The Dawn Rider (1935)
After his father is gunned down in a freight-office robbery by a bandit in a polka-dot bandanna, John Mason tracks the gang while recovering from his own wound, only to learn the killer is the brother of the woman nursing him back to health.
Directed, like so many of Wayne’s Lone Star pictures, by Robert N. Bradbury, The Dawn Rider buries stunt coordinator Yakima Canutt in a bit part as a saloon owner — one of the many small roles Canutt took in this era between the horse falls and wagon-team stunts he was actually hired to perform.
Background
The Dawn Rider is a 1935 Monogram western directed by Robert N. Bradbury on a reported budget of about $10,000, one of the low-cost Lone Star pictures producer Paul Malvern built around John Wayne. Released June 20, 1935, it stars Wayne as John Mason, who is wounded during the robbery that kills his father and is nursed back to health by Alice (Marion Burns), not yet realizing the killer, identifiable by a polka-dot bandanna, is her own brother. The supporting cast includes Dennis Moore and Reed Howes. It was later reissued on home video in a colorized version titled Cold Vengeance.
What to watch for
Stuntman Yakima Canutt turns up in a minor role as a saloon owner, one of the small acting parts he filled in these Lone Star pictures between the horse falls and wagon-team stunts that were his actual job on set. Bradbury, who directed the bulk of Wayne’s early Monogram westerns, keeps the plot moving almost entirely through chases and gunplay rather than dialogue, a pace dictated by the series’ short shooting schedules and tiny budgets. The love triangle between Mason, Alice, and her murderous brother gives the picture slightly more emotional shape than most of its companion films in the cycle.
