a few others. When Mat the Mute wrote his notes, you see him very rapidly writing. Yet, when there's a closeup, it's obviously a different person writing at half the speed. Also, after Randy jumps in the river and then discovers the gang's hideout, he's miraculously dry in the next scene. Oddly, however, the gang offer him a set of clothes to change into, so they didn't totally blow this scene.Despite the goofs and the film seemingly too rushed and too straight-forward, it is pretty good for an early B-western. The plot isn't bad, the ending is nice and violent (yay, violence!) and the leading lady was clever and not a total idiot! Not great but still watchable after all these years.

bsmith5552 "Randy Rides Alone" is one of the better entries in John Wayne's Lone Star westerns made in the early to mid 30s. And if you've ever wondered what George "Gabby" Hayes looked like without his whiskers, then this film is for you. Wayne plays undercover investigator Randy Bowers who is sent to investigate a series of robberies committed by Marvin Black (Hayes) and his gang. He comes upon a half-way house which has apparently been robbed and everyone in it killed. But heroine Alberta Vaughn has escaped by hiding in a secret back room. Bowers meanwhile, is arrested for the carnage by the sheriff (Earl Dwire). Black masquerades as Marvin the Mute, the General Store owner, a respectable townsman. Bowers escapes jail and manages to infiltrate the gang and well, you probably can guess the rest. John Wayne was in the midst of learning his craft in this series. This entry is better than most, particularly the "Singing Sandy" pictures. Hayes before he became "Gabby", played a variety of roles in the series. Sometimes he was the villain, other times the father of the heroine and sometimes a forerunner of the grizzled sidekick that we would soon come to know. Veteran stuntman Yakima Canutt also worked regularly in the series doubling just about everybody. He also played the parts of henchmen in several of them. In this one he's Hayes chief henchman "Spike". Not a bad "B" western for its time.

var-1 I had seen this movie when I was a boy (Before WWII) and was surprised that the local library had a copy. Saw it again after some sixty years and forgot how bad it was. This is an example of a movie that was not a "A" movie. No editing, poor script, weak acting and not much directing. Should not even be as high as a "B" Had a laugh at how jaded I've become over the years. Seems to me I thought it was good when I originally saw it.

TEXICAN-2 This is a very good western. I have enjoyed all the early John Wayne adventures that I've seen.You have some twists with this show. One being Earl Dwire as a sheriff not a crook. The worst part of the show is that they tip you off to who's the bad guy early on, which destroys that part of the mystery. Oh, and Yakima Canutt's shirt looks like something that Roy Rogers passed on. Other than these complaints, it's a well made Saturday-Afternoon- at-the-movies type western.