The famous 1935 Variety headline read 'sticks nix hick pix,' but movies endorsing rural values never fell out of fashion. Hollywood also weathered a media storm over the supposed glamorization of criminals in gangster pictures, which led to a backlash of vigilante pictures. David O. Selznick's reaction was to produce Men of America (1933), in which honest country folk resist the Tommy guns of urban crooks. Former silent star William Boyd has top billing as the handsome country lad Jim, but the film belongs to vaudeville comic Chic Sale as Smokey Joe, a cantankerous general store proprietor. Joe tells a long tale about his pioneer days before we meet a gang of prison escapees who are terrorizing the locals. Joe at first suspects Jim of the thefts, as he's already caught the young man kissing his daughter Annabelle (Dorothy Wilson). Providing additional comic relief is Henry Armetta, as a grape grower menaced by the crooks. Reviews noted that there was little difference between this 'moral' attraction and the notorious gangster epics, due to a lengthy machine gun battle that delivered an even more violent finale. Although Chic Sale's standard character was an old man with a distinctive white beard, the actor was only 51 when he died in 1936. Actress Dorothy Wilson was noted for having been recruited from the ranks of RKO's secretaries. William Boyd's career hit a snag in the transition to talkies, but he would soon find success with his enormously popular Hop-a-long Cassidy franchise. Veteran director Ralph Ince plays the lead gangster, so Boyd called the shots when Ince was performing. They share directing credit.

By Glenn Erickson