"Border Law" (1931) with Buck Jones, Lupita Tovar, Jim Mason, Frank Rice, Don Chapman, John Wallace, Lou Hicks, and others is a superb early "B" Western made probably on an "A-" budget at Columbia Pictures. Jones was really at his acme here, and though the picture is filled with what are now seen as dusty clichés, this was the early foundation days for many of them. Jones' plays a ranger whose younger ranger brother (Chapman) and another ranger (Rice) are assigned along with Jones to go after the notorious Shag Smith (Mason) and his gang, a bunch of ruthless bank robbers and killers. Chapman happens to be in town when the gang rides in to intimidate the town prior to planning to rob the bank. In the process they kill Chapman. Jones forms a stratagem to capture the gang in revenge. He "resigns" his ranger commission, as does Rice, and now Jones becomes the notorious "Pecos Kid", wanted for $2500, dead or alive. Meanwhile, he's met Lupita Tovar, a fiery girl from south of the border, a real spitfire. Jim Mason as the baddie was as good as it gets at being bad in these "B" Westerns, and he's equal to Jones here as a watchable cuss, as are Rice as Jones' partner and Lou Hicks as a scar-faced "Dave", a former prize fighter gone way, way bad. Tovar's a pip. Good show! If you're a Jones Western fan, saddle up! You'll appreciate the superb stunts, though today's watcher will be put off a bit by the speeded up horses in some of the chases. It wasn't necessary, and it spoils the verisimilitude a great deal today.
