Synopsis
Blue Steel, is not so demanding of Wayne but it shows the same appealing sense of youthful sincerity that marked the less intense moments of West of the Divide--the likable, gauche manner, awkward but genuine, the sideways smile or open-mouthed grin, the sense of a largely unexplored but real strength of personality. Wayne played the U.S. marshal who sees a robbery and is suspected of being the thief by the sheriff (a tobacco-chewing George Hayes, working towards his later comedy image). The latter befriends him in the hope of uncovering evidence to use against him, not knowing his true identity. Eleanor Hunt, as Betty Mason, makes a most inept heroine whose father (an uncredited Lafe McKee) is killed off by the villains early in the film. Wayne is featured in some brisk action scenes, riding between two horses, scooping up the heroine after she's fallen off a horse, and taking on two men at a barn, suspending one by his feet from a rope and leaping down on the other--all in the process of dealing with a gang of bandits, organized by a leading citizen, who are trying to deprive a town's inhabitants of their property which extends over a valuable gold vein. Besides doubling for Wayne in some of the stuntwork, Yakima Canutt appeared as one of the heavies, the Polka Dot Bandit. The conclusion shows Wayne riding off towards the mountains with the girl. (John Wayne, Allen Eyles, 1979, p.40)