Edgar Allan Pooh . . . during her Troubles of the 1900s into our 21st Century for hanging BOTH Quasimodo's crush Esmerelda AND this gypsy gal's dancing goat! Just thinking about that poor, innocent goat flailing around at the end of a rope is enough to make anyone toss their French fries. Warner Bros. uses RIDE HIM, COWBOY to warn America that the "Red State" West is every bit as uncouth and gauche as backwards France. It's bad enough that a 25-year-old John Wayne is almost strung up for possession of a harmonica, before he's done anything in Real Life to earn his nickname of "The American Anti-Christ." But the heartless bozos who populate the U.S. West go too far in putting Wayne's Wonder Horse "Duke" on trial, with an eye toward dropping the white stallion on the Gallows. Both "Dukes"--man and horse--are nearly doomed on the say-so of the local crime-lord, a top honcho on the town's Vigilante Council. Red Stater's inability to differentiate between Angels and Demons explains why they're now going down at the Final Trump, Warner Bros. explains with RIDE HIM, COWBOY.

utgard14 This movie starts with a horse named Duke coming to the rescue of a man being bushwhacked. The man is cracked over the head and killed, so one of the robbers claims the horse went mad and attacked them. So the horse is put on trial for murder. I'm not kidding -- the horse is brought to town and put on trial in front of the whole town! Before he's sentenced to death, a cowboy (John Wayne) shows up and offers to ride the horse to prove he's not wild. After he does and saves Duke, the horse's owner (great character actor Henry B. Walthall) asks Wayne to help the town catch a masked bandit named the Hawk. The first of six B westerns Wayne made for WB in the early '30s. He was named John something-or-other in every movie and always had his horse Duke. They're routine westerns. Forgettable but watchable.

ccthemovieman-1 I figured this would be a very dated, corny and dumb B-cowboy movie, but was wrong. It was a very interesting short film that was done very well.It had action, comedy, romance and suspense all packed into a movie less that lasted only 55 minutes. It had a convincing nasty villain, a pretty girl, a talented horse named "Duke," and a crooked-but-funny judge. The horse was able to untie rope and acted almost human.The only thing that looked a bit dated - but applied to all classic westerns - is when they broke chairs over the good guy's head and it never seemed to faze him. Only in the movie can a guy get punched flush in the jaw and have a wooden chair broken over his skull, and the victim is no worse for the wear!

sm0jsm I really liked this short movie (55 minutes on TNT), mostly because of a very young John Wayne and a lovely Ruth Hall. There are some serious flaws (like when the villain leaves Duke with John Wayne out in the desert), but overall a very enjoyable film.