User Reviews

The premise of the plot starts out with great potential . Tom Owens ( Tom Keene ) tries to get his friend Jack Breen ( Creighton Chaney ,Jr. ) to leave town as Tom knows he is tied up with the crooks. Their deep friendship allows for Tom to sacrifice his sense of right for his friend to leave and make a new start . But just one last job is the order of the day . In the chase , it is Keene who kills his friend .

Breen's brother comes to town looking for answers . Being a teenager with no family and ridden by guilt , Keene takes him in . He wants the best for him . But Doris , Breen's girl friend also has an interest in the boy. He reminds her of Jack and he is Jack's brother .

After Keene shot Breen , Doris made a threat , " One day , I will hurt you like you hurt me ". Here is where the tension could have been exploited through the remainder of the film . I realize that time was a limit in these 'B' films but a few scenes could have done the trick . Instead this choice angle just dangles . What a dimension this could have been if properly handled .

It is interesting that there is little doubt about Doris' profession . That is not your usual 'B' ploy . Usually the female lead is working at the saloon as an undercover agent or was forced to by an uncle , etc. Then at the end , Keene announces that they will raise the boy together . Wow ! This was an adult theme and not for the little shavers .

This is what I like about early 'B' westerns, the Indies of this period and even the silents . They took chances with plots . They never fit the cookie cutter mold with their stories even when they flopped badly . Here is a plot you never saw in 'B' westerns and I have seen a ton . Just the story line alone is worth a look at this film .

I like Keene's early work especially his RKO work . His laugh was intolerable , but he had a charisma . The RKO's have the look of the Hoppy Paramounts . There is some real depth to the photography . The exteriors are sublime in their presentation almost like Star Wars or a John Ford . The story lines are above average and not the mundane . So this was an above average series .

Creighton Chaney Jr. just never had that spark on screen that marks a star . Without the Wolfman , he would be remembered as a good character actor .

Edgar Kennedy had some redeeming features as a sidekick . He didn't seem real comfortable in this role . You get the feeling he woke up with a burr under his saddle . There was no real chemistry between him and Keene . Durand definitely needed some more acting lessons and experience .

There is very little action until the end , but it was enough to qualify as a western . If you're only familiar with Keene's Monogram work , this film and other RKOs will give you a whole new perspective of him and his persona. Worth viewing ( at least once ).

Sons Of The Border casts Tom Keene as a cowboy who has to shoot his good friend because he was on the run as an outlaw. It's a plot gambit right out of The Virginian.

The additions are that Julie Haydon was the friend's fiance and she vows to get even some day even though she knows her intended was going down a dark path. I have to confess I did not recognize Lon Chaney, Jr. in the days before he decided to step into his father's shoes as a horror film actor. Additionally Chaney's much younger brother comes to town and Keene decides to take him in without revealing it was he who shot him. Everyone's keeping Tom's secret including Haydon who is only biding her time.

The Trampas part is played by veteran movie heavy Al Bridge. Edgar Kennedy is here also as a sidekick to Keene.

Although in typical B western fashion the title has nothing to do with the plot as our borders don't figure into the story, it was still good enough for the Saturday matinee kiddie trade.

1933's "Son of the Border" was only the fifth RKO picture for screen newcomer Creighton Chaney, later forced to adopt his illustrative father's name as 'Lon Chaney Jr.,' and already his third Western, second straight opposite Tom Keene after the better known "Scarlet River." Not a modern Western like its predecessor (which depicted how a Hollywood studio made such films), this is a traditional plotline used many times before and since, the moral problem of a hero whose best friend is in league with the bad guys. Keene is of course our honest, upright hero Tom Owens, while Chaney essays the role of Tom's old buddy Jack Breen, secretly part of the outlaw gang committing robberies in the vicinity. Once Tom learns of Jack's treachery he allows him to leave town for a better life elsewhere with fiancée Doris (Julie Haydon), but 'that old gang of mine' insists on one last job which predictably turns out to be Jack's last, his attempted getaway foiled by the pursuant Owens, firing one fatal shot that halts his friend in his tracks (he couldn't know the identity of the man he was trailing). It's actually a tale of two stories, the exciting if stereotyped first half yielding to a more staid second half with the arrival of Jack's preteen brother Frankie (David Durand), whom Tom quickly takes in, choosing to protect Jack's good name from the boy and avoid telling him how he died. This does not sit well with Doris, still bitterly grieving for her late fiancée and determined to insinuate herself into Frankie's life despite Tom's protestations. She remains the one unpredictable pawn in this chess game, knowingly acknowledging Jack's crimes as he committed them while vowing to avenge herself against the man who killed him, no matter the consequences for the younger Breen (again like "Scarlet River," a preteen prominently features throughout). This was the last of only three credited features for director Lloyd Nosler, and though it was the end of the line for Chaney at RKO he would find better pastures after another six years of struggle.

I can't begin to describe how many things are wrong with this film. The acting is stilted, stagy. The camera is still for the most part. In a gun fight scenes from another oater were edited in. Action is advanced by dialog not, well, action. The actors announce their intentions with the certainty they will come true. All scenes appear to be first takes. I guess they had no budget for retakes. This appears to take place in late 19th century West yet Julie Haydon who plays Doris, the ex-floozy, smokes a cigarette. That fact is never alluded to again although Doris becomes increasingly less provocative, more virginal, as if time were cleansing her of her past sins. Haydon is actually the one bright spot in this disaster and that's saying much because no actor could handle this material with a straight face. Her film career didn't amount to much although she was more successful on stage. Tom Keene, the male lead, was just plain awful but a good horseman. He could take a run at a horse, jump to a stirrup and straddle the horse in one smooth sequence. And I could go on. Yet this film is oddly captivating. I guess it's my attraction to bad movies. They're sort of like train wrecks; you can't take your eyes off them.

The title is a mystery in this mediocre western. Lovely Julie Haydon is a welcome plus in the film, which doesn't have much action until the end. Laughable scenes include a gang member getting shot at the start as he says "the big boss is..," an oft-used cliché, as well as Haydon overhearing the bandits' plans to rob a stagecoach. Well, I guess they didn't have wire-taps then, so how else could you get information? Keene has charisma, but this is strictly Saturday matinee material.

I'm rapidly developing a taste for Tom Keene movies. He looks and sounds only a few notches away from being a live-action Dudley Do-Right...but somehow his performances work for me.

This movie is intriguing to me because Tom's good pal (well-played by the regretful-looking Lon Chaney Jr.) is working for the outlaws and gets himself killed...then when Lon's little brother shows up, Lon's former girlfriend competes with Tom to raise the boy. The pretty girlfriend, by the way, used to work over at the dance hall, where business has dropped off since she left...one presumes she wasn't just dancing... So it's fun to see squeaky-clean Tom being buddies with a cheap crook and a retired dance hall gal.

The final scenes are action-packed fun (made all the more odd and dated because of the speeded-up camera) and I got to cheer whenever Tom hit somebody. I like movies that make me cheer for the heroes. So YAY!

I had this movie and now cannot obtain another!!!! It is a wonderful movie with a good plot. Plenty of horse riding and friendship. I would give almost anything to have this movie again. I really miss it. Julie Hayden is Lon Chaney's girlfriend, sweet and innocent, although she works in a saloon. Lon Chaney is a likable bandit and Tom Keene's best friend. Tom suspects Lon of wrongdoing, but doesn't know when he is chasing the bandits after a robbery that it is his friend that he shoots and kills. He tries to make it up to Julie Hayden who despises Tom for it. Lon's kid brother arrives to live with his only relative, Lon, but soon discovers he is dead. Tom takes him in and gives him love and a home, but Julie Hayden tries to win him over. Tom fears the truth will come out and the kid will be hurt. Edgar Kennedy is Tom's very funny side-kick (just love him) and plays a wonderful role in this pic. There is lots of adventure in this film with a happy outcome. I would love to have every one of Tom Keene's films, although some I have aren't up to his potential I like them anyway. Most, especially the early ones, are best. I think all the very early movies are best anyway. 30's oh, yes!