Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Bill Slocum John Wayne's Lone Star pictures were treading-water affairs, with hokey plots, exposition-filled dialogue, and lots of back-and-forth horse- riding. "Blue Steel" is an amiable if fitful example of same, with Wayne the apparent victim of mistaken identity.Late one dark and stormy night, Wayne sneaks into a hotel (why he sneaks in is never explained) and witnesses the theft of $4,000. So does the sheriff, Jake (George Hayes, not yet billed as "Gabby" Hayes), who figures Wayne's the "pokey-dot" bandit, so named for a signature neckerchief the thief wears when committing his crimes. The two quickly find themselves together in another town, reasons unexplained, helping some locals trying to make a stand as a group of murdering bandits keep stealing their provisions. Someone wants them gone, but why?The opening certainly is unusual. There's some business to distract the sleepy hotel owner, involving a newlywed groom who "can't find it," not really explaining what he meant. Chances are it was a bedpan, but by the amused look on Wayne's face another possibility arises.He's a charmer, alright, even if he still looks a bit callow here. Watching Wayne work is always a pleasure, and director/writer Robert Bradbury gives him plenty of opportunities to get us on his side, however uncertain we may be of his ultimate motives. I think some of this is intentional, and a point for Bradbury if so.The film doesn't so much unfold as it just sort of happens. One moment we see the sheriff about to draw on Wayne, the next we watch the pair run off to help a maiden in distress, Eleanor Hunt. The back-and-forth between the Wayne and Hayes' characters is convoluted, each telling the other they have a surprise up their sleeves, but you sort of enjoy it if you aren't expecting much in the way of logic.Hunt's the weak link in this film, all fluttery eyes and a high, tremulous voice. Still, you have to feel bad for her character; not only was her father killed but now the big man in town, Malgrove (Edward Peil, Sr.) wants her for his woman. Of course, this seals the deal that Malgrove is up to no good.The one undeniable benefit to "Blue Steel," other than Wayne, is that like the other Lone Star Waynes it's short, just 53 minutes counting a bit that was cut from my Mill Creek DVD of Wayne and Hayes' characters meeting, which still doesn't explain why the sheriff is so slow about taking his prize suspect in.One particularly goofy scene has the sheriff shooting a guy off a barn roof, right before he is about to cut a rope to dump some hay on an unsuspecting Wayne. Why does he kill the guy? I don't know, but I guess it made for an impressive stunt. There are a few noteworthy stunts in this movie, many no doubt performed by Yakima Canutt, who often played bad guys in Lone Star films and does so here as Danti, a. k. a. the "Polky-Dot" as the sheriff keeps calling him.The film does wind things up with an exciting horse chase, with the good guys on a wagon bringing needed provisions to the town. It's all resolved very neatly, too neatly, with Wayne explaining who he really is before riding off with Hunt. I suspect this was seen as good enough for its core audience of eight-year-old boys. They had some growing up to do, as did Wayne. But "Blue Steel" does offer some modest if compensating charms along the way.

Jay Raskin Almost all the Lone Star John Wayne movies have one or two quite unusual and memorable scenes. Here, it is the bizarre opening scene and the beautiful last shot. The opening is actually quite a mess. It takes place in a hotel room on a rainy night and it is hard to tell what is going on for most of the scene. There is also the only risqué double-entendre that I've seen in a Lone Star film when a newlywed husband comes back downstairs from his bridal suite and announces "I can't find it." The ending shot is Wayne riding off into the mountains with his girl and it is just lovely.The confusing and messy hotel sequence in the beginning is atoned for at the end with one of the best final chase sequences in the series. As mentions by other users, the stunt work is excellent and the scene of Wayne picking her his fallen lady from the ground while riding a team of galloping horses is still sweet, if not quite breath-taking.As the ten minute final chase scene is a big element in all the Lone Star Westerns, I would have to rate this highly, although the other 40 minutes does drag a bit.Edward Peil Sr. plays a great villain as he did in "Man from Utah". He was in some 375 films in his 40 year career.Yakima Canutt, as usual, is effective as a bad guy too. With a little luck, he would have been as big a star as Wayne.Not the best Lone Star, but it is effective.

John W Chance A fairly involving 'Lone Star' film (even though it lacks enough dialog to provide any character) because of: 1) The opening sequence, with great silences, where we are caught up in John Wayne's mysterious and sudden presence in a hotel during a rain storm, 2) the registering 'bride' and 'bridegroom' at the hotel, shy and secretly excited; later the bridegroom, George Nash in his last film, comes back from the bridal suite saying 'I can't find it.' 3) Yakima Canutt's amazing stunt work-- pulling up a fallen Eleanor Hunt thru the coach horse team, and then helping her onto John Wayne's horse, 4) the extensive final chase sequence, excitingly paced and edited as the bad guys (at least 9 of them) chase our heroes across the vast prairies -- whew! This time, without any preamble of romantic intentions anywhere else in the film, John Wayne and the girl do ride off into the sunset holding hands!

bkoganbing Blue Steel finds sheriff Gabby Hayes on the trail of a bandit known as the Polka Dot Bandit by his distinctive polka dot neckerchief. After a robbery at a local hotel, Hayes has reason to suspect a tall stranger played by John Wayne as the bandit.But before he can act on his suspicions both of them get themselves involved in foiling a scheme by a group of outlaws who are starving out a town and they're an especially murderous bunch, attacking supply trains and killing everyone on the trains.It's not too hard to figure out who's behind all this dirty work, especially when you hear one of the town's leading citizens make a 'sacrificial' offer for everyone's land. Wayne and Hayes come to the same conclusion as the audience does and spend the rest of the film foiling the dastardly scheme.Blue Steel has lots of action in it, the action covers up some of the holes in the storyline. The villain also has designs on the daughter of another town leading citizen and Eleanor Hunt plays the daughter in the best Little Nell manner of all those Victorian morality plays. Still John Wayne and Gabby Hayes work well together and it's not the best or the worst of Wayne's Lone Star films.