Grade: D+
Synopsis: A former Pony Express rider (John Wayne) and his partner enter a dilapidated stagecoach in a race for a government mail contract.
Winds of the Wasteland, a Republic Pictures production, is a marginal diversion from the usual Lone Star westerns that comprised much of star John Wayne’s early career, featuring slightly better production values, and a marginally better cast (though lacking mainstay George ‘Gabby’ Hayes).
That said, this film is no classic. The script is way too talky and full of exposition, and the small budget definitely shows. Further, while none of the supporting cast is glaringly bad, none of them stands out either. Aside from Wayne, they’re all interchangeable.
But Wayne is good in the lead, showing a lot of the charisma and polish that would catapult him into bigger productions in a few short years, and an uncredited Yakima Canutt, in addition to his usual role a bad-guy muscle, delivers a lot of great stunts including a well-done stagecoach chase sequence.
Bottom Line: Fans of Wayne’s early westerns will likely want to catch Winds of the Wasteland, but others should just jump forward in his career and watch Stagecoach (1939) instead.
