Rainbow Valley (1935)

Truly Dreadful Film

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The plot of this1935 Lone Star John Wayne oater makes no sense to me! Supposedly, the road from ? to Rainbow Valley was washed out by a flash flood, and the local criminal element wants it to remain that way, to aid in their criminal activities, and induce the gold miners to abandon their diggings for the criminals to take over. But, in the beginning ,Wayne rides over the 'trail' from ? to Rainbow Valley, and meets Gabby Hayes, stuck with his primitive car needing radiator water. Wayne empties his canteen and the two resume their journeys to Rainbow Springs, along a wide 'road'. Wayne foils an attack on the auto, and Gabby continues on toward Rainbow Valley, delivering the mail to the P.O. Obviously, the existing road is good enough for an auto to traverse, so what's the problem??!!........Also, things get confusing for me near the end. Supposedly, there is a road work gang ,the criminal gang, and a citizen mob converging on the road work site. But, it looks like the mob confronts the work gang, which looks like it is the criminal gang! The whole bandit gang is blown up as they scramble to get out the way, right to where the dynamite is buried. The head criminal has a fight with Wayne, and somehow accidently pushes the plunger for this dynamite. Wayne then uses the remainder of a dynamite, which he had fenagled from the gang, to finish building the road. See it at YouTube.

. . . on which the first automobile arrives, which turns out to be Gabby Hayes in a Stanley Steamer (a steam-powered car, NOT a carpet cleaner's orange van). The outlaws, of course, keep their horses. (As Charlton Heston once said, "When horses are outlawed, only outlaws will have horses.") But every single Honest Citizen in RAINBOW VALLEY sells their horses (except for Gabby Hayes, who keeps his around for when his auto runs out of steam; at the rate Toyotas seem to be breaking down nowadays, they ought to have horse hitching posts up front, too). This American Trait of Fickle Consumerism which causes the RAINBOW VALLEY town folk to betray their trusty steeds backfires, of course. When the Bad Guys set out to blow up the new road being built for Regular Cars such as Packards and DeSotos, the 50-geezer town Vigilante Committee is forced to trot five miles ON FOOT (lugging their rifles and shotguns), since they're totally Horseless, and their cars cannot be brought in yet. They're too winded to shoot straight when they finally reach the outlaw horde, so John Wayne is forced to set an example for Today's Dallas Police Chief by simply blowing them up with explosives.

Business as usual at Lone Star Studios 1935: A solid John Wayne anchors a leaden production about foiling bad guys out west.Wayne is John Martin, who shows up one day at an isolated town named Rainbow offering to help with their road problem. Since the existing road was washed away by a cloudburst, the town has been at the mercy of a gang of desperadoes, one of whom, Rogers (LeRoy Mason), plays the part of an upstanding citizen. Martin organizes the town to build a new road. As time passes, people wonder whether Martin's on the level.This is a pretty novel idea for a western, road engineering as a plot point. But the slipshod manner of the story's development creates more potholes than the finest engineer could work around.The story opens with Martin in a store, buying guns and a horse. The sequence establishes that there's a town named Rainbow that lost its road, but serves no other purpose, especially as this exposition is basically repeated shortly after when Martin meets a mail courier named George (George Hayes), who pretty much says the same thing. If you know the work of director Robert N. Bradbury on these Lone Star westerns, you won't be surprised by the padding.There's also a protracted, silly subplot about a bad guy named Butch who's been sent away to prison but is magically freed when Rogers somehow gets the townspeople's signatures on a petition for clemency. Why we need Butch in this production is never explained, nor is the reason for Martin having a suspicious prior relationship with the felon. Since it doesn't figure in the story, it's just more padding.But "Rainbow Valley" does stick out in a better way. In addition to the road idea, Wayne is in very good form here, natural and enjoyably reactive in his work with the other actors. Just as good in his own more colorful way is Hayes, not yet known as "Gabby" here but in that zone. He and Wayne play well off each other here, establishing a baseline of charm that assuages the weakness of the storyline.There's a fun bit where Martin is trying to talk up a pretty mail clerk who, suckered in by Rogers, has no time for him. As she cuts Martin off and walks away, George looks on, impressed: "She's fallen for you already."If you like Wayne and Gabby Hayes, you will like this movie at least a bit. But even they aren't enough to make me think it's good.The supporting performances are better than usual, with Mason making a mark despite a one-note role. There's clever use of an automobile (Lone Star westerns usually seem to be set in the beginning of the 20th century, though it's never stated clearly) which George carries mail in, a springy jalopy called "Nugget Nell." Dynamite explosion stunts add some excitement. And no horses seem to have been killed in the making of this film, which is good to see.But the negatives pop up too frequently. It's true these were short films, made as casual entertainments to run under an hour as part of a larger movie-house program, but "Rainbow Valley" is too casual that way, suffering from a typical lack of continuity and characters turning on a dime.At least Wayne is good, as said, and in a way that helps you see why he became such an overnight sensation just four years later. He's got the charm, the toughness, and the presence that keeps you watching even when the rest of "Rainbow Valley" lets you down. He's just playing an engineer here, but he builds a decent bridge to the future all the same.

in my mind this is a fluffy,light movie,but very entertaining and fun to watch.Basically,John Wayne is stranger in town who agrees to help the men get a new road built.the workers have been continually threatened and harassed or worse,by a gang of outlaws who don't want the road built.there is no law to speak of in the town,so the gang has pretty much done whatever they please.until now,that is.this is a pretty standard western movie,which follows the general formula of westerns at that time.however,i think it it is well acted,exciting and fast paced.it's a pretty short movie(less than 90 minutes)but there'a lot jammed into the short running time.if you're in the mood to simply be entertained,you might like this movie.it's not an epic,like many of John Wayne's movies,but so what.i think "rainbow Valley" is a strong 8/10