L'homme et la loi

Watched "One Man Law" (1932) with Buck Jones, Shirley Grey, Robert Ellis, Murdock MacQuarrie, and many more. Superb story, but told only middling well by director Lambert Hillyer. Usually Buck Jones is a wonderful actor, a gangling, though muscular, and very masculine, no nonsense sort of direct personality. Here he waffles a great deal in a shy manner around Shirley Grey and is nearly embarrassing in his attempts around her to try to show some affection. This occurs mostly in the beginning, and he's better later on. The story would have done better without Jones' love-making in the beginning. The rest is very interesting, and quite gripping. The story actually gets to the point where you see no way out for Jones at all in his predicament. He's a sheriff, but he must enforce a law that would make anyone angry! A land speculator has twice-sold - but only genuinely sold once! - land out west by way of dealers in Chicago. Now the people who bought the land from the Chicago-based baddies have come West to claim the land. Meanwhile, the people out west who are simply waiting for their deeds after having labored like dogs to work the land and own it, are being legally forced off these lands by the "rightful" owners. Jones is the law. He has to enforce this. Great story. Well told. Not always perfectly acted. Could have had better handling by Lambert Hillyer. Too bad. I'm a great fan of Jones in Westerns. This may have been an "A" from Columbia, but it plays more like a "B".