Hyänen der Prärie

Director Joe Kane's experienced hand guides a strong cast through the familiar western plot about cattlemen versus squatters. Stalwart rancher William Elliott takes on trouble-making newcomer Albert Dekker.

Elliott's cause is aided by George "Gabby" Hayes, John Carroll and Vera Ralston, while Dekker's cronies include Grant Withers, Harry Woods and Dick Curtis.

WYOMING's assets are vigorous action sequences--especially notable is a down and dirty fistfight between Elliott and Dekker; top calibre black and white photography by John Alton; fine villainy by Dekker.

While not as intriguing as the westerns Elliott would do later (in 1949 and 1950) at Republic Pictures, this is a solid "B" effort worthy of your time and attention.

Joseph Kane was used to this kind of westerns, the trademark of Republic pictures, and also Paramount, using old fashioned schemes and characters. There is nothing exceptional here, everything is predictable but never boring. Wild Bill Elliot is as usual, boring but quite good, John Caroll also at his place, and Vera Ralston is anything but unavoidable in a Republic studio production; her husband was no one else than Herbert J Yates, president executive of the studio. So this western is at least not a music hall western, a sort of westerns taking place mostly indoors, in dancing halls, in San Francisco, instead of rocky mountains, forests, deserts or valleys as so many Republic westerns were. For western addicts only, old fashioned fans. Albert Dekker excellent as the villain, and George Gabby Hayes exquisite, as usual.

Done in the tradition of "Red River (1946) this is the story of the Land Baron Vs the small ranchers, but this time from the Land Baron's point of view. The fine supporting cast features Maria Ouspenskaya, movie buffs will recall her as Malvea the gypsy in many classic horror films. The direction is smooth and Elliott is in top form as the anti-hero. The fist-fight scene gives proof that Elliott is no "Mr. Nice Guy" as he bites, thumbs, gouges, knees and kicks his way to victory. The ending is predictable, but the fun is in getting there. This is a good one!

Wyoming was a Bill Elliott film that all of Republic's stars had to do, one with Vera Hruba Ralston who was Mrs. Herbert J. Yates. The only one I think that missed that co-star was Roy Rogers. This was a big budget item for 1947 the kind of film that Yates normally reserved for his biggest contract star, John Wayne who did a few films with Vera.

The plot goes over the same ground that MGM's Tracy/Hepburn classic Sea Of Grass did and also the John Wayne film McLintock although that one in a comic vein. Elliott, his wife Vera, and her aunt from the old country Maria Ouspenskaya are going west and Gabby Hayes takes them in. He and Elliott hit it off so well that Elliott becomes his partner in a ranch that eventually becomes the local Ponderosa. Ralston dies in childbirth giving birth to a daughter also played by Vera Hruba Ralston. She keeps the accent because Elliott sends her to school in Europe with Ouspenskaya as a chaperon.

When she returns there's a range feud brewing. Land that Elliott and other cattlemen have been using for grazing has been now claimed by homesteaders who are being organized and led by a bottom feeding shyster attorney in Albert Dekker.

When Ralston comes back she gets herself involved with Elliott's foreman John Carroll. But Carroll and Elliott don't see eye to eye on how to deal with the situation. Back in New Orleans Carroll was an attorney who was disbarred in Louisiana, but still has a reverence for the law. Elliott only knows the law of the six gun and Dekker is trying to push him into an all out war, especially with Wyoming about to become a state.

Wyoming is one of Bill Elliott's better westerns, it has a nice cast of familiar western names who know their way around a movie set corral. The plot is more complex than you usually find in a Republic B western. All in all a good introduction to cowboy hero Wild Bill Elliott.