Wagon Wheels West (1943) User Reviews

Headed In That Direction

[boblipton · 5/10 · 21 August 2019]

U.S. Marshal Robert Shayne seeks vengeance in this episode of Warner Brother's SANTA FE TRAIL series of short subjects.

Once upon a time, all movies were what we call short subjects nowadays. Eventually features came into being, and while B westerns remained fairly short, from 49 to 65 minutes, A westerns could run considerably longer .... and be a lot more expensive to produce. With this series of short westerns, Warners tried the interesting experiment of cutting down their old A westerns, writing a new script -- often, as with this one, by pulp writer Ed Earl Repp -- and telling in 20 minutes what once might have taken four times as long. Thus, the expensive, spectacular sequences might be reused, and a cheap short subject could be rented out for a flat fee. In this case, the story and big sequences are from 1936's SONG OF THE SADDLE.

Robert Shayne was the perennial star of these shorts. People of my age better remember him from the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN show, where he played Inspector Henderson.

solid western short

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 16 September 2020]

As a boy, Frankie Wilson is traveling with his father to California. They end up selling their supplies to general store owner Phineas Hook who secretly hires two thugs dressed as Indians to rob them. Frankie manages to escape after his father is murdered. Years later, he returns seeking justice as a deputy U.S. Marshal with the help of Jan Colburn and his posse.

This is old fashion in a good way. The story is simplistic although one must remember that this is a short and apparently it's a shorten version of a longer film. It's recycling. There is probably a good money making reason. It does one solid stunt and some good horsemanship. All in all, it has all the basics of a western.

Short Remake of Song of the Saddle

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 21 January 2014]

Warner Bros. western short that starts out with a man and his son driving a wagon of supplies into a town. The man goes to the general store where he sells his supplies to the store's owner Phineas Hook (Charles Middleton). But Hook doublecrosses the man and sends his goons to kill him and his son after they leave town. The boy, Frankie Wilson, manages to escape but his father is killed. So he vows to come back when he grows up and get Hook. Adult Frankie (Robert Shayne) returns as a deputy US marshall to set a trap for Hook, now a banker. Interesting to see Robert Shayne in a western. I'm so used to seeing him as police detectives and the like. Also nice to see Nina Foch in her first role. This is a remake of a feature length movie called Song of the Saddle from 1936. Charles Middleton reprises his role. All of the footage here from when Frankie was a boy was from that movie. If you'll notice young Frankie plays a guitar and sings. In the original movie he grew up to become "the singing kid" played by Dick Foran. I'm really not sure why WB remade the movie as a short, then reused footage from the movie for part of it. I'm sure it made sense at the time.

Routine but Fun

[Michael_Elliott · 29 May 2009]

Wagon Wheels West (1943)

*** (out of 4)

Routine Western short has U.S. Marshall Frank Wilson (Robert Shayne) seeking vengeance against the man who he saw kill his father as a child. The Marshall rides into town just to bust the man but gets a lot more than that. If you've seen at least one Western in your lifetime then you're not going to see anything new here but I was still entertained by the short, which featured a couple good performances and a nice ending. Shayne was very good in his role and made his character someone you wanted to root for. Nina Foch, who is best remembered for her roles in such horror titles as THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE and CRY OF THE WEREWOLF, makes her screen debut here. What really makes up for the routine nature of the film is the wonderful ending, which includes a chase as well as a wreck down a giant hill. The way things play out were very exciting and makes the twenty-minutes worth it.

"This bank was an institution founded upon lawlessness . . . "

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 12 April 2017]

. . . Warner Bros. warns America halfway through WAGON WHEELS WEST, mentioning Wells Fargo (and ONLY Wells Fargo) by name in the same breath as the 21st Century Wells Fargoish "Bank of Hookville." During most of the 20th Century Warner Bros. was busy churning out uncannily accurate prophetic warnings for we Americans of the (then) Far Future 21st Century concerning our USA's upcoming Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti. With a sly wink and nod from the incoming Red Commie KGB Oligarchical Putin\Rump Administration, the Wells Fargo Crime Syndicate recently destroyed the lives of millions with its fraudulent banking practices, creating and manipulating our accounts and money, ruining our credit, and breaking up countless marriages (and fomenting who knows how many murder-suicides) by spawning Dark Clouds of Suspicion. Now that Putin\Rump have installed Foreclosure King Mnuchin as the Fox in America's Banking Henhouse, no one's money or personal information is safe from the KGB mobsters Hell-Bent upon America's Destruction. The Good Guys in WAGON WHEELS WEST Terminate Termite Banker Phineas Hook at the finale, which is Warner's Way of teaching us how WE must deal with our deplorable KGB-controlled Money Manipulators of Today.

Like an old B-western shoved into 17 minutes.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 1 August 2022]

Robert Shayne was a good looking and competent actor...though he really never achieved leading man status. I've seen him in a lot of shows (such as "The Adventures of Superman") and movies and "Wagon Wheels West" is one of his few leading roles...although the film is a short.

When the story begins in 1850, a man is paid very well for a load of supplies in his wagon. It seems the folks heading west for the Gold Rush need supplies and the 'nice man' is offering a more than fair price. But soon the 'nice guy' reveals himself to be a crooked jerk-face. He sends his men, dressed as American Indians, to chase the man down and steal the $1600 he was paid for the supplies. The man is killed, but his young son manages to escape. Many years pass, and the boy is now a US Marshal...and he's looking to exact justice for his father's murder.

Having Robert Middleton for the baddie was a plus, as he was terrific in such roles. And, the story is very good and worth seeing...though I wonder why they made it a short and not a B-western. Regardless, it's well made and Shayne is quite good.

By the way, when the boy jumps off the wagon to safety, it is pretty obvious that an adult stuntman is doing the jump.

Standard western elements are all present in this short subject...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 16 January 2009]

There's nothing the least bit new or inventive in WAGON WHEELS WEST. It's the kind of routine western fare that I avoided when I was a kid and it fares no better today.

Travelers en route to California are preyed upon by baddies who want to rob them of their money. As their horse and wagon goes on its way, they're pursued, the father (ADDISON RICHARDS) is killed and his boy survives the attack by rolling down an embankment and hiding out.

The tale picks up with the boy as the man (ROBERT SHAYNE) who gets a chance to play hero and take care of the villains.

It ends with a barn dance celebration after a brief scene showing Shayne with NINA FOCH--who has only a tiny role in this western short.

Nothing special here--very routine and easily skipped. Some stock footage from old Warner Bros. films is used as filler.

Well Told Western Tale

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 31 July 2002]

A Warner Brothers Short Subject.

At Hooksville - the last town on the route West - an evil banker engages in robbery & murder to prey upon unsuspecting travelers.

WAGON WHEELS WEST is a dandy little Western, with good performances and plenty of action packed into its few minutes. As always, Charles Middleton makes a thoroughly despicable villain. Robert Shayne is fine as the grim faced hero; Nina Foch has a tiny role playing the pretty rancher's daughter who catches his eye.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.

"I'm coming back some day, when I'm a man . . . "

[cricket30 · 8/10 · 23 April 2019]

. . . are not always "famous last words," WAGON WHEELS WEST reveals. "Many a lonely grave marks the trail of American Progress," this live action short further informs us. As Shakespeare once noted, "He that lives by the gun dies by the gun." During WAGON WHEELS WEST, a young lad named "Frankie" witnesses his dad gunned down before his very eyes by a gang of Corrupt Fat Cat Corporate Capitalists. (This ilk of miscreants stubbornly persist across our USA Homeland down to Today, in the guise of Big Oil, Pay-Day Loan Sharks, Big Medicine, the Insurance Racket, Collegiate Debt Collectors, Slum Lords, Utility Robber Barons, and so forth). WAGON WHEELS WEST teaches viewers that we all need to be packing heat. When we venture beyond the walls of our Home Compounds, we MUST have competent marksmen riding shotgun to watch our backs. Most importantly, we should NEVER be gullible enough to trust anything that the One Per Center corporate types such as the evil banker "Phineas Hooks" here try to bamboozle us with. Since these nefarious demons already have signed over their souls on the dotted line to Old Scratch, they never feel the least bit of remorse or compunction about robbing We Normal Average True Blue Loyal Patriotic Progressive Union Label Working Stiffs blind. Perhaps the best way that YOU can ward off the in-roads made by these WAGON WHEELS WEST-type villains is to act immediately to support your local chapter of BANGS (Broke Americans Need Gun Stamps).