People are voting emotionally.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Early talkie in which John Wayne accompanied by George ¨Gaby¨ Hayes and a beautiful damsel face ominous enemies who attempt to take the water supply . Bad guy Kincaid (Forrest Taylor) controls the local water supply and plans to do in the other ranchers . Government agent Saunders (John Wayne) shows up undercover to do in Kincaid and to find out who is stealing water from the local farmers . Meantime, Saunders wins the heart of one of his victims , Fay Denton (Cecilia Parker) . Sanders meets Charlie Denton (George Gaby Hayes, this time without beard and he bears the comic relief , as usual), an old rancher , become partners and Sandy helps as well as secures water rights for farmers . Meanwhile , the nasty wealthy Land Baron seeks vengeance and take lands from poor farmers at exorbitant rates. The picture gets thrills , Western action , shootouts , a love story , and several fights between Wayne and his enemies ; being quite entertaining and including some comical elements . It's a low budget film with good actors , technicians, mediocre production values , pleasing results and usually regarded as one of the best Westerns made by John Wayne during his ¨Lone Star¨ period . The picture packs brawls and fights in silent cinema style and and exciting pursuits . Nice acting by John Wayne as a young Singin' Sandy Saunders who finds himself involved with claim jumpers , powerful owners and ambitious guys . Very early Wayne has the Duke looking awfully young as an undercover agent securing water rights and he even sings some songs . Sympathetic performance from veteran George ¨Gaby¨ Hayes as short-tempered person , Gaby steals the show , as usual . One of the few sidekicks to land on the annual list of Top Ten Western Box office Stars, he did so repeatedly . In his early films, he alternated between whiskered comic-relief sidekicks and clean-shaven bad guys, but by the later 1930s, he worked almost exclusively as a Western sidekick to stars such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Randolph Scott. After his last film, in 1950, he starred as the host of a network television show devoted to stories of the Old West for children, The Gabby Hayes Show (1950). Mediocre cinematography by Archie Stout , a notorious cameraman with a long career . Being necessary an alright remastering because of the film-copy is washed-out . The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film . Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely and usually badly edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duplicated from second- or third-generation or more copies of the film . The motion picture was professionally directed by Robert North Bradbury who made various early John Wayne vehicles .John Wayne played a great role in the super-production ¨The big trail¨(1930) but he subsequently fell in B series during the thirties . Most of them in ¨Lone Star¨ productions , usually directed by Robert N. Bradbury , such as : ¨Rough romance¨, ¨The range feud¨, ¨Texas cyclone¨, ¨Two-fisted law¨, ¨Ride him cowboy¨, ¨Big stampede¨, ¨Haunted gold¨ , ¨The telegraph law¨, ¨Somewhere in Sonora¨ , ¨The man from Utah¨ , The man from Monterrey¨, ¨The lawless frontier¨ , ¨West of the divide¨, Rainbow Valley¨ , The desert trail¨ , The dawn rider¨, ¨Lawless range¨, The Oregon Trail¨ , and ¨Born in the west¨ . In 1938 he participated in Republic series with ¨The three musketeers¨ replacing Robert Livingston and in which George Sherman directed 8 films . Later on , Wayne starred the hit ¨The stagecoach¨ by John Ford and took part in ¨A movies¨ such as¨: ¨Allegheny uprising¨, ¨Dark command¨, ¨The spoilers¨, ¨In old California¨, ¨War of the wildcats¨, ¨Tall in the saddle¨, ¨Flame of the Barbary Coast¨ and ¨Dakota¨ . And financed his first production : ¨Angel and the badman¨ . Subsequently , with ¨Red River¨ John rose at top box-office and after that , he starred many successes .

First of all, joeytheBrit says that Cecilia Parker "...bakes cookies too." No, no, no. She does NOT bake cookies in this movie she bakes BISQUITS! Bisquits are entirely different from cookies! In the old west, biscuits were usually made with buttermilk and were eaten primarily with breakfast. Anyway, Joey is certainly correct in saying that Cecilia Parker is impossibly cute, I wish I could meet someone like her! As for the film itself the story is actually quite good and told in a fairly entertaining manner. Remember, this was filmed in 1933! The acting is just passable. Yakima Cannutt should have stayed with the stunt work as he was certainly no actor! John Wayne as "Singing Sandy" is ridiculous. The songs are just silly and don't belong in the movie. It is very obvious that Wayne did NOT do the singing. The voice in the songs sounds nothing like Wayne's voice. The songs only detract from the otherwise fairly decent story.

The good news is that "Riders of Destiny" just might be the best of John Wayne's Westerns for producer Paul Malvern's Lone Star Productions. The bad news would be that this was the first one, meaning that all the rest went downhill from here. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a 'B' Western fan from way back, but if you get a chance to view any of these, you'll have to take them with a good ole boy grain of nostalgia and an appreciation for simpler times.Actually, "Rider of Destiny" might have been the better title, since it's Wayne's show all the way. He portrays Singin' Sandy Saunders and has a reputation as the most notorious gunman since Billy the Kid. That's somewhat ironic though, since it's later revealed that he's a special Secret Service agent sent from Washington to investigate a land swindle scheme under the direction of town boss James Kincaid (Forrest Taylor). How would he have earned that nickname having just arrived? Some other bits don't quite jive as well, like Saunders' finesse with a six gun. In the only actual one on one showdown with a villain that I can recall in a Lone Star, Saunders neatly places a bullet in each wrist of Slip Morgan (Earl Dwire), thereby making him a threat no more to righteous folks. One wonders how he might have learned to shoot like that.But you know what? It doesn't make too much of a difference, because if you're a fan of these oaters, you'll have a blast with this one as much as all the rest. You've got your crazy horse spills, wild stage coach rides, and villainous intrigue to pull it all together. You also have your obligatory romantic leading lady, here portrayed by Cecilia Parker. Her character is Fay Denton, daughter of George (pre-Gabby) Hayes, and she signals her interest in Saunders right from the get go. He helps things along by serenading her with a few songs with Daddy present, and boy, they just can't get enough, even if his singing voice is nothing at all like his speaking voice.Yakima Canutt is on hand as an unnamed Kincaid henchman, and of course it's Yak that's responsible for all the daring stunt work, including that trademark 'jump on the horse team and go under the stagecoach' trick, simply remarkable if you consider the timing and logistics involved. His fellow baddies include a comedic pair of stage drivers also working for Kincaid, Bert and Elmer (Al St. John and Heinie Conklin). It would be a few years before Al becomes 'Fuzzy'.Modern day viewers might be left scratching their head over a line spoken by Wayne's character early in the film. When he discovers sheriff Bill Baxter wandering in the desert with a bullet wound, he tends him while adding - "I'll have you in Starbucks before night".A lot has been debated over who the singer was who dubbed Wayne's voice in this movie and "The Man From Utah". A couple reviewers on this board credit old time band leader and crooner Smith Ballew, although Ballew himself denied it consistently until he passed away. The odds on favorite seems to be Bill Bradbury, son of director Robert North Bradbury, and twin brother of another era cowboy star, Bob Steele. Bill had a fine baritone voice, and used his talent to make some extra money while going to medical school. For anyone who cares to learn more about the controversy, check out the following page - http://www.b-westerns.com/jwayne1.htm.You'll have to scroll down to the bottom part of the page, and it's a good read.Anyway, for old time Western fans, "Riders of Destiny" is as good a place as any to see how John Wayne learned his craft. Hard to believe that by the time he made his breakout film "Stagecoach" to become an overnight success, he already had fifty one movies to his credit! Only one question remains though while watching 'Riders' - where were all those geese hanging out when there wasn't any water around?

REAL early John Wayne! He's young and active, doing his own stunts like jumping on to a horse at a full run, and he actually sings! Sure his acting skills are a bit rough, but he looks great, and you can see the great future as a hero in front of him