The Lucky Texan (1934)
College graduate Jerry returns to his uncle Grandy's ranch just as a lucky gold strike turns deadly, when a crooked assayer forges away the old man's claim and tries to murder him, leaving Jerry to clear himself of the frame-up and expose the scheme.
The Lucky Texan leans hard on Gabby Hayes for comic relief opposite Wayne’s straight-arrow hero, a pairing Monogram would return to again and again through the Lone Star cycle — proof that even at a nickel a reel, a good double act was worth repeating.
Background
The Lucky Texan is a 1934 Monogram western written and directed by Robert N. Bradbury, released January 22, 1934, and running 55 minutes. John Wayne stars as Jerry, a college graduate who returns to his uncle Grandy’s ranch just as a lucky gold strike turns deadly when a crooked assayer forges away the old man’s claim and tries to have him killed, leaving Jerry to clear himself of the resulting frame-up and expose the scheme. The film’s working title was Gold Strike River, the name later used for a colorized home-video release. Because the original copyright was never renewed, the film fell into the public domain, letting it circulate freely on home video for decades.
What to watch for
George “Gabby” Hayes, playing Grandy, provides the comic counterpoint to Wayne’s straight-arrow hero, a pairing Monogram leaned on repeatedly through the Lone Star series because it worked reliably even on a shoestring budget. Yakima Canutt again appears in a dual capacity typical of these productions, taking a supporting role on top of his stunt work. The gold-mine-and-forged-claim plot is a stock device for the series, but it gives Bradbury an excuse for the chases and gunplay that padded out these hour-long programmers, made quickly and cheaply enough that a lapsed copyright, rather than ongoing commercial value, is largely what has kept the film visible today.
