The Best (and Worst) of the West! Reviews and Observations on B-Westerns by Boyd Magers Review Archives

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Printing this webpage: I would suggest you do NOT attempt to print this.  When last I checked, this would require a bunch of pages to print.  Plus the reviews are not in any particular order, so it would be difficult to wade through all those pages looking for a film title, western hero, etc.  If you wish to have this information locally on your PC, I would recommend you click on "File" and then do a "save as" in Internet Explorer or Netscape. And save this page on your hard drive (as an .htm or .html file type).  If you also want Boyd's picture, the red stars and garbage can, put your mouse pointer on each image, click with your right mouse button, and do a "save image or picture as" to the same area on your hard drive where the main page will be saved.  The Search/Find function noted above will work on webpages saved to your hard disk.

Individual film reviews - as well as the complete The Best (and Worst) of the West! film review collection - is copyright ©2000-2007 by Boyd Magers. All rights reserved.

The Ratings

Superior

Good

OK

Poor

A real dud !

 SON OF PALEFACE (1952 Paramount)
As much a satirical western comedy as it is a straight B-western, and first time director Frank Tashlin makes you part of the merriment, making this possibly, Bob Hope's funniest movie (sans his Road pictures with Crosby). Tashlin had written Hope's hit THE PALEFACE and here Tashlin (who also co-scripted) comes up with a witty sequel with Hope playing his own idiot son. The original character of THE PALEFACE dentist was done by Hope and now his Harvard graduate son, Junior, comes west to claim an inheritance left by his father. Problem is, the strong box is empty, leaving Hope to contend with a town full of irate citizens Pop left owning. Hope runs a heavy bluff that he'll pay up while he and Pop's old-timer friend Paul E. Burns search for where Daddy hit the loot. Meanwhile, notorious outlaw The Torch, Jane Russell, and her bandits led by Bill Williams stage a series of gold robberies that brings to town the Governor's special investigator Roy Rogers and pal Lloyd Corrigan disguised as a singer and a patent medicine salesman. Masquerading as a singer in "The Dirty Shame saloon, Russell romances Bob in hope (pun intended) of finding Daddy's gold herself. SON OF PALEFACE is a joyful satire of every cowboy cliché with nothing overlooked. Hope rattles off one-liners while the action goes through Indian uprisings, lynch mobs, posses, ghost towns, singing cowboys, horse-tricks, desert mirages, quick-draws, saloon brawls, outlaw hideouts, and more. Wisely, the picture revives the Oscar winning "Buttons and Bows" from THE PALEFACE, with a few new twists from Hope, Russell and Rogers. Also included is "There's a Cloud In My Valley of Sunshine" and Four Legged Friend" sung by Roy. It's fast, witty and rootin' tootin' Technicolor fun all the way.

 THE DURANGO KID (1940 Columbia)
Although technically a Durango Kid western, this 1940 Charles Starrett entry bears little resemblance to his Durango Kid series which didn't actually begin until 1945 and some 30 Starrett B-westerns later. Besides Starrett's costuming being different, here he is a masked avenger whose "secret identity" is revealed to all by the picture's end as opposed to the Lone Rangerish figure Durango became from 1945 on beginning with THE RETURN OF THE DURANGO KID. In this one-timer, Starrett is a young man returning to his home ranch just as his father (Frank LaRue) is killed by Kenneth MacDonald and his gunmen (Francis Walker, Steve Clark) when LaRue discovered MacDonald's plans to drive out the nesters and take over the valley. Starrett takes up the mantle of the mysterious Durango Kid to avenge his father's death. He's aided by the Sons of the Pioneers (who sing a lively "There's a Rainbow Over the Range"), a reflective "The Prairie Sings a Lullaby" and a rousing "Cherokee Strip") and neighboring rancher Forrest Taylor and his daughter Luana Walters. An excellent B-western, certainly not the action-crammed type the '45-'52 series became, but especially noteworthy for the cunning word-play between Starrett and MacDonald from scripter Paul Franklin. But whoops - one obvious Boo Boo derides the picture: watch for the automobile in the background of the scene where MacDonald stops Walters on the trail. Another oddity is an-early-in-the-film wanted poster on The Durango Kid posted by MacDonald before Starrett becomes active as Durango against MacDonald, therefore making it an impossibility for MacDonald to put up such a poster.

 STRANGER ON HORSEBACK (1955 United Artists)
Joel McCrea's most neglected and obscure western. McCrea wound his six film contract with Universal-International in 1954 and signed up with independent producers Leonard and Robert Goldstein who had this screenplay based on a Louis L'Amour story. The producers let Joel select his own director and he chose Jacques Tourneur, not a familiar western director, but one who McCrea liked for his work on STARS IN MY CROWN in 1950. McCrea is an integrity-bound no-nonsense circuit riding judge who backs up his calls with his fists and six guns. Arriving in a town long controlled by land baron John McIntire, McCrea finds himself standing alone as he's forced to arrest McIntire's loutish son, Kevin McCarthy, for murder. Despite the town's fear of McIntire, first the sheriff (Emile Meyer), then two witnesses side with McCrea to ensure justice is done. This is no wild action film, but Tourneur creates mounting suspense and rising tension with no plot turns being predictable. Well developed supporting cast includes Robert Cornthwaite as a milquetoast lawyer supporting McIntire and scheduled to marry McIntire's niece, Miroslava; Emmett Lynn, the town drunk; John Carradine, a well spoken town lawyer; Roy Roberts, a cousin loyal to McIntire; hotel clerk Dabbs Greer; brutish gunman Lane Bradford; gunsmith Walter Baldwin and his daughter Nancy Gates. All this in a surprisingly tight, taut 66 minutes. Originally filmed in Anscocolor.

 SUNDOWN IN SANTA FE (1948 Republic)
"In 1870, near Santa Fe, a series of armed robberies was marked by a dagger like the one found on John Wilkes Booth. On this thin clue, the Army revived its search for Walter Durant, the fugitive leader of the Lincoln murder ring," so reads the prologue to this Allan "Rocky" Lane historical adventure which is total fiction, bearing no resemblance to any truth about the aftermath of the assassination of President Lincoln. In truth, the only knife found on Booth was a Bowie knife, which many people carried at that time. There was no Walter Durant associated with Booth at any time and certainly no gold robberies in 1870 linked to the "Lincoln murder ring". Primary oddity about this Lane B is that it was originally to be filmed as Monte Hale's next western. However, a horse fall sidelined Monte, so to save some existing riding footage already filmed, Republic made a few script changes, allowing Rocky to wear a Hale-styled shirt and leave his regular mount Blackjack behind while, as an Army intelligence agent, the Army sent him to New Mexico to investigate the series of gold robberies being perpetrated by newspaperman and wannabe empire builder Trevor Bardette - along with his henchies Roy Barcroft and Lane Bradford. With the help of Nugget (a bit different styled role for Eddy Waller as the part was originally intended for Monte Hale's partner Paul Hurst), Rocky learns information for every robbery comes from Rand Brooks, the son of Sheriff Russell Simpson. Brooks has been swayed by his love and devotion to pretty Jean Dean, in reality Barcroft's traitorous daughter who is only using Brooks to gain information for Bardette.

 ARROW IN THE DUST (1954 Allied Artists)
There's plenty of Cavalry vs. Indians action as hard bitten Army deserter Sterling Hayden is compelled by conscience to masquerade as a dead Cavalry Major (Carleton Young) and assume leadership over young Lt. Keith Larsen to lead a wagon train through deadly Indian territory. Among the members of the wagon train is gun-running Tudor Owen who has a wagonload of repeating rifles the savages want to get their hands on. Naturally, there's also romance on the trail as Hayden falls for beautiful Coleen Gray. John Pickard essays another of his faithful but tough Cavalry sergeant roles for which he was so typecast. Jimmy Wakely not only sings "Weary Stranger" over the title credits, but has a minor role as a trooper. Directed in Technicolor by B-vet Les Selander..

 HELLFIRE (1949 Republic)
One of the best and most unusual westerns ever made, and certainly William Elliott's best western by far, right in the good-badman mold of Elliott's "hero" William S. Hart. Crooked gambler Elliott reforms and agrees to raise the money "by the rules" to build a church for preacher H. B. Warner who lost his life protecting Elliott in a barroom flare-up. In time Elliott comes across outlaw Marie Windsor who has a price of $5,000 on her head, enough to build the church. His promise to Warner, however, calls for persuasion rather than capture and violence. Pursuing Windsor is Elliott's old friend Marshal Forrest Tucker as well as outlaw brothers Jim Davis, Paul Fix and Lou Faust. During the course of trying to convince Windsor to give herself up, Elliott learns Marie is searching for her long lost sister - a sister she doesn't realize is now married to Marshal Tucker. Tucker wants to keep his wife innocent of the fact her sister is an outlaw which is why he's determined to capture Windsor. When Elliott sizes up the dangerous situation, he quickly has himself appointed a deputy and arrests Windsor. In a final showdown, Tucker is badly wounded by Windsor who then learns her sister is Tucker's wife. As Windsor finally sees the error of her ways and is repenting, the outlaw brothers arrive. About to gun Windsor down, she is saved at the last minute by a fast-shooting Elliott. Billed as an Elliott-(Dorrell and Stuart) McGowan production, this powerful, stirring movie had to be Bill's finest moment. Finely crafted by R. G. Springsteen utilizing gorgeous, in Trucolor, Sedona, AZ, locations and terrific second unit action work from Yakima Canutt. Cowboy cancer alert: Bill smokes his pipe.

 KIT CARSON (1940 United Artists)
An excellent action film with marvelous cinematography by John Mescall and Robert Pittack that quite loosely mixes fact and legend to come up with a stirring tale. Randolph Scott was originally slated to play Kit Carson in this Edward Small production but, for reasons lost to the ages, Jon Hall (affecting a western accent that is a bit disconcerting and off putting) is the fabled frontier scout and Indian fighter. Hall and his friends, Harold Huber and Ward Bond, hire on to guide Captain John C. Fremont (Dana Andrews) and his troops - plus a caravan of settlers led by wagon boss Clayton Moore - across the plains and mountains to California. Along the way, fighting off Shoshone Indians at every turn, a love triangle develops between Hall, Andrews and Lynn Bari that is full of gentleness and understanding. Approaching California, a new menace arrives in the form of vile Mexican Governor General C. Henry Gordon who aspires to be emperor of Mexico and California. Gordon arms the Shoshone through his half-breed liaison Charles Stevens, but Hall, Andrews and the others manage to defend a hacienda (owned by William Farnum), but not without great loss. Producer Small spared no expense in mounting this fine western. Filmed mostly in Mounument Valley, director George B. Seitz's stirring battle scenes are expertly staged and photographed. And - along the way - there are some statements made about torture and warfare that still seem relevant today - 66 years later.

 GENTLEMEN WITH GUNS (1946 PRC)
Al "Fuzzy" St. John sends for his ol' pal Buster Crabbe to help out when big rancher Steve Darrell (wearing the biggest 10-gallon hat in B-westerns) and his henchies Frank Ellis and George Chesebro try to grab off Fuzzy's ranch for the water rights. Failing intimidation, Darrell frames Fuz for a murder he didn't commit just as his mailorder bride, Patricia Knox, arrives by stage. The money-hungry wench traitorously makes a pact with Darrell to go ahead and marry Fuzzy before Sheriff Budd Buster hangs him for murder. Then, as his widow, she'll sell the ranch to Darrell. Although the plot's a bit different, and Fuzzy's antics are highlighted, it just doesn't qualify as one of the better Crabbe PRCs.

 OUTLAW STALLION (1954 Columbia)
Under appreciated little modern-west B with plenty of terrific Technicolor wild horse footage from producer Wallace MacDonald and director Fred Sears. Contemptible Roy Roberts and his lackeys (Gordon Jones, Chris Alcaide, Bob Anderson, Trevor Bardette) are rustling wild horses in a restricted area, turning their black stallion loose to steal all the mares away from a wild white stallion's herd. Their underhanded deeds are nearly discovered by lady rancher Dorothy Patrick, her son Billy Gray and local deputy Phil Carey, Patrick's boyfriend, when the white stallion, while protecting his herd, kills both Bob Anderson and the black stallion in a wild fight. Roberts gains control of the white stallion but when Patrick and Gray discover he is a wild horse runner Roberts kidnaps the boy and his mother to shut them up. Carey and Sheriff Morris Ankrum capture the truck rustlers in a thrilling old west meets new west finale. Truly a horse lover's delight. Filmed on the Jack Garner Ranch.

 WEST OF RAINBOW'S END (1938 Monogram)
Retired railroad detective Tim McCoy is bent on revenge after his railroad detective foster-father (Frank LaRue) is murdered by the robbers he was tracking. Through Kathleen Eliot, who operates the local beanery, Tim learns devious Walter McGrail and his polecats (Bob Kortman, Reed Howes, Hank Bell, Robert Walker) are attempting to cheaply buy out rancher Ed Coxen, then sell the property to the railroad at a huge profit. The gang tries several times, unsuccessfully, to gun Tim, but when they kill his pal George Cooper, Tim really gets his mad-on and goes gunning for McGrail and his men. Touring with Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus, McCoy had been off the screen in '37 after his 10 picture series for Puritan in '35-'36. Producer Maurice Conn (1906-1973) had run his own studio (Ambassador) from '34-'37 but had now formed Concord Productions to produce B-westerns with McCoy and Jack Randall for release by Monogram. This was the first of four with McCoy. What's interesting to note in Robert Emmett (Tansey's) script, is Tim's habit of always chewing gum before he goes into action; an idea later "picked up" by Jess Bowers (aka Adele S. Buffington) when she wrote the Rough Riders scripts in '41-'42. Of course, in the Rough Riders pictures its Buck Jones, not McCoy, who always chews gum before the fight starts. Cowboy cancer alert: Tim smokes a cigarette. WEST OF RAINBOW'S END is an auspicious beginning to Tim's short four-film Conn/Monogram series, fairly routine stuff with a neat barroom shootout. Nothing new, but it paved the way for PHANTOM RANGER, the best in the group.

 FORT DEFIANCE (1951 United Artists)
Ben Johnson's best little western, a highly underrated, nearly forgotten picture. Ben's out for vengeance as he scours the Southwest searching for Dane Clark (in an excellent good-badman role) whose desertion during a Civil War battle cost the lives of men in Johnson's company. Tracking Clark to his desert ranch, Ben finds Clark's blind younger brother, Peter Graves. While waiting for Clark's arrival, Ben and Peter form a bond, causing Ben to reconsider his mission of revenge when Clark does arrive. Excellent action sequences from director John Rawlins amidst spectacular Utah scenery, in gorgeous Cinecolor, as the two opponents develop a begrudging friendship while fighting off marauding Indians together and still fighting among themselves. Finale has Ben's revenge decision made for him when another vengeance-seeking outlaw (Craig Woods) arrives trying to kill the whole family.

 McKENNA OF THE MOUNTED (1932 Columbia)
Just a fair Northwestern as Buck Jones is drummed out of the Mounties and publicly disgraced. We viewers seem to be the only ones who suspect that's only a ploy, allowing Buck to turn outlaw and infiltrate effeminate Niles Welch's outlaw ring. Even Buck's girl, Greta Grandstedt, begins to distrust him. Not enough action as Buck and Welch primarily engage in a war of words. In only his first feature, character player James Flavin is badly miscast as Buck's Mountie brother, his East Coast Irish brogue wildly betraying him. Flavin was married for more than 30 years to B-actress Lucile Browne.

 REBEL IN TOWN (1956 United Artists)
A family of ex-Confederate soldiers on their way home, (father J. Carroll Naish, sons Ben Cooper, Ben Johnson, John Smith, Sterling Franck) stop in a decidedly Union-sympathizing town for water from a well. A young boy points his toy pistol at them and one son (Smith) overreacts and shoots down the youngster. They all flee in fear, even though the level-headed son (Cooper) argues for returning to explain what happened. The boy's father, a Confederate hater, John Payne, sets out on a long vengeance trail, eventually finding Cooper left for dead by his treacherous brother (Smith). Payne and his wife (Ruth Roman) nurse Cooper back to health, with Payne unaware Cooper is one of the Confederates. Finely made, the level of tension and frustration in a hopeless situation continually mounts. To the film's detriment is an unfitting title tune by Les Baxter. Former B-stars Kermit Maynard and Jack Perrin have small bit roles.

 MULE TRAIN (1950 Columbia)
U.S. Marshal Gene Autry rides into a situation where cement, something new in the west, is a motivating factor. Gene comes to the aid of old pal Pat Buttram when Pat's partner in the discovery of cement is killed. Robert Livingston, a contractor, is the culprit secretly attempting to obtain the land. Lady Sheriff Sheila Ryan (Buttram's real life wife) at first seems to be on Gene and Pat's side, but is eventually revealed to be Livingston's boss. It's a simple B-western plot, but the angle of the lady heavy gives it some novelty. As usual with Autry, production quality is high all around. Over 30 versions of the hit title song were recorded, with the most popular being Frankie Laine's with sales zooming past the 1,000,000 mark. Gene reportedly paid $20,000 for the rights to "Mule Train" for this picture.

 AMBUSH AT TOMAHAWK GAP (1953 Columbia)
Four ex-convicts (David Brian, John Hodiak, John Derek, Ray Teal) search for a buried cache of stolen loot in a ghost town overrun by scalp-seeking Apaches. Trouble escalates when the partners begin to argue among themselves over the money - and - an Indian girl they picked up along the way (Marie Elena Marques). In Technicolor, produced by one-time actor Wallace MacDonald and violently directed by Fred Sears (taking time off from his Durango Kid duties).

 SCARLET RIVER (1933 RKO)
There's a whole sub-genre of westerns about the making of westerns. These include COWBOY STAR with Charles Starrett ('36), THE BIG SHOW with Gene Autry ('36), IT HAPPENED IN HOLLYWOOD with Richard Dix ('37), HOLLYWOOD COWBOY with George O'Brien ('37), HOLLYWOOD ROUND-UP with Buck Jones ('37), SHOOTING HIGH with Gene Autry ('40), COWBOY AND THE BLONDE with George Montgomery ('41), TWILIGHT ON THE PRAIRIE with Johnny Downs ('44), DING DONG WILLIAMS with James Warren ('46), OUT CALIFORNIA WAY with Monte Hale ('46), UNDER CALIFORNIA STARS with Roy Rogers ('48), SONS OF ADVENTURE with Russell Hayden ('48), KID FROM GOWER GULCH with Spade Cooley ('49), GRAND CANYON with Richard Arlen ('49), HOEDOWN with Jock Mahoney ('50), and even a few borderline cases like BELLS OF ROSARITA, THRILL SEEKER, SIOUX CITY SUE and TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD. But SCARLET RIVER is the grand-daddy of them all. Picture begins with comedic overtones as slow-burn director Edgar Kennedy keeps being bothered by encroaching civilization on his western film landscapes. Tom Keene's film company goes looking for a real-west location at Scarlet River Ranch and finds more than they bargained for, encountering crooked foreman Lon Chaney Jr. plotting to steal the ranch from Dorothy Wilson by rustling her cattle then having his banker pal, Hooper Atchley, foreclose. Features RKO backlot cameos from Joel McCrea, Myrna Loy and Bruce Cabot. Director Otto Brower has Yakima Canutt perform his "under the wagon" stunt. Betty Furness nearly steals the picture as Keene's sharp-tongued movie-within-a-movie leading lady and frustrated, stuttering, wanna-be screenwriter, ranch hand Roscoe Ates, adds a few moments of laughter, but somehow all the parts never seem to jell and SCARLET RIVER never rises above more than just a pleasing hour with a new-found premise.

 FLESH AND THE SPUR (1956 Hy Productions/AIP)
Dirt farmer John Agar's twin brother is murdered, setting him off on a trail of revenge. Along the way he encounters callous gunman Touch (Mike) Connors (who co-produced with Alex Gordon) who teaches Agar how to handle a gun; trick gun artist/showman Raymond Hatton and his daughter Joyce Meadows and Indian girl Marla English whom they rescue from Indians who have staked her out on an ant hill. The group pursues the Checker Gang, led by Kenne Duncan, whom Agar believes the killer. In the twist ending, when Duncan is finally gunned down, Connors reveals Duncan was his father and it was he - Connors - who actually killed Agar's brother. Now it's Agar against Connors in a final showdown. There's a couple of good fights (choreographed by stuntman Tom Steele) but Charles B. Griffith's over scripting and some lackluster photography ultimately doom this Edward L. Cahn directed B. Kermit Maynard, Buddy Roosevelt, Frank Lackteen and Dick Alexander can be glimpsed if you don't blink. Originally filmed in Pathé Color, surviving prints seem to all be in b/w. Fast-gun artist Arvo Ojala served as technical advisor and has a no-blink role as well.

 DON'T FENCE ME IN (1945 Republic)
If there ever was a Gabby Hayes starrer, this is it. Cole Porter's hit song provides the story basis for Dorrell and Stuart McGowan to come up with one of Roy Rogers' most intriguing and fun filled features. Republic skillfully pulled out every trick in their book to make this film acceptable to a wide audience. There's plenty of music, including the Sons of the Pioneers' famous "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", dance routines and songs by Dale Evans, Roy putting Trigger through his paces, standard western action, nightclubs and gangsters and possibly the most hilarious "funeral scene" ever filmed. Just great fun and pure entertainment. Two things to notice - compare Roy's warbling of "My Little Buckaroo" to baritone Dick Foran's version; then look for the WYOMING OUTLAW ('39) 3 Mesquiteers one-sheet behind Roy in the song-filled finale. Story has "Spread" magazine's investigative reporter Dale Evans tricked by her editor (Robert Livingston in a throwaway role) into heading west to probe into the legend of Wildcat Kelly (Gabby Hayes), an infamous road agent who was killed and buried 40 years ago - or was he? Through her snooping Dale discovers Kelly faked his death and that Gabby has been leading an honest life the past 40 years, now living on Roy's dude ranch. Against Roy's wishes, Dale prints the story in "Spread" which leads to an attempt on Gabby's life by gangster Marc Lawrence. Faking Gabby's death once again, Roy, the Pioneers and Dale hunt down the gangsters who really killed the person found in Wildcat Kelly's grave. So infectious is "Don't Fence Me In", even those doubting-Thomases of this "singing cowboy" stuff must have enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek nature of this picture.

 WEST OF CHEYENNE (1931 Syndicate)
Tom Tyler's Dad, Lafe McKee, is convicted of the murder of a neighboring rancher (Frank Ellis), a murder actually committed by The Laramie Kid (Harry Woods) who holes up in Ghost City, a village of wanted men west of Cheyenne. Tom vows to track down Woods and clear his father, so he poses as a wanted outlaw to gain entrance to Ghost City. Tom's pal Ben Corbett goes along to help. There's a couple of traditional cowboy songs sung by an unknown group in this early Harry S. Webb directed talkie that is pretty standard Tyler fare.

 GUNFIGHTERS (1947 Columbia)
After being forced to shoot a friend in a duel, fast-gun Randolph Scott swears to take off his gunbelt forever but finds himself drawn to the middle of a range war when he's blamed for the murder of his best friend. Now Scott must prove to the dead man's kid brother (John Miles) that he's innocent. Naturally, Scott is forced to strap on guns once more to bring an end to the tyranny of local land baron Griff Barnett, his devious foreman Bruce Cabot, hired gunslinger Forrest Tucker (in a really underwritten, wasted role) and mean, crooked deputy Grant Withers. To complicate matters, Scott becomes involved with the land baron's two daughters, nice girl Dorothy Hart and conniving Barbara Britton who is in love with Cabot. Alan Le May's script from Zane Grey's TWIN SOMBREROS seems to need a bit more "polish", but Scott is terrific as always, plus the gorgeous Sedona locations (abetted by Vasquez Rocks, Jauregui Ranch and Monogram Ranch) in Cinecolor are enough to recommend this one. Produced by Harry Joe Brown, he and Scott went on to form their own (Ranown) production company. Joined by director Budd Boetticher, they produced several very respected medium budget westerns (RIDE LONESOME, TALL T, etc.).

 DAYS OF OLD CHEYENNE (1943 Republic)
Don Barry's B-westerns always stood apart from the traditional, stalwart, pure-clean hero. Barry projected a certain quiet, authoritative menace, often playing a man on the edge, a reformed outlaw or a vengeance bound gunfighter. DAYS OF OLD CHEYENNE runs neck and neck with TULSA KID for Barry's best; it's certainly his most unusual plot-wise - for that matter of all B-westerns. Norman S. Hall's screenplay has wild, unsettled Barry offered the job of town marshal of Cheyenne by political boss William Haade after Barry beats the tar out of saloon owner William Ruhl in a dispute over Barry's pal Emmett Lynn. Barry accepts in the belief Haade is really interested in cleaning up the town. Working with crusading newspaper editor Charles Miller, his daughter Lynn Merrick and their adopted son Harry McKim, Barry soon discovers Haade is the power behind both an outlaw gang and Governor Herbert Rawlinson. Even so, Don becomes head of the territorial Rangers after busting up a bank robbery by outlaw Bob Kortman in which young McKim is killed. When Governor Rawlinson, formerly under Haade's thumb, decides to go straight, Haade has him killed and through his devious political machinations has Barry appointed temporary territorial Governor, believing he can still control Barry. Haade soon learns this is not the case as Don turns the tables on the crooked political boss and brings the gang to justice. Even though the scope of this one-hour B-western is vast, under Hall's script and Elmer Clifton's direction it never feels rushed. DAYS OF OLD CHEYENNE shows the depth a B-western can plumb and what can be done within the confines of the B-western structure when in the capable hands of talents like Clifton, Hall and Barry. Oldtime director Elmer Clifton (1890-1949), born in Chicago, started acting on the stage as a young boy and began appearing in movies as early as 1914. Legendary D. W. Griffith hired him as an assistant director. Clifton soon became a director himself, including the masterful DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS ('22). However, by the time sound came in Clifton found himself helming poverty row material for Louis Weiss, J. D. Kendis and others. But Clifton struggled on as best he could, both directing and scripting B-westerns here and there with Buck Jones, James Newill and others until he finally regained some ground with several Johnny Mack Brown/Tex Ritter B's at Universal. For whatever reason, his stay at Republic was brief - two Don Barry's (DAYS OF OLD CHEYENNE and SUNDOWN KID, BLOCKED TRAIL with the 3 Mesquiteers, and co-director with John English on the CAPTAIN AMERICA serial). He then signed on at PRC to helm many in their Texas Rangers series, as well as churning out a few scripts for Jimmy Wakely and Buster Crabbe. His final directorial jobs were bottom of the barrel efforts with Cal Shrum, Spade Cooley and Bob Gilbert. As Mike Nevins wrote in WESTERN CLIPPINGS, "When Clifton was bad, he was horrid, but when he was good, he was very, very good." As he is with DAYS OF OLD CHEYENNE, adding neat touches such as overhead camera shots during a barroom brawl, and at the end, after standing alone gunning down Haade, Barry walks slowly out as Clifton has the camera pan down as Barry empties his spent six-gun shells on the floor.

 THE BOUNTY MAN (1972 ABC Circle Film)
Tough but righteous bounty hunter Clint Walker is after cut-throat John Ericson, but after Clint captures Ericson they're pursued by scroungy bounty hunters Richard Basehart, Rex Holman, Dennis Cross and Wayne Sutherlin who plot to take Ericson away from the lone Walker ... dead or alive. Matters get even more complicated in Jim Byrnes' lean, mean, excellent script when Walker is forced to take along Ericson's girlfriend, Margot Kidder. This Aaron Spelling TV-movie was made at a time when TV-movies still looked like "real" movies. Also in the cast - Gene Evans and Arthur Hunnicutt.

 MOONLIGHT ON THE PRAIRIE (1935 Warner Bros.)
Ads shouted, "A new star in the saddle to spur you to cheers and stir you to song! Different! Dangerous! Quick on the trigger! Ready with a song! Six-feet-three of hard galloping, heart-walloping cowboy ... riding high, wide and handsome to stardom!" Billed as "First of the new Warner westerns", it was WB production supervisor Bryan Foy's decision to get back into series westerns, a genre they'd abandoned since the '32-'33 John Wayne westerns, which were mostly remakes of their Ken Maynard silents. Foy at first sought out WB leading man Lyle Talbot who had a good, but seldom used singing voice, but Talbot declined as he was not fond of horses. Foy then turned to Dick Foran who possessed a trained singing voice and projected a likeable personality. Although the Foran westerns have solid production values and the benefit of strong casts, what Warner Bros. never got right was what historian Les Adams called "that self-taught, down-home, Mama-and-all-them brand of Americana so easily and naturally projected by Gene Autry, Tex Ritter and Roy Rogers among the singers, and John Wayne, Buck Jones, Bill Elliott and Johnny Mack Brown among the straight action performers." William Jacobs' screenplay for this first Foran has Dick blamed for a killing he didn't commit. Learning the murdered man's son, little Dickie Jones (and his Mom Sheila Manners), will lose his father's ranch unless he occupies it by midnight and stays on the property til he's 21, Dick pitches in to help, eventually rooting out ranch foreman Joe Sawyer as the real killer trying to prevent Dickie from inheriting the ranch so he and his crooked partner Robert Barrat can grab off the spread. Foran's sidekick (he didn't have a steady one as most B-western stars did) is always hungry George E. Stone. For no other reason we can see than Warners was building up his popularity with plans in mind for starring roles, Gordon (Wild Bill) Elliott has a small role as a cattleman's investigator. WB used him this-a-way in a couple more Foran westerns before Elliott found a starring-stable with producer Larry Darmour through Columbia and, of course, later Republic. Cowboy cancer alert: Foran holds a cig in his hand at dinner.

 LAST OF THE FAST GUNS (1958 Universal/International)
Gunslinger Jock Mahoney is hired by invalid millionaire Carl Benton Reid to find his long lost brother, Edward Franz, who disappeared into Mexico 15 years ago. If Franz isn't found, Reid's share of the business goes to Reid's conniving partner. The partners' gunman, Gilbert Roland, is determined to get control of the business, but can't do it if Franz is found. It's a long, slow 81 minute trail til Mahoney finds Franz, now a beloved Padre by the peons of the area. Made in Mexico and directed by George Sherman, the feel is that of a Euro-spaghetti western with the title promising far more than the dreary film delivers.

 POWDERSMOKE RANGE (1935 RKO Radio)
RKO certainly was not about to launch a series of Three Mesquiteers westerns, but they packed every western star they could lay their contracts on for this sagebrush oddity, and therein lies its charm, fame and reputation today because, in reality, it is a rather dull, talky, lethargic, Wallace Fox directed, Adele Buffington scripted western. And other than Tom Tyler's cold-eyed Sundown Saunders gunman, the performances are pretty routine. The film was wisely advertised for its all star cast, thereby receiving playdates in theatres not normally known to book standard B-westerns. Based on a novel by William Colt MacDonald, Harry Carey is Tucson Smith, Hoot Gibson is Stony Brooke and Big Boy Williams is Lullaby Joslin. A quite different casting approach than that taken by Republic a year later. Also in the star-studded cast are Bob Steele, the aforementioned Tom Tyler (both later to be Mesquiteers themselves at Republic), Wally Wales, Buzz Barton, Art Mix, Buddy Roosevelt, Buffalo Bill Jr., Franklyn Farnum, William Desmond, William Farnum - many in don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-'em cameos. Buffington's stale plot has Carey/Gibson/Williams opposing the corrupt town sheriff Adrian Morris and Mayor Sam Hardy. (Both miscast! Why not some of the top heavies of the day as well in these roles?) Main interest in the film comes as the Mesquiteers try to convert gunslinger Tom Tyler to the right side of the law. At first refusing, in the final showdown Tyler takes a fatal shot meant for Carey. Necessary to see as a B-western curio, nothing more.

 GUN BATTLE AT MONTEREY (1957 Allied Artists)
Sterling Hayden hated making these westerns, he did them to earn money to sail his boat in the South Seas. To his credit, he's such a consummate actor that his distaste never shows. Vile Ted De Corsia double-crosses partner Hayden after a bank robbery, shooting him in the back and leaving him for dead. With the stolen loot De Corsia opens a wide open saloon miles away, hiring Lee Van Cleef as his gunhand and Mary Beth Hughes as a dealer. Hayden is found by Pamela Duncan and nursed back to health with a promise to her he won't seek out and kill De Corsia. Hayden's dilemma is how to avenge himself and still not lose the love of Duncan. His unique version of vengeance brings an unusual and quite watchable conclusion with some unpredictable plot twists. Just don't wait up for the gun battle at Monterey - it's not there.

 COME ON, RANGERS (1938 Republic)
Roy Rogers' third B-western is based loosely on fact. Due to lack of funds after the Civil War the Texas Rangers are disbanded and their duties taken over by the U.S. Cavalry; here shown to be somewhat ineffectual as outlaw bands sweep over the territory. Former Ranger Roy Rogers joins the Cavalry as his sidekick, crusty old Raymond Hatton becomes a scout for the Army. Corrupt Senator Purnell Pratt and black-hearted desperado Harry Woods form the State Patrol only to illegally and brutally extract protection from the ranchers. When Roy's brother, ex-Ranger Lane Chandler, is murdered by Woods' gang, Roy deserts his Cavalry Sergeant stripes to track down the killers his way. Eventually, Roy roots out the crooked State Patrol and demonstrates the need for the reformation of the now legendary Texas Rangers. This was another clever Republic teaming of Roy Rogers and leading lady Mary Hart (aka Lynne Roberts) - Rogers and Hart - get it? They made seven westerns together. Hatton sidekicked with Roy for four before George "Gabby" Hayes came aboard with SOUTHWARD HO! in '39.

 YANKEE FAKIR (1947 Republic)
Medicine show salesman Douglas Fowley comes west and falls in love with the daughter (Joan Woodbury) of border patrolman Forrest Taylor who is murdered by smugglers. After much "who cares" serio-comic material, Fowley exposes banker Frank Reicher and henchman Marc Lawrence as the smugglers. Not worth your effort.

 FORLORN RIVER (1937 Paramount)
Larry "Buster" Crabbe sports a mustache to match 1926 stock footage of Jack Holt in this Zane Grey remake of the silent film. Outlaw Harvey Stephens impersonates a government man sent to buy horses for Fort Apache and plots with his gang (headed by Ray Bennett) to rustle off (former silent star) William Duncan's herd as they drive them to Ft. Apache. But his plans go awry when Crabbe and his always-hungry pal, Syd Saylor, arrive at Duncan's ranch to see Buster's old friend, John Patterson, Duncan's foreman. Crabbe immediately recognizes Stephens as an old adversary but plays a tight-to-the-vest game in order to get the goods on the gang. Filmed on location in Kernville, California, by director Charles Barton. Watch for Buffalo Bill Jr. (Jay Wilsey) and soon to be Lone Ranger Lee Powell in small roles.

 BOWERY BUCKAROOS (1947 Monogram)
The Bowery Boys (Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Billy Benedict, David Gorcey) go west in a funny spoof on "horse operas". Sweetshop owner Louie (Bernard Gorcey) tells the boys that 20 years ago he'd left the west to escape a murder charge for which he wasn't guilty. The gang goes west and arrives in Hangman's Hollow to clear Louie, soon finding themselves up to their necks in crooked saloon owners (Norman Willis) and Indians (Iron Eyes Cody, Chief Yowlachie).

 PARK AVENUE LOGGER (1937 RKO)
Leaving independent producer Sol Lesser and his distribution set-up through Fox, George O'Brien signed with independent producer George Hirliman for four films to be released through RKO, DANIEL BOONE, PARK AVENUE LOGGER, WINDJAMMER and HOLLYWOOD COWBOY. Only the latter could be legitimately termed a western. PARK AVENUE LOGGER is a slight melodrama in which Eastern lumber magnate Lloyd Ingraham sends his son, O'Brien, to his Timberlake, Oregon, lumber field under an assumed name to check out field manager Willard Robertson whom Ingraham believes is conspiring with the field boss (Ward Bond) of a competing company to take over their logging business.

 FORT VENGEANCE (1953 Allied Artists)
It's the old good brother (James Craig) bad brother (Keith Larsen) plot, set this time with the Mounties in Canada, scripted by prolific Daniel Ullman. Forced to flee to Canada after trouble in the states over a poker game, Craig convinces Larsen to join the RCMP, hoping to straighten out his wayward brother. But Larsen steals furs from a trapper he's killed and fakes the evidence to make it look like the son (Paul Marion) of Indian Chief Morris Ankrum did the killing. Taking his Mountie oath seriously, to right the wrong Craig is forced to hunt down his own brother to save Marion from punishment. Cinecolor helps with the vivid red uniforms, but even under Les Selander's direction this is a minor effort. Corriganville stands in for the Canadian northwoods.

 ALIAS - THE BAD MAN (1931 Tiffany)
Ken Maynard comes to help his rustler-plagued father (Lafe McKee) only to find his father and another rancher (Robert Homans) murdered, and made to look like they gunned each other in an argument. With the help of his friend, stuttering Irving Bacon, Ken infiltrates his way into the rustler gang (Frank Mayo, Charlie King, Jack Rockwell) who murdered his Dad. But it looks like the jig is up when the gang discovers Ken is a Ranger. Pretty tame affair with none of the standard Maynard derring-do til the final six minutes.

 SILVER LODE (1954 RKO)
Another anti-McCarthyism western (if you choose to view it that way) in the wake of HIGH NOON. Allan Dwan's direction gives the fugitive-on-the-run plot a visual style that lifts the routine material to a higher level. The entire film takes place during a three hour period on the 4th of July with an apparent "Rashomon" homage evident in recurrent scenes of the same event as seen through the memories and prejudices of different involved cast members. Story has John Payne surprised by vicious "Marshal" Dan Duryea and his "posse" (Harry Carey Jr., Alan Hale Jr., Stuart Whitman) on the day of his wedding to Lizabeth Scott, charging Payne is wanted for murder in California and they're here to bring him back. Payne knows he is innocent but quickly discovers his so-called "friends" are a bunch of hypocrites who turn their back on him now that he's in trouble. Excellent support from Morris Ankrum (Scott's father), Dolores Moran (as Payne's old girlfriend), Paul Birch, Byron Foulger, Myron Healey, Emile Meyer, John Hudson, Frank Sully, Lane Chandler, Robert Warwick, Ralph Sanford, Gene Roth, William Haade, I. Stanford Jolley, Frank Ellis, Sheila Bromley, John Dierkes, Edgar Barrier and Wes Hudman. Technicolor.

 STAMPEDE (1936 Columbia)
Rancher Le Strange Millman, in an attempt to raise money to meet his note held by hotel owner James McGrath, tries to sell a herd of horses. But J. P. McGowan, a neighboring rancher, has been scaring off - or murdering - all potential horse buyers so Millman won't be able to meet the note which will allow McGowan to buy up the property for a song, using McGrath as a tool. An outside buyer, Charles Starrett, is headed for Millman and his daughter Finis Barton's ranch, also expecting to meet his brother there. McGowan and his men mistake Starrett's brother as the buyer and kill him, throwing the blame on Millman and setting Starrett off on a wrong vengeance trail. There's a huge boo-boo toward the end outside McGowan's ranch house. Starrett has on a black shirt, no jacket. But, as he appears at a window and climbs in, he has on a light grey jacket. Then, as McGowan escapes and Starrett chases him, the jacket again disappears. This feature was filmed in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, as part of the British Quota System. The different locales and basically Canadian cast give this Starrett a different and interesting look. Although filming began on February 5, 1936, production was suspended due to heavy rain and didn't resume again til March 31. Between February 5 and March 31 the cast and most of the crew worked on another Columbia/Central Films of Canada co-production, SECRET PATROL ('36).

 FACE OF A FUGITIVE (1959 Columbia)
Accused of killing a deputy, Fred MacMurray is nevertheless guilty of bank robbery. On the run, he settles in a new town under a new identity, falling in love with pacifist Sheriff/lawyer Lin McCarthy's sister, Dorothy Green. Because McCarthy reminds him of his brother (killed in the bank robbery), MacMurray defends him against town tough James Coburn (in a wonderfully nasty role). Of course, MacMurray's past catches up with him as taut suspense builds. Will he escape before the wanted dodgers arrive or will he stay to help the beleaguered McCarthy? Very well written by Daniel B. Ullman and David T. Chantler with nice direction from Paul Wendkos. In Color.

 BEYOND THE PURPLE HILLS (1950 Columbia)
In this remake of screenwriter Norman S. Hall's SHERIFF OF LAS VEGAS ('44 Republic) starring Bill Elliott, Gene Autry becomes sheriff of a tough western town after the previous peacekeeper is gunned down in a bank robbery. Then, when Judge Roy Gordon is murdered by saloon keeper James Millican, suspicion falls on the judge's wild son Hugh O'Brian due to an argument moments before the murder. Believing O'Brian innocent, Gene and his new deputy Pat Buttram foil a lynch mob with the aid of Jack's kid brother, Don Kay Reynolds. Hiding O'Brian and Reynolds, Gene tricks Millican and his secret confederate, banker Don Beddoe into betraying themselves, completely exonerating O'Brian leaving him free to romance his fiancée, Jo Dennison. Gene does break from the realistic Columbia Pictures formula for a moment or two by introducing Little Champ, having him, along with Champion, perform some tricks in the midst of the action-packed story. Both horses actually have important roles in the storyline, including some funny bits with Pat Buttram. Leading lady Jo Dennison was Miss America of 1942 and later married comedian Phil Silvers in 1945.

 GAL WHO TOOK THE WEST (1949 Universal-International)
Light spirited western romp with a certain "Rashomon" effect as the story is related from the three different perspectives of old timers Clem Bevans, Houseley Stevenson and Russell Simpson. A modern day journalist is gathering material for a story on a prominent family. He winds up learning from these three old geezers about feuding cousins Scott Brady and John Russell who were at odds with one another over the affections of imported-to-the-west opera house singer Yvonne De Carlo. Grandpa Charles Coburn's power and authority is the only thing preventing open warfare between the two. Eventually, it comes to an all-out, knock-down, drag-out screen fight between the cousins before De Carlo makes her choice. And, at the end, it is an aged De Carlo who relates the final truth of the tale to the reporter. That the film was played tongue-in-cheek is no doubt the work of director Frederick de Cordova who was basically a comedy director. Jock Mahoney is one of the stuntmen in the Brady/Russell fight. The picture, whose working title was simply THE WESTERN STORY, was originally scheduled to star Deanna Durbin. The supporting cast is peopled with dozens of B-western faces: Myrna Dell, James Millican, John Litel, Ross Elliott, Jack Ingram, Glenn Strange, William Tannen, Steve Darrell, Pierce Lyden, John James, Francis MacDonald, William Haade, Forrest Taylor, Paul Brinegar, House Peters Jr., Russ Whiteman, Forbes Murray, Henry Wills, Ethan Laidlaw, Jack Perrin, Carol Henry, Ray Jones, Howard Negley.

 MULE TRAIN (1950 Columbia)
U.S. Marshal Gene Autry rides into a situation where cement, something new in the west, is a motivating factor. Gene comes to the aid of old pal Pat Buttram when Pat's partner in the discovery of cement is killed. Robert Livingston, a contractor, is the culprit secretly attempting to obtain the land. Lady Sheriff Sheila Ryan (real life wife of Buttram) at first seems to be on Gene and Pat's side, but is eventually revealed to be Livingston's boss. It's a simple B-western plot, but the angle of the lady heavy gives it some novelty. As usual with Autry, production quality is high all around. Frankie Laine and Vaughn Monroe recorded "Mule Train", so did Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, and almost every recording artist of note, including Gene Autry. Over 30 different records were made. The most popular recording, besides Autry's, was Frankie Laine's whose sales zoomed past the 1,000,000 mark. Gene made a habit of using hit songs as the title of his films and springboard plot, and "Mule Train" was no exception.

 HOSTILE GUNS (1967 Paramount)
Trite and overly talkative, spotted with action. It's a great title and a good premise gone wrong in what should have been one of producer A. C. Lyles' best westerns, but it turns out midway to be a talkfest. U.S. Marshal George Montgomery is given charge of four criminals (mean Leo Gordon, sentenced to hang; pompous, corrupt railroad executive Robert Emhardt; Pedro Gonzales-Gonzales, a goat thief; and Yvonne De Carlo [never looking worse] who shot her two-timing lover) to escort across the Texas badlands in a prison wagon. Montgomery enlists the aid of hot-headed, naïve, young Tab Hunter as his deputy. During the trek, De Carlo attempts to seduce Hunter into letting her go, nearly succeeding, until Montgomery throws the foolish, gullible Hunter in the wagon with the crooks, leaving George all alone to fend off the attacks of Gordon's kin, John Russell and James Craig. As with all Lyles' productions, the supporting cast is populated with old pros: saloon owner Don Barry; sheriff Richard Arlen; Marshal Brian Donlevy; ranch hand Fuzzy Knight; Hunter's tough uncle Emile Meyer; outlaw Read Morgan; and prison wagon carpenter William Fawcett.

 SPRINGTIME IN THE SIERRAS (1947 Republic)
Roy Rogers is in for the fight of his life in one of his best post-WWII westerns when he battles illegal game poachers. Hal Landon, kid brother of Roy's girlfriend, Jane Frazee, falls in with the poachers headed up by the beautiful but ruthless Stephanie Bachelor and her tough under-boss, Roy Barcroft. Discovered illegally shooting deer out of season, Bachelor cold-bloodedly shoots and kills kindly game warden Harry Cheshire. When Landon has had enough and tries to quit the gang, Roy's suspicions are aroused. Roy and Landon are nearly frozen to death in a meat freezer but escape in plenty of time for director Bill Witney to stage a thrilling finale in which Roy battles Barcroft and Frazee takes on Bachelor. Just the right comedic support from "photographer" Andy Devine and some good tunes from Roy and The Sons of the Pioneers. This one truly shows how excellent B-westerns could still be made as late as 1947 when under the tutelage of an expert director like Bill Witney, the inventive scripting of Sloan Nibley and the crackerjack Trucolor photography of Jack Marta.

 YELLOW MOUNTAIN (1954 Universal-International)
Stiff Lex Barker was not suited to westerns, although he made several, but seems totally disinterested here resulting in a lifeless picture. Hard-bitten, rough-housing, uneasy partners Barker and Howard Duff invest in a mine with the girl they both desire, Mala Powers, and her gambler-holic father William Demarest and find a fight on their hands from unscrupulous big miner John McIntire and his gunman Leo Gordon. Most of the interest in watching this one comes from "Oh look, there's ... " William Fawcett, Holly Bane, John Crawford, Rusty Wescoatt, Henry Wills, Kermit Maynard, Frank Ellis, Denver Pyle, Jack Ingram, Eddie Parker. In color.

 MAN FROM BITTER RIDGE (1955 Universal-International)
Was U-I trying to establish ex-Tarzan Lex Barker as a western star with the previous - and dismal - YELLOW MOUNTAIN and this B-plus feature? If so, they gave up after this action-packed effort. By the '60s Barker was in Europe turning out boring Old Shatterhand "westerns" in Germany/Italy/Yugoslavia. Guns blaze and fists fly in Bitter Ridge as stagecoach investigator Barker goes after outlaws in this all-out-action-packed thriller. Trying to prove sheepman Stephen McNally innocent of the robberies (he's been framed by gang boss John Dehner), Barker and McNally vie for the affections of fiery Mara Corday. (She and Barker were an off-screen "item" even though Barker was married to Lana Turner.) As Barker and McNally track down Dehner's men (Myron Healey, Warren Stevens, Ray Teal, John Cliff), Dehner resorts to a terrific all-out attack on the sheepmen, expertly staged by director Jack Arnold. Healey was quite sick during much of the shoot, but gives it his all, turning in one of his most maniacal-smiling heavies, especially during a memorable back alley knife fight with Barker. Eastman Color.

 CORPUS CHRISTI BANDITS (1945 Republic)
Republic gave us something a bit different here. Captain Jim Christie (Allan Lane) returns to his Texas home after numerous flying missions over Germany. Because of a similarity between him and his ancestor, renowned desperado Corpus Christi Jim, his father relates the true story (told in flashback), confirming Corpus Christi Jim was actually not a real outlaw but was forced into banditry when the government failed to provide for returning impoverished Confederate soldiers. (As CORPUS CHRISTI BANDITS was released in April 1945, just as WWII was ending, Republic was obviously making a bit of a political statement with this picture.) In the flashback to 1865, Corpus Christi Jim (also Allan Lane) returns with his buddies (kindly Tom London, Bob Wilke and troublemaker Kenne Duncan) to find his home ruined and his parents dead. With ill-gotten gains from a stagecoach robbery, Jim changes his name and tries to go straight in Pecos Wells, a town in which crusading newspaper editor Jack Kirk and his daughter Helen Talbot are opposing the town's gambling boss Roy Barcroft and his gunnies (Cliff Parkinson, Frank McCarroll). Siding with Kirk and Talbot, Jim wins Barcroft's saloon away from him, but the weasely Kenne Duncan double-crosses Jim and throws in with Barcroft to expose Jim's outlaw past. Eventually, Jim and the good townspeople reform Pecos Wells and Jim marries Talbot. Among their grandchildren is Captain Jim Christie who, back in present 1945 time, is being decorated for his WWII heroics by the Texas Governor. A really nice change of pace for Republic from vet scripter Norman S. Hall.

 THE FIRST TEXAN (1956 Allied Artists)
Escaping his past, former Tennessee Governor Sam Houston (Joel McCrea) arrives in San Antonio just as Jim Bowie (an energetic Jeff Morrow) and others are vying for independence from Mexico. At first reluctant, after the fall of the Alamo, Houston, now a lawyer, valiantly leads the Texans in revolt against Mexico's tyranny. The story of Houston's strategy to defeat Santa Ana (David Silva) is honestly the more inspiring story of Texas' fight for independence and it's forcefully retold here. Chubby Johnson is Deaf Smith, Dayton Lummis is Stephen Austin, William Hopper is Travis, James Griffith is Davy Crockett with Carl Benton Reid as Andrew Jackson. Adventurized history is simple minded but solid entertainment.

 THE GOLDEN WEST (1932 Fox)
An elaborate remake of Zane Grey and Fox's silent THE LAST TRAIL ('27, Tom Mix) is an epic melodrama that begins in Kentucky in 1847. After a family feud breaks up a romance between George O'Brien and Janet Chandler, O'Brien heads west to Wyoming where he meets and marries Marion Burns after rescuing her from a buffalo stampede. They give birth to a son. Back in Kentucky, believing O'Brien dead, Chandler marries young engineer Onslow Stevens and has a daughter. Out West, Burns is killed in an Indian raid and George and his son are captured. Twenty years later, the Union Pacific railroad is beset by Indian raids led by a mysterious white chief, Motano (also played by O'Brien in a dual role). Coincidentally, Stevens is the new chief engineer for the railroad and is out West with his grown daughter Betty (played also by Janet Chandler). Through a set of circumstances only found in the movies, Motano and Betty find the true love their father and mother had missed due to the feud early in their lives. THE GOLDEN WEST covers a lot of territory in 70 minutes with O'Brien sporting an unbecoming mustache and sideburns in the first half and baring his barrel chest as Indian Chief Motano in the second. Plenty of stock footage from THE IRON HORSE and other silent epics is employed.

 BADLANDS (1939 RKO)
Lew Landers directed this grim little western, a remake of RKO's 1934 hit THE LOST PATROL. Sheriff Robert Barrat leads a posse into the desert after renegade Apaches. The diverse band of men consist of Big Boy Williams and Noah Beery Jr. as regular cowboys, Paul Hurst is the old timer, Andy Clyde and Francis Ford are prospectors, Francis McDonald's wife was murdered by Apaches, Addison Richards is the staid westerner, Douglas Walton is the easterner and Robert Coote is an Englishman. Unfortunately, the script talks us to death before the Apaches pick off the posse members one by one, or they do each other in (all but Barrat).

 COWBOY STAR (1936 Columbia)
Fed up with five years making B-westerns, Charles Starrett declines his new contract and heads home to Arizona where he meets realtor Iris Meredith and her kid brother Wally Albright who recognizes Starrett as his screen hero, although Starrett tries his best to deny his fame. Three gangsters (Marc Lawrence, Ralph McCullough, Richard Terry) hiding in a ghost town (Brandeis Ranch) kidnap young Albright fearing he is spying on them but the screen hero becomes a real-life hero in rescuing Albright and capturing the crooks. With the publicity, Starrett wins a new, bigger Hollywood contract as Meredith convinces him his true place is in the movies - with her. Unusual concept, which was explored further in Richard Dix's IT HAPPENED IN HOLLYWOOD a year later. Includes some interesting shots of Columbia backlot.

 FORT WORTH (1951 Warner Bros.)
Gunfighter Randolph Scott tries his best to lay down his Colts and pick up a pen to fight injustice through the power of the press in rough and tumble Fort Worth, but you know in the end he reluctantly has to buckle on his gunbelt to fight it out with devious old friend David Brian when he attempts to buy up all of Fort Worth and turn it into his private cattle shipping center. There is one great scene in which Scott deputizes himself to go after a trio of killers who gunned down Scott's friend. We expect the usual confrontation, some tough talk with the badmen drawing on Scott and Randy beating them to the draw. But no, in the best scene of John Twist's script, Scott walks directly at the heavies and simply opens fire, casually gunning them down. Obviously, Warner Bros. had another empire building epic in mind ala VIRGINIA CITY, DODGE CITY, etc. Very watchable, but far from Scott's best. Excellent support from Phyllis Thaxter, Dick Jones, Ray Teal, Bob Steele, Zon Murray, Helena Carter, Walter Sande, Chubby Johnson, Paul Picerni, Gregg Barton, Ted Mapes, Bud Osborne, Stanley Blystone, Kermit Maynard, Don Harvey, Lee Roberts, Jack Mower. In color.

 NAVAJO TRAIL (1945 Monogram)
On his way to visit his old friend, Marshal Raymond Hatton, Johnny Mack Brown arrives just as a Ranger Sergeant is gunned down by outlaw Ray Bennett. Trailing Bennett, Brown wins the outlaw's confidence, tricking him into believing he is also on the run so Brown can round-up a whole gang of horse rustlers headed up by saloon owner (what else?) Ed Cobb (Earl Crawford, Charlie King, Johnny Carpenter, Bud Osborne). Meanwhile, Hatton also infiltrates the gang posing as an old horse trader with the Navajos. A friend of Hatton's, Jim Hood, sings a bit of a traditional western song early on in the picture. To my knowledge, Hood was never heard of on film again. Was he another of those "local" western singers Monogram was trying (not very well) to incorporate into some of their westerns to combat the onslaught of singing cowboys?

 A LUST TO KILL (1957 Production Associates)
Independently produced low-budget B directed by old pro Oliver Drake saw only sparse distribution when it was made. Too bad, it's equal to Davis' other B's of the period. Filmed entirely in and around Pioneertown, the clichéd story (by vets Tom Hubbard [who plays the deputy] and Samuel Roeca) has Sheriff Jim Davis capturing vicious outlaw Don Megowan, but not before Megowan's kid brother is killed. Megowan's girl, Allison Hayes, helps him to escape as he goes on a vengeance path against his outlaw buddies (led by Gerald Milton) who left him behind when he was captured by Davis.

 THRILL HUNTER (1933 Columbia)
Off the beaten track Buck Jones yarn kids his own image a bit but winds up rousing entertainment! Buck is a cowboy tall-tale-teller for no other reason than it's his curse. After rescuing movie star Dorothy Revier from a runaway horse, and believing his fantastic exploits, Buck is hailed as a hero and hired by the movie company as their new star. But Buck's whoppers get him into real trouble when he's forced to drive a racing car and fly an airplane. He ends up driving like a maniac, wrecking several cars and flying wild he cracks up the airplane. Exposed as a fraud, he loses his job and the respect of Revier but eventually wins it all back when he captures a pair of crooks (Robert Ellis, Harry Semels) who have kidnapped Revier. Great fun!

 FOUR FAST GUNS (1959 Universal)
Psychological "adult western" has gunman James Craig coming across a secluded town named Purgatory ruthlessly run by wheelchair bound Paul Richards who avoids being dealt with by the townsfolk because nobody wants to harass a cripple. When the people implore Craig to do the job for them, Richards imports four fast guns to get Craig before he gets Richards. The first three fail, but the last one happens to be Craig's brother, Brett Halsey. Sound exciting? It's not. Way too overburdened with psychological talk about what they're going to do and not enough doing it. The 72 minutes drags on forever!

 REVOLT AT FORT LARAMIE (1957 Bel Air/United Artists)
With the outbreak of the Civil War, a western cavalry fort finds allegiances among the troopers with divided loyalties. Major John Dehner as a Virginian commander leaves his post and joins those who side with the Confederacy. This leaves Capt. Gregg Palmer with a weakened command to cope with an ever growing band of hostile Indians. When Dehner's Southerners are attacked by Indians, Palmer joins him to fight them off. Unique idea from Robert Dennis, directed with several good action sequences by Les Selander. Produced by Howard W. Koch.

 RIDING TORNADO (1932 Columbia)
In a bet, gambler Wheeler Oakman loses his never-been-ridden horse Killer to rodeo rider Tim McCoy who rechristens the gentled horse Pal. Rancher Lafe McKee (and his pretty daughter Shirley Grey) hire Tim to ferret out the horse thieves plaguing the range. Exciting windup comes amidst a windstorm-caused horse stampede and a hail of gunsmoke. Some of the plot construction is a bit fragmented but overall this is one of Tim's most walloping Columbias.

 CALIFORNIA PASSAGE (1950 Republic)
Fast paced Republic produced and directed by Joe Kane with good conflict between uneasy saloon partners Forrest Tucker and Jim Davis. Tuck has killed rowdy gunman Bill Williams in a fair fight just before Williams' sister, Adele Mara, arrives from back east. As both Tucker and Davis romance Mara, the crooked Davis frames his partner for a series of bullion robberies he himself committed as well as distorting to Mara the truth about her brother's demise. Tucker must flee to the hills to clear himself, spoiling for the fight with Davis that surely must come. Former Roy Rogers leading lady Estelita seems included only to sing two songs. Charles Kemper stands out as an unlikely but likeable sheriff and there's B-vet support from Paul Fix, Rhys Williams, Teddy Infuhr, Roy Barcroft, John Pickard, Eddy Waller, Francis McDonald, Charles Stevens, Al Bridge, Iron Eyes Cody, Hal Taliaferro, Dabbs Greer, I. Stanford Jolley, Tex Terry, Norman Leavitt, Frank Richards and Rory Mallison. James Edward Grant's script never quite rises to the heights it should, but it's the Tucker/Davis conflict that sizzles.

 COLORADO SERENADE (1946 PRC)
Poor Eddie Dean. He waited years to get his own series, then when he finally landed a Cinecolor contract at PRC, he was upstaged, outgunned and rode roughshod over in popularity by an upstart from nowhere, Lash LaRue. Producer/director Bob Tansey gave LaRue his own series, leaving the way clear for Eddie, and now here comes David Sharpe (fresh back from WWII service) who, once again, steals COLORADO SERENADE from Eddie! Eddie Dean and Soapy (Roscoe Ates), bound for Rawhide, meet up with Judge Forrest Taylor, sky pilot Lee Bennett and gunslick Nevada (Davy Sharpe). Sharpe, actually an undercover man for Judge Taylor, instigates himself into the outlaw gang run by mine owner Warner Richmond, saloon owner Dennis Moore, hireling Bob McKenzie, and henchmen Bob Duncan, George De Normand, Johnny Carpenter and saloon gal Abigail Adams. (Incidentally, why is De Normand called Lefty when he wears his gun on the right side?) As Dean and the others trace missing government gold shipments, in a typical action packed Tansey finish, we learn the crooked Richmond revengefully stole Moore as a child to get even for Moore's real father, Judge Taylor, convicting Richmond of a crime. One of the song highlights comes as Eddie, Ates, ranch hand Charlie King and the cook Pancake sing "Ridin' Down to Rawhide". Question is, who provided the "voices" for Ates, King and the cook? Possibly members of the Sunshine Boys who were prominent in several Dean westerns.

 BIG SOMBRERO, THE (1949 Columbia)
Filmed shortly after Gene Autry's only other Cinecolor Columbia release, THE STRAWBERRY ROAN, in August/September 1947, THE BIG SOMBRERO was held up for release for 18 months, for undetermined reasons, until March 1949. When THE BIG SOMBRERO wrapped, Gene came face to face with economic realities and wrote "finis" to any more productions in Cinecolor due to the horrendous cost factor ... this one coming in at approximately $575,000. The music content of THE BIG SOMBRERO is as high as any of Gene's Columbia westerns and the color helps, but otherwise it's a rather lifeless 78 minute affair, due in part possibly to the continual production problems. The story concerns Gene's efforts to aid the Vaqueros of the vast Big Sombrero rancho in Mexico where confidence man, and old acquaintance of Gene's, Stephen Dunne, through charm, has wormed himself into the good graces of Elena Verdugo, the lovely but flighty owner of the enormous rancho. Dunne plans to gain control by marrying Verdugo, then sell the land for a tidy profit to businessman Gene Stutenroth. Dunne has simply, he believes, for show, appointed Gene as foreman, but fails to reckon with Gene's sense of fair play. Gene's first screen kiss in many years was actually filmed according to leading lady Elena Verdugo. Apparently learning it was to be filmed, press representatives galore were on hand, which landed several stories in the newspapers. "That was the trouble," Elena explained. "Gene's fans definitely did not want Gene kissing and wrote to the studio. I saw the letters. So we shot the scene again, minus the kiss."

 COWBOY CANTEEN (1944 Columbia)
Here's an all-star wartime fundraiser whose success prompted Columbia to make a series of musical westerns, most of them starring the Hoosier Hot Shots and Ken Curtis. Due to the shortage in wartime of men, a show troupe of (mostly) women - Jane Frazee, Vera Vague, The Tailor Maids, Max Terhune and his dummy Elmer - volunteer to work as ranch hands on Charles Starrett's ranch while he and his foreman, Big Boy Williams, are in the Army. But in hiring them by mail, Starrett doesn't realize they're all greenhorns. Starrett's friendly adversary, Tex Ritter, smitten by Frazee, volunteers to help out, as does Tex's pal Dub Taylor. Starrett and Ritter become rivals for Frazee's affections as the Army establishes a Cowboy Canteen at Starrett's ranch, allowing for plenty of music (some 12 songs) from Tex, Frazee, Jimmy Wakely and his Saddle Pals (with Foy Willing), Roy Acuff, the Mills Brothers, The Tailor Maids and Vera Vague. Note that Dub Taylor's mount here is the famous movie horse, Dice.

 MAN BEHIND THE GUN (1953 Warner Bros.)
Randolph Scott is an undercover Union Army officer who pretends to be a gun-shy schoolteacher in order to break up a plot to make Southern California a separate state in the days before the Civil War. Scott's work isn't an easy job as numerous suspects and red herrings are tossed in the way of his investigation. Eventually, in John Twist's espionage-involved, plot-heavy script, Scott exposes state senator Roy Roberts as the political leader who dreams of an empire. Femme lead is Errol Flynn's real life wife Patrice Wymore. Fiery Lina Romay is the "bad" girl who contributes two Latin-tinged tunes and engages Wymore in a catfight. Scott's sidekicks, providing a few chuckles and lotsa brawn are, respectively, Dick Wesson and Alan Hale Jr. Involved plot needs constant attention while you watch the B-western bit players go by - Douglas Fowley, Anthony Caruso, Rex Lease, House Peters Jr., Clancy Cooper, Morris Ankrum, James Brown, Reed Howes, Rory Mallinson, Lee Morgan, Terry Frost, Charlie Horvath and Albert Morin. Phil Carey is an Army Captain suspected of consorting with the plotters and Robert Cabal (later wrangler Hey-Soos on TV's RAWHIDE) is a dark comic version of Joaquin Murrieta.

 SONG OF THE CABELLERO (1930 Universal)
Romance rides the early talkie California range as Mexican bandido El Lobo (Ken Maynard) and his compadres interfere with a Spanish Don who ousted his sister because he didn't approve of her betrothed. Her son shows up to wreak vengeance and remove the stain from his mother's name. Best part has Maynard wiping out 10 sword-wielding Vaqueros.

 CODE OF THE RANGERS (1972 H/W Prod./Sunshadow Prod.)
It takes a monumental ego and a grandiose set of cajones to think that backyard 16mm home-movie making like this is releasable. There is nothing in Tex Hill's "westerns" that any half drunk group of beer drinking buddies with a camcorder, some cowboy clothes and cap pistols couldn't accomplish over the course of a few weekends. A description of how bad CODE OF THE RANGERS is would be a compliment. Hill apparently filmed several westerns on less than a shoestring - this one in Tombstone - in the early '70s thinking somehow he could sell this clutter to some idiot distributor. Obviously, he never found anyone that stupid, so he's now released two of them on DVD. I bought and paid for them and have had an absolute blast with friends: "You gotta see this. You absolutely won't believe how inept it is." You'll laugh yourself silly watching action scenes that resemble bad fight re-enactors in Tombstone or Dodge City. Attempting to be a singing cowboy, there's one scene that is so mismatched between what's on the screen and what's on the soundtrack that it's obviously not even the same song! In another "duet" with a dance hall girl, you can't help but notice her glancing at the lyrics on the bar. On and on it goes... Hill is even callous enough to use "The William Tell Overture" - the "Lone Ranger" theme - at the end as he and his two unintelligible sidekicks gallop - er - lope, lazily away, thankfully bringing to an end 30 minutes of filmic torture.

 LAW OF THE SIX GUN (197? H/W Prod./Sunshadow Prod.)
Look up the definition of dreadful in the dictionary and you'll find an ad for this "film." Ghastly vocalist Tex Hill apparently made several westerns in (probably) 16mm during the early '70s in an attempt to revive the B-westerns. To say he failed miserably is the understatement of the era. Instead of a revival, he drove the final nail in the B-westerns' coffin. LAW... is an unmeaningful collection of abysmal sounding, cobbled together scenes that simply fade in and fade out under the most static camera work imaginable. Most police car dashboard-cam videos are better photographed. Still, the camera work is not as static as the "actors" who take absolutely forever to get things done or a line said. Laugh-out-loud bad are the quite obvious riding shots of Lash LaRue and Fuzzy St. John that Hill clipped from PRC trying to match his own wardrobe as a gunslinger. In recent months Hill has rescued two of his never-released theatrically westerns from the trashpile and transferred them to DVD. The overall mood is one of totally unfocused clutter.

 YUMA (1971 Aaron Spelling Prod.)
Freightline operator Barry Sullivan is in league with the Army quartermaster (John Kerr) to swindle the Indians out of cattle shipments. New Marshal Clint Walker is framed by Sullivan for the backshooting of one of tough rancher Morgan Woodward's hot-headed brothers (Bing Russell) and the killing of another in a bar-fight (Bruce Glover). This was made by producer Aaron Spelling and director Ted Post in the days when TV movies still looked like they were shot for theatres. Walker, TV's CHEYENNE, was never tougher, getting good support from Kathryn Hays, Edgar Buchanan, Peter Mark Richman and Robert Phillips.

 EVERYMAN'S LAW (1936 Supreme)
What matter of western is this as Earle Snell's script finds Johnny Mack Brown saddled with a baby and two card playing, argumentative cronies (Frank Campeau, John Beck). Johnny does some of his fancy gun handling, but it's downright offensive when he gives leading lady Beth Marion's baby a loaded gun to play with! In this serio-comic Albert Ray loser, Brown finds himself caught between angry homesteaders and a bunch of sidewinders led by Roger Gray.

 RIDERS OF THE NORTHWEST MOUNTED (1943 Columbia)
Nasty trading post owner Dick Curtis and his cohorts (Richard Bailey, Jack Ingram) are cheating and stealing furs from honest trappers like Dub "Cannonball" Taylor. When headstrong Mountie Russell Hayden intervenes and exceeds his authority in trying to prove Curtis' guilt, he is drummed out of the Service for insubordination. Matters get even more complicated when Curtis' niece, Adele Mara, arrives to take over the trading post her father left her. Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys are singing Mounties. Filmed at gorgeous Big Bear (Cedar Lake) locations.

 STAGECOACH TO FURY (1956 Regal/20th Century Fox)
Mexican bandits led by Rodolfo Hoyos hold up and waylay a stage full of passengers at a relay station. As the bandits await the arrival of a shipment of gold, slowly the varied passengers' emotions flare and the film turns into a character study as their pasts are revealed, much of it in flashback sequences, as they face certain death. Starring Forrest Tucker (the heroic stage driver), Mari Blanchard (the dance hall vixen), Wallace Ford (the cowardly lawman), Paul Fix (stage guard), Wright King (the conceited gunslinger) and Margia Dean with good support from Ian MacDonald, Rico Alaniz, Ellen Corby, Bill Phillips, Rayford Barnes, Norman Leavitt, Leslie Banning, Paul Bryar and Steven Geray. There's a terrific mountaintop gunbattle finale topped by a rifle duel on horseback. Produced in Cinemascope by Earle Lyon and Ian MacDonald.

 BRAND OF THE OUTLAWS (1936 Supreme)
Often confused with BRAND OF HATE, this is the memorable one in which Bob Steele is mistaken for one of Charlie King's rustlers and branded with a hot iron by deputy sheriff Jack Rockwell who's actually one of the gang. Literally adding insult to injury, Rockwell kills King in a squabble over King's daughter (Margaret Marquis) and lays the blame on Steele. Suspense and action aplenty as Steele fights all odds to prove his innocence. Note the cast lists "Howard" Cassidy as the sheriff when it's actually customary B-western sheriff Ed Cassidy.

 GUNSMOKE TRAIL (1938 Monogram)
After only five outings as a "singing cowboy", someone at Monogram decided that either Jack Randall's operatic style of singing wasn't conducive to westerns or letters from viewers and comments from exhibitors doomed any further vocalization from Randall. Louise Stanley, now involved with Randall off-screen as well as onscreen, told author Merrill McCord that Jack "was very mad" that his westerns being turned into straight action B's. As directed by Sam Newfield, GUNSMOKE TRAIL offers several entertaining touches and moves at a good clip as Jack and pal Fuzzy St. John help out wrongly outlawed bandido Ted Adams who is searching the west for his brother's killer. Meantime, they also aid beautiful Louise Stanley in saving her father's ranch from the executor of her father's estate, John Merton, who is masquerading as Stanley's uncle. In a thrilling climax and brutal final fight, Merton is also revealed to be the killer Adams is seeking.

 DAKOTA (1948 Republic)
DAKOTA was a troubled picture. John Wayne did not want to work with leading lady Vera Ralston, the wife of Republic president Herbert J. Yates. He finally relented, but the indignant star clashed continually with director Joe Kane over the situation, as well as the corny script which is nothing more than a landgrab B-plot dressed up with comedic touches and some extravagant action (the wheat field fire staged by stuntman/2nd unit director Yakima Canutt is a stunner). Wayne and Ralston, daughter of railroad magnate Hugo Haas, are a young married couple setting out to find their fortune in Dakota Territory. They become entangled with crooked land speculator Ward Bond and his thugs (Mike Mazurki, Grant Withers, Paul Fix) who know the railroad is coming through. Trying to be both lighthearted and straight adventure yarn, Republic tossed in Walter Brennan for "laughs" as a riverboat captain. Watch for Robert Livingston in a brief bit as a Cavalry officer and Adrian Booth as a dance hall girl.

 TEXAS TRAIL (1937 Paramount)
Francis "Mike" Nevins termed this Hopalong Cassidy adventure "a straightforward unemotional action flick with magnificent (Arizona) scenery and brisk pace." It was director David Selman's only Hoppy picture. With the outbreak of the Spanish American War, the U. S. Cavalry needs horses so Hopalong Cassidy turns bronc peeler as he, Lucky (Russell Hayden) and Windy (George Hayes) roundup 500 wild horses to drive to Fort Boone. All along the trail the men are plagued by horse rustlers (Alexander Cross and his sidewinders, Bob Kortman, Jack Rockwell, Ray Bennett).

 TRAIL OF THE VIGILANTES (1940 Universal)
Franchot Tone starring in a western? Yes, and it's a good one too. Director Allan Dwan, frustrated with a weak, trite, serious script, decided to turn the picture into a comedy spoof of the western genre ... and it turned out marvelous! Tenderfoot eastern investigator Tone is sent to the rough and tumble frontier town of Peaceful Valley to locate the murderer of a newspaperman. Taking a job on Charles Trowbridge's ranch, Tone is befriended by boisterous, brawling cowpuncher Broderick Crawford and his comic "valet", squeaky-voiced Andy Devine. In between warding off the romantic advances of Trowbridge's under-age daughter, Peggy Moran, Tone discovers slick dude Warren Williams operating the old Cattlemen's Protective Association racket under the guise of the Vigilantes. B-vet Ray Taylor directed some terrific 2nd unit action sequences at Kernville and Iversons. Everyone concerned seems to be having fun (and so will you) as Dwan successfully blends the comedy with western adventure just as Les Selander and Howard Bretherton did in Republic's FIREBRANDS OF ARIZONA and RIDERS OF THE RIO GRANDE. They should have made more like this!

 LAW OF THE LAWLESS (1964 Paramount)
Dedicated to clear the West of the fast gun as law, Dale Robertson is a gunfighter turned judge trying to put an end to the law of the gun in a changing west. When mean-tempered John Agar is accused of a killing in a gunfight, Dale is the judge, but Agar's stern town-boss father, Barton MacLane, doesn't want the old ways to change and imports paid gunslinger Bruce Cabot who killed Dale's father. Suspense and tension build as Steve Fisher's script takes some surprising turns. Rory Calhoun was set to star in this first of 13 B-plus Lyles produced westerns, but when he came down with double pneumonia, Dale Robertson was quickly enlisted. With a little more care from director William Claxton and a great streetfight action sequence midway, this is probably the best A. C. gave us in the '60s. As always, a terrific old pro supporting cast: Yvonne DeCarlo as Agar's saloon girl; William Bendix as the sheriff; Richard Arlen wasted as a bartender; Kent Taylor as a Kansas City lawyer; Bill Williams as a crippled gambler; Rod Lauren as an inexperienced young deputy; George Chandler as the hotel owner; Lon Chaney Jr. as the hulking town tough; Don Barry as Chaney's pal; Jody McCrea as the young farmer killed by Agar; Alex Sharp as a gunman pursuing Robertson and Roy Jenson, Reg Parton and Jerry Summers as three outlaw brothers.

 UNDER WESTERN STARS (1938 Republic)
A new singing cowboy star, Roy Rogers, was born when Gene Autry went on strike in late 1937 and Republic went looking for a new singing cowboy. Leonard Slye, a member of the Sons of the Pioneers, who had appeared in a few pictures under the name Dick Weston, was chosen and the Autry script, UNDER WESTERN STARS (originally titled WASHINGTON COWBOY) was handed to him - complete with Autry producer Sol Siegel, director Joe Kane, sidekick Smiley Burnette and regular bit player Frankie Marvin. Even the song "Dust", written by Gene and Johnny Marvin remained. In what would have been a perfect Autry vehicle, slim and athletic young Roy Rogers fits right in, launching a career that would eventually surpass Gene's in later years. Set in modern times, in between songs and humor the serious subjects of dustbowls and water shortages are introduced. Rogers, the son of a congressman, takes up the fight against political and big business interests to bring water to drought-stricken ranchers. Roy wins election to Congress, campaigning valiantly for a water bill, eventually bringing disbelieving congressmen on a fact-finding mission out West in the middle of a sandstorm. Republic pulled out all the stops to promote their new star and the film was a rousing success. When Gene returned to the Republic fold, the studio soon took director Joe Kane off the Autry unit, giving him the task of guiding their new star in a series of straight-action frontier era westerns.

 CHALLENGE OF THE RANGE (1949 Columbia)
Typical Durango Kid. Farmer's association director Robert Filmer tries to hog the whole range for his own cattle by driving out the small ranchers like Henry Hall and daughter Paula Raymond and blaming his "ghost raids" by his gunmen (John Cason, Frank McCarroll, Cactus Mack, Frank Matts) on big rancher Steve Darrell and his son Billy Halop (late of the Dead End Kids). Filmer has found a clause allowing the association to take over abandoned lands. Charles Starrett - The Durango Kid - intervenes. Long stock footage segment midway as Kermit Maynard, Ed Cobb and Ray Bennett chase Smiley Burnette. The Sunshine Boys harmonize nicely on Smiley's "My Home Town".

 GENE AUTRY AND THE MOUNTIES (1951 Columbia)
U.S. Marshal Gene Autry and his deputy Pat Buttram cross into Canada while pursuing bank robber Carleton Young. In Canada they help young Mountie Richard Emory fight off the bandits and take the wounded Mountie to a cabin where they meet Duval's niece, Elena Verdugo and her kid brother Jim Frasher who hates all peace officers and regards Young as a hero. Gene finally convinces Frasher that Young, who is trying to establish an outlaw nation, is nothing but a crook when Young forcibly carries away Frasher's sister, intending to marry her against her will. Young's partner, Trevor Bardette, also outraged by Young's actions against his niece, has a change of heart and helps Gene and the Mounties defeat Young in a blazing climax. By this time, you may notice two trends in Gene's more action-oriented Columbias. Gene plays more "lawmen" rather than cattle ranchers or ranch foremen as he did at Republic and, not always, but there is a tendency for Gene to not actually be involved in the romantic subplots, but to assume the role of matchmaker as he does here with Elena Verdugo and Richard Emory. Notice that the town burning at the end of the film is stock footage from the finale of Columbia's MAN FROM COLORADO ('48). Bruce Carruthers, portraying Northwest Mountie Sergeant McKenzie who is killed early in the film, was actually an ex-Mountie who was hired as the picture's technical director as well.

 RIDERS IN THE SKY (1949 Columbia)
Gene Autry realized the advantage of the sensational hit song "Ghost Riders In the Sky" as a title and plot springboard for a movie. He opens the picture with the song as he and his ranch hands herd cattle. When Gene's cowboys question the origin of the song, Gene relates the legend of how rancher Steve Darrell was accused of the shooting of a gambler in the border town of Desert Wells. Old Tom London and other witnesses are threatened when they attempt to testify Darrell shot in self defense. When Darrell is convicted, Gene, as an investigator for the county attorney, and his pal Pat Buttram try to help Darrell's daughter, Gloria Henry, clear her father's name. Desert Wells is ruled with an iron hand by gambler Robert Livingston who fatally wounds London, but not before London can give Gene all the evidence he needs to clear Darrell. London dies as he sees the eerie Ghost Riders in the Sky coming for him. The hit ballad literally comes alive at the end as the ghostly riders, led by London, echo across the song-filled sky. On a 1987 "Melody Ranch Theater" TV program, Gene said, "I've been around these pictures so long I seldom ever get enthused about a picture, but I think the last scene in the picture with Tom London riding in the sky with those clouds was one of the most beautiful endings I ever worked in. It actually brought a few tears to my eyes." Both Gene and partner Pat Buttram agreed London "stole the whole picture." Songwriter Stan Jones was a National Park Service ranger in Death Valley who passed the time by singing songs he had composed, He was heard by a Hollywood press agent who persuaded Jones to come to Hollywood and try to sell his songs. The ranger was ready to give up and return to Death Valley when one day he ran into the famous composer of "Nature Boy". Stan asked him desperately if he would listen to only four bars of a song he had written and give him an honest opinion. When the composer heard the song, "Ghost Riders In the Sky", he rushed Jones to a music company headed by Burl Ives and Jones was offered a contract. The song was recorded by 13 different artists with a total sale of over four million records. Vaughn Monroe's version sold the most but Gene Autry beat out several movie companies to grab the movie rights when he and Jones met in a Sunset Boulevard radio station and Gene wrote out a check.

 KING OF THE COWBOYS (1943 Republic)
A dangerous mission for the newly crowned 'King of the Cowboys' as Roy Rogers answers the challenge of unnamed-but-obviously-Nazi saboteurs. With Gene Autry in the service, Republic crowned Roy with this wartime drama that finds saboteurs Lloyd Corrigan, Gerald Mohr and Norman Willis operating out of a traveling tent show run by James Bush and his sister Peggy Moran. The governor enlists rodeo star Roy Rogers' aid as a secret operative. Roy and pal Smiley Burnette (fairly subdued here) go to work for the carnival only to find Bush working with the gang. Mohr then kills Bush and lays blame on Roy who is unable to prove he is working for the governor because he's been injured in a car wreck. Watch for the cute blonde in the audience, she's June Pressier, soon to be "Dodie" in the Teenagers series at Monogram.

 BLACK ACES (1937 Universal)
A mysterious blackmailing gang, "The Black Aces", strikes terror in a peaceful valley by intimidating, threatening and killing ranchers and leaving black ace cards on their bodies or in their mail. Buck Jones is a shy, trusting and naïve cattle rancher in love with Kay Linaker, slow to anger, but look out when he's riled. Yet another Frances Guihan somewhat muddled narrative comes alive with some decent action toward the end at Kernville as Buck rounds up some of the community's leading citizens masquerading as the Black Aces (banker Robert Frazer and accomplices W. E. Lawrence, Fred MacKaye, Bob Kortman). Directed by Jones with an unbilled assist from Les Selander.

 FORT TI (1953 Columbia)
Strictly a Sam Katzman produced B-movie approach to history, but being one of the earliest 3-D movies with flaming arrows, cannonballs and all sorts of gimmicky shots from director William Castle exploding from the screen to a ducking audience, FORT TI cleaned up at the box office. It's 1759, during the pre-Revolutionary French and Indian Wars, in which British troops were aided in wilderness skirmishes against their foes by a group of loyalist Americans, Rogers' Rangers, led by Major Rogers (Howard Petrie). French spy Louis Merrill blackmails scout George Montgomery's brother-in-law (James Seay) into feeding him information by kidnapping Seay's wife (Cicely Browne). Montgomery and pal Irving Bacon turn the tables and feed the French false information. On their trek, they effect the rescue from Indians of English lass Joan Vohs. At first she's suspected of being a French spy, but she's acquitted when she and George become romantically entangled. The expected big final battle at Fort Ticonderoga is a disappointment.

 LAW WEST OF TOMBSTONE (1938 RKO)
In this comic western, tall-tale telling old-time confidence man Harry Carey finds his schemes won't work in the big city of New York and returns to El Paso where, after a run-in with the law and three outlaw brothers (Paul Guilfoyle, Bob Kortman, Monte Montague), he is coerced into heading further west to capture the Tonto Kid (Tim Holt), a renown good-badman train robber. Things happen fast over the convoluted 72 minute running time as Carey locates his long-lost daughter (Jean Rouverol) and has himself appointed Mayor of a new railroad community. Holt falls in love with Carey's daughter and ends up killing her outlaw fiancé, and Holt's partner, Allan Lane. Carey winds up reforming Holt and playing matchmaker to Holt and Rouverol while he and Holt bring to justice the troublemaking Guilfoyle/Kortman/Montague trio.

 MONTANA KID (1931 Monogram) While waiting for his son (Andy Shuford) to arrive by stage, a drunken John Elliott gambles with saloon owner W. L. Thorne, loses, and is tricked into signing away his ranch. Realizing the deception, he tries to get it back but is gunned down by Thorne. Elliott's friend Bill Cody takes charge of Andy. Doris Hill, the Marshal's daughter, helps out and she and Bill fall in love. When Thorne lays claim to the ranch he cheated Elliott out of, Cody figures out Thorne's trickery and begins to rob the stagecoaches carrying Thorne's money by way of his henchman, Paul Panzer, so that he can buy back Elliott's ranch. Thorne gets wise and when gunplay erupts, Andy is shot and seriously wounded. As Doris cares for Andy, Cody exacts revenge on the evil Thorne. Good story by Harry Fraser (misspelled Frazer), who also directed, but he develops the tale way too slowly. Shuford, the homely freckle-faced kid in eight Cody westerns, as well as one apiece with Tom Tyler and Bob Custer, was born December 16, 1917, in Helena, AR. After riding lessons at a young age, Shuford's first film was a bit in Raoul Walsh's THE BIG TRAIL ('30) with John Wayne. From '31-'32 Shuford was in eight of Cody's lowbudget Monograms. After a bit in '33's MAYOR OF HELL his brief career was over. At 18 he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corp and became a career officer achieving the rank of colonel. He flew B-17s during WWII including 35 missions over England and earned the DFC, the Air Medal with five clusters, a Purple Heart and a superior rating as a pilot. At 77, Shuford died May 19, 1995, in a Monteagle, TN, nursing home.

 TRAIL OF KIT CARSON (1945 Republic)
When Allan Lane's old friend is killed and it's made to look like an accident, he must prove his partner was swindled out of his gold mine and murdered by Doctor Roy Barcroft, gunsmith Kenne Duncan and gunman Bud Geary. Aided by elderly miner Tom London and his daughter Helen Talbot, Lane uses ballistics to bring the gang to justice. Bit different story angle from scripter Jack Natteford. Yes, Twinkle Watts is in this one, but not overused I'm glad to report.

 LIFE IN THE RAW (1933 Fox)
George O'Brien made westerns for Fox from '30 to '34, usually stories adapted from novels by Zane Grey and Max Brand designed to appeal not only to youngsters but an older audience as well. Compared to the average B-western of the time their quality is exceedingly high, in some cases such as LONE STAR RANGER, RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, and MYSTERY RANCH. While LIFE IN THE RAW doesn't rank with those titles, it is based on a Zane Grey short story, "From Missouri" and moves quickly under director Louis King with some nice camera work from Robert Planck (whose later work includes JANE EYRE, OUR DAILY BREAD, LAST OF THE MOHICANS, MAN IN THE IRON MASK, CASS TIMBERLANE, THREE MUSKETEERS and others. Eastern based Claire Trevor arrives in Arizona to visit her brother Gaylord (later Steve) Pendleton who owes gambling debts to notorious Alan Edwards. To pay his debts, Pendleton agrees to help sleazy Warner Richmond rob the express office. Even though Trevor at one point accuses O'Brien of complicity in the robbery, he helps her and her brother out of their predicament.

 HEROES OF THE HILLS (1938 Republic)
Social commentary from the 3 Mesquiteers. Weak 3 Mesquiteers entry is plot driven and basically actionless til the end. In Bob Livingston's last in his first group of Mesquiteers adventures, he, Ray "Crash" Corrigan and Max Terhune capture escaped convicts LeRoy Mason and James Eagles, becoming involved in prison reform when they learn of the poor, over-crowded conditions. A construction company president, Roy Barcroft, covets the $3 million contract to build a new prison, but the Mesquiteers suggest unburdening the taxpayers by establishing prison work farms instead. Barcroft and his underlings (Carleton Young, John Beach and actress Priscilla Lawson) set out to undermine the Mesquiteers' efforts. When John Wayne came aboard a few months later with PALS OF THE SADDLE it brought new life to the slightly sagging series. Interestingly, Livingston biographer Merrill McCord points out that a new "Main Title" theme is employed in this last Livingston entry, which carried over to the Wayne pictures. Also noteworthy is the fact this was heavy Roy Barcroft's first B-western for Republic. He was one of the gang in Johnny Mack Brown's FLAMING FRONTIERS serial at Universal the same year, but this western is really where he began his long, illustrious career as the B-western screen's top badman. As McCord points out, "The jump from small roles to main heavy was a big one ... but Barcroft handled the part as if he already had done it numerous times." Priscilla Lawson is best remembered as Aura in Universal's FLASH GORDON ('36) serial. Only a few bit roles followed HEROES... for Lawson ... one in BILLY THE KID ('41). She was briefly married to actor Alan Curtis and apparently lost a leg in a WWII accident, after which she managed a stationary shop in L.A. She died in 1958 at 44 in a VA hospital due to gastrointestinal bleeding from a duodenal ulcer.

 YOUNG FURY (1965 Paramount)
Bit different plot for this A. C. Lyles produced western from Steve Fisher, but it's mostly ruined by poor acting, especially from Virginia Mayo and newcomer Preston Pierce. Years after abandoning his dance-hall wife (Mayo) and infant son, gunfighter Rory Calhoun returns to town to make a stand against his ex-gang members led by John Agar. The baby has how grown into a rebellious teenage hell-raiser leading a wild gang of youths. Pierce believes his mother dead, not recognizing her as the years-weathered Mayo, and is seeking revenge on the father who deserted him as a child. Humiliated by his father who is only trying to steer the rebellious youth away from the outlaw path he himself rode, Pierce plans to watch with pleasure when Agar's gang arrives to kill Calhoun. Eventually, Pierce learns some truths about his parents' past and sides with his Dad to wipe out the gang. Producer Lyles' usual band of over-the-hill regulars have smaller cameos than usual and are here for whatever marquee value they can offer. William Bendix is a blacksmith, Richard Arlen is the ineffectual sheriff, Lon Chaney Jr. is a bartender, Merry Anders is a dancehall girl, Rex Bell Jr. is a farmer, Reg Parton (Rory's stunt double) is a deputy and Jody McCrea is a rancher. Good idea to mix younger and older generation actors, but unfortunately, the "kids" don't look or act their western roles very well, and the picture comes off more as REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE out west.

 THE SAVAGE HORDE (1950 Republic)
One of those good-badman Williams S. Hart-ish roles Bill Elliott so loved. After accidentally wounding his brother, Cavalry officer Jim Davis, gunhawk Elliott hangs up his guns, changes his name and moves to another territory. Even so, he quickly becomes embroiled in a range war, siding with small rancher Noah Beery Jr. against local bigtime operator Grant Withers (and his hired gunmen Bob Steele, Roy Barcroft and Marshall Reed) who wants to eliminate the small operators. Typically fine Republic supporting cast - Adrian Booth, Barbra Fuller, Douglas Dumbrille, Earle Hodgins, Hal Taliaferro, Reed Howes, George Chesebro, Kermit Maynard, Charles Stevens and Stuart Hamblen who sings "Ridin' Old Paint" and two others. Nicely directed by Joe Kane.

 RIDER OF DEATH VALLEY (1932 Universal)
By the end of the silent era Tom Mix, nearing 50, figured his movie career was over. He accepted an offer to tour as the star of the Sells-Floto Wild West Show at $10,000 a week. This went on til 1932 when Universal lured the star back to Hollywood for a series of nine westerns that would pay him a similar salary, each to be budgeted around $100,000. Many critics feel RIDER OF DEATH VALLEY is the best of these. I do not. I find it not much more than a long, hot trek across the desert with minimal action. Actually, it's eventually Tom's horse Tony who saves the day. Basic plot has youngster Edith Fellows' father shot after he discovers gold in Death Valley. On his death bed, Edith's trusting father hands over a map to the mine to Doctor Forrest Stanley and his sleazy roughneck friend Fred Kohler, telling them it should go to his sister, Lois Wilson, who is coming west and will care for Edith. Befriending Edith, and distrusting Stanley and Kohler for the scalawags they are, Tom tears the map into three pieces, one for himself and the other two to them until Edith's Aunt arrives, at which time Tom agrees to guide the party through Death Valley to locate the mine. On the treacherous, arduous trek, friction among the group grows until the desire for water and life outweighs the desire for gold. Granted, there is some splendid desert photography from Daniel B. Clark who had worked on Tom's best silent Fox westerns, but it's not enough to save this overlong adventure.

 SQUARE DANCE KATY (1950 Monogram)
Square dance music takes New York City by storm. Silly premise but the music's good with Phil Brito and Governor Jimmie Davis even if the comedy lines handed Vera Vague are downright insulting.

 MOONLIGHT AND CACTUS (1944 Universal)
Silly musical-comedy set on a dude ranch with the Andrews Sisters, Elyse Knox and Tom Seidel. Leo Carrillo comes in midway to do his stock Mexican. Boring.

 SPRINGTIME IN TEXAS (1945 Monogram)
Saddle pals Jimmy Wakely, Dennis Moore and Lee "Lasses" White run afoul of saloon keeper Rex Lease, crooked sheriff I. Stanford Jolley and gunslicks Hal Taliaferro and Robert Barron when the boys aid newspaper lady Marie Harmon and the townspeople to oppose a crooked mayoral election. Seems producer/director Oliver Drake was fond of election stories as he used it for a plot-basis quite often. Plenty of music in this second Wakely Monogram ... three by Jimmy, three from the Callahan Brothers, two by Lasses and one specialty item by Johnny Bond and Frankie Marvin. Did Gene Autry know his pal Frankie was moonlighting in his competition's westerns?

 WESTBOUND (1959 Warner Bros.)
Randolph Scott's last contract film for Warner Bros. is the often maligned WESTBOUND. Perhaps the westerns Scott and director Budd Boetticher were making at Columbia were superior, but WESTBOUND is no slouch in the saddle. Boetticher even agreed to come onboard to direct, no doubt elevating the picture above what some other WB hired-hand director would have afforded it. Scott is an undercover Union officer assigned to take over a failing stage line in Julesburg to insure the Union can transport goods back east in the waning days of the Civil War. Town boss Andrew Duggan, an old rival of Scott's for the affections of his now wife Virginia Mayo, does all he can (with the excellent malevolence of hired gun Michael Pate) to disrupt the line and send the gold and goods to the Confederate forces. Boetticher brings alive the characters (even lesser ones like badman John Day and jovial Wally Brown), especially one-armed Civil War vet Michael Dante and his wife Karen Steele (at the time Boetticher's real life mate) and infuses the action with real intensity.

 HOP-A-LONG CASSIDY (ENTERS) (1935 Paramount)
Even though William Boyd, actor, was physically inept, hated horses and was a terrible rider, producer Harry "Pop" Sherman enlisted the 40 year old actor to play Hopalong Cassidy in this first of what became one of the longest running and best received western series in the history of film, encompassing 66 movies (from '35-'48) and 40 TV episodes from '52-'54. It literally changed William Boyd's life, career and, eventually, economic status. Plot has rancher Buck Peters (Charles Middleton) hiring Bill Cassidy as his foreman when Peters has range boundary-line trouble with rancher Robert Warwick and daughter Paula Stone. Rustlers James Mason and Ted Adams, headquartered on impregnable Thunder Mesa, are in cahoots with Kenneth Thompson, a crooked employee of Warwick's, to play both ends against the middle, getting Warwick and Buck Peters to scrap over water rights while the rustlers drive off their cattle. Arriving at Peters' ranch, Hoppy meets old pal Uncle Ben (George Hayes) and hotheaded Jimmy Ellison. Injured in the leg during a skirmish, and limping, Cassidy refers to himself as "Ol' Hop-a-long". The name sticks, and Uncle Ben starts calling him Hoppy. (The limp was gone and never referred to again in subsequent pictures.) The scene in which Uncle Ben dies in Hoppy's arms as Hoppy vows revenge is quite touching and effective. So much so that producer Sherman had to "revive" Hayes for a similar role (Windy) in future films. Jimmy Ellison and cowhand Frank McG