Marshal Tom O’Malley is the good guy—so much so it’s a wonder the bad guys don’t see him coming.

While on his way to Gunsight, Arizona, O’Malley (George O’Brien) comes across the Raven (Edward Pawley), a bad man he once sent up the river. Now, the Raven is out and on his way to Gunsight to take a job as muscle for the town entrepreneur and gets the drop on O’Malley. The Raven steals O’Malley’s clothes, horse, gun, and canteen. Now, it’s his turn to leave O’Malley without hope or a prayer in the middle of nowhere—which looks a lot like California’s Alabama Hills. But the Raven runs out of water and then comes across a poisoned water hole. Oblivious, he drinks from it and dies.

O’Malley, a man of tougher constitution than the Raven, manages the long walk through the rocky terrain and finds the poisoned water hole and the body of the Raven. That’s where he meets Parson Joshua Ross (Frank O’Connor) and Ruth (Rita Oehmen), also on their way to Gunsight, a wide-open town in need of some preaching. O’Malley, still wearing the Raven’s clothes, continues the charade, hitches a ride, lands in Gunsight, and convinces the no-good saloon owner Flash Arnold (Robert Gleckler) and corrupt mayor John Blaine (Paul Everton) he’s the Raven—killer of Marshal O’Malley. Not only do they buy O’Malley’s story, they decide to have him pose as O’Malley to continue conducting their nefarious practices with all the protection a marshal brings.

And that’s only the first half of 1938’s Gun Law, a better-than-average one-hour programmer with enough story packed in to fill a streaming series.

Produced by Bert Gilroy and directed by David Howard—who would go on to make 13 more western programmers, all staring O’Brien, for RKO Radio Pictures—Gun Law sports a crackerjack story from Oliver Drake and plenty of visual style thanks to cinematographer Joseph H. August.

Gun Law exhibits the kind of crackling energy only a movie shot fast and cheap can possess. That’s evident in August’s lighting, which favors expressionism and emotion over consistency and logic. One shot of three conspirators (one played by a young Ward Bond) is lit with a candle below the men’s faces to create a pool of hot light and exaggerated shadows. In several outdoor scenes, August uses a day-for-night filter that deepens the shadows and gives Gun Law a decidedly film noir visual flavor.

August, born in Idaho Springs, Colorado, in 1890, helped found the American Society of Cinematographers in 1919 and enjoyed an illustrious career lensing over 150 pictures, including Gunga Din, The Devil and Daniel Webster, and They Were Expendable, before passing from a heart attack shortly after finishing 1948’s Portrait of Jennie.

August wasn’t the only capable hand on Gun Law: editor Frederic Knudtson maintains the tightness of each scene and adds dynamics by cutting on movement. In one transition, the camera follows Rita riding a horse off-camera right before cutting to a camera tracking alongside O’Malley as he walks down a porch toward the left.

Like August, Howard died young, at age 45, with 46 movies under his belt. Knudtson also died young at 57 in 1964. O’Brien outlived them all, dying in 1985 at the age of 86 with 85 credits to his name, including his final film, 1964’s Cheyenne Autumn.

Back to Gun Law: O’Brien is excellent in the role, both as a performer and a visual presence. Looking at his build and clean-shaven face, it’s clear he’s the good guy in the old Hollywood convention and captivating enough that I wonder how the other dozen or so movies he made with Howard and Gilroy stack up. Might they rival the success and popularity of the Ranown Cycle?

For that to happen, we’ll need better transfers of Gun Law and the rest, if not full-blown restorations. The version TCM broadcasts looks like it was taken from a VHS tape, which fuzzes out August’s deep shadows and low-key lighting. That appears, as of this writing, to be the only way to watch Gun Law as it is neither on disc nor streaming platforms. Here’s hoping a renewed interest in classic Hollywood and an endless need for content on streaming services prompt a proper restoration.

Gun Law (1938)
Directed by David Howard
Story and screenplay by Oliver Drake
Produced by Bert Gilroy
Starring: George O’Brien, Rita Oehmen, Ray Whitley, Paul Everton, Robert Gleckler, Edward Pawley, Frank O’Connor, Ward Bond
RKO Radio Pictures, Not rated, Running time 60 minutes, Released May 13, 1968