CinemaSerf

Like so many of John Wayne's films, their success or otherwise depended on his foil - and in this one, he fares well in Gabby Hayes. The Old timer is "Jake" who has known "Mason" since he was a nipper. The pair discover a nugget of gold in their donkey's hoof, and soon they have quite a lucrative little panning operation going. That is until the two local assayers decide to muscle in on that act and things start to turn nasty... Barbara Sheldon provides the love interest as Hayes' grand-daughter ("Betty") who arrives to visit just as things are hotting up. This is certainly one of the better, more solid stories for these Lone Star contract Westerns that a good-looking but unchallenged Wayne churned out; and the last ten minutes have a fun car chase that might not have looked put of place in an Harold Lloyd movie...