Winds of the Wasteland (1936)

Just what the lawless West needed - a US Government race, with $25,000 to the winner, for the company that can deliver the mail the quickest. That's just the tonic John Wayne and Larry Adams need as the business they recent paid "Cal Drake" through the nose for is already suffering from the decline of their local mining town (It has one resident for each side of the street!) and of the encroaching telegraph. Now we've got all sorts of devious goings-on as teams scheme for this lucrative contract and the portrayals - with Phyllis Fraser adding some love interest - are all quite good fun. There is loads of action, a stagecoach race, and the sometimes quite witty dialogue helps keep this from dragging. It smacks of a little better production values - it is still cheap and cheerful, but the lighting and audio are distinctly better than in some of Wayne's earlier work. Nothing much original here, though - but worth a gander on a wet afternoon.