"The Savage Horde," a somewhat generic title unless the viewer considers Wade Proctor (Grant Withers) and his henchmen to be a horde, is a top notch Wild Bill Elliott oater with some of the best acting to be seen in a B western. The Standout performance from a fine cast belongs to former cowboy star Bob Steele as Dancer, proctor's aloof paid gunman who gets pleasure from shooting men down in cold blood. He reminds one of a similar character, Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), in the classic "Shane" a few years later. Keeping up with the likes of Noah Beery Jr., Douglass Dumbrille, Roy Barcroft, and Jim Davis is country western songwriter and balladeer Stuart Hamblen who wrote such standards as "It Is No Secret" and "This Ole House." He plays a clownish role with a tragic twist at the end. Lorna Gray and Barbra Fuller do well portraying frontier women in a man's world.
The cast consists of a gallery of Republic support players with faces easy to recognize, though the names such as Bud Osborne, George Chesebro, Marshall Reed, and Wally Wales, aka Hal Taliaferro, may not register at first. Former cowboy star Kermit Maynard, brother to the famous Ken Maynard, plays one of the ranchers. He was also a noted stuntman by this time. Character actor Earle Hodgins, noted for his medicine show con artist pitch, has a small but telling role. He is not as obnoxious as usual, actually turning in a fairly restrained performance.
The story is a familiar one about two brothers, one good (Lt. Mike Baker played by Davis) and one bad (John Baker, aka Ringo, played by Wild Bill Elliott). This time the "bad" one with a price on his head killed in self-defense but only his brother, the cavalry officer who has been assigned to track him down, believes his story. Ringo is determined to see an old flame to try to rekindle their romance and in the process gets caught in the middle of a range feud between cattlemen and homesteaders. The familiar plot has a few novel winds and turns before the final shootout involving plenty of action directed by B western master Joseph Kane. It is a Republic film so expect to watch the best stunt work around. The crisp black and white photography rests easy on the eyes and adds to the overall effect of the picture.
