Warning Potential Spoilers: Charles Starrett reminds me of other actors. Undeniably handsome, he looks a little like Gary Cooper, and in his manner there is even a dash of Humphrey Bogart (mainly in his rare sophisticate persona). His voice reminds me of the genteel Joseph Cotten. In any case, the plot of this movie is practically post-modern because Charles Starrett in real life was a movie-screen cowboy not unlike Spencer Yorke whom he portrays in this archetypal oater. Except that Yorke is supposed to be a real cowboy--from Arizona no less. (Starrett was scion of a Massachusetts tool manufacturing fortune.) As oaters go, however, "Cowboy Star" is as inoffensive as milk and even entertaining. I liked the bad guys particularly. Sure one of them let their only hostage go too easily, but it was made clear that he was a complete idiot.
The biggest hole in the action sequence is that Yorke has an opportunity to catch the gang leader at one point but instead runs all the way back to where he started, then goes back AGAIN to the gangster by which time the bad guy has re-loaded his gun and practically gotten in his car. Well, if Yorke had done the smart thing, there would not have been an amusing if improbable chase scene involving a multi-horsepower automobile versus a one-horsepower...horse.
Since one of Yorke's complaints before leaving Hollywood is that he doesn't get to do his own stunts, I expected that he would be offered the option to do stunts himself when his former producer later tries to entice him to return to the movies, but Yorke isn't offered anything of the kind. Indeed, one can imagine all of Yorke's stunts in this movie being done by Starrett's double.
The biggest hole in the action sequence is that Yorke has an opportunity to catch the gang leader at one point but instead runs all the way back to where he started, then goes back AGAIN to the gangster by which time the bad guy has re-loaded his gun and practically gotten in his car. Well, if Yorke had done the smart thing, there would not have been an amusing if improbable chase scene involving a multi-horsepower automobile versus a one-horsepower...horse.
Since one of Yorke's complaints before leaving Hollywood is that he doesn't get to do his own stunts, I expected that he would be offered the option to do stunts himself when his former producer later tries to entice him to return to the movies, but Yorke isn't offered anything of the kind. Indeed, one can imagine all of Yorke's stunts in this movie being done by Starrett's double.
