Westward Ho

Westward Ho is a 1935 American Western film directed by Robert N. Bradbury and starring John Wayne and Sheila Bromley. It was released by the recently created Republic Pictures and was produced by Paul Malvern, who had previously produced several of Wayne's Westerns under the Lonestar Productions division of Monogram Pictures. Many consider the film among the earliest revisionist Westerns. Plot Whit Ballard and his gang of outlaws steal a herd of cattle from the Wyatts, a family of drovers, murdering the parents. In the aftermath, Ballard takes young Jim Wyatt but leaves Jim's brother John. As an adult, to locate the men who killed his parents and kidnapped his brother, John organizes a vigilante group of cowboys, and they become renowned for their success. John takes a job with a cattle-herding family and is attracted to the family's sassy daughter Mary. Jim, using the surname Allen and unrecognized by John, has also infiltrated the family, but his goal is to gather information for Ballard to assist in stealing the cattle. John is suspicious and departs in the middle of the night, returning with his vigilantes in time to foil the outlaws' plan to rob the family. In the confusion of the conflict, Jim creates the appearance that he had saved the father and stays unknown as Ballard's confidant. Interrogating one of the outlaws, John discovers that Ballard is the man responsible for killing his family. He frees the outlaw but warns him to avoid the town where Ballard is based. However, when John heads to town, he recognizes the same outlaw. He starts a fight, but other outlaws appear and he is badly outnumbered. John escapes over rooftops, riding to again retrieve his vigilantes. Jim tricks Mary into visiting Ballard's hideout, where she is locked into a room. Ballard sends a ransom note to John instructing him to come alone to a canyon if he wants to save Mary. When John receives the note, he rides alone to the canyon, leaving the vigilantes behind. Ballard's gang steals gold from the town bank and heads to the canyon. Jim sees them ride away, abandoning him, and goes to the hideout, where he frees Mary, who tells him that she overheard Ballard saying that John is his Jim's brother.