Watch Riders of Destiny For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Copyright 22 January 1934 by Monogram Pictures Corp. Presented by Lone Star Productions. No New York opening. U.S. release: 10 October 1933 (sic). U.K. release through Pathe: 16 July 1934. 6 reels. 58 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Undercover government agent helps ranchers get their rightful water rights.NOTES: Wayne's first of sixteen Lone Star westerns. Negative costs rarely exceeded $12,000 on an incredibly rapid shooting schedule of less than a week.COMMENT: The first of the Lone Stars starts off on a distinctly wrong track by attempting to pass John Wayne off as a singing troubadour. Mouthing to the somewhat inappropriate voice of Smith Ballew, Wayne "sings" two songs. We like the one about "There'll be blood a-runnin' in town before night. There'll be guns a-blazin; and singin' with lead. Tonight you'll be drinkin' your drinks with the dead." Wayne seems definitely uncomfortable in this warbling role, but fortunately is obviously much more at ease in the action spots, especially when doubled by Yakima Canutt. In addition to doubling Wayne and general stunting (he performs a fine quota of spectacular falls and leaps), Canutt has a minor genuine on-screen role as one of the villain's henchmen, though he disappears from view at an early stage. G."G". Hayes, on the other hand, has a major part, doing a variant on his famous "Gabby" characterization. Heroine Cecilia Parker is a lovely girl, but though appealingly photographed, her acting is so amateurish it's a miracle she survived to be re-born as Andy Hardy's sister. Normally respectable Forrest Taylor has an off-beat role as the heavy, with Heinie Conklin of all people as a pratfalling henchman. Wayne himself is reasonably personable. There's enough action to satisfy the fans ("Make it fast, Slippery. This is your last draw!"), and for once the background locations are not drably uninteresting. Bradbury's direction is competent, though his fondness for whip pans as a scene-changing device will make the movie seem even more dated and old-hat to current viewers.

Had the good folks at Lone Star Productions only decided not to dub John Wayne's voice with some forgettable cowboy ballads this would have been a far better western than it turned out to be.Of course Wayne in later years would cringe at the mention of these films. If you want a good idea of how he really sounded listen to him in McLintock singing a favorite ballad of his, The Moon Shines Tonight on Pretty Redwing. The Lone Star people might have even looked for a young band singer working day to day in clubs in New Jersey around this time named Frank Sinatra who over 30 years later actually had his voice come out of Wayne's mouth during a Dean Martin show.If they could have cut out the singing gimmick, Riders of Destiny is not a bad film, in fact a cut above some of the westerns the Duke was doing at the time. Ranchers in the valley are being squeezed out by a greedy villain played by Forrest Taylor. He's built a dam and controls all the water and it's either sell to him outright or pay his exorbitant prices for water. Gabby Hayes and his daughter Cecelia Parker happen to have the only other water around because they dug a well. Taylor especially wants their land.The citizens have written to the federal government in Washington for intervention and they get it in the form of John Wayne. I don't think I have to go any farther. The Duke finds a very clever solution for the water problem which you should see the film to find out.But don't lose your lunch hearing that Nelson Eddy wannabe voice coming out of Mr. Wayne's mouth.

"Riders of Destiny" was the first of several westerns Wayne made for the Lone Star arm of Monogram Pictures between 1933 and 1935. In this entry, the producers try to make the Duke into a singing cowboy called "Singin' Sandy Saunders with hilarious results. Any Wayne fan knows that the Duke couldn't have carried a tune if his life had depended on it. His voice was apparently dubbed by Smith Ballew whose deep baritone sounds nothing like Wayne. Wayne looks awkward and uncomfortable in "performing" the musical numbers. Thank heavens the singing cowboy experiment soon ended.As for the movie itself, it contains a standard "B" western plot of the fight over water rights between the villain (Forrest Taylor) and the local ranchers. Duke, of course plays the hero. He had not yet developed his on screen character and still looked like a poverty row cowboy.Also cast in the film were George (pre-Gabby) Hayes as the heroine's father, Cecilia Parker as the heroine and Yakima Canutt as "one of the boys" who performs his "falling from the racing horses under the wagon" stunt while doubling Wayne. Both Canutt and Hayes would go on to appear with Wayne in most of the other entries in the series. Canutt, in particular would have a profound effect on Wayne's future development teaching him, among other things, how to move, fight and look comfortable on a horse.As "B" westerns go this one isn't too bad, however, I have to give it a failing grade because of the "singing".

I happened to catch it in television and surprised myself by sitting through it all! I enjoyed the story, action and corny humor; it was balanced throughout. Seeing John Wayne's few stunts was fantastic-- nothing as far-out as Buster Keaton or Jakcie Chan, but impresive nonetheless. Overall, a well tempered genre film.