User Reviews

"The Sunrise Trail" is a B-western with all of its energy sucked out of the film...as if they gave everyone in the cast and crew downers! It's a shame, as the story itself isn't bad...just the detached, slow style of the movie.

Tex (Bob Steele) is an undercover lawman. The movie calls him and other lawmen 'star packers'...an old fashioned word for sheriffs or marshals, as they wore star-shaped badges. He meets up with Kansas and the pair soon become friends, though Tex's motivation is to infiltrate a gang. At the same time, Tex falls for a woman who THINKS she's a wanted criminal...though she actually isn't.

This story took way too long to get moving and was incredibly talky. It also has very little in the way of action or stunts...which is odd since Bob Steele was originally a stuntman. All in all, this film is devoid of energy to the point where I nearly fell asleep watching it!

An excellent "B" western on all counts: story, characterization, action, acting and especially atmosphere. True, the plot gimmick of hero joining an outlaw gang in order to bust it apart is an extremely familiar one, but "Sunrise Trail" still manages to more than hold the interest thanks to a whole raft of compelling factors including Wellyn Totman's long-on-characterization screenplay, John P. McCarthy's astutely detailed direction, Archie Stout's atmospherically dark-edged photography, plus splendid acting from almost all concerned, particularly hero Bob Steele and the lovely Blanche Mehaffey (in the best role she ever had in her entire career) as well as familiar character players like Jack Clifford and Eddie Dunn who never again received an opportunity to show audiences they were real actors, not just faces in the background.

This is an unexpected delight of a B-western from late 1930. I don't see how it could have been marketed for kids at the time, as it is like a western stage play, with minimal outdoor action. Faces and acting are expressively intense, and the lighting surrounding Blanche is gloriously soft and illuminating. Otherwise this picture is dusky and gritty. Issues of the heart and morality are big. I didn't realize I was watching something special until it was half way over (in fact I watched the first half twice before I even got to the second half). As the years evolved, Bob Steele reliably appeared in well-produced, story-centered B-westerns, but the films always contained plenty of hero-type action, but this movie was different for sure. This film will transport the viewer to another time and place.