The Light of Western Stars (1940)

★★★★★ · Wow! I finally found it! · johnmmc · 2010-05-05

I first saw this film when I was about 9. That was in 1954 when television first came to this area and, fortunately, TV stations were filling up air time with what were considered old films. That's how I discovered the Golden Age of Hollywood — B pictures and all. "Light of Western Stars" is a gem among budget westerns. A precursor of the "adult western," it deals with alcoholism, racial prejudice, and a bit of U.S.-Mexico border history. And what a cast! Victor Jory remains one of the better, yet unappreciated, film actors of his era and shines in this role of a man who dulls his emotional…

★★★ · No ... no no no no no · Deichbrand_1 · 2011-09-04

When the film starts you might get the impresssion that it is a comedy of some sort, but the whole plot takes a different direction later and this makes this film such an endurance. Why this violence? Why this pretentiousness? There is a certain easiness first, but it is lost later and the whole plot is squeezed into those sixty minutes. Loose ends at a large scale and the characters do not even behave as it they care; this 'marry the first girl thing' for instance. The women are beautiful, especially Jo Ann Sayers, but they are unable to take the messy story in a proper direction. While…