Grade: D-
Synopsis: A cowboy (John Wayne) tames a spirited horse and gets mistaken for an outlaw.
Ride Him, Cowboy is an uninspired, slow, B-grade western, notable only as the first appearance of star John Wayne’s frequent sidekick, his horse Duke.
Duke, who actually gets second billing here as “Devil Horse Duke”, is no Lassie. Yet, although he doesn’t really pack much in the way of charisma or stage presence, he nonetheless went on to star with Wayne in five other films.
That aside, there really isn’t much to recommend the film, as it has neither Yakima Canutt’s engaging stunt work, nor Gabby Hayes’ spirited presence; the two brightest points of many of Wayne’s early Westerns.
Instead, the filmmakers stretch fifteen minutes of plot into fifty, packing the film with unnecessary, talky scenes and more than a few ill-advised attempts at comedy while they build to a routine climax.
In the end, die-hard Wayne fans may want to give this a look, if only to try and discern just what it was about the horse Duke that caught audience’s attention, but others can give it a pass.
