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

Search/Find: If you wish to find a particular review of a film title or movies by a cowboy hero, simply use your web browser's built-in FIND function and that will allow you to search down this page for your keywords.  In the upper left of your screen, you should see the word 'EDIT' on both Netscape and Internet Explorer.  Click on that, and in the drop down menu, click on 'FIND' to do your search.  In Netscape or Internet Explorer, you can also hit the Ctrl-F key combination to open the FIND box (hold down the Ctrl Key in the lower left of your keyboard, and press the key for the letter F).  In the 'Find What' box, type in a word or short phrase like buck jones, or sunset carson, or republic, or monogram.  When done typing, begin the search by clicking on the 'Find Next' button which will take you to the first occurrence of that word or phrase (or to the end of this page, if no match is found).  Keep clicking on the 'Find Next' button to continue down to all the matches.

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 ©2000-2009 by Boyd Magers. All rights reserved.

The Ratings

Superior

Good

OK

Poor

A real dud !

 LAW OF THE RANGE (1941 Universal)
In this loose remake of Buck Jones' THE IVORY HANDLED GUN, Johnny Mack Brown learns from his father (Pat O'Malley) about an old feud between their family and the family of rancher Hal Taliaferro and his daughters, Nell O'Day and Elaine Morley, Brown's sweetheart. The Wolverine Kid (Riley Hill) is actually the one stirring up the feud to help invading sheepmen (led by saloon owner Al Bridge) steal the range. Hill's father was involved in the feud (over a woman, natch) as well. When Hill's father was killed, Hill took his Dad's ivory handled six-gun and vowed to kill all others involved. Brown's father has the matching pistol and tells Johnny there will be no peace until both guns are reunited. The Texas Rangers group warble a few quickly forgettable songs; Fuzzy Knight is along as usual for any Universal western (this time trying to stir laughter with a faulty memory) and Nell O'Day looks great as usual ... as does Riley Hill (still billed as Roy Harris) riding a feisty, gorgeous pinto. One wonders if Universal didn't have starring plans for Hill that never materialized.

 FIGHTING BUCKAROO (1943 Columbia)
Unless screenwriter Luci Ward got permission from scripter Jack Natteford, she just plain stole his script for Roy Rogers' SHINE ON HARVEST MOON ('38). Rancher Stanley Brown is confronted by rustler Wheeler Oakman (with whom Brown used to ride in his younger days) who now wants to run his stolen beef through a pass on Brown's ranch. Brown refuses, the two men fight and Brown's girl, Kay Harris, sends for Brown's old pal, Texas Ranger Charles Starrett. Child actress Norma Jane Wooters (as Brown's daughter) is given an opportunity to sing and yodel. Ernest Tubb and Johnny Luther's Ranch Boys provide music --- and as much as I like Tubb, he makes mincemeat of Bob Nolan's "Happy Cowboy". At least he sings his hit, "Walking The Floor Over You".

 STRAIGHT SHOOTER (1940 Victory)
Another in Tim McCoy's Lightnin' Bill Carson series, thankfully not one in which he poses as a Mexican, Oriental, gypsy or transvestite. However, it's still a lame remake of Tom Tyler's PHANTOM OF THE RANGE ('36) which was more interesting. Outlaws Ted Adams, Reed Howes and Forrest Taylor kill their boss who has hidden directions to a half million dollars in stolen government bonds behind a portrait of himself in his cabin. Unsuspecting, Martin's naïve niece, Julie Sheldon, arrives from the East only to find her uncle's place to be sold at auction for back taxes. The outlaws outbid her, but FBI agent McCoy, working undercover with his pal Magpie (Ben Corbett), outbids even the outlaws. But the outlaws will stop at nothing to find the directions and the bonds. Both this and the original Tyler version were Sam Katzman Victory productions written by Basil Dickey (with a little additional wordage by prolific Joseph O'Donnell in the McCoy.) Prior to forming Victory in 1935, Katzman (1901-1973) had worked at Fox (starting in 1914), First National, Cosmopolitan and Supreme. For his first year with Victory, Katzman released strictly action/adventure stuff and a serial, SHADOW OF CHINATOWN, not turning to westerns til he signed Tom Tyler in mid 1936 for a series of eight. After Tyler, Katzman was without a western hero until he signed Tim McCoy (who had just finished a four film series at Monogram) in late 1938 with Tim reviving the Lightnin' Bill Carson character he'd created in one film for Puritan in 1936. After eight for Sam, McCoy signed a deal with fledgling PDC, which quickly became PRC. Katzman closed shop at Victory and moved to Monogram from 1940-1947 where he produced more than three dozen features with Bela Lugosi, the East Side Kids and Teen Agers. In 1947 he joined Columbia producing not only Jungle Jim titles but westerns, rock and roll titles and anything else that came along. Still later he produced cheapies for MGM and American International.

 RIO GRANDE PATROL (1950 RKO)
Smuggled machine guns and the shooting of Mexican Rurales Captain Rick Vallin set border patrolmen Tim Holt and Richard 'Chito' Martin on the trail of gun runners --- saloon owner John Holland and outlaws Douglas Fowley and Tom Tyler. The guns are being secretly brought in via the luggage trunks belonging to the showgirls (Jane Nigh, Cleo Moore; three others) working in Holland's saloon revue. Destination for the automatic weapons is insurrectionists below the Mexican border. Pretty Jane Nigh gets to sing two songs. A good mid-range Holt with plenty of action. Well directed by Les Selander.

 YOUNG JESSE JAMES (1960 20th Century Fox)
From the tail end of the all-star outlaw film era comes this re-telling of the origin of Jesse James, portrayed here by Ray Stricklyn as a mixed up kid who just wants to settle down and be a farmer but is forced into the life of a hot-headed, murderous killer as he rides with Quantrill (Emile Meyer) during the Civil War. I suppose writer Orville Hampton was trying to draw some parallel between Jesse James and the troubled youths of the '60s. Robert Dix as Frank James and Willard Parker as Cole Younger try to show Jesse the error of his ways-to no avail. Merry Anders appears briefly in a nice turn as a better-looking-than-she-really-was Belle Starr. Well staged action sequences from director William F. Claxton and another terrible theme song (everybody had to have one after HIGH NOON) sung by Johnny O'Neill (who has a bit role as Jim Younger.)

 DEATH VALLEY MANHUNT (1943 Republic)
After a wild bank robbery opening "written in gunsmoke and punctuated with the crashing roar of forty-fives" Marshal Bill Elliott turns in his resignation, vowing to retire to a peaceable life of ranching. But, when he and his pal Gabby Hayes find the independent oil drillers in Death Valley are being oppressed by Weldon Heyburn, tricky manager of the Ross Petroleum Co., they resolve to help them. Their work also involves freeing Judge Herbert Heyes (and his daughter Anne Jeffreys) from the machinations of Heyburn, who finally gets what he deserves from Wild Bill in an extended, exciting battle atop an oil well. Gabby's comedy comes from a running gag about being allergic to a dog, T-Bone. Jeffreys' sings "Carry Me Back to Old Virginy".

 PIRATES ON HORSEBACK (1941 Paramount)
William 'Hopalong Cassidy' Boyd and Russ 'Lucky' Hayden help Andy 'California' Clyde and his cousin Eleanor Stewart find a lost gold mine they've inherited from Clyde's 42nd cousin, Britt Wood, whom saloon owner Morris Ankrum and his boys (Dennis Moore, William Haade) have killed in order to obtain the mine. One of the main plot points involves shadows pointing the way to the mine, however, Hoppy's theory on shadows doesn't hold water, as shadows change throughout the year, therefore might not point out where the mine is located. PIRATES seems more of a light comedy than an action western, overloaded with too much silliness about California's seeds, a perfect English speaking Indian and a gold strike.

 MEN OF THE TIMBERLAND (1941 Universal)
Crooked lumber promoter Willard Robertson plans to overcut the timber on land owned by eastern socialite Linda Hayes by bribing Forest Ranger Hardie Albright to fix up some phony logging permits. Then Robertson hires expert Paul Bunyanish lumberjack Andy Devine as his 'Bull of the Woods' to get the lumber cut. When Forest Rangers Richard Arlen, Steve Pendleton and Riley Hill arrive to check the permits, Robertson has his stooge, French-Canadian Francis McDonald, murder both Pendleton and Hill. Then, when Andy's old poker playing pal, Paul E. Burns, is accidentally knifed in a barfight attempt to get Arlen, Devine realizes he's on the wrong side of things and begins to help Arlen. Any of these northwoods timber films were only westerns in a different setting. Instead of a land grab, it's a timber grab. Instead of a Texas Ranger, it's a Forest Ranger (or Mountie). Arlen and Devine made a whole series of adventure films for Universal --- each with a different setting (boxing arena, oil field, rubber camps, south seas, etc.)

 YOUNG BLOOD (1932 Monogram)
Bob Steele is a youthful wayward, but genial, bandit heading up a gang of toughs (Roy Bucko, Perry Murdock, Art Mix --- even crooked Sheriff Charlie King). After robbing a stage carrying the Countess, Neoma Judge, Bob won't split the highfalutin' French performer's jewels with the gang, planning to return them to her. But then Charlie, smitten with the Countess, takes them from Bob. Later, battling down Charlie, Bob manages to wrest the jewels back again and return them to the Countess. It's only then Bob realizes he's really in love with pretty Helen Foster and decides to reform, taking a Pony Express rider job with Helen's boss, express office agent Henry Roquemore. Spiteful Charlie and the gang are then out to even the score with Steele. Scripter Wellyn Totman was around Hollywood for about ten years ('31-'41), often introducing unusual and unique ideas into otherwise standard B-western fare (GOD'S COUNTRY AND THE MAN, SUNRISE TRAIL, FROM BROADWAY TO CHEYENNE). By '33 he'd left the westerns behind to concentrate on slightly bigger pictures (ONE FRIGHTENED NIGHT, LEATHERNECKS HAVE LANDED, BOY'S REFORMATORY). Some of the themes hinted at in YOUNG BLOOD between Steele and the Countess are quite adult in content for a picture primarily directed at a juvenile B-western audience.

 RIDE, RANGER, RIDE (1936 Republic)
Gene Autry in the real old west, not his usual never-never land that mixed horses, trucks, airplanes, cowboys and nightclubs into his own mythical west. Court martialed out of the Cavalry as a Lieutenant after being framed in a brawl, Gene is reinstated in the Texas Rangers by the Governor. Although Gene and Lt. George J. Lewis vie for the attentions of Kay Hughes, Cavalry Col. Robert Homan's daughter, they work together to prevent Indian trouble which is being stirred up by Monte Blue, leading a double life as an Army interpreter to gain information while, in fact, he's a renegade Indian who wants to re-route a supply train so his Indians can raid it and steal the Cavalry's ammunition. Must have been deja-vu for Blue, his role here is nearly a carbon copy of his nasty traitorous role in Zane Grey's WAGON WHEELS two years earlier with Randolph Scott. The Indians, even though the bad element, are treated pretty rough ("the only good Indian is a dead Indian") but then so is Smiley 'Frog' Burnette in a running gag with Chief Thundercloud constantly seeking Smiley's scalp. A straightforward B-western directed by Joe Kane which is notable for the introduction to the screen of soon to be Mesquiteer/Range Buster Max Terhune as a scout who nearly steals the limelight from Smiley who is a bit painful to watch at times, especially in this western. The Tennessee Ramblers, a popular '30s group, provide music such as "Yellow Rose of Texas" while Gene belts out Tim Spencer's "Ride, Ranger, Ride". (It wouldn't be the last time that song was heard in an Autry film.)

 GIRL FROM SAN LORENZO (1950 United Artists)
The Cisco Kid (Duncan Renaldo) and Pancho (Leo Carrillo) are framed for the murder of Leonard Penn's brother, a murder actually committed by phonies Dave Sharpe and Ed Cobb masquerading as Cisco and Pancho who are pulling stagecoach robberies and blaming them on the duo. Behind Sharpe and Cobb are Fargo agent Byron Foulger and his henchman Don Harvey. Cisco and Pancho must clear their names and help senorita Jane Adams and her stage guard fiancé Bill Lester. Fairly exciting entry, the last of the Cisco Kid movies, but a natural bridge to the color TV series which began later in 1950. GIRL FROM SAN LORENZO begins with a scene of Cisco and Pancho being chased across the desert, a sequence which was reused behind the opening credits for the TV show.

 NAVAJO TRAIL RAIDERS (1949 Republic)
Raiders plunder and loot slow moving freight wagons, nearly bankrupting the town of Yellow Creek and its prominent citizens (Eddy Waller and his daughter Barbara Bestar, newspaper editor Robert Emmett Keane, businessman Forrest Taylor, sheriff Ted Adams, young Hal Landon engaged to Bestar). Allan 'Rocky' Lane arrives to be best man at the wedding of his old friend, Landon. Also arriving is Landon's outlaw brother, Dennis Moore, who strikes up a partnership with the head of the raiders (Keane --- and his right hand thug, Dick Curtis). Moore reveals Landon used to be an outlaw and frames him for the robbery of Waller the night before. Then the raiders set their sights on $50,000 insurance money being sent from Mesa City. Plenty of the hard hitting action you expect from a Rocky Lane picture.

 TIMBER WAR (1935 Ambassador)
When the lumber mill owned by Lucille Lund and Lawrence Gray in the redwood forests of northern California runs into trouble under the management of Wheeler Oakman, who has been paid by a rival company (owned by Robert Warwick) to sabotage the mill, Lucille contacts her co-owner whom she hasn't seen since childhood. Gray, living well back East by checks forwarded to him, has become pretty much of a drunken playboy. Gray's friend, Kermit Maynard, tries to shape Gray up, accompanying him out West, but when they arrive everyone mistakes Kermit for the lackadaisical partner. Plenty of real logging footage filmed at a lumber camp in Scotia, CA, near the California/Oregon border. Exciting finish as Kermit battles Oakman's man Roger Williams aboard a train as it heads for a burning trestle.

 THE TEXAN MEETS CALAMITY JANE (1950 Screencraft/Columbia)
Stodgy, uneventful and overly long at 70 minutes (except for the last 10 minutes which has some good action). Texas lawyer Jimmy Ellison is called to Deadwood to sort out an ownership of a saloon dispute between Calamity Jane (Evelyn Ankers --- still in mourning over the death of her beloved Wild Bill Hickok) and crooked saloon owner Jack Ingram. The rest of the picture is fleshed out by a truly amateurish group --- Ruth Whitney (God! Where did they find this thespic wonder?), stuntman Hugh Hooker, and a bunch of others you never heard of before or after. Lee 'Lasses' White, who dominates the film, is the only other pro in the cast! Written, produced and directed by former B-western writer Ande Lamb (RIDERS OF THE SANTA FE, RENEGADES OF THE RIO GRANDE, LONE STAR MOONLIGHT, WEST OF THE ALAMO, HOPPY'S HOLIDAY, UNEXPECTED GUEST). Filmed in Trucolor. (aka CALAMITY JANE AND THE TEXAN).

 TOUGHEST MAN IN ARIZONA (1952 Republic)
This was singer Vaughn Monroe's second and last Trucolor western. The only time he seems to display much interest is during his three songs, indicating he'd rather sing than act. U. S. Marshal Monroe leads the survivors (Joan Leslie and her children) of an Indian raid to Tombstone, as well as bringing in vicious outlaw Victor Jory. He and Leslie fall in love, believing her worthless husband (expertly played by Harry Morgan) was killed in the raid. Unfortunately, he was not-the cowardly Morgan fled the scene and has now hooked up with Jory's brothers (Ian MacDonald and Lee MacGregor) who use him and his telegrapher skills to help brother Jory break jail and stage a robbery. When Jory escapes, after nearly killing Monroe, the Marshal and his Sheriff friend, Edgar Buchanan, must track the ruthless brothers down. Well handled by director R. G. Springsteen, but Monroe is just too bland to bring any vitality to the role.

 WILD HORSE PHANTOM (1944 PRC)
Not great filmmaking, just plain ol' PRC fun that incorporates the prop bat from Bela Lugosi's DEVIL BAT ('41). Kermit Maynard and his gang (Frank Ellis, Frank McCarroll, John Cason) are sent to prison before the bank loot they stole is recovered. Buster Crabbe devises a plan, allowing Maynard's gang to escape hoping they will lead them to the $50,000 which appears hidden in the dark, deserted Wild Horse Mine, haunted by huge devil bats, corpses and a crazy old miner (Budd Buster). All this allows our pard Fuzzy St. John to have a barrel of frightful fun. Elaine Morley is the leading lady, as Budd Buster's daughter. This entry has a modern-day setting, unusual for Crabbe's westerns which were always set in the old west. Boo Boo: Although there are only four escaped convicts, director Sam Newfield allows a stock shot of 5 men riding. WILD HORSE PHANTOM was wisely released in October to cash in on Halloween.

 CRIMSON TRAIL (1935 Universal)
One of Buck Jones' most unusual westerns. Ranch owners Charles French and Carl Stockdale are in competition for political office, each believing the other responsible for cattle rustling. French's nephew, Buck Jones, determines to find the real culprits, along the way falling in love with Polly Ann Young (Loretta Young's real life eldest sister), Stockdale's daughter. When Buck discovers Ward Bond, his uncle's foreman (who has impure thoughts about Young), and his men (Bob Kortman, Bud Osborne) are the real rustlers, they capture him in Hell's Basin and imprison him with cackling, weird, half-wit Loco (John Bleifer) as his guard. Bleifer (sort of a western kin to Dracula's Renfield) with his wild grinning and strange chuckling, as he has Buck bound head and foot while the nutcase counts off on his fingers the four men he has pushed over a cliff to their death, is truly terrifying. Good western for Halloween viewing. This and Jones' ROCKY RHODES were director Al Raboch's only westerns and he fills them with constant movement. He moved on to A-features such as WHISTLING IN THE DARK, LASSIE COME HOME, LOST IN A HAREM, LOVE LAUGHS AT ANDY HARDY, THE YEARLING and others. Charles French is the real-life father of actor Ted French and grandfather of actor Victor French.

 DRUM TAPS (1933 World Wide)
Ken Maynard enlists the aid of real life L. A. Boy Scout Troop 107 to thwart Land and Cattle Co. owner Hooper Atchley and his land grabbers (Al Bridge, Charles Stevens, Harry Semels, Slim Whitaker) who are trying to run all the honest settlers out of the valley. When Ken tells leading lady Dorothy Dix his brother is bringing in a troop of Boy Scouts, he's telling the truth --- the role is played by Ken's real life brother, Kermit. Ken's Scout nephew is played by Frank Coghlan Jr. who would achieve immortality as Billy Batson in Republic's ADVENTURES OF CAPT. MARVEL serial. Scout angle is unique, but otherwise it's strictly routine.

 RANGE RENEGADES (1948 Monogram)
Young Riley Hill, the son of old Marshal Frank LaRue, is madly in love with Jennifer Holt (understandable!) but is inadvertently tipping off Jennifer, whom he doesn't suspect is the head of an outlaw gang, to when ore shipments from various mines will be coming through. The outlaws raid the wagons, make 'em go broke, then buy up the mines cheaply. A good plan, but they didn't reckon on Jimmy Wakely and his saddle partner Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor. Jennifer's gang includes John James and Dennis Moore --- both of whom are former Wakely saddle-pals from the 1945 era. Plenty of action and a female bandit give this one an edge over some other Wakelys.

 TROUBLE IN SUNDOWN (1939 RKO)
When the Sundown bank is robbed of $90,000, the night watchman murdered and suspicion pointed at bank president John Dilson, Ward Bond and Monte Montague, secretly working for real crook, real estate agent Cy Kendall, try to incite a lynching. But George O'Brien, sweetheart of Dilson's daughter Rosalind Keith, comes to the rescue with his two pals, Ray Whitley and Chill Wills. O'Brien hides Dilson out until he can prove how Kendall pulled the baffling robbery. The whole thing is a bit constricted, with much of the action taking place inside the bank rather than on the open range. The ending is clever but with little action. Oliver Drake recycled his story for a Cisco Kid TVer in '54, TROUBLE IN TONOPAH. Watch for onetime star Jack Perrin in a small role as one of George's friends.

 RAIDERS OF SAN JOAQUIN (1943 Universal)
This Johnny Mack Brown/Tex Ritter co-starrer (they were now being billed as the west's greatest star team), produced by Oliver Drake and directed by Lewis Collins, gets everything right and comes out a winner. Plenty of action, lots of hard riding, well developed conflict between the two leads, a little well placed comedy from Fuzzy Knight, some music by the Jimmy Wakely Trio --- all in the right amounts and format. Crooked George Eldredge-along with dry-goods store owner Henry Roquemore and dirty work henchie Jack Ingram-are trying to grab up all the ranches in the valley and blame their underhandedess on the A&M Railroad. After Eldredge has the property, he'll sell the land at a profit to an Eastern syndicate for railroad right-of-way. Opposing Eldredge, Tex Ritter's father (Joseph Bernard) is killed by gunman Carl Sepulveda. Tex exacts revenge as he and his boys become fugitives opposing Eldredge's actions, doing their best to help the lone rancher hold-out, Henry Hall and his daughter Jennifer Holt. Enter Johnny Mack Brown, actually the son of railroad owner John Elliott, who aids their fight as a mysterious Black Rider. However, in doing so, to gain Eldredge's trust in order to trap him, he alienates Ritter and Holt. Fuzzy Knight rides along with Brown but is nowhere near as obtrusive as usual. Ritter sings only one song while the Jimmy Wakely Trio get to perform two.

 TRAIL OF THE RUSTLERS (1950 Columbia)
Three Durango Kids for the price of one! Charles Starrett --- the Durango Kid --- captures Big Slim (Ethan Laidlaw) but Slim is killed in a jailbreak. His mother (Mira McKinney) and two brothers (Don Harvey, Myron Healey) are trying to grab up all the land near Rio Perdito by driving off all the ranchers, including Gail Davis and her young brother Tommy Ivo, who emulates Durango by dressing as a junior Durango and riding a horse named Raider Jr. To accomplish their plan and exact revenge on Durango at the same time, Harvey masquerades as Durango while raiding the ranchers, giving Starrett an outlaw image. Smiley Burnette is along but not as overbearing as in some films. The music group is the unknown Eddie Cletro and his Roundup Boys.

 GHOST OF HIDDEN VALLEY (1946 PRC)
Englishman John Meredith is due from Oxford to the wild west where he's inherited his late father's Hidden Valley Ranch which just happens to be where rustlers Charlie King, Zon Murray and John Cason have been hiding their rustled stock, laying the blame on the Hidden Valley Hoo-Doo. Fuzzy Q. Jones (Al St. John) and his pal Buster Crabbe are on hand to meet duded-up Meredith who is accompanied by butler Jimmy Aubrey (in one of his best roles) as Tweedle. This one's quite fun with various mix-ups and Fuzzy's fear of ghosts. There's even a twinge of sympathy for Charlie King's character, even though he's an outlaw. King's niece and love interest for Meredith is Jean Carlin. Bit of a wimpy ending after a big gunfight sort of spoils things.

 UNDER TEXAS SKIES (1930 Syndicate)
Although it presents some offbeat aspects, it's still a long dry haul as orphaned Natalie Kingston tries to sell a herd of horses to the Cavalry for remounts. Badman Tom London (and his man Cliff Lyons) capture Army remount buyer Bill Cody and have brutish, drooling, idiot named Dummy (Bob Roper) hold him prisoner in an old shack while London impersonates Cody as an Army remount officer in order to obtain Kingston's horses. Enter mysterious cowboy Bob Custer who seems to know London is an imposter. Later, secret service man Lane Chandler (who sings!) turns up to investigate. Yeah, it's pretty muddled (with even something going on with twin pintos) but sort of watchable --- like a train wreck. Natalie Kingston was leading lady to Frank Merrill as Tarzan in two silent serials, TARZAN THE MIGHTY ('28) and TARZAN THE TIGER ('29). The film is also notable as Ted Adams' first screen appearance (as a loyal ranch hand). Australian born director J. P. McGowan (1880-1952) first came to America in 1904. Starting as a stage actor, by 1909 he was working for Kalem, the pioneer motion picture company. As a director of silent films, he was responsible for over 50 features and serials including two with his serial-queen wife, Helen Holmes. When sound came in, McGowan found his demand in decline with only the minor studios providing work for him. He cranked out lowbudget dreck at an alarming rate, with little concern for quality. A jack-of-all-trades --- he sometimes wrote, directed and took acting parts in his films. The bulk of his western directorial work was for independents such as Syndicate, Big 4, Freuler, Kent, Empire and Ambassador. His one talkie serial was HURRICANE EXPRESS, co-directed with Armand (Mandy) Schaefer. Retiring from directing after Jack Randall's WHERE THE WEST BEGINS ('38), he continued to act sporadically for a few more years.

 TEXAS JACK (1935 Reliable)
Jack Perrin's sister takes a "schoolteacher job" in Escondido but is forced into a cheap dance job across the border by saloon owner Roger Williams and his lowdown pal Lew Meehan. She writes Jack for help, explaining she's taking her own life as there's "no way out". Although unable to save his sister, Jack goes undercover with Nelson McDowell's Medicine Show and is able to save schoolteacher Jayne Regan (1909-2000). Oscar Gahan (Nip) and Jim Oates (Tuck) perform a blackface comedy act. Williams offers up the best line warning Regan, "There may be some promiscuous shooting." The unusual for a B-western adult themes of prostitution and suicide lift the interest in this otherwise dull effort.

 BLUE STEEL (1934 Lone Star)
Quite likely the best of the John Wayne Lone Stars filled with thrilling action and one of the best mystery-angle opening sequences in B-western films. Searching for the notorious Polka-Dot Bandit, Sheriff George Hayes takes refuge from a raging thunderstorm in a half-way house hotel. Just prior to that, John Wayne has also secluded himself in the hotel. During the night, the Polka-Dot (Yakima Canutt) loots the safe of a $4,000 payroll. Hayes, seeing Wayne give chase to Canutt, mistakes him for the Polka-Dot Bandit. Sometime later, Hayes tracks Wayne down but just as he is about to arrest him, Edward Peil Sr.'s outlaw gang raids Eleanor Hunt and the provisions wagon of her father (Lafe McKee --- who else?). Wayne and Hayes help, becoming involved in the rancher's fight to drive off the outlaws. Peil-who now has Polka-Dot Yak working for him-is secretly aware of a gold field in the area and if he can stop all provisions from coming into the Valley, he can buy up the land at a paltry $100 per homestead. There are several humorous double-entendre jokes early on in the hotel sequence when a pair of newlyweds (Harry Langdon seem-a-like George Nash and his bride) check in. Written and directed by Robert North Bradbury who had used this same plot in Bob Custer's SON OF THE PLAINS in '31 at Syndicate. This is far superior to the earlier version in all respects.

 BADMAN'S COUNTRY (1958 Peerless/Warner Bros.)
From the famous outlaw/lawman cycle of westerns comes the most impossible mythical alliance of lawmen and badmen in western screen history as Butch Cassidy (Neville Brand) leads a Wild Bunch into Abilene, KS, hoping to grab a half million dollar payload. Russell Johnson is the Sundance Kid, Richard Devon is Harvey Logan, Fred Graham is Black Jack Ketchum. Luring the Wild Bunch into the trap are Pat Garrett (George Montgomery), Wyatt Earp (Buster Crabbe), Bat Masterson (Gregory Walcott) and Buffalo Bill (Malcolm Atterbury). The townspeople, led by cowardly mayor Morris Ankrum, are against the idea and cause as much trouble for the lawmen as do the outlaws-until the end when they rally to back the star packers. Tight Orville Hampton script, directed by Durango Kid vet Fred Sears. Oh yes --- there's a girl for George --- the doctor's daughter, Karin Booth. Some excellent stunt work from Al Wyatt. Made in the wake of HIGH NOON when every western had to have a theme song. The Mellowmen sing producer Robert Kent's original ditty --- a tune that must be in everyone's collection! Screenwriter Orville H. Hampton (1917-1997) settled in Hollywood after WWII as a contract writer at Lippert and Edward Small Productions. Eventually scripted 100 films and over 500 TV episodes. Much of his work was outlaw themed (like BADMAN'S COUNTRY) --- OUTLAW WOMEN, I SHOT BILLY THE KID, THREE DESPERATE MEN, LAST OF THE DESPERADOES, THREE OUTLAWS and YOUNG JESSE JAMES.

 LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS (1940 Paramount)
Ranch foreman Victor Jory, on the verge of becoming an outlaw, is rescued from booze and a life of crime by pretty Boston socialite-come-west Jo Ann Sayers who maintains faith in him as he opposes crooked lawman Morris Ankrum, Tom Tyler and others who are running guns to the Mexican revolution. Russell Hayden has a minor role as Sayers' brother and newcomer Alan Ladd is nearly unrecognizable as a young man also at odds with Sheriff Ankrum. Jory's pals are Eddie Dean, Rad Robinson and Noah Beery Jr. (with an awful over-the-top Mexican accent). Producer Harry "Pop" Sherman's version of Zane Grey's 1913 story was the fourth try at the property and certainly no more faithful to the original Grey story than the previous three. A 1918 version starred Dustin Farnum, a 1925 take headlined Jack Holt and a 1930 talkie starred Richard Arlen. This film was the last of Paramount's Zane Grey series.

 YOUNGER BROTHERS (1949 Warner Bros.)
Strictly revisionist outlaw history that whitewashes the Younger Brothers, here played by Wayne Morris as Cole (he'd been Bob Younger in BAD MEN OF MISSOURI back in '41), Bruce Bennett as Jim, James Brown as Bob and Robert Hutton as Johnny. Awaiting a pardon, the harmless fun-loving boys are forced back on the run by vicious ex-Pinkerton man Fred Clark who carries a grudge against them. Trying to stay out of trouble for two weeks to keep their freedom is tough for these boys who are also put upon to return to their outlaw ways by Janis Paige (and her right hand man Tom Tyler in a meaty role), outlaw leader of her dead brother's gang. Edwin L. Marin's direction is exactly what the actionful script calls for-solid and direct. Keep you eyes open for a host of familiar B-western faces: Monte Blue, William Forrest, Syd Saylor, Emmett Lynn, Kermit Maynard, Gene Roth, Lee Morgan, Ben Corbett, Artie Ortego and Philo McCullough.

 COYOTE TRAILS (1935 Reliable)
Cowboys Tom Tyler and Ben Corbett go to work for horse rancher Lafe McKee and his daughter Alice Dahl who are losing brood mares to rustlers Dick Alexander, Slim Whitaker and George Chesebro who are blaming their thievery on the Phantom, a wild white stallion. Old Lafe gives horse lover Tom 24 hours to catch the stallion before he issues an order to kill the horse on sight. Certainly, Tom captures the Phantom-and the two-legged horse thieves as well. Good use of the Bronson Cave area. Typical Tyler.

 ARIZONA TERRITORY (1950 Monogram)
Adele Buffington, aka Jess Bowers, reworked her RAIDERS OF THE BORDER ('44) Johnny Mack Brown plot to come up with this mild Whip Wilson entry about counterfeiters (John Merton, Dennis Moore) smuggling their "queer" in Indian pottery from an Indian trading post owned by pretty (but naïve) Nancy Saunders, Merton's niece. Henchman Carl Mathews, who'd been in B-westerns forever, probably has more to say (and does it better) than in any previous film. Andy Clyde is the U.S. Marshal on the trail of the counterfeiters who enlists the aid of old pal, Wilson --- who lashes out his snakehide three distinct times.

 TWILIGHT IN THE SIERRAS (1950 Republic)
Roy Rogers, deputy Sheriff Dale Evans and veterinarian Pat Brady are mixed up with ruthless counterfeiters (George Meeker and his boys Fred Kohler Jr., Pierce Lyden, James McGill) who hatch an elaborate scheme of reproducing U.S. Treasury Gold Certificates (worthless here) for sale to a European concern (through William Lester) that still recognizes the notes as legal-tender. Parole officer Rogers (working with Edward Keane's ranch who hires parolees for rehabilitation) encounters the gang when they kidnap parolee (and former counterfeiter) Russ Vincent and force him to "clean up" their counterfeit plates by threatening his sister, Estelita Rodriguez, who has just arrived here from Cuba (remember when it was an open country?) to visit her brother. There's some suspenseful moments in the form of a subplot involving a mountain lion. The songs in this one are truly forgettable, even the title tune. Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage help out. Directed by William Witney.

 SALT LAKE RAIDERS (1950 Republic)
Lovely Martha Hyer believes escaped convict Myron Healey killed her father, for which he was sentenced to life, and stole $100,000 from Pop's bank. In reality, Healey is innocent. He's escaped in hopes of clearing himself, recovering and returning the stolen loot, now hidden in the ghost town of Silver City. U.S. Deputy Marshal Allan 'Rocky' Lane, hot on Healey's trail, along with relay station agent Eddy 'Nugget Clark' Waller (who believes Healey innocent) and his ward --- Hyer --- all converge on Silver City --- as does Roy Barcroft's ruthless gang of raiders including Barcroft's brother Clifton Young and Barcroft's partner, shady lawyer Byron Foulger. Everyone's looking for the hidden money during an unusually suspenseful Lane western that ends with another tough, terrific Lane/Barcroft brawl.

 FAST ON THE DRAW (1950 Lippert)
After youngster James 'Shamrock' Ellison sees his parents brutally murdered by bandits led by The Cat, he develops a phobia about shooting someone. Nevertheless, when grown, his pal Russ 'Lucky' Hayden brags to the citizens of Rimrock how brave Shamrock is, forcing Shamrock to accept the post of Marshal after he saves (without gunplay) pretty Betty (Julia) Adams from a stage holdup. Coincidentally, Shamrock's lawman father once killed the brother of Betty's father, Raymond Hatton. Unbeknownst to anyone, The Cat and his gang (John Cason, Tom Tyler, George J. Lewis, Dennis Moore) are now at work in the Rimrock area. Eventually, Shamrock conquers his fear of firing and rounds up the gang, including The Cat who turns out to be (surprise, surprise) "honest citizen" Fuzzy Knight. Rewritten by producer Ron Ormond and Maurice Tombragel from BRANDED A COWARD ('35) which starred Johnny Mack Brown.

 FRONTIER FUGITIVES (1945 PRC)
Leading lady Lorraine Miller's fur trapper father is killed by fur thieves I. Stanford Jolley and Frank Ellis but not before the old man scribbles a note as to the location of his fur cache and sticks it in one of his wildcat furs. Texas Rangers Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien and Guy Wilkerson (who masquerades as Indian Chief Tall Wolf and engages midway in a stupid peace-pipe "comedy" routine with Stan Jolley also "disguised" as an Indian) have been sent to the settlement to investigate the fur robberies and help Miller. Jolley and Ellis' bosses are crooked Indian agent Jack Ingram and trading post owner Jack Hendricks. Tex sings two Al Dexter songs including "Too Late to Worry, Too Blue To Cry". Routine.

 FORT OSAGE (1952 Monogram)
Rod Cameron is a scout hired to lead a wagon train through Osage Indian Territory. Greedy, unscrupulous Morris Ankrum and Douglas Kennedy have been charging emigrants outrageous prices to go on the wagon train to California and all the while have broken a food and supplies treaty with the Osages, stirring them to the warpath. Rod becomes fond of pretty Jane Nigh, daughter of Ankrum who eventually reforms and agrees to obey the treaty, but Kennedy and his boys (Lane Bradford, Marshall Reed) kill him. Tough saloon brawl between Cameron and Fred Graham is well staged by old pro director Lesley Selander (1900-1979), a master of the sound western. Breaking into film in 1919 as a lab tech, he later became a cameraman for Triangle (who made many William S. Hart silents). He also worked as a director of photography for Fox and other studios and was an assistant director on many movies before directing his first, Buck Jones' RIDE 'EM COWBOY at Universal in '36. After several more with Buck, Les landed at Paramount helming many Hopalong Cassidy and Zane Grey adventures for Pop Sherman. He moved to RKO in '41 to head up several Tim Holt pre-war westerns but by '42 was back with Hoppy as he relocated to United Artists. By '44 Selander was ensconced at Republic where his astute fluid camera work enhanced many a Sunset Carson, Allan Lane, Bill Elliott and Monte Hale western. With Tim Holt back from the war, Selander trouped back to RKO in '48. Meanwhile, he helmed several excellent minor A's --- STAMPEDE and SHORT GRASS with Rod Cameron, COW COUNTRY with Edmond O'Brien, WAR PAINT with Robert Stack, SHOTGUN with Sterling Hayden and LONE RANGER AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD with Clayton Moore. Like his friend R. G. Springsteen, Selander wound down his career with several A. C. Lyles produced ensemble cast western in the '60s.

 SNOW DOG (1950 Monogram)
The first Kirby Grant/Chinook-dog Mountie film lensed (although TRAIL OF THE YUKON was released a month or so earlier) is one of the best of the series, dwelling on Chinook who is mistaken as a killer phantom wolf of the White Woods. There's more thrills than usual as Chinook goes into action against stuntman Duke York ... meanwhile Kirby gets the rough end, losing a fight against Richard Karlan, getting smacked on the head more than once and being shot as he tries to help Elena Verdugo and brother Rick Vallin locate a pitchblende mine left to them by their uncle. Milburn Stone is a supposedly friendly doctor. Cowboy cancer alert: Kirby lights up his pipe.

 MAN'S COUNTRY (1938 Monogram)
When Dave Sharpe, son of rancher Walter Long, is murdered after being taken into custody by Texas Rangers led by Colonel Forrest Taylor, undercover agent Jack Randall is called in to work with the Rangers to find out who committed the killing of Sharpe-as well as the friend Sharpe was accused of killing. Randall blends in with the outlaws, learning Long has a brother (also played by Walter Long in a dual role) who was displeased at his brother's inheritance of the family ranch which is oil rich. Marjorie Reynolds is Sharpe's sister smitten with Randall. Ralph Peters is Jack's pal. Dave O'Brien (looking really roughshod), Charlie King and Budd Buster are Long's outlaw gang. Bit different. Worthwhile.

 KID FROM GOWER GULCH (1949 Friedgen)
Produced in color in 1947 but didn't escape until late '49. Phony movie-cowboy Spade Cooley can't really sing or ride (or act) but gets himself into a situation trying to help rancher Jack Baxley and his niece, red headed Wanda Cantlon, where he's required to win at an upcoming rodeo. Spade's pal, Bob Gilbert, double crosses him and helps Baxley's rival rancher, Stephen Keyes. Cute enough story idea by Bob Gilbert (fully scripted by old pro Elmer Clifton) but the substandard acting and production values combined with even worse singing (Little Joe Hiser) undermines it. Spade never fiddles or sings a note! Produced and directed (aka slapped together for no money) by Oliver Drake with scenes shot at his ramshackle ranch near Pearblossom, CA. Rodeo footage was shot at Ridgecrest, CA. Richard Farnsworth doubled Cooley in riding scenes. Bob Woodward and Boyd Stockman performed other stunts.

 LAW OF THE VALLEY (1944 Monogram)
When Luke, the old friend of Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton), is murdered in a railroad-is-coming land grab plot, Sandy and Nevada Jack McKenzie (Johnny Mack Brown) arrive to help Luke's niece, Lynne Carver, and her boyfriend, lawyer Kirk Barron (where did Monogram dig up this sleazy bad actor?) It's an edgier script than usual by Joseph O'Donnell as Sandy and Nevada close in on the land pirates --- Charles King, Tom Quinn, Ed Cobb and their hired guns, Marshall Reed, Steve Clark and George DeNormand. Kirk Barron is so bad his only other role in films was as a train passenger this same year in SINCE YOU WENT AWAY --- and we're glad he did.

 BATTLING MARSHAL (1950 Yucca)
Mindless, you've-seen-it-all-done-much-better-a-hundred-times-before Sunset Carson cheapie. $1.98 production values with low rent do-anything-to-be-in-a-movie actors. Grandpop A. J. Baxley and his daughter (with nothing to do) Pat Starling are put upon by attorney Pat Gleason, Dr. Richard Bartell and their gunnies, Steve Keyes and Bob Curtis, until U.S. Marshal Sunset Carson and his stubby-bearded saddlepal, Lee Roberts, come to their rescue. There's a lost vein of gold underneath Grandpop's ranch. The crooked Doc tries to scare Grandpop off with a smallpox scare-to no avail-so then he and the other rannies try harsher methods. Oliver Drake, in the twilight of his career, directed these Yucca independents for producer Walt Maddox but, by 1950, cheapies like this offered too little too late. For the record, possibly the most talentless music aggregation in B-westerns, Little Jimmy Hiser's group, makes us suffer (or fast-forward) through three songs.

 FRONTIER DAYS (1934 Spectrum)
Although Spectrum was around for 5 years in the '30s, they only managed 22 features, all but one of these (a French made pick-up) starred, first Bill Cody, then Fred Scott. All of these were produced by independent units and released on a State's rights basis under the Spectrum banner. Although he'd been a mid-range western star during silent days, Bill Cody's career had hit the skids with talkies (possibly due to his fondness for booze). He hit bottom in the early '30s with a pitiful trio for Robert J. Horner. Surprisingly, the 8 he did for producer Ray Kirkwood, released by Spectrum, improved his status in the field. Oddly, the first Cody film released by Spectrum, FRONTIER DAYS, is not produced by Kirkwood (unless Al Alt is a pseudonym of his). The Cody westerns were made on the cheap and just couldn't compare to the fare being offered by Ken Maynard, Buck Jones, even Hoot Gibson. Cody appeared either tired (or hung over) half the time, his clothes hung on his body two sizes too large and he wore a terribly oversized Stetson. His fisticuffs were often laughable and he certainly was no ladies' man. Oliver Drake, who worked on some of the Spectrums, once told me Cody was so hung over they had to hold him upright off camera at times. He often fluffed his lines-but cameras kept rolling. Spectrum finally had enough and replaced him with singing cowboy Fred Scott to compete with Autry. In FRONTIER DAYS, Wells Fargo agent Bill Cody poses as the Pinto Kid to investigate a series of stagecoach robberies and killings, eventually discovering banker Wheeler Oakman is the culprit. Cody's son, Bill Cody Jr., is featured as the young brother of romantic interest Ada Ince. Onetime silent lead Franklyn Farnum is their father. Too many plot points are glossed over, eliciting various "why did" and "how did" questions.

 NORTHERN FRONTIER (1935 Ambassador)
Hard riding Mountie Kermit Maynard goes undercover to ferret out counterfeiters LeRoy Mason (with Artie Ortego, Jack Chisholm, Ben Hendricks Jr.) who are holding Eleanor Hunt's engraver father Lloyd Ingraham prisoner to work on their phony plates. Kermit thrills us with some of his fancy horse tricks at the start, otherwise it's a bit ponderous in getting where it's going with the bulk of the action saved til the final reel. Features a young Walter Brennan as a stuttering cook. Nelson McDowell contributes a funny barroom cameo and it's odd to see usual heavy Charlie King as a Mountie battling fur thief Dick Curtis. One of the heavies, Russell Hopton, later directed Kermit's SONG OF THE TRAIL.

 I SHOT JESSE JAMES (1949 Lippert)
Notable as Sam Fuller's directorial debut (he'd previously scripted a few films) and he elicits excellent performances from a notable cast using his own script about conscience-ridden Bob Ford (John Ireland) --- the "dirty little coward" who murdered Jesse James (Reed Hadley). Here Bob Ford's fictionalized reason is that he desires amnesty and the reward for Jesse so he can marry his sweetheart, showgirl Barbara Britton. Preston Foster, a sometime lawman, is also in love with Britton. Good photography from reliable Ernest Miller helps this interesting if uneven psychological story of Ford's guilt-ridden life. Tom Tyler has a minor role as Frank James. (In reality, Ford was not killed in the street, he owned a saloon in Colorado where he was shot in 1892, 10 years after he assassinated Jesse James.)

 RETURN OF JESSE JAMES (1950 Lippert)
Lippert hit pay dirt with John Ireland in I SHOT JESSE JAMES in '49, so a year later they cast Ireland as a Jesse look-alike who takes on the guise of the dead outlaw to rob banks but is destroyed by his ambition. This sort-of-a-sequel lost out in that it didn't employ Sam Fuller as director as did the first film. As in most outlaw westerns, historical inaccuracies abound. Set in 1883, shortly after Jesse's murder, we have Hank 'Pop' Younger (Henry Hull) and Lem Younger (Hugh O'Brian) --- neither of which were real Younger brother names. Also, in actuality, the real Youngers met their demise in 1876 after the Northfield, MN raid. In this film, Bob and Charlie Ford (Clifton Young and Tommy Noonan) are running a saloon in Colorado after Jesse's back-shooting, which is accurate, however, the real Bob Ford died in 1892 in Colorado, not 1883 in Missouri as depicted here. Charlie killed himself in 1886. There are some interesting cast comparisons between the two films. In I SHOT ... Reed Hadley was Jesse James, here he's Frank James. Barbara Woodell is married to Frank in this film, but was Jesse's wife in I SHOT... Clifton Young is Bob Ford here, in I SHOT... he was brother Charlie. This is the film debut of Peter Marshall, who, with Tommy Noonan, were a popular nightclub stand-up comedy team in the late '50s before Marshall hit it big on HOLLYWOOD SQUARES in '66. Is this film where they met?

 WEST OF WYOMING (1950 Monogram)
Veteran heavy Myron Healey (with his gun-totin' skunks Dennis Moore, Holly Bane, Carl Mathews, Frank McCarroll) connive and scheme to drive the homesteaders out of the valley so they can grab some gold rich land for themselves. Johnny Mack Brown rides in to save Gail Davis, Milburn Morante and the rest. Routine plot by Adele Buffington is a bit slow at times, peppered with pockets of good action elements by director Wallace Fox.

 SINGING ON THE TRAIL (1946 Columbia)
Swindled out of $50,000 by eastern slickers Ian Keith and Matt Willis, crusty old Guy Kibbee vows revenge and heads for the dude ranch they own. Getting wind of Kibbee's arrival, the city slickers pull another fast one, making entertainers The Hoosier Hot Shots believe they've bought the ranch. Kibbee, of course, believes the Hot Shots are in league with the swindlers. The Hot Shots, looking for a bodyguard, hire cowboy Ken Curtis (and his pal Big Boy Williams) whom they believe is a two-gun man but is actually only a singer looking for a job on the dude ranch. Typical mix-ups and music. Also with Jeff Donnell, Deuce Spriggins' band and Carolina Cotton.

 FRONTIER FURY (1943 Columbia)
From Charles Starrett's "constant action" period. So what if there are a few continuity or plot lapses, a plot is just something to mention between thrilling western derring-do as Starrett vows to avenge his Indian friend Stanley Brown's death and bring in outlaws masquerading as Indians (Clancy Cooper, I. Stanford Jolley, Ed Cobb, Bruce Bennett). Governor Jimmie Davis' music has a universal appeal as he sings Wiley Walker and Gene Sullivan's melodious "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again" as well as "A Sinner's Prayer", "End of the World" and "I Hang My Head and Cry". He's backed-up musically by Johnny Bond, Wesley Tuttle and Cal Shrum. Throw in a little comedy from Arthur Hunnicutt and you got a good B-western picture. Watch for Elmo 'Tarzan' Lincoln and Franklyn Farnum in bit parts. Oh yeah --- that Indians-crossing-the-Wind-River footage is used once again.

 ALONG THE OREGON TRAIL (1947 Republic)
Monte Hale's 5th starrer took him in a much more action oriented direction than had his previous films under the production set-up of Louis Gray. Under new producer Melville Tucker (who would stay til the end of the series), the fights are tougher (one with Wade Crosby in a storeroom is a doozy) and the songs are lesser. Set in the 1840s, Monte is under orders from Kit Carson (Forrest Taylor) and Capt. Fremont (LeRoy Mason) to hook up with scout Jim Bridger (Will Wright) in Oregon and blaze a trail to the new territory. Outlaw Roy Barcroft, who is a sworn enemy of Monte, hooks up with crooked empire-builder Clayton Moore in Moore's scheme to set up his own government in Oregon. Coincidentally, Moore and Hale are old friends that must now oppose one another. Additionally, Hale is smitten by lovely Adrian Booth who plans to marry Moore, until she learns of his nefarious schemes. Max Terhune and his dummy Elmer provide some comedy relief for Hale in this one film only before saddling up with Johnny Mack Brown at Monogram. By Monte's next film, UNDER COLORADO SKIES, producer Tucker had permanently settled on Paul Hurst as Monte's sidekick. Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage sing three songs, Monte contributes two. Onetime star Kermit Maynard has a nice cameo as a marshal in the first action sequence of ALONG THE OREGON TRAIL. Filmed in Trucolor, but only b/w prints seem to have survived.

 DESERT PATROL (1938 Supreme/Republic)
Vicious half-breed and loco, insane, savage killer Ted Adams leads a murderous gang of cut-throats. Adams' smuggler boss is insurance/loan agent Forrest Taylor. In Adams' gang is Rex Lease who is about fed up with the half-breed's brutal way, especially when Adams ruthlessly and cold-bloodedly murders Texas Ranger Julian Madison. Ranger Bob Steele, on his way to see Madison, encounters Lease's sister, a spunky, uppity New York gal, Marion Weldon (a pretty and talented actress we saw too little of in her brief Hollywood career). Learning of his friend's murder, and with the aid of Budd Buster, Lease's ranch hand and token comedy relief, Steele insinuates his way into Adams' band to bring him to justice. Not action packed, but filled with constant movement under Sam Newfield's better-than-usual direction. Fred Myton's script is a cut above average as is Robert Cline's camera work. Myton started as early as 1917 and continued on til 1951, churning out westerns for Buck Jones, Johnny Mack Brown, Herb Jeffries, Fred Scott, Tim McCoy, Bill Elliott, Charles Starrett, Don Barry, Buster Crabbe and others. Cline added his expertise to dozens of oaters with Rex Bell, Harry Carey, Jack Perrin, Fred Scott, Jack Randall, Range Busters, Buster Crabbe, Bob Livingston --- even Lash LaRue and Eddie Dean. His work was fast --- but always efficient and well composed. Watch for onetime silent kid star Buzz Barton as one of Taylor's henchies.

 SONG OF THE SIERRAS (1946 Monogram)
Jimmy Wakely in the type of B-western Gene Autry was making in the mid to late '30s. Lotsa good music from Jimmy, Wesley Tuttle and His Texas Stars, some action, fabulous Kernville scenery, a little comedy from Lee 'Lasses' White and a big horse race finale --- all put together by Oliver Drake (producer, director, original story) who had basically been writing the same type of stuff for Autry a decade earlier. Horsetraders Wakely and Tuttle try to help rancher Budd Buster and his daughter Iris Clive who are beset by Jean Carlin (and her roughnecks Zon Murray, Bob Duncan) who wants to grab up more grazing ground for her Army remounts. Wes, Jimmy and the group sing Wes' new Capitol hit "Detour" (written by Paul Westmoreland). The tune has been Wes' signature song ever since --- he even later reworked it into the gospel phase of his music career. Quite entertaining.

 UNDER NEVADA SKIES (1946 Republic)
Possibly the first B-western to mention the atom bomb. Stalwart Douglas Dumbrille leads a bunch of nasty foreign power types (Rudolph Anders, George Lynn, LeRoy Mason) who are pursuing a jeweled crest containing a map of a rich deposit of pitchblende (used in the making of the A-bomb). They track the current holder (Leyland Hodgson) to a small Nevada town where Gabby Hayes is the Sheriff and local watch repairman, Roy Rogers the local celebrity, and Dale Evans an entertainer with an interest in the crest as well-it was stolen from her father, Hodgson's partner. Plot and music envelop most of the running time with the bulk of the action saved for the windup in which Roy enlists the aid of George J. Lewis' friendly Indian tribe. Always catering to their south of the border audience, Roy and Dale sing "Anytime That I'm With You" in Spanish. "Ne-Hah-Nee (Clear Water)" by Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers is fine but a production number ("Sea Goin' Cowboy") is really out of place! This was director Frank McDonald's last of nine with Rogers. McDonald (1899-1980) was born in Baltimore, first worked as a railroad man, then spent 17 years as an actor, stage manager and playwright. He landed in Hollywood as a dialogue director at Warner Bros. and was directing films for them by '35. McDonald became a house director for Republic in '39, helming Gene Autry, Weaver Brothers and Elviry, Roy Acuff and Rogers films through '47 when he moved over to Columbia, reuniting with Autry on several at that studio. He also directed several of Kirby Grant's northwest Mountie films at Monogram in the '50s before becoming heavily involved in TV (WILD BILL HICKOK, WYATT EARP, CHAMPION, ANNIE OAKLEY, BUFFALO BILL JR., GENE AUTRY SHOW, BROKEN ARROW, PONY EXPRESS etc.).

 BEAUTY AND THE BANDIT (1946 Monogram)
The third of Gilbert Roland's Cisco Kid adventures and, at 77 minutes, the longest. And you feel every minute of it in this dry, slow, lethargic, strange movie in which Cisco and Baby (Frank Yaconelli) come to the rescue of beautiful Ramsey Ames (the primary reason to watch this title) who is in danger of losing her ranch to former medicine showman William Gould and his partner, disgraced doctor Martin Garralaga. Ames "disguises" herself as a boy, but how anyone could not tell she is all woman is beyond me. After a lot of double entendre verbal sparring between Ames and Roland, he eventually drops her over his knee for a zealous spanking. From then on, she kowtows to him, calling him Master. Not recommended for feminists in the audience. Oddly, although Glenn Strange can sing quite well, his voice is dubbed when he "sings" "Blow the Man Down". Cowboy cancer alert: Roland smokes constantly. Frank Yaconelli's nephew, Steve Yaconelli, is now a director of photography with a close relationship to James Garner.

 SPOILERS OF THE FOREST (1957 Republic)
Good lumberjack drama, set in Montana, starring Vera Ralston (and her thick Czech accent --- no explanation given) as owner of 64,000 acres of rich timberland (along with her foster Dad, Carl Benton Reid) who battles the efforts of unscrupulous big lumber company operator Ray Collins and his foreman Rod Cameron to cut down the trees. Cameron romances Ralston in hopes of getting her name on a contract to cut all the trees rather than investing in reforestation, but true love develops, Cameron sees where he was wrong, and opposes Collins. Hairy, no-brakes-wild-ride finish! Good support from Hank Worden, Hillary Brooke, Edgar Buchanan, John Alderson. Watch for three former B-western leading ladies --- Sheila Bromley as Carl Benton Reed's wife, Virginia Carroll as Collins' maid and Pauline Moore in a bit as a hysterical woman in the fire.

 DYNAMITE RANCH (1932 World Wide)
Rancher George Pearce's foreman Alan Roscoe and his gang stage a train holdup in order to replace money Roscoe has stolen from Pearce's safe. But then, none of his gang will admit to having the loot. Roscoe tries to throw blame on cowboy Ken Maynard who is smitten with Pearce's daughter, Ruth Hall. Actually, the money has been found and cached away by Pearce's bookkeeper, timid Arthur Hoyt. In order to entrap the gang, Ken sets Roscoe and his henchman, Al Smith, against one another. Early on there's a splendid rooftop fight sequence between Ken, stuntman Cliff Lyons and others. Watch for former (and would be again by '35) star Jack Perrin finding work where he could as one of Roscoe's gang. Sonoart-World Wide was formed at the beginning of the sound era, concentrating on documentaries and foreign language films. But by '30-'31 they'd released a couple of one-off westerns with Rex Lease, Tom Keene and John Bowers. In 1932 Tiffany ceased operations and Sonoart-World Wide picked up their remaining product, including the Ken Maynard and Bob Steele westerns, both of which proved good boxoffice for the struggling company. By the summer of '32, with E. W. Hammonds, president of Educational Pictures, taking over as chief, the studio dropped the Sonoart part of their corporate name, simply calling itself World Wide until their demise in '33.

 OKLAHOMA RAIDERS (1944 Universal)
During the Civil War, Cavalry Lieutenant Tex Ritter and Corporal Fuzzy Knight are assigned to the Oklahoma Territory to stop the theft of Union Cavalry wild horse remounts by a masked bandit known as El Vengador (The Avenger). Wounded and falsely accused of robbing an express office, Tex is helped by El Vengador herself (Jennifer Holt) and her right hand man (Dennis Moore) and learns Jennifer and other ranchers had their lands taken away from them at the outbreak of the Civil War, so they formed this outlaw band in an act of protest. Tex has to straddle a fine line in order to obtain the remounts and still help Jennifer and Dennis bring land commissioner George Eldredge and his cohorts (Jack Ingram, I. Stanford Jolley, Dick Alexander) to justice. Former Universal star Bob Baker has a non-speaking role as a vigilante member. Johnny Bond and his Red River Valley Boys play no roles but sing two songs. This is one of three "solo" starrers Tex made for Universal after his Brown/Ritter series ended. It's a typical slick Universal B-western, produced by Oliver Drake and directed by Lewis Collins with a screenplay by Betty Burbridge that smells distinctly like a viewing of Buck Jones' TREASON (Columbia '33) written by Gordon Battle was running while she scripted OKLAHOMA RAIDERS.

 STRANGER FROM ARIZONA (1938 Columbia)
After three years of westerns and serials for Universal, Buck Jones returned to Columbia where he'd made his first --- and best-westerns. It was not a triumphant return. Actually, the films were independently produced by Coronet Pictures and released by Columbia. The first two of the six-pack (HOLLYWOOD ROUNDUP and HEADIN' EAST) tried for something different. The final four were strictly run-of-the-mill action westerns, not up to Buck's abilities. In this one, railroad inspectors Buck and pal Hank Worden investigate cattle cars full of prime beef missing from the train station. Buck spars with leading lady Dorothy Fay (real life wife of Tex Ritter) who has had her cattle stolen. Her foreman is silent comedian Hank Mann (famous Mack Sennett comic and original Keystone Kop) who adds many comic touches. There's also a comic-tinged barroom brawl, but these broad, near slapstick routines were not Buck's forte. Eventually, Buck rounds up rustlers Roy Barcroft and Bob Terry who are in cahoots with banker Stanley Blystone and train station agent Budd Buster. Director Elmer Clifton claimed credit for the discovery of the 'IT' girl, Clara Bow.

 DEATH VALLEY RANGERS (1943 Monogram)
Here we go again! No pretense to art, just Saturday afternoon B-western action in its purest form as the Trail Blazers (Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson, Bob Steele) break up crooked mine owner Weldon Heyburn's plot with chemist Karl Hackett who has discovered a formula for reheating gold and pouring it back into the rock where it cannot be distinguished from virgin ore where Heyburn then runs the stolen gold through his mine. Heyburn's gang consists of Charlie King, George Chesebro, Lee Roberts, Al Ferguson and John Bridges. Bob Steele makes his initial Trail Blazers appearance here and tries to romance Linda Brent --- and that's all she has to do. Director Bob Tansey recycled his plot from GUN PACKER ('39) with Jack Randall for this one. Adele Buffington purloined it for her own in 1949 as RANGELAND with Whip Wilson.

 LONG, LONG TRAIL (1929 Universal)
An engaging lighthearted western that relies strictly on the boyish charm of Hoot Gibson and the cuteness of his soon-to-be real-life wife Sally Eilers for its watchability. A remake of Hooter's own 1923 RAMBLIN' KID, both films based on a 1920 novel by Earl Wayland Bowman. Fun-loving Hoot captures wild horse Lightnin', then ends up riding in a big-stakes horse race for Sally and her father, Howard Truesdale, against saloon owner James Mason (not the English actor) who drugs Hoot so he'll lose the race. Watch for some early product placement as Hoot's pal, Walter Brennan (in one of his earliest character roles), mentions Coca-Cola-twice! This was Hoot's first talking film for Universal, after a string of well received starring silents. Unlike many silent cowboys, Hoot's voice worked well in sound films, seemed to match his physical persona, and he was able to deliver bantering dialogue quite naturally. Overall, Hoot's transition to sound was smooth, allowing his pictures to change little from the light comedic, leisurely fashion his fans had grown accustomed to. However, with Jones, Maynard, Steele and others instilling high energy action into their films and the soon-oncoming glut of singing cowboys, old Hooter had only a few more years to ride tall in the saddle.

 UNDER MEXICALI STARS (1950 Republic) This one goes at the top of everyone's Rex Allen wantlist. Scripter Bob Williams penned a dandy, replete with a terrific wagon race (stock footage from Roy Rogers' SONG OF TEXAS) and a thrilling segment in which Rex snatches a ride over the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine, CA, aboard counterfeiter Roy Barcroft's helicopter. Undercover Treasury agent Rex Allen works with the Mexican Secret Service to discover smugglers Walter Coy, Barcroft and Frank Ferguson who are counterfeiting valuable Mexican coins and bringing them across the border by helicopter over the ranch of pipsqueak Percy Helton and his daughter, pretty Dorothy Patrick. Beginning with this, Rex's fourth, he was joined by Buddy Ebsen who would play his sidekick for five films. Credit goes to director George Blair who keeps the action moving at breakneck speed, still managing to let Rex warble three songs, including Eddie Cherkose's "Born to the Saddle".

 TRAIL OF TERROR (1935 Supreme)
Hard to believe there's not a gunfight or fistfight until the wild round-up at the end, but the story, although routine, is so well handled by director Robert Bradbury, you don't notice the lack of hard action. Trying to get evidence to convict an outlaw gang (Forrest Taylor, Charlie King), Bob Steele pretends to be an escaped convict which eventually trips him up when he romances Beth Marion, Sheriff Charles French's daughter. And wait til you meet Beth's brother, Frank Lyman Jr., ... now there's a gay buckaroo! Bradbury's story borrows elements from RANDY RIDES ALONE ('34) and other John Wayne Lone Stars. To demonstrate Steele's athletic abilities and wrestling prowess, there's a full five minute wrestling match midway between Bob and wrestler Dr. Barney Cosnack (his only film).

 DOWN TEXAS WAY (1942 Monogram)
The trail blazes with action as the Rough Riders, Buck Jones and Tim McCoy, head down Texas way to clear their pal Raymond Hatton of a phony murder charge. Citizens suspect Hatton because he's disappeared. Actually, he's being held captive by Harry Woods' gang (Reed Howes, Tom London, John Merton, Frank Ellis) in an effort to divert suspicion to him. When Hatton unsuspectingly returns to town, he's thrown in jail. Luana Walters, Hatton's niece, appeals for help to Dave O'Brien, the murdered man's son, to whom she is engaged. Screenplay by Jess Bowers who used her real name of Adele Buffington when she revived the story for Johnny Mack Brown's WESTERN RENEGADES ('49).

 FRONTIER UPRISING (1961 Zenith/United Artists)
Early California epic has frontier scout Jim Davis (and his pals Ken Mayer and David Renard) battling an evil allegiance between Mexican Colonel John Marshall and Indian Chief Herman Rudin. Davis and Cavalry Lieut. Don O'Kelly aid a wagon train headed for California bearing Mexican beauty Nancy Hadley (with not the slightest hint of an accent) --- and vie for her affections. Some good action sequences (with liberal doses of stock footage swiped from KIT CARSON) spice up an otherwise weak narrative. Produced by Robert E. Kent and directed by Edward L. Cahn.

 SILVER RAIDERS (1950 Monogram)
Arizona ranger Whip Wilson (and his two pals Riley Hill and Reed Howes) break up a gang of silver bandits (Dennis Moore, Marshall Reed, Kermit Maynard, George De Normand) when the gang's town boss (Leonard Penn) goes too far by kidnapping and holding for ransom a Mexican senorita (Patricia Rios). The Rangers are helped by sheriff/postmaster Andy Clyde and his daughter, Virginia Herrick. Better than usual latter-day Monogram stuff scripted by Daniel Ullman, directed by Wallace Fox (1895-1958), a routine program director who is principally remembered for his East Side Kids and Bela Lugosi pictures at Monogram in the '40s. Fox began directing westerns in the final days of silent films. His most noted western credit is definitely POWDERSMOKE RANGE, the all-star RKO 3 Mesquiteers 1935 film. After one here and there for Jack Randall, Elliott/Ritter and Johnny Mack Brown, Fox landed at Universal cranking out the Kirby Grant series. He followed those with a few lackluster Duncan Renaldo Cisco Kids at United Artists before moving back to Monogram in '50-'51 on their Wilson and Johnny Mack Brown series. He went into TV work in the '50s. Wilson whip-pops it to the baddies twice in this one.

 BAD MAN OF DEADWOOD (1941 Republic)
Solid, fast moving, involved Roy Rogers B-western from director Joe Kane. Theatre owner Rolf Harolde and his desperadoes (Hal Taliaferro, Jay Novello) establish a crooked Citizen's League to run out all honest businessmen in Deadwood, forcing them to become outlaws in a hideaway called Laramie Gap. Harolde (guided by a mystery boss) even has Sheriff Monte Blue under his thumb. Roy Rogers is a fugitive who has changed his name and become a minstrel and sharpshooter with medicine show owner Gabby Hayes and his "Indian Princess" daughter, Sally Payne. As they run afoul of Harolde, they meet newspaperwoman Carol Adams and her publisher boss, Henry Brandon, supposedly an outspoken opponent of Harolde's Citizen's League. Eventually the "outlawed citizens" of Laramie Gap persuade a local judge they are not guilty of Harolde's false charges and the boss behind Harolde turns out to be Brandon. Some old familiar faces as Deadwood citizens --- Jack Kirk, Horace Murphy, Fred Burns --- with an especially nice role for Kirk. Brandon is both genial when he's being good and mean when he's uncovered as the Boss.

 LAWLESS PLAINSMEN (1942 Columbia)
Bar fights. Gunfights. Fistfights. Indian fights. Action erupts from the screen as Charles Starrett and his saddlepals, headstrong Russell Hayden and melodic Cliff Edwards, guide a wagon train west as it's besieged by Apaches and renegade gun runners (Ray Bennett, Carl Mathews, Francis Walker). Director William Berke's pell-mell action is greatly enhanced by lots of rampaging Indian stock footage, including the oft used Wind River Indians crossing the river shot --- and even Tim Holt and the Cavalry from STAGECOACH. Luana Walters is interesting to watch as saloon owner Baltimore Bonnie, ex-wife of the thieving Bennett. Watch for Forrest Taylor in a cameo as Kit Carson.

 HOPALONG RIDES AGAIN (1937 Paramount)
Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and his pals, Russell 'Lucky' Hayden and Gabby 'Windy' Hayes are ordered by Bar 20 owner Buck Peters (former silent star William Duncan) to drive 1,000 head of cattle through Black Butte rustler country to the railhead. Thanks to a spy (Ernie Adams) at the Bar 20, rustler John Rutherford's gang knows about the coming drive. Paleontologist Harry Worth, the brother of neighboring rancher Nora Lane, of whom Hoppy is fond, turns out to be the rustler boss. As he did in BAR 20 RIDES AGAIN, Worth plays his role slightly limp-wristed. Youngster Billy King enters the series as Buck Peters' nephew, Artie, who is trapped with Windy after a rustler-caused avalanche. The film finishes with the most amazing gunshot ever made in B-westerns. This was director Les Selander's first Hoppy film, with many more to follow. Screenplay is by Norman Houston who, although garnering over 20 credits in late silents and early talkies, had only penned a couple of westerns (for Hoot Gibson) prior to HOPALONG RIDES AGAIN. They would not be his last. He wrote several more Hoppys, Zane Grey titles, several for Roy Rogers and a host of Tim Holt titles at RKO.

 MAN FROM THE BLACK HILLS (1952 Monogram)
Joseph O'Donnell's screenplay tries valiantly to bring something different to the waning days of the Johnny Mack Brown B-western era, but it's undermined by producer Vincent Fennelly's cost-cutting measures. Imposter Rand Brooks, under the criminal tutelage of his father (storekeeper I. Stanford Jolley), leads blind Stanley Andrews (and his companion Florence Lake) into believing he is Andrews' true long-lost son. Jolley and Brooks are waiting for Andrews to croak so they can grab his rich gold mine. Andrews' real son, Jimmy Ellison, arrives, throwing a monkey wrench into their plans. Johnny Mack Brown is there to sort things out. Also aware of Jolley's plot is Jimmy's real uncle, Ray Bennett and his men (Robert Bray, Stanley Price) who are robbing Andrews' mine gold shipments to protect Andrews and his real son, Jimmy, from losing the ore.

 PRAIRIE OUTLAWS (1948 PRC)
If you've seen Eddie Dean's WILD WEST, you've seen PRAIRIE OUTLAWS which is made up primarily of footage from WILD WEST now edited down (all of Louise Currie and Jean Carlin's dialogue is cut) and shown in b/w (the original was in Cinecolor). Producers added a written prologue, a set-up scene with George Chesebro and Steve Clark, added some silent stock footage action, then lifted an action scene with I. Stanford Jolley from Eddie's WILD COUNTRY --- all of which gobbles up about 13 minutes. The remainder is Eddie, Al (Lash) LaRue and Roscoe Ates from WILD WEST stringing telegraph wire, singing to young Buzz Henry and fighting off outlaws.

 WOLF RIDERS (1935 Reliable)
Reliable relied on past-their-prime stars to sell much of their product during their four year existence from December '33 to February '37 --- Rex Lease, Bob Custer, Fred Humes, Richard Talmadge, Wally Wales, Ben Corbett and Jack Perrin. (Tom Tyler was their biggest more "current" attraction, coming to Reliable just after completing CLANCY OF THE MOUNTED serial at Universal, but even he too had been an established silent star at FBO). Perrin (1896-1967) began starring in silents in 1917 and starred in westerns for two decades, usually teaming with his beautiful white stallion Starlight. Following his final starring series with Atlantic in '36 he continued to essay character roles into the early '60s. In WOLF RIDERS, a government agent (Perrin) raised by Indians (Earl Dwire) goes after a fur thief (William Gould) who has framed him for the murder of another fur thief (a delightfully over-the-top George Chesebro) when Chesebro and Gould clash over the cheap flirt (Nancy DeShon) who sings in Gould's saloon. Lackluster B. B. Ray/Harry Webb production.

 BLUE MONTANA SKIES (1939 Republic)
Except for the final confrontation in the snow, this is a rather bland Gene Autry picture with below average songs. Fur smuggling is the plot ploy here. Cattlemen Gene and Smiley Burnette try to discover the murderer of their partner (Tully Marshall) who stumbles across the smugglers (Harry Woods, Glenn Strange, Ed Cobb, Jack Ingram, Augie Gomez) one night and is killed. The smugglers are using pert June Storey's guest ranch as a front for their illegalities. Walt Shrum and His Colorado Hillbillies are the music group. A running gag has obnoxious young Robert Winkler bedeviling poor Smiley. Incidentally, Smiley himself bedeviled the cast and crew by constantly (on purpose) saying "smur fugglers" instead of "fur smugglers" causing several retakes. Closer to a traditional western than usual for Gene with fewer songs. Director B. Reeves 'Breezy' Eason (1886-1956) was a "hard drinking, hard driving man who worked his crews mercilessly to get the effects he desired" according to director/friend Harry Fraser. He broke into directing circa 1915, directing features, serials and shorts for Universal. His first talkies were a group of Hoot Gibson westerns at Universal which he also scripted. He also co-directed several Mascot and early Republic serials with Ford Beebe, Otto Brower, Joe Kane and Mandy Schaefer, including Gene Autry's PHANTOM EMPIRE. One of the best chase and fight specialists in the business over the years, Eason also worked as a second unit action director on such A-films as GONE WITH THE WIND, DALLAS and DUEL IN THE SUN, as well as TV's early LONE RANGER episodes, contributing terrific action to many a film. His nickname, 'Breezy', emanates from the way he breezed through action scenes with incredible speed, after averaging 50-60 setups per day. He wound down his career in the late '40s with several Columbia serials.

 SHERIFF OF SUNDOWN (1944 Republic)
Republic burned off two Allan Lane pictures that co-starred sidekick Wally Vernon, a holdover from the Don Barry series that Lane inherited, then, in the 3rd outing, introduced a new Republic trio, sort-of, with Lane, Max Terhune (as Third Grade Simms) and Duncan Renaldo (as Chihuahua Ramirez). Although loaded with action, the new trio was never heard from again. Lane was also still saddled with dreadful little Twinkle Watts for the run of the series. (Either Republic prexy Herbert J. Yates really liked this kid or she had an iron-clad contract.) Saloon owner and cattle broker Roy Barcroft with his gunmen (Bud Geary, Bob Wilke) ride rough-shod over small ranchers, paying below market prices for beef until large Texas cattleman Lane becomes a special investigator reporting only to Governor Herbert Rawlinson and establishes a Cattlemen's Co-Operative League opposing Barcroft's under-handed ways. Small cattle rancher Jack Kirk is killed by Barcroft, so Lane, Terhune and Renaldo care for his daughter, Twinkle Watts, whom stern director Les Selander manages to keep from being obnoxious as usual. Lane and his pals are helped by Sheriff Tom London and his daughter Linda Stirling. Lapsed minor silent name Neal Hart can be spotted.

 LION'S DEN (1936 Puritan)
Sluggish affair in which New York vaudeville performer (!?) Tim McCoy comes west to help rancher Arthur Millett and his pretty daughter Joan Woodbury who are under siege from rustler Frank Glendon and his gang, led by Dick Curtis. A case of mistaken identity leads Glendon into believing Tim is notorious badman Single Shot Smith whom Glendon has sent for. All is going well until the real Single Shot (John Merton) arrives. Tedious and slow with a completely flat, actionless ending!

 MASKED RAIDERS (1949 RKO)
Texas Rangers Tim Holt and Richard 'Chito' Martin are sent to stop the masked Diablo Kid's gang who have repeatedly robbed the Willcox, Texas, bank. They discover Diablo (actually a lady-Marjorie Lord) and her gang (Houseley Stevenson, Tom Tyler, Clayton Moore, Bill George [aka Jay Kirby] and Lord's kid brother, Gary Gray) are western Robin Hoods robbing from the bank and giving it to the ranchers in the area who have bank foreclosures facing them. The real bad guys are bank owner Frank Wilcox and Sheriff Harry Woods working in cahoots to take over area ranch lands. Clayton Moore made this film just before becoming TV's LONE RANGER. Marjorie Lord became Danny Thomas' wife on DANNY THOMAS SHOW. Although released after MYSTERIOUS DESPERADO, MASKED RAIDERS was filmed first. A sign in MYSTERIOUS DESPERADO reads "Willcox Saloon", although that film takes place in Santo Domingo, indicating MASKED RAIDERS was filmed first and the property manager was lax in taking down the sign.

 GUNFIGHTERS OF ABILENE (1959 Vogue/United Artists)
Evil, tough landowner Barton MacLane has lynched gunfighter Buster Crabbe's nester brother for siding against him in his feud with small ranchers. MacLane and his son, Lee Farr, have accused Crabbe's sibling of stealing nester's money and ruining them. This is how they justify the hanging. To complicate matters, Judith Ames as MacLane's daughter was the fiancée of the lynched man. Crabbe arrives to avenge his brother's "murder" and eventually takes up with Ames where his brother left off. The team of screenwriter Orville Hampton, director Edward Cahn and producer Robert E. Kent collaborated on several adult themed B-westerns in the late '50s-early '60s.

 BORDER FENCE (aka CACTUS BARRIER) (1951 Astor)
Wanna make it seem like you've prolonged your life? Watch this one hour western ... it feels like 5-6 hours! The absolute, hands down worst piece of cowboy celluloid ever lensed! Watching a TV test pattern for an hour would be more exciting! The titles are literally hand written cards! Texas producer H. W. Kier's only other credits are several all black films with Spencer Williams for Alfred N. Sack (out of San Antonio, Texas) and a not-too-bad aviation film from 1932, CLIPPED WINGS with Lloyd Hughes and William Janney, which Kier co-produced with someone named Phillips (first name unknown) under the name Kier Phillips (the film was shot at Randolph Field in San Antonio). According to historian Les Adams, the pair operated in Texas and Florida for several years as Gulf Coast Prod. and/or National Prod. They produced a film (which is now lost) about the Alamo in conjunction with the '36 Texas Centennial. Norman Sheldon is the culprit who directed (along with Kier) and wrote this mess. Interestingly, Sheldon also wrote TWO GUN LAW ('37) with Charles Starrett and two Sunset Carson titles, ALIAS BILLY THE KID and EL PASO KID (both '46). Not bad, but he slipped-up when he reunited with Sunset away from Republic to write and direct RIO GRANDE in '49, another piece of garbage. BORDER FENCE contains the most amateurish, fake looking screen fist fight ever staged. Looks like kids playing cowboy in the backyard. His work makes low budget impresario Robert J. Horner look like John Ford. Boring, static camera work (by Jack Specht out of Wichita Falls, Texas) --- if you can justify his point-and-aim technique as camera work. Inappropriate canned classical music for the background of "action" sequences --- again if you dare to call them that. Editing that appears to have been done in the local butcher shop. Inane script peopled with fifth-rate local Texas actors for the most part with the only "pros" involved being Lee Morgan (he's also in RIO GRANDE!) and a young Steve Raines (later of RAWHIDE) --- probably his initial work. The lead, Walt Wayne, is a young, scrawny kid who delivers lines in a totally flat, monotoned, amateurish manner. He was never heard from again --- Thank God! Totally and completely inept in all departments.

 APACHE CHIEF (1949 Lippert)
Peace loving Indian Alan Curtis opposes his tribe's treatment of settlers and clashes with renegade Indian Russell Hayden to see who will lead the tribe. Tom Neal and Fuzzy Knight are Cavalry soldiers. Interesting off-beat pro-Indian story that predates BROKEN ARROW by a year. Promoted as "photographed with the Garutso Balanced Lens, a new optical principle which creates a three dimensional effect." It did not.

 LAST OF THE DUANES (1930 Fox)
A good George O'Brien western based on a Zane Grey novel that was amongst the Fox group of mostly remakes of Tom Mix silents from the '20s. O'Brien becomes an outlaw after he guns down James Mason, the man who got his Dad in the back. He enters outlaw Walter McGrail's hideout where he rescues Lucile Browne from McGrail's clutches, all the while being romantically pursued himself by McGrail's wife, Myrna Loy. By the mid '30s Loy had become Hollywood's number one female box-office star, the epitome of sophistication. A Spanish language version, starring George J. Lewis, was made simultaneously. The story was remade once more by Fox in '41 starring George Montgomery.

 VANISHING OUTPOST (1951 Western Adventure)
Another of producer/director Ron Ormond's "new" Lash LaRue films comprised of about 15 minutes of fresh footage designed to connect long segments robbed from previous Lash westerns thereby creating an all "new" film for very little money. If you haven't seen the earlier films, the action footage will be novel. If you have seen it, it'll be deja vu. But its always intriguing to see how Ormond ingeniously incorporated old footage with new. Here's how VANISHING OUTPOST breaks down: Starts with 10 minutes of new material. Stock segment one at the shack comes from SON OF BILLY THE KID ('49) followed by a couple of minutes of new stuff with Lee Morgan and Bud Osborne. Stock segment two is a chase from SON OF A BADMAN ('49). Then there's a couple of minutes of new footage in the line shack with Riley Hill. Stock segment three is the street fight with Bob Duncan and Sandy Sanders from OUTLAW COUNTRY ('49). Clarke Stevens and Ted Adams are in a few minutes of new footage followed by stock segment four, the town shootout lifted from MARK OF THE LASH ('48). Then comes a brief new scene with Lash and Fuzzy. Stock segment #5 is Lash capturing Marshall Reed from MARK OF THE LASH. The whole thing concludes with another few minutes of new film. Stir, boil, let simmer --- voila! An all "new" Lash LaRue feature! There's even a reference by Riley Hill as to seeing Lash in Rhyolite --- the town Lash cleaned up in FRONTIER REVENGE ('48). Western Boo Boo: As Lash slugs Archie Twitchell in the initial new footage set in a barroom, the badman's hat falls off. But as we cut to Twitchell reeling from the punch against the wall, his hat is back on. Whip use (all stock): 3.

 LONE RIDER RIDES ON (1941 PRC)
Joseph O'Donnell "borrowed" his screenplay of two young boys separated as youngsters following a wagon raid in which their parents are murdered (by Karl Hackett's gang) from Zane Grey's novel ARIZONA AMES which was filmed as THUNDER TRAIL in '37. Prior to that, the plot was appropriated by Lindsley Parsons, Robert Emmett Tansey and Harry Friedman for John Wayne's WESTWARD HO ('35). Tansey used it again for Jack Randall's ACROSS THE PLAINS ('39). Even Roy Rogers' SAGA OF DEATH VALLEY ('39) used the two-brothers-one raised good, the other as an outlaw-theme. So, by the time O'Donnell wrote it here for director Sam Newfield, the outcome was getting to be pretty well known by B-western watchers. The plot serves to introduce PRC's new singing cowboy George Houston to the screen as he returns 20 years after the wagon massacre to find the killers of his parents and brother, only to discover his brother (Lee Powell) isn't dead, but brought up by Hackett (now a crooked judge) and his outlaws (Frank Hagney, Buffalo Bill Jr., Bob Kortman, Frank Ellis, Curley Dresden) to be one of them. When Powell discovers what has happened just in time to save his brother's life --- well, you figure it out. There's a delightful "duet" between George and sidekick Al 'Fuzzy' St. John on "Nobody's Fault But My Own" (written by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter). Hillary Brooke, a dignified blonde a bit out of place on the range, got her start in two Houston B's and soon moved on to bigger films (MINISTRY OF FEAR, several Sherlock Holmes titles, JANE EYRE --- even Abbott and Costello's TV series). Houston made 11 warbling cowboy pics in '41-'42 for PRC before both realized opera singers do not make singing cowboys. Houston gave up films, went back to New York and died a few years later (1944) of a heart attack.

 RAW EDGE (1956 Universal-International)
Women are a rare commodity in frontier Oregon where the only two seem to be Yvonne DeCarlo and Mara Corday. Both are hot-bloodedly desired and fought over like animals by every man in the country-DeCarlo's husband Herbert Rudley, his foreman Bob Wilke, gambler Rex Reason, scheming Emile Meyer and his loutish son, Neville Brand. Unusually bold for its time, filled with sex, lust, greed, hatred and revenge, gunfighter Rory Calhoun seeks the murderer of his younger brother (John Gilmore), the husband of Corday, who was mistakenly hung for the attempted rape of DeCarlo. Poor Yvonne, she's nearly raped, thrown over a waterfall, manhandled by nearly everyone, shot, beaten and verbally abused. Bad title tune sung by Terry Gilkyson. Watch for a bare-chested Ed Fury as Whitey. Muscleman Fury later starred in a host of sword and sandal epics in Europe (MIGHTY URSUS etc.)

 DEAD MAN'S GULCH (1943 Republic)
It's friend against friend when Deputy Marshal Don 'Red' Barry's ex-pony express pal, Bud McTaggart, goes wrong and sides with bad company, outlaw Clancy Cooper, who is working for freight line operator John Vosper to maintain freight line control in the territory and oppose statehood which would crush Vosper's monopoly. McTaggart's sister is Lynn Merrick with some comedy relief provided by Emmett 'Fiddlefoot' Lynn. John English's no-nonsense direction keeps things moving. Barry's Republic series is one of the most overlooked group of westerns made.

 LONE STAR RAIDERS (1940 Republic)
The Three Mesquiteers (Robert Livingston, Bob Steele, Rufe Davis) are in their good Samaritan guise once again as they help impoverished, elderly Sarah Padden (a real showcase for this old trouper) who has inherited the Circle-H horse ranch where the Mesquiteers work. Granny Padden believes the spread to be a huge money-maker when in actuality drought and dust storms have decreased the wild horse herds the ranch depends on to round-up for an Army Cavalry contract which would defray the back pay of disgruntled ranch hands. Also back of the disappearance of horses and other crooked work is George Douglas (and his gun toters John Merton, Rex Lease) who wants the Army contract himself. Nothing special and it all ends, naturally, with a wild horse race for the Army remount contract (a ploy that became a Republic staple over the years).

 PIONEERS OF THE FRONTIER (1940 Columbia)
Gun-totin' fist-flying action all the way! After four features produced independently by Larry Darmour and released through Columbia, the studio took over the series, assigned it to Leon Barsha to produce and introduced Bill Elliott as Wild Bill Saunders for four features before turning him (for the most part) into Wild Bill Hickok, no doubt capitalizing on the success of Elliott's '38 Columbia serial, GREAT ADVENTURES OF WILD BILL HICKOCK. Joining Elliott for comedy relief was good ol' Georgia boy Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor whose appeal was a matter of taste, but worked well in the southern tier of the country where B-westerns played strongly. In this, the second of the Wild Bill Saunders foursome, cruel, ambitious ranch foreman Dick Curtis kills his employer (Lafe McKee) and rules the other landowners like a tyrant. When Linda Winters' rancher father (Carl Stockdale) opposes Curtis and is also murdered, Winters sends for Elliott, McKee's nephew and real heir to McKee's estate. Even though Elliott is framed for murder by Curtis, the "peaceable man" smashes the gang (Stanley Brown, Richard Fiske, Al Bridge) in a blazing hurricane of action. Leading lady Linda Winters reverted to her birth name, Dorothy Comingore, for Orson Welles' CITIZEN KANE the following year. Western Boo Boo: Outlaw Stanley Brown has a sling on his arm in a scene before he's wounded in a gunfight by Elliott.

 HOPPY'S HOLIDAY (1947 United Artists)
Way too little action in a plot about a phony irrigation swindle perpetrated by Leonard Penn along with some misplaced stolen bank dough involving comic situations with Hopalong Cassidy's pal California that plays more like one of Andy Clyde's two-reeler comedies, especially when he's embroiled with pompous Mayor Andrew Tombes who plays his role way too broadley. Hoppy's other pal, Rand Brooks, might as well not even be in this one except to bounce exposition off of. Interestingly, the original story is by character actress Ellen Corby. Take a 'holiday' yourself from this one.

 CANYON AMBUSH (1952 Monogram)
Badmen are gunning for undercover government agent Johnny Mack Brown who poses as ineffectual Sheriff Lee Roberts' deputy to stop a series of Wells Fargo robberies by a black clad mystery rider with a Winchester. Your suspects are the Sheriff himself, newspaperwoman Phyllis Coates, attorney Dennis Moore, rancher Russ Whiteman, townsman Pierce Lyden and Wells Fargo agent Hugh Prosser. Later Monogram tight budget shows but still one of the more interesting of Brown's latter-day westerns with plenty of gunplay and a well handled mystery villain angle. Director Lewis Collins (1897-1954) began with a few bottom-of-the-barrel westerns for Kent and Majestic (Lane Chandler, Reb Russell) graduated to Columbia by '37 for many non-westerns, segued to Universal for several of their Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Rod Cameron titles in the early-mid '40s and wound up a 25 year career directing Jim Bannon, Whip Wilson, Johnny Mack Brown, Bill Elliott and Wayne Morris westerns at Eagle Lion and Monogram, many of which are quite good.

 DEAD OR ALIVE (1944 PRC)
Pretty Marjorie Clements and her ranch are being threatened by saloon owner Ray Bennett and his gun-jackals: Charlie King, Ted Mapes along with Bennett's mole, Rebel Randall. Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien and Guy Wilkerson (the Texas Rangers) swing into action against their wickedness. Contains a comic saloon fight between O'Brien and King.

 LARAMIE (1949 Columbia)
The Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) battles gun-runners Bob Wilke (in the most outlandish get-up you've ever seen) and Jim Diehl as well as Indians (led by Jay Silverheels) in a huge chunk of stock footage lifted from STAGECOACH with Starrett dressed to match John Wayne. Tim Holt can also be spotted in the extensive stock. Smiley Burnette is a bootmaker. Country singer Elton Britt (as a Cavalry trooper) sings two songs including his hit "Chime Bells" and an absolutely beautiful rendition of "Molly Darlin' ". Young Tommy Ivo is the disobedient son of Cavalry Colonel Fred Sears. The rough edges of cheapness in the Durango series were really starting to show although the films struggled on til 1952.

 EYES OF TEXAS (1948 Republic)
Sloan Nibley wrote a grim, somber tale of legal tampering with an estate by villainess lady lawyer Nana Bryant using a pack of trained killer dogs which, under Bill Witney's usual impressive direction, became one of Roy Rogers' best westerns. It's hard to beat for action, suspense and story, unless you dislike Witney's hard-edged approach and prefer the softer-gentler Rogers era. Bryant and tough henchman Roy Barcroft murder wealthy rancher Francis Ford, owner of a camp for orphaned boys, using a pack of killer dogs that look like wolves, then introduce their own man as the dead man's long lost "son" (Danny Morton) to collect the inheritance. Ford's real son had supposedly been killed in the war, but Bryant explains his disappearance as amnesia. It's veterinarian Andy Devine who examines the bite marks on the body and determines it was dogs not wolves who killed Ford. Lynne Roberts (who used to be Mary Hart in early Rogers films) returns as Devine's assistant and Roy's love interest. After Roy captures one of the dogs and it reacts violently to Bryant, Roy begins to suspect the scheming lawyer. Songs by Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers, under Witney, are never allowed to intrude, but are blended into the plot. By today's standards the film may appear mild, but put yourself back into 1948 when, even after a World War, a certain innocence still prevailed. This unusually harsh Rogers film left quite a memory-mark on all who saw it in theatres at the time. Lensed in Trucolor but sadly, only b/w prints seem to remain.

 LUCKY TEXAN (1934 Lone Star)
John Wayne and his blacksmith partner, George Hayes, make a rich gold strike in a creek outside town. Assayer Lloyd Whitlock and his henchman, Yakima Canutt, bamboozle Hayes into signing away his ranch, then, in debt to Whitlock, Eddie Parker, the son of Sheriff Earl Dwire, robs the banker and kills him laying blame on Hayes just as Hayes' granddaughter (Barbara Sheldon) is arriving from back east. When Hayes is freed of that charge, the nefarious Whitlock attempts to murder him and blame it on Wayne. Worth the price of admission is one marvelous stunt midway --- as Wayne (doubled by Yak) chases Eddie Parker, he wildly rides a stick down a log flume into the river. Nothing like it ever before, or since, on screen. Good chance to see Hayes honing the 'Gabby' sidekick characteristics that served him well for 20 years with Roy Rogers, Bill Elliott, Randolph Scott and others.

 IT HAPPENED OUT WEST (1937 20TH Century Fox)
Gibraltar Trust representative Paul Kelly comes west to Arizona to persuade their client, Judith Allen, to sell her late father's valuable spread which she is losing money on trying to run it as a dairy ranch. Meanwhile, Allen's foreman, LeRoy Mason, has discovered a fortune in silver on the property and is doing everything he can to keep it a secret and convince Ames to sell the property to his cohort, Reginald Barlow. Originally set to star Richard Arlen and Virginia Grey who had teamed so well for producer Sol Lesser earlier in the year in SECRET VALLEY. Mild, very little excitement. Mild-mannered egghead Johnny Arthur even beats hero Kelly to the solution. Based on a Harold Bell Wright story, as was the far superior MINE WITH THE IRON DOOR.

 LAW OF THE RANGER (1937 Columbia)
Crafty John Merton is driving all the homesteaders off their rightful property so he can build a reservoir and control the valley then charge the ranchers whatever he pleases for water rights. He's strongly opposed by crusading newspaperman Lafe McKee and his daughter, pretty blonde Elaine Shepard. The State Rangers (led by Buffalo Bill Jr.) get wind of Merton's outrages and send in ranger Bob Allen and pal Hal Taliaferro (aka Wally Wales) posing as settlers. Ernie Adams has a nice turn as a newspaper typesetter who likes his liquor and has a big mouth. Merton's men are Tom London, Bud Osborne, Slim Whitaker and Francis Walker. Old pro director Spencer Gordon Bennet didn't have much to work with in this routine, predictable story, made to seem even duller by the noticeable lack of any musical score at all --- not even in the final roundup. Lane Chandler has a bit as a surveyor. Western Boo Boo: Two-gun ranger Allen has both his six-irons trained on John Merton and his men. Cut briefly to riders, back to Bob who now pulls his right gun from its holster.

 THREE DESPERATE MEN (1951 Lippert)
Although Preston Foster, Jim Davis and Ross Latimer are called the Denton Brothers, this lowbudget Lippert is nothing more than a cloaked retelling of the Dalton Brothers story by screenwriter Orville Hampton who offers nothing new in the rehash. Foster and Davis break brother Latimer free from a hanging for a crime he didn't commit and in the process kill a deputy. Hounded by detective Rory Mallison, the three desperate men are forced into a life of crime. Even though Foster wants to go straight to be with his girl, Virginia Grey, he's drawn into the life of an outlaw. It all culminates with a reworking of the botched two-banks-at-once robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas. Watch for former B-western star Kermit Maynard as a hangman's guard. Sam Newfield's direction is by the mundane. Nothing to recommend here.

 RIDERS OF THE WHISTLING PINES (1949 Columbia)
One of Gene Autry's finest, full of drama and action. And certainly another in his environmentalist look at the west. Oddly, even though a case is made for the safe use of DDT to kill the tusset moth ravaging the forests, DDT turned out, in the long run, to be unsafe to fish and wildlife and was finally banned in 1972. In this film, even though logging company owner Douglas Dumbrille (and his cohorts Damian O'Flynn and Clayton Moore) are aware of the presence of the moth, they don't report it as they have an exclusive contract with the state for all the timber. If the trees die, Dumbrille can strip the forest clean. The heavies even go so far as to murder forestry official Jason Robards to keep their secret. Gene, mistakenly thinking he killed Robards in a hunting accident, is ready to leave the area but when he discovers the moth infestation decides to stay on and supervise aerial DDT spraying of all the forest and find the real killer. Gene's forestry co-workers are the singing Cass County Boys and Jimmy Lloyd. Be sure to take notice of the photo of Lloyd's late wife-it's Marilyn Monroe who was then under contract to Columbia. Of her, Gene sings "Hair of Gold, Eyes of Blue". Another of Gene's tunes is his old pal Smiley Burnette's "It's My Lazy Day". The Pinafores from Gene's Melody Ranch radio program also sing a song. Wasted in a nothing part is Leon Weaver of the Weaver Brothers and Elviry. Also watch for former B-western star Lane Chandler as a forestry official.

 FIGHTING MAN OF THE PLAINS (1949 20TH Century Fox)
Producer Nat Holt gives us a taut, suspenseful western thriller enlivened by Cinecolor and a few vague historical references about Quantrell (James Griffith) and Jesse James (Dale Robertson). Ex-Quantrell (misspelled this way in the film) bandit Randolph Scott goes straight after he's mistaken for a dead Pleasonton Detective Agency man assigned to bring him in (James Millican-killed in a freak accident). Scott becomes Marshal of a Kansas town run by a man he hates (Barry Kelley) and his eager young gunslick (Bill Williams). The only ones who know Scott is an ex-Quantrell man are saloon owner Victor Jory and his partner, Jane Nigh, who's in love with Randy. The friendship and loyalty Jory displays is finely done by this often overlooked excellent actor. All hell breaks loose when another ex-Quantrell man (Paul Fix) arrives and recognizes Scott. Although given great billing, Douglas Kennedy is barely noticeable as the town lawyer. Underrated, seldom seen Scott western --- one of his best.

 WESTERN MAIL (1942 Monogram)
Smiling, carefree Tom Keene rides the danger trail to protect Uncle Sam's mail! I love it when Keene swings into action, gunning down do-badders with that wide "Got him" grin. Banker Le Roy Mason ships his bank money by train then has his gun-talent (Karl Hackett, James Sheridan, Gene Alsace) rob the train. Mason gets his money back and collects the insurance as well. Undercover government agents Tom Keene and his pal Frank Yaconelli break up their conspiracy. Yaconelli (an acquired taste in sidekicks) sings some silly songs, has a pet monkey in his saddlebag, rides a mule and has another mule following him --- for whatever reason! After 5 outings, with this film producer/director Robert Emmett Tansey unwisely replaced popular leading lady/stunt rider Betty Miles and dynamite waif Sugar Dawn with "comic relief" Yaconelli for the last three Keene releases.

 HAUNTED RANCH (1943 Monogram)
Curio Range Busters western for the fact Dave Sharpe actually entered WWII service before the film was complete (the 4th of Sharpe's Range Busters). It's explained away on film that Davey has joined Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Rex Lease is brought in for the rest of the film to replace him, but by the next title in the series, LAND OF HUNTED MEN, Crash Corrigan returned and John King was gone. Max Terhune remained the only constant throughout the whole series. In HAUNTED RANCH, John 'Dusty' King replaces the heir to a ranch after the man is bushwhacked by heavies Glenn Strange, Charlie King, Carl Mathews, Bud Osborne and Tex Palmer who are searching for hidden gold bullion on the Triangle W Ranch which is supposedly inhabited by evil spirits. Their idea is to kill or scare off all the legitimate heirs, including Julie Duncan who arrives from back east. Now Dusty, Julie and the others (including black comic man-servant Fred 'Snowflake' Toones (in one of his biggest roles) must find the key to the bullion which revolves around Uncle Abe's favorite tune on the organ. Monogram mystery lovers will appreciate this one also.

 OUTLAW'S HIGHWAY (FIGHTING FURY) (1934 Regal Dist./J. D. Trop)
Could any cowboy give a worse line-reading than Reb Russell? Yep! Jack King, called Five Word Jack McKenzie probably because that's all he could handle at one time. This was supposed to be the first of a series starring hawk-nosed, gangly Jack and his dog Kazan. It was also the last. King owned Kazan --- a talented mutt --- which King probably relied on to get him the lead in this film, "You want my dog, you gotta star me!" King moves slower than molasses. Even old pro director Bob Hill can't seem to get any fire going underneath King to create some movement in this turkey about diamond smugglers. Altho a lousy western, there's a lot of guilty pleasures to watch for: Mean, scruffy, cackling halfwit Tom London chews up all the scenery as he slugs his horse and kicks a dog in the first scene. Whiney-voiced leading lady Del Morgan was never heard from again --- with good reason. The comedy element is supplied by banana-eating ("brain food") detectin' undertaker Bart Carre. 6' 4" Carre (1897-1971) started as an actor in silents in '22. Not particularly fond of acting, he became a production manager/assistant director, yet still doubling as an actor in bottom of the barrel fare. He continued to work as an assistant director and/or production manager into the '60s, even helping build American International into its prominent rank as king of the drive-ins. Also watch for former minor silent cowboy Jack Donovan. Although made by Sherman Krellberg's Regal Distributing Co., OUTLAW 'S HIGHWAY was first issued in 1934 by J. D. Trop. In 1935 Krellberg reissued it under his own banner using the FIGHTING FURY title. King's dog, Kazan, was also seen in JAWS OF JUSTICE ('33) w/Jack Perrin and FEROCIOUS PAL, both for producer Sol Lesser.

 BAR-Z BADMEN (1937 Supreme)
Hell-raising cowboy Johnny Mack Brown decides to settle down, but when he arrives at partner Jack Rockwell's Bar-Z, he finds Jack being framed for rustling. Then the sly crooks, Tom London, Dick Curtis and Ernie Adams, try to frame neighboring rancher Frank LaRue for the murder of Rockwell in an attempt to gain control of both ranches. Ernie Adams performs one of his yellow-rat squealer scenes he was so well noted for. Lois January is the girl, LaRue's daughter. Not up to the quality of some of Brown's other Supreme entries.

 WESTERN CARAVANS (1939 Columbia)
A really rousing Charles Starrett with Sheriff Starrett caught in the middle of a range war. Ranchers, led by Russell Simpson, oppose the influx of homesteaders onto government land. His daughter (and Starrett's sweetheart), gorgeous Iris Meredith, understands the settlers' plight and tries to win her father over to a peaceful solution but smirking Dick Curtis and his boys (Ed Cobb, Ethan Laidlaw) pull every dirty trick in the book so as to get the two sides fighting, allowing them to step in and rustle the cattlemen's herds. The feud turns to vicious open warfare when Curtis shoots down young Sammy McKim, the son of settler Hal Taliaferro (aka Wally Wales). At their best, the Sons of the Pioneers (Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer, Pat Brady, Hugh and Karl Farr) sing the up-tempo "Westward Ho", a rousing "Oh Susanna", the beautiful "Serenade to the Night" and "The Whippoorwill Song".

 PUBLIC COWBOY NO. 1 (1937 Republic)
The old west meets the new west with old fashioned cowboy Gene Autry winning out in the end, defeating Chicago packing company truck rustlers (Arthur Loft, House Peters Jr., Maston Williams, King Mojave) who use short wave radio and airplanes to do their dirty work. Gene gets help from Sheriff William Farnum, newspaper editor Ann Rutherford and, of course, sidekick Smiley Burnette. One of Smiley's songs, "Defective Detective From Brooklyn" makes reference to Charlie Chan and Sherlock Holmes. Another tune, "The West Ain't What It Used To Be" even pokes fun at "singing troubadour cowboys" and Gene yodels in his Jimmy Rogers fashion. Director Joe Kane helms a fast 60 minutes and incorporates some very graphic beef butchering scenes. A comic "bit" has Smiley and Frankie Marvin donning a cow outfit and getting mixed up with the real things, a gimmick reused in Roy Rogers' HEART OF THE GOLDEN WEST by Smiley and Gabby Hayes. The song "Wanderers of the Wasteland" was reused in SHOOTING HIGH ('40).

 BILLY THE KID'S FIGHTING PALS (1941 PRC)
Billy the Kid (Bob Steele) finds trouble in Paradise --- Paradise, NM, that is, which is being ruled by gun mob-Charles King, Curley Dresden, Wally West and Sherry Tansey. When the newspaper editor is killed, banker Edward Peil Sr.'s ward, Phyllis Adair, offers to run the paper. Billy and his pals, Fuzzy St. John and Carleton Young, pitch in to try and help the town's people --- Forrest Taylor, Hal Price, Budd Buster --- eventually learning the community is strategically important to the outlaws for their smuggling operations. It seems a tunnel to the border runs underneath the town. A few twists at the end help the watchability of this otherwise routine PRC. Politically incorrect today: Fuzzy in blackface does a "Yas-suh" as Steele cracks wise with Uncle Tom and Mammy jokes.

 WILD MUSTANG (1935 Ajax)
After Sheriff George Morrell is killed by escaped convict "Utah" (Bob Kortman), Morrell's old lawman friend, Harry Carey returns to Texana County to track down Kortman and his gang (Dick Botiller, big Chuck Morrison). Utah enlists men in his gang by branding their hands with a "U" so they'll be rejected by townsfolk and forced to seek the company of Utah's gang. In a violent scene, when Carey's son (Del Gordon) stumbles upon one of these brandings, the gang brands him also. That done, Harry has his son join the gang undercover. Nice to see George Chesebro (badly misspelled Cheeseborough in the credits) on the right side of the law for a change --- as Carey's deputy. With Hollywood's poverty row in full swing, Ajax emerged for only a year, releasing four Harry Carey westerns independently produced by William Berke and directed by Harry Fraser. Fraser called Carey "one of my favorites among western stars I directed.". Ajax's only other distributed features were two Richard Talmadge stunt-filled B's, a drawing room comedy, and a short with Dave Sharpe.

 DESPERADOES OUTPOST (1952 Republic)
Federal agent Allan 'Rocky' Lane investigates the destruction of a stagecoach line that has bankrupted owner Eddy Waller, who is then being forced to sell his ranch. The badmen are mine owner Roy Barcroft, Mortgage and Loan company official Lyle Talbot and their hired thugs, Lane Bradford, Lee Roberts and Zon Murray. Barcroft wants the ranch so they can use the running water (the only running water faucets in the area during Civil War-time) to siphon off valuable mercury that runs from the nearby mine through a pipeline. Myron Healey is a cavalry officer who suspects misdeeds at the mine and cute Claudia Barrett is the girl. The very offbeat plot, which makes great use of the Republic cave set, was written by Arthur Orloff and Albert DeMond. Watch for country singer Slim Duncan (who had previously appeared in several Durango Kid/Smiley Burnette B's at Columbia) as a cavalry mine guard.

 SOUTH OF THE RIO GRANDE (1945 Monogram)
Songs, banter, romance and wine built around a slim story add up to a constipated south of the border Duncan Renaldo Cisco Kid adventure as he and Pancho (Martin Garralaga) come to the aid of Tito Renaldo, his sister (Lillian Molieri) and other rancheros who are being put-upon by the corrupt district governor, George J. Lewis. Renaldo's "singing" to the senorita in the first scene is obviously dubbed-in by a better voice than Duncan's. Armida (as Lewis' cantina singer-girlfriend) sings cutely and Lillian Molieri sings beautifully with the Guadalajara Trio. Some of these fanciful Cisco Kid adventures probably played much better in Mexico and other Latin American countries where the audience was more accustomed to the leisurely-paced romantic rancheras being turned out starring Luis Aguilar, Pedro Infante and others. Director Lambert Hillyer went on to direct many of Cisco's small screen TV adventures. Cowboy cancer alert: Cisco smokes!

 SOUTHWARD, HO! (1939 Republic)
Historically important B-western in that it's the first pairing of Roy Rogers and George 'Gabby' Hayes in Roy's 7th film. As two ex-Rebel soldiers, the pair head for Gabby's ranch in Texas, co-owned by Yankee Colonel Wade Boteler who has been appointed military governor of the territory under reconstruction. Naturally, Boteler has a lovely daughter, Mary Hart, with whom Roy has another of his "taming of the shrew" relationships. Doing away with Col. Boteler, and with no local government, a militia of crooked Union soldiers led by Arthur Loft (Tom London, Frank Ellis) run rampant over the ranchers collecting unfair taxes. Good blend of romance, action and song in one of Republic's favorite periods --- Civil War reconstruction. With Republic's desire to create a "Rogers and Hart" team, Lynn Roberts was asked to change her name. She later reverted to Lynne Roberts.

 TEXAS MASQUERADE (1944 United Artists)
Without a doubt, one of the choice Hopalong Cassidy westerns in the entire series! A marvelous picture, and the last of several Hoppys in which William Boyd posed as a dude or fop from the East-obviously a ploy popular with Boyd and audiences alike. Hoppy impersonates Boston attorney Nelson Leigh (after Leigh is wounded in an exciting opening stagecoach holdup sequence) to help "cousin" Mady Correll save her ranch from slick land agent Russell Simpson in league with saloon keeper Don Costello (given a neat penchant for practical jokes by screenwriters Jack Lait Jr. and Norman Houston). Helping the action along is Francis McDonald as an old outlaw with a grudge-score to settle with Hoppy. Author Francis "Mike" Nevins nailed it in his FILMS OF HOPALONG CASSIDY book, "George Archainbaud took over the reins on TEXAS MASQUERADE, a magnificent blend of slam-bang action, powerful story, comic skits (Andy Clyde and Jimmy Rogers) and social consciousness. With its extreme long shots and its climax in (Satan's Garden) a desert of Joshua trees, the picture's visual style unmistakably belongs to Archainbaud; even its plot betrays certain resemblances to the director's previous FALSE COLORS: in both films someone impersonates the part owner of a valuable ranch managed by a woman and menaced by a fancy-suited establishment figure with the local lawman in his pocket." Delightful, thoroughly watchable (and re-watchable), perfect blend under the sure guidance of Archainbaud who went on to helm many more Cassidys as well as Gene Autry westerns. Scripter Norman Houston had already written several, but found his greatest success in a long run of Tim Holt B's at RKO in the late '40s and early '50s.

 BUCKAROO SHERIFF OF TEXAS (1951 Republic)
The first of four Rough Ridin' Kids B-westerns with juveniles Michael Chapin (Red) and Eilene Janssen (Judy) as miniature Roy Rogers/Dale Evans --- at least that's what Republic hoped for. Although it didn't pan out, it was a noble last-ditch series western experiment for Republic. The problem was, it was hard for script writers to involve kids in hard action sequences, you always had to have an adult figure which kept changing from title to title --- in this one it's Hugh O'Brian. Arthur Orloff's plot has gun-law tyrant Tris Coffin (and his henchman William Haade), holding a vast ranch by force, taking over while Chapin's father, Steve Pendleton, is away fighting in the Civil War. Pendleton's older father, Sheriff James Bell (a series regular), does all he can to oppose the gunmen. The action revolves around the secret to Boxite deposits (for the manufacture of aluminum) on the ranch in a toy wagon left as a present for Chapin. Eilene Janssen is introduced when she arrives with her older sister Alice Kelly.

 SIX SHOOTIN' SHERIFF (1938 Grand National)
Best of Ken Maynard's Grand National group --- which isn't saying a lot. By the time these were made, Ken's high-falutin' lifestyle had acquired him quite a paunch. Also, in this one, Ken is obviously hampered in certain scenes by a head cold. Weston Edwards' abnormal twists and turns in the plotline make this an unusual B-western. (Edwards --- possibly a pseudonym for director Harry Fraser --- also contributed stories for several Harry Carey entries). Ken Maynard, a member of a wild gang of cowboys unjustly framed for a bank robbery, goes looking for Warner Richmond and Glenn Strange, the men who framed him. Following the ensuing gun battle, Ken is jailed but then freed and made Sheriff to clean up the town of its rowdy element --- Earl Dwire, Dick Alexander, Tom London, Carl Mathews. In doing so, he's wounded and nursed back to health by storekeeper Lafe McKee and his daughter, Marjorie Reynolds --- with whom Ken naturally falls in love. Real trouble erupts when Ken's old gang (Walter Long, Roger Williams, Ben Corbett) arrives, threaten to expose him as an outlaw and reveal to Ken his brother (Bob Terry) is now aligned with them. Their idea is to force Ken into allowing them to loot the town bank. It's primarily the ending that tosses in a few curves and normal plot derivations.

 BEYOND THE SACRAMENTO (1940 Columbia)
In Lodestone, Cannonball ('Dub' Taylor) recognizes saloon-keeper Bradley Page and newspaper owner Frank LaRue as notorious swindlers and sends for his pal, Wild Bill Hickok (Bill Elliott), to expose the crooks phony bond scam. Bill tries to enlist the aid of banker John Dilson and his daughter Evelyn Keyes, unaware Dilson is in league with Page and LaRue. When the chips are down, Page prepares to flee, but in his robbery of the bank, Keyes is wounded causing Dilson to realize the error of his ways and go gunning for Page. Good, but town-bound --- not Elliott's best. It was Keyes only B-western. The actress went on to major acclaim in GONE WITH THE WIND (Suellen, Scarlett O'Hara's younger sister), FACE BEHIND THE MASK, HERE COMES MR. JORDAN, DESPERADOES, MRS. MIKE etc. Page's gunslicks are Norman Willis, Bud Osborne, Steve Clark and Blackjack Ward. Ward (1891-1954), basically a minor player in westerns from the '20s, gained national attention on 2/23/40 when he was involved in a real-life shootout with movie extra John A. Tyacke at Hollywood's Gower Gulch, the unofficial name of the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Gower St. where cowboys hung out waiting to be hired by production units. Tyacke, said to have a police record, had been harassing Ward for sometime when Ward became fed up with Tyacke's pestering, blew his top and fired at Tyacke. When Tyacke ran, Ward chased him down and killed him. Onlookers testified at Ward's trial Tyacke looked "high on dope", was "pizen mean" and had pulled a knife on Ward. Ward was acquitted 7/18/40 but worked only sporadically thereafter. His last known film is Hopalong Cassidy's COLT COMRADES ('43).

 DOWN THE WYOMING TRAIL (1939 Monogram)
Tex Ritter encounters cattle rustling in snowbound Wyoming at Christmastime as Charlie King and his rustlers (Bob Terry, Earl Douglas, Jack Ingram) stampede a huge herd of Elk to clear a path in the snow for his stolen cattle. The Christmas and winter theme is unique but the whole dreary affair smacks of melodrama under the ham-handed direction of Al Herman which incorporates a plethora of process screen shots. Tex sings Floyd Tillman and Jimmie Davis' hit, "It Makes No Difference Now", but figure this one out --- Canada's Northwesterners, dressed in Mountie uniforms, sing Carson Robison's "Goin' Back to Texas"!

 GHOST PATROL (1936 Puritan)
One of the most interesting, off-beat westerns Tim McCoy made for Puritan (at a salary of $4,000 apiece), GHOST PATROL is a science-fiction/aviator/western. With the success of PHANTOM EMPIRE and FLASH GORDON, and the fact aviators were somewhat replacing cowboys (especially on radio) as kids' favorites, studios were looking for new ideas to inject into their western films. GHOST PATROL is based on an original story idea by Mascot story editor Wyndham Gittens. Unaccountable cargo hijackings are linked to mysterious mail plane crashes over the desert. Imperiled Lloyd Ingraham is the inventor of a super ray that causes internal combustion engines to stop working. (The film reuses Kenneth Strickfaden's fantastic machinery and lab from FRANKENSTEIN.) The heavies, Walter Miller, Wheeler Oakman, Dick Curtis, Slim Whitaker, also hold Ingraham's daughter, Claudia Dell, hostage as leverage to keep the scientist in tow. FBI agent Tim McCoy poses as an outlaw hiding out in the deserted desert town (the famous Brandeis Ranch location) and works his way into the confidence of the gang. Busy character player James Burtis (1893-1939), not noted for westerns, is Tim's pal, Henry, in what is his only sidekick role. Produced and directed with verve by Sig and Sam Neufeld (Newfield).

 THE IVORY HANDLED GUN (1935 Universal)
Terrific Buck Jones western which revolves around a complicated, long standing feud between Buck's wheelchair-bound father, Carl Stockdale, and cattle rancher Joseph Girard. Into the mix rides the Wolverine Kid (Walter Miller) and his gunmen working for a sheepmen's outfit run by Stanley Blystone. Turns out Miller is the son of Plunkett, a man who was fatally shot when not only Plunkett but Stockdale and Girard were involved in a rivalry over the woman Stockdale eventually wed, Buck's mother, now deceased. Buck's Dad gives Buck an ivory handled gun, the mate of which now belongs to the Wolverine Kid. "There will be no peace on the range until one man carries both weapons." In the unique ending, a climatic struggle between Buck and Miller, both men are shot. The last scene in the film are the two guns, mounted on the wall, signifying the feud is over. Whether Jones perishes or recovers is not shown, leaving it up to the audience to discuss amongst themselves the nature of his fate. Remade by Universal in 1941 as a Johnny Mack Brown western with original story credited to Charles E. Barnes as it should be. John Neville wrote this actual script and Sherman Lowe penned LAW OF THE RANGE. The back story and various plot points are explained and laid out far better by Neville in this original. So if you're watching both to compare, see IVORY HANDLED GUN first.

 STAR IN THE DUST (1956 Universal-International)
In the tradition of HIGH NOON, John Agar is the sheriff living in the shadow of his illustrious father who was sheriff before him. Agar's now caught in the middle of a battle between ranchers and farmers over whether or not hired killer Richard Boone should hang. The ranchers hired Boone and want him to go free, while the farmers, stirred up by schoolteacher Robert Osterloh, are anxious to see Boone dead. The real culprit is Leif Erickson, the town banker who hired Boone to commit three murders. There's a strong, low-key undercurrent of violence developed by director Charles Haas with satisfactory performances from the supporting cast --- Boone's girlfriend Coleen Gray, rancher Harry Morgan, Morgan's wife (and ex-lover of Erickson) Randy Stuart (she and Gray have a cat-fight midway), Agar's deputies Paul Fix and James Gleason, even usual film sexpot Mamie Van Doren is creditable. A nice touch is added by street balladeer Terry Gilkyson who keeps adding verses to "Sam Hall" (Boone's character) as the film progresses. Underrated. In color. Watch for young U-I contract player Clint Eastwood as a man Agar meets in the street.

 I KILLED WILD BILL HICKOK (1956 Wheeler)
Forget anything remotely associated with historical fact, this is pure fiction. And not very good fiction at that as crooked Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok (Tom Brown) and horsetrader Denver Pyle create a phony blackleg epidemic with the help of whisky soaked Doc Harvey Dunn that scares all the ranchers into selling out cheap to them. Besides that, Pyle forces wild horse buyer I. Stanford Jolley and his sister Helen Westcott (who is so good in Gregory Peck's GUNFIGHTER) into an exclusive contract with him. That's when Pyle and Brown run afoul of wild horse trader Johnny Carpenter. Typical, ridiculous Carpenter film ending --- stand wide open in the middle of the street --- "You can't hit me" --- as he guns down 40-50 outlaws! Carpenter's last, and worst, with bad acting, lame direction (stuntman Richard Talmadge), rambling script with subplots that go nowhere (written by Carpenter himself). Carpenter's listless voiceover narration doesn't help either.

 ACROSS THE RIO GRANDE (1949 Monogram)
A better than average story elevates this Jimmy Wakely B-western slightly above the norm as outlaw Dennis Moore moves cheap gold ore into Kenne Duncan's Mexican end of his mine, smuggles it through and sells it for a bonus on the U.S. side. The script by Ronald Davidson, who'd cut his teeth on Republic serials, contains many elements of a locked room murder mystery. Battling desperadoes with Wakely are Gaw-jah comic Dub Taylor and pretty, hard-riding Reno Browne. Noteworthy as the first film for singer Polly Bergen (Burgin) who sings Ray Whitley's "Along the Rio Grande" (written for a 1941 Tim Holt film of that title). Director Oliver Drake (1903-1991) was at this time Wakely's manager. Born in Boise, ID, he worked on a cattle ranch until becoming enamored with the film business at a young age and making his way to Tinseltown in the mid-'20s as, first, an actor then writer, principally at FBO on Tom Tyler and Buzz Barton westerns. As talkies began, he toiled on bottom of the barrel Kent and Majestic westerns before landing at Mascot which quickly metamorphosized into Republic. He moved over to George O'Brien's RKO series and then served as a producer at Universal until PRC gave him a chance to direct on the Dave O'Brien/James Newill series. His directorial work with Wakely, which is his best, is also among his last. Drake's work is straight forward and honest, but his real talent lay in his writing. He even contributed many songs to the various westerns he worked on over a 40 year career.

 TEXAS TORNADO (1932 Kent)
The government plans to build an irrigation dam on leading lady Doris Hill's spread, making it very valuable. Posing as Chicago gangster Wolf Cassidy (played by Mike Brand), Texas Ranger Lane Chandler infiltrates Frank Glendon's rustling operation aimed at Hill's ranch. All goes well until the real Wolf shows up! Ben Corbett is Chandler's sidekick. In Glendon's gang are Edward Hearn, Slim Whitaker, Wes Warner and Yakima Canutt. Chandler survived eight of these lowbudget Willis Kent cheapies (seven of them written by Oliver Drake) where many others did not and became a noted character actor who worked into the early '60s. High action content in this one. Listen for the nasty Chinese racial slur and watch for silent star Pete Morrison in the saloon.

 WHIRLWIND RIDER (1935 American)
A rodeo rider, lumbering Buffalo Bill Jr., helps out Genée (billed Jeane) Boutell (Bill's real life wife) when snarling, overacting, George Chesebro tries to steal her ranch. Produced and "directed" by Robert J. Horner (under the pseudonym R. J. Renroh) whose rag-tag westerns with Jack Perrin, Ted Wells and Buffalo Bill Jr. were among the lamest ever made. WHIRLWIND RIDER is punctuated by long static scenes, obvious ad-libbed dialogue at times, fluffed lines, padded midway with about 8 minutes of rodeo footage, sound not picked up by distant microphones and editing apparently performed with a box cutter. It's hard to believe Horner's product with their cheapjack production values ever played theatres anywhere. The romantic scene under the tree has to be seen and heard to be believed. "While we're in town tonight, Alice", Bill tells Genée, "We might look up the parson. I'd like to see how you carry my brand." This and one more "lost" B, TRAILS OF ADVENTURE with Buffalo Bill Jr., marked the end of Horner's tattered film career which had begun in 1922.

 LAW OF THE CANYON (1947 Columbia)
The nefarious Hood gang (the name is never explained-no one named as such, and nobody wears a hood) ambushes stagecoaches and wagons coming into Jackson City. Charles Starrett (as the Durango Kid), posing as a fraidy-cat dude businessman, uncovers the gang headed up by doctor Fred Sears (who is secretly keeping Sheriff George Chesebro drugged to minimize his ability to break up their activities) with his henchmen Zon Murray and Bob Wilke. The Sheriff's firebrand daughter, Nancy Saunders, and her young brother, Buzz Henry, spearhead a posse to safeguard wagons traveling through Skeleton Pass. There's a little too much of Smiley Burnette and his gold/silver seeking machine and not enough Durango in this entry. Smiley even has a bizarre Abbott and Costelloish encounter with a water pump. Uninspired songs by Texas Jim Lewis and his Lone Star Cowboys. With the exception of one or two films near the end of his career, director Ray Nazarro (1902-1986) spent all of his time as a Columbia contract director --- and most of it on Durango Kid films. Migrating from his native Boston, he worked his way up at Columbia until Harry Cohn's organization made him a director on OUTLAWS OF THE ROCKIES in '46. His work is fast and furious with endless action and little exposition --- and that fit the mold for Durango.

 FIGHTING RANGER (1948 Monogram)
Ranger Johnny Mack Brown has been pursuing rancher I. Stanford Jolley for killing a ranger, but when Jolley is killed after falling from a cliff he tells Johnny he was framed by his cousin Marshall Reed who will do anything to inherit his uncle Steve Clark's ranch. Jolley also asks Johnny to take his son (Charlie Hughes) to a safe place as he's certain Reed would even do away with the boy. Investigating, Johnny enlists the aid of Raymond Hatton, a ranch hand on Clark's place, and discovers Reed and his boys (Eddie Parker, Bob Woodward) rustling and stealing from Clark. Eventually, snake in the grass Reed does even try to kill the boy and his mother, Christine Larson. By the late '40s the Brown Monograms had settled into a routine format, enjoyable but nothing out of the ordinary.

 CALL OF THE PRAIRIE (1936 Paramount)
Although an integral part of the cast, after three films George Hayes' Windy character was still not firmly decided upon by producer Harry Sherman until the 5th, THREE ON THE TRAIL. In the first western, HOP-A-LONG CASSIDY, Hayes was Uncle Ben. In EAGLE'S BROOD he was outlaw barkeep Spike. Then in BAR 20 RIDES AGAIN he was Windy with indications he would join Hoppy and Johnny to form a trio. But in #4, CALL OF THE PRAIRIE, Hayes is outlaw leader Shanghai McHenry. Windy's full involvement had to wait. In this one, after a rift with Hoppy and Bar-20 owner Buck Peters (played this time by Howard Lang), hot-headed Jimmy Ellison goes on a bender with Shanghai's gang (Al Bridge, John Merton, Jim Mason, Al Hill) whose intention is to rob the Bar 20 of some cattle and money, laying the blame on Ellison. In attempting to clear himself, Ellison encounters Shanghai's daughter, Muriel Evans, who is unaware her father is an outlaw. The title tune is wonderfully sung by Chill Wills and the Avalon Boys but silent comedian Chester Conklin's broad comic sheriff doesn't fit the film.

 SHERIFF OF LAS VEGAS (1944 Republic)
Plenty of action as Red Ryder (Bill Elliott), acting Sheriff of Las Vegas, is called upon to solve the murder of town judge John Hamilton. It's really banker Selmer Jackson who is framing young Jay Kirby (a former Hopalong Cassidy sidekick) for the murder of his father/judge, who Kirby has had strong words with over his gambling with William Haade. Jackson needs to cover up an embezzlement of the judge's funds and takes advantage when Judge Hamilton disinherits Kirby --- who by the way is in love with leading lady Peggy Stewart. When the whole town turns against Kirby, Red Ryder steps in to clear him. The otherwise good western is hampered midway by an extended schoolroom scene. There's a cute scene during the at-last-it's-here final free-for-all with Little Beaver keeping score between Red and "the meanies."

 TWO GUN JUSTICE (1938 Monogram)
Ranger Tim Carson (Tim McCoy) rides herd on John Merton's gang of cutthroats (Lane Chandler, Olin Francis, Tony Paton, Harry Strang) who rule the roost in Mesquite City. Disguised as a Mexican bandit, the Vulture, Tim works his way into Merton's confidence while, as Carson, Tim protects and defends Joan Barclay and her father from the gang. A neat twist to Fred Myton's otherwise routine plot has the owner of a local dance hall, Betty Compson, cast as a old flame of Tim's who becomes jealous when the lawman spends too much time with Barclay. So jealous, that, at a bad moment, she resentfully exposes Tim's Vulture masquerade to Merton's gang. Director Alan James keeps the excitement quotient high. Cowboy cancer alert --- as the Vulture, Tim puffs on cigarillos.

 OUTLAWS OF SANTA FE (1944 Republic)
Don Barry, who has ridden the renegade trail believing he is the son of outlaw Charles Morton, learns he is not Morton's son but is in actuality the son of a murdered marshal in Santa Fe. Traveling to the New Mexico town, Barry helps rancher Helen Talbot (and her young sister Twinkle Watts) and is appointed Marshal by Mayor Nolan Leary. Barry then opposes town boss Herbert Heyes and his gunmen (Le Roy Mason, Kenne Duncan, Frank McCarroll, Jack O'Shea, crooked judge Walter Soderling) who rule the cattle country with a stranglehold. Naturally, it turns out, Heyes is the dirty dog who had Barry's marshal-father killed. Trouble arrives when an old member of the Morton/Barry gang, Bud Geary, shows up in Santa Fe with knowledge Don was once an outlaw. Director Howard Bretherton provides plenty of action and thrills which are only defeated by the obligatory "comic" exchanges between Twinkle Watts and Barry's pal Wally Vernon. With this western, Barry ended a four year, 29 westerns run with Republic. Vernon was moved over to the Allan Lane pictures that replaced Barry's. Barry and Vernon reunited at Lippert in 1950 for several more last-ditch effort B-westerns.

 DURANGO VALLEY RAIDERS (1938 Republic)
Battling Bob Steele swings into action against the Shadow Gang, led by a mysterious serial-like masked villain who rides through the night on a white horse leading his desperate gang of killers (Ted Adams, Ernie Adams, Jack Ingram). Falsely arrested, Bob's pal Horace Murphy, helps Bob escape the sheriff (Forrest Taylor). Bob then vows to track down the illusive Shadow. Every time the gang pulls a robbery, Bob steals the loot from them dressed as a second Shadow and returns the money to the victims. This one's all action, one of director Sam Newfield's best. Newfield (1899-1964) was the most prolific B-western director of all time; in one twelve month span ('43) he directed 23 features! He made so many films that he used two pseudonyms (Peter Stewart, Sherman Scott) as well as his real name Samuel (Sam) Neufeld to disguise the fact so many films (particularly at PRC where he worked extensively) were being directed by the same fellow. But being fast takes its toll, many of his pictures are marred by their hasty execution-few closeups, goofs left in, stock footage utilized, etc. Beginning in the '30s, he soon found his forte in westerns with Tim McCoy (at Puritan and Victory), Kermit Maynard (at Ambassador), Fred Scott (at Spectrum) and Bob Steele and Johnny Mack Brown (at Supreme and Republic). By 1940 he found a home (with producer/brother Sig) at PRC where he churned out dozens of westerns with Buster Crabbe, Bob Steele, Tim McCoy, George Houston, Lee Powell/Art Davis/Bill Boyd, Bob Livingston, and still managed to squeeze in several notable horror and jungle films --- MAD MONSTER, MONSTER MAKER, NABONGA, DEAD MEN WALK, FLYING SERPENT, JUNGLE SIREN, etc. In 1950 Newfield went to Lippert where he stepped back from westerns to helm lowbudget crime melodramas (MOTOR PATROL, RADAR SECRET SERVICE, etc.). At the end, he returned to westerns (LAST OF THE DESPERADOES, FRONTIER GAMBLER, WILD DAKOTAS), releasing them through Associated which was owned by Lippert and formed for the express purpose of making westerns by Sam and brother Sig.

 CAVALRY SCOUT (1951 Monogram)
At the time of Custer's massacre at the Little Big horn, cavalry scout Rod Cameron and cavalry lieutenant Jim Davis work together to ferret out James Millican's gun runners who have stolen two gattling guns and are swapping them to the Indians for fur pelts. Meanwhile, Cameron and Davis are rivals for the affections of saloon/hotel owner Audrey Long. As Millican's right hand man, it's interesting to see James Arness in one of his earliest important roles. Within a few years he found eternal fame as Matt Dillon on GUNSMOKE. It's a routine story (by Dan Ullman) I've seen executed better elsewhere. Lesley Selander directed in Cinecolor.

 SONG OF NEVADA (1944 Republic)
Strictly in the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans musical comedy period. Roy wises up Nevada gal Dale to an "insufferable bore" from New York, John Eldredge, whom she almost marries. Eldredge's only interest in Dale is the ranch of her father (Thurston Hall) who they believe was killed in a plane crash. Lloyd Corrigan is a rotund medicine show man with Mary Lee his daughter. Part of the plot was recycled for SOUTH PACIFIC TRAIL ('52) with Rex Allen. Sons of the Pioneers, Mary Lee and others have scant to do. Watch for Helen Talbot as one of the background girls. Generally, she was co-starring with Don Barry and Allan Lane. Obviously, in between westerns, Herbert J. Yates just stuck her in anything to justify paying her salary.

 GRAND CANYON (1949 Lippert)
Featherweight tale of western movie making that distorts all realities for sake of a humorous script. When singing cowboy James Millican (he lip syncs to a non-cowboy-like on-set playback) breaks a leg, director Reed Hadley gets Grand Canyon muleskinner Richard Arlen to step into the part, although Arlen has never acted before-but he looks rugged. When he and leading lady, Mary Beth Hughes, begin to really fall for one another, ego-ridden Millican pulls a few dirty tricks. There are real fights that are filmed --- even a real love scene is lensed from behind bushes. Pretty silly stuff. Although Lippert made a big publicity deal of filming at the Grand Canyon, all the Canyon footage is second unit stuff, then the principals are right back in front of process screens. For "movie" action, and a dream sequence, director Paul Landres reuses action stock footage from RETURN OF WILDFIRE made a year earlier which also starred Arlen, Hughes and Hadley. There's way too much embarrassingly unfunny "comedy filler from Olin Howlin and Grady Sutton as well as a "Why is this in here?" song from a precocious child, Anna May Slaughter. Appears producer Robert L. Lippert owed somebody a favor. Incidentally, Lippert himself appears briefly along with co-producer Murray Lerner looking at daily rushes. Cowboy cancer alert: Arlen smokes.

 OLD OVERLAND TRAIL (1953 Republic)
A few minor continuity lapses, too many green sets and rear projection mar this otherwise really good Rex Allen western. The budgets were catching up with Republic, by Rex's next film, IRON MOUNTAIN TRAIL, the songs were gone and the running time was cut from 60 minutes to 54 minutes. When Indian trouble flares, Indian Agent Rex Allen and his partner, Slim Pickens, investigate. Roy Barcroft, head of a construction firm building a spur line for the railroad, and his henchman Zon Murray are the chief architects behind the Indian trouble, stirring Black Hawk (Leonard Nimoy --- later of STAR TREK) to raid wagon trains, destroying supplies. With their belongings lost in raids, Barcroft uses the distressed homesteaders as cheap labor on the construction gang. Rex also finds his headstrong brother (Gil Herman) involved in Barcroft's schemes. Slim Pickens utters a couple of politically incorrect phrases, especially for an Indian Agent's friend --- one when he spots two dead Indians, he exclaims, "There's a couple of good Indians." He also refers to "corn mashin' squaws". Rex duets with leading lady Virginia Hall and revives "Cowboy's Dream" sung by Roy Rogers in DOWN DAKOTA WAY.

 DOWN MEXICO WAY (1941 Republic)
The best screenwriters for Gene Autry were Dorrell and Stuart McGowan having penned some of the singing cowboy's biggest hits --- RED RIVER VALLEY, GUNS AND GUITARS, BIG SHOW, IN OLD MONTEREY, SOUTH OF THE BORDER. The charming plot takes Gene and Smiley Burnette south of the border to catch some con men (Sidney Blackmer, Arthur Loft, Paul Fix, Joe Sawyer, Murray Alper) who have fleeced the townspeople of their hard earned savings by having them invest in a phony John Wayne movie. In Mexico, they find the swindlers preparing to pull the same con on kindly, rich Don Carlos Alvarado (Julian Rivero) and his daughter Fay McKenzie. Gene and Frog are helped by a Mexican rogue, the very un-Spanish Harold Huber. Spectacular stunt-filled windup at Lone Pine. During the course of the leisurely but highly entertaining 77 minutes, Gene sings some of his biggest hits, "South of the Border", "A Gay Ranchero", "Down Mexico Way" and "Maria Elena". Leading lady Fay McKenzie sings with the Herrera Sisters. In the initial scenes, Texas Jim Lewis and his Lone Star Cowboys are unbilled. (They later made 3 westerns with Charles Starrett.) Watch for a young Eddie Dean in those same initial scenes. The director here is Joseph Santley (Joseph Mansfield) (1890-1971) who had been known on Broadway and in touring companies as "The World's Greatest Boy Actor" circa 1900-1910. He began directing short subjects for Paramount before getting his big break on THE COCOANUTS ('29) with the Marx Brothers. He rapidly became known as a director of light comedy (SMARTEST GIRL IN TOWN, MEET THE MISSUS etc.). He became solidly associated with Republic in 1940 on Gene's MELODY RANCH (which featured much comedy with Jimmy Durante) and acquits himself well on DOWN MEXICO WAY, which oddly proved to be his only western besides CALL OF THE CANYON a year later. Instead, he returned to comedy (JOAN OF OZARK, HERE COMES ELMER, BRAZIL etc.) as well as early variety shows on TV for Ethel Merman and Durante.

 HAWAIIAN BUCKAROO (1938 20th Century Fox)
Stranded in Hawaii after no-good Harry Woods gyps them on a land deal, Arizona cowboys Smith Ballew and Benny Burt go to work punching cows for Hawaiian cattle rancher Evelyn Knapp who it just so happens is also having trouble with Woods who is doing all he can to delay Knapp's cattle shipment to the States. If she's late she'll lose her contract to Woods. Pat O'Brien (the other one) is Knapp's foreman. Leisurely paced Sol Lesser Principal Production released by Fox, directed by Ray Taylor. Ballew sings three songs. Former B-western lead Buddy Roosevelt can be spotted.

 LAST OF THE DESPERADOES (1956 Associated Film Releasing)
After killing Billy the Kid, lawman Pat Garrett (James Craig) is haunted by his death everywhere he goes and hounded by the Kid's gang (Bob Steele, Barton MacLane, Holly Bane, Alan Wells). Craig tries to rally support of the Lincoln locals but finds them unwilling except for deputy Jim Davis (wasted in a nothing role). Craig resorts to an alias and moves to a different town but is sought out by the gang. Wounded, he relocates once more and is nursed back to health by Margia Dean --- only to find out she was once married to Billy --- and her wanna-be gunslick kid brother (miscast Stanley Clements) who has vowed to kill Garrett in revenge for his pal, Billy. Donna Martell as another wife of Billy and Myrna Dell as Craig's fiancée are also wasted in what amounts to bit parts. Not bad screenplay by Orville Hampton, produced and directed by Sig and Sam Neufeld/Newfield who stuck some old stock footage of "the Charlie King gang" onto the pre-title sequence. Watch for John Hart, one of TV's Lone Rangers, as a poker player.

 SILENT VALLEY (1935 Reliable)
Lesser Tom Tyler B has him as the two gun sheriff after a band of rustlers (Al Bridge, Charles King, Frank Ellis, Budd Buster, Jimmy Aubrey). Trouble really arises when Tom discovers Wally Wales, the brother of the girl (Nancy Deshon) he is sparking is mixed up with the gang. More trouble for our Tom when supposedly upstanding citizen Bridge has vicious gunman Slim Whitaker appointed Tom's deputy. Deshon's career came and went with four westerns in '35 ... too bad, she displayed above average talent in these lowbudget B's. (Others were TOMBSTONE TERROR and TRAIL OF TERROR w/Bob Steele and WOLF RIDERS w/Jack Perrin.)

 LAWLESS BREED (1946 Universal)
Dick Curtis pulls off the most elaborate bank robbery in B-western history --- and he'd get away with it too if it wasn't for Kirby Grant and his buddy Fuzzy Knight. Scripter Bob Williams' story (which he reused in Monte Hale's VANISHING WESTERNER '50) is strong on mystery and suspense even with its oddball for a B-western flashback-narration story construction. Dick Curtis is a banker Grant and Knight are accused of murdering. Turns out Curtis stole from his own bank, disappeared-appearing dead, thereby collecting insurance and his own life insurance when he reappears as his sea-faring brother. This was Kirby Grant and Universal's last B-western (after 16 years of sound westerns) as the studio became Universal-International and upgraded to an A-film only policy. Since 1938 Fuzzy Knight (1901-1976) had been Universal's house comic, seeing the likes of Bob Baker, Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Rod Cameron, Eddie Dew and Kirby Grant come and go. Knight quickly found work partnering with Jimmy Ellison/Russell Hayden, Whip Wilson and Bill Elliott. Universal-International reused the title LAWLESS BREED in '53 for a Rock Hudson A-western which bears no connection to this film.

 RAIDERS OF RED GAP (1943 PRC)
Bob Livingston took over the Lone Rider role in mid-'42 when singing cowboy George Houston returned to New York. Livingston's tenure lasted one year. In RAIDERS ..., the last of his six titles, Charles King's Cattle Co. is attempting to grab up all the grazing rights in Arizona to build packing plants. When Charlie and his galoots (Frank Ellis, Slim Whitaker) encounter stiff opposition from rancher Ed Cassidy and his daughter Myrna Dell, they send for tough gunman Roy Brent, a man whose rep Charlie knows altho he's never seen him. Brent, who always wears flashy clothes, is being chased by the law but manages to escape by switching his garish duds with Fuzzy St. John. From there on, the script provides Fuzzy with a lot of comedy material as he and Brent play a game of merry mix-up with King's gang. But, with Bob Livingston as the Lone Rider, it all gets sorted out. At one point, to "fool" the badmen, Livingston dons his Lone Rangerish black mask --- as if that would disguise his distinct voice and tailored clothes. And what difference? Five minutes later they know Livingston is the Lone Rider anyway, mask or not.

 FRONTIER GAMBLER (1956 Associated)
A rangeland murder mystery. Marshal John Bromfield investigates the mysterious murder of the most powerful woman in town, "Princess" of the Fairweather Valley (Coleen Gray). Plenty of suspects --- gambler Kent Taylor, fiancée Jim Davis, ranch owner Veda Ann Borg, in love with Davis herself, newspaper editor Roy Engel and his wife Tracey Roberts. A strange little talky film from Sig and Sam Newfield toward the end of their careers trying to move into the "adult" western trend. Margia Dean sings "Your Heart Belongs to Her".

 RIDER OF THE LAW (1935 Supreme)
Neat little Bob Steele programmer with loads of action. State detective Steele arrives in the beleaguered-by-bank-bandits town of Apache disguised as a dude. After he's appointed one of the tough town's two new lawmen, along with comic relief Si Jenks in one of his best roles, he proceeds to round up the Tolliver Brothers gang (Earl Dwire, Jack Kirk, Sherry Tansey, Steve Clark, Tex Palmer) who have embezzling banker Lloyd Ingraham under their thumb. Bob's love interest is cute little Gertrude Messinger, Ingraham's daughter. Remade as MARSHAL OF HELDORADO with Jimmy Ellison and Russell Hayden.

 MARSHAL OF HELDORADO (1950 Lippert)
Cleverest and most enjoyable of the Jimmy 'Shamrock' Ellison/Russell 'Lucky' Hayden Lippert quickie-westerns which, although all six were shot simultaneously within a month, are highly underrated and often unjustly bemoaned. Each of them, especially this one, are saved by the characterizations of Ellison and Hayden --- along with the guidance of old pro director Tommy Carr. In this remake of Bob Steele's RIDER OF THE LAW ('35), Hayden, then Ellison, are appointed lawmen in a rough town over-ridden by bank robbing brothers (Tom Tyler, Dennis Moore, George J. Lewis, John Cason) led by the town barber (Stephen Carr) with a grip on town banker Raymond Hatton who has made too many unsecured loans to local ranchers. Hatton's daughter is the gorgeous Betty (later Julie) Adams. The town is at first referred to as Apache (as it was in the Steele script) thereafter called Heldorado. Bonus --- both Shamrock and Lucky perform their brace of gun handling tricks.

 COWBOY SERENADE (1942 Republic)
A professional ring of gamblers (Tris Coffin, Johnnie Berkes) operating aboard the cattle drovers car on the railroad cheats Rand Brooks out of all the money entrusted to him by Gene Autry and the Cattlemen's Association. Gene and Smiley Burnette investigate and discover railroad spur line owner Addison Richards behind the gamblers. Richards' daughter, Fay McKenzie, tries to help Gene not realizing her father is a crook. Rand's girlfriend is played by Melinda Leighton (also known as Linda Leighton and Linda Johnson). Slim Andrews (best known as a sidekick to Tex Ritter) is one of Gene's pals, managing to steal several scenes from resident comic Smiley Burnette. As a matter of fact, Andrews told me years later that Smiley complained to Republic president Herbert J. Yates not to have Slim back on the Autrys because he was too darned funny. Note Gene's smile when he manages to work in a baseball joke. Action-full stunt-filled ending.

 BLAZING SIX SHOOTERS (1940 Columbia)
Charles Starrett fights off Al Bridge and Dick Curtis who are trying to buy the ranches of Henry Hall (and his daughter Iris Meredith) and George Cleveland because the crooks know there is silver ore on the two adjoining ranches of which the owners are unaware. Failing that, they try to force them off. Age old, mundane land grab plot is enlivened by the inventive camera work and direction of Joseph H. Lewis. The Sons of the Pioneers sing two songs.

 ROAD AGENT (1952 RKO)
A non-violent Tim Holt B-western (abbreviated saloon brawl, lame windup) as he and Chito (Richard Martin) pose as masked Robin Hoods to overcome a plot by area cheat (Mauritz Hugo) who hopes to bankrupt the ranchers (including Noreen Nash and her Pop, Sam Flint) by charging extreme tolls to travel his roads which happen to be the only way to reach the cattle market. Tim and Chito just plain steal the money back from Hugo and return it to the ranchers. However, it is implied at the end Tim and Chito will have to do jail time for their indiscretions. Also with Bob Wilke, Dorothy Patrick (saloon girl who apparently sews Tim and Chito's masks and capes) and an old looking Tom Tyler (as Hugo's henchman) in one of his last roles after nearly 30 years in the saddle. Surprise --- Tim gives Nash a no-nonsense buss at the end!

 SHADOW RANCH (1930 Columbia)
One of Buck's best! Tough and determined, Buck comes looking for oily saloon owner Al Smith who has back-shot and murdered Buck's old pard, Frank Rice, in his underhanded attempts to control the water supply in the valley. All he now needs is Marguerite De La Motte's ranch. "Crooked as a ram's horn", states Kate Price, De la Motte's gun-totin' housekeeper, of Smith and his terrorists (Ernie Adams, Slim Whitaker and sleazy, obese Bob McKenzie). The revenge motif is expertly handled by director Louis King. When Buck finally metes out justice to Smith, it's well justified. That's followed by a really "cute" ending the girls will love. Several cowboy songs are incorporated around the campfire. Director King (1898-1962) started out in silents helming William Fairbanks oaters at Arrow and Buzz Barton thrillers at FBO before he directed several of Jones' better westerns in the early '30s before moving on to crime and detective films at several studios in the late '30s and '40s. He returned to the western genre to guide a few unmemorable A-oaters in the '50s (FRENCHIE with Joel McCrea, POWDER RIVER with Rory Calhoun) and some television (one GUNSMOKE and the last season, 12 episodes, of WILD BILL HICKOK in '58).

 LOST TRAIL (1945 Monogram)
Witty above-average Jess Bowers (aka Adele Buffington) script with an exciting rooftop gun battle windup lifts this Johnny Mack Brown B out of his ordinary. Even more surprising when you notice Lambert Hillyer directed and his work is seldom better than ordinary. U. S. Marshals Brown and Raymond Hatton come to the aid of pretty Wells Fargo operator Jennifer Holt and her boyfriend/stage driver Riley Hill who are being plagued by a series of robberies. The bandits are saloon owner/town boss Kenneth MacDonald and his gun-slicks, Frank McCarroll and Eddie Parker, who are robbing the gold shipments of miners like Steve Clark and Frank LaRue, plotting to drive Jennifer's stageline out of business so they can control all of the Wells Fargo shipments in the area. Walt Shrum and his Colorado Hillbillies add a touch of music.

 THROW A SADDLE ON A STAR (1946 Columbia)
The wacky Hoosier Hot Shots (Gabe Ward, Ken Trietsch, Paul 'Hezzie' Trietsch and Gil Taylor) starred in 17 musical-comedy westerns for Columbia between 1944-1948. Ken Curtis co-starred in nine of them. One of the neatest things about several of these films is to watch all the real fun Jeff Donnell is having. (She was in five.) THROW A SADDLE ... has a weaker storyline than most, if you can really say these films ever actually had a storyline. They're mostly wild ideas on which to hang some music. Here, rodeo champ Ken must ride Dynamite in the big rodeo to save the ranch for his Pop, Andy Clyde. Ken's pal is Big Boy Williams. The Hot Shots, Adelle Roberts (Ken's love interest) and Jeff Donnell are Eastern entertainers playing the rodeo circuit. Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage help out too. Watch for Billy Gray (later of FATHER KNOWS BEST) as a little kid. Title song is written by Andy Parker, others by Tim Spencer, Cindy Walker and Fleming Allen with the highlight of the show being Andy Clyde and Jeff Donnell's duet of "Bonny Bonny Braes of Wyoming".

 FREIGHTERS OF DESTINY (1931 RKO)
An uneven film from former film editor now first time director Fred Allen (not the comedian) who mixes too much comedy in with his western adventure to be wholly satisfying. By 1935 he went back to being a cutter and later became one of Fox's top editors then worked freelance clear into the mid-'50s. After Tom Keene's father is killed by raiders, he takes over his Dad's freighting business and proves to a skeptical town he can handle the job. Unknown to him and storekeeper's daughter, Barbara Kent --- his supportive girlfriend, banker Mitchell Harris (a weak villain) is head of the raiders (led by Slim Whitaker) and plots to destroy Tom's wagon caravan so he can take over the lucrative franchise. Talk about your smart movie horses --- watch Keene's Flash undo all the cinches on the horses of the posse! That feat, along with some of the antics of sidekicks Frank Rice (as Rough) and Billy Franey (as Ready) --- get it? Rough and Ready? is where Allen strayed too far into comedy. It is nice to see a black kid playing and being treated equally with white kids with no jokes or comments being made about it one way or another. It's just there. Jack Kirk and his trail riding cowboys sing "Old Chisholm Trail" and some other plaintive dirge about the "End of the Trail". Very nice use of Lone Pine locations!

 RANGE BUSTERS (1940 Monogram)
To save lovely Luana Walters' ranch, the Range Busters (Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, John 'Dusty' King, Max 'Alibi' Terhune), in their premiere adventure, must find a phantom killer who has murdered Luana's father (Horace Murphy) and is trying to wrest control of the Circle T because of a hidden vein of gold. Friendly mineralogist Frank LaRue explains to the Range Busters about the phantom that haunts the rangeland. The boys are menaced by abusive rival rancher LeRoy Mason and his bunch (Kermit Maynard, Bruce King, Carl Mathews) who are running guns, using a tunnel and an abandoned mine as a hideaway. Then there's crusty, crotchety old Earle Hodgins, Luana's supposedly blind uncle. A good B-western with a neat mystery angle and three suspects --- Uncle Earle, Mason and mineralogist LaRue. John Rathnell is credited with the screenplay, which is actually a plagiarized remake of Earle Snell's DESERT PHANTOM ('36) which probably owes at least a nod to Harry Fraser's NIGHT RIDER ('32). The common thread between Johnny Mack Brown's DESERT PHANTOM and THE RANGE BUSTERS is director S. Roy Luby who handled both films. Note that Karl Hackett who played the disabled uncle in DESERT PHANTOM is the Sheriff this go-round. Both 'Crash' Corrigan and Max Terhune had been part of the 3 Mesquiteers trio at Republic since '36. Corrigan, disgruntled at being second lead to Bob Livingston then John Wayne, left Republic and moved to Monogram where he could be top dog in an all new trio. He brought along Terhune, who had been Lullabye in the Mesquiteers. To cover viewer's confusion, Crash and John King ask Terhune as he first rides up, "Why did you change your name from Lullabye to Alibi?" followed by a convincing explanation. 'Nuff said. Ground covered. On with the adventure.

 BUCKSKIN (1968 Paramount)
Another of producer A. C. Lyles' character-actor driven big budget B-westerns, this one severely hampered by too much talk about what they're gonna do --- and not enough doing it --- until a fairly satisfying final shoot-out. Territorial Marshal Barry Sullivan comes to Glory Hole to overthrow saloon owner/town boss Wendell Corey who has dammed up the Valley's water supply to drive out the homesteaders before the railroad arrives. John Russell walks away with acting honors as a scar-faced, one-eyed gunfighter. Lon Chaney is a slobbish, bully Sheriff working for Corey; Joan Caulfield is a saloon singer/former school teacher; Leo Gordon is the town ruffian who comes to respect and help Sullivan; Barton MacLane is the town doc; Bill Williams and real life wife Barbara Hale are put-upon homesteaders; Emile Meyer is a frightened townsman; George Chandler is a storekeeper; Lyle's regular Richard Arlen is another townsman.

 FIGHTING MAD (1939 Monogram)
Sgt. Renfrew of the Royal Mounted (James Newill) and his partner, Constable Kelly (Dave O'Brien) get mixed up with a pretty girl (Sally Blane, one of Loretta Young's sisters) on the lam because she was witness to a bank robbery in the States by two thieves (Ted Adams and Warner Richmond). Through a set of circumstances, Blane winds up with the stolen loot and is pursued by Adams, Richmond and their boss, Milburn Stone. Miscast Jewish comic Benny Rubin tries vainly to add a few yoks as a trading post owner. Lightweight. Instead of FIGHTING MAD, you'll be mad there's not more fighting.

 LONE GUN (1954 United Artists)
Solid George Montgomery town tamer color western. Montgomery is appointed Marshal of a town while his recent pal, Frank Faylen, is the new gambler come to town. (Yes, like Wyatt and Doc!) The heavies, three brothers, Neville Brand, Bob Wilke and Douglas Kennedy, are using the ranch of young Skip Homeier and his sister, Dorothy Malone (going through her tried and true acting schtick), to graze their rustled cattle while they leisurely change brands. When Homeier finally gets brave enough to expose them, the brothers frame Faylen for his murder. Formulamatic perhaps, but well done under the direction of Ray Nazarro. Faylen steals the show as the "talented" and verbose card sharp, a delight to watch. When it was remade as THE GAMBLER WORE A GUN in '61, the Montgomery and Faylen roles were combined in Jim Davis, taking a lot out of the story.

 PHANTOM PATROL (1936 Ambassador)
In order to avoid a nationwide manhunt, notorious killer "Dapper Dan"" Geary (Harry Worth) escapes, with his stooge-Paul Fix, to the Canadian northwoods where novelist Stephen Norris (also Worth in a dual role), who looks identical to Geary, is on retreat. Geary captures Norris and poses as the author to avoid capture. When Worth hires Joan Barclay, Mountie Inspector George Cleveland's daughter, as his secretary he gleans valuable information from her which he passes on to his gang, led by Julian Rivero. It takes Mountie Kermit Maynard to unravel Geary's plans when the fake is revealed by his plagiarism of Guy de Maupassant. The plot-heavy story is simply not up to par for Kermit in the stunt and action content. Odd, as it's directed by onetime silent stunt-star Charles Hutchison. Also of passing note from the 'For What It's Worth' Department: this film contains the one and only Mountie pillow fight ever filmed!

 ROBIN HOOD OF THE PECOS (1941 Republic)
This post Civil War story of reconstruction in the South and the evil machinations of the ultimate western film carpetbagger, Cy Kendall, is a familiar story but not one of Roy Rogers' best. Olive Cooper's screenplay has Roy and Gabby Hayes organizing the night riders to fight against Kendall's Texas carpetbaggers (Jay Novello, Robert Strange and William Haade as another of Republic's likeable heavies). Marjorie Reynolds, leading lady also to Tex Ritter and Bob Baker, is attractive as Gabby's niece but has little to do on her journey toward bigger films. A lot of the comedy comes from Sally Payne who plays Belle Starr! In films, black actor Leigh Whipper never stooped to the rolling-wide-eyed-shuffling-yas-suh stereotype of Snowflake, Stepin Fetchit and others. Although the butt of Payne's jokes, he is as much her friend and guardian as he is her servant.

 WILD FRONTIER (1947 Republic)
Allan Lane's first film in his new series after the demise of his Red Ryder films sees him using his own name in each of the 38 entries from 1947-1953 but adding the middle 'Rocky' appellation. The citizens of Clayton City, under a siege of lawlessness by Roy Barcroft's gang, have young Jimmy Lane (John James) send for his famous Marshal father, Frank Lane (Pierre Watkin) to clean up the town. The Marshal is accompanied by his son, Rocky, on the trip. Upon arrival, Rocky and Jimmy are deputized to help their father rid the town of outlaws, although Jimmy and his Dad are soon at odds over how it should be handled. Respected citizen and gunsmith Jack Holt is really the leader behind Barcroft's gun-rannies. Holt murders Marshal Lane then throws suspicion on Nugget Clark (Eddy Waller) whom he doesn't realize is actually a deputy secretly working for the Lanes. Rocky takes over his Dad's job and eventually rides roughshod over Holt's renegades.

 RIDERS OF PASCO BASIN (1940 Universal)
Rodeo rider Johnny Mack Brown returns to Pasco Basin to help his father-figure, newspaper editor William Gould, who is waging a campaign against crooked land promoters Arthur Loft and James Guilfoyle (and their head gunman, Ted Adams) who are promoting a phony irrigation project. Brown is helped by ranch hand Bob Baker who is in love with Brown's old girlfriend, Frances Robinson. (At one point Baker goes on a tirade about being second best to Johnny Mack's character that sounds as if he really means it. It's fairly well known Baker resented losing his own series and playing second fiddle to Brown.) When Gould is killed, leaving his young son Robert Winkler an orphan, Brown forms a vigilante group, causing a rift between he and Baker. To stir up resentment against Brown, the swindlers shoot Frank LaRue (Robinson's father) and make some other violent acts seem the work of Brown's vigilantes. Baker sings one and a half songs this outing while Rudy Sooter's Californians do one. Blessedly, Fuzzy Knight keeps his mouth shut --- song wise anyhow. Fast moving hour.

 TRAIL TO LAREDO (1948 Columbia)
Uninspired, minor Durango Kid with everyone seemingly just going through the motions. Saloon owner Hugh Prosser and freight line owner Jim Bannon's partner, George Chesebro, are smuggling stolen government gold out in Jim's freight wagons labeled as ring bolts. When Bannon discovers their ploy, Prosser frames Jim and pins Chesebro's murder on him. Charles Starrett (The Durango Kid), an old friend of Bannon's, arrives to help out. Kid kowboy Tommy Ivo is Bannon's son. Little-faced Virginia Maxey sings two forgettable songs with the Cass County Boys and there's some completely non-sensical, slapstick stuff with Smiley Burnette and his paint-brushes. Jocko Mahoney doubles Starrett. Remarkably, Sheriff John Merton (usually a heavy) "knows" at the end that Starrett is Durango.

 RED RIVER VALLEY (1941 Republic)
Recording stars returning home, Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes and the Sons of the Pioneers commit every crime in the books themselves trying to prove to the Red River Valley Dam stockholders that Land and Water Co. owner Trevor Bardette and his man Hal Taliaferro are swindlers. Part of Roy's plan to expose the crooks is to kidnap Sheriff Robert Homans and his daughter Gale Storm to prevent a stock transfer that would give Bardette complete control of the Valley. Storm is oddly billed behind Sally Payne, newspaperman and telephone operator Gabby Hayes' daughter who fools around with Pat Brady. The Sons of the Pioneers perform a very "hot" version of Bob Nolan's "When Payday Rolls Around", among others. It was Roy's first B with his former group after they moved over to Republic from a string at Columbia with Charles Starrett. It signals the birth of a new Rogers era. Gone forever are the historical westerns and in comes the Republic never-never land combination of fast cars, horses, tommy guns, stagecoaches, nightclubs, gangsters, cowboys, airplanes and range songs all rolled into one. It was working for Gene Autry, why not for Roy. Slickly produced and directed by Joe Kane. Oddly, it's screenwriter Malcolm Stuart Boylan's only western. He was better known earlier for A films like DEVIL DOGS OF THE AIR and FLAMING GOLD and afterward several titles in Columbia's Boston Blackie and Lone Wolf detective series.

 PHANTOM COWBOY (1941 Republic)
Another in Republic's long list of Zorro variations, this time known as El Lobo. With that in mind, it should have been better, but somehow turns out to be one of Don Barry's weaker westerns. Just after the death of wealthy estate owner Don Jose, the strong box containing his will is mysteriously broken into-by greedy ranch manager Milburn Stone. Besides Don Jose's niece, Virginia Carroll, and his ward, Don Barry, who is returning after 10 years away, the will reads that any peon living on the ranch at the time of Don Jose's death will have that piece of land free and clear. It's Milburn and crooked Sheriff Rex Lease's plot to drive off the peons before the will is read, marry Virginia to Stone and kill Barry. While driving off the peons, the father of Migel (scrawny Neyle Marx) is killed. Fighting back, Migel dons a black garb and mask and becomes El Lobo, protecting the peons. When Miguel himself is killed, Barry becomes the crusading El Lobo. The original title was BAD MEN FROM RIO and was even reviewed in tradepapers that way, however the title was changed just prior to release. Ernest Wilson as Barry's black manservant and titular sidekick, Memphis, projects the racial distance omnipresent in films of the time.

 BORDER MENACE (1934 Aywon)
Painfully crude Robert J. Horner disjointed, rambling, pathetic excuse for a western contains more fluffed lines than you can count, especially by Ben Corbett. Jimmy Aubrey as Polecat Pete (the comic relief?) is so far over the top it's astounding! Must be seen to be believed. (It's we who need relief from him!) (Watch closely, Aubrey also plays a rustler! Additionally, he's listed as film editor!) Obviously, Horner only filmed one running insert of scrawny hero Bill Cody, it's used over and over. Also note Cody's torn silk shirt. For the record, the "plot" has sneaky George Chesebro and banker Jim Donelly jumping the oil claims of rancher Frank Clark (a non-actor) and daughter Miriam Rice. It's interesting to note that Cody employs a bullwhip long before Lash LaRue was even in films (or even Sunset Carson who beat Lash to the whip). Incompetent on every conceivable level.

 PRAIRIE RUSTLERS (1945 PRC)
Rambunctious non-stop fights and excitement when Buster Crabbe runs afoul of his lookalike rustler cousin. It's another dual role for Crabbe who did more of these dual-role westerns than any other cowboy hero. Sidekick Fuzzy St. John runs a café until he's made Sheriff charged with catching the rustlers (Crabbe's cousin, I. Stanford Jolley, Kermit Maynard, Bud Osborne) plaguing rancher Karl Hackett and his daughter Evelyn Finley. Fuzzy's trick bicycle riding was a big part of his old vaudeville routine. Tex Williams sings a song at a dance. Cowboy Cancer Alert: as his evil cousin, Buster smokes.

 RIDIN' THE CHEROKEE TRAIL (1941 Monogram)
A self-styled prairie Napoleon (a tour de force for Forrest Taylor as the sophisticated bandit king who plays Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata") attempts to set up a cattle empire in the Cherokee Strip in the days before it became part of Oklahoma. With some vacation time coming, Tex Ritter takes off from the Texas Rangers with mule riding pal 'Arkansas' Slim Andrews to go fishing. The pair finds themselves entangled in a murder committed by Taylor. Stuntlady/actress Betty Miles is the girl; Fred Burns her Pop. The Tennessee Ramblers from WBT, Charlotte, NC, add some music. There's a very clever scene where Tex turns classical music into cowboy tunes. It's one of Ritter's best, primarily due to better direction by Spencer Gordon Bennet-getting Tex away from the slap-dash work of Al Herman. (See STARLIGHT OVER TEXAS.) Sadly, Bennet only helmed four of Tex's pictures, while Herman hurried through 16. Bennet (1893-1987) was first and foremost a craftsman (take a look here how he crossfades a chess game into horsemen). Bennet planned his camera setups and knew exactly what he was shooting, resulting in a composed, polished work. He began in the early teens working for Thomas Edison's studio. He made his directorial debut in 1920 with second unit work on THE PHANTOM FOE serial. Over the years he helmed over 40 silent and sound serials as well as westerns with Ken Maynard, Bob Allen, Jack Randall, Bill Elliott and others. His last work was for producer Alex Gordon's last-ditch B's (BOUNTY KILLER, REQUIEM FOR A GUNFIGHTER) in '65.

 ROMANCE OF THE RIO GRANDE (1941 20th Century Fox)
Here's Cesar Romero's shot at a dual role, something every B-western hero had at least one chance to do. Cesar is not only the Cisco Kid but the grandson from Spain of a Spanish Don in Arizona --- Pedro de Cordoba who is in fear of dying and his valuable property being stolen by his nephew Ricardo Cortez who is hungry to gain control of the vast rancho. So hungry, that he and his henchman, Ray Bennett, plot to murder the grandson from Spain when he arrives. Naturally, look-a-like Cisco, and his compadre Gordito (Chris-Pin Martin) intervene. At the time of filming, Cesar Romero had just recovered from a bout of parathphoid. Fox borrowed Cortez' accomplice in his schemes, Patricia Morison, from Paramount. Lynne Roberts, Cisco's love interest, sings two songs, including "Ride On Vaquero", which oddly is the title of the very next Cisco/Romero adventure. Superb photography (Charles Clarke), excitingly directed by Herbert I. Leeds. The screenplay was nominally based on Katherine Fullerton Gerould's novel CONQUISTADOR ('23) which had been the source for the early Fox western, ROMANCE OF THE RIO GRANDE with Warner Baxter, but not as Cisco.

 LAWLESS FRONTIER, THE (1934 Lone Star)
Lotsa good stunt work by Yakima Canutt, doubling John Wayne --- including a belly-flop ride on a board down a water drainage chute. John Wayne chases the half white, half Apache outlaw Zanti (Earl Dwire), posing as a Mexican, who has murdered Wayne's parents. Wayne aids old rancher George Hayes and his daughter (the talented Sheila Terry) whom Zanti plans to rob and abduct, finally bringing the evil Zanti to justice after a chase across Red Rock Canyon desert. Zanti's gang includes Yak and Buffalo Bill Jr. while Jack Rockwell plays yet another sheriff --- but this time against type as a pompous but ineffectual lawman.

 BADLANDS OF MONTANA (1957 Regalscope/Fox)
This is a more adult themed remake of scripter Daniel Ullman's WACO ('52) with Bill Elliott. This time Ullman wrote, directed and produced, adding a few twists to his own plot ... probably an improvement. However, he should stick to writing as his direction is a bit slow with several obvious flaws. Rex Reason, running for mayor against town boss John Pickard, is framed for the attempted rape of Pickard's wife, Margia Dean, then horse whipped. Rex guns down Pickard in a fair gunfight the next day but is nevertheless run out of town by Pickard's hirelings led by Bill Phipps. Reason stumbles into Emile Meyer's outlaw hideaway and is forced to earn a living outside the law. At the same time he and Meyer's daughter, Beverly Garland (never looking better in form fitting blouse and britches), fall in love. Eventually captured, Rex is brought back to his own town by two of its leading citizens, who have arranged a pardon from the governor, and made sheriff. Now, Reason must not only face the vengeance of Margia Dean and Bill Phipps --- but deal with his old gang when they arrive --- especially bitter gunslick Keith Larsen who feels Rex took Garland away from him. As with many late '50s-early '60s westerns that tried to emulate the success of HIGH NOON by including a themesong, BADLANDS ... fails miserably in that department with a ludicrous thing entitled "Man With The Gallant Gun" sung by Bob Grabeau. (Music by Irving Gertz, lyrics by Hal Levy). Rex Reason starred as newspaperman Adam MacLean on TV's MAN WITHOUT A GUN in '57-'59.

 REDWOOD FOREST TRAIL (1950 Republic)
Another of Republic's environmental B-westerns. Interesting but too subdued. The underprivileged boys (Dick Jones, Sammy Ogg, Jack Larson, etc.) of New Horizon Youth Community are accused of being involved in the death of cute leading lady Jeff Donnell's father (Robert E. Burns) who owned the pines and forest land where New Horizon is situated. Now Jeff plans to sell the property to (unbeknownst to her) unscrupulous timber cutters Marten Lamont (who starred in Republic's serial FEDERAL OPERATOR 99) and Joseph Granby. Enter American Forestry League official Rex Allen and his young pal, Alfalfa Switzer, a "graduate" of New Horizon, who have to persuade Donnell not to sell then expose the polecats for what they really are. Noted character actor Pierre Watkin is the "Chief", head of New Horizon. John Cason and Robert W. Wood are Lamont's henchmen. Of course, Alfalfa was a huge child star of the (still popular on TV) "Our Gang" comedy shorts. He died of a gunshot wound in 1959 following an argument over money. Allen found a more permanent sidekick in Buddy Ebsen for his next, and 4th, B-western, UNDER MEXICALI STARS. Rex sings three songs including the traditional "On Top of Old Smoky" (which Gene Autry also did in '53 in his film of the same title) and "America the Beautiful". Note the overlapping Superman connection here --- Pierre Watkin was newspaper editor Perry White in Columbia's two SUPERMAN serials and Jack Larson was Jimmy Olsen on TV's SUPERMAN. Listen to the gunshots in this film --- they are not standard issue Republic gunfire. Each studio (Republic, Columbia, Universal, PRC, Monogram) had their own distinct sound. But the shots here don't fit the usual Republic gunshots. Were they trying to make a change --- or?

 TUMBLEWEED TRAIL (1946 PRC)
A band of outlaws (Lee Roberts, Carl Mathews, Matty Roubert) led by Bob Duncan ambush and supposedly kill rancher Kermit Maynard. Duncan, with crooked lawyer Ted Adams, phony-up Maynard's will so his daughter, gorgeous Shirley Patterson, and young son, Johnny McGovern, are cut out and left nothing while Duncan, as Maynard's worthless half-brother, inherits the ranch. When Shirley and Johnny refuse to vacate the spread, Eddie Dean and his sidekick Roscoe 'Soapy' Ates ride to their rescue. PRC was trying to build a romantic team of Dean and Patterson (who'd previously co-starred in several at Columbia); this was the second of three they made together. Patterson soon wed and left films for several years only to re-emerge in the mid-'50s under the name Shawn Smith. Several songs, the best of which is undoubtedly Ernest Tubb's "Careless Darlin'" sung by Eddie. This is a Frances Kavanaugh rewrite of her own RIDING THE SUNSET TRAIL ('41) w/Tom Keene. Old pro director Robert Emmett Tansey's direction here seems more tired than usual, not helped much by the dull villainy of Duncan.

 SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (1956 Warner Bros.)
Standard revenge plot expertly done marks the beginning of the marvelous partnership between star Randolph Scott, director Budd Boetticher and screenwriter Burt Kennedy who formed a loose triumvirate to make seven of the best westerns of the '50s-TALL T, DECISION AT SUNDOWN, BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, RIDE LONESOME, WESTBOUND, COMANCHE STATION and this film. Here, Scott is the relentless pursuer of outlaws who murdered his wife. After disposing of two of them in the stark, storm-soaked opening, Scott encounters a married couple, Gail Russell and Walter Reed (in the best role of his long career), and two more of the outlaws, Lee Marvin (in a bone chilling performance) and John Larch who are after the gold Reed is secretly carrying. The final showdown in the Lone Pine desert is a stunner! Also with Don Barry (in one of his best character roles), stuntman Fred Graham, Steve Mitchell, Stuart Whitman and Pamela Duncan. Director Boetticher cannot be complimented enough for changing the screen persona of Scott who'd been playing a smiling, affable, austere man for a quarter of a century. Boetticher tightened Scott's performances, gripping him with the determined hard edge of a William S. Hart. Kennedy's masterful way with dialogue is the absolute key to all the pictures, short, clipped and perfunctory ... an absolute joy to hear and savor over and over again.

 DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1932 Universal)
Pretty standard stuff as the biggest silent western star of all time, Tom Mix, returns to the screen in his first talkie. Pre-publicity played it up big, "What will his first two words be? Millions are waiting to see and HEAR Tom Mix in his first talking picture!" Actually, Tom had done a cameo in THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS IN HOLLYWOOD, produced after DESTRY but released two weeks prior. After making a grand entrance on Tony, Tom is framed for murder by his partner, Earle Fox, in cahoots with crooked sheriff Stanley Fields who is running against Mix in an election for sheriff. After a year in jail, Tom vows revenge. TV prints are retitled JUSTICE RIDES AGAIN to avoid confusion with the James Stewart A of '39, also from Universal.

 EAGLE'S BROOD (1935 Paramount)
Saloon owner Addison Richards' bandits (Frank Shannon, Paul Fix, John Merton) kill the son and daughter-in-law of famous Mexican bandit El Toro (William Farnum) as they are carrying gold across the border to El Toro. His small grandson Pablo (George Mari) witnesses the murder. Brutally sought by the killers, he is hidden away by Richards' dance-hall gal, Joan Woodbury. When El Toro crosses the border to rescue his grandson, he encounters lawman Hopalong Cassidy, who, with pal Jimmy Ellison, promises to save Pablo after El Toro saves Hoppy's life in a quicksand pit. George Hayes, not yet an integral part of the Cassidy films, plays Spike the bartender in this the second Cassidy film. From here on, Hopalong (William Boyd) no longer limped as he had in the first film, no doubt giving viewers not familiar with the initial film a bit of puzzlement over why he is called Hopalong.

 BULLETS FOR BANDITS (1942 Columbia)
"Two top western stars rock the screen with stirring adventure and song" proclaims the ad as Bill Elliott and Tex Ritter share the action when nasty Ralph Theodore tires to gain control of likeable Edythe Elliott's ranch. The usual opposition between Elliott and Ritter is established before the two come together (along with the King of western pratfalls --- four times in the first four minutes --- Frank Mitchell) in a gun-blazing finale against Theodore and his ruthless ranihans (Joe McGuinn, Tom Moray, Art Mix). Tex sings three songs. Soon-to-be-noted heavy Lane Bradford is Bill Elliott's stunt-double. Also with Forrest Taylor and Dorothy Short.

 AVENGING RIDER (1943 RKO)
Tim Holt is the avenging rider when he and his comic card-playing pal, Cliff 'Ukulele Ike' Edwards, are framed by Norman Willis' gold bandits for the murder of the mine partner Tim and Ike have come to see. The bandits (Willis, Bud Osborne, Bud McTaggart, Bob Kortman) take the stolen gold bars to crooked banker Davison Clark, getting him to hide them in his safe. For reclaim and trust purposes, they tear a five of spades card into five pieces, each taking a piece, and agreeing to return later when the law isn't on their heels. It's a neat twist of an idea (story by Harry Hoyt) and well played out as the law continues to pursue Tim and Ike while they pursue the real bandits, who, one by one, are all killed off leaving only crooked Clark and his saloon manager, Kenne Duncan, to try and escape with the loot. Dave Sharpe doubles Tim including one spectacular leap through a cabin window. Hoyt and Morton Grant's script includes some laugh-out-loud comic touches, many of them provided by Edwards who was never better. One exchange between he and doubly-dumb deputy Earle Hodgins (always an asset to any film) is particularly hilarious. I can mention Ann Summers is the girl but she's completely unnecessary to the plotline. Expertly directed by Sam Nelson. Thoroughly entertaining!

 IN OLD CHEYENNE (1931 SonoArt-World Wide)
Weak, ineffectual Rex Lease programmer in which double-dealing Harry Woods poses as crippled old Jay Hunt's ranch manager while he and his boys (Slim Whitaker, Ben Corbett) rustle his horses using the old ploy of blaming it on a wild white horse, White Cloud. Hunt's old friend, Lease, and Lease's saddle-kick, Harry Todd, crack the case while Rex falls for Hunt's daughter, Dorothy Gulliver. This is a one-off western independently produced by George W. Weeks and directed by Stuart Paton, distributed by SonoArt-World Wide. When that company went under in '33, Atlantic picked it up for re-issue. Features an early use of Bronson cave, a site used quite often in later westerns, including Gene Autry's PHANTOM EMPIRE serial as the entrance to Murania. The location is virtually unchanged today in the heart of L.A.'s Griffith Park.

 MOUNTED STRANGER (1930 Universal)
The Ridin' Kid, Hoot Gibson, seeks revenge on the cowman (lanky Fred Burns) who gunned down his homesteader Dad (Milton Brown) when Hoot was a mere lad. The first of Gibson's all-talking Universal series is a sleepy version of his own 1924 silent, RIDIN' KID FROM POWDER RIVER. With Louise Lorraine (now freelancing after her Metro contract expired) and Francelia Billington, widow of silent star Lester Cuneo. As in his silents, Hoot remains the unglamorous cowpoke, in marked contrast to Ken Maynard and Tom Mix, but by this time his melodramas were beginning to look outdated in comparison. At one point, Gibson and his pals (Pee Wee Holmes, Francis Ford) join in a bit of rowdy campfire harmonizing --- more than likely aiming a few barbs at Maynard who was injecting music into his films at this time.

 LAW OF THE WEST (1949 Monogram)
Johnny Mack Brown that holds interest better than others of his from this period. Land agent Bill Kennedy and real estate agent Jack Ingram are swindling ranchers out of their property as the pair secretly know the railroad is coming through. How original! When rancher Steve Clark threatens to contact federal authorities, Kennedy has gunmen Eddie Parker and Marshall Reed ambush and kill Clark. Federal Marshal Johnny Mack Brown stumbles into the plot when he visits old pal Max 'Alibi' Terhune while on his overdue vacation. Johnny Mack intervenes to help Clark's daughter, Gerry Pattison, and prevent Clark's angry son, Riley Hill, from getting in trouble by gunning down Ingram whom he believes killed his Dad. Then Johnny wrangles his way into the confidence of the gang who are unaware he is a Marshal. Directed by Ray Taylor (1888-1952) who started as a stage actor and stage manager. After a stint in silents as an assistant director for John Ford, he helmed a few silent westerns before hooking up with Universal where he guided some 40 serials to success as well as westerns with Buck Jones and Johnny Mack Brown. Meantime, he managed to squeeze in serials for Republic and Columbia. Late in his career he worked on westerns at PRC and Monogram with Brown, Eddie Dean and Lash LaRue, giving these cheaper productions a greater air of quality through his expert know-how.

 RIMFIRE (1949 Lippert/Screen Guild)
Intriguing little film noirish B-western. Undercover Secret Service Captain James Millican is trailing gold bars stolen from the U.S. Mint three years ago ... the trail has led to Stringtown, NM. After a gambler, the Abilene Kid (Reed Hadley), is framed with marked cards and hung by the town citizens, someone begins exacting murderous revenge on all who were there - one by one. Everyone believes it to be the ghost of the Abilene Kid. Eventually, the killer is linked to the gold bars and revealed to be - ! One of the greatest B-player casts ever assembled: saloon owner Ray Bennett, his outlaw henchies John Cason and I. Stanford Jolley, Sheriff Victor Kilian, Sheriff's niece Mary Beth Hughes, saloon girls Margia Dean and Marjorie Stapp, comic Fuzzy Knight, Mexican Chris-Pin Martin, stage driver Glenn Strange, Judge George Cleveland, townsman Jason Robards, newspaperman Henry Hull, card players Lee Roberts, Stanley Price, Don Harvey, Dick Alexander. Revised a bit by producer Ron Ormond and remade as NAKED GUN in '62.

 SIX GUN LAW (1948 Columbia)
Charles Starrett is framed by town boss Hugh Prosser into believing he killed crooked sheriff Ethan Laidlaw. Then Prosser appoints Starrett sheriff and blackmails him into looking the other way while his gang (Bob Wilke, John Cason, Billy Dix) run rampant. All Starrett can do is bide his time until he can get the goods on Prosser. The Durango Kid takes a hand when the gang plans a big bank robbery getting the bank money first and turning it over to honest rancher George Chesebro whom outlaws gun down when they see he has the money-but not before he passes it off to dopey 'fotographer' Smiley Burnette. Later, Prosser tries to blame the robbery on Cheseboro's son, Paul Campbell. Again, Durango takes a hand to help Campbell and his pretty sister, Nancy Saunders. Some good Durango action, but a lackluster windup and it's hard to believe our hero, Charles Starrett, would allow himself to be blackmailed so easily and stand idly by while so many crimes are being committed. Curley Clements and his Rodeo Rangers add some music. Western and serial screenwriter Barry Shipman (1912-1994) contributed many of the Durango Kid scripts. Beginning in 1936, he soon joined Republic, collaborating on 12 serials. He eventually wrote over 50 westerns for Republic and Columbia. Turning to TV in the '50s, he wrote hundreds of scripts for various western series. His wife was actress Gwynne Shipman and his daughter was actress Nina Shipman.

 RUSTY RIDES ALONE (1933 Columbia)
Intelligent, witty script by Robert Quigley from a Walt Coburn pulp fiction story has Tim McCoy protecting pretty Barbara Weeks from the onslaught of sheep rancher Rockliffe Fellows and his sons (Wally Wales, Ed Cobb, Buffalo Bill Jr.) who want to make the entire basin their empire. Into the situation rides Fellows' wildcat daughter, Dorothy Burgess (who steals the picture with a strong female role she handles well), who disagrees with her father's policies. In between stands dangerous wild-card outlaw Wheeler Oakman who is in love with Burgess but wrongly believes Tim is trying to steal his girl. Eventually, Tim and Wheeler join forces to defeat Fellows' family. Tim is saved at one point by his dog, Sliver King, a canine friend not seen in other McCoy Columbias. Also of note, Tim (who was admittedly not fond of horses and rarely paid any attention to his various steeds) calls his horse by name, Pal. Further, we see Tim performing intricate card tricks, looking very much like he really knew his way around a deck.

 MYSTERIOUS DESPERADO (1949 RKO)
Tim Holt and Chito Jose Gonzales Bustamonte Rafferty (Richard Martin) go to Santo Domingo to claim an inheritance due Chito from his deceased uncle, although the uncle left no will. The pair arrives and soon discovers the uncle was murdered and his son, Chito's cousin, Edward Norris, who should inherit the valuable rancho, is accused of the crime. The plotters, public administrator Frank Wilcox and some real estate wheeler-dealers (William Tannen, Robert Livingston, Robert B. Williams) have already illegally sold thousands of acres of Bustamonte land, pocketing the profits. Under the law, by blaming Norris for his father's murder, Norris sacrifices his inheritance, leaving the land-grabbers free and clear. There's a slam-bang bar brawl, one of the best of the series, as Tim and Chito square off against Livingston and Tannen ... followed by another with Tim and Edward Norris. The real life San Fernando Mission in San Fernando, CA, is utilized along with Lone Pine and RKO western street locations. Well directed by Les Selander from another good Norman Houston script. By the way, it's only the second film in Tim's long career in which he's named Tim Holt in the script --- the first was a year earlier in GUN SMUGGLERS. For a comment on the "Willcox Saloon" sign, see MASKED RAIDERS writeup.

 HOMESTEADERS (1953 Allied Artists)
It's a long dry haul across the badlands for homesteaders Bill Elliott and Robert Lowery as they trek a load of 'hot' dynamite to Oregon to clear land for the settlers. Elliott has to deal with a mutinous trail crew of ex-military convicts (George Wallace, Rick Vallin, Buzz Henry) only held together by old-timer Emmett Lynn-who plays it straight for a change thereby turning in one of his best performances. Elliott also has to contend with Indian attacks and the double-crossing Lowery who has made a rotten deal with the thieving James Seay and his henchman Tom Monroe. Cowboy Cancer Alert and Boo-Boo all rolled into one --- Elliott has a "No smoking" rule on the trail drive but after making a big deal of it, breaks it himself by lighting up his pipe. Originally released in Sepiatone.

 HOPPY SERVES A WRIT (1942 United Artists)
The second Hopalong Cassidy feature after the series moved from Paramount to United Artists is one of the best from either studio. Speedy, exciting, action-packed --- with one of the great bar-room brawls, certainly the best in any Hoppy film. Oddly, it carries the most adult title ever used in a B-western as I doubt many 7-12 year old Hoppy fans had the slightest inkling what a writ was. (Further more, Cassidy serves a warrant at the end, which is altogether different than a writ --- making the title even stranger.) Texas sheriff Hoppy and pals, Jay Kirby and Andy Clyde, ride into Oklahoma Territory, where they have no authority, as they pursue Victor Jory and his gang of outlaws (George Reeves, Hal Taliaferro, Robert Mitchum). They end up helping rancher Forbes Murray and his daughter Jan Christy who are being plagued by rustlers --- the same gang as it turns out. Watch for Roy Barcroft --- on the good side of the law (although he does bedevil Clyde) as a rancher.

 SHINE ON HARVEST MOON (1938 Republic)
Several oddly unique elements come together nicely to make this one of Roy Rogers' more interesting early efforts --- a blustery, obnoxious badman in Stanley Andrews, an understated exceptional role for William Farnum, the debut of WLS National Barn Dance hillbilly comic-musicians Lulu Belle and Scotty (obviously added to appeal to the rural trade) and two superior, well remembered Rogers tunes, the charming "Let Me Build a Cabin" which Roy sings to Farnum's lovely daughter, Mary Hart, and "The Man In the Moon Is a Cowboy". The ranch of William Farnum and his partner's son, Roy, holds the gateway to Jackson's Hole, Andrew's rustler's hideaway. Problem is, Farnum used to be Andrews' partner, and other ranchers are led to believe he still is. Usual (at this time) Rogers sidekick Raymond Hatton is absent, leaving the comedy relief, such as it is, in the befuddled hands of Chester Gunnels who never seems to quite know what he's there for. The film is highlighted by some atmospheric scenes from director Joe Kane and camera-lenser William Nobles, as well as an unexpectedly bruising climatic fight between Roy and the much larger Andrews. Listen for the typical of the after-the-depression-era sentiment about 'bloodsucking banker' Frank Jacquet.

 HEART OF THE RIO GRANDE (1942 Republic)
"Hardly a shot fired, first punch isn't thrown til the 40 minute mark ... what kind of western is this?" someone asked. It's a Gene Autry picture of the type that endeared him to audiences of the war torn early '40s. Ranch foreman Autry tames a rich, spoiled teenage shrew (Edith Fellows) sent to Sarah Padden's dude ranch for the Summer (along with teacher Fay McKenzie and a group of other teens --- including pert Jean Porter). In the process, Gene humanizes Edith's Dad, businessman Pierre Watkin, helping him to be a better father. Although McKenzie gets the billing and is romanced by both Gene and Frog (Smiley Burnette), the picture totally belongs to Edith Fellows, who even gets a spotlight song singing to Champion. Songs include 1942's hit "Deep In the Heart of Texas" and Johnny Bond's "Cimarron" sung by the Jimmy Wakely Trio. As this was filmed in January '42, it's interesting to note the 'commercial' midway for U.S. Savings Bonds and Stamps as Gene convinces the ranch hands their wages are better spent on Bonds than on a good time in town.

 OREGON TRAIL SCOUTS (1947 Republic)
Finally, after an entire series of Red Ryder films with Bill Elliott, and now the 5th entry with Allan Lane, Republic decided to explain how Little Beaver (Bobby Blake) came to be Red's little Indian sidekick. Even Red's aunt, The Duchess (Martha Wentworth), is still in Philadelphia when this retro-Ryder film begins. Evil Roy Barcroft (and his gunmen led by Ed Cobb) will stop at nothing (even to kidnapping Little Beaver) to secure trapping rights on Indian land owned by Chief Running Fox (Frank Lackteen). Martha Wentworth (1889-1974) had an even larger career on radio than she did in films. She was Joe Penner's Mom, old witch Nancy on "The Witch's Tale", The Wintergreen Witch on the perennial Christmas favorite "The Cinnamon Bear", worked on Abbott and Costello's radio program, as well as dozens of others on into the '50s. Director R. G. (Bud) Springsteen (1904-1989) started working in films as an assistant director at Universal in 1930. He moved on to Fox and Republic who promoted him to full director in 1945 with several Bill Elliott Red Ryder westerns. He continued at Republic until its demise then continued to work at Universal and Allied Artists in the '60s, winding up his career helming several of producer A. C. Lyles' all-star westerns at Paramount in the mid '60s.

 GUNSMOKE RANCH (1937 Republic)
Dishonest politician Kenneth Harlan's crooked Paradise Land Syndicate lures destitute ranchers wiped out by floods and famine into his Gunsmoke Valley project, promising them they may colonize 10,000 acres of land for a small down payment. The Three Mesquiteers (Bob Livingston, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune) involve themselves after they inadvertently sell some land to the promoter for $2 an acre only to learn Harlan intends to resell it to the settlers (Burr Caruth, his granddaughter Julia Thayer [aka Jean Carmen], Horace Carpenter and others) at $50 an acre. Harlan's gang consists of Yakima Canutt, Bob Walker, John Merton, Allen Connors and minor silent star Jack Padjan. The big finale has more horse falls per minute than in any western I've ever seen! Livingston 'sings', dubbed by someone who sounds nothing like him. A pretty good Mesquiteers western is ruined by a very unfunny segment with Oscar and Elmer (Lou Fulton and Ed Platt) at a dance. Screenplay: Oliver Drake, well handled by director Joe Kane.

 TEXAS RANGER (1931 Columbia)
Starts out fine, bogs down midway with an over abundance of romantic by-play, then finishes with an exciting finale. When her father (Lafe McKee) is killed by cattle thief Harry Woods' night riders who strike without warning, Carmelita Geraghty takes the law into her own hands aided by a band of vigilantes bent on wiping out Woods who wants the homesteaders out of Laredo Valley. Geraghty's loyal followers are Nelson McDowell, Billy Bletcher (the pint-sized actor who provided the deep voice for the Lone Ranger Republic serial when LR was masked), Ed Brady and Harry Todd. Into the fray rides Ranger Buck Jones to settle the war. Buck gets the opportunity to masquerade as a drunk --- and does it quite well. Elements of the plot were reused by RKO for two versions of COME ON DANGER --- in '32 with Tom Keene and '42 with Tim Holt.

 TOMBSTONE CANYON (1932 KBS/World Wide)
Ken Maynard encounters a mysterious, dark-cloaked Phantom killer (grand old villain of silents, Sheldon Lewis) who lets out a blood curdling cry as he prowls California's Red Rock Canyon. A gothic western directed by Alan James at breakneck speed, this is one of Ken's most exciting series westerns. Ken gets aid from cute Cecilia Parker (in her first of four with Maynard) and Tarzan as they attempt to unmask the mysterious Phantom, a madman whose face has been disfigured by nasty Frank Brownlee. Now the Phantom is on a murderous bent to kill Brownlee and all his men. Lewis self applied his hideous makeup, ala Lon Chaney Sr., and gives an outstanding performance. The whole thing is wild and improbable --- but the stuff great Saturday matinee westerns are made from. Bob 'Bazooka' Burns, who plays the Sheriff, later became a popular radio comedian, so when TOMBSTONE CANYON was reissued Burns was showcased as a co-star in print advertising. Burns has a comedic scene in TOMBSTONE CANYON, more than likely improvised, as it's not unlike his later radio routines, involving a phone call from his wife at a crucial moment. His nickname came from his invention of the Bazooka, a crude musical instrument fashioned from a horn's mouthpiece and a length of hose. Cecilia Parker went on to co-star as Andy Hardy's sister in 12 films.

 THE TEST (1935 Reliable)
Rin Tin Tin Jr. catches fur thief Monte Blue in his own trap after Blue (and his men Jimmy Aubrey, Artie Ortego) steal valuable furs from Rinnie's master, Grant Withers. Low rent B. B. Ray/Harry Webb production with a great dog and lots of snow.

 RANGER OF CHEROKEE STRIP (1949 Republic)
The Cherokee nation in the 1890s was self governed by the Indians, an area later to be known as Oklahoma. Unscrupulous cattleman Frank Fenton wants to lease the Indian land for five years. When Chief Monte Blue won't agree, Fenton's man, Roy Barcroft, knifes him, lays the blame on Joe Bearclaws (Douglas Kennedy) and has forger George Meeker sign the lease agreement. This brings into play Ranger Monte Hale and Sheriff Paul Hurst on the trail of Kennedy, eventually clearing his name. It's another good Bob Williams screenplay from an Earle Snell story. Since we're in 1890s Oklahoma, why not toss in a Will Rogers cameo, as played by Arthur Walsh. Also listen for the inside joke about actor's ages.

 RIDER OF THE PLAINS (1931 Syndicate)
A most unusual western. Reformed outlaw Tom Tyler rides into town with his sidekick, young orphan boy Andy Shuford. When Sheriff Gordon De Main discovers Tyler's past, the self-righteous townspeople take Andy away from Tyler, believing him a bad influence. Tyler's only friend in town is the parson, Ted Adams, himself a reformed owlhoot. Both the parson and Tyler are in love with Lillian Bond. When the express office is robbed, Sheriff De Main accuses Tyler but Andy clears him, swearing he saw deputy Al Bridge and cohort Slim Whitaker pull the robbery. Later, after Tyler is cleared, Andy confesses to Parson Adams that he lied to save Tom. As it turns out, Andy 'guessed' correctly. If you're looking for something different in B-westerns, apart from hard-riding shoot 'em ups, scripter Wellyn Totman's RIDER OF THE PLAINS is it. Totman often brought new themes to his westerns --- GOD'S COUNTRY AND THE MAN (Tom Tyler '31), HIDDEN VALLEY (Bob Steele '32), FROM BROADWAY TO CHEYENNE (Rex Bell '32), SON OF THE BORDER (Tom Keene '33).

 DANGEROUS VENTURE (1947 United Artists)
Harry Cording, Francis J. McDonald and their fake Indians are rustling cattle and blaming it on the "ghost Indians" ... the remnants of the ancient and secretive Talnec tribe, descendents of the Aztecs, who live way back in Skull Canyon (Lone Pine, CA, actually) and are led by Chief Ftitz Leiber. (There's a true Indian actor!) Hopalong Cassidy, with his friends Lucky (Rand Brooks) and California (Andy Clyde) are helping lady archeologist Betty Alexander and Dr. Douglas Evans in locating the tribe and priceless artifacts ... artifacts Alexander wants only for historical purposes but Evans secretly wants for monetary gain. Watch for a young Kenneth Tobey in his first film role as a member of the expedition. Director George Archainbaud (1890-1959) began his career in 1917. Born in Paris, France, of all places, he is one of the masters of the American western as he moved solidly into that genre in the early '40s with work on Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy and Richard Dix titles. He directed all 12 of these U.A. Hoppy films before beginning an association with Gene Autry in the early '50s that encompassed work on film and TV.

 DESERT BANDIT (1941 Republic)
Texas Ranger Don Barry is pleased when his friend James Gillette, brother of Don's sweetheart Lynn Merrick, is appointed to the Rangers (after a long wait) the same day Gillette pays off the mortgage on his ranch (albeit with stolen money). The mortgage is held by crooked banker Robert Strange, secret leader of a gun smuggling gang run by William Haade (with his boys Dick Wessell, Sheriff Ernie Stanton, Merrill McCormack, Jim Corey). Strange is disappointed to have the ranch slip through his slimy fingers as it lies along the border giving him clear access for his gun smuggling operation. To gain the ranch, Strange and Haade frame Gillette in their illegal operation as well as laying blame for his escape from jail on Ranger Barry who is then forced to resign and join the outlaws to get the goods on them. This is comic actor Tom Ewell's film debut. He found lasting fame opposite Marilyn Monroe in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH. Lynn Merrick, born in 1920, formerly Marlyn Merrick at Warner Bros., became Don Barry's most frequent leading lady, co-starring with Don in 16 features. Leaving Republic in '43, she worked under contract at Columbia until '47. She married Robert Goelet, heir to one of America's greatest fortunes, but it was a stormy period marred by court appearances and a suicide attempt on Lynn's part. They divorced around 1955 countersuing one another for adultery. She worked as a representative for a modeling agency in New York for several years before disappearing from public view. A lost player western fans would dearly love to locate ... if she's still living.

 NEW FRONTIER (1939 Republic)
Following the Civil War, many people headed west to find a new life. Major Eddy Waller founds the community of New Hope. On the 50th anniversary of New Hope, the Valley is condemned by the state to build a dam to supply water to the neighboring area. With the aid of the Three Mesquiteers (John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Raymond Hatton), Waller, his children --- Phyllis Isley (later Jennifer Jones) and Sammy McKim --- and the settlers fight back against ruthless dam builder LeRoy Mason and swindler Harrison Greene. Moves quickly. Retitled FRONTIER HORIZON for TV to avoid confusion with Wayne's 1935 film of the same name. This was both John Wayne and Ray Corrigan's exit from the popular 3 Mesquiteers series. Corrigan started up the Range Busters at Monogram in the mold of the Mesquiteers, but without taking a back seat to Livingston or Wayne --- now he was the lead. Wayne, of course, quickly became one of the biggest movie stars in history. Hatton stuck around in the Mesquiteers with the returning Bob Livingston and all new Duncan Renaldo.

 FOR THE SERVICE (1936 Universal)
Buck Jones produced and directed himself in this solemn affair. Offers little new in the way of westerns as Army scout Buck plays cupid to new recruit Clifford Jones (later Phillip Trent) and post storekeeper's daughter, lovely Beth Marion. The new recruit is the son of the post commander, Edward Keane, but proves unsuitable to the West because he has no stomach for violence. Even Fred Kohler Sr. is not up to his usual hateful self in this offbeat B. Buck was better off when directed by others.

 TWO FISTED LAW (1932 Columbia)
A young Walter Brennan shines as a wayward deputy, showing the promise he soon delivered on with several Academy Awards. Tim McCoy told me he suggested to the front office of Columbia that they should "do something" with Brennan's talent. In this overly talky B, after losing his ranch to Wheeler Oakman, when the snake in the grass more or less cheats Tim out of his ranch, Tim leaves, only to discover gold and return to aid neighboring rancher Alice Day and mete out justice to Oakman. A young John Wayne and Wallace MacDonald have very little to do as two of Tim's loyal ranch hands.

 GUN LORDS OF STIRRUP BASIN (1937 Supreme/Republic)
Shades of Romeo and Juliet! Feuding families with star-crossed lovers Bob Steele and Louise Stanley caught in the middle of the range war. Bob's the son of cattleman Frank Ball (and yes, Steele loses yet another father!) and Louise is the daughter of Frank LaRue, head of the homesteaders on the Mesa. But wait-it's really shyster lawyer Karl Hackett (and his boys --- Lew Meehan, Jim Corey) stirring the pot so Hackett can jump the homesteads. Child star Bobby Nelson has a small unbilled role. This is one of A. W. Hackel's Supreme Pictures produced for Republic. Hackel formed Supreme independently in 1934, signing Bob Steele and Johnny Mack Brown and placing them in generally above average B-western productions. Supreme joined Monogram, Liberty and Herbert J. Yates' Consolidated Film Labs in forming Republic in 1935. Thus, by 1936 the Steele and Brown efforts were a bit more polished and saw better distribution than prior to the merger where Hackel's westerns were being released on a states' rights basis by William Steiner. In all, Steele made his best westerns --- 32 of them --- for Hackel between 1934-1938. In 1941 Hackel joined the re-formed Monogram and produced several non-westerns for them (LIVING GHOST, PHANTOM KILLER, MURDER BY INVITATION etc.). He died at 76 in 1959.

 CHEYENNE WILDCAT (1944 Republic)
As the Duchess (Alice Fleming) hollers, "Atta Boy, Red! Give it to 'em", Bill Elliott as Red Ryder takes no prisoners as he and Little Beaver (Bobby Blake) clear old timer Francis McDonald of murder and bank fraud and catch the real culprits, eastern financier Roy Barcroft and bank cashier Tom London, who are trying to gain control of the bank. Little Beaver takes a more active role in this entry than in some. Quite an involved storyline but a thrilling Red Ryder, one of his best. It's a plum role for brains-heavy Barcroft, introduced admiring himself in a mirror while singing "Oh Susannah". Lots of subtle touches all thanks no doubt to director Lesley Selander.

 HIT THE SADDLE (1937 Republic)
There's trouble on the 3 Mesquiteers (Bob Livingston, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune) range as Stony (Livingston) foolishly falls head over heels for a vivacious dance hall singer (Rita Cansino --- soon to be Rita Hayworth). While the gold digger nearly breaks up the Mesquiteers' friendship, a sinister gang (headed by J. P. McGowan) wants the law protecting wild horses revoked so they can stage a big roundup. McGowan and his men (Yakima Canutt, Harry Tenbrook) paint a killer horse, Volcano, to resemble the pinto leader of the wild herd and while Sheriff Ed Cassidy is out in the badlands, they cause the horse to attack and trample to death the Sheriff which, of course, enrages the local populace into wanting to kill the pinto leader and abolish the wild horse protective law. Note that the pinto in the stock footage battle with a black stallion is a completely different horse from the one in the rest of the film. At one point early in the film, Livingston sheepishly sings a duet with Rita. Corrigan chides, "As I live and breathe, if it isn't one of them singing cowboys". In Oliver Drake's screenplay, Corrigan is the level headed, steadying influence and is given more screen time than he's often afforded. Livingston, in this, the Mesquiteers' fifth entry, is still portrayed as the young, headstrong, impetuous Stony --- still without the perfectly tailored shirt and pants and snappier blocked hat that soon became a vital part of his being. Remade in '44 with Livingston as PRIDE OF THE PLAINS with much stock footage. In order to make the stock lifted from HIT THE SADDLE work, Livingston had to don these less-tailored clothes for a portion of the film. At this point, 18 year old Rita Hayworth was still working under her Spanish ancestral name of Cansino. This same year she married quite wealthy car salesman Edward Judson, a generation her senior, who helped transform dark-haired Rita Cansino into red-headed Rita Hayworth at Columbia.

 CODE OF THE SADDLE (1947 Monogram)
Creaky old B-western plot of someone in the middle stirring up trouble between two neighboring ranchers (Kay Morley and Riley Hill) so they (in this case conniving Sheriff William Norton Bailey and his gunman Zon Murray) can grab off the land for themselves. They don't reckon on the brains, guns and fists of Johnny Mack Brown and his saddle pal, Raymond Hatton. Thomas Carr's direction keeps the pace lively. Originally intended as a Jimmy Wakely/Lee 'Lasses' White western.

 HEART OF THE GOLDEN WEST (1942 Republic)
Gene Autry's last film before entering the service for WWII was released in September 1942. Three months later, the first bigger budgeted Roy Rogers special, HEART OF THE GOLDEN WEST, was released. Roy, after years of waiting in the wings playing a bit of a second fiddle to Autry, had finally arrived in this part western adventure, part screwball comedy. When Edmund McDonald's trucking company raises their shipping rates sky high to cattlemen, Roy Rogers (and his pals, Gabby Hayes, Smiley Burnette and the Sons of the Pioneers) frustrate McDonald by finding an alternative shipping route, by utilizing devout Southerner Walter Catlett and his daughter's (Ruth Terry) steamboat line. Then McDonald and his henchmen led by William Haade, rustle the cattle using the old cave beneath the falls hideout. Worse problem --- Catlett detests and is fearful of everything to do with cowboys, Indians and western music. Roy and the Hall Johnson Choir (with the Sons of the Pioneers) perform a blend of Southern spirituals, "River Chant". This one has it all, including a final showdown amidst a storm ridden swamp --- and an impossible not-to-sing-along-with finale "River Robin". You'll be singing this one for days! Joe Kane's fast and furious direction of Earl Felton's script employs constant movement, it never lets the excitement breathe, even for a second. Edmund MacDonald and William Haade display an early brand of Clinton/Condit semantics: After knocking rancher Fred Burns down by pushing him with his foot, Haade pleads to Roy, "I never laid a hand on him!" and MacDonald rapidly spins that into an apology! With saddle partner Gene Autry off to WWII, Republic had to find other work for contractee Smiley Burnette, hence Roy gains two sidekicks in this film before the studio teamed Smiley first with Eddie Dew (that didn't work), then Bob Livingston (to fill out the Dew series) and finally Sunset Carson.

 SIERRA SUE (1941 Republic)
Another of Gene Autry's environmental westerns with no real outlaws in sight. This time Gene's a Department of Agriculture weed specialist seeking a solution to the rancher's "Devil Weed" extermination problem. Their solution --- burn it off. Gene's answer --- weed spray which one large rancher (Robert Homans) and his daughter (Fay McKenzie --- whom both Gene and Smiley Burnette want to romance) strongly oppose. Watch for former B-western stars Kermit Maynard and Rex Lease in small roles. Gene sings one of his biggest hits, "Be Honest With Me". Director William Morgan began as a film editor for eight years with Paramount and RKO, moving up to director with Republic. His only westerns were seven with Gene in the '40s.

 SMOKY CANYON (1952 Columbia)
The Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) comes to the rescue of some Montana cattleowners and sheepherders (led by Jack Mahoney) after a feud breaks out between them. It's actually a plot by Tris Coffin and crooked Sheriff Larry Hudson (and their gunnies led by Chris Alcaide and Sandy Sanders) to keep cattle from making it to market, thereby raising the price of meat for a deal with an Eastern syndicate. Killing and burning, Coffin's gang frames Jack for the murder of cattle rancher Dani Sue Nolan's father. Once in love with Jack, Nolan goes on a relentless pursuit to hunt down Mahoney --- even to hiring "gunman" Charles Starrett, who at one point exclaims, "I can promise you one thing, if Durango and I ever do meet face to face, only one of us will walk away!" Eventually, Tris' gang is wiped out by their own treachery. Cute scene as Smiley Burnette goes into high speed action when Sandy Sanders threatens to kill his pet sheep. Supposed shots of Tris, Dani Sue Nolan and Larry Hudson watching sheep graze are actually stock shots of Tim Holt, Richard Martin and Noreen Nash from RKO's STORM OVER WYOMING.

 TRAIL OF THE MOUNTIES (1947 Lippert)
It's another B-western case of double identity as Mountie Russell Hayden investigates a series of fur robberies actually staged by his twin brother wearing a Mountie uniform to throw suspicion on Russ. Even leading lady Jennifer Holt is confused. Fast moving 40 minute Lippert streamliner directed by Howard Bretherton (1896-1969) a prolific director of westerns who gravitated to them after a period of work making other types of program pictures at Warner Bros. and Monogram. After Paramount assigned Bretherton to HOP-ALONG CASSIDY and several of the other good early Hoppys, Bretherton also helmed westerns with Charles Starrett, Don Barry, Rough Riders, Bill Elliott, Johnny Mack Brown and Whip Wilson.

 UTAH TRAIL (1938 Grand National)
Tex Ritter unravels the mystery of the ghost train being used by rustlers to deplete cattlemen's herds in wholesale fashion. Adele Pearce (later better known as Pamela Blake) is managing the railroad being hit hard by the rustlers. Her superintendent, Karl Hackett, is secretly the brains behind the gang (Charlie King, Bud Osborne, Lynton Brent) doing the large scale rustling. Tex and Charlie have not just one-but two of their famous free-for-all brawls. Horace Murphy as Ananias and Snub Pollard as Pee Wee are Tex's two pals. Some music by Rudy Sooter and Tex Ritter's Tornadoes. Fine and bit different windup aboard a speeding train in this the last of Ritter's westerns to be released through Grand National. The remainder of Tex's 20 films were released by Monogram. Pam, whose real name was Adele Pearce, made 10 westerns in her career (counting the GHOST OF ZORRO serial) of which this was the first. "Don't mention it. It was terrible", she told me. "I never saw it and never wanted to". Pam, who now lives in Las Vegas, was once married to juvenile lead Malcolm 'Bud' McTaggart (who died in a freak swimming pool dive in '49 after they were divorced). Pam later married game show host Mike Stokey (PANTOMIME QUIZ) in '43. They divorced in '48. Their son, Mike, is very involved in today's film industry as a military advisor.

 BORDER BADMEN (1945 PRC)
There's a lot of old dark hotel, shadowy cabin and Fuzzy St. John shenanigans as Buster Crabbe comes to Silver Creek with pal Fuzzy who hopes to inherit a piece of his late 32nd cousin's money when the will is probated. Also coming for the reading of the will is a niece, Larraine Miller, whom badman Charlie King kidnaps then puts his own gal, Marlyn Gladstone, in as the legitimate heir. Half the town (or all the cast) is in on the swindle with King --- Sheriff Ray Bennett, postmaster/hotel owner Budd Buster, Mayor Steve Clark, banker Archie Hall and gunman Frank Ellis. There's quite a few more-than-normal-for-PRC plot holes in this one, but "our old pals" Fuzzy and Buster make it fun.

 DUDE COWBOY (1941 RKO)
When government engraver Byron Foulger disappears in Nevada, U.S. Treasury officer Earle Hodgins turns to his nephew, Tim Holt, for help. Counterfeit bills bearing Foulger's "signature" are circulating through a casino on the Silver Bar Guest Ranch. Counterfeiters Eddie Kane and Eddie Dew, forcing Foulger to work for them (in Bronson Cave), are using the dude ranch to launder the queer stuff. Coincidentally, Tim's pals Ray Whitley and Lee 'Lasses' White are on the ranch with a medicine show as well as Foulger's daughter, Marjorie Reynolds, who is searching for her father by posing as a guest. Louise Currie is a ranch guest flirting with Tim --- to no avail. Overlook the title, the word "dude" dissuades one into thinking this is tamer than it is. An exceptionally exciting pre-war Holt. Director David Howard (1896-1941) had been going strong for over 10 years. He'd directed nearly all the George O'Brien Bs at RKO as well as many of O'Brien's Fox films. O'Brien leading lady Virginia Vale called him "... a kind man. Very patient. Soft-spoken." His untimely death was at the height of his career.

 TRAIL OF THE YUKON (1949 Monogram)
The first in Kirby Grant's Northwest Mountie series sports a better than average cast but is nothing exceptional. Actually, this was the second picture produced for the series (made in May '49); SNOW DOG, released second, was filmed in April '49. In the first two episodes, Grant is named Bob McDonald (TRAIL...) and Rod MacDonald (SNOW DOG). Producer Lindsley Parsons then settled on Rod Webb for the remaining 8 titles, released about two per year through 1954. The real star of the series was the gorgeous, all white, 140 lb., roughly 2 year old thoroughbred German Shepherd, Chinook (real name Harvey Brindlesiff Offner) who was owned by blonde sometime actress Dorothy Crider (once married to director Reg Browne). Chinook was the first in a line of German Shepherds that Crider bred. Chinook's father was movie dog Ace (real name Silver Tips) who was owned by Earl Johnson, the man who trained Bullet for Roy Rogers. Grant once told me although he got along with Chinook, the dog was wary of strangers and could be temperamental, therefore he was kept muzzled at all times on the set when he wasn't in action. Chinook underwent 18 months of training before he was given a film test. Only Crider, trainer Sam Williamson (a short, lightweight, slender man who Grant said had trouble holding Chinook in leash when the dog made up his mind to go), and veteran stuntman Duke York, who did most of the fight scenes in the series with the dog, could handle Chinook. Stuntman Whitey Hughes remembers Williamson also helped owner/trainer Rudd Weatherwax in training Lassie to perform various tricks. Although trained not to bite flesh, every now and then Chinook would get carried away; York was bitten severely several times. Chinook's salary apparently rose from $150 a week to $1,250 per week over the five years the 10 films were produced. There were no doubles for Chinook. During the course of the films, Chinook was bred with Paulette, a dog owned by director John Huston, producing a litter of ten pups. Dorothy Crider operated a kennel in Sherman Oaks, which is where Chinook (Harvey) began his line of other movie/TV star dogs. White Shadow on the CORKY AND WHITE SHADOW serial on TV's MICKEY MOUSE CLUB ('55-'59) was Chinook's son, White Shadow I. Crider's four white German Shepherds appeared in approximately 200 films and TV shows and worked on stage and at state fairs as well. White Shadow II entertained with Roy Rogers and Trigger in public appearances in the guise of Roy's dog Bullet. Grant (1911-1985), originally a bass-baritone singer and concert violinist (in the Seattle Symphony Orchestra), hailed from Butte, MT. He appeared in light opera in Chicago and was featured vocalist in the Windy City's Drake Hotel supper club before coming to Hollywood under the name Robert Stanton. After dramatic roles in big films (BOMBARDIER, DESTINATION TOKYO) and light musicals (BABES ON SWING STREET, HI GOOD LOOKIN', I'LL REMEMBER APRIL , etc.), Universal cast him as their western replacement for Rod Cameron who'd moved up to bigger budget films. Grant starred in Universal's last seven B-westerns before the company became Universal-International and released only A films. After a few western-musicals at Columbia (SINGIN' SPURS, SONG OF IDAHO, FEUDIN' RHYTHM), producer Parsons chose Kirby for his Monogram Mountie series. Grant's biggest success, however, came on TV during the same time he was appearing in the Mountie films. SKY KING began in December 1951; 19 episodes were produced. After a production layoff of a couple of years, the series was revived, more episodes produced, and it ran on network and in syndication into the mid-'60s. In TRAIL OF THE YUKON, banker William Forrest jumps the claim of miner Guy Beach and his son Bill Edwards. When the pair hires Anthony Warde's gang to help them rob Forrest's bank, Warde double-crosses them and kills Beach. Mountie Kirby Grant and Chinook just happen to be in the area and become involved. Grant gets to briefly sing a plaintive ballad, something he wanted to do more of in the series, but wasn't given the opportunity. Also with Suzanne Dalbert, Stanley Andrews, Bill Kennedy, Dick Elliott, Al Bridge, a pre-Tonto Jay Silverheels, Peter Mamakos, Dan Seymour, Iris Adrian. Script by old pro Oliver Drake. Directed by William Beaudine under the alias (for whatever reason) William X. Crowley.

 OKLAHOMA CYCLONE (1930 Tiffany)
On the run from the Sheriff, the wanted Oklahoma Cyclone (Bob Steele) stumbles onto a rancho owned by Don Hector Sarno but run by an outlaw gang led by Charles King and Slim Whitaker. Soon there's conflict between Bob and Charlie over the affections of Don's daughter, Nita Rey. Not to spoil it, but Fuzzy St. John, as Bob's outlaw pal, plays a great death scene. Bob sings several songs, proving he was years ahead of Gene Autry as a singing cowboy. Nita Rey is a bad actress whose thick Spanish dialect is hard to decipher. She later had a small role in RAMONA ('36) and soon disappeared. Overall, dreadfully slow, hampered by early sound restrictions. Notable for the first of numerous on-screen slugfests between Steele and King. Remade in 1936 as SONG OF THE GRINGO with Tex Ritter. Note that a wanted poster reads "The Black Diablo" but is stated as "The Great Diablo".

 FORBIDDEN TRAIL (1932 Columbia)
This one's played as much for light comedy as it is western thrills when happy-go-lucky Buck Jones and his pal George Cooper's penchant for practical jokes and a slingshot land them in the middle of a range war. Slick political boss Wallis Clark, storekeep Ed Brady and henchman Al Smith plan to own all of Casper County and force Barbara Weeks, editor of the newspaper, to print editorials supporting their position stirring up conflict between cattlemen and settlers. Longtime character player Frank LaRue has probably his finest hour of screen time as Buck's blustering cattleman boss. Politically incorrect today, there's an oriental racist slur uttered by Sheriff Frank Rice.

 BOSS OF BULLION CITY (1941 Universal)
Crusading newspaper publishers Johnny Mack Brown and Fuzzy Knight oppose the corrupt law enforcement of Sheriff Harry Woods in Bullion City. When Woods falsely accuses Brown's friend, horse trader Nell O'Day, of a murder, these suspicions are confirmed. Nell is cleared but Woods and his men, led by Dick Alexander, explode on a wave of lawlessness. Earle Hodgins does another of his fabulous medicine show spiels; Fuzzy Knight is sillier, stupider and more whiney than ever; and Maria Montez is completely unnecessary --- obviously Universal was giving her on camera training before starring her in ARABIAN NIGHTS. Plenty of action and thrills --- up until the end which is a real let-down after the tension built up between Brown and Woods.

 APACHE ROSE (1947 Republic)
It's the first of the "new look" Roy Rogers westerns. Gabby's gone. The Sons of the Pioneers are relegated to the background. It's Roy Rogers' first in Trucolor. The running time is several minutes longer. Even the blocking of Roy's hat has changed. But still the new harder-edged feel of the late '40s Rogers westerns wouldn't be totally in place until the next one, BELLS OF SAN ANGELO. This is an excellent transitional film from the fun and fancy free Rogers horse operettas of the mid '40s to the more adult and environmental storylines of the late '40s and early '50s that recharged Roy's batteries with theatre audiences. The William Witney directed plot is another of Republic's "hands across the border good neighbor" westerns with Roy as an oil prospector thwarted at every turn by gambler George Meeker (and his men, LeRoy Mason, John Laurenz) in Roy's attempt to secure drilling rights to an old Spanish land grant. The gamblers know of the oil and are trying to gain control themselves by letting Russ Vincent (as a Mexican charro --- Tito Guizar hadn't come along yet) run up a gambling debt so he and his cousin, Donna De Mario (not yet name changed to Donna Martell) will be forced to sell their oil rich property. Mixing in are independent and blonde Dale Evans (owner of the Apache Rose boat) and Olin Howlin (subbing for the gone Gabby and not yet in place Andy Devine who'd join the gang in the next film.

 MEXICALI ROSE (1939 Republic)
A fast 60 minutes. Hardly time to catch your breath as popular radio singer Gene Autry discovers his oil company sponsor is running a stock promotion fraud and among its victims is an orphanage run by lovely Luana Walters. Gene and sidekick Smiley Burnette team up with a Mexican Robin Hood (a really over the top, hammish Noah Beery Sr.) to expose the crooks (William Royle with henchies Roy Barcroft, LeRoy Mason, Vic Demourelle) and save the orphanage. It all seems like bits and script-scraps from several other Gene Autry/3 Mesquiteers Republics, and maybe it is, but it's all so exciting and entertaining --- who cares! Smiley puts new words to the Spanish classic "Cielto Lindo" and Gene sings his hit, "You're the Only Star In My Blue Heaven". William Farnum, more subdued than usual, is another Catholic priest as he is in SOUTH OF THE BORDER. Even Republic's token black actor. Snowflake, is in this one --- unbilled. The fantasy world of Gene Autry comes alive in MEXICALI ROSE making it a favorite with Autry fans. Screenwriter Robert Emmett Tansey and producer Ed Finney figured if the story was good enough for Gene Autry, it was good enough for Tex Ritter so they appropriated it for RHYTHM OF THE RIO GRANDE a year later with Martin Garralaga in the Noah Beery role.

 KID FROM AMARILLO (1951 Columbia)
Treasury agents Charles Starrett and Smiley (master of disguises) Burnette are assigned to round up a gang of silver smugglers (Fred Sears, Don Megowan, Scott Lee, Henry Kulky) operating across the border in Mexico. The gang is using an elaborate plan of bringing the silver into a charcoal mine cave run by El Loco (George Chesebro) in Mexico, melting it down into charcoal covered silver chains, then sneaking it out through a tunnel under the border into the U.S. and substituting it for chains on a prison chain gang. Meanwhile, another agent, posing as pugilist "The Kid From Amarillo" Harry Lauter, has infiltrated the gang but both he and Smiley are discovered and captured. Starrett, as the Durango Kid, along with help from the Mexican Rurales (George J. Lewis), round up the gang. Very disjointed and episodic for usually tight Durango scripter Berry Shipman with lots of loose-end plot points never resolved or answered. The Cass County Boys sing something seldom heard in westerns, a Southern spiritual, "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel". Remade as an episode of TV's TALES OF THE TEXAS RANGERS with Lauter playing the same role.

 RIDERS OF THE BLACK HILLS (1938 Republic)
There's a lot of horsin' around when the 3 Mesquiteers capture Mesquite, a wild horse that is a perfect double for famous race horse Black Knight, a three year old thoroughbred who is horsenapped from philanthropist Maude Eburne and her niece Ann Evers by Jack Ingram's gang --- actually masterminded by Evers' nefarious fiancé Frank Melton. After being mistakenly jailed for the theft of Black Knight by idiot sheriff Roscoe Ates and his none-too-bright deputy Monte Montague, the Three Mesquiteers (Bob Livingston, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune), eventually round up the real culprits. One sticking point for me --- in the final handicap horserace, the Mesquiteers and Evers willingly substitute Mesquite for Black Knight knowing it is against all rules of horse racing. They win, collect the purse and get away with the scam which sends a bad message to viewers that it's okay to cheat if it's for a good cause.

 REBEL CITY (1953 Allied Artists)
"In 1864, though Kansas was loyal to the Union, it was over-run with Confederate sympathizers because both governments tolerated a certain amount of essential non-military trade. Belfry --- a gateway city between the North and South --- became a thriving center for commerce. It also became the headquarters for a secret organization of Northerners, the Copperheads, who were dedicated to the defeat of the Union. The South, they believed, was going to win the war and they were determined to be on the winning side." In his best William S. Hart manner, gambler Bill Elliott returns to Belfry after his father, a freight line operator, has been stabbed to death after receiving $2,000 in counterfeit for sale of his freight wagons. When the Union Colonel (Ray Walker) in charge of the district offers scant aid, having his hands full with Copperhead activity, Bill sets out to solve the crime himself taking a job as a teamster with Marjorie Lord's freighting business. One by one he uncovers a whole nest of Copperheads --- Henry Rowland, Otto Waldis, John Crawford, I. Stanford Jolley, Keith Richards, Denver Pyle, Stanley Price --- and the mysterious ringleader. Cowboy cancer alert: Elliott lights up.

 MARSHAL OF GUNSMOKE (1944 Universal)
Tex Ritter wrapped up 7 co-starring roles at Universal with Johnny Mack Brown in mid 1944. Brown left Universal to sign with producer Scotty Dunlap in a series at Monogram intended to replace the Rough Riders after Buck Jones' death. Universal scrambled around for about a year with producer Oliver Drake trying various combinations of Russell Hayden (who'd just finished a series at Columbia)/Dennis Moore, Tex Ritter/Dennis Moore and Tex Ritter/Russell Hayden. The one constant was Fuzzy Knight! This guy must have been blackmailing Universal execs for when the smoke cleared in mid '44, Ritter, Hayden and Moore were gone and Rod Cameron was starring --- still with good old Fuzzy. Here producer Drake employs his tried and true formula of pitting the two stars (Ritter and Hayden) against one another, then coming together to fight a common enemy at the end, this time Harry Woods and his gang (Ethan Laidlaw, Ray Bennett, Bud Osborne, George Chesebro, Slim Whitaker) who are intimidating Herbert Rawlinson and other citizens to prevent an election on a township charter. Leading lady Jennifer Holt (in her own voice she told us years later) sings "Sundown Trail" with Johnny Bond's Red River Valley Boys.

 MAN FROM GUNTOWN (1935 Puritan)
A lethargic 60 minutes as Tim McCoy foils a murder plot against the son (Rex Lease) of a dead rancher and helps the rancher's daughter (Billie Seward) stave off the land grabbers-saloon owner Wheeler Oakman and crooked lawyer Robert McKenzie with their gunnies, Jack Rockwell and George Chesebro. The film's deliberate, pedestrian pace possibly comes from the fact it is based on William S. Hart's SQUARE DEAL SANDERSON ('19). This is the second of McCoy's westerns for Puritan --- a definite step down from his days at Columbia. Director Ford Beebe (1888-1978) entered the film business at age 32 as a writer. Twelve years later he co-directed his first serial, VANISHING LEGION ('31), with Breezy Eason. He went on to co-direct a total of 25 serials at Mascot and Universal through 1942. Beebe isn't closely associated with B-westerns. His forte was, at first, in minor horror films (NIGHT MONSTER, INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE) and Johnny Sheffield Bomba series of the '50s.

 RETURN OF THE FRONTIERSMAN (1950 Warner Bros.)
This plays like a Warner Bros. Dick Foran B-western dressed up with a little extra budget and running time. And it's well done by all around as Sheriff Jack Holt's son, Gordon MacRae (who sings two songs), is framed for murder and robberies he didn't commit. Making his escape he must prove his innocence and catch the one framing him, who, no surprise, turns out to be his best friend --- newspaperman Rory Calhoun. Helping MacRae is the doctor's daughter Julie London (who replaced Alexis Smith when Smith refused to do the role and was suspended by the studio). Jack Holt was at the tail end of a distinguished 35 year career. He has a great role here to wind up that illustrious career. Also in 1950 he played opposite Lash LaRue in KING OF THE BULLWHIP and Roy Rogers in TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD.

 RANGE WARFARE (1935 Kent)
U.S. Marshal Reb Russell (in his last of 8 westerns) goes after large scale rustlers led by Roger Williams and Slim Whitaker who have placed the blame on Lucille Lund's honest rancher friend, Wally Wales. All in a day's work for Reb. "He's a real man!" states Lucille. Believe it or not, one of the outlaws, Slade (Ed Boland) is worse at delivering lines than Russell.

 DYNAMITE PASS (1950 RKO)
Surveyor Regis Toomey is hired by Clifton, NM, to lay a new road to a nearby town because unscrupulous John Dehner is charging outrageous toll road fees to use his road, the only one presently. Neither Dehner nor Clifton storekeeper Robert Shayne want the new road to go through as it will hurt both their businesses. Dehner, Shayne and their henchmen, Denver Pyle and Don Harvey, do all they can to block Toomey's progress. They're foiled though by the interventions of Tim Holt and Chito (Richard Martin) who go to work for Toomey and his wife, Lynne Roberts. Note that a sign in town reads "Silver City" but the story is set in Clifton, NM. (??)

 TRIGGER TRAIL (1944 Universal)
Rod Cameron returns from law school to find many of his friends illegally jailed by deputy sheriff Lane Chandler who is working for land-grabbing crooked Eastern financier George Eldredge. Rod's old friend, Sheriff Eddie Dew, seems to legally have his hands tied. When young Buzz Henry is killed by Eldredge's men (led by Dick Alexander), Rod (along with Dew, ranch hand Fuzzy Knight, singer Ray Whitley, leading lady Vivian Austin and her Dad Budd Buster) and the other ranchers, take the law into their own hands and stamp out Eldredge's lawlessness. You don't normally think of Eddie Dew as a singing cowboy (that's usually left to Whitley and his Bar-6 Cowboys) but Dew nicely sings "Oklahoma Home" here. Fortunately, we aren't "treated" to a Fuzzy Knight song, but we are stuck with the smell of his ventriloquism with his pet skunk. Directed with speed and verve by Lewis Collins (1897-1954) who began working for independents like Kent and Majestic, eventually helming dozens of pictures at Columbia, Universal and Monogram, including over 30 westerns, one of which is considered by many the final B-western series title, TWO GUNS AND A BADGE.

 WESTWARD HO (1935 Republic)
Probably the best of the "separated brothers" sub-genre of B-westerns. Jack Curtis and Yakima Canutt's trail-jumpers raid a wagon train, murder the parents of youngsters John Wayne (Bradley Metcalf) and Frank McGlynn Jr. (Dick Jones), fire the wagons and kidnap young McGlynn. Years later, Curtis has raised McGlynn to be the right hand man of his gang with McGlynn never knowing Curtis was guilty of the heinous crime. Meanwhile, Wayne grows up and organizes Glenn Strange and a band of white horse vigilantes called the "Singing Riders" (Jack Kirk and his boys do the vocal work) ridding the west of outlaw gangs, constantly searching for Curtis and Wayne's lost brother. Eventually, the brothers are reunited when Curtis tricks and doublecrosses McGlynn into wiping out the Riders including his own brother. A compelling story and some spectacular stuntwork make this really worthwhile ... except for the ludicrous scene when Wayne strums a guitar and "sings" (in Jack Kirk's voice) a song to leading lady Sheila Mannors.

 RETURN OF WILDFIRE (1948 Lippert)
Drifter Richard Arlen has to deal not only with saloon owner Reed Hadley trying to corner the market on wild horses but the affections of two ranch owner sisters, Patricia Morison and Mary Beth Hughes. Hadley and doublecrossing ranch foreman James Millican even resort to murder to gain their ends. Wild horse Wildfire, on whom Hadley tries to place blame, eventually metes out justice to Millican as Arlen and Hadley have a terrific climatic fight all over Vasquez Rocks. Direction is credited to Ray Taylor, but film editor Paul Landres actually directed the exciting climax. Highland Dale plays Wildfire. This is the horse later known on TV as Fury. Originally released in Sepiatone, which gave films an unusual brownish tint ... a process that didn't meet with much approval and was soon abandoned. It was really just another cheap ploy to lure patrons back into theatres ... patrons who were deserting film houses for the comfort of their new found living room TV set.

 UNKNOWN RANGER (1936 Columbia)
First of the "Ranger" series of westerns starring Bob Allen. These replaced the Larry Darmour produced Ken Maynards on Columbia's release schedule. It's a weak effort with not a gun fired or fist thrown til the 43 minute mark when Bob and Harry Woods have a go at it. The mid section of the western is devoted to breaking a horse for 10 minutes. State Ranger Allen poses as a cowpuncher working for leading lady Martha Tibbetts to round up horse rustlers Harry Woods and Bob Kortman who have trained a stallion to steal mares for them. Real hoot to see Wally Wales (now billed as Hal Taliaferro) perform "Frankie's Flaming Fandango" while the guys dance with one another. Real gay cavaliers! Cute as a button three year old Buzzy Henry steals the show with his rope tricks and just being himself.

  REVENGE RIDER (1935 Columbia)
A good story that plays out a mite slow as Tim McCoy returns home to find his sheriff brother murdered and the family of Tim's sweetheart, beautiful Billie Seward, somehow involved. Tim, dissatisfied with the town's idea of justice, begins his own investigation and finds Seward's father, Frank Sheridan, being blackmailed by town boss Edward Earle and his "appointed" sheriff, Jack Clifford. When Sheridan is later murdered in a locked room, it all boils down to a Charlie Chan explanation by McCoy of how it was done. Bob Allen is along as Seward's brother with Gene Alsace (Rocky Camron) doubling for McCoy. Remade in '39 as RIDERS OF BLACK RIVER with Charles Starrett. Philadelphia born Seward first got into modeling where she was spotted by comedian Ed Wynn who cast her in SIMPLE SIMON in New York. Possessed with a beautiful voice, she then sang with Ben Bernie's orchestra, worked in the Ziegfeld Follies, secured a singing role in OF THEE I SING on Broadway, then left for Hollywood in '33 where she soon won a contract at Columbia and co-starred with McCoy five times. She left films in '41 and little is known of her until her death in '82 of cancer.

  HOLLYWOOD ROUND-UP (1937 Columbia)
Crown Pictures western movie star Grant Drexel (Grant Withers) is idolized by the youth of America but little do they realize he is an egotistical jerk in real life who even has no respect for his take-all-the-chances stuntman, Buck Jones. Fading superstar of A dramas Carol Stephens (Helen Twelvetrees in a role paralleling her own real life career) is assigned to Drexel's latest "horse opera". Coincidentally, Buck has just met and made a hit with Helen's kid brother, Dickie Jones, thereby winning her friendship as well. After the jealous Drexel has Buck fired, Buck is conned into thinking he's working in a bank robbery scene for another film company who are really robbing the bank. Jailed, Buck must somehow escape, catch the bandits and right himself in the eyes of Carol and Dickie. At one point, Buck puts Silver through his trick paces. Comic Shemp Howard (of the 3 Stooges) is the comedy relief assistant director. Note the "in film" location shooting is at Corrville, an inside joke amalgamation of Corriganville and Kernville where westerns were really filmed. This was the first of Buck's last solo starring series, made independently for Coronet and released by Columbia for whom Buck had his greatest fame from 1930-1934.

  RIDIN' THE LONE TRAIL (1937 Supreme)
Never a dull moment as Bob Steele helps Sheriff Steve Clark apprehend mysterious road agents headed up by a serial-like black hooded boss who uses the daughter (Claire Rochelle) of a ranch owner's supposedly unrideable-white-horse-by-anyone-but-her in their robbery spree. Although you'll probably figure out by his voice who the masked chief is, we won't spoil it for you. Bob has another of his never-ending battles with Charlie King and there's an exciting climax as Bob fights the mystery villain atop a railroad handcar loaded with stolen gold headed direct for a speeding train! One of lowbudget director Sam Newfield's best efforts with all elements clicking in constant movement.

  MARSHAL OF RENO (1944 Republic)
A carnival of crime is preventing Judge Tom Chatterton from making Blue Springs the new county seat. Behind the lawlessness are several unscrupulous citizens (newspaper editor Herbert Rawlinson, Jack Kirk, LeRoy Mason, Kenne Duncan, Bud Geary) of Rockland, a nearby town wanting the same honor. Riding blithely into this situation are a pair of Eastern youths, Jay Kirby and Blake Edwards, who are mistaken for road agents. Rawlinson's group blames the lawlessness on poor Kirby whose friend is unjustly killed by Kirk riding as a member of a posse. It takes Bill Elliott as Red Ryder to save Kirby and stop him from going on the revenge trail. Bobby Blake's Little Beaver and Alice Fleming's Duchess take a back seat to the action in this entry. Effectively handled by English born Wallace Grissell (1904-1954), another director who'd come up from the ranks (set dresser, assistant director, assistant editor and finally an editor [THE OUTLAW]). Only around a few years, he was last seen heading up two good Tim Holt westerns, WILD HORSE MESA and WESTERN HERITAGE. He also co-directed several Republic and Columbia serials. Young Blake Edwards later became famous as a writer, director and producer on such films as BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, PINK PANTHER, GUN, VICTOR/VICTORIA, etc.

  WYOMING OUTLAW (1939 Republic)
The most socially relevant film the 3 Mesquiteers made. Jack Natteford's contemporary western story (fleshed out by Betty Burbridge's screenplay) of a jobs-for-sale relief racket and the siege of a mountain man trapped by a posse in northwest Wyoming was loosely based on true reports. The Mesquiteers (John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Raymond Hatton) take a back seat in this excellent little film dominated by Don Barry's meaty performance of put-upon-dust-bowl rancher Will Parker who only poaches cattle or deer (from a game preserve) to feed his father (Charles Middleton), mother (Katherine Kenworthy) and sister (Adele Pearce --- later Pamela Blake) but lands in trouble when he runs afoul of crooked politician LeRoy Mason. Also in the cast-Dave Sharpe, Dave O'Brien, Yakima Canutt, Jack Ingram and former silent screen Tarzan Elmo Lincoln who came out of retirement to play a small role as a U.S. Marshal. Expertly directed by George Sherman and, basically, a star-maker film for Don Barry. Raymond Hatton took over third spot in the Mesquiteers films from Max Terhune who was moving over to Monogram for the Range Busters.

  STAGECOACH BUCKAROO (1942 Universal)
After her father (Henry Hall) is killed, feisty Nell O'Day tries to carry on his stagecoach operation with the aid of Johnny Mack Brown and Fuzzy Knight. Meanwhile, eastern girl Anne Nagel arrives, believing she's Herbert Rawlinson's daughter. Actually, the crooked saloon owner had only married Nagel's mother when Anne was two. Rawlinson secures a job for Nagel with O'Day's stage line hoping she'll provide necessary information to him and his robber bandits (Glenn Strange, Ernie Adams). Cowboy in drag aficionados will get a kick out of Fuzzy and two gunmen who dress up as women to set an ambush for the holdup men. Nell sings two songs with Fuzzy and the barbershop quartet-like Guardsman Quartet perform two more. Good enough, but not Brown's best.

  NEVADA CITY (1941 Republic)
Brisk and lively with an above average cast as stage driver Roy Rogers and his grizzled, grumpy, pal, Gabby Hayes, attempt to mediate a battle between railroad owner Joseph Crehan and stageline, owner George Cleveland (who is always excellent), all the while trying to capture the real villains, led by Pierre Watkin of the Sacramento River Navigation company and his henchman, famous real life outlaw-poet Black Bart (Fred Kohler Jr.), who are fueling the fire by sabotaging both sides. Roy also has his hands full romancing tom-boyish Sally Payne who is being wooed by Black Bart as well. After several of Roy's movies in which Sally was relegated to second female lead, this time it's her film all the way. George Cleveland (1886-1957) was later best known as Gramps on TV's LASSIE (1954-1957). Some of the railroading scenes filmed for NEVADA CITY were reused quite often in later Republic features and as the opening to Republic's TV series, STORIES OF THE CENTURY. The Fred Kohler Jr. character is based on real life outlaw Charles E. Boles who used the name Black Bart when robbing stages in California in the late 1800s. A big budget A-western starring Dan Duryea was made about Black Bart by Universal-International in 1948. Under Joe Kane's excellent (as always) direction with a better than average script from James R. Webb, this is an under appreciated Rogers entry. Webb, after writing several of Roy's films, moved up to the A-list with SOUTH OF ST LOUIS, MONTANA, BIG TREES, CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER, VERA CRUZ, BIG COUNTRY and HOW THE WEST WAS WON, among others.

  COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN (1936 Republic)
Enhanced by the best horse race ever run in B-westerns and flourished with some tremendous wild horse footage, including material with Yakima Canutt from his silent, DEVIL HORSE ('26), this is a great early Gene Autry western. Pony Express rider Autry befriends Ann Rutherford, as Latin ranch owner Dolores Moreno, whose spread is about to be sold for delinquent taxes. Gene proposes a race between Rutherford's wild mustangs and the thoroughbreds belonging to scheming LeRoy Mason (who covets Ann's rancho) --- the winner to receive the valuable contract to sell horses to the Pony Express. Smiley Burnette performs "Don Juan of Sevillo" by Sam Stept who also wrote material for other westerns with Gene, Hopalong Cassidy and 3 Mesquiteers as well as for A-films such as HAVING WONDERFUL TIME ('38), PRIVATE BUCKAROO ('42), LIFEBOAT ('44) and TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH ('50). Very nice Lone Pine, CA, photography by William Nobles.

  STRANGER FROM PONCA CITY (1947 Columbia)
When Steve (Charles Starrett) comes to the valley seeking to buy a ranch from Virginia Hunter, he encounters opposition from Jim Diehl, Ted Mapes, Jock Mahoney, Johnny Carpenter and Tom McDonough-rustlers secretly hiding their cattle on that ranch. Steve gets help from Smiley Burnette, Sheriff Paul Campbell and Texas Jim Lewis and his Lone Star Cowboys. Eventually, kindly storekeeper Forrest Taylor is revealed as the rustler's boss. Watch for Harmonica Bill Russell as Smiley's cook. Oddly, the musician is unbilled but did get billing in two other Durango Kids --- PECOS RIVER and ACROSS THE BADLANDS. Jock Mahoney went on to star in several films at Universal and became TV's RANGE RIVER and YANCY DERRINGER. Johnny Carpenter starred in several low budget westerns mostly produced with money he raised himself.

  CALAMITY JANE AND SAM BASS (1949 Universal International)
Completely and totally fictitious but highly entertaining big budget Technicolor escapism. The real Sam Bass (1851-1878) robbed stages in Deadwood and died at the hands of the Texas Rangers in Texas. Calamity Jane (1852-1903) is known to have been in Montana from 1865-1875 and the Black Hills after that. The pair never even knew one another. In director/screenwriter George Sherman's film, Bass (Howard Duff) comes to Denton, TX, looking for work. Through a set of circumstances, he acquires the Denton Mare, fastest horse in the county, and wins a big race. Following a cattle drive, Duff enters the horse in an Abilene race, but gambler Marc Lawrence has the mare poisoned by drunken veterinarian Charles Cane to insure victory for his horse. Learning of the terrible deed, Duff and his friends (Lloyd Bridges, Milburn Stone, Houseley Stevenson) rob back their money from Lawrence and kill Cane. Branded outlaws and realizing they can't shake the image, they begin a series of robberies. Two women are in love with Duff --- rough hewn Calamity Jane (Yvonne DeCarlo) and the sister (Dorothy Hart) of the sheriff (Willard Parker) pursuing Duff.

  PIONEER JUSTICE (1947 PRC)
With her brother, Steve Drake, murdered by outlaw Jack Ingram, rancher Jennifer Holt tries to manage on her own with her uncle, William Fawcett. Bad mistake! Uncle Fawcett is the secret leader (no give-away here --- who could mistake that voice?) of the gang trying to gain control of poor Jennifer's ranch (Lane Bradford, Dee Cooper, Wally West, gambler Terry Frost). Roving marshals Lash LaRue and Fuzzy St. John ferret out Fawcett and bring justice and peace to Buffalo Gap. After only three pictures on his own, Lash's popularity had soared. Every 6-12 year old kid in the country wanted to be Lash LaRue! Whip use --- three times. Cowboy cancer alert: Fuzzy rolls his own (as only Fuzzy can).

  WILDCAT TROOPER (1936 Ambassador)
Plenty of the expert horsemanship you expect from Canadian Mountie Kermit Maynard as he and his G-Man of the North sidekick, Fuzzy Knight, get on the trail of a gang of fur thieves masterminded by a kindly physician (Hobart Bosworth). No spoiler, old timer Bosworth is a mystery boss any avid viewer of B-westerns will have no trouble spotting right away. He and his henchmen, John Merton and Roger Williams, are stirring up trouble between fur trappers Eddie Phillips (and his sister Lois Wilde) and Frank Hagney. Kermit captures outlaw "The Raven" (Yakima Canutt) and infiltrates the gang posing as him. Screenwriter Joseph O'Donnell reworked his story for BORDER FEUD w/Lash LaRue in '47. Watch for Native American Olympic Champion Jim Thorpe in a small part.

  SOUTH OF ST. LOUIS (1949 Warner Bros.)
When vicious Victor Jory's Union guerillas maliciously burn and destroy the Three Bell Ranch in the name of the Civil War, the three partners-Joel McCrea, Zachary Scott, Douglas Kennedy-seek out revenge in Brownsville, on the border of Mexico occupied by the Union Army with a blockade fully in place. However, in time, the three partners begin to drift apart, with Scott becoming as evil as Jory. Fine direction by Ray Enright of a Civil War story --- a love story (Dorothy Malone) --- just a plain good western story. One of McCrea's absolute best!

  FALSE COLORS (1943 United Artists)
Suave banker Douglas Dumbrille has two of his henchmen (Glenn Strange and Pierce Lyden) murder young Tom Seidel so Dumbrille can bring in a lookalike ringer (Seidel again in a dual role) and snatch away the lucrative ranch holdings of Seidel and his sister Claudia Drake thereby controlling the water privileges for the whole area. Fouling up Dumbrille's plans is the fact Seidel, before he was killed, deeded over a portion of his ranch to Hopalong Cassidy and his pals Andy Clyde and Jimmy Rogers. Dumbrille's gang also includes crooked Sheriff Roy Barcroft (in one of his last roles before signing an exclusive contract with Republic) and Robert Mitchum --- certainly an actor on his way up. Loveable old Earle Hodgins is delightful in the small but noticeable role of an inept, absent-minded lawyer. Screenwriter Bennett Cohen is new to the Hoppy series, but not to westerns. Dating back to silents, he contributed scripts to B-western talkies with Bob Custer, Tom Tyler, Tom Keene, Jack Perrin, Fred Scott, Charles Starrett, George O'Brien, Don Barry, Tim Holt, Johnny Mack Brown, Allan Lane, Sunset Carson, Cisco Kid, Jimmy Wakely and others before hanging up his spurs in '48.

  BATTLE OF ROGUE RIVER (1954 Columbia)
"In the 1850s savage Indian wars were the prime issue preventing the Oregon territory from becoming a state. Fierce resistance was felt in the Rogue River Valley where proud redmen swarmed to drive the white invader from their land." Gallant George Montgomery is back in uniform as a stern but honest, sincere Cavalry officer faced with bringing peace to the Rogue River Valley and paving the way for statehood which Richard Denning doesn't want to happen. Denning and others keep the Indians in a state of warpaint so all the rich Oregon mineral lands can be grabbed off by their carpetbagging ways. Future Academy Award nominee Martha Hyer (SOME CAME RUNNING) does what she does best --- pout and look attractive --- and Willis Bouchey (radio's "Captain Midnight") plays another of his many military commanders. Cliché-ridden script from Doug Heyes, directed by William Castle (who went on to become a major force in exploitation horror films) and produced by Sam Katzman.

  HARMONY TRAIL (1944 Meridan/Western Attractions)
It's always puzzled me --- if Ken Maynard truly dropped out of the Trail Blazers series in mid-1944 over money, as often reported, why did he turn right around and sign with no-budget fledgling producer Walt Mattox for HARMONY TRAIL within a few months? And with Bob Tansey, who had produced and directed the Trail Blazers, once again directing? And it's still a trio --- or actually quadruple-star western --- with Ken being aided and abetted by singer Eddie Dean, comic Max Terhune (fresh out of the Range Busters) and perennial second lead Rocky Camron (whom Tansey had employed in the Trail Blazers after Ken departed). As scripted by Frank Simpson (his only credit --- a pseudonym for Frances Kavanaugh?) it's all very Trail Blazerish in approach with all the leads using their own names. The basic premise has U.S. Marshal Camron enlisting the aid of old pals Maynard, Dean and Terhune to solve a $100,000 bank robbery by Charles King and his boys (Bud Osborne, Al Ferguson and Dan White). The whole film comes to a halt midway to highlight the overweight Maynard's rope spinning and sharp shooting, Terhune's medicine show spiel, and Dean's singing ("On the Banks of the Sunny San Juan"). By the way, if the rescue of medicine showman Bob McKenzie's troupe at the start seems familiar, it should. The idea is lifted right out of John Wayne's PARADISE CANYON. Whether a series was planned and abandoned after the poor showing of this one title is unknown but suspected. Or perhaps Maynard's ego once again got in the way. Whatever happened, the film is notable as Ken's last western after an illustrious starring career that began in 1924. Terhune, with dummy Elmer (now on display in the Autry Museum of Western Heritage), continued to sidekick --- mostly with Johnny Mack Brown at Monogram in '48-'49. Tansey was so impressed with Eddie Dean, he signed him less than a year later for his own PRC series in color. Dean had been kicking around the B-western world in Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry and Range Busters films for years as a bit player and singer. Camron (aka Gene Alsace, Buck Coburn) continued to eke out work as a heavy in Tansey films for a few more years. The leading lady here, Ruth Roman, went on to major stardom in the '50s at Warner Bros. The money man, Walt Mattox, hung in there "producing" such fare as DEATH VALLEY and GOD'S COUNTRY (both with Robert Lowery), and Sunset Carson's unfortunate Yucca comeback series (SUNSET CARSON RIDES AGAIN, DEADLINE etc.) before finding some other business in which to waste his money. His career can be summed up by the title of one of his films, FLIGHT TO NOWHERE. Mattox picked up a few dollars when he re-issued HARMONY TRAIL in '47 as WHITE STALLION capitalizing on the new-found stardom of both Roman and Dean.

  PHANTOM STAGE (1939 Universal)
Bob Baker's last starrer is a remake of Bob Steele's GALLOPING ROMEO ('33). A stagecoach is being regularly robbed of its gold shipments. Runt Ernie Adams hides inside a specially designed trunk and steals the gold while the stage is enroute to its destination. When the stage arrives, the trunk containing Adams and the gold are taken off the stage by robber chief Forrest Taylor. Bob Baker and sidekick George "Grizzly" Cleveland take the stage-driving job to catch the culprits. For Bob's last, it's a let-down ending, its Cleveland who guns Taylor and saves Bob's life. Quite un-B-western heroic. Songs written as usual by Fleming Allan but it's certainly not sidekick Cleveland's voice "singing" in the opening scene with Baker. Not even his mouth movements are in lip sync! One sequence required Baker to drive the stage at breakneck speed over a rugged road. One of the horses broke his pace and dragged the others off the road causing the stage to wreck into the side of a hill. Baker was slammed against the hill but, luckily, his hat cushioned the blow to his head, preventing serious injury. Bob completed the scene a few days later after his release from the hospital. Although Robert Bradbury and Harry Fraser devised the story idea for GALLOPING ROMEO, Joseph West gets screenwriter credit (however, West is only a pseudonym for director George WaGGner). The common denominators here are Trem Carr who produced both the Steele and Baker series and Ernie Adams who was in both versions. It was probably producer Carr who revived the idea for Baker. The story (and much stock footage) was used again in 1950 for Tex Williams' FARGO PHANTOM with Joseph O'Donnell now getting screenplay credit.

  RENEGADES OF SONORA (1948 Republic)
Constant action as black-hearted Roy Barcroft, owner of the Stage and Freight Depot of Sonora, attempts to revive a war between Indians (led by Chief George J. Lewis) and white men so he alone can acquire the gold ore and land of Sonora citizens. To accomplish this goal, he steals the Indian's sacred tribal belt, threatening an uprising. Allan "Rocky" Lane is innocently thrown into the midst when he himself is accused of stealing the belt which he must then retrieve to prove his innocence. Old Indian scout Eddy Waller helps Rocky. Holly Bane and Mauritz Hugo are Barcroft's underlings.

  DUDE BANDIT (1933 Allied)
Sloppy remake of Hoot Gibson's own CLEARING THE RANGE only two years earlier --- and also for Allied. Director George Melford's pacing is way too slow with poor photography from Harry Neuman and Tom Galligan. Hooter, posing as an ineffectual cowhand, goes after Hooper Atchley, Neal Hart and Horace Carpenter, the men responsible for the murder of Hooter's old friend, Gordon De Main, father of leading lady Gloria Shea. There's one totally unbelievable scene where Hoot as the Dude Bandit simply dressed in a dark shirt and different hat --- no mask --- enters Shea's house, admittedly under dim lighting, but she doesn't recognize him up close! I don't think so. Superman/Clark Kent is stretching it --- this is ridiculous in a western. Silent star watchers will appreciate seeing Neal Hart, Fred Gilman and Pete Morrison. Hoot's buddy is his real life ranch foreman, Skeeter Bill Robbins, whom Hoot pressed into service as an actor in these films. Gloria Shea is another lost actress who toiled in B-westerns with Ken Maynard, Bob Steele and Hooter from '32-'36 and then disappeared. Born in New York in 1913, during her four years in Hollywood her blue-eyed attractiveness was appreciated in nearly 30 films and a serial, PHANTOM OF THE AIR. She was last known living in Billings, MT, in the late '70s.

  HELL CANYON OUTLAWS (1957 Republic)
Under-rated "town tamer" western suspensefully directed by Paul Landres. Ex-sheriff Dale Robertson and deputy Charles Fredericks are helpless without authority when a quartet of ruffians (Brian Keith, Don Megowan, Buddy Baer, Mike Lane) take over the town-killing, robbing and raising hell. Much in the HIGH NOON vein, including a title tune --- this one an atrocious thing sung by Dick Kallman who also appears in the film. He can't act either! Leading lady Rosanna Rory has an accent that rivals Vera Ralston and Corinne Calvet --- combined! James Nusser, who plays Oscar the bartender, found fame on TV's GUNSMOKE beginning in 1961 as Louie Pheeters, Dodge City's loveable town drunk. Oddly, Nusser struggled with alcoholism much of his life. Agents called him "his own worst enemy." Nusser once said, "I don't understand Louie any more than I understand myself." This was independently produced and released by Republic.

 WACO (1966 Paramount)
Another of the '60s A. C. Lyles productions with plenty of star power as a town, tired of living under the thumb of a gang of gamblers (John Smith, DeForest Kelley), hire mercenary ex-convict Howard Keel to drive the bad guys out. When he arrives he's surprised to find his former flame, a haggard looking Jane Russell, now married to preacher Wendell Corey. After a lot of tried for romantic tension between the two that never comes across from old time Republic director R. G. Springsteen, it all ends in blazing fury like a Bob Tansey B, with gunmen --- good and bad --- firing from every nook and alleyway while falling off every rooftop in town. But it's too late --- the 85 minute running time has taken up too much time with overwrought extended discussant discourse for the audience to care much. Mainly watchable for the old pro cast which also includes Gene Evans as a drunken deputy, Richard Arlen as the murdered sheriff, Ben Cooper as Arlen's nephew, Terry Moore as a dancehall girl, Brian Donlevy as a gunman friend of Keel's, Willard Parker and Reg Parton as revenge bent brothers, Jeff Richards and Red Morgan as trouble making drovers, Anne Seymour (in a wild fright wig) as Parker and Parton's rough Ma, Robert Lowery as the Mayor, John Agar as a townsman and Fuzzy Knight as a telegraph operator. Wonder if Russell and Moore spent much down-time comparing notes on former "mentor" Howard Hughes? Lorne Greene talk-sings the WACO theme-tune ala his big RCA hit, "Ringo".

 SOUTH OF DEATH VALLEY (1949 Columbia)
Badmen Fred Sears and Clayton Moore (just before he became the Lone Ranger) are poisoning cattle blaming it on the miners polluted water while they meanwhile grubstake miners then have them killed (if they make a strike) and blame it on the miners. The crooks have more than they can handle though when Steve's (Charles Starrett) brother-in-law (a miner) is killed and he comes to investigate --- as the Durango Kid. He's at first rebuffed, then helped, by ranchers Gail Davis (boy does she look good in jeans!) and her two brothers, Lee Roberts and Richard Emory. Durango Kid film necessary evil Smiley Burnette is a buffoonish Marshal this time with a nuisance lasso. Tommy Duncan and his Western All Stars are given two mighty poor tunes to warble. Windup in a mine is exciting with Jocko Mahoney doubling Starrett in a wild free-for-all against all odds.

 OLD CORRAL (1936 Republic)
Historically important as one of three early Gene Autry films in which Roy Rogers rode with Gene in a western. Fearing for her life after nightclub singer Hope (later Irene) Manning witnesses a murder by Chicago gangster Scarlotti (John Bradford), she travels west and hides out in Turquoise City where Gene Autry is Sheriff-with Smiley Burnette his deputy. Scarlotti locates her through the auspices of local Turquoise City badmen, Cornelius Keefe and Lon Chaney Jr. Gene enlists the aid of the Sons of the Pioneers to round up the big city gangsters. As a trained "singer", Hope is excellent, but Gene's western style and her operatic voice do not blend well on their saloon duet. Rube comedians (and friends of Smiley's) Oscar and Elmer (Ed Platt and Lou Fulton) are given an opportunity to do their "act" as operators of a hick gas station. Observe the wrecked wagon stunt at the start where the wagon rolls over the legs of Gene's stunt double. Ouch! Gene's kissing Hope in the final fade out was no big deal, as by now he'd already smacked lips with Barbara Pepper, Ann Rutherford, Frances Grant and Kay Hughes. So much for Gene never kissed his leading ladies.

 COWBOY AND THE SENORITA (1944 Republic)
This is the first film paring of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Dale is actually billed below teenager Mary Lee who has the pivotal role in a plot of hidden treasure in an old mine bequeathed to Lee by her late father and the search for the runaway girl. Sleazy John Hubbard is a pallid villain engaged to Dale, the cousin and only living relative of Lee. Needless to say, Hubbard only has eyes for the rich mine. Roy and Teddy Bear (Big Boy Williams) are prospectors who help out Lee while Roy romances Dale. Fuzzy Knight makes a rare appearance away from home-stable Universal, but really is unnecessary. This one, at 77 minutes, is from Roy and Republic's musical extravaganza period with multi-performers and production numbers such as "Enchilada Man" stifling the western excitement. An irritating practice in this period was having the Sons of the Pioneers singing while playing their instruments but hearing, on the soundtrack, a full orchestra. Someone should have told Pappy Yates that nobody could better the sound of pure unadulterated Pioneers. Watch for Superman-to-be Kirk Alyn as a gigolo and Little Rascal Spanky McFarland eating in the first scene. The film's claim to posterity is, as stated, the first pairing of Roy and Dale --- otherwise it's just not one of Roy's best.

 ROCKY MOUNTAIN RANGERS (1940 Republic)
Here's the B-western at the top of its form. The Texas Rangers have no authority in the no-man's outlaw haven of the panhandle (before it was annexed to Oklahoma) which is overrun by a lawless band led by King Barton (LeRoy Mason). When young Sammy McKim is murdered during one of Barton's ruthless raids, three stalwart Texas Rangers, the 3 Mesquiteers (Bob Livingston, Duncan Renaldo, Raymond Hatton) take it upon themselves to enter the outlaw strip on their own. Masquerading as the notorious Laredo Kid, Livingston infiltrates the gang by gaining the confidence of King Barton's brother, Dennis Moore. Secretly, Livingston is foiling Barton's holdups as the Masked Rider until the real Laredo Kid (Livingston in a meaty dual role) shows up. Of the seven Livingston-Renaldo-Hatton Mesquiteers films, ROCKY MOUNTAIN RANGERS must be considered as a contender for top honors.

 BACK TRAIL (1948 Monogram)
Vile saloon owner Pierce Lyden is blackmailing stageline employee Ted Adams over his 'past life' for info on routes taken by payroll-carrying stagecoaches which Lyden and Marshall Reed then rob. Enter State Protective League investigator, Johnny Mack Brown, who has one of the series' better barroom brawls with Reed. That's followed by an unusual and very different "gunfight" between Brown and Reed in screenwriter J. Benton Cheney's good, tight script with a few neat twists. Old time Keystone Kop Snub Pollard performs a few pratfalls as sidekick Raymond Hatton's friend, Goofy.

 FARGO (1952 Monogram)
Bill Elliott comes to Fargo to investigate his brother's death, finding his brother had pledged to convert the area into rich farming land. His brother, dead at the hands of those who opposed this idea, land office agent Arthur Space and his ruthless gunmen Myron Healey (in one of his nastiest roles), Bob Wilke and Terry Frost, Bill vows to follow through on his late brother's pledge, introducing barbed wire to the area, an idea already common in Texas. This is the Elliott that contains the violent scene where Bill is inhumanely wrapped up in barbed wire and left for dead by Healey and his boys. The romance angle is played by Phyllis Coates, daughter of rancher Jack Ingram. After leaving Republic, Elliott made eleven B-plus westerns for Monogram/Allied Artists between late 1951-mid 1954. This is one of the best with a strong supporting cast --- Robert Bray, Fuzzy Knight, House Peters Jr., Florence Lake, Richard Reeves, Stanley Andrews, Gene Roth, Denver Plye, Stanley Price, Bud Osborne, Tim Ryan.

 TEXAS BUDDIES (1932 World Wide)
Following the 1919 Armistice, aviator Bob Steele returns from WWI to find his aunt dead, his girlfriend married and gone and his horse, Boy, sold to Harry Semels ... only his Dad's old pal, George Hayes, remains. Steele and Hayes become prospectors then run afoul of Semels, Francis McDonald and Dick Dickerson's plans to rob the desert biplane which has replaced the stagecoach. On board the plane is Nancy Drexel, niece of a dead man Steele and Hayes have found in the desert. The charming pairing of Steele and Hayes makes this one sparkle --- plus the novelty of biplanes and tin lizzies in a new west. Attractive blonde Nancy Drexel (1912-1989) made most of her films at the end of the silent era under her real name Dorothy Kitchen, co-starring with Steele, Buzz Barton, Tom Mix, Fred Gilman and Ben Corbett/Pee Wee Holmes. She also appeared in major films (WAY OF ALL FLESH) during this time as well as comedy shorts with Arthur Lake. Following a three year hiatus in '29, she returned in '32 as Nancy Drexel and made seven films that year including three with Steele, one with Bill Cody and one with Tom Keene. She then became the wife of Thomas H. Ince Jr. and retired from the screen. She divorced him in '47 and remarried in '53. Widowed in the '70s, she lived out her life in San Juan Capistrano where she died of emphysema in '89.

 WHITE EAGLE (1932 Columbia)
One of the best of Buck Jones 25 plus Columbia features made between 1930-1934. Jones is White Eagle, a Bannock Indian who has chosen to live in the white man's world as a Pony Express rider. When Eastern girl Barbara Weeks comes west to visit her brother (Jason Robards), regional supervisor of the Pony Express and Jones' employer, she and Buck are mutually attracted to one another. When an Indian war breaks out, brought on by completely despicable Robert Ellis and his men masquerading as Indians, Jones refuses to fight until Robards finds Buck and Barbara in an embrace. Robards' latent prejudices flare, "I treated you like a white man, but you have forgotten you are an Indian." Pridefully injured, Buck now sides with the Indians only to eventually discover he is truly a white man, kidnapped as a baby and raised by the Bannocks. He's then free to marry Weeks. The "truly a white man" discovery is a bit of a cop-out at the end to an otherwise strong tale of racial intolerance and prejudice. We also notice, although Robards allows the marriage at the end, he never apologizes to Jones. Nevertheless, a praiseworthy film from Columbia and Buck Jones. Remade, sort of, in '41 as a Columbia serial with Jones.

 ARIZONA RAIDERS (1936 Paramount)
Uneven mixture of Zane Grey action and silly comedy as two reformed and likable badmen (Buster Crabbe and Raymond Hatton) prevent horse rustlers (ranch manager Grant Withers and foreman Don Rowan) from stealing lovely Marsha Hunt's herd --- all the while playing matchmaker to bumbling, naive Johnny Downs and Hunt's young sister (Betty) Jane Rhodes. Director James Hogan, unsure of whether he's making a comedy or an action drama, clearly wasn't ready for the big time quite yet, having just come off directing a couple of Jack Perrin and Bill Cody Zs for Robert J. Horner. He helmed two more Zane Greys (DESERT GOLD, ARIZONA MAHONEY --- clearly not a pair of the better ones in the series either) before he found his niche in detective thrillers with Bulldog Drummond and Ellery Queen. His only later western was the laxadazical THE TEXANS ('38) with Randolph Scott. Cowboy Cancer Alert: Crabbe smokes a cigarette two times --- obviously as an excuse to light fireworks as he never does it again in the picture. Reissued as BAD MEN OF ARIZONA. There's a Boo-Boo at the start of ARIZONA RAIDERS: although his hands are still tied behind him after escaping a hanging and riding his horse over a cliff into a river, at one point in the chase Buster Crabbe's hands are plainly untied as he holds the reins of his horse.

 SATAN'S CRADLE (1949 United Artists)
Cisco Kid (Duncan Renaldo) and Pancho (Leo Carrillo) prove "there is a little good in all of us" as they help saloon girl/swindler Ann Savage repent and break free of crooked lawyer Douglas Fowley who has murdered a large property owner (mine and saloon) and brought in Savage posing as his long lost wife and only heir, thereby giving them control of all the holdings. Cisco and Pancho become involved when they rescue a preacher (Byron Foulger) from a beating by Fowley's hoods when Foulger speaks out against Fowley's "den of iniquity." Jack Benton's (pseudonym for J. Benton Cheney) script is a reworking of his story for WIDE OPEN TOWN where the tough-as-nails saloon girl falls for the hero and is redeemed. (Actually WIDE OPEN TOWN was a reworking of HOPALONG CASSIDY RETURNS by Harrison Jacobs.) Cheney reused the idea in two Monogram Johnny Mack Browns, GENTLEMAN FROM TEXAS and LAND OF THE LAWLESS. Ann Savage (also in two Russell Hayden Bs) is best known for her role in the film noir cult film, DETOUR. Cowboy Cancer Alert: Pancho smokes several cigarettes.

 ABILENE TOWN (1946 United Artists)
Adapted from Ernest Haycox's novel, TRAIL TOWN, Harold Shumate's fairly complex script when boiled down is simply another Wyatt Earp-like town tamer western with Randolph Scott as the Abilene, Kansas, town marshal trying to maintain peace in his end of the trail cowtown between cattlemen who cannot accept the changing times (Dick Curtis), wheat farmers (Lloyd Bridges, Eddy Waller) and the townspeople (saloon owner Richard Hale, his thick-headed gunman Jack Lambert, mercenary storekeeper Howard Freeman, saloon girl Ann Dvorak, nice girl Rhonda Fleming, ineffectual Sheriff Edgar Buchanan and his Fan-Tan card-playing floozie Helen Boyce.) The action ending is somewhat anti-climatic and the final scenes are cliched with six of the principals basically pairing off into the now town-tamed sunset. Cowboy Cancer Alert: Scott smokes.

 FIVE BOLD WOMEN (1960 Film Row/Citation)
Flint faced Marshal Jeff Morrow and stagecoach driver Big Boy Williams bring five female prisoners (Merry Anders, Irish McCalla, Kathy Marlowe, Dee Carroll, Lucita Blain) to prison across Texas in a stagecoach while Anders' husband (the film's producer Jim Ross) tries to navigate their escape in this ultra low-budget independent filmed on C. C. Veltman's ranch near Brackettville, TX. Derivative, meandering and talkative with the most God-awful title song ever written or sung by Dean West. Made for $60,000 in color, Merry Anders told me producer/actor Ross was "a man who had a late-night movie talk show ... he wanted to be an actor so badly. His father-in-law was the director and didn't know how to set up scenes. By the end of 3 days we were 18 days behind schedule. We filmed four or five weeks. The producer's nephew, who was really a terrific rider, was doubling Jim Ross. Big Boy and Irish were our saving grace. Big was just like a great big teddy bear. We were in Texas over Thanksgiving. Big went out and shot a wild turkey. Toddy, his wife, fixed it, invited us all over for Thanksgiving dinner and I nearly broke a tooth on the Buckshot. But it was the best turkey I think I've ever tasted."

 TEXAS RAMBLER (1935 Spectrum)
Riding along, Bill Cody, simply known as "The Rambler," encounters a masked man with a weird laugh who won't reveal his identity yet asks The Rambler to watch over Catherine Cotter, our leading lady who is arriving from the East to take over the Box Diamond Ranch. Foiling a stagecoach attack, Rambler does just that and learns Earle Hodgins, as "Flash Carson" duded up in the most outrageous two-gun outfit ever seen, is trying to take over the Box Diamond after having supposedly killed Cotter's uncle. Oliver Drake's screenplay reaches for the unusual and certainly achieves it --- laughably --- what with Hodgins trying his best, the mysterious cloaked figure in the rocks, Cotter's wimpy, double-dealing fiancé lawyer, the ugliest stick up man in B-westerns, a jealous housekeeper (Mildred Rogers) ... it's all pretty unbelievable. The windup comes with a gather-everyone-on-the-range-and-explain-it-all Charlie Chan-like wrap-up. Good one to watch on April Fools Day.

 RIDERS OF THE DAWN (1945 Monogram)
The music is what shines in this otherwise mediocre Jimmy Wakely opus which is a rewrite by Louise Rousseau of Jess Bower's (aka Adele Buffington) GUNMAN FROM BODIE ('41) with the Rough Riders. Jimmy warbles "Rainbow Valley" (with Lee 'Lasses' White and everyone else), "Sleep, Baby, Sleep", Spade Cooley's hit "Shame On You" (with Lasses and the Saddle pals group) and "I'll Never Let You Go Little Darlin'" (one of Wakely's record hits). Wesley Tuttle and the Texas Allstars sing Ernest Tubb and Johnny Bond's "Tomorrow Never Comes." Lasses performs "Boil That Cabbage Down" with the help of Fiddlin' Arthur Smith and Dad Pickard on juice harp. Smith plays an instrumental, "Pop Goes the Weasel". There's a novelty tune by Bob Shelton and the finale is "Saddle Pals" sung by Jimmy and everyone. The thin plot on which to hang all this music involves Jimmy, Lasses and John James trying to protect a baby from the murderous Doctor Jack Baxley and his men (Brooke Temple, Eddie Majors, Dick Alexander) who have discovered oil on the property owned by the baby's parents. They do away with the parents but overlook the child whom the boys find. They're helped by Mayor Sarah Padden and her niece Phyllis Adair. There's no connection to the Jack Randall Monogram western by the same title.

 IN OLD CALIFORNIA (1942 Republic)
Should have been called 'The Fighting Pharmacist' as pill-peddler John Wayne stymies Albert Dekker's plot to get protection money form local ranchers. Dekker frames Wayne by substituting poison for one of Wayne's medicines when the crusading druggist tries to rally the ranchers against Dekker. Just as much fun to watch, if not more, is the rivalry for Wayne's romantic affections between saloon girl Binnie Barnes and phony socialite Helen Parrish. The picture is an odd mixture of broad humor with comedians Edgar Kennedy, Patsy Kelly and others, straight western action and serious drama directed by William McGann who plays it as much for laughs as action and drama. Joe Kane's second unit action work --- brawls, gunplay, wagon raids --- makes the film come alive.

 TIMBER STAMPEDE (1939 RKO)
Planning to despoil the rich Wagon Wheel country, a lumber baron (Morgan Wallace) and a railroad magnate (Guy Usher) combine forces to build a road through the heart of the area (on the premise of building a railroad) but actually plan to log off all the timber. Cattleman George O'Brien and his uncle, newspaperman Earl Dwire, learn of their scheme and fight back. The two swindlers dispose of Dwire and put naive eastern journalist Marjorie Reynolds in his position. The robber barons also murder the sheriff and elect expressionless, steely-eyed gunman Robert Fiske (in his most cold blooded role) as their hip-pocket lawman. Fiske tells them, "I always give a man an even break --- unless I know he's faster on the draw than I am." One of O'Brien's best with a wild action finish.