Westward Ho

Westward Ho finds the Duke on the trail of as many outlaws as he can kill or capture in search of the gang that killed his parents and kidnapped his young brother.

A prologue to the main film finds the young Wyatt boys on the trail with their parents while they were driving their cattle herd to market. The young Duke is thrown clear from the wagon and thought killed and the brother is taken by outlaw leader Jack Curtis.

When the boy grows up to be John Wayne, he's got himself a mission. In a premise similar to the Lone Ranger, Wayne with official territorial permission organizes his own group of law enforcers called the Vigilantes. So they know each other in a fight with large outlaw bands, Wayne has them dress in black, but ride white horses. The get up isn't for style and Wayne instead of one lone Indian sidekick has forty or so men who have sustained similar family losses.

Of course as things go he does eventually meet up with his grown up brother and the gang that kidnapped him. For what happens you have to watch Westward Ho.

Hardly the best or the worst of Wayne's Poverty Row oaters. In fact Westward Ho has some nice production values because it is shot on location and not on the studio back lot. Unusual for a B western of the Thirties.

Not of course to be missed by the many fans of the legendary Duke.