Bill Slocum Watching those two icons of early Westerns, John Wayne and George Hayes, play off each other years before people knew them as Duke and Gabby, is worth something. At least "The Lucky Texan" gives you that.Jerry Mason (Wayne) and Jake Benson (Hayes) luck into a big gold strike, but their haul attracts the interest of some shady assayers who want not only the gold but Benson's ranch besides. Can Mason save Benson from wrongful imprisonment? Can Benson save Mason from same? Will Mason wind up with Benson's pretty granddaughter?Spoiler alert - What do you think?Wayne's Lone Star westerns are often criticized for formulaic plots, which is unfair here. You get two almost completely unconnected plots in this one. Neither makes sense, but at least they defy reasonable expectations that way. In the first, Benson gets arrested for murder by a sheriff who apparently didn't bother to make sure the victim was dead first. In the second, those assayers make their play for the gold with the subtlety of the 7th Cavalry.The only thing "Lucky Texan" has going for it is lucky indeed: Duke and Gabby in their second-ever on screen pairing, the first one where Wayne didn't have to pretend to sing and play guitar. There's real pleasure to be had watching the two meet in their opening scene, even with their exposition-laden dialogue."Say, you're a regular mountain, ain't yuh?" Benson asks Mason right off, who grins easily in reply. You want to hang with these guys, however dull the story around them.Lone Star did well with Wayne once they retired the singing cowboy shtick and worked humor more directly in his films, like here. "The Lucky Texan" actually goes pretty far in this direction, once the wheels come off story #2. Benson is the star of a wild courtroom scene which really deserves to be seen, for the total commitment of Hayes if nothing else. By movie's end, the villains are reduced to comic foils, which is fine as they weren't working as villains. I found the last 15 minutes pretty enjoyable overall. Not as thought-out or clever as it could have been, but fun.All this doesn't quite redeem "Lucky Texan." It's just too goofy otherwise, like Wayne's big stunt riding an upright stick down a log flume to catch up with a bad guy after falling off his horse. You get some schlocky dialogue ("So that's your game, eh?" is something Hayes actually says when the bad guys get the draw on him) and head-scratching moments like why a bad guy trying to get a canteen of gold from a bucking mule doesn't just shoot the beast.I'm glad he didn't; this is one Lone Star western where it's safe to say no animals were harmed in the production. It's not much to crow about otherwise, yet seeing Wayne and Hayes begin to define their enjoyable partnership is some compensation. Just try to ignore the feeble excuse of a plot being kicked around them.

utgard14 John Wayne and Gabby Hayes strike it rich with a gold mine. Inevitably some villains want to take it from them. This is one of the most interesting of the many B westerns Duke made in the '30s. For one thing, there are surprisingly few gunshots fired in this one. Everyone seems to settle their problems by fisticuffs or by chasing one another. There's a lot of chasing in this one. This leads to some good Yakima Canutt stunts, though. Also, I'm not sure what era this was supposed to take place in. Lone Star wasn't known for caring about historical accuracy in these cheap B westerns. There were usually shots of telephone poles and the like in the background. In this one we not only have the usual background stuff but we have a Keystone Kops-style climax that features Gabby Hayes driving a car after the bad guys! This western, like the other B's made in the '30s, will seem pretty much like kids stuff today. But there is some fun to be had with it.

jfarms1956 The Lucky Texan will appeal most to baby-boomers. This should be my type of movie. However, young John Wayne does not appeal to me in this western. I like westerns. This would have satisfied me as a child growing up. Now, the westerns are more sophisticated in almost all aspects. The movie to me was almost comedic. I do like Gabby Hayes in the movie. He did remind me of me being a child watching these types of westerns. It is thankfully short. So, if you have an afternoon and want to watch a bit of nostalgia, then bring on the popcorn. Otherwise, I found most of the acting lacking and the script boring. The Lucky Texan is worth watching to see how much growth John Wayne did as an actor. I thought Stagecoach was better. Enjoy.

bsmith5552 "Lucky Texan" is one of a series of Lone Star westerns made by Wayne between 1933-35. This one is a cut above the average. The plot involves Wayne and his partner (George Hayes) finding gold and the efforts of baddies Lloyd Whitlock and Yakima Canutt to cheat them out of it. This film contains a couple of oddities for a series western. Firstly, while pursuing one of the bad guys on horseback, Wayne actually misses tackling him off of his horse and lands at the bottom of a ravine. But fear not. A large downward sloping sluce just happens to be nearby and the Duke grabs a tree branch, mounts it and slides down the sluce in time to leap up a tree and jump the fleeing villain. Secondly, the final chase sequence is also interesting in that the baddies are escaping in an old railway utility car and are pursued by Hayes in a vintage auto which criss crosses the tracks Keystone Cops style with the villains, and of course by Wayne on horseback.It is also noteworthy that Hayes, who played many different characters in this series, plays Jake Benson very close to his eventual "Gabby" character, which he had not fully developed at this time. The series also benefited from the stunt work of Yakima Canutt who can be clearly seen doubling for Wayne and others in this entry.