Less than a decade before John Ford made John Wayne a household name with the Western epic Stagecoach, the Duke played various bit parts in Hollywood’s golden years, appearing often in film serials throughout the 1920s and ’30s. It wasn’t until Wayne starred in The Big Trail in 1930 that he began landing more leading roles, and in 1932 he made a 12-part serial titled The Hurricane Express. This thriller likely isn’t the first production you think of when you hear the name John Wayne. It’s got nothing on True Grit or The Searchers, which look much more impressive by comparison. But The Hurricane Express was foundational in the Duke’s Hollywood career, and would predate his most important theatrical efforts.
What Is ‘The Hurricane Express’ About?
If you go into The Hurricane Express expecting a traditional Western, then you will be quickly disappointed. Despite centering around trains and robbery, this John Wayne film serial is set entirely in contemporary times. Well, they were contemporary when it was first released in 1932. Nowadays, that may seem just as good as the Old West, but for audiences at the time, it was more like what we might consider a neo-Western today. Unlike most Duke pictures, The Hurricane Express isn’t just a single film but rather a film serial. In contrast to standard motion pictures, film serials (sometimes called “chapter plays”) were released in theaters a single chapter at a time, and could range anywhere from 8 to 18 different installments. Usually, a new chapter would be released every week, almost always ending on a cliffhanger to keep audiences coming back for more. Serial films were immensely popular at the time, and The Hurricane Express was likely many’s first introduction to John Wayne as a leading man on the big screen.
As for what the film is about, well, it follows airplane pilot Larry Baker (Wayne) as he seeks to solve the mystery behind his father’s murder. Baker’s father was a railroad engineer on the Hurricane Express named Jim Baker (J. Farrell MacDonald), and was killed in a train crash that was caused by an elusive criminal known only as “the Wrecker.” This outlaw plans to derail as many trains as possible, presumably to open up the airliner business for potential transport and commercial business. Because the Wrecker uses life-like masks that would make the folks in Mission: Impossible jealous, there are a few suspects for the crimes, which continue to occur. Baker isn’t quite sure who to believe, but he knows that, above all else, he’s sweet on a young woman named Gloria (Shirley Grey), a woman with a secret of her own. It turns out, one of the primary suspects is none other than Gloria’s own father, Frank Stratton (Edmund Breese), who is an escaped convict who seeks to fight a wrongful conviction.
As the Hurricane Express gets back on the railroad, Baker is itching to find the man behind his father’s death. Gloria is convinced that Baker’s boss, Walter Gray (Lloyd Whitlock), is the Wrecker, but suspicion also falls on a former railroad employee named Tom Jordan (Matthew Betz). There are others in the running of course, such as the attorney Stevens (Conway Tearle), the station agent Carlson (Al Bridge), and even the L&R Railroad manager, Howard L. Edwards (Tully Marshall). Things continue to get heated the more the Wrecker gets involved, casting doubt and suspicion on just about everybody. Not even the Wrecker’s own henchmen (one of which being Glenn Strange of future Gunsmoke fame) seem to know a real thing about the mystery villain, who continues to evade capture. That is, until the very end of The Hurricane Express, which is a major production that includes a train heist and some fistfights, all leading toward that climactic finish. It’s then that the Wrecker is revealed to be none other than… Well, we’ll let you find out for yourself.
‘The Hurricane Express’ Is One of Three John Wayne Serials With Mascot Pictures
In his 50 years as a Hollywood star, John Wayne made very few movie serials. Today, this type of filmmaking doesn’t even exist anymore, with the closest thing today being Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga. In some sense, the film serial was the precursor to television, which thrives on cliffhangers and ambiguous endings to make audiences tune in week after week. Wayne made few television appearances throughout his career, and even fewer serials, though The Hurricane Express wasn’t the first. It was one of three film serial B-pictures that the Duke made with Mascot Pictures in the 1930s, the first of which being The Shadow of the Eagle earlier that year and the last being The Three Musketeers (not the one you’re thinking) the year following. Ironically, Wayne plays a pilot in all three productions, none of which would be considered a traditional Western.
Unfortunately, The HurricaneExpress isn’t anything to write home about. There isn’t much depth to any of the characters and the sped-up fight scenes don’t age particularly well. As for
the constant unmasking, well, it’s a bit strange given the Wrecker can seemingly take on not only the appearance of others, but their other physical and verbal traits as well. That sort of shapeshifting seems a bit too far-fetched to take place in the “grounded” reality of The Hurricane Express. Wayne himself isn’t terrible here, despite the B-picture production, but he isn’t on his A-game, either. Maybe that’s why they call them B movies in the first place. Wayne’s chemistry with Shirley Grey is notable, however, and it’s no surprise since the two had made Texas Cyclone only months earlier. They would go on to both appear again in The Life of Jimmy Dolan the following year.
‘The Hurricane Express’ Serial Was Re-Cut Into a Better Movie
Like many Hollywood serials at the time, The Hurricane Express was later re-cut and re-released as an 80-minute feature film. This version of the story pulls primarily from the opening and closing chapters of the original chapter play, with Chapters 4-8 (“Buried Alive,” “Danger Lights,” “Airport Mystery,” “Sealed Lips,” and “Outside the Law”) removed entirely from the story. Even though many of the other red herring characters were cut from this version of the film, the 80-minute Hurricane Express isn’t all too different from the original nearly 4-hour version. Sure, we spend less time with Baker and Gloria, and there are fewer suspects to choose from, but even that doesn’t ruin the ending. It’s not always that serials cut into easily digestible feature films work better. Some stories are more suited to the serialized format, like modern television. But when it comes to The Hurricane Express, the trimming makes it a much tighter film, and that’s to its benefit.
After The Three Musketeers, Wayne waved goodbye to the serial and continued on the trajectory that would make him one of the foremost Western stars in film history. The Duke was best known for his work in the horse opera, and that’s likely why productions like The Hurricane Express have been long forgotten. It’s fair too, as this film serial and the feature that spawned from it don’t exactly add a lot of necessary John Wayne material you can’t find better elsewhere. There are other Wayne pictures where he plays an airman, and others where he’s seeking revenge for the murder of a family member. Even still, there are more that involve train robberies and fistfights that lend better to his more Western sensibilities. No doubt, The Hurricane Express was likely an important part in Wayne’s journey as an actor and rising star, but it’s not one of those adventures that most will look back on fondly as being pivotal to his eventual legacy. After all, there’s no riding off into the sunset this time around…