In 1935 Herbert Yates consolidated several poverty row film production companies (Consolidated Film Industries, Mascot, Monogram and Liberty) and created Republic Pictures.  Still a B-movie outfit, Republic cranked out formula westerns (both the singing and non-singing variety) and cliffhanger serials for most of its life, but also managed to make some quality A-level pictures including The Quiet Man and The Sands of Iwo Jima.  Westward Ho was one of the first movies that Republic released after they were formed.  It stars a young John Wayne and also features Yakima Canutt, one of the greatest stuntmen who ever lived, in a minor role.

The Wyatt family is heading west to settle down and farm the land, but on the way to thier homestead they are waylaid by a gang of rustlers who steal their cattle, kill the parents and kidnap the youngest Wyatt child.  The bandits didn't notice that the older brother fell out of the wagon and lived.

Years pass and now John Wyatt (John Wayne) is an adult.  He has spent his life chasing criminals urged on by the memory of his murdered mother and father and missing brother.  John realizes that he can't clean out California all by himself, so he rounds up a group of men who have all suffered at the hands of villains.  This self proclaimed group of vigilantes call themselves 'The Singing Riders" and make life tough for bandits in the area.  They've done a good job of cleaning out the southern part of the state, and now they start working on the north.  John hears about a large herd of cattle that is traveling north, and he manages to get hired on so he can keep an eye on out for raiders.

Little does he know it, but the Ballard gang does have their eyes on the herd, this is same gang that attacked his family all those years ago.  His younger brother Jim (Frank McGlynn Jr.) is still with the bandits, but he doesn't know his real name and is helping them rustle cattle now.  Ballard sends Jim out to infiltrate the cattle drive and find out their route so that they can be easily ambushed.  But Jim and John don't trust each other.  Will John Wyatt be able to save the herd and find out that Jim is really his brother before the attack happens?

There are some really great Western movies that John Wayne started in (like The Searchers and True Grit, for example) but this isn't one of them.  This is a fairly standard 1930's outdoor adventure, with nothing to really separate it from all the others.  The plot was predictable, the acting wooden (especially from the kids at the beginning) and dialog very corny.  Though it probably didn't get laughs when it originally was screened, there are some great lines in this film.  My favorite is when a man rides up to Wayne and states, "Black Bart's gang just robbed the Express!"  I had to laugh, a line like that is so clichéd today.  The fight scenes were slightly above average do to Yakima Canutt's involvement with the stunts, but it wasn't enough to save this formulistic picture.

Audio:

The audio was not too good.  There was a fair amount of hiss in the background, and pops and other extraneous noises were fairly common.  The audio also sounded tinny, with a very narrow dynamic range.  The gunshots sounded like cap guns and the horses didn't thunder as they rode by.  Granted this is an old movie, but the soundtrack could have sounded better.

Video:

The full frame black and white picture was below average.  There was a fair amount of grain, and the image was quite dark.  The contrast was not too good, with details disappearing into the shadows.  The movie was still watchable, with a good amount of detail, but it is not a high caliber copy.

The Extras:

There were not extras, not even a trailer.  Since the film only runs a little more than an hour, there was plenty of room on the DVD to put another movie, or a couple of episodes of a TV western. They should have included something else.

Final Thoughts:

This wasn't a bad picture; it just comes across like the countless other oaters that poverty row producers cranked out by the hundreds in the 30's and 40's.  Viewed today, the movie is predictable, there is no suspense, and the acting is stilted at best.  The video and audio quality is not very high, and I was very disappointed that they only included this hour-long movie on the DVD.  They could have easily fit another film on the disc.  The most ardent die hard western aficionados and John Wayne fans might want to rent this for an early look at The Duke, but casual fans should skip it.