Oath of Vengeance (1944) starring Buster Crabbe, Falcon, Al St. John, Mady Lawrence, Jack Ingram directed by Sam Newfield Movie Review

Oath of Vengeance (1944)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Buster Crabbe in Oath of Vengeance (1944)

Al's Crabbe Store

With trouble between the ranchers and farmers Fuzzy Q. Jones (Al St. John) fears for his store as many of his clients have bought on credit and if they are being killed off he won't get his money. Reluctantly his friend Billy Carson (Buster Crabbe) agrees to help out and starts looking in to who is stirring things up between the farmers and ranchers. It doesn't take long to discover local businessman Steve Kinney (Jack Ingram) and his hired hand Mort (Charles King) are behind things having killed a cowhand and then laid the blame on the farmers to start the trouble.

I've watched a fair few of these early westerns, the sort which were churned out during the 1930s and early 40s with the same old faces appearing time and again and have grown to expect very little from them. It is how I was after reading a 2 line synopsis for "Oath of Vengeance" as with trouble between farmers and ranchers with a local businessman playing dirty it sounded like a half a dozen or so other westerns I had watched from the era. And in truth for the most it is typical with Buster Crabbe as Billy Carson being a handsome hero, saving the day and impressing the girl like he did in other westerns.

Now there is of course more than just Buster Crabbe to "Oath of Vengeance" as we have Al St. John and I am glad to say that Al gets a lot more to do and that means a lot more comedy from wrestling with a calf to running his own shop and putting up with a bossy post mistress. It is very much the work of Al St. John who makes "Oath of Vengeance" much more entertaining than you are probably expecting.

What this all boils down to is that "Oath of Vengeance" is just a regular western from a bygone era with Buster Crabbe playing the handsome hero. But it is the comedy work of Al St. John who makes this much more than just a routine old western as he gets more to do this time around.


LATEST REVIEWS