Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Keira Brennan The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Delight Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

JohnHowardReid For what remained of his lengthy screen career, Richard Dix was always overshadowed by his work in Cimarron (1931). As a further example of this fact, this 13 December 1942 release, produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman, can be seen as a later attempt to cash in on Dix's self-sustaining image. American Empire was a surprisingly elaborate production by Pop's standards, and the New York Times reviewer astutely noted that Sherman "has climaxed an otherwise well-behaved drama with a reel that explodes in all directions." (In fact, the rest of the drama was far too sedate, far too well-behaved and far too over-primed with dull "additional dialogue" in my opinion).Anyway, after appearing as the Indian hero of The Vanishing American (1925), Dix had quite a career in the western film genre. He was Joaquim Murietta in The Gay Defender (1928) and an Indian again in Redskin (1929). After the award-winning Cimarron, resolute Richard performed similar chores in The Conquerors (1932). RKO then starred Dix as Pecos Smith in Zane Grey's West of the Pecos (1934), as a marshal in The Arizonian, and as a miner in Yellow Dust (1936). Dix then turned to comedy as a washed-up cowboy star in Columbia's It Happened in Hollywood (1936). However, Dix returned to his established form in Republic's expansive Man of Conquest (1939), playing the greatly admired Texas hero, Sam Houston. Moving on into the forties, Dix was an Oklahoma Territory marshal in Cherokee Strip (Paramount, 1940), a rancher in The Roundup (Paramount, 1941), and received special billing as Wild Bill Hickok in Badlands of Dakota (Universal, 1941). Next up, he impersonated Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (Paramount, 1942), became a gunfighter in Buckskin Frontier (United Artists), and followed up as a marshal in his final western, The Kansan (United Artists, 1943). Although first-billed in American Empire (and given more than his share of boring additional dialogue), Dix actually has the second lead. He even disappears from the plot for a spell halfway through and then re-appears to save the day at the elaborately staged, thrill-a-second climax. Although billed third, it's the boring Preston Foster who takes the reins in Dix's absence. As for Leo Carillo, he enacts his role with his usual strenuously unfunny "comic" accent even though he plays the villain. In real life, Carillo spoke in the same, quietly measured tones as Ronald Reagan. He was in fact an extremely rich man. Acting was his hobby. You'll notice I've not said anything about Frances Gifford, and that's because there's really nothing you can say about her. She's competent, but makes little impression. Alas, Cliff Edwards and "Big Boy" Williams try to take up the slack. They're given plenty of dull dialogue to cut their teeth on, but neither of them are equal to the task of making what issues from their mouths sound the least bit interesting.Fortunately, however, as noted above, that last reel is a whopper full of great stunts and other action and well worth waiting for!

drystyx This is the old time basic Western, and one interesting aspect about it is how it is one of the "models" for most later TV series.Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is by the star billing. Dix and Carillo are top billed, yet it is obvious from the start that Preston Foster and Frances Gifford are the lead romantic interests.Romantic leads were not always the standard. Top billing in "THEM!" went to the chief characters of Gwynn and Whitmore as the eccentric show stealing scientist and the policeman who was followed throughout the story. In "THE RAVEN" the two young romantic lovers play second fiddle to three with star billing in Karloff, Price, and Lorre.So it's not new. What is important is that the character played by Dix is the one who is the strong, solid, stable influence. This is the character who would be the mainstay of just about every TV Western series to follow, and most other TV shows. He was Cheyenne, Bronco, Matt Dillon, Ben and Adam Cartwright.Foster was the mistake prone fellow who lacked the solid fundamentals. He learns some bitter lessons the hard way. Unfortunately, as in real life, it is other people who pay for them. In this case, his first born son does.The villainy of the Mexicans is on the racist side. One interesting bit is that when the two good guys meet up with the villain Carillo, it is their own man who is at fault for the troubles, but they are men of experience and savvy, and recognize Carillo for what he is.Frances makes a very nice entrance, and she is very stunning. She appeals to both the male libido and the female intellect.Dix, though seemingly shadowed in the background, is no more shadowed than Bronco or Ben Cartwright were in their endeavors. They were the main character, because they were not just one man, but representative of a lot of men who would try to make things work. They weren't "Everyman". They were "Everymen".

bkoganbing I'm sure that the folks on the Texas/Louisiana border must have had a a good laugh or two when Paramount's B picture unit inflicted this one on the war time public. Very simply the area along the Sabine River where the film opens is cotton country just like the rest of the Deep South or at least the Deep South was post Civl War. No big cattle empires there, they're much farther west in Texas, farther than Richard Dix and Preston Foster could ride to set up their empire.The film begins with the two of them partners in a riverboat and when Leo Carrillo tries a theft of their services by not paying them for hauling his cattle, they keep the cattle. And that's the beginning of the big Ponderosa like ranch they start.Along the way Foster marries Dix's sister played by Frances Gifford and feuds with his much smaller neighbors. They also have some further run ins with Leo Carrillo.Anyway, us easterners who like westerns usually don't bother with geographical trifles and it's still a good western from the production mill of Harry Sherman who produced all those Hopalong Cassidy westerns for Paramount. The climax is a blazing, and I mean that literally, gun battle that should have maybe been used on an A production.But I wouldn't have any but western fans look at it.

bsmith5552 "American Empire" is another of a series of modestly budgeted features produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman, who also was responsible for the highly successful Hopalong Cassidy series. This one deals with the emergeance of the cattle ranches in Texas in the years following the Civil War. Two soldiers of fortune, Dan Taylor (Richard Dix) and Pax Bryce (Preston Foster) are ruuning a freight business from their riverboat. One day they meet up with the unscrupulous Dominique Beauchard (Leo Carillo) who is driving cattle to his home state of Louisiana. The boys agree to transport the cattle to their destination for a set fee. When Beauchard fails to pay up they keep the cattle and decide to go into the cattle ranching business. Into the mix comes Taylor's sister Abby (Frances Gifford) with whom Bryce falls in love and marries. They soon have a son Pax Jr. (Merrill Rodin) and Pax Sr. becomes more and more ambitious as time goes on, much to the chagrin of his partner Dan. He has angered the smaller ranchers by refusing them permission to drive their cattle across his land. The ranchers decide to stampede the cattle through but Pax Jr. is killed in the stampede. Bryce becomes distraught and decides to erect barb wire fences around the ranch which forces Dan to dissolve their partnership. All this is resolved at the end when all realize that progress must prevail over the ambitions of one man. Also in the cast are Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Cliff Edwards as the comic relief, Jack LaRue and Chris-Pin Martin as Carillo's henchmen, and veterans William Farnum and Hal Taliaferro in other roles. Foster is really the star of the movie despite being billed third. He delivers a solid performance. Dix, who was top billed, is really only a supporting player. Gifford looks lovely as the heroine. The action is well staged and there's one dandy of a gunfight at the climax of the film. A good western.