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The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Start with an excellent cast in a fair story with a good mix of locations, including a railroad boxcar, the outdoors West, and a ranch, with some funny scenes -- right up to the end -- and not excessive violence, surprisingly well directed by Sam Newfield.Bob Steele was a very good actor, but he was a great cowboy, and maybe an even greater action star. (I always loved watching him in a fight scene, and wondered how he would have fared as a boxer -- between movies.)He was also a very good-looking man, and a viewer will see all those assertions proved in this movie.Horace Murphy is not quite believable as a tough sheriff, but he is usually acceptable in any role. He disappointed me in one scene because he mounted his horse like a dude, not a Westerner.Budd Buster, though, gives a superlative performance as the sheriff's bumbling deputy. Beautifully underplayed, showing skill by him and the director.Assorted bad guys switch from clowns to serious menacers, always believably, and all of them give great performances.As a fan of Charles, here Charlie, King, I loved watching him in this role from his slender youth. I think he is generally revered, but I don't know if he really gets his due as an actor.In one fight, I wonder if he and his opponent (I won't say who) didn't get actually injured. Beautifully realistic with two of the ablest action stars in Hollywood history.If you're not subscribed to Westerns on the Web, you can find "Thunder in the Desert" on YouTube and believe me it's worth looking for.

"Thunder in the Desert" (1938) need not detain us long. Admittedly, by the humble standards of director Sam Newfield, it's not totally bad at all. It's not very good either, but it does pass the time agreeably enough, thanks to the strenuous efforts of Bob Steele. (Sad to see him heading the cast of a Supreme Pictures effort, although admittedly that Poverty Row company did distribute one of Bob's best pictures, "The Last of the Warrens", in 1936). Don Barclay, who plays Rusty, also makes a commendable effort to keep us entertained, and it's always a pleasure to see Charles King in action as the perennial baddie. This title is available on a very good Alpha DVD as the number one feature on a disc that actually supplies one of Bob's very best films as a bonus, namely Son of Oklahoma.