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 !

 HANDS ACROSS THE ROCKIES (1941 Columbia)
Paul Franklin came up with a few new angles in this one as Bill Elliott accompanies ole pal Cannonball Taylor to Independence to find the killer who dry gulched Cannonball's Dad. Meanwhile, the killer, Kenneth MacDonald, is making a cash deal to marry the only witness to the murder, young Mary Daily (in her only western of only two films total), with her family of brutal backwoods hillbillies (Uncle Frank LaRue --- in a nasty as nails part completely unlike the kindly, elderly gentleman he usually plays --- and his two sons Donald Curtis and Tom Moray). Naturally, sweet Mary is against the slimy plot as she loves headstrong young Stanley Brown. This otherwise good Elliott bogs down terribly at the midway point with a prolonged courtroom trial presided over by a cantankerous judge (Eddy Waller) and abetted by a objecting lawyer (Harrison Greene). Although he usually played heavies, as in this one, Donald Curtis (1915-1997) later became an ordained minister.

 BORDERLAND (1937 Paramount)
Hopalong Cassidy 'turns outlaw' in order to capture the mysterious Fox, a notorious border rustler. In doing so, we witness the nastiest, meanest Hoppy you'll ever see on screen, even yelling at crippled children. As the Fox, Stephen Morris (Ankrum) is superb as he delineates the most memorable villain in any Hoppy western, disguising himself as a half-wit among the townsfolk. The film at 82 minutes is not only the longest Cassidy title, but also the longest B-western ever made. The build-up is gradual and deliberate with all the action coming in the last 10 minutes, an exciting showdown among the desert Joshua trees of the Mojave. One unintentionally humorous scene is of a fiesta in supposedly warm Mexico. No one is dressed warmly but it is quite evidently cold as you can see everyone's breath very plainly. After making 8 of the first 9 Hopalong Cassidy films as Johnny Nelson, Jimmy Ellison was scheduled to get his own series based on Rex Beach's Alaskan adventure stories. Alas that didn't pan out and this was the last of Ellison's Hoppys.

 SIX GUN GOLD (1941 RKO)
One of the best of the pre-war Tim Holt westerns, due in large part to David Howard's direction. Howard, a frequent O'Brien collaborator, took over this one from usual director Edward Killy. When Holt, with his pals Ray Whitley and Lee (Lasses) White, arrive in Placer City to visit his brother, they find a stranger (LeRoy Mason) posing as his brother (Lane Chandler) who is actually being held prisoner by gold shipment thieves. Tim reveals his identity to mine owner Eddy Waller and his daughter Jan Clayton and helps them get their gold through, expose the outlaws and save his brother. Emmett Lynn, who had been Tim's sidekick in the first four Holts (replaced by Lasses) is a drunken stage driver in this one.

 MYSTERY RANGE (1937 Victory)
Fast paced better than average Tom Tyler B with strong suspense and mystery elements as badman Roger Williams employs underage Jerry Bergh's uncle, Lafe McKee (in a role completely opposite of his normal kindly old gentleman parts), to persuade her to sell her ranch as the railroad is coming through. (So much for originality.) Our Tom, working for the Cattleman's Protective Association, arrives with his pal Milburn Morante (see NORTH OF THE BORDER) to help the spunky young girl. Tom impersonates nasty heavy Dick Alexander who is on the way to help Williams and McKee strongarm Bergh into selling the valuable property. Includes an unknown music group singing "Home On the Range" to fit the film in with the singing cowboy trend of the day. Bergh's only other film was Tex Ritter's HITTIN' THE TRAIL.

 SIX GUN MAN (1946 PRC)
There's plenty of gun blazing fast action when U.S. Marshals Bob Steele and Syd Saylor (of the bobbing Adam's apple when he's scared) go after trail rustling range rats (I. Stanford Jolley, Bud Osborne, Budd Buster, Brooke Temple). This is one of 18 westerns that featured one of B-westerndom's worst actors, Jimmie Martin. He plays leading lady Jean Carlin's fiancé. After starring in various B-western series at Syndicate, Tiffany, World Wide, Monogram, Supreme, PRC, Republic and Metropolitan since sound came in, this was Bob Steele's final series. From here on he concentrated on character roles in films like THE BIG SLEEP, SOUTH OF ST. LOUIS, SAVAGE HORDE, SAN ANTONE, GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN and many others, including TV's F-TROOP. Writer/director Harry Fraser's story is borrowed quite noticeably from Buster Crabbe's CATTLE STAMPEDE ('43) written by Joseph O'Donnell. There seemed to be 'no shame' amongst B-western writers and directors, borrowing (swiping) stories from one another. I reckon they figured it all evened out in the end.

 PONY POST (1940 Universal)
Thin story line has a buckskin clad Johnny Mack Brown becoming embroiled in the problems of a pony express company owned by Tom Chatterton and his daughter Dorothy Short. Brown fires loutish manager Stanley Blystone who continues to cause problems for the company with his range rat cohorts Jack Rockwell and Ray Teal, especially when they steal horses from one station and murder Nell O'Day's father. Jimmy Wakely and Johnny Bond sing three songs midway to pad out the running time and Fuzzy Knight sings "As A Cowboy I'm a Bum". We couldn't agree more! Far too much of his unfunny pratfalls and silliness in this oater. Watch for Iron Eyes Cody as one of the Indians. Cody (1904-1999) reached fame years later as the crying Indian in Clean Up America public service announcements. In reality, Cody was born of Italian and Sicilian parents in Gueydan, LA, in 1904. Real name Espara De Corti. He came to Hollywood during the late silent period proclaiming to be Indian. In fairness, although not Indian, he truly loved and respected the Indian way and did much to promote Native-American rights. Ray Teal (1902-1976) later became a semi-regular on TV's BONANZA as Sheriff Roy Coffee of Virginia City. Besides his many westerns, Blystone (1894-1956) is well remembered as a comic foil to the 3 Stooges and others.

 WHEN THE DALTONS RODE (1940 Universal)
Historical inaccuracies abound in this 'biopic' about four of the Dalton brothers (Broderick Crawford, Stuart Erwin, Brian Donlevy and Frank Albertson). Supposedly based on Emmett Dalton's book, this slick but inaccurate 'true story' even gets one of the brother's names wrong! Filled with great action, the highpoint may be Yakima Canutt's leap to horseback from a moving train! The fanciful, good natured story has the four good ol' farmboys forced into outlawry and completely whitewashes their real life misdeeds. Randolph Scott's role as a very unheroic lawyer trying to help the boys is secondary, although he's billed first. Scott and Kay Francis, who is supposed to marry Crawford, fall hopelessly in love derailing all hopes of the brothers going straight. Watch for father and daughter Robert and Fay McKenzie as well as Roy Rogers leading lady Sally Payne. And a Universal A western wouldn't be complete without Andy Devine providing a few yuks as the Dalton's best friend.

 SWIFTY (1935 Diversion)
Hoot Gibson (riding Jack Perrin's wonder horse Starlight so he can do some of his tricks) and Sheriff George (pre-Gabby) Hayes unravel a neat little murder mystery as Hoot is blamed for the murder of rancher Ralph Lewis, the father of June Gale (see RAINBOW'S END) and Wally Wales. Good support from Lafe McKee, William Gould, Bob Kortman and Art Mix. Some great Kernville photography by Art Reed under Alan James' direction. Gibson, who had been a major western star in silents, was on his last legs with this low budget Walter Futter produced series. The only thing left down the trail were a couple of co-starring roles with old pal Harry Carey and the Trail Blazer series.

 MEN WITHOUT LAW (1930 Columbia)
In 1929 Buck Jones lost his entire fortune in a wild west show venture that collapsed when a dishonest employee absconded with the show's receipts after never paying the show's accumulated bills. Bankruptcy was avoided when Buck convinced his creditors he'd made good on his debts. To do this, Buck took an offer from Sol Lesser to star in a series of 8 westerns to be released through Columbia. Buck was paid $300 a week where he'd been making $3,000 a week at the close of his silent career. He eventually repaid every dime he owed. In MEN WITHOUT LAW, the third in the series, Buck returns from WWI to find the sister (Carmelita Geraghty --- real life daughter of noted screenwriter Tom Geraghty) of his friend who was killed in the war kidnapped by an outlaw gang (Harry Woods and cohorts) with whom Buck's young, naive brother (Tommy Carr --- later a noted screen director) is running. The film includes a familiar sight that Jones fans loved --- and still do: Buck astride Silver, standing still on a hill or open field with Buck twisted slightly sideways in the saddle gazing intently into the horizon as he thinks about what to do next. Born into the business, Carmelita Geraghty (1901-1966) started as a continuity clerk until a director put her before the cameras in 1922 much to her father's chagrin. Her last film was PHANTOM OF SANTA FE in 1937 after she married MGM film writer/producer Carey Wilson.

 ARIZONA TRAILS (1935 Superior/Art Mix Prod.)
Young Wallace Pindell gets into deep trouble when he gambles away $1,000 he doesn't have. After threatening to tell the kid's father, the gambler (Tom Camden --- who also wrote the story) is bushwhacked and killed. The kid is blamed and it takes former silent star Bill Patton (complete with eye makeup!) in his only starring talkie (watch and you'll see why) and his saddlepal Art Mix (producer Victor Adamson under his screen name) to find the real killer. Relentlessly dull with woeful direction from Al(an) James who could certainly do better when he had a budget and 'actors' who could actually perform.

 APACHE UPRISING (1966 PARAMOUNT)
The best of the A. C. Lyles produced B+ all star westerns of the '60s, a so-called last gasp to the glory days. In the middle of hostile Apache country, crooked Butterfield stageline businessman Robert H. Harris and cunning badman (especially effective) John Russell with his two cohorts --- DeForest Kelly (fabulous to watch as a paranoid crazy killer) and Gene Evans --- are thwarted by Rory Calhoun and sidekick Arthur Hunnicutt in their plans to rob a relay station. Great supporting cast: a very portly Johnny Mack Brown as a lecherous sheriff hot to trot with lady of ill repute Corinne Calvet, Army Capt. Richard Arlen, stage agent George Chandler, old lady busybody Jean Parker, Indian scout Rodd Redwing, townsman Dan White, talkative bartender Don Barry and Army sergeant Roy Jenson. Stuntman Reg Parton doubles Calhoun and plays a small role.

 BRANDED MEN (1931 Tiffany)
Rod (Ken Maynard), Ramrod (Irving Bacon) and Half-a-Rod (Billy Bletcher) become Sheriffs in tandem as Ken promises his new love (June Clyde) he'll save her weak willed brother (Donald Keith) from the clutches of crooked gambler (Hooper Atchley) and his henchman Charlie King. This is another one of an elite group of B-westerns where a sidekick dies (you'll have to watch to see which one). Others with this unusual aspect include HOPALONG CASSIDY ENTERS, GOD'S COUNTRY AND THE MAN, BRANDED A COWARD and OKLAHOMA FRONTIER. BRANDED MEN contains one very brutal scene of Charlie King whipping Ken's horse, Tarzan, with a quirt. Rest assured Tarzan exacts his revenge. Diminutive Billy Bletcher was the 'voice' of the Lone Ranger in the 1938 Republic serial.

 LAWLESS RANGE (1935 Republic)
Amidst the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine, there's non-stop action as John Wayne comes to help his Dad's old friend, Uncle Hank (Wally Howe) and finds him missing. Undercover, John helps the Uncle's niece, Sheila Manners (aka Bromley, Mannors) and the other ranchers in their fight against banker Frank McGlynn Jr. and his outlaws (Yakima Canutt, Glenn Strange, Slim Whitaker, etc.) who are trying to drive them out for the gold they know is on their land. John 'sings' two songs in this one --- actually performed by Jack Kirk who, with his group, The Wranglers (Kirk, Strange, Charley Sargent and Chuck Baldra), sing one other song. Kirk also appears as one of the outlaws. One of the songs, a mournful one about an outlaw 'drinkin' his drinks with the dead' is the same song used in RIDERS OF DESTINY ('33), the one and only Singin' Sandy Wayne western. Obviously, director Robert N. Bradbury (Bob Steele's pop) liked the idea and reused it here, again with Wayne riding alone across the desert. Previously, though, the song was warbled by Bradbury's son, Bill.

 COWBOY HOLIDAY (1934 Beacon)
Watching Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams as the hero of a B-western is a little like watching a loveable country bumpkin sidekick in the lead. Big, as he was referred to by Will Rogers and other polo playing friends, was physically better suited to saddle pard roles (opposite Roy Rogers, Rod Cameron etc.) and character roles. Although Big had starred in a few late silents, the reasons stated are no doubt why he didn't star in but six lowbudget talkies. For this lesser entry, falsely accused of a murder by leading lady Janet Chandler, Big has to track down the real killer, Dick Alexander, masquerading as the Juarez Kid (Julian Rivero) who is really an old pard of Big's. Partly filmed around Lone Pine, CA. Whenever a kind elderly gent was needed, it was more often than not either John Elliott, Lafe McKee, Frank LaRue or, later, Steve Clark. In this one, Elliott (1876-1950) is Big's longtime Sheriff friend. Directed by Bob Hill and written by him as well under his Roc Hawke alias.

 BORDERTOWN TRAIL (1944 Republic)
A few unscrupulous men opposing annexation of Texas to the U.S. employed nefarious methods to influence the election. Smuggling contraband across the long, loosely patrolled border was one of them. Texas border patrol agents Smiley Burnette and Sunset Carson battle a criminal organization led by Addison Richards who, along with Weldon Heyburn and his gang (Jack Kirk, John James), attempt to smuggle half a million dollars in gold into Texas where it will be used to buy votes. Bob Williams and Jesse Duffy's screenplay has some unusually cruel and vicious scenes for a B-western. On the other hand, there's some unusually silly scenes between Sgt. Rex Lease and old maidish Ellen Lowe. Republic must not have liked the tenor of Jack Luden's voice as Lt. Carson (Sunset's brother) because it's dubbed for every scene he's in by a deeper more resonate voice. It was the only Republic film Luden ever appeared in. One time silent star Neal Hart has a bit role as one of the outlaws.

 BENEATH WESTERN SKIES (1944 Republic)
School teacher Effie Laird is infuriated by the way toughs LeRoy Mason, Kenne Duncan, Bud Geary and Frank Jacquet are terrorizing the town. When one of Effie's old pupils, John Paul Revere (Bob Livingston), arrives, she and Revere's old schoolmate Smiley Burnette appeal to him for help in cleaning up the outlaw element. He's doing fine until a whack on the head gives Johnny a severe case of amnesia and the outlaws convince him he's one of their gang! This was the fourth and final film in the four film John Paul Revere series that started out with Eddie Dew and switched to Livingston after two with Dew. My God! As if Smiley Burnette as Frog Millhouse weren't enuf, here we have Joe Strauch Jr. as Tadpole (as he was in the Gene Autry features) and --- enough already --- a dummy called Toad dressed just like Frog and Tadpole!! But with a very mean look.

 DALTONS RIDE AGAIN (1945 Universal)
This is strictly B-western land grab stuff in typically inaccurate historical A-western clothing as the Dalton brothers, Emmett (Alan Curtis), Bob (Kent Taylor), Grat (Lon Chaney Jr.) and Ben (Noah Beery Jr.) try to go straight heading for the Argentine but getting involved in saving the old homestead for the daughter of the newspaper publisher Martha O'Driscoll (whom Emmett falls for) and Virginia Brissac, the widow of an old friend of their father's. Then the real badmen of this piece, Thomas Gomez, Walter Sande and Milburn Stone, blame their crimes on the Daltons --- you see they're really the good guys here. Or are they? Towards the end, the plot takes a jarring 'we-need-some-reality-here' left turn as the Daltons decide to hold up a bank in Coffeyville and are killed (except Emmett) making the film, as a whole, totally unsatisfying. You can't have it both ways!

 JESSE JAMES VS. THE DALTONS (1954 Columbia)
Pure historical hokum as the "son" of Jesse James (Brett King) meets up with the Dalton Gang (James Griffith, John Cliff, William Phipps, William Tannen) in his search for his father whom he believes is still alive-and-$100,000 in hidden loot. It all culminates in Coffeyville with the famous double bank robbery, as all Dalton movies must. Originally filmed for 3-D so some of the 'at the audience' shots look odd in 2-D. Director William Castle started in 1937 but didn't gain prominence until the late '50s with his horror exploitation flicks such as HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, 13 GHOSTS and THE TINGLER. Meantime, he directed more westerns than one usually imagines, 13, including FORT TI, LAW VS BILLY THE KID and MASTERSON OF KANSAS.

 FRONTIER TOWN (1937 Grand National)
For whatever reason, there never was a good B-western with a rodeo background and this is no exception as rodeo rider Tex Ritter and his silly-billy pals Horace Murphy and Snub Pollard round up some crooked gamblers and counterfeiters (Karl Hackett, Charlie King, Lynton Brent) and help leading lady Ann Evers' kid brother Don Marion get clear of these thieves. Murphy and Pollard would never make anybody's Top 10 list of sidekicks but they're even goofier, wimpier and harder to stomach than usual in this one. Underdeveloped plot points, boring rodeo footage and pedestrian direction from Ray Taylor bring this one down with Tex's "Streets of Laredo" being the high point. Jimmy Wakely's Saddle Pals back up Tex on a couple of songs but Gus Peterson's camera work is so bad you can't even see the group.

 BILLY THE KID TRAPPED (1942 PRC)
It's a frame up as three outlaws (Budd Buster, Wally West, Kenne Duncan) dressed like Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe), Fuzzy (Al St. John) and Jeff Walker (Bud McTaggart) commit a series of robberies and murders. The brains behind the masqueraders are Glenn Strange, Jack Ingram and Milt Kibbee. In her first role, a young, stiff inexperienced Anne Jeffreys is the ingenue. The 'trio of heroes' in the Billy the Kid films began with the six Bob Steele made in '40-'41 with Carleton Young usually playing Jeff (except for one fill-in by Rex Lease). The idea was continued for the next six when Crabbe took over the role with Dave O'Brien playing Jeff in four of those. Carleton Young filled in on one as did McTaggart for this entry. After the first six with Crabbe, PRC unceremoniously dropped the trio idea leaving all the heroics to Buster and Fuzzy.

 TWO FISTED STRANGER (1946 Columbia)
The black-masked mystery man of the plains, the Durango Kid, breaks up a gang of range ravagers (Lane Chandler, Ted Mapes, Herman Hack, George Chesebro) who salt Davison Clark's ranch with diamonds in order to sell phony shares in a diamond mine. Leading lady Doris Houck is completely unnecessary except for Chandler to hold hostage at the end. Badman Mapes did double duty --- literally --- he's Starrett's Durango double also. Musical guest Zeke Clements (1911-1994) had been with WLS, Chicago, WSM, Nashville and the Hollywood Barn Dance before answering a call from Walt Disney to be the voice of Bashful in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS in '37. This was his only western. He sings two good 'uns --- "You're Free Again" and "Will You Meet Me Little Darlin'". At only 50 minutes, this is the shortest Durango Kid feature made, and the only one scripted by Robert Lee Johnson who'd earlier written three of the Elliott/Ritter series including the excellent DEVIL'S TRAIL.

 GUN JUSTICE (1933 Universal)
Wonderful Universal horror elements at the start as rancher Ed Coxen is murdered in an old dark house during a ferocious storm. Coxen's will leaves his property to his nephew, Ken Maynard, and his adopted daughter, Cecilia Parker --- if Ken can make a go of the property for a year. Otherwise, it reverts to tricky Hooper Atchley and Walter Miller. After the reading of the will, Atchley brings in a phony nephew (Fred McKaye) to impersonate Ken who has not been in the Valley for several years. This is one of Maynard's own productions for Universal but not up to par with FIDDLIN' BUCKAROO, TRAIL DRIVE, STRAWBERRY ROAN, the best in the series. Bit of a quick, weak resolution as Sheriff Jack Richardson, not Maynard, actually guns down Atchley at the end.

 THUNDER RIVER FEUD (1942 Monogram)
It's a merry mix-up as the Range Busters, in order to become acquainted with ranch owner Jan Wiley, switch identities and become involved in the age old Harrison (Wiley and father, Jack M. Holmes)-Pembroke (Carleton Young and father, Rick Anderson) feud which is really being caused by George Chesebro, Ted Mapes, Carl Mathews and their crew. Crash Corrigan becomes an eastern dude book writer while John 'Dusty' King masquerades as Crash. Max 'Alibi' Terhune is the steadying influence in this one. Bit different concept with some witty exchanges from scripter Earle Snell. Bit light in the action department til the finale. Nevertheless, a prime example of what made the Range Busters a successful series at Monogram for 24 films. Listen closely --- to save a buck, Crash is the unseen rodeo announcer in the first scene.

 LIGHTNING BILL (1934 Superior)
Barrel scraping B-western from director Victor Adamson (aka Denver Dixon as well as at times Art Mix, Al Mix, Art James). After outlaw Bud Osborne kills rancher Lafe McKee, he spends the rest of the film trying to find the money old Lafe hid before he was murdered. Lafe's brother Bill McCall and his daughter Alma Rayford (her only other film was LAW AND LAWLESS with Jack Hoxie) take over the ranch and elicit the help of two wandering cowpokes, Buffalo Bill Jr. and always hungry Nelson McDowell. Not only does B-western regular Robert McKenzie appear, so does his wife Eva McKenzie (as the ranch cook). They're the real life parents of Fay McKenzie who became a well known B-western leading lady. Somebody couldn't spell --- the title card reads 'Lighting Bill'.

 FINGER ON THE TRIGGER (1965 Allied Artists)
Boring spaghetti oater filmed in Spain. The Civil War over, a band of Union soldiers led by Rory Calhoun are forced to join forces with a group of diehard Confederate soldiers (led by James Philbrook) to fight a common enemy, the Indians. But first there's reels and reels of postulating over some hidden rebel gold. Uprooted American producer Sidney Pink also took on scripting and directing chores for this waste of celluloid. Your finger will be on the trigger alright --- of the fast forward button.

 HAUNTED TRAILS (1949 Monogram)
Without a doubt the best of Whip Wilson's B-westerns as he sets out on the revenge trail to track down the five bank bandits who killed his brother in a hold-up --- Carl Mathews, Lee Roberts, Myron Healey, I. Stanford Jolley and Dennis Moore. Whip enlists the aid of grizzled old outlaw Andy Clyde and gets involved in saving Reno Browne and Mary Gordon's ranch from slick banker William Ruhl. Grand opera voice trained, Whip briefly sings acapella and uses his bullwhip three times --- once on a rattlesnake to save Clyde and once to spectacularly come crashing through a storefront window. This is a remake of Jack Randall's MEXICALI KID ('38).

 LONE STAR LAW MEN (1941 Monogram)
When bandits terrorize border towns, the government sends in Marshal Gene Alsace (later Rocky Camron) whom the outlaws bushwhack. Alsace is saved by Tom Keene and his saddle-kick Frank Yaconelli. To confuse the crooks (Charlie King, Stanley Price, Reed Howes and Sherry Tansey), Tom has himself appointed a Sheriff who the gang thinks is working with them. Secretly, Tom enlists the aid of expert horsewoman Betty Miles and her sister, pint-sized Sugar Dawn, to roundup the gang. Typical with director Bob Tansey, the windup is an all-over-town gunbattle showdown backed by exciting Frank Sanucci music. Production manager Fred Hoose does double duty as he also plays Marshal James in the first scene. There's one unbelievable scene where Tom, Betty and Sugar ride hell bent for leather to catch Yaconelli on a runaway bicycle. 'T'ain't funny McGee!' It was style that made Keene a larger than life B-western hero during his Monogram years. That broad confident grin, his sassy self-assured attitude, the backwards gunbelt, the fearless bravado swagger and snap-fire gunplay were all a part of his unlike-any-other-cowboy-star demeanor.

 GUN PLAY (aka LUCKY BOOTS) (1935 Beacon)
Unique plot as the secret to a Mexican revolutionary leader's hidden treasure is concealed in a pair of boots which Big Boy Williams comes across in strange fashion. Big and his pal, Frank Yaconelli, are working on just-come-west-easterners Marion Shilling and her brother Wally Wales' ranch. The treasure, hidden on their ranch is sought by crooked lawyer Tom London and his henchie, Roger Williams --- via the boots. Interesting is Big Boy's 'singing' of "Home On the Range". Not sure if they were parodying singing cowboys or --- they certainly weren't trying to outdo Autry, not with Big's voice! Early on, a shot of a head-on horse fall is quite obviously stock footage and not Frank Yaconelli.

 LOSER'S END (1935 Reliable)
Typical of the "you mean its only half over?" B. B. Ray/Harry S. Webb school of poverty row westerns. Rambling, unfocused, meagerly plotted (William Gould smuggling contraband) Jack Perrin western with plenty of action but of the badly staged, push and shove variety. Typically unimaginative photography from J. Henry Kruse (who worked a lot for Ray and Webb) and static direction from Ray himself. Too much nonsense with potbellied sidekick Frank Rice, forlorn-faced Fern Emmett and wise-acre blonde Rosemary Joy (in her only film, thank God!). There are even references to Sherlock Holmes and Amos and Andy so we must assume this takes place in the 'modern day' west.

 RIDERS OF THE LONE STAR (1947 Columbia)
Old outlaw Dusty Morton hid his loot from a stagecoach robbery in an abandoned mine which is about to be reopened. The key to where it's hidden lies with young Mike (Mark Dennis), Dusty's son, who believes his long gone father is still alive and wasn't really an owlhoot. Meanwhile, an outlaw gang (Ted Mapes, Ed Cobb, Lane Bradford, Peter Perkins) led by a rifle toting masked outlaw (Steve Darrell) with the ability to fire a rifle from his hip, is after the hidden loot --- but they're foiled at every turn by Charles Starrett, the Durango Kid. In the showdown, Mike's father (George Chesebro, in one of his best roles) shows his true colors and saves Mike from certain death. Solid and different story but lighter on action than usual plus there's too much of magician Smiley Burnette's idiocy while the musical group, Curly Williams and his Georgia Peach Pickers, is weak. The tradepaper, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, reported in late '46 this was to be the last Durango Kid, but fortunately the series was given a reprieve and continued for five more years.

 GUNNERS AND GUNS (aka RACKETEER ROUND-UP) (1935 Beaumont)
A real dog. This tiresome, actionless affair was first released as RACKETEER ROUND-UP by Aywon in 1934. The 'producers' managed to pawn it off a year later on Mitchell Leichter's newly established Beaumont Pictures who added seven minutes of new footage featuring the horse, Black King. Listed as 'supervisor' is onetime silent serial star, Charles Hutchinson, known as Daredevil Hutch because of his reckless action sequences. At any rate, the added footage was no remedy and the film helped sink Beaumont (after four nearly as poor Conway Tearle cowboy epics) within less than a year. For the record, Edmund Cobb (billed as Edward Cobb) is the male lead and Edna Aselin (who never rose above bargain basement flicks) is the femme lead.

 REPRISAL (1956 Columbia)
Torn between his red blood and his white blood, Guy Madison tries to pass for white and own land in a bigoted cowtown. Madison finally finds his way 'as a man' --- neither red nor white --- in this often overlooked, fine Technicolor A that makes a strong indictment against racial prejudice. Directed by former B-helmer, George Sherman. One of the contributing screenwriters is David Dortort, later creator of TV's BONANZA and HIGH CHAPARRAL. The story is based on a novel set in the American South of the '50s, with Indians substituted for Negroes and the time period altered. Good Old Tucson and Arizona photography from Henry Freulich which, unfortunately, contains some 3-D effects which only look silly in 2-D on TV. Most of the stunts were done by Republic alumni Eddie Parker and Ken Terrell. Madison's younger brother, Wayne Mallory, is one of the heavies.

 HILLS OF OLD WYOMING (1937 Paramount)
This was the first Hopalong Cassidy film for Russell Hayden as Lucky, taking over from Jimmy Ellison after nine films (actually 8 for Ellison, he wasn't in HOPALONG CASSIDY RETURNS) and director Nate Watt gives he (and George Hayes as Windy) plenty of screen time at the start of the film (15 minutes) to establish his character before Hoppy ever comes on screen. Hayden filled in the role perhaps even better than had Ellison and remained for four years and 27 consecutive films. The plot is a simple one, deputy Indian Agent Stephen Morris (later Morris Ankrum) and his gang (George Chesebro chief among them) are rustling cattle from Hoppy and his pals' Bar 3 Ranch and blaming it on the Indians. The story is strongly sympathetic to the Indians, in fact Chief Big Tree and his braves assist Hoppy in the roundup at the end. This is another Cassidy film with a slow buildup, lots of character development and a rousing finale. An unidentified choral group sings the title song midway through the film. It's an odd moment that doesn't quite seem to fit.

 GUNPLAY (1951 RKO)
Working for rancher Joan Dixon, Tim Holt and Chito (Richard Martin) aid a young boy (Harper Carter) whose father (Robert Bice) has been brutally hung by Bob Wilke, Marshall Reed and Leo McMahon under orders from crooked banker Mauritz Hugo who swindled Bice years ago in Arizona City. Several implausible events that follow and a weak ending keep this from being one of Holt's better efforts.

 PRAIRIE SCHOONERS (1940 Columbia)
The peaceable man, Wild Bill Elliott, comes to the assistance of farmers (Bob Burns, Evelyn Young, Dub Taylor, etc.) in battling banker Kenneth Harlan and profiteer Ray Teal who are taking advantage of a drought in Kansas to stage a land grab. Wild Bill leads the pioneers 1,000 miles on a wagon train to Colorado, fraught with floods, Indian raids and a heap more dangers. The film suffers from a weak ending. Watch for Indian sports star Jim Thorpe as Chief of the Pawnees. The familiar, oft used scene of Indians crossing the Wind River (from Tim McCoy's WAR PAINT '26) turns up again here for the umpteenth time. Director Sam Nelson helmed about 20 B-westerns at Columbia with Charles Starrett and Bill Elliott before he became a first assistant on A films such as A WALK IN THE SUN, DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA and WALKING HILLS. Following the Great Depression, there was an anti-banker trend in the hinterlands of the U.S. and B-westerns, appealing to those who'd been hurt when the banks failed, traded on that theme quite often as in PRAIRIE SCHOONERS where banker Harlan goes to any length to cheat honest homesteaders.

 A DEMON FOR TROUBLE (1934 Supreme)
Walter McGrail buys a ranch from Gloria Shea and her brother Nick Stuart, then kills Stuart to regain the money blaming it on Texas drifter Bob Steele. Terrific fight and stunt sequence midway. Great use of Lone Pine locations, including the 'Hoppy cabin'. Canadian born (1896) director Bob Hill began working in 1919 with THE GREAT RADIUM MYSTERY serial. He was also active as a screenwriter, often under aliases such as Rock Hawley. It's been said a problem with alcohol toppled this simple but competent director from studios like Universal and RKO in the early '30s to independent fare at Victory, Colony, Spectrum etc. in the mid '30s. In the late '30s he seemed to find a home at Monogram until 1941, when at only 45, he left film work. He died in 1966.

 WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND (1945 RKO)
A winning Zane Grey-based story of murder, revenge and love is James Warren's first of three RKO westerns replacing Robert Mitchum (who replaced Tim Holt --- who returned from the war and replaced Warren). It's a strong story well told with an unusual ending but the lack of physical action holds it back from being even better. Richard Martin (in his first as Chito) is Warren's sidekick. We even get a chance to meet Chito's Irish father (Harry Brown) and Mexican mother (Minerva Urecal). Also with Harry Woods, Audrey Long, Robert Barrat, Robert Clarke, Harry McKim (Warren as a child) and Tommy Cook (Martin as a child). Watch for Myrna Dell in a bit as a girl on the street meeting with Chito.

 BRIMSTONE (1949 Republic)
Rod Cameron stars but it's Walter Brennan's show all the way as grizzled old Brimstone Courteen, outlaw father of three sons --- favored and eldest Jim Davis, dimwitted Jack Lambert and youngest and most honest James Brown, in love with settler Adrian Booth. Brennan creates one of the most memorable badmen in western screen history, even meaner and nastier than he was in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. (Brennan seemed to have the copyright on the outlaw patriarch role.) BRIMSTONE is terribly well written by Thames Williamson (from a Norman S. Hall story) with subtle nuances added to the script not usually found in a routine western. Veteran Joe Kane directs as Marshal Rod Cameron appears in the renegade plagued community masquerading as an outlaw 'Ghost' himself, stealing from Brimstone's gang right after they've just pulled a job. Naturally, it's just a ploy to track down the inside man who turns out to be crooked Sheriff Forrest Tucker. Tucker's deputy, Big Boy Williams, is charged with the titular role of 'comic relief' primarily relying on his hunger as many 'sidekicks' often did. Of the veterans in the cast, Jack Holt as a Marshal is wasted but Hal Taliaferro (Wally Wales) fares better as a later cohort of Brennan's. Medium budget, color 90 minute westerns like this were A films in Oklahoma but relegated to B's in New York and Boston.

 SPOOK TOWN (1944 PRC)
One of the best of the Dave O'Brien/James Newill/Guy Wilkerson Texas Rangers series with a good mystery villain, a ghost town, gunplay (including a joust-like gun duel on horseback in the streets of ghost town), fistfights and plenty of hard riding action. The Rangers are fired after they lose a strong box filled with cash borrowed from businessman Robert Barron which was to be used to build a dam in the valley. The Rangers have to tangle with Charlie King, John Cason and Dick Alexander to retrieve the money. Also with Dick Curtis, Mady Lawrence, Harry Harvey, Ed Cassidy, John Elliott. Dick Curtis must have been hungry in 1944, this is the only time the former resident Columbia badman slipped to the ranks of PRC for a western.

 ROLLING DOWN THE GREAT DIVIDE (1942 PRC)
With WWII, there's a stepped up demand for horses for the U.S. Cavalry on the march alongside of modern tanks and trucks. But with that demand comes the renewed activities of those jackals of the plains --- horse thieves. As the Frontier Marshals (Lee Powell, Bill Boyd and Art Davis) investigate, there's a lot of prolonged stuff about a short wave set in a traveling recording studio operated by the rustlers (Glenn Strange, Jack Ingram, Ted Adams, George Chesebro, Dennis Moore). Some interesting ideas that aren't very well executed and, even with a fair amount of action, the film seems to drag on and on under Peter Stewart's (aka Sam Newfield) mundane direction. Even by PRC standards, the Frontier Marshals series seems cheap, especially with the sound recording where things like gunfights, hoofbeats, fistfights and even songs sound extremely tinny. Oddly, for westerns, Boyd and Davis' songs tend to be more country than western --- but hey, that's what type of singers and musicians they really were. For more on patriotic war-themed B-westerns see ARIZONA GANGBUSTERS.

 THE OKLAHOMAN (1957 Allied Artists)
Doctor Joel McCrea settles in a small western town after his wife dies giving birth on the trail. Over the ensuing years he makes enemies of the town toughs (Brad Dexter, Douglas Dick, Sheb Wooley) while protecting Indian Michael Pate and his daughter Gloria Talbott (who fawns over McCrea like a school girl even though McCrea's attentions are obviously for widow Barbara Hale). Basically, it's a B-western land grab (oil on Indian land) plot dressed up with A-western racial and sexual overtones. Bit slow but interesting for smaller parts fleshed out by Harry Lauter, John Pickard, I. Stanford Jolley, Kermit Maynard, Anthony Caruso, Ray Teal, Earle Hodgins and Verna Felton. No vigor instilled from director Francis D. Lyon.

 SONG OF TEXAS (1943 Republic)
Nice blend of thrilling wagon races, fires, romance, horse stampedes, Mexican fiestas, and great songs ("Mexicali Rose", "Cielito Lindo", "Rainbow Over the Range") all well handled by director Joe Kane. Oft used plot of a down-on-his-luck old-timer (Harry Shannon) who lets his eastern daughter (Sheila Ryan) think he's a big ranch owner. When she heads west, Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers help him by letting her think the ranch is half his. Trouble comes when Ryan 'sells' her Dad's 'half' of the ranch he really doesn't own to Roy's bitterest enemy, Barton MacLane. In the first scenes, Roy puts Trigger through his tricks at a children's hospital. Leading lady Sheila Ryan was later married to Pat Buttram, Gene Autry's latter day sidekick.

 BILLY THE KID IN SANTA FE (1941 PRC)
A remake, sometimes line for line, of Tim McCoy's LIGHTNIN' BILL CARSON ('36). Arthur Durlan wrote the original story for the McCoy on which Joseph O'Donnell was story editor, here credited with the screenplay. Bob (Billy the Kid) Steele and his saddle pards, Fuzzy St. John and Rex Lease (as Jeff), come to Santa Fe to clean up the outlaw element. Believing crooked gambler Dave O'Brien guilty of the murder of a deputy, a posse wrongfully hangs O'Brien before Steele discovers the real killers are Charlie King and Karl Hackett. Things get sticky for Steele when O'Brien's brother, quiet bookworm Dennis Moore, begins to exact revenge on each member of the illegal posse. The characters here are certainly not as fully developed as in the McCoy version, nevertheless, story wise, it's a notch above much other PRC product. Note that Rex Lease is in both films, playing completely different characters. In the former he had the pivotal crooked gambler role played here by Dave O'Brien. Cowboy cancer alert --- Fuzzy St. John smokes a cigarette early in the film.

 BORDER LAW (1931 Columbia)
Texas Ranger Buck Jones (and his pal Frank Rice) head south of the border to avenge the bank robbery murder of Buck's ranger brother (Don Chapman) at the hands of outlaw James Mason. (No relation to the '50s English actor.) Meanwhile, Buck romances pretty dancing senorita Lupita Tovar. Buck has a noteworthy stripped-to-the-waist barroom brawl with brawny Spanish actor Louis (aka Luis) Hickus, whose only English speaking film this is. Remade by Columbia in 1934 as FIGHTING RANGER with Buck and Frank Rice retaining their screen names of Jim Houston and Thunder. There are also elements of the story in Bob Allen's RIO GRANDE RANGER (Columbia '37).

 TRAIL DRIVE (1933 Universal)
It's a slow buildup as Honest John (William Gould) and his gang (Al Bridge, Hank Bell, Wally Wales, Bob Kortman) hatch an elaborate plan to swindle Texas cattlemen. But hold on-at the 36 minute mark all hell breaks loose with 20 minutes of continuous wild action and harrowing stunts to the end as Ken Maynard fights the whole gang. In the midst of the film, Ken manages to make love to Cecilia Parker, pluck his banjo and sing a song in his usual nasal tone. One of the best looking Maynard westerns of the period, written and directed by Alan James. Maynard seemed to be enjoying his free production reins at Universal and many of his films (STRAWBERRY ROAN, FIDDLIN' BUCKAROO, WHEELS OF DESTINY) harken back and are as good as his silent epics. Former silent star Bob Reeves has an (unbilled) small but material part as a New Mexico lawman near the end.

 COURTIN' TROUBLE (1948 Monogram)
Routine, mediocre later Jimmy Wakely B as the singing cowboy and his pal, peddler Dub Taylor, bring saloon boss Leonard Penn and his range rats (Marshall Reed, Boyd Stockman, House Peters Jr., Bob Woodward) to justice after they frame rancher Steve Clark for the murder of attorney Virginia Belmont's father, Judge Frank LaRue. Stuntman/actor Stockman is not only one of the heavies but doubles for Jimmy in fight scenes.

 CALIFORNIA (1963 American International)
Uninvolving early California western. Not up to Jock Mahoney's abilities with very little stuntwork so associated with Jocko. One fistfight and one dull sword duel. Made in the period when he was moving from stuntwork to pure acting. Allegedly based on the 1946 Ray Milland film of the same name, this programmer bears little resemblence to it unless you consider the idea that the people of California want to break free of Mexico and join the Union --- but that conception is true of nearly all early California based titles. With Michael Pate, Faith Domergue.

 TWILIGHT ON THE PRAIRIE (1944 Universal)
Silly and simple plotline, of some New Yorker radio cowboys (Johnny Downs, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Dodd, Connie Haines, Eddie Quillan) headed west to make a shoot 'em up (for Mammoth studio producer Milburn Stone and director Dennis Moore) but becoming stranded on Leon Errol and Vivian Austin's Texas cattle ranch, is nothing but an excuse for a dozen forgettable songs. Highlight is Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage (unidentified except in the credits) singing "No Letter Today".

 LAST OF THE WARRENS (1936 Supreme)
Opening with stock footage of WWI, wounded in action pilot Bob Steele returns home to find his father (Charles French) and his girlfriend (Margaret Marquis) have believed him dead for over a year even though Bob wrote to them. His letters have been held by sneaky postmaster Charlie King who is in love (or lust) with Marquis and has rustled all of French's cattle. When Bob returns, Charlie brings his nefarious plans out in the open. This is no routine Bob Steele, with director Robert North Bradbury's (Bob's real life Pop) script and direction taking several unique plot twists. Squinty Oklahoma badman Blackie Whiteford (1889-1956) has one of the best roles of his long career.

 MAN FROM TUMBLEWEEDS (1940 Columbia)
The law comes to Gunsight when 'peaceable man' Wild Bill Elliott is sent by Governor Don Beddoe to clean out Ray Bennett and his outlaw gang (Francis Walker, Richard Fiske). Bennett has just killed spunky Iris Meredith's father (Edward Le Saint) when Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor sends for his old pal, Wild Bill, who, with the Governor's help, brings along Al Hill, Ernie Adams and other pardoned prison inmates to act as state rangers. The idea had been mined before, but the beauty here is in the execution by director 'Wagon Wheel' Joe Lewis (who, true to his nickname, begins the first shot in the movie through wagon wheel spokes). Inventive camera angles, not a wasted frame and action packed from the git-go. Tough, lean and mean, this is the stuff the best Elliott B's were cut from.

 RIO RATTLER (1935 Reliable)
After Tom Tyler's new friend, Marshal Tom London, is brutally killed from ambush, Tom and his saddle pal, New Yorker Eddie Gribbon, ride into Rio where Tom is mistaken for the new Marshal (who weirdly switches to being called a Ranger midway through the movie). Tom lets the town believe he is the Marshal so he may catch London's killers (Slim 'Rattler' Whitaker in cahoots with banker William Gould) but complications set in when London's sister (Marion Shilling) arrives in Rio. Reliable-ly cheap but several notches above the average for producer/director B. B. Ray (working under the pseudonym Franklin Shamray --- maybe he used that name when he did better work.) Much of the plot line was reused in Whip Wilson's CRASHING THRU ('49).

 BADMAN FROM RED BUTTE (1940 Universal)
Two Johnny Mack Browns for the price of one. Twin brothers --- one good, one bad. The problem arises when the town believes the good Brown is the outlaw Brown. When the outlaw Brown is killed by the town gang (Norman Willis, Earle Hodgins, Roy Barcroft) the good Brown helps elect his singing lawyer pal, Bob Baker, justice of the peace as they bring gun law and fisticuff order to the town. Anne Gwynne's the girl and Texas Jim Lewis (1909-1990) and his Lone Star Cowboys provide some music. This was Lewis' second film after appearing in CAROLINA MOON with Gene Autry. He and his group went on to make three with Charles Starrett. Lewis made his home in Seattle after 1950, hosting SAFETY JUNCTION, a popular children's TV show. His "Squaws Along the Yukon" in '44 was later a big hit for Hank Thompson in '58.

 RAIDERS OF SUNSET PASS (1943 Republic)
Eddie Dew was Republic's only failed cowboy star. He'd been around Republic playing bit parts for five years in serials and features when Herbert J. Yates elevated him to stardom for the newly created John Paul Revere series. Smiley Burnette, at liberty due to Gene Autry in the service, was partnered with Dew for marquee value. The pairing simply didn't click and Dew just wasn't strong enough to carry the lead. He left (or was let go) after only two films (this was the second) and wound up a year later playing second fiddle to Rod Cameron. (Sunset Carson was waiting in the wings at Republic.) Dew later fashioned a decent career as a pedestrian director (SGT. PRESTON OF THE YUKON and many religious TVers). Bob Livingston finished out the failed John Paul Revere series. RAIDERS ... has an intriguing WWII theme: ranchers use Jennifer Holt and other cowgirls to round up the dogies and fight rustlers Le Roy Mason and Roy Barcroft during the manpower shortage. They're termed WAPS, Women's Army of the Plains. Among the ladies is Maxine Doyle, director William Witney's actress wife.

 TWO GUN SHERIFF (1941 Republic)
Nearly every B-western star essayed at least one dual role. Don Barry did it more than once. He proves his versatility and ability here, looking and acting quite creditable (and different) in both the good and bad brother roles. Actually, the bad brother, the Sundown Kid, receives the lion's share of screen time as he joins and breaks up a secret gang of cattle rustlers run by Jay Novello and Fred Kohler Jr. who kidnap good brother Barry, a sheriff, and replace him with his outlaw twin. In two roles, Barry gets two leading ladies to contend with, Lynn Merrick (often his co-star) and Mexican actress Lupita Tovar. Credit director George Sherman with another top-drawer B. Cowboy cancer alert --- as the Sundown Kid, Don smokes cigarettes. Republic must have liked the Sundown Kid moniker, as they used it for the title of another Barry western a year later, with no relation to this film.

 RUSTLERS OF DEVIL'S CANYON (1947 Republic)
Following the Spanish-American War, there's gun trouble when nesters plan to settle in Lava Basin, a haven for rustlers (led by Pierce Lyden), against Red Ryder's (Allan Lane) warnings. The nesters are led by 'unreasonable filly' Peggy Stewart and the rustlers' leading citizen boss is, no surprise to B-western watchers, the seemingly kindly doctor (well played by Arthur Space). This one is an action lover's delight! Note: Watch for the Harding Transportation sign left over from Sunset Carson's RIO GRANDE RAIDERS ('46).

 FIGHTING GRINGO (1939 RKO)
There really isn't a 'bad' George O'Brien among the RKOs he made, it's just that this plot-heavy entry isn't quite up to par with some of the others. Gunfighting troubleshooters George O'Brien and his pals (Slim Whitaker, Cactus Mack and about nine others) save the rancho for Lupita Tovar and her father, Lucio Villegar, from land grant land grabbers William Royle, Glenn Strange and Le Roy Mason. This was former minor-league cowboy star Bill Cody's last decent role (as the gray-templed sheriff). On the other hand, watch for a quite young Ben Johnson as a Mexican in the cantina. This is certainly one of his very earliest roles ... he was probably involved in the stuntwork for this title also.

 GAY CAVALIER (1946 Monogram)
There's more style and character than action in this first Gilbert Roland Cisco Kid western as the dashing Roland solidly establishes himself as the colorful, romantic rogue who would rather make love to Ramsay Ames than fight. But he's prompted to action when Americanos Tris Coffin and John Merton steal the money designated to build a church and lay the blame on Cisco. Ends with a rousing good sword fight between Coffin and Cisco. Roland's guerrilla band does little else in the Roland Ciscos but sing, "Ride Amigos, ride ..." the song is similar to the theme for the ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION serial ('39). No wonder --- Eddie Cherkose wrote both of them. The male chorus belting it out is 'too good' and 'too Anglo' to be taken seriously.

 RETURN OF THE LASH (1947 PRC)
Lash LaRue and Fuzzy St. John come to the aid of ranchers Mary Maynard and brother Brad Slaven to round up a land grabbing gang (Lane Bradford, George Chesebro, Rohn Gibson, Slim Whitaker) who know the railroad is coming through. So much for originality! There's a mystery villain boss we won't reveal, but you'll no doubt figure it out pretty quickly. Lash uses his whip three times. Screenwriter Joseph O'Donnell recycled the amnesia elements from his WOLVES OF THE RANGE ('43) with Bob Livingston into this script.

 SILVER CITY RAIDERS (1943 Columbia)
It's the old phony Spanish land grant scheme as Russell Hayden and his pals Sheriff Bob Wills (and the Texas Playboys) and Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor fight a running battle with land grabbers Paul Sutton and his gang (Jack Ingram, Ed Cobb, Art Mix). Four good Cindy Walker penned songs. Ends with one of the wildest free-for-alls of the whole Hayden/Wills series, which contained some dandies. When you think about it, Hayden (1912-1981), often relegated to the also-rans of cowboy heroes, had a most enduring and re-inventive screen life. First as Hoppy's pal Lucky from '37-'41, while also starring in several well made Zane Grey stories at Paramount, then as co-star to Charles Starrett at Columbia ('41-'42), inheriting his own series at Columbia a year later ('42-'44), meanwhile managing to star in a couple at Universal. In '46-'47 he was a Mountie in the 45 minute under-rated streamliners at Screen Guild. In '48-'49 he co-starred in features such as ALBUQUERQUE and DEPUTY MARSHAL before teaming up with Jimmy Ellison for their berated Lippert series of six. After a few roles in Gene Autry features, Hayden turned to TV production, starring in and producing COWBOY G-MEN ('52-'53) followed by JUDGE ROY BEAN ('55-'56) producing and occasionally acting, and finally producing 26 MEN with Tris Coffin and Kelo Henderson ('58-'59). Quite an impressive and distinguished career for a star some refer to as a second-stringer.

 THE KANSAN (1943 United Artists)
Vastly entertaining minor A (or B-plus) western, as all the Harry 'Pop' Sherman produced Richard Dix starrers were. THE KANSAN is dressed up with a more interesting script than most (by Harold Shumate who'd earlier turned out good scripts for Buck Jones, Tom Keene, Randolph Scott and Tim McCoy and later wrote ABILENE TOWN, BLOOD ON THE MOON, LITTLE BIG HORN, SADDLE TRAMP etc.). Sports a great cast --- Victor Jory, Albert Dekker, Jane Wyatt, Eugene Pallette, Robert Armstrong and Douglas Fowley. Be sure to catch the smaller roles from Rod Cameron, George Reeves (small non-speaking part as one of the James Gang at the start) and future Monogram leading lady Beatrice Gray as one of the dance hall girls. It also features the wildest free for all saloon brawl outside of DODGE CITY. Jane Wyatt's heroine could be a filmic role model for women's libbers --- aggressive and independent, she owns and operates the town's hotel and restaurant, stands up for herself on various occasions and even announces their impending marriage to Dix at the end.

 BAD MEN OF THE BORDER (1945 Universal)
U.S. Marshals Kirby Grant and Fuzzy Knight work their way into a Bordertown counterfeiting gang run by John Eldredge, Edward M. Howard and Barbara Sears. Unbeknownst to them, also on the outlaws' trail from the Mexican side of the border are (unlikely) Mexican undercover agent Armida and Mexican Ruales Captain Francis McDonald. This, the first of six Kirby Grant B-westerns (replacing Rod Cameron who Universal elevated to A status), unfortunately is quite slow, unexciting and talky, getting Grant's series off to a weak start from which it never fully recovered. He did better at Monogram as a Mountie with a dog named Chinook and even better on TV as SKY KING. Villainess Barbara 'Bobo' Sears' offscreen life proved more interesting than her brief onscreen career. Born Jievute Paulekiute in Oakdale, PA, in 1917, she was married for six years (1948-1954) to millionaire Winthrop Rockefeller (later Gov. of Arkansas).

 SUNDOWN VALLEY (1944 Columbia)
Charles Starrett made three WWII related B-westerns in 1944, this is one of them. Plenty of fine western music and five untamed brawls highlight this patriotic roundup for victory. Starrett and sidekick Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor must lick the Axis efforts of saboteur Wheeler Oakman who puts in a gambling joint to entice the local hard working patriotic farmers (and their dough) away from the local gunsight manufacturing plant as worker absenteeism will disrupt production. You'll be absolutely astounded at what Starrett and the workers accomplish in a matter of days (despite hardships --- and a picnic!?) at their war plant. Music from Jimmy Wakely, Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage and The Tennessee Ramblers.

 DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND (1946 United Artists)
The last 12 Hopalong Cassidy adventures, the ones William Boyd produced himself, are a mixed lot. There's a couple of them that harken back to the Pop Sherman productions, several real dead skunks in the middle of the celluloid with the rest falling somewhere in between, such as DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, the first of the new batch. Director George Archainbaud (who helmed all 12) opened up the screen to the magnificent vistas of the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine as well as any other western has ever done. He also included a few Hoppy film veterans in the cast like Francis McDonald and Earle Hodgins. But William Boyd was now handling the purse strings, and he was keeping them well cinched up, severely limiting Archainbaud's abilities. It almost seems, when watching all 12, if one production went $100 over budget, Boyd would make it up on the next production. The basic plot of this one has Hoppy and his pals Andy Clyde and Rand Brooks helping Elaine Riley elude Robert Elliott, Francis MacDonald and Everett Shields who are after hidden loot Riley's outlaw husband (Ned Young) is trying to return to the bank. There's one genuine laff with the look on Clyde's face when he drinks some medicine meant for Hoppy.

 BORDER TREASURE (1950 RKO)
Guns blaze at Lone Pine when a Spanish Senorita (Inez Cooper) attempts to help earthquake victims in Mexico by bringing a mule train load of diamonds and jewels to them in relief. Bandits John Doucette, House Peters Jr., Tom Monroe and their gang plan to rob Cooper until Tim Holt and Richard (Chito) Martin come along. Simple plot extremely well written by Norman Houston and directed by George Archainbaud features one of Tim's best bar room brawls (w/ John Doucette). Jane Nigh is allowed two songs as the saloon girl cohort of Doucette.

 SILVER CITY KID (1944 Republic)
After the discovery of molybdenum, a rare ore vital in hardening steel, crooked lawyer Harry Woods (and his henchmen Glenn Strange, Tom Steele, Bud Geary) kill ranch owner Lane Chandler (under whose ranch they have tunneled to get the rare deposits), murder Woods' partner, banker Frank Jacquet, and frame Chandler's sister Peggy Stewart --- all to accomplish their greedy plans. Although there's as much action per square foot of film as there is in any western, the film comes to a grinding halt twice with the misplaced and awful humor of Wally Vernon (an acquired taste in sidekicks) and precocious Twinkle Watts. This brief six picture Allan Lane series, of which this is the first, was Republic's continuation of the defunct Don Barry B's earlier in the year. Wally Vernon and Twinkle Watts were holdovers from the Barry films although Vernon was gone after two, being replaced in the next four by various actors. The director of SILVER CITY KID, John English, had worked with Lane on three serials, had a passionate dislike for him, and never again directed him.

 FIGHTING TO LIVE (1934 Principal)
Dog story notable only as the first screen appearance of Reb Russell (as a mailman!) just months prior to starring in a group for Willis Kent. Inadequate direction blamed on Edward F. Cline who must have been slumming --- later he directed MY LITTLE CHICKADEE, BANK DICK, CRAZY HOUSE etc. Inferior photography, poor script, illogical time frames and atrocious acting --- even from pros like Marion Shilling and Eddie Phillips. To their credit, they had nothing whatsoever to work with. The only actor remaining unscathed is Lloyd Ingraham as the Judge. For the record, the dogs are Captain and Lady.

 WAGONS WESTWARD (1940 Republic)
Two things come to mind as you watch this medium budget B. One --- how close it is to the type of plotlines used in Don Barry's B's and how much better it could have been with Barry in the Chester Morris role (also odd how closely Morris is wardrobed like Barry). Second --- how badly miscast Buck Jones is as a crooked Sheriff. It just doesn't work! As for the story, two brothers, although identical in looks (Chester Morris in a dual role) are otherwise completely different. One is ruthless and cold blooded, the other is law abiding. After the outlaw brother is jailed, the good brother takes his place to exact justice from the rest of the outlaw element (Jones, Big Boy Williams, Doug Fowley). Things go awry when his outlaw twin breaks jail. Notable for being the only Republic film Buck Jones appeared in.

 FLAMING GUNS (1932 Universal)
Split between light comedy/romance and western action, as many of Tom Mix's silents had been, this misfire ends up being neither. All the action, such as it is, is over midway through the film after Tom captures rustler Duke Lee. Leading lady Ruth Hall left films early and married noted cinematographer Lee Garmes. Ranch owner William Farnum gets as much screen time --- if not more --- than Mix. This is a remake of Hoot Gibson's BUCKAROO KID ('26) based on a Peter B. Kyne story. Although Pee Wee Holmes is listed as playing Gabe, Tom calls him Pee Wee in the first scenes.

 GUNMEN FROM LAREDO (1959 Columbia)
Trite script, boring acting and uninspired direction badly hamper this color Wallace MacDonald produced and directed affair. Walter Coy's the saloon owner/rustler who's killed Robert Knapp's wife in a rustling raid. Knapp's out for revenge but is sent to prison on a trumped up charge by Coy, then helped by an Indian girl (badly played by Jana Davi) and a sheriff (Paul Birch). Knapp told authors Tom and Jim Goldrup (FEATURE PLAYERS VOL. 3) it was the worst experience of his life. "The director (MacDonald) was a producer at Columbia and was trying to save his spot, because Columbia was cutting back on everything. He thought he'd show them he could direct. He was the worst director I had ever worked for in my life. He would not let me deviate from what he said. He would cut and we'd do it again until I did it the way he wanted it, which was absolutely wrong. We ended up with a complete mishmash." MacDonald (1891-1978) began his career in the mid-teens as a romantic lead before turning to westerns in the '20s. Following WWI he returned to the screen and starred in several silent westerns at Pathe. The coming of sound found him playing second leads to Buck Jones (BRANDED, HELLO TROUBLE), Ken Maynard (BETWEEN FIGHTING MEN), Tim McCoy (DARING DANGER, TEXAS CYCLONE) and others. Meanwhile, he'd turned to stories and scripting (IN OLD SANTA FE, PHANTOM EMPIRE) eventually becoming a producer, particularly at Columbia (WHITE SQUAW, PHANTOM STAGECOACH, FURY AT GUNSIGHT PASS.)

 SUNSET ON THE DESERT (1942 Republic)
Two Roy Rogers for the price of one. One good; one bad (named Sloane) who is in the employ of crooked attorney Douglas Fowley who is forcing old time ranchers off their property. When the good Rogers shows up to help an old family friend, Judge Frank M. Thomas, Sloane's girlfriend (Beryl Wallace) believes it is Sloane, putting Roy in a compromising position with the girl he'd really like to court, Thomas' niece, Lynne Carver. Heavy Roy Barcroft makes the most of a small role as one of Fowley's henchmen. How terminology changes: Gabby Hayes talks about doing a little gambling in the barn to pick up some 'soft money'. Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers are along for the songs with Bob at odds over Carver for most of the film. Tall and haughty, Carver had been a convincing villainess earlier in Roy's MAN FROM CHEYENNE ('42). Nice change of pace here. Note that the final shootout takes place in the OK Corral --- but we're not in Tombstone. Some sort of in-joke, or?

 LIGHTNIN' BILL CARSON (1936 Puritan)
Somber, calculated, adult in context story from Arthur Durlan. Believing gambler Rex Lease to be the murderer of deputy Ed Cobb, Sheriff Jack Rockwell and a posse hang Lease. U.S. Marshal Tim McCoy (as Lightnin' Bill Carson) learns of Lease's innocence too late, the real killers are stage robbers John Merton and Karl Hackett. Meanwhile, Lease's otherwise timid bookeeper, Harry Worth, begins to exact his revenge on each and every member of the posse guilty of the unlawful and mistaken hanging which eventually brings Tim gun to gun with Worth. At 72 min. and with an obvious few dollars more in the budget than usual for Sam and Sig Newfeld (Newfield), judging by the strong, well written story and cast which includes dozens of extras milling around, Sig and Sam were apparently aspiring to something a bit better even though the budget was an estimated $10,000-$12,000. When McCoy left Puritan after a year and a half (10 films), the company was unable to fill the gap in loss of revenue and capitulated. McCoy was without a studio affiliation before signing with Monogram a year and a half later (Jan. '38). Story editor Joseph O'Donnell purloined Durlan's original plot and reused it in 1941 for Bob Steele's BILLY THE KID IN SANTA FE.

 RIO GRANDE RAIDERS (1946 Republic)
Sunset Carson's last film for Republic is an action lover's treat with Bob Steele taking top acting honors as Sunset's hot-headed ex-con brother who is once again falling in with bad company (Tris Coffin and his boys --- Kenne Duncan, Jack O'Shea). Directed by Thomas Carr, the plot revolves around the rivalry between the Harding Stage Line (Linda Stirling, Ed Cobb) and the crooked Redmond Transportation Company (Coffin). Carr handles the conflict between Sunset and Steele quite well, even though, due to their opposing sizes, they don't look like they could ever be brothers. Sunset, an extremely popular cowboy, left Republic a winner. Had not John Barleycorn got the best of him at such a young age, he possibly would have lasted another 10 years to the end of the B-western era. Even as it is, Carson left us with some of the most action packed B-westerns ever made. And yes, the narrator is none other than perennial badman, LeRoy Mason (unbilled).

 BLACK EAGLE (1948 Columbia)
A cowboy hobo, William Bishop, who just wants to be left alone, becomes involved in intrigue and murder in a small Texas horse raising town. Convoluted plot has the horse, Black Eagle, taking revenge on the man (Edmund MacDonald) who murdered his owner. Good cast includes Virginia Patton, Gordon Jones, Trevor Bardette, Will Wright, James Bell, Paul Burns and Ted Mapes, but somehow never seems to hold your interest. Based on an O. Henry short story.

 WILD HORSE CANYON (1938 Monogram)
Jack Randall rides the vengeance trail with his pal Frank Yaconelli (easier to take here than usual as he's not so 'broad') and finds his quarry (Warner Richmond, Walter Long, Charlie King) working on --- and rustling the horses of --- Ed Cassidy and daughter Dorothy Short's ranch. Plot points are poorly developed and there's a tame first half with a lackluster windup to Jack's long manhunt. Also some terrible over acting by Dennis Moore when he 'wants out' of the gang. Short married Dave O'Brien in 1936 but after 15 years and two children, the marriage broke up. In court, Dorothy told the judge that O'Brien would rather give up his home and family than his yacht, the White Cloud. Under the property settlement, O'Brien kept the boat and a car. Dorothy got $10,000 cash, 15% of Dave's earnings (which were said to be nearly $50,000 a year at that point as he was working for Red Skelton as well as having done the Pete Smith shorts) and a home in Hollywood.

 CRASHIN' BROADWAY (1933 Monogram)
The Rex Bell Monograms had the unique premise of starting in the East and winding up out west. In this one, Rex --- "The Clever Cowboy, A Breath Of The West" --- as he's billed while a vaudeville rope spinner, joins a down and out troupe of Broadway hams who wind up in Cactus Gulch where they run afoul of Charlie King who just coincidentally happens to have been the visiting-New-York-westerner that trouper Doris Hill conned out of $400 so the vaudevillians could go west. George (Gabby) Hayes plays two roles, one as a Shakespearean actor (sporting a horrible Beatles-like fright wig) and the other as a resident of Cactus Gulch. This is possibly the most 'unusual' B-western you'll ever see! Give Bell, director John P. McCarthy and writer Wellyn Totman credit for trying something different --- unfortunately, Vaudeville died some time ago and this 'western' went with it. Leading lady Hill, born in Roswell, NM, began her film career in 1926 and was selected as a Wampus Baby Star in 1929. After some 15 westerns opposite Tom Tyler, Ken Maynard, Tim McCoy, Buck Jones, Hoot Gibson, Bob Steele and others, she married and retired in 1934. She died in 1976.

 BADMAN/S TERRITORY (1946 RKO)
Much like Universal had grouped their monsters in HOUSE OF DRACULA and HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in '44 and '45, RKO, in a move to enliven their westerns, tossed the James Brothers (Lawrence Tierney, Tom Tyler), the Daltons (Steve Brodie, Phil Warren, William Moss), Belle Star (Isabel Jewell) and Sam Bass (Nestor Paiva) all into one film and put them up against Marshal Randolph Scott and his brother James Warren as they invade the outlaw haven of the wild Oklahoma strip. The Nat Holt production is history gone awry but makes for a highly entertaining western, the first of the 'outlaw westerns' which was extremely successful at the boxoffice, paving the way for successors such as BELLE STARR'S DAUGHTER, RETURN OF THE BADMEN, YOUNGER BROTHERS, KID FROM TEXAS, AL JENNINGS OF OKLAHOMA, GREAT MISSOURI RAID etc. Clever, intelligent script by Jack Natteford and Luci Ward is a bit episodic due to all the name-brand outlaws but spirited entertainment. Director Tim Whelan was the husband of Miriam Seegar who co-starred with Buck Jones in DAWN TRAIL.

 LIGHTNING RAIDERS (1946 PRC)
Upright citizen and shrewd crook Steve Darrell and his gang (I. Stanford Jolley, John Cason, Frank Ellis) rob the mail, read the letters and cash in on people's hard times-like buying the hotel of Henry Hall and daughter Mady Lawrence when their money doesn't come through, and altering an assay report Karl Hackett expected in order to report his ore samples were low grade instead of high grade so the crooks can buy the property cheap. Buster Crabbe breaks up their nefarious plot. The Sheriff is played by Budd Buster (1891-1965), veteran of hundreds of western pictures for over 30 years-1934 to the mid '60s TV era. In addition to a stage career before films, Budd Buster was a makeup artist. His makeup tricks gave him wide latitude in portraying various characters and kept him in demand by national ad agencies who used him on national billboards for Studebaker, Eastside Beer and others. Buster Crabbe wears a new looking plaid shirt and he passes what sounds like an inside joke about Fuzzy St. John's new pants --- they may well have been. After all his screen pratfalls, it was high time for some new wardrobe.

 LAW OF THE GOLDEN WEST (1949 Republic)
In this remake of their own DARK COMMAND, Republic casts Monte Hale as Buffalo Bill with John Holland in the 'Quantrell' role, posing as a leader of the Confederate Underground, but actually heading up a band of men including Roy Barcroft and Lane Bradford who are involved in plain robbery and murder. Giving this modest B-western a bigger look is the liberal use of stock from its parent, DARK COMMAND.

 INDIAN UPRISING (1951 Columbia)
Cavalry Captain George Montgomery fights to keep peace in Arizona between famed Indian Chief Geronimo (Miguel Inclan) and local white settlers. The Indian reservation contains rich gold deposits bad guys Hugh Sanders, Douglas Kennedy and Robert Griffin scheme to get. Between their misdeeds and Washington, D.C., bungling, you can be sure Geronimo heeds the title of this pretty typical '50s cavalry/Indians B-plus Cinecolor adventure. However, no color prints seem to survive. Directed with his usual eye for action (and stock footage) by Ray Nazarro. Kennedy, nearly always bad in movies, finally got his chance at leads on his own TV series, STEVE DONOVAN, WESTERN MARSHAL with sidekick Eddy Waller, who plays a miner in this western. Kenneth Gamet and Richard Schayer's story was rewritten by Charles B. Smith for Audie Murphy's APACHE RIFLES in '64.

 SOUTH OF THE BORDER (1939 Republic)
The pivotal turning point film in Gene Autry's career as well as his most romantic. Certainly one of his best remembered, if not the most remembered film in his illustrious career. The title song is also his most fondly recalled next to "Back In the Saddle". There are 10 tunes in the film and, besides "South of the Border", the standout is Gene's absolutely beautiful duet with Mary Lee (in her first of 9 films with Gene) on "Goodbye, Little Darlin'". The impending war in Europe theme prevails here as Gene and Smiley Burnette are government agents sent to the Latin country of Palermo to discern the identity of foreign agents attempting to overthrow the existing government and build a submarine refueling base, causing a breakdown of the Pan American Neutrality Act. Gene has fallen for Lupita Tovar but her brother, Duncan Renaldo, has shamed the family's upstanding name by becoming involved with the foreign agents. When Renaldo is killed as the threat of revolution is ended, Gene returns to his sweetheart only to poignantly discover (via William Farnum in a nicely underplayed role as a priest) Lupita has become a Nun to atone for her brother's sins. It's a sad yet joyous moment --- one of the best ever lensed for a B-western --- as Gene must ride away alone singing the title tune. With no reservations, one of an elite group of truly classic B-westerns.

 TRAIL TO SAN ANTONE (1947 Republic)
Gene Autry's five post-war Republics feel like they're caught in an odd lame duck timewarp between his pre-war 'fantasy' titles (which belong to a nicer era that had passed us by after the war) and his soon to be harder edged, more mature Columbia pictures. Those five Republics belong to neither category. The plot of this one is all human interest, with no real outlaws or rustlers, just an unlikable Tris Coffin as an unscrupulous horse trainer for breeder Peggy Stewart. It's a race against time as Gene tries to help a young jockey (Johnny Duncan) get back his 'heart' to ride after Coffin caused an accident that left Duncan with a bum leg. Gene sings Spade Cooley's big hit, "Shame On You" and the Cass County Boys perform Cindy Walker's "Cowboy Blues". For Gene, after four years away from the screen, with a new comedy relief (Sterling Holloway) and a new music group (Cass County Boys), the old Autry feeling just wasn't there. Gene wanted 'out' of Republic and was just finishing up his contract so he could really begin to make his 'own' pictures at Columbia and for TV.

 TWO GUN TROUBADOUR (1939 Spectrum)
This is Fred Scott's contribution to the dual-role western. Seems every B-western cowboy did it at least once. Gray-haired, Fred plays his own father who is murdered by his brother, Carl Mathews (1899-1959) in the biggest role of his lengthy career, to cover up his rustling activities. Twenty-two years later, Fred returns as the son, ready to avenge his father's death. Masquerading as the Two Gun Troubadour (wearing a black outfit, black cape, dime store Lone Ranger mask, sporting a silly black mustache and affecting a sorry Mexican accent) he spoils the rustling efforts of Mathews (made to look older by not wearing his toupee) and cohort John Merton. Harry Harvey is the nominal comic relief while his son Harry Harvey Jr. plays John Merton as a child and Billy Lenhart is Fred as a 9 year old. This is the notorious Scott film that contains the no-retakes muddled line as Fred stammers, "I'd rather see men, uh, boys grow up to be men that folks (pause) want rather than wanted men." Fred reprises his popular "Ridin' Down the Trail to Albuquerque" song used earlier in MELODY OF THE PLAINS ('34). The screenplay is by Richard L. Bare. (See ADVENTURES OF TEXAS JACK.)

 RIDIN' THE TRAIL (1940 Spectrum)
The second adventure of the Two Gun Troubadour finds Fred Scott investigating why the Government Remount Service is not receiving its contracted quota of horses. Cheaply, the opening action is told in a written prologue getting this western off to a crawl from which it never recovers. Released the same year as Charles Starrett's DURANGO KID ... while masquerading as the Two Gun Troubadour, Fred wears a black outfit with flowing cape, a Lone Rangerish eye mask, a silly thin mustache and affects a very bad Spanish accent. In other scenes, Fred is duded up in the whitest costume in B-western history! Where was Al St. John? Fuzzy Jones is played by Harry Harvey in a ludicrous fake mustache and fright wig. Even considering director Raymond K. Johnson (1901-1977) was no John Ford, even he should look back in shame on this travesty. The print carries the Spectrum logo but was released by Arthur Ziehm after Spectrum had folded its tent. In all probability made at the same time as TWO GUN TROUBADOUR, Spectrum's last official release in July '39. Fred sings "Back In the Saddle" over the credits, a song that bears no connection to the Ray Whitley composition used as the themesong for Gene Autry.

 FORBIDDEN TRAILS (1941 Monogram)
In the well remembered but short lived eight film Rough Riders series, Buck Jones was Buck Roberts, a true fighting man and one to steer clear of when he was chewing gum. Tim McCoy played Col. Tim McCall, another U. S. Marshal who favored brains over brawn (usually undercover as a preacher, gambler, Mexican, whatever) but could handle himself when the chips were down. Raymond Hatton was Sandy Hopkins, the grizzled old pro of the trio. Hard to say how much the rousing Rough Riders themesong contributed to the success of this popular series, but it is immensely well remembered today. FORBIDDEN TRAILS, one of the best of the series, gets the action rolling at the outset, placing Buck in a burning shack besieged by gunmen (Charles King, Glenn Strange). Town boss Tris Coffin is trying to force young Dave O'Brien into hauling high grade ore. The Rough Riders ride again!

 WILDFIRE (1945 Action/Screen Guild)
Pretty typical producer/director Bob Tansey stuff as horse traders Bob Steele and Sterling Holloway aid (bad actress) Virginia Maples and the law, Sheriff Eddie Dean and Judge William Farnum, to bring horse thieves John Miljan, Rocky Camron, wrestler Wee Willie Davis, Hal Price, Frank Ellis and Al Ferguson to justice. John Ford's brother, Francis, is given the female gender-bender spelling of 'Frances' in the credits. Dean's role, and his vocalizing of "On the Banks of the Sunny San Juan" possibly influenced WILDFIRE director Bob Tansey to star Dean in his own series less than six months later. In 1945, Robert L. Lippert headed up Action Pictures with releases through Screen Guild, a new firm for which Lippert served as executive vice president. In 1949, Lippert reorganized Screen Guild, assumed the post of president, and by summer was releasing films under the company's new name, Lippert. WILDFIRE was the first film released by Action Pictures. It's in Cinecolor.

 BRANDED A COWARD (1935 Supreme)
After witnessing his parent's deaths at the hands of a notorious outlaw, the Cat, as well as being separated from his brother by the outlaws, Johnny Mack Brown grows up hiding his fear of guns and violence. He regains himself when he rescues Billie Seward from stagecoach bandits and is made town marshal only to find the Cat is the outlaw terrorizing the region --- but surprise, this is a new Cat. But that's not the end of the surprises in this superior B-western. Not to be missed. Mickey Rentschler and Rex Downing play Brown and his brother at a younger age. Yakima Canutt, doubling for Brown, performs his fall from the six-up, under the stage, grab-the-back-end stunt. Remade in 1950 as FAST ON THE DRAW with Jimmy Ellison and Russell Hayden.

 STARS OVER TEXAS (1946 PRC)
I could listen to Eddie Dean sing all day. That alone prejudices me and overcomes certain deficiencies in his PRC series. As STARS OVER TEXAS begins, Eddie and the Sunshine Boys are riding along warbling the upbeat, rolling rhythms of the title song which puts you on Eddie's side right from the get-go. Jack O'Shea's gang is trying to take over Shirley Patterson and brother Lee Roberts' ranch. Lee's old friends, Eddie, Roscoe Ates and Lee Bennett (who is an exact double for the ranch foreman) join Shirley and Lee to round up O'Shea and the other second-stringer outlaws (Carl Mathews, Matty Roubert and crooked judge William Fawcett) with gunplay and fireworks. Frances Kavanaugh's script is a remake of her (and Bob Tansey's) DRIFTIN' KID with Tom Keene in '41. Cast as a peddler is Hal Smith who became well known as Otis Campbell, the Mayberry town drunk on the ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW ('61-'66).

 COWBOY COMMANDOS (1943 Monogram)
Pretty much non-stop excitement as the Range Busters (Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, Denny Moore, Max Terhune) battle a lowdown bunch of Nazi saboteurs (John Merton, Frank Ellis, Bud Osborne, George Chesebro, Budd Buster) that are raiding local magnacite shipments and have killed leading lady Evelyn Finley's brother. Deputy Johnny Bond, helping out, cutely sings "I'll Get Der Feuher Sure as Shootin' ". Even with all the action, there's time for Evelyn to show off some trick riding and for Terhune to exhibit his expertise with a deck of cards. Was Elmer, Terhune's dummy, on strike for better wages? Elmer is oddly nowhere in sight in this one.

 DESERT PURSUIT (1952 Allied Artists)
Prologue: "In 1856, Jefferson Davis, Sec. Of War, organized the American Camel Corps of the U.S. Army which mapped the southern route across the plains and deserts from Texas to California. The building of the transcontinental railroad ended the usefulness of the Camel Corps and the animals were sold to private enterprise or escaped into the Southwestern desert where camels were still seen by lonely prospectors more than a decade later." It's a hot, dry, sandy trek as three renegade Arabs on camels (Anthony Caruso, John Doucette , George Tobias) pursue Wayne Morris, Virginia Grey and the gold across the deserts and rocks of Lone Pine (standing in for nearby Death Valley). Somewhat original concept has a Christmas message to it.

 STAND AT APACHE RIVER (1953 Universal International)
At a way station on the river, a group of stranded strangers bare their Technicolor lives and psyches as they wait for the Apaches to attack in Arthur Ross' overblown script. Fits into the 'They won't attack til the drums stop' western genre of the '50s. Stars Stephen McNally (the Sheriff), Russell Johnson (his outlaw prisoner), intended fiancé Julia Adams, Hugh Marlowe (an Indian hating Cavalry Colonel), Jack Kelly (a drifter), Hugh O'Brian (the way station operator), Jaclynne Greene (O'Brian's dissatisfied wife) and Forest Lewis (an old timer). Not sure what accent Edgar Barrier as the Indian Chief is trying to affect, but it sure ain't Apache. Directed by Lee ('Rrrrroll 'Em') Sholem, who later directed dozens of TV westerns at Warner Bros. Watch for Frankie Darro as an Indian at a window. Although McNally, with his hard-bitten demeanor, is good in the few U-I western leads he played, he was far better suited to heavies opposite Audie Murphy, James Stewart and others.

 RAIDERS OF OLD CALIFORNIA (1957 Republic)
Gunplunderer Jim Davis obtains California land grants by force at the end of the Mexican War. To hold their illegal claims he must find and kill a priest (Larry Dobkin), the rightful owner. Young Marshal Faron Young and his judge father (Louis Jean Heydt) bring justice to the terror stricken land. With Lee Van Cleef (in one of his classic nasty gunfighter roles), Marty Robbins, Harry Lauter, Douglas Fowley, Rick Vallin. Oddly, even with Young and Robbins in the cast, there are no songs. Released by Republic, but produced and directed independently by Albert Gannaway (see BADGE OF MARSHAL BRENNAN) with plenty of action. Faron Young --- the Singing Sheriff as he was known in music circles --- could have made a good new singing B-western star but he never got the chance, all his films were ultra low budget and producer Gannaway stupidly didn't let him sing. Also, by the time Young arrived, B-westerns were all but over.

 SHOWDOWN (1963 Universal-International)
Brutal, tough Audie Murphy western was lensed in back and white for budgetary reasons, but nevertheless, with its script about double-crosses, the black and white photography lends to its film noirish aspect. Anyone who disputes Audie's acting ability should watch SHOWDOWN. Audie and (off screen personal friend) Charles Drake are mistakenly chained to an Iron Maypole prison along with Harold J. Stone and his gang, then forced to escape with them. Drake attempts to buy their freedom with some stolen securities but double crosses the gang by giving the money to his so-thought girlfriend, Kathleen Crowley. Murphy recovers the money, deals with the two-timing Crowley and ultimately destroys the outlaw gang. Incidentally, the Iron Maypole was historically accurate and a nice touch by scripter Bronson Howitzer. Good support from Strother Martin, Skip Homeier, L. Q. Jones, Henry Wills, Dabbs Greer, Harry Lauter, Bob Steele, Bill Phipps.

 COLORADO SUNSET (1939 Republic)
Entertainment is what the movies are all about and this Gene Autry/Smiley Burnette film offers just that-in spades. Perfect blend of action, comedy and music (eight songs including Patsy Montana's classic "I Want to Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart" and Gene's "Seven Years With the Wrong Woman"). When Gene, Smiley and the CBS-KMPC Texas Rangers buy a milk cow ranch thinking it's a cattle ranch, they're thrust into the middle of a dairy war with farmer's trucks being hijacked and destroyed in an attempt to drive them out of business. Racketeer 'Doc' Robert Barratt and his men, Buster Crabbe (still sporting his Paramount mustache) and Jack Ingram are operating the old protection racket. It all comes to a head when Gene runs for Sheriff against Crabbe. With June Storey, Barbara Pepper, Kermit Maynard and William Farnum. Talented Betty Burbridge and Stanley Roberts wrote the screenplay. Usual fine direction from George Sherman. This was the first Autry film produced by proficient William Berke who had previously done the same on westerns with Harry Carey, Fred Kohler Jr. and Jack Perrin before joining Republic in '38 to head up the 3 Mesquiteers production unit. By '41 he had moved over to Columbia.

 TEXAS MARSHAL (1941 PRC)
Using patriotism (the League of Patriots) to cover up his secret plans to buy out all the local ranchers in order to gain control of rich tin ore deposits, Karl Hackett and his partners, Charlie King and Budd Buster, murder local rancher John Elliott who threatens to expose them. That's when another rancher, Edward Peil Sr., sends for Marshal 'Trigger' Tim McCoy. Peil's daughter is Kay Leslie who is in love with foreman Art Davis, for whom this co-star role is really a showcase for his singing, fiddle playing and dramatics in advance of his starring PRC series with Lee Powell and Bill Boyd six months later. Third lead Dave O'Brien's exuberance as Art's radio agent is a bit over the top. With its patriotic theme anticipating WWII, Art sings "The West Is Always Ready If It Comes". For other WWII westerns see ARIZONA GANGBUSTERS.

 CROOKED TRAIL (1936 Supreme)
Most of Johnny Mack Brown's Supreme titles were a bit more adult in approach and story content and this tale of murder, love and reformation is no exception as Brown befriends killer John Merton in his gold mining claim. But both of them need to watch out for that doublecrossing snake in black, gambler Charlie King, who is engaged to Lucile Browne although she ends up marrying Johnny Mack midway when King is exposed as a crook. With fine direction by S. Roy Luby (1899-1976) and a taut script by George Plympton, CROOKED TRAIL proves what could be accomplished within the confines of a B-western. Truly, A-western material in the 60 minute B-western format. Rare chance to see veteran heavy Dick Curtis on the right side of the law as a miner.

 SUNSET TRAIL (1939 Paramount)
A pure delight! Splendidly directed --- credit director Lesley Selander with a real gem as William Boyd, with evident enjoyment, gets a chance to play Hopalong Cassidy as a dude, allowing Norman Houston's clever script to poke fun at Boyd's true aversions to horses and stuntwork. Hoppy thwarts smooth saloon owner Robert Fiske's plan to steal a guest ranch from Charlotte Wynters and Jan(e) Clayton. There's some very clever wordplay acting between Boyd and Fiske; in fact everyone in the cast is at the top of their game --- Wynters in particular. Hoppy saddlepal Russell Hayden and Clayton were married and you can see the affection in their faces. Not to be missed.

 ON THE GREAT WHITE TRAIL (1938 Grand National)
James Newill as Renfrew of the Northwest Mounted Police and his dog Silver King investigate a murder in which the father (Robert Frazer) of the girl he's sweet on (Terry Walker) is suspected of the murder of Frazer's partner and another Mountie. But --- there are others to be considered --- Richard Alexander, Charles King, Philo McCullough and Walter McGrail. There's a lot of bland light comedy mixed in with the exciting moments on the trail. Bob Terry is Mountie Kelly, a part built up and taken over by Dave O'Brien later in the series.

 SONGS AND SADDLES (1938 Road Show Prod./Colony)
The producing team of Max and Arthur Alexander had completed six westerns with Rex Bell ('36-'37) and were waiting to start a new series with Ken Maynard when they made this one-time only western starring famed crooner Gene Austin. Possibly hoping to mimic the success of Gene Autry, the brothers relied on Austin's personality and singing abilities in an attempt to compensate for his lack of acting and fighting abilities. Austin, a huge star in the '20s, had sold over 80 million records for Victor (including "My Blue Heaven") but was now in a bit of a career slump. Billed as a Road Show Production, the film was shown town to town, theatre to theatre, primarily in the South, and was booked along with Austin's stage show which included comedienne Joan Brooks (who is in the film as comic relief) and Gene's accompanists, Candy Hall and Coco Heimel, both also in the film. Gene composed and sang five tunes in the film --- but for some odd reason, did not perform "My Blue Heaven". Directed by low budget vet Harry Fraser, Gene portrays a radio singer on the way home who lands in the middle of a standard land grab plot by Karl Hackett, John Merton and Charlie King. With vets like these, the production, filmed around Sonora, CA, is competent enough and Austin's adequate when singing or romancing the gal (Lynne Barkley), but his lack of ability in the action department is painfully obvious, with no thrills coming til the last 5 minutes or so. Whether the brothers Alexander intended more and weren't satisfied with results is unknown, but I suspect SONGS AND SADDLES was made specifically for Austin to take on the road with his live stage show as no regular theatrical bookings can be traced.

 HARD MAN (1957 Columbia)
Tense, taught script by Leo Katcher (based on his own novel) catches the middle ground between old fashioned B's and the adult westerns of the '50s with a few elements of film noir thrown in. Although it's not Guy Madison's best known western, it may be his best work in a western with a terrific showdown scene in the hotel between Madison and Rudy Bond. Story has too-quick-on-the-trigger lawman Madison opposing tyrannical town boss Lorne Greene (later star of TV's BONANZA) and his double-crossing, greedy wife Valerie French following the framing and death of Madison's friend Myron Healey. Produced by Wallace MacDonald and well directed by George Sherman. Important unbilled cameo by B-western vet John Cason.

 WEST OF DODGE CITY (1947 Columbia)
Unscrupulous land schemer Henry Hardison (Fred Sears --- later a director on the Durango Kid series himself) and his gunnies (Zon Murray, Marshall Reed, I. Stanford Jolley, Bob Wilke) kill rancher Nolan Leary so they can grab his ranch and promote a phony reservoir for a power project. Surveyor Charles Starrett smells a rat and, as the Durango Kid, with the help of newspaperman Smiley Burnette and Leary's daughter, Nancy Saunders, brings trigger law to the crooked coyotes. For a bit of an unusual ending, Hardison and his men are trapped when they dynamite the river and flood the valley. Two tubby hillbilly musicians, Mustard and Gravy (Frank Rice and Ernest Stokes) aid Smiley's silliness by frequently interrupting the six gun action directed by Ray Nazarro. BONANZA TOWN ('51) is a direct sequel to this film. Boo Boo: after Fred Sears leaves town at about the 45 minute mark, Starrett has a conversation with Smiley in front of a store window. Watch for the reflection of a completely out of western garb T-shirted man walking by. Undoubtedly a grip or some other technician.

 BONANZA TOWN (1951 Columbia)
Should be watched as a double feature as it's a direct sequel to WEST OF DODGE CITY ('47) with about a third of this one devoted to Charles Starrett relating past events (with footage from the previous film) to the Judge (Luther Crockett) who is the blackmailed and intimidated brother of Henry Hardison (Fred Sears) who did not drown in the flood at the end of WEST OF DODGE CITY. The Durango Kid seeks Hardison and $30,000 in stolen Dodge City loot. Running the gang in Bonanza Town are Myron Healey and his dumbulb henchie, Charles Horvath (who in one hilarious scene tries to 'kill' a rock thrown through Healey's window). Paul McGuire plays federal Marshal Reed. Then the actor, Marshall Reed, shows up in stock footage. Inside joke? Probably not intended, but ... oh yeah, Smiley Burnette is here, all too much, as a barber singing with Slim Duncan and coping with customer Vernon Dent (a regular 3 Stooges comic foil).

 STARLIGHT OVER TEXAS (1938 Monogram)
U. S. Marshal Tex Ritter, and his pals Ananias (Horace Murphy) and Pee Wee (Snub Pollard) bring border bandits Earle Dwire and Charlie King to justice. Oddly, Tex gets in a walloping bar fight with Charlie King over drinking only buttermilk and five minutes later at a Mexican fiesta, Tex is singing the praises of Tequila!?! To escape the collapsing corporate world of Grand National, who'd been releasing Ritter's westerns, producer Edward Finney moved over to Monogram for Tex's next 20 films, this being the first distributed by Monogram. Unfortunately, Finney also brought along slapdash director Al Herman (1887-1967) who'd helmed Tex's last two at Grand National. Although Herman had been at it since Mickey McGuire silent shorts, his main concern seemed to be to just get an image on film. Continuity and technicalities, such as the incongruity of the above mentioned buttermilk/tequila affair, be damned. STARLIGHT OVER TEXAS is unevenly paced by Herman, bogging down midway for a 12 minute Mexican fiesta and a bad song by the duded-up Northwesterners. Sadly, Finney kept Herman on til the end, only occasionally spelling him with the more talented Spencer Gordon Bennet, and the difference in the 4 Bennet directed opposed to the 16 Herman did is quite evident. Occasionally, as with Ritter's TAKE ME BACK TO OKLAHOMA, Herman became inspired to do better work; or maybe Bob Wills' toe-tapping music in that one got his juices flowing. It's too bad, as well liked as Tex was, that his films of this period are hampered by a director who didn't seem to care much about his work.

 RUSTLER'S PARADISE (1935 Ajax)
Cheyenne Harry (Carey) rides headlong into a rustler's paradise to end his long search for his daughter (Gertrude Messinger) and wife who ran off with outlaw Ted Lorch. In retribution, when Harry finds him, he lets Lorch feel the sting of his bullwhip in a rather sadistic scene for a hero in a B-western. Harry uses the whip proficiently here long before Lash LaRue and Whip Wilson. Slim Whitaker sports one of the worst Mexican accents ever heard in a western. At 57, Harry Carey was the oldest man ever to star in a series of B-westerns.

 SHADOW VALLEY (1947 PRC)
Low energy Eddie Dean B-western as he and sidekick Roscoe 'Soapy' Ates foil a scheme by suave lawyer George Chesebro and henchman Eddie Parker to grab Jennifer Holt's gold-rich land. Chesebro gets most of the screen time and looks as if he's enjoying the villainy. Lane Bradford plays Jennifer's ranch foreman. Off screen she and Lane were quite an 'item'. Singers Andy Parker and the Plainsmen also play ranch hands and are wasted as they're only given a half a song to sing. Eddie calls Soapy his 'sidekick' --- a word you and I use but is seldom actually heard on screen.

 WHERE TRAILS DIVIDE (1937 Monogram)
It's brother against brother as lawyer Tom Keene arrives in rough and tumble Rawhide to find his kid brother under the evil influence of town boss Warner Richmond and dance hall floozy Lorraine Randall (in her best Mae West imitation). But when Forrest Taylor, nice girl Eleanor Stewart and the rest of the God fearing people appoint Keene Sheriff --- the law comes to Rawhide! Super effective desert pursuit finale. One of Keene's best, much in the George O'Brien RKO mold. Above average direction from Robert N. Bradbury (maybe he wasn't on the sauce) and engaging photography from Bert Longenecker. This was the 2nd in Keene's first, and better, series of westerns for Monogram.

 GHOST TOWN (1956 Bel Air/UA)
A diverse group of stagecoach passengers hole up from renegade Indians in a ghost town deserted due to the fever. Slowly, under attack, each reveals his true character. Gold prospectors John Smith and his sidekick Bill Phillips, gunrunner Kent Taylor, drunken doctor John Doucette, Smith's eastern fiancé Marian Carr, Cavalry sergeant Joel Ashley, preacher Gil Rankin and a young boy, Gary Murray. The few and far between action sequences are well enough staged but the long, dry palaver periods inbetween are pure boredom. Filmed in Kanab, UT. Later, for TV, Smith co-starred on LARAMIE, Kent Taylor co-starred in the ROUGH RIDERS and Gil Rankin had a running part as a deputy on TOMBSTONE TERRITORY.

 CODE OF THE RANGERS (1938 Monogram)
Unbeknownst to Ranger Tim McCoy, his younger brother Rex Lease is part of a gang headed up by Wheeler Oakman and Edward Earle. Resigned from the Rangers, Tim goes to prison himself rather than see brother Rex behind bars. At last pardoned by the governor at the urging of his girl, Judith Ford, Tim sets his gun-sights for the outlaws. Good stuff. One great scene at a poker table has steel-eyed Tim in his usual flashy manner outgun three toughs that are out to get him. Trying to combat the onslaught of singing cowboys, director Sam Newfield included a song sung by Zeke Clements, the Dixie Yodeler.

 TEXAS GUN-FIGHTER (1932 Tiffany)
Ken Maynard and his pal Banty (Lloyd Ingraham) quit the outlaw trail. After Ken falls for Sheila Mannors, her father (Edgar Lewis) and the townsfolk appoint him Sheriff. Then his old outlaw gang, led by Harry Woods and Jim Mason, reappears and frames Ken for a bullion robbery. Ken's wonder horse Tarzan plays a big part in this one as he saves Ken from being ambushed, unties his bonds, fetches the posse and even retrieves Ken's hat from the stream. Our heroine started her lengthy screen career under Sheila Le Gay opposite Tom Tyler. She retained Sheila but the last name changed from Manners to Mannors to Bromley. In all, she co-starred in 12 B-westerns, leaving the screen in the mid-'40s for the legit stage, only to return as a character actress from 1956 til 1967. She now lives in retirement in California. Bennett Cohen, who wrote the story for this one, recycled the idea 14 years later at Republic for EL PASO KID with Sunset Carson. Cohen was now producing the Carson series.

 FORT BOWIE (1958 Bel Air/20th Century Fox)
Some excellent battle sequences highlight this minor A as Captain 'Tomahawk' Thompson (Ben Johnson) deals with Indians on the Arizona frontier while contending with Col. Kent Taylor's flirtatious, discontented wife (Jan Harrison) and a Major (Ian Douglas) who wants war more than peace. Pretty routine with some good battle sequences. Nelson Riddle is an excellent compose, but some of the music for this film just isn't right. Watch for singer Johnny Western as one of the Cavalrymen. Western wrote and sang the HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL TV themesong.

 LONE PRAIRIE (1942 Columbia)
Russell Hayden and his pals, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor, foil a plan by John Maxwell, Ernie Adams and John Merton to take over the ranch of Jack Kirk and his daughter (Lucille Lambert) because they're aware the railroad is coming through. Hayden supplied the action (aplenty), Wills the music and Taylor the laughs in this, the first of eight highly underrated B-westerns they made from '42-'44. Songwriter Cindy Walker provided the music for all 8 movies except for Wills' hits such as "Fiddlin' Man" in this one. Listen to Cindy's very pretty "Salt River Valley".

 TEXAS CITY (1952 Monogram)
A gang of Army payroll thieves headed by Marshall Reed and Terry Frost are hiding out in a cave with a secret entrance into a ghost town where an old hotel is being reopened by two Connecticut ladies, Lois Hall and Lorna Thayer. Also in town are ex-cavalryman Jimmy Ellison, court-martialed after losing a gold shipment, and Marshal Johnny Mack Brown, sent to investigate the situation by U.S. Cavalry officer Lyle Talbot. Bud Osborne (1884-1964), who drives a stage in this one, was one of the two best (along with Post Park) six-up drivers in the business. Bud had been making movies since 1916. Although Joseph Poland's story has a few nice twists, Lew Collins' direction is slow paced. It was nearly the end of the B-western trail and there's an aura of knowing this about these last few Browns.

 NO NAME ON THE BULLET (1959 Universal International)
A real change of pace for Audie Murphy and one of his most impressive performances as John Gant, a hired killer with a known reputation but also a man of considerable intelligence and psychological insight, aware but unashamed of the 'job' he does. When the feared assassin arrives in Lordsburg, nearly everyone panics, hiding their own private secrets, fearing he has come to kill them. Only after the town has been torn apart by lynch law, retribution, suicide and anxiety do we learn the identity of his true victim. Is it gambler Simon Scott? Blacksmith R. G. Armstrong? Doctor Charles Drake (a personal friend of Audie's who appeared in several films with him)? Rancher John Alderson? Judge Edgar Stehli? Banker Whit Bissel? Businessman Karl Swenson? Sheriff Willis Bouchey? Spineless Warren Stevens? Or his wife Virginia Gray? Director Jack Arnold elicits superior performances from all and maintains an aura of suspense right through the downbeat ending. For most of the film, all Audie does is sit and sip coffee, but his frightening presence is felt throughout the film. The story was remade as STOPOVER, an episode of THE VIRGINIAN TV series with Herb Jeffries in the Murphy role.

 GUN PACKER (1938 Monogram)
Above average Jack Randall outing in which old pro director Wallace Fox makes splendid use of the Kernville, CA, locations. U.S. Marshal Randall (and his white-faced intelligent sorrel, Rusty) are called to action when stagecoaches are continuously robbed by Charlie King's outlaws. The gang, with the aid of Professor Barlowe Borland, recycles the gold through a worked out mine. Producer Scott Dunlap gave Robert Emmett's (aka Bob Tansey) script to Adele Buffington for a rewrite 11 years later when he was overseeing the Whip Wilson series and came up with RANGE LAND. One question --- why is right-handed badman Curley Dresden called Lefty? Jack and (barely seen) leading lady Louise Stanley were engaged at the time this was filmed. This B-western holds the distinction of being one of the scant few times a hero has a black sidekick. Raymond Turner, playing mule riding Pinky, began in films about 1924. He's also seen in Clyde Beatty's DARKEST AFRICA serial, KING KONG, CHARLIE McCARTHY, DETECTIVE, BLONDIE HAS SERVANT TROUBLE and many others. He died at 85 in 1981.

 WILD HORSE RODEO (1937 Republic)
Stony Brooke (Robert Livingston) of the 3 Mesquiteers wants to bring Cyclone, a famous wild horse, to the rodeo for which he works in order to make $1,000 to save the ranch he owns with fellow Mesquiteers Ray 'Tucson' Corrigan and Max 'Lullaby' Terhune but 'Tucson' prefers not to capture Cyclone, but to let his beauty only be captured on canvas by artist June Martel, with whom Tucson is infatuated. Problems set in when Cyclone is caught and Stony has a change of heart about selling him to the rodeo because he's also falling for Martel. But the rodeo owner, Walter Miller, and his henchmen led by Jack Ingram, have other plans for Cyclone. Watch for Roy Rogers --- then billed Dick Weston --- singing a Fleming Allan tune, "Madonna of the Trail". Even the Mesquiteers sing --- another good Allan song, "Ridin' High". Contrary to some statements, none of the other Sons of the Pioneers are in this western. This is little Georgie Sherman's first directorial job. He went on to direct many westerns for Gene Autry and Don Barry as well as the 3 Mesquiteers.

 SON OF GOD'S COUNTRY (1948 Republic)
During the Civil War the far west suffered at the hands of lawless men who took advantage of the anger of sincere antagonists to fan the flames of intolerance and suspicion for their own selfish gain. This condition gave birth to a reign of violence and terror led here by Jim Nolan and henchman Steve Darrell who want to run ranchers off their land because they have advance notice of the coming of the railroad. Town storekeep Paul Hurst sends for Marshal Monte Hale. Nolan and Darrell brand newspaper publisher Jason Robards Sr. and his son Jay Kirby as Copperheads but Monte works with Robards' daughter, Pamela Blake, and Hurst to root out the real culprits. This was Monte's first in B/W after 8 in Trucolor. Music director Dale Butts was once married to Dale Evans. The film editor is Harry Keller who, within a few years, would be directing Rocky Lane and Rex Allen at Republic and Audie Murphy at Universal-International.

 BORDER VIGILANTES (1941 Paramount)
Far from being the best Hopalong Cassidy opus, this is a fairly routine 'round up the silver bandits' B-western. Interesting inside joke dialog exchange as Frances Gifford says to Russell Hayden, "I thought all cowboys played guitar." Hayden's adamant response, "Oh no, not the ones from the Bar 20." Badman Victor Jory's two henchmen are former stars Tom Tyler and Wally Wales. Another of the outlaws is Britt Wood who'd been Hoppy's sidekick, Speedy McGinnis, in four Hoppys only a year earlier. At this time, with no great aptitude for action scenes, this is Derwin Abrahams' first directorial effort, moving up from assistant director on the Cassidys where he'd been since 1936.

 FUGITIVE VALLEY (1941 Monogram)
The Range Busters, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, John 'Dusty' King and Max 'Alibi' Terhune go undercover as two outlaws and a ventriloquist to round up the stagecoach raiders in the outlaw town of Fugitive Valley (Glenn Strange, Bob Kortman, Reed Howes). Once there, they encounter Julie Duncan and her doctor father. Julie is secretly the Whip, whom the Range Busters believe is an outlaw, but is in reality working with her men (including singer Doye O'Dell) to get back the land and money the outlaws swindled from them. Fast start but after Corrigan and Strange's slugfest, the mid-section sags badly with comedy courtship of Duncan by Corrigan and King and magic tricks by Terhune --- then back to fast action windup. Whip Wilson's RIDERS OF THE DUSK ('49) borrowed a lot from Oliver Drake's original plot.

 DIAMOND TRAIL (1932 Monogram)
Another version of the standard Rex Bell formula of starting in the east and carrying the action west as brash newspaper reporter Bell sidles up to gangster Lloyd Whitlock who hijacks stolen diamonds from other racketeers then ships them west to Bud Osborne who is sneakily doublecrossing Whitlock. Directed with more flair than usual by Harry Fraser with a better than average script by Sherman Lowe, DIAMOND TRAIL provides some other form of menace than the usual stage robbers and rustlers.

 OUTCASTS OF THE TRAIL (1949 Republic)
Badman Roy Barcroft and his timid scared-of-insects cohort, Milton Parsons, hold the whip hand of terror over Jeff Donnell and her young brother Tommy Ivo. Their father is ex-outlaw John Gallaudet who plans to return $100,000 he stole but Barcroft has other ideas. It takes Monte Hale (as Pat Garrett) and his friend, barber Paul Hurst, to set things right. If Monte resembles Allan Lane in some long shots, it's because of the stock footage from Lane's SANTA FE UPRISING that was used. Exciting, involved Olive Cooper script. She began screenwriting in 1935, turning to westerns at Republic in 1940 with Roy Rogers' BORDER LEGION. She wrote several good ones for Roy and Gene including KING OF THE COWBOYS, DOWN MEXICO WAY and SIOUX CITY SUE.

 WILD COUNTRY (1947 PRC)
Escaped chain-gang killer I. Stanford Jolley is tracked by U. S. Marshal Eddie Dean and his sidekick Roscoe Ates. Jolley ties up with crooked saloon owner Douglas Fowley with plans to grab pretty Peggy Wynne's ranch as a hideout. One humorous barroom sequence has Ates impersonating tough outlaw Jolley. Better than average villainy by Jolley and Fowley gives this routine Dean a lift. They actually said it in a movie: Douglas Fowley tells Stan Jolley, "I'm running this town and it isn't big enough for the both of us."

 SON OF THE BORDER (1933 RKO)
After rancher Tom Keene is forced to shoot and kill his old friend, Lon Chaney Jr., in a bank robbery, he takes on the responsibility of raising Chaney's kid brother, David Durand, who's just arrived from Phoenix and knows nothing of his older brother's outlawry. Complicating matters is Chaney's dance hall girlfriend, Julie Haydon, who knows Tom killed Chaney, hates him for it and threatens to expose Tom to Durand. More adult in content, it's one of Keene's best. Underrated Al Bridge is the outlaw leader. Perhaps as an inside joke, Charlie King plays one of the outlaws --- named 'Henchey'. Former film editor Lloyd Nosler directs with a sure hand. Keene is fortunate to once again have bright young actress Julie Haydon (she co-starred in Keene's COME ON, DANGER a year earlier) as his co-star. In a non-traditional leading lady role, she dominates every scene she's in. Young Durand later became one of the East Side Kids. Stuntman Yakima Canutt has a small role and doubles Keene.

 BANDIT TRAIL (1941 RKO)
Good story. When Tim Holt's father (Eddy Waller) is accidentally killed during a bank foreclosure, Tim's outlaw uncle, Morris Ankrum, cons Tim into robbing the local banker in charge of the foreclosure. After Ankrum joins up with other outlaws led by Glenn Strange, they plan to rob another bank but Tim has now seen the error of his ways and makes plans (with his pal Lasses White) to set things right. Through a set of circumstances, Tim is made Sheriff and has not only his outlaw uncle to deal with but the town crook, Roy Barcroft. The girl Tim falls for is pert Janet Waldo who later became radio's Corliss Archer and went on to do voice-overs for TV cartoons such as THE JETSONS. This is a reworking (by writer Norton Parker) of Norman Sheldon's TWO GUN LAW ('37) with Charles Starrett. Sheldon himself reused it for Sunset Carson's EL PASO KID ('46).

 BULLET CODE (1940 RKO)
When George O'Brien's pal Bud (Robert Stanton --- later and better known as Kirby Grant) is killed during a rustler's raid, George believes he's responsible. Before he dies, Bud asks George and sidekick Slim Whitaker to inform his sister (Virginia Vale) and Dad (Howard Hickman) of his death. It's then George discovers devious Walter Miller and his gunslicks (Lew Meehan, Harry Woods, William Haade) are trying to run Dad and Virginia off their ranch, which borders on Mexico, so they can run stolen cattle across the border without detection. In righting that injustice, George also uncovers Bud's real killer. The sheriff is played by Montana born Bob Burns (1884-1957) who starred in a few minor Universal 2-reel silents but had a longer career in talkies playing sheriffs and heavies clear through 1954's LAWLESS RIDER w/Johnny Carpenter. His brother, Fred Burns, also had an illustrious career from 1912 through the mid '40s.

 ONE MAN'S LAW (1940 Republic)
The lawless town of Trailcross cannot hope to attract the railroad until the ruffians are run from its midst, so the town hires Don 'Red' Barry as Marshal to face toughs like Ed Cobb, Rex Lease, Charlie King and Carleton Young. Pert Janet Waldo is the girl in a better than average leading lady role. Dub Taylor, a sidekick fixture at Columbia and Monogram, makes his sole saddlepal appearance with Barry and at Republic. Top-flight Republic all the way from director George Sherman.

 BACK IN THE SADDLE (1941 Republic)
From Gene Autry's peak period and another of his ahead of their time ecological westerns as pollution from a nearby copper mine (run by Arthur Loft) poisons stock on all the cattlemen's ranches. Easterner-just-come-west Edward Norris' foreman (Autry) heads off the trouble and manages to deal with lovely Jacqueline Wells (later Julie Bishop) and her sweet singing sister Mary Lee at the same time. All that said, it's really good/badman gambler Addison Richards' film all the way with all his scenes standouts, including the one where he smugly tells Loft, "Don't ever be alone with yourself, you wouldn't like it." Great songs. Besides the title song (which would become Gene's theme), there's Jimmie Davis' "You Are My Sunshine", blue yodeler Jimmie Rogers' "In the Jailhouse Now", "I'm An Old Cowhand" and "99 Bullfrogs" novelty by Smiley Burnette.

 NORTH FROM THE LONE STAR (1941 Columbia)
Action aplenty as Wild Bill Hickok (Bill Elliott) helps Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor, Dorothy Fay and her brother Richard Fiske clean up Deadwood of its outlaw element (Arthur Loft, Jack Roper, Chuck Morrison). Bill even has another girl to contend with --- Claire Rochelle. You could always count on a good one when Charles Francis Royal's name was on the script. He penned BETWEEN MEN, COURAGEOUS AVENGER and others for Johnny Mack Brown; COLORADO KID, LIGHTNIN' CRANDALL, etc. for Bob Steele; COLORADO TRAIL, RIO GRANDE, TEXAS STAMPEDE for Charles Starrett; A TORNADO IN THE SADDLE for Russell Hayden as well as TAMING OF THE WEST, MAN FROM TUMBLEWEEDS and this one for Wild Bill. Then when fleshed out by a top western director such as Lambert Hillyer, you have a real winner.

 VALLEY OF TERROR (1937 Ambassador)
Plenty of wide awake action and thrills when Kermit Maynard foils John Merton's plan to swindle cute Harlene Wood out of her ranch because it's loaded with ... well, not oil, gold or silver, something I've never seen in a B-western before! Strong support from Dick Curtis, Hal Price, Roger Williams, Hank Bell, Frank McCarroll --- and Jack Ingram as Kermit's near half-wit pal, Spud. However, playing a sidekick is not quite Ingram's forte, he's better suited to heavies which he usually played. One spectacular 10 foot or more leap Kermit makes over a rail fence onto his horse, Rocky, is worth the price of admission!

 LIGHTS OF OLD SANTA FE (1944 Republic)
Rodeo rider Roy Rogers must save his beautiful employer (Dale Evans), owner of a old rodeo company (along with Gabby Hayes), from marrying her competitor (Richard Powers) and combining their shows. Gabby Hayes returned to the Rogers pictures after a two year hiatus and, although he's welcome here, Roy and Dale were now heavy into their 'musical comedy' period that toned down the action and played up the music and romance aspects, often winning them a larger adult audience at the expense of the 'too much mush' Saturday matinee crowd. Richard Powers was formerly known as Tom Keene when he starred in RKO and Monogram B-westerns, but used the Powers name later when he played heavies at Republic and RKO. Roy and the Pioneers sing up a storm on Ken Carson's "Cowboy Jubilee" and Tim Spencer's "Ride 'Em Cowboy". The title song was always one of Roy And Dale's favorite ballads. Even Gabby chimes in on the chorus. Nice little showcase comedy role for Shug Fisher of the Sons of the Pioneers.

 RANGE LAND (1949 Monogram)
Ex-Marshal Whip Wilson and his pal Andy Clyde help stamp mill operator Steve Clark and his daughter Reno Browne recover $50,000 in gold bars stolen in recent stage holdups by Leonard Penn and his gang (John Cason, Kermit Maynard, Carol Henry, Reed Howes) which are being smelted down for them by Professor William Griffith. Whip use: 3 times. Scott Dunlap, exec-producer on the Wilsons, recycled a script written by Robert Emmett (aka Bob Tansey) for Jack Randall in 1938, GUN PACKER, when Dunlap was producing that series. So, although Adele Buffington gets 'original screenplay' credit here, it's actually only a rewrite job. Not an uncommon practice in B-westerns. The early Wilsons were certainly the better of his westerns. With good direction by Lambert Hillyer, this one is fairly satisfying. Blonde Reno Browne, 6 times Whip's leading lady (films #2-8), was in real life married to Lash LaRue (one of his 12). She must have had a thing for whips! Boo Boo: Watch for the mobile home in the background during the final fistfight between Whip and John Cason.

 HIRED GUN (1957 MGM)
When Chuck Connors and others help accused murderer Anne Francis break jail, the murdered man's father (John Litel) and brother (Vince Edwards) seek out gunslinger Rory Calhoun to bring her back. Fast paced 65 minute thriller with no time wasted or the usual A-western psyche discussions. Independently produced by Calhoun and his partner, Vic Orsatti, and directed by ex-Durango Kid helmer, Ray Nazarro. Filmed in the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine.

 COLORADO RANGER (1950 Lippert)
Unbeknownst to badman Stephen Carr, he hires three Colorado Rangers (Jimmy Ellison, Russell Hayden, Raymond Hatton) to run off the homesteaders including Julie Adams and Fuzzy Knight. When that plan backfires, Carr sends for John Cason and his gang (Tom Tyler, Dennis Moore, Bud Osborne, George J. Lewis) to do the same thing. Serial-like, Tommy Carr directed all six of the Ellison/Hayden films at one time --- using the same casts and shooting all the saloon scenes for each film, then all the scenes for each film at the ranch house, etc. All were lensed at the Iverson location ranch. Although different (and no doubt cheap), the incessant organ music score gets to be a bit much at times. I'm quite sure it's not politically correct to give a tiny baby a gun to play with, but not only do the bad guys do it, the good guys do too!

 GHOST TOWN RENEGADES (1947 PRC)
Although Lash LaRue and Fuzzy St. John are trying to help Jennifer Holt retain her mining claim in Ghost Town, badmen Jack Ingram, Terry Frost and Lane Bradford trick her into believing Lash and Fuzzy killed her father, Steve Clark. Fuzzy has some truly funny moments in ghost town with his hat, a rat and mirror. Not everyone is a Lash fan, but if you are, this is one of his best. Whip use: four times. Is it an inside joke that the chief Marshal (Henry Hall) is named Al Jennings?

 WEST OF TOMBSTONE (1942 Columbia)
Six guns blaze and fists fly as Marshal Charles Starrett finds Billy the Kid (Gordon DeMain) alive and a law abiding citizen with two kids (Russell Hayden and Marcella Martin). However, his old gang (Clancy Cooper, Tom London) are robbing stagecoaches in the area and blaming it on Billy. Interesting premise used again later in Lash LaRue's SON OF BILLY THE KID. No holds barred direction from Howard Bretherton (1886-1969) who'd begun directing at the tail end of the silent era. He headed up several of the best early Hoppys. Marcella Martin is a dynamic, strong-willed actress (reminding of Agnes Moorehead) who only made one other film at Columbia then completely disappeared. Too bad, she was different. A bit shocking is sidekick Cliff Edwards' wildly amusing exclamation following an incident with a black cat in a graveyard. Watch for future star Lloyd Bridges with a one line bit.

 SOUTH OF SANTA FE (1932 Tiffany)
Bob Steele helps a girl (Janis Elliott) get back the map to a gold mine after her father (John Elliott) is killed for the map by bandits Ed Brady, Al Bridge (constantly drunk), Hank Bell and others. Lot of milling around, but not much of a movie; marred by some bad Mexican acting and dubbing. The director, Bert Glennon (1893-1967), began as a cinematographer in 1916 and got a shot at directing a few cheapies here and there. This was his only western. He went back to camera work where his talent more than made up for his shortcomings as a director. He worked on PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND, STAGECOACH, DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK, THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON, DESERT SONG, SAN ANTONIO, WAGON MASTER and many other prestigious pictures. As Lanky, this is longtime character actor Eddie Dunn's only sidekick role. Oddly, Steele's character name is 'Tom Keene'.

 CALL OF THE CANYON (1942 Republic)
Plays like a pastiche of previous Gene Autry B's as Gene and the cattlemen are forced to deal with a crooked purchasing agent for the packing company (Edmund MacDonald) while the owner (Thurston Hall) fiddles with sponsoring a western radio show headed up by eastern dudes Ruth Terry and Dorthea Kent who rent Gene's ranch from Smiley Burnette without Gene's knowledge. Then the easterners need real westerner Gene to put the show across. Yada, yada, yada --- you've seen it all before. At last, Republic paired Gene with the Sons of the Pioneers, but there's nothing made of it --- no interaction between Gene and the boys. Truly, a missed opportunity, although they sound swell together on "Montana (Texas) Plains". Director Joseph Santley had cut his teeth on musicals (DANCING FEET, RADIO CITY REVELS, SWING, SISTER, SWING) and although he'd helmed two of Gene's biggest hits, MELODY RANCH and DOWN MEXICO WAY, this one doesn't measure up and Santley never returned to westerns.

 BORDER LEGION (1940 Republic)
Roy Rogers comes west to Miles City, ID, and gets a job as a singer at irascible Maude Eburne's honestly run saloon. Turns out Roy is an eastern doctor fleeing from a robbery charge of which he is innocent, only shielding the brother of the girl (Carol Hughes) he loves who has also just arrived in Miles City wounded in a stagecoach holdup by robust Joe Sawyer's Border Legion gang. When Roy tends Carol's wound, the town --- and the gang --- realize he is a doctor. So, when Sawyer is also wounded, the gang kidnaps Roy to treat the outlaw. Roy then infiltrates the gang to trap them. Not a wasted second in this clever, speedy script by Olive Cooper and Louis Stevens that allows for story, humor, action and Roy's youthful charm. Expertly handled by one of Republic's ace directors, Joe Kane. Gabby Hayes is along for the ride, courting Eburne who has one of the best roles of her esteemed character-lady career. Wally Wales (now Hal Taliaferro) has a pivotal role as the Sheriff. Roy and the outlaws perform a rousing rendition of "Git Along Little Dogies". One of Roy's best from his historical western period. The title was changed to WEST OF THE BADLANDS for TV due to copyright problems over the original Zane Grey title. Leading lady Carol Hughes achieved serial immortality this same year when she replaced Jean Rogers as Dale Arden in the third Flash Gordon Universal serial, FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE.

 OUTLAW GOLD (1950 Monogram)
By 1950, the budgets under new producer Vincent Fennelly were beginning to show on the Johnny Mack Brown series at Monogram. Three-member outlaw gangs when there used to be 9 to 10 or more; less and less extras in street background scenes; no posses --- only a lone old town-bound sheriff; less expensive actors for members of those outlaw gangs (this one has Marshall Reed --- a very capable player --- but he's backed up by stuntmen Carol Henry and George De Normand, obviously hired for their stunt abilities in doubling Brown and others and not for their thespic skills. In other words, stuntman and actor --- two for the price of one); even Iverson town is beginning to look a bit tattered. Worst of all --- Fennelly let sidekick Raymond Hatton go and obviously saved a few hundred bucks by replacing him with old --- very old --- timer Milburn Morante. It was not a step upward for the series. You can almost see Brown having to nudge Morante through their scenes together to get the old duffer moving. The story was written by Jack Lewis and originally sold to producer Ron Ormond as a Lash LaRue, but Ormond closed down production and re-sold the script (cheaply) to Fennelly. A few script changes and wala! --- Johnny Mack Brown. The story, itself, has Marshals Brown and Morante investigating the theft of government gold. Hugh Prosser, co-owner of the local newspaper, kills off partner Steve Clark because he's getting too close to the truth --- Prosser is melting the gold and reforming it into lead-covered newspaper print-type and shipping it out of town that-a-way.

 WILD BILL HICKOK RIDES (1942 Warner Bros.)
Extremely underrated mid-budget town tamer western as director Ray Enright (who brought us Wayne and Scott's THE SPOILERS the same year) efficiently pits Bruce Cabot (as Hickok) against land grabber Warren William. Certainly nothing new in the plot line but it's fast paced and exciting all the way. Constance Bennett is top-billed as a dancehall queen William brings west from Chicago to help in his nefarious schemes but who changes her ways when she reaches the clean air of Wyoming. Borrowed from Paramount, Betty Brewer shines as young Calamity Jane. Sadly, this was her next to last film. Walter Catlett's broad slapstick comedy as the barber/newspaper man is badly misplaced by Enright, hampering an otherwise totally enjoyable western with a top notch supporting cast: Ward Bond, Howard da Silva, Julie Bishop, J. Farrell MacDonald, Trevor Bardette, Frank Wilcox, Ray Teal, Russell Simpson, Harry Woods, Charles Middleton. Enright also helmed several other good westerns --- BAD MEN OF MISSOURI, MEN OF TEXAS, TRAIL STREET, ALBUQUERQUE, RETURN OF THE BADMEN, SOUTH OF ST. LOUIS, KANSAS RAIDERS and FLAMING FEATHER.

 ADVENTURES OF THE MASKED PHANTOM (1939 Equity)
First (and last) of a proposed Roving Buckaroos trio series with tall, dark and a bit wimpy Monte 'Alamo' Rawlins as the Masked Phantom who, along with singing Larry Mason (aka Art Davis) as Tuney, Smiley Burnette wannabe Sonny Lamont as Dumpy and their dog Boots, foil outlaws who are smuggling stolen gold plates out of a mine along with low grade ore. When masked, Rawlins' 'mark' is a thrown steak knife with a Smiley face (referred to as a death head) on it which whizzes through the air with a 3 Stooges-like sound effect. Yes, really! As long as veteran heavies George Douglas, Jack Ingram, Curley Dresden, James Sheridan and Budd Buster are on screen, it's as adequate as any other low budget B. It's only when our hero trio or the way-over-the-top Granny (Dot Karroll) are on screen do we wish we were watching something better --- like a Robert J. Horner Buffalo Bill Jr. or Ted Wells epic! Leading lady Betty Burgess in her only western (of the three films she made) wears a thin see-through sweater thereby revealing the best points of her acting. Scripted by Joseph O'Donnell, who'd been at this B-western stuff since '33 with Tim McCoy and Kermit Maynard and continued on with Bob Steele, George Houston, Buster Crabbe, Lash LaRue and others til the end of the B-western era. Rawlins (1907-1988) whose real name was Dean Spencer, had minor roles under that name in a couple of Jack Randall B's, enlisted in the Marine Corps during WWII and also served in Korea. He later became a sound engineer at Monogram and then Disney.

 BEYOND THE PECOS (1945 Universal)
Suave artist and piano playing ("Don't interrupt me when I'm playing!") badman Gene Roth (who is attended by a whip wielding 'guide', Henry Wills), banker Frank Jacquet (father of Jennifer Holt) and gunman Jack Ingram stir up a range war between the Remingtons (Robert Homans and returning son Rod Cameron) and the Randalls (Eddie Dew) in order to wrest control of the Remington ranch and the oil thereon. Two-fisted, two-gun action start to finish, expertly handled by director Lambert Hillyer with fluid camera work by Maury Gertsman. Couple of nice songs, including "Ridin' High", by Ray Whitley. Only drawback, as with many Universals, is too much goofiness from Fuzzy Knight, this time as an elixir selling ex sailor. Based on the 'Oliver Drake formula' (he's producer here) of pitting two stars against one another at first (Cameron and Dew), then in the finale, they join forces to overcome the real badmen. This formula was used quite successfully in the Brown/Ritter series.

 BLACK SPURS (1965 Paramount)
Rancher Rory Calhoun turns bounty hunter and loses his girl (Terry Moore). Wearing the black spurs of the first outlaw he gunned down and now with a big reputation, Calhoun hires out to Lon Chaney Jr., who runs the town of Kile, to bring gambling and girls to the respectful town of Lark where the railroad plans to go. If the RR finds Lark a wide open town they'll re-route the line to run through Kile. In Lark, Calhoun encounters opposition from his ex girl, now married to Sheriff James Best, as well as Reverend Scott Brady. Strong supporting cast of veterans, as in all A. C. Lyles produced westerns of this period --- Linda Darnell (2nd billed but completely wasted as a saloon girl reminiscent of her similar role in John Ford's MY DARLING CLEMENTINE), Richard Arlen, Bruce Cabot, Jerome Courtland, DeForrest Kelly, James Brown, Guy Wilkerson. One of the best of Lyle's westerns, well handled by veteran director R. G. Springsteen ... but with a horrid title song by Jerry Cole. You'll notice elements of Audie Murphy's NO NAME ON THE BULLET in the script.

 GANGSTER'S DEN (1945 PRC)
Our old pard Fuzzy St. John buys a saloon from Karl Hackett which results in as much comedy with cook Emmett Lynn and drunk Charlie King as it does action with Buster Crabbe battling I. Stanford Jolley, John Cason, Kermit Maynard and George Chesebro. There's a running gag about what's in the saloon office cellar. A major slip has bartender Steve Clark showing up again after he's just resigned. Certainly off beat, but definitely funny and entertaining and isn't that what we came for?

 OUTLAW BRAND (1948 Monogram)
Jimmy Wakely's a horse gentler (forerunner of a 'horse whisperer' I reckon) who, along with his redneck pal Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor, track down and tame Midnight, an outlaw stallion interfering with local herds. Entering Midnight in a horse race, Jimmy runs afoul of crooked gamblers Leonard Penn and Christine Larson out to cheat brother and sister Tom Chatterton and Kay Morley. One of Wakely's best, adequately paced by veteran Lambert Hillyer. Listen for what became one of California's most popular country songs, Doye O'Dell's "Dear Oakie". John James, who'd been Jimmy's saddle pal in three films in '45, was, by now, playing heavies. He and Wakely have a walloping good saloon brawl.

 UNEXPECTED GUEST (1947 United Artists)
With it's roots in old dark house mysteries and B-detective thrillers of the '30s and '40s, Hopalong Cassidy, substituting for Charlie Chan, and Lucky (Rand Brooks) accompany pal Andy Clyde to the sinister Box O ranch where he's one of the heirs to attend the reading of the will of a distant cousin. There's a black clad killer and a housefull of mysterious suspects --- attorney John Parrish, spooky housekeeper Una O'Connor, gambler stepson Ned Young, saloonkeeper Robert B. Williams, odd handyman Earle Hodgins, niece Patricia Tate and finicky cousin Joel Friedkin. Which one is the shadowy caped killer?

 BLAZING SUN (1950 Columbia)
A couple of exciting action sequences aboard a speeding freight train and an engaging dual role for Kenne Duncan (good and bad brothers) liven up this otherwise routine Gene Autry modern west bank robber story. Gene gets to serenade two girls --- Lynne Roberts and Anne Gwynne. Pat Buttram's the sidekick.

 TWO GUN LAW (1937 Columbia)
After being wounded by a posse, outlaw Charles Middleton, deciding to go straight, instructs his pal Hank Bell to take his adopted son, Charles Starrett, away from the bandit trail and get him started on the straight and narrow. Later, working on a ranch for Edward Le Saint and his daughter, Peggy Stratford (whom Starrett has fallen for), some of the old gang shows up, led by Al Bridge, and attempts to blackmail Starrett into helping them rob Le Saint. Good one with a strong finish. Music from Johnny Luther's Ranch Boys.

 CALL OF THE DESERT (1930 Syndicate)
Tom Tyler and a crooked guide, Bud Osborne, set out to locate a mining claim in the desert left Tom by his father. Wounded and left to die amidst a desert snowfall by Osborne, who has stolen Tom's map, Tom is saved by a prospector and brought to the ranch of Sheila LeGay whose jealous boyfriend, Cliff Lyons, is in cahoots with Osborne --- who, to complicate matters, turns out to be Le Gay's uncle! There's no doubt director J. P. McGowan took full advantage of a freak desert snowfall. Leading lady Sheila LeGay (born 1909) kept changing her last name --- Manners, Mannors, Bromley. Whatever, it's all the same gal who left films in the mid '40s for the legit stage and returned in 1957 as a character actress in SPOILERS OF THE FOREST with Rod Cameron, A DAY OF FURY with Dale Robertson, LAWLESS EIGHTIES with Buster Crabbe and even JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG ('61). She left the screen in '67 and lives in retirement in California today. Heavy Cliff Lyons became one of the top stuntmen in the business, often working with John Wayne and John Ford.

 DENVER KID (1948 Republic)
Another good Bob Williams script as Border Patrolman Allan 'Rocky' Lane goes undercover, joining an outlaw gang across the border to solve a brutal massacre by boss ('The Fox') Rory Mallison and his gunman Douglas Fowley. Unusual in that there is no female lead-only two saloon girls. A bit lighter on action and stronger on plot and dramatics than the average Lane. There's no question, Williams was the best scriptwriter Republic ever had. Producer Gordon Kay told me in July '99, "He could upgrade scripts from junk. He gave color to them. As far as I know, all the (Republic) writers were freelance. They'd bring in a story and you'd either buy it or not. Mel Tucker (producer of the Monte Hale series) and I used to fight for Bob Williams, we kept him going year round; he was very creative." Robert Creighton Williams began writing Bill Elliott and Bob Livingston films in '43. He moved up to A-westerns (SAGA OF HEMP BROWN, STAGE TO TUCSON, IRON SHERIFF, HE RIDES TALL etc.) when the B-westerns ceased.

 SWING THE WESTERN WAY (1947 Columbia)
Everyone is conning everyone else as down-on-his-luck blustery con man Thurston Hall 'buys' a large ranch from law abiding senator Sam Flint with money provided by crooked gambler Tris Coffin as Flint won't sell to gambler Coffin. Broke, Hall needs to impress and marry socialite Regina Wallace who he believes to have money (so he can pay back Coffin) but in reality Wallace is also broke and plans to wed Hall in order to finance her boy's school which has lost its lease. Got all that? Music and comedy supplied by the Hoosier Hot Shots and Johnny Bond. Romantic interest comes from former Tommy Dorsey big band singer Jack Leonard (subbing for Ken Curtis who apparently wasn't available for this dude ranch opus) and Mary Dugan --- both of whom were never heard from again! Watch for Jock Mahoney as a medicine show Indian.

 TEXAS LAWMEN (1951 Monogram)
Marshal Johnny Mack Brown encounters a Sheriff (Jimmy Ellison) who is reluctant to go after the Morrow gang because one of them is his father (I. Stanford Jolley in another of his excellent crafty old outlaw roles) and another is his brother (Lee Roberts). Original story by actor Myron Healey with a script by Joseph Poland. Good supporting cast: Terry Frost, Marshall Reed (as a good guy for a switch), Lyle Talbot, Pierce Lyden and John Hart.

 RED RIVER RENEGADES (1946 Republic)
Six guns blaze as postal inspectors Sunset Carson and his pard Tom London investigate the mystery of the watery stagecoach graveyard and encounter Pinkerton agent Peggy Stewart also on the trail of sneaky Ted Adams and his gang (Kenne Duncan, LeRoy Mason). Simply one of Sunset's best!

 WOLF HUNTERS (1949 Monogram)
Mountie Kirby Grant starts out after a fur thief (Charles Lang) and winds up defending his dog Chinook in the 'death' of Jan Clayton and Edward Norris' baby. More drama and subplots than action in this rather somber Northwoods adventure. And by the way --- there are no wolf hunters in this film at any point!?! Kirby has an opportunity to revive his 'singing cowboy' status as he sings a duet to a baby with Jan Clayton. Clayton, once married to Russell Hayden, later starred on TV's LASSIE as Ellen Miller, young Tommy Rettig's widowed mother. Edward Norris (born 1910), who began acting in 1934, was at various times married to actresses Ann Sheridan, Sheila Ryan, Lona Andre and Jean Dean. Filmed, as all the entries in Kirby's Mountie series were, at gorgeous Cedar Lake near Big Bear, CA. Directed by Oscar 'Budd' Boetticher and featuring Charles Lang who later wrote (with a little help from Burt Kennedy) DECISION AT SUNDOWN which Budd directed for Randolph Scott.

 GANGSTERS OF THE FRONTIER (1944 PRC)
Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien and Guy Wilkerson round up escaped prisoners I. Stanford Jolley and his frontier gangsters (Marshall Reed, Charlie King, Clarke Stevens) with the aid of Betty Miles (whose husband Harry Harvey has been murdered by the gang) and a group of ranchers who are deputized as territorial rangers. This was the first of eight in the Texas Rangers series in which Ritter replaced James Newill. The first four, directed by Elmer Clifton, were the best; the best PRC could offer being the bottom of the barrel B-western unit at that time. O'Brien, after dominating his films with James Newill, now has to play second fiddle to Ritter who was coming off winning series of his own with Elliott and Johnny Mack Brown. Tex sings "Ride Ranger Ride" (previously done by both Autry and Rogers).

 OUTLAWS OF PINE RIDGE (1942 Republic)
If Honest John (Noah Beery Sr.) is made governor, Donald Kirke and his outlaws are through, so Kirke frames Beery's son, Clayton Moore, for the murder of accomplice George J. Lewis. Wandering cowboys Don Barry and Emmett Lynn come to the rescue of Beery, Moore --- and Moore's sister, Lynn Merrick. Action ace William Witney, who generally was at the helm of Republic's serials along with director John English, is the director on this Barry, and he packs it with action, stunts and good camera work all the way. Look at the stuntmen he used --- Duke Green, Ken Terrell, Tom Steele, Joe Yrigoyen --- some of the best Republic had to offer. Watch for John Ford's brother, Francis, as the bartender.

 TEXAS TO BATAAN (1942 Monogram)
Powered by that rousing Frank Sanucci music, the Range Busters (John King, Dave Sharpe, Max Terhune), in a pre-Pearl Harbor west, round up Jap spies and transport a herd of horses to the Philippines as part of a special commission for the Army. Very patriotic ending as our heroes hear a radio report about the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces and leave the ranch to enlist. This film is your only chance to hear "Home On the Range" in Filipino! Terhune's dummy, Elmer, operates 'on his own' in several scenes, giving the film a surrealistic effect. This was the first of 3½ Range Busters B's in which Dave Sharpe replaced Ray Corrigan (for whatever reason --- speculation runs in many directions). Sharpe left in the middle of the 4th film, HAUNTED RANCH, to enter WWII for real. For observations on other patriotic westerns see ARIZONA GANGBUSTERS.

 CHEROKEE STRIP (1937 Warner Bros.)
This is the well remembered B-western in which Dick Foran sings "My Little Buckaroo" lullaby to young Tommy Bupp (who at one point sings with Foran on another song). Matter of fact, the working title for this Oklahoma landrush western was THE LITTLE BUCKAROO. Apparently, Warner Bros. felt that was too tame to sell. Leading lady is Jane Bryan (born 1918), Bette Davis' protege at WB. Vastly talented, she left the screen in 1940 after BROTHER RAT AND A BABY (her 18th pic in 5 years). A few months earlier, in 1939 at 21, she'd become the wife of rising young Walgreen's executive Justin Dart. He later formed Dart Industries, maker of Tupperware. They were happily married til his death in 1984. Their daughter, Jane, became the wife of Richard Nixon aid John D. Ehrilichman. Jane Bryan herself served on the Federal Arts Commission in Washington. She's also served as governor of the L.A. Natural History Museum. Frank Faylen as Ed Cobb's right hand gunman shows why he quickly moved up to the A list of character actors (LOST WEEKEND, GRAPES OF WRATH, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, NEVADAN). Dwyane Hickman's daddy on TV's DOBIE GILLIS, he was married to Carol Hughes, frequently a Gene Autry/Roy Rogers leading lady. Former silent star Jack Mower (1890-1965), born in Hawaii, came to Hollywood circa 1914. He starred in nine westerns for Westart in 1921 and played the lead in eight silent serials over the years. He later starred in several Universal two-reel silents in 1923-1926. Then, in 1924-1926, for unknown reasons, he made several starrers under the name Jack Meehan. He made the transition to sound easily and worked until 1952, quite often at Warner Bros. Here he's David Carlyle's business partner. Carlyle, incidentally, dropped that moniker after a year and became much better known at Universal as Robert Paige. His wife in CHEROKEE STRIP is Helen Valkis who moved up to Foran's leading lady in his next western, BLAZING SIXES. Notice Glenn Strange playing his fiddle with the music group. Many of the land rush scenes are culled from William S. Hart's last silent, TUMBLEWEEDS.

 SILVER STALLION (1941 Monogram)
Three horse thief pals --- Dave Sharpe, LeRoy Mason and Chief Thundercloud --- meet their match when Davy falls for cute Janet Waldo, owner of a horse ranch that crooked Walter Long plans to raid using his outlaw black stallion and wild dogs. A few nice ideas tediously exercised except for the windup which gives stuntman Sharpe the chance to do some leaps and falls. Really, the whole show is an excuse for producer/director Edward Finney to utilize the mismatched wild horse footage he had on hand. Dave Sharpe briefly became one-third of the Range Busters before entering WW II, but upon return concentrated on his expert stuntwork.

 BEYOND THE LAW (1930 Syndicate)
Beyond redemption would be a better name. Ponderous, dry, dull early talkie has Charlie King and Edward Lynch operating the old rancher's protection association racket until Robert Frazer and his scruffy pal Lane Chandler come to the aid of Louise Lorraine. Directed at a snail's pace by the multi-untalented J. P. McGowan. Wait til you see the 'singing cavalrymen' right in the middle of the what-action-there-is ending. Has to be seen to be believed! Low budget Syndicate made a stab at establishing Frazer as a western lead in this and the serial MYSTERY TROOPER ('31) but he was better suited to portraying slick dress heavies. They should have just given the lead to Lane Chandler who is the sidekick here. If you suffer through this creaky affair, watch for former silent stars Franklyn Farnum and Bob Reeves in bit roles. Leading lady Louise Lorraine (1901-1981), once married to Art Acord, was Universal's most durable and popular silent screen serial heroine. She also made westerns with Jack Perrin, Hoot Gibson, Fred Humes, Tim McCoy, husband Acord and Bob Steele. After making this dreadful affair she (wisely) hung it up.

 SADDLE LEGION (1951 RKO)
Tim Holt and Chito (Richard Martin) break up a clever rustling scheme by saloon owner Mauritz Hugo and his men, James Rush, Robert Livingston and Bob Wilke. Dorothy Malone, who was at this time still mixing A and B features, plays a sexy 'sawbones' who helps Tim and Chito. Strong entry in Holt's series with continous action and a well staged shootout finale by director Les Selander. For whatever reason, this seems to be James Rush's only film. Odd, he's quite good ... but who he was, where he came from or where he went is a mystery.

 SQUARE SHOOTER (1935 Columbia)
Tim McCoy returns home after 5 years in prison to prove he didn't murder his uncle. The men Tim's after (Charles Middleton, Wheeler Oakman, William V. Mong) turn his young friend John Darrow against him over the affections of Jacqueline Wells (later Julie Bishop). Good enough story but the action finish isn't enough to sustain its beleaguered development. Ace stuntman Joe Yrigoyen, who later doubled for Roy and Gene at Republic, doubles for McCoy. Cowboy cancer alert --- Tim roles his own, then wisely tosses it away.

 THE GHOST CITY (1932 Monogram)
Under the old adage, "The pen is mightier than the sword", gunfighter/newspaperman Bill Cody arrives in Boomtown with intentions to run town boss, saloon owner Walter Miller, out of town. Bill takes off his guns, rents space in Helen Foster's cafe and hires young Andy Shuford, Miller's stepson, to help him. But when Miller's drunken man, Charlie King, shoots Andy and Miller kills his own wife, Bill determinedly straps his six-shooter back on his hips and goes manhunting. Exciting climax in an old mine. Entertaining. Certainly one of Cody's better efforts with a fairly good story and script from Harry Fraser (who also directed) and G. A. Durlam. Elements of the plot were recycled for ACES WILD with Harry Carey in '36 which Fraser directed. Memphis born Shuford had the distinction of appearing in John Wayne's first starring film, THE BIG TRAIL ('30), before teaming up with Cody in a series of eight for the '31-'32 season. He later appeared in support roles in six OUR GANG comedies. Around 1942, 18 year old Andy enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Corp becoming highly decorated after flying 35 missions out of England. Col. Shuford never returned to films after WWII, settling down in Tennessee. He died 5/19/95 at 77.

 FIREBRAND JORDAN (1930 Big 4)
Lane Chandler, on the trail of counterfeiter Sheldon Lewis, aids leading lady Aline Goodwin whose father is missing. Goodwin's acting is on a par with your 6th grade play and the rest of the cast isn't much better under director Alvin J. Neitz, who is really Alan James --- but I'd change my name too if I'd directed this early talkie turkey which is only saved from the trashcan by some spectacular stuntwork from Yakima Canutt and Cliff Lyons. Lane's sidekick is the insufferable Frank Yaconelli who, unfortunately, sings --- as even does Lane ... for a moment.

 FRONTIER SCOUT (1938 Grand National)
When rustlers hold back all the Kansas cattle from the Eastern market to drive up the price of beef, U. S. Marshal Wild Bill Hickok (George Houston) and his pal Fuzzy St. John (as Whiney --- there's an endearing name!) are sent to investigate. They help Dave O'Brien and his sister Beth Marion uncover Dave's partner, Alden Chase (later Stephen Chase), and Jack Ingram as the rustlers. The rugged, mountainous Kernville, CA, area where this was shot makes a poor substitute in early scenes for Virginia. Watch for Tex Ritter's wife-to-be, Dorothy Fay, as a girl at the party. If you're compiling Presidential movie appearances, Jack Smith portrays President Grant. This was to be the first of 8 pictures made by Houston for Grand National, but within a few months, financial troubles engulfed the company. Houston wound up at PRC as the Lone Rider two years later.

 WESTERN RACKETEERS (1935 Aywon)
Miserably inept Robert J. Horner directed bottom runger has rancher Bill Cody opposing the oft used toll road through the pass plot. One scene in James Hogan's slipshod script has George Chesebro's baddies murdering innocent cows to extract their payment from poor Edna Aselin (aka Aslin) who spent her entire 5-6 year career in bottom of the barrel westerns. Snarling George Chesebro overacts as he usually does when left with no direction. The pacing is slow, hell, it's inert at times with long, stagnant takes. There are flubbed lines, bad acting and poor scripting.

 SONG OF THE WASTELAND (1947 Monogram)
Texas Rangers Jimmy Wakely and Holly Bane are sent to investigate the underhanded dealings of vigilantes (John James, Marshall Reed, Gary Garrett) in Buffalo Flats who are falsely accusing ranchers of rustling in order to drive them out of town so they can grab the land. Working undercover, Jimmy ties up with Lee 'Lasses' White's medicine show. Severely hurting this routine affair is one of the weakest windups in all of Wakely's westerns with no action at all. Jimmy and the Saddle Pals (Johnny Bond, Dick Reinhart, Rivers Lewis) do a sweet version of Bond's "Cimarron". Watch for Johnny Carpenter as one of the badmen. Carpenter starred in a few of his own from '51-'56. Old time silent comedian Chester Conklin (1888-1971) is the jailer. He entered films in 1913 and was one of the Keystone Kops. Prior to that he'd been with the Al G. Barnes Circus. His westerns are few but he was also in FORLORN RIVER, SPRINGTIME IN THE SIERRAS, SON OF PALEFACE, APACHE WOMAN and GOLDEN STALLION. Conklin ended his 53 year career with A BIG HAND FOR THE LITTLE LADY. Leading lady Dottye Brown was a Delta Airlines stewardess prior to her brief film career. This was her only B-western.

 FENCE RIDERS (1950 Monogram)
When Whip Wilson and saddle pal Andy Clyde come to the aid of pretty rancher Reno Browne, they discover one of her trusted hands, Riley Hill, working hand-in-glove with saloon owner/rustler boss Myron Healey (with a mustache and graying at the temples to make him look older) and his gunman Holly Bane who frame Whip for the murder of Hill. Whip snakes out his bullwhip four times. Ed Cassidy plays his umpteenth sheriff role. He could probably play it in his sleep by now. Never billed as a 'singing cowboy', Whip did manage a song in a film or two, such as "Sweet Genevieve" sung here in an operatic style. Only a so-so Wilson produced and directed by Wallace Fox who began in the final days of silents (1929) and worked into the TV era, helming westerns with Tom Tyler, Richard Dix, Jack Randall, Johnny Mack Brown, Jimmy Wakely, Rod Cameron, Kirby Grant, Duncan Renaldo as well as Wilson. Stuntman Whitey Hughes can be noticed walking around town and as a member of the sheriff's posse. Whitey was just beginning at this time and went on to a distinguished stunt career, highlighted by his role as stunt coordinator on TV's WILD WILD WEST. It's been rumored that Johnny Mack Brown, apparently waiting for a scene in one of his own films, can be seen in a crowd or lolling against a hitch rail. However, neither I nor Wilson expert David Godwin have ever spotted him, so it's quite doubtful.

 A SON OF THE PLAINS (1931 Syndicate)
Deputy Sheriff Bob Custer suspects the father (J. P. McGowan) of the girl (Doris Phillips) he loves is the notorious Polka Dot Bandit. The real Polka Dot (Edward Hearn) and his accomplice (Jane Crawley) accuse our stoic hero of being the crook. Custer had been a star in silents, but didn't fare well when it came to sound dramatics. Uncharacteristically for a hero, after being tricked by the outlaws, suspecting the wrong man and being framed by Polka Dot, it isn't even 'hero Bob' who gives Polka Dot his final comeuppance! Dreadfully slow, cheaply made, badly acted (especially by Phillips) and padded midway by a broken down saloon girl singing "On the Banks of the Wabash" while barfly Al St. John sobs nostalgically. Strangely, the oft used Jauregui Ranch stands in for a whole town in several scenes using outbuildings as part of the 'town'. Writer/director Robert North Bradbury reworked this storyline in 1934 for John Wayne's BLUE STEEL, a big improvement over the original.

 WAR WAGON (1967 Universal)
John Wayne and Kirk Douglas make adversarial allies as they plot to grab a half million in gold from Bruce Cabot's heavily armored rolling arsenal --- the War Wagon. Seems Cabot cheated Wayne out of his ranch years ago. Now the Duke's rounded up a rag tag group of mercenaries to help him --- scrawny drunken kid Robert Walker Jr. who's good with nitro, Indian Howard Keel (terribly miscast) and wagon driver Keenan Wynn. Excellent Dimitri Tiomkin score (with a lilting title song sung by Ed Ames), capable direction by Burt Kennedy and a script by Clair Huffaker that favors the tension and camaraderie between Wayne and Douglas. The absolute archetype of a 101 minute big budget B-western.

 WHISPERING SKULL (1944 PRC)
The Whispering Skull is a masked killer who rides by night on a horse that makes no sound and leaves no trail. He wears a grotesque leather mask with a weird skull face. Rangers Dave O'Brien and Guy Wilkerson unite with lawyer Tex Ritter to apprehend the mysterious night rider. Meantime, I. Stanford Jolley and his boys (Bob Kortman, Frank Ellis) are using the Skull as a scapegoat on which to pin their crimes. There's plenty of mayhem, menace, murders and mystery before the skullprit is revealed to be -?? Nearly one of PRC's cheap horror films as much as a western. Tex sings "It's Never Too Late" and "In Case You Change Your Mind". But who cast the unattractive Denny Burke as leading lady? Thankfully, she isn't given much to do. Her only other film role was as a contortionist (?) in Universal's A NIGHT IN PARADISE. Watch for Wen Wright in his biggest acting role. He'd been a double for Russell Hayden in the Hopalong Cassidy films and later in Hayden's starrers at Columbia.

 CATTLE RAIDERS (1938 Columbia)
Rancher Charles Starrett is framed for the murder of a sheriff by crooked new sheriff Dick Curtis. Action, good plot, songs well sung by the Sons of the Pioneers, and Iris Meridith to ogle --- nearly everything you want in a B-western although some of the courtroom tactics at the windup are pretty off the wall with Starrett 'testifying' to who shot the sheriff when he wasn't even there. Objection! Donald Grayson and the Pioneers sing "Happy Rovin' Cowboy", "Welcome to the Spring", "This Ain't the Same Old Range" --- all Bob Nolan classics. Alone, worth the price of admission. Listen for Starrett to even join in for a verse of "The Devil's Great Grandson" --- a real treat.

 PINTO RUSTLERS (1936 Reliable)
When his Dad is killed, Tom Tyler goes undercover as a wanted man to corral the pinto rustlers (Earl Dwire, George Walsh, George Chesebro, Bud Osborne). His pal, Al St. John (pre 'Fuzzy'), aids him by impersonating safecracker Roger Williams until Williams himself turns up. As usual with (un) Reliable, continuity not a major concern, no mention is made of how the kidnapped Murdock McQuarrie is found or rescued, but he's standing around in the last scene all safe and sound. Leading lady Catherine Cotter was in and out of movies in two years ('35-'36) ... two w/Bill Cody at Spectrum, one with Steele at Supreme, a bit in Fox's UNDER THE PAMPAS MOON and this one --- then poof! Into film history. Charlie King has a small role as a rancher on the right side of the law for a change. R. G. Springsteen, who became a top western director at Republic in 1945, is Harry Webb's assistant director for this film. Webb is working under another of his aliases, Henri Samuels.

 CODE OF THE SILVER SAGE (1950 Republic)
"Among the untold tales of the early American West is a strange exciting story about a President of the United States, a fighting cowboy and a ruthless madman whose outlaw gang plundered and looted the Territory of Arizona", so reads the on-screen crawl at the start of, quite possibly, Allan 'Rocky' Lane's finest B-western. The assassination of a president was a bold theme for a B-western but it's expertly directed by Fred Brannon from Arthur E. Orloff's script. Orloff wrote some of the better Republic's in their waning days, THE MISSOURIANS, LAST MUSKETEER, THUNDER IN GOD'S COUNTRY and DESPERADOES OUTPOST. Intelligently, the name of the president in jeopardy is never revealed. Kudos all around to producer Gordon Kay.

 CACTUS KID (1934 Reliable)
Jack Perrin tracks down the harmonica playing half breed killer (Joe de la Cruz) of his partner (Fred Humes). Cruz and Slim Whitaker killed Humes and robbed him of a $1,000 payment for wild horses. Quite unusual for a B-western, Cruz and Whitaker nonchalantly burn up the dead body! Other than that, it's as slow as draining the last drop from the maple syrup bottle, due primarily to Harry Webb's ponderous direction.

 WITHOUT HONOR (1932 Artclass)
It's all pretty much like watching crabgrass grow as border rogue Harry Carey's younger brother, awful actor Lee Sage, is killed by smugglers Ed Brady, Gibson Gowland and Jack Richardson, so Harry changes his ways and becomes a Ranger himself when offered the job, reluctantly, by Lafe McKee. There's also a subplot about a 'stolen at birth' baby (Mary Jane Irving) and her real mother, Harry's friend, Australian born legendary silent star Mae Busch, who was by now slumming in bottom of the barrel independents (as was Harry). She trudged on til '46 when she died prematurely at only 55. Films like this didn't help. Sage contributed the original story and must have convinced producer Louis Weiss to give him a pivotal role in the film. He was never heard from again.

 ROMANCE OF THE WEST (1946 PRC)
Three crooked town selectmen (Jerry Jerome, Stanley Price, Robert McKenzie) hire outlaw Rocky Camron to run Chief Thundercloud and his peaceful Indians off their land so they can mine the land for its silver deposits. But when a young orphaned Indian boy (Don Kay Reynolds) is killed by the renegades, Eddie Dean, the local Indian Agent who was reared by Thundercloud, and his sidekick Emmett Lynn bring gun justice to the killers. A bit hokey, the picture opens like a poor man's Nelson Eddy MGMer with Eddie Dean in Cinecolor riding and singing ("Indian Dawn") into an adoring Indian settlement beside the peaceful lake at Corriganville. Don Kay Reynolds soon played Little Beaver in Jim Bannon's Red Ryder features. Watch for stuntman/minor B-western hero Johnny Carpenter as one of the outlaws. Okay, but definitely the weakest of Dean's Cinecolor outings.

 DRIFTIN' KID (1941 Monogram)
Nearly every cowboy hero played a dual role at least once and this is the one for Tom Keene as outlaw Stanley Price plans to kill a horse rancher (Keene) for his spread and government contract. A federal agent (Keene again) is sent to investigate and discovers he's a dead ringer for the rancher. One long action sequence gives Betty Miles a chance to really show her stuff --- driving a wagon lickity-split, roman-riding the team, a running mount --- and more. Tom's horse, Rusty, earns his wonder horse status. Not only does he toss the rope on Tom's saddle down a cliff to Tom in the lake below, but Rusty ties the rope to the saddle horn as well, enabling Tom to be pulled up! Maybe it's not expert film making, but it's pure B-western fun all the way! Italian born Frank Yaconelli, Tom's sidekick Lopez Mendoza, portrayed a Mexican in virtually every film he ever made. He pal'd with Ken Maynard in 1929's SENOR AMERICANO and a few more as well as four with Jack Randall and six with Keene. As Baby, Yaconelli even rode with Cisco Kid Gilbert Roland in three. His final days were spent operating a small Italian restaurant on Western Ave. in Hollywood, open only evenings for dinner where he and his wife would cook the dinners, pour the wine, wait on tables as well as pulling out his concertina to play and sing for customers. He died in '65 of lung cancer. Badman Ace in DRIFTIN' KID is played by Frank's brother, Lou.

 FIGHTING REDHEAD (1949 Eagle Lion)
Two fisted Red Ryder (Jim Bannon) along with Little Beaver (Don Kay Reynolds), Auntie Duchess (Marin Sais) and Buckskin (Emmett Lynn) come to the aid of Peggy Stewart whose father (Forrest Taylor) has been killed by saloon owner John Hart and his henchmen, Lane Bradford and Lee Roberts. Dialogue heavy, this is the weakest of the four Cinecolor Bannon/Ryder B's. As Auntie Duchess, Marin Sais was at the end of an illustrious film career stretching back to 1915. She'd once been married to Jack Hoxie. Peggy Stewart, a veteran of Republic Red Ryder features, is the feisty leading lady for a 3rd screen Ryder.

 ALIAS JESSE JAMES (1959 United Artists)
The laughs begin when insurance agent Bob Hope sells a $100,000 life insurance policy to Jesse James (Wendell Corey), not knowing who he really is. Hope is sent west to protect Jesse from harm and is mistaken for the notorious badman himself. Of special interest are the western star cameos in the final shootout: Hugh 'Wyatt Earp' O'Brian, Ward 'Wagon Train' Bond, Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper, Fess 'Davy Crockett' Parker, Jay 'Tonto' Silverheels, James 'Gunsmoke' Arness and Gail 'Annie Oakley' Davis. Gene Autry and James Garner are often credited as being among these cameos but are definitely not. Jim Davis plays brother Frank James with flaming Rhonda Fleming as Jesse (and Bob's) girl. Technicolor.

 STAGE TO TUCSON (1951 Columbia)
Exciting Republic alumni Bob Williams story enlivened by Charles Lawton Jr.'s action packed Lone Pine color photography has rebel sympathizers stealing Butterfield stages in Arizona just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Exactly the type of script Williams wrote for Lane and Hale at Republic. Rod Cameron, a Union agent sent to investigate, enlists the aid of stage driver Wayne Morris while they bicker over the affections of Kay Buckley. Roy Roberts is the rebel ringleader. The 'other woman' is Sally Eilers, the former Mrs. Hoot Gibson, now a little long in the tooth, but she was then married to producer Harry Joe Brown. Sleep with the boss and you'll get the part every time. Watch for James Griffith (back to the camera the whole scene) as Abraham Lincoln.

 LAND OF THE OPEN RANGE (1942 RKO)
When a crooked real estate man dies, a small town is turned into a thieves' paradise as the realtor's will stipulates his 64,000 acres will be opened by a land rush to nothing but ex-convicts. Sheriff Tim Holt and his pals Ray Whitley and Lee 'Lasses' White have their hands full dealing with the onslaught outlaw element (Roy Barcroft, Tom London, Frank Ellis) while helping the honest ex-cons like John Elliott (and daughter Janet Waldo) and Hobart Cavanaugh. Novel idea that utilizes land rush stock footage from CIMARRON ('31).

 FIGHTING RENEGADES (1939 Victory)
Lightning Bill Carson (Tim McCoy) disguised as El Puma, the desert protector of settlers through the outlaw infested badlands, is hired to guide an archaeological expedition searching for buried Indian treasure as documented in the diary of Professor Forrest Taylor's late brother-in-law who was murdered six years ago by outlaw Ted Adams who put the blame on Bill Carson, which is why Tim is now disguised as El Puma --- searching the desert for the real killer. The Professor's daughter, Joyce Bryant, is on the expedition and is the only one who can read the diary written in Indian script. Unordinary plot completely stifled by McCoy's all-abiding penchant to overact in his Mexican guise. Usually, Tim only plays the role in part of the film, but here producer Sam Katzman and director Sam Newfield let McCoy run wild! He never comes out from behind the El Puma mustache and sombrero. Tim loved this 'play acting' but, 50 years later, I can almost still feel the Saturday matinee kids disgruntlement with that arrangement. Joyce Bryant is another of those pretty, talented --- pretty and talented --- actresses who started in westerns (ACROSS THE PLAINS, TRIGGER SMITH w/Jack Randall; TRIGGER FINGERS also w/McCoy), and serials (IRON CLAW, TERRY AND THE PIRATES), was in a few other B-films (EAST SIDE KIDS, SAGEBRUSH FAMILY TRAILS WEST) but faded out in bit parts in A-films --- MR. ACE, JOHNNY EAGER --- in the mid '40s. Where is she now?

 DALTON'S WOMEN (1951 Western Adventure)
Tangled mess has Marshals Lash LaRue and Fuzzy St. John along with Pinkerton agent Pamela Blake after the remnants of the Dalton gang, hiding out under assumed names in a small town (Jack Holt, Terry Frost, Tom Tyler, Tom Neal, Raymond Hatton, Stanley Price). Mixed in with the ever increasing stock footage from previous Ron Ormond produced Lash epics (this one features an extended trackdown of Terry Frost lifted from DEAD MAN'S GOLD '48), DALTON'S WOMEN is padded out to an 80 minute running time with dancing girls, a barbershop quartet, jugglers, two songs by Ormond 'discovery' Jacqueline Fontaine and a whole lot of nonsense with Fontaine and another B-girl (June Benbow) clashing over a drunken Archie Twitchell, culminating in an extended girl fight in which they purposely, for exploitation purposes, rip the clothes off one another. All this extra footage was obviously shot later. Judging by the unusual advertising for this film that played up the sleazy girls ("For my man ... I'll kill you or him!", "I've got my brand on you.") and downplayed Lash (actually giving him 4th billing on the one-sheet), Ormond must have thought he'd get better bookings at a higher rate. It didn't work, leaving Ormond to pretty much call it quits as his last four Lash LaRue B's were strictly cheapo cut and paste jobs comprised of 90% stock footage from earlier films. By the way, bartender Cliff Taylor is Ormond's father-in-law.

 SHADOWS OF TOMBSTONE (1953 Republic)
Rex Allen runs for sheriff to oppose the current crooked official (Emory Parnell) in league with clip joint saloon owner Roy Barcroft and outlaw Ric Roman. Rex is helped by lady newspaper editor Jeanne Cooper and her typesetter Slim Pickens. Ultra high action quotient, greatly enhanced under the expert direction of Bill Witney, his last with Allen --- and he pours it on. The title is apparently derived from the similarities to the corruption in this town and that of Tombstone. Watch for former minor B-western star Rex Lease in a small role during the jailbreak. Jeanne Cooper went on to soap opera fame on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS

 GALLANT FOOL (1933 Monogram)
A noble but failed experiment by Bob Steele and his director father, Robert N. Bradbury. Bob, a circus trick rider and aerialist, plaintively sings "The Girl That I Love" as we learn his clown Dad (Gabby Hayes) was framed years earlier by John Elliott --- they both loved the same woman, Bob's long lost mother. Drudgingly slow --- and padded for lack of story --- for over 20 minutes midway by dancing girls, tumblers, clowns, acrobats, bicyclists, jugglers, wire walkers and aerialists.

 BORDER WOLVES (1938 Universal)
It's only director Joseph H. Lewis' direction and unique camera angles that bring any life at all to this routine B-western which has Bob Baker and the western Hoagy Carmichael, Fuzzy Knight, falsely convicted of a wagon train massacre. To clear themselves they ride the 'hoot-owl trail' to find the real badmen, a group of perfectly-in-harmony singing killers(!) headed up by possibly the blandest outlaw leader in B-western history --- Dick Dorrell. Even then, the majority of the running time is spent on Bob outwitting the law rather than fighting outlaws. Now here's another oddity, at one point Baker is captured by the Sheriff after taking a bath! Different idea, yes, but altogether, not what we expect from a B-western. Marshal MacKay is played by Jack Montgomery (1891-1962) who'd started around 1911 doing saddle falls and stunt riding in Broncho Billy one reelers and worked into the late '50s.

 DRIFTING ALONG (1946 Monogram)
Every now and then Monogram elevated the budget (slightly) and extended the running time (slightly) on Johnny Mack Brown's westerns. They also broke ranks with the usual format of his B's. RAIDERS OF THE SOUTH, FLAME OF THE WEST and DRIFTING ALONG are three examples. In this one, a very uncomfortable looking, drifting-cowboy Brown helps ranch owner Lynne Carver save her ranch from schemers and rustlers Douglas Fowley, Marshall Reed and Harry Cheshire. The gimmick here is to turn Johnny Mack into a singing cowboy --- with his singing voice obviously dubbed, probably by Curt Barrett who, with his Trailsmen, back up Smith Ballew on several other songs in the film. At any rate, it was a bad decision which Monogram quickly abandoned and left the singing to their other sagebrush star, Jimmy Wakely. All in all, a very weak Brown with only one good brawl, a weak windup plus, just the thought of our Johnny Mack turned into a singing cowboy --- well, enough said.

 LAST FRONTIER UPRISING (1947 Republic)
In the fourth of Monte Hale's Trucolor westerns, the easy going cowboy is up against horse thieves (Roy Barcroft and Phil Van Zandt) who eventually kill Monte's boyhood friend (James Taggart) and frame the murder on Monte. Monte and leading lady Adrian Booth co-starred in seven together. Produced by Lou Gray, Monte's earliest B's, like this one, are still plotted and paced in the 'Roy Rogers/Dale Evans' mold rather than Monte's more action oriented films produced by Melville Tucker. There's a wonderfully melodic version of Glenn Spencer's "So Long To the Red River Valley" by Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage. Watch for singer Doye O'Dell in a bit part as a rancher. Although made in Trucolor, no color prints apparently survive.

 CASSIDY OF BAR 20 (1938 Paramount)
Hopalong Cassidy comes to the rescue of old girlfriend Nora Lane (in a sequel to HOPALONG RIDES AGAIN) living in fear of cattle baron Robert Fiske who is out to grab her ranch. Russ 'Lucky' Hayden and Frank Darien help Hoppy in this mediocre ho-hum affair. The film particularly suffers from the loss (for two films over contract negotiations) of Gabby Hayes as Windy Halliday. Character player Darien is a sad substitute. Even the running time of 56 1/2 minutes was the shortest so far in the series, further attesting to the fact there just wasn't much going on here. Carleton Young, as the weak willed son of Gertrude Hoffman (later to be comical Mrs. Odetts on TV's MY LITTLE MARGIE) is the only interesting character in the screenplay.

 TEXAS RANGERS (1951 Columbia)
A good one in Cinecolor from the 'outlaw cycle' of late '40s early '50s westerns and, like the others (RETURN OF THE BADMAN, CALAMITY JANE AND SAM BASS, KID FROM TEXAS, AL JENNINGS OF OKLAHOMA, BEST OF THE BADMEN, GREAT MISSOURI RAID, KANSAS RAIDERS, DALTON'S WOMEN, DALTON GANG, YOUNGER BROTHERS etc.), it plays fast and loose with the facts. For instance, the Sundance Kid wasn't killed in Texas but Bolivia with Butch Cassidy. In this one, two former outlaws, George Montgomery and Noah Beery Jr., join the Texas Rangers then infiltrate a gang of long-riders headed by Sam Bass (William Bishop). Also with Gale Storm, Jerome Courtland, Jock Mahoney, Ian McDonald, Douglas Kennedy, John Doucette.

 UNDERGROUND RUSTLERS (1941 Monogram)
Set in 1869 --- the blackest chapter in Wall Street history --- this B chronicles the 'Great Gold Conspiracy' which shook the financial structure of a nation with Wall Street profiteers attempting to corner the gold market. The only way to lick the gold panic is for the hard riding Range Busters to see that every available source of gold reaches the Mint. While being the only plot like it in B-westerns, it's segmented and oddly uninvolving due primarily to the weak villainy of Robert Blair. There's more comedy than usual with Max Terhune's dummy, Elmer, taking a more active part as well as some humorous by-play between Ray Corrigan and John King over the affections of the girl, Gwen Gaze, who has one of the best roles out of her six westerns (two Hoppys and four Range Busters).

 WEST OF NEVADA (1936 Colony)
Crooked banker Forrest Taylor and his gang will stop at nothing in their attempt to locate and claim the gold deposits on an Indian reservation (actually Lone Pine, CA) which the Indians are mining with the help of Steve Clark and his daughter Joan Barclay (one of the most beautiful, talented, prolific actresses ever in B-westerns). Taylor's schemes are defeated by Rex Bell and his sidekick Al St. John, polishing his soon to be 'Fuzzy' character. There's a running gag from St. John about the action always 'interfering with my love making' to Georgia O'Dell. Traditionally, sidekicks run as fast as they can --- away from any woman. Loutish Frank McCarroll (1893-1954) and Artie Ortego are Taylor's right hand henchies. McCarroll is usually 4th or 5th baddie through the door and after you hear him deliver lives here, you'll know why he didn't warrant larger roles until the Whip Wilson westerns came along toward the end of the B-western era. Directed by Robert Hill --- also scripted by him under the pseudonym Rock Hawkey. Boo Boo: Near the end, Rex Bell enters the mine, gun drawn, but in the next shot-interior of mine, his gun is holstered.

 THE LAND BEYOND THE LAW (1937 Warner Bros.)
When his father is murdered by rustlers Harry Woods and Cy Kendall, young Dick Foran becomes Sheriff of a lawless town in New Mexico. Supposedly a remake of Ken Maynard's LAND BEYOND THE LAW ('27) and John Wayne's BIG STAMPEDE ('32) but only the barest essentials are evident. This one has absolutely everything that's worthy in a top flight B-western-fast paced, thrilling action, a rousing original music score, a pretty girl (Linda Perry), a smart horse, nefarious badmen, rescues, chases-all extremely well put together by director B. Reeves 'Breezy' Eason (1886-1956) who started out directing westerns in 1918. Often not placed there, but Eason belongs in the 'classic action directors' category alongside Bill Witney, Spence Bennet, Yakima Canutt, John English and Joe Kane. There is evidence he helped (uncredited) on the burning of Atlanta sequence in GONE WITH THE WIND. A young Wayne Morris is Foran's best friend. At their best, like this one, the Foran films came as close to hitting the mark in the mix of real and fantasy world west of Gene Autry as any other singing cowboy series. At times wildly unrealistic, but pure musical cowboy entertainment.

 SAN ANTONIO KID (1944 Republic)
In the period between 1895 and 1900, industrial America enormously increased its demands for oil. New fields had to be found so oil men turned westward in their quest. At the slightest sign of oil, rangeland not worth a dollar an acre took on fantastic values. Like all sources of wealth, these discoveries attracted the greedy, the ruthless and the lawless such as LeRoy Mason, Glenn Strange and Tom London who attempt to burn and raid the Painted Valley ranchers off their crude oil rich land so they can buy it up cheap. It's working until they raid Linda Stirling's ranch and Red Ryder (Bill Elliott), Little Beaver (Bobby Blake), sidekick Happy Jack (Earle Hodgins) and the Duchess (Alice Fleming) take a hand. It's then the outlaws strike back by importing the notorious San Antonio Kid (Duncan Renaldo) to gun Red Ryder. Matters become complicated when Red saves the Kid's life after he's thrown over a cliff in a horsefall. Hodgins replaced Gabby Hayes in this one (Hayes left for the Rogers Pictures) and then the sidekick role was dropped. Terrific action (including a 'knuckle and elbow dance' between Elliott and Strange) guided by stunt ace Yakima Canutt. Serial-like finale in a flaming cave.

 FIGHTING TROOPER (1934 Ambassador)
Mountie Kermit Maynard and his pal (former silent star) Charles Delaney are after LeRoy Mason and his sister Barbara Worth who've reportedly been raiding stores and robbing trappers. After some slow-going out of uniform investigation, it's discovered Robert Frazer's gang are the real culprits. Unlike many others in this series, this weak entry fails to connect on the drama, action or stunt level. Filmed around Lake Arrowhead, CA. This is the first of 18 mountie or western B's Kermit made for Maurice Conn's Ambassador Pictures between 1934-1937. Most of Conn's other releases starred Frankie Darro. All of Conn's productions had a classier look than most independent product of the '30s. Conn (1906-1973) was later an associate producer at Grand National (FRONTIER SCOUT) and a producer for Tim McCoy and Jack Randall films at Monogram. Still later, he was an indie producer of non-westerns at various studios.

 STARS OVER ARIZONA (1937 Monogram)
To clean up lawless Tuba City, the Governor makes Jack Randall a Marshal and paroles four convicts to help him (Hal Price, Ernie Adams, Chick Hannon, Charles Ramos). Adams doublecrosses them and sides with Warner Richmond's outlaws. Routine with a big action finish. Produced and directed by Bob Steele's Dad, Robert N. Bradbury, with a story by Robert Emmett (aka Bob Tansey) who reused the paroled four convicts idea again in BLAZING GUNS ('43) w/The Trail Blazers and CATTLE QUEEN ('51).

 GHOST VALLEY RAIDERS (1940 Republic)
Government agent Don Barry goes undercover as hardened outlaw, the Toulusa Kid, to investigate the mystery of the missing stagecoaches. The gang, headed by LeRoy Mason, Jack Ingram and Curley Dresden, blame the Toulusa Kid for the holdups and only Sheriff Tom London knows he's innocent. This was Don's first starring B-western after scoring in co-starring roles with the Three Mesquiteers (WYOMING OUTLAW) and Roy Rogers (SAGA OF DEATH VALLEY, DAYS OF JESSE JAMES). At the time this was released, Don's ADVENTURES OF RED RYDER serial was still three months away from release. Thereafter, he was forever known as Don 'Red' Barry. Don's horse, Cyclone, shows more 'thespic ability' here than in any of Don's later westerns. WAMPAS baby star of 1932, Lona Andre (1915-1992) worked for 13 years in pictures but with never much notoriety. Once married to actor Edward Norris for about a week.

 KANSAS TERRORS (1939 Republic)
This 3 Mesquiteers western marked Robert Livingston's return to the role of Stony Brooke following John Wayne's interlude with the role for 8 films. The group had already undergone some drastic changes since the original trio --- Bob Livingston, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune --- began with the second picture (GHOST TOWN GOLD) in '36. Originally, each member of the trio were billed equally in advertising, but when Livingston left in '38 and Wayne was brought on board, he received bigger billing on all print advertising. Terhune left after 6 with Wayne and Corrigan split when the eight were over and his contract ended. Raymond Hatton replaced Terhune for the final two with Wayne. Since Wayne had become a 'star' in STAGECOACH, he moved on; Livingston returned, with his name more prominent over Hatton and, with this film, Duncan Renaldo. This entry is different in many ways. Not only is Livingston back as Stony, but at the beginning, as he and Hatton deliver by ship a herd of horses to a small Caribbean island, they are only two Mesquiteers. By helping Renaldo free his people from the tyranny of the Commandante (George Douglas), we have the origin of the new grouping of 3 Mesquiteers. This film also allows Renaldo to sing (albeit dubbed by someone) which he never did again. It also instigates Livingston donning the black Lone Ranger-like mask of 'The Masked Rider' (obviously to trade on his fame as the Lone Ranger from the Republic serial). It's a ploy Republic wisely abandoned after four tries as it definitely took away from the original camaraderie of the threesome working together. (Notice how Bob's voice changes drastically when he puts on the mask. Jeez --- it must have been tight!) This trio lasted seven films before another shake up in personnel. The working title of this film was HEROES OF THE SADDLE, which became the actual title of the next release in the series. Notice how, with a few strategically placed potted palms, Iverson's location ranch turns into a Caribbean isle.

 FIGHTING THROUGH (1934 Kent)
Reb Russell and Yakima Canutt track down rustler Edward Hearn. In this first of nine westerns for producer Willis Kent, Reb's real life background is referred to as leading lady Lucille Lund recognizes him as a Northwestern All American fullback. She should. Lucille, who, in a departure from 99.9% of B-western leading ladies, is allowed to use her own name here, actually attended Northwestern at the same time Reb did. Actually, Reb's not very heroic here --- it's Yak who tracks down the rustlers and when Reb is captured and flogged, it's Yak and expert knife thrower Steve Clemente who save Reb's bacon, although Reb does best mean looking Frank McCarroll in a bare chested rough and tumble. Not an auspicious start to Reb's brief film career. Watch for silent star Bill Patton as one of the outlaws. The 'musical group' features Jack Kirk and Chuck Baldra.

 ROUGH RIDERS OF CHEYENNE (1945 Republic)
Fast, furious action as Sunset Carson exposes the mysterious plotter behind the long standing Carson-Sterling feud. Can't tell you who the 'boss' is for fear of spoiling the 'mystery man' surprise ending --- as if you won't have guessed. Monte Hale has a good supporting role in one of his several pre-starring days films. One of Carson's best with an unusual duel between Sunset and Peggy Stewart at the finis.

 MAN FROM MUSIC MOUNTAIN (1938 Republic)
Shifty Ivan Miller and Ed Cassidy form the Western Development Co. to sell worthless ghost town land near just opened Boulder Dam under the false promise water and power will soon come to the ghost town. It takes rancher Gene Autry and pal Smiley Burnette to sing a half dozen songs and find a way to con the crooks into buying the land back, thereby returning the spent money to leading ladies Carol Hughes, Sally Payne and others. Gene was ill served by some of the 'local musical talent' Republic foisted on him in several of his earlier films, including Polly Jenkins and Her Plowboys featured here. Scripted by Betty Burbridge, who wrote many of Gene's best --- unfortunately, this one's just mediocre with an abundance of Smiley's antics and most of the action coming at the windup. The film begins with historic newsreel footage of the opening of Boulder Dam in 1936.

 MAN FROM MUSIC MOUNTAIN (1943 Republic)
Singing radio cowboy Roy Rogers returns to his hometown and is immediately immersed in finding the murderer of an old friend (Hank Bell) involved in a cattle/sheep range war being stirred up by wily Paul Kelly. For female interest, Roy's caught between two sisters this time --- Ruth Terry and teenage Ann Gillis (who really has the better of the two roles). Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers introduce the song "(Don't Forget) Smiles Are Made Out Of Sunshine" --- very popular during the war years. With Gabby Hayes moved over by Republic to their new Wild Bill Elliott series, Pat Brady was elevated from the Sons of the Pioneers to be Roy's comic foil. By popular demand, Gabby returned in late '44 to Roy's films. With only a bit role is Roy Barcroft who would soon earn a position as Republic's top heavy. Average Rogers western (from his modern-west period) with an exciting two-men-fight-on-a-horse finale capably handled by director Joe Kane. Renamed TEXAS LEGIONNAIRES for TV so as not to confuse with the Gene Autry film of the same name.

 LAW AND ORDER (1940 Universal)
It's no holds barred as newly appointed U.S. Marshal Johnny Mack Brown brings gun law justice to Rhyolite with the help of hard riding Nell O'Day, Fuzzy Knight and gambler James Craig. They're up against the mean, tough Harry Cording, Ted Adams, Ethan Laidlaw and their gang. One of the absolute best of Brown's Universal series --- if not the best. W. R. Burnett's novel, Saint Johnson, loosely based on the Earp-Clanton Tombstone, AZ, saga, was used as the basis for this film as it had been for Walter Huston's 1932 LAW AND ORDER. It was revived again for Brown's '37 serial, WILD WEST DAYS, and again for Ronald Reagan in LAW AND ORDER ('53). This was future 3 Mesquiteers member Jimmy Dodd's first exposure to film and he appears overwhelmed by it all in dialogue scenes but very comfortable singing a duet with Nell. The smooth singing Notables contribute one song. I'm sure they were fine in supper clubs but were just not right for the western milieu.

 FIGHTING MARSHAL (1931 Columbia)
Unfulfilling, overly talky (often to the point of being stagey) medley of gangster melodrama and western plotline as Tim McCoy, unjustly convicted of his father's murder, breaks prison with another con (Matthew Betz) on the very day his pardon comes through. Though a set of circumstances he becomes Marshal of a small town, falls for Dorothy Gulliver (who stops the show at one point with a put-the-tape-on-fast-forward song) and, coincidentally, runs across the very two men (Dick Dickinson, Bob Perry) who lied to convict him. Pretty dreary going except for one hellatious saloon brawl midway. Director D. Ross Lederman's direction from Frank Howard Clark's script goes off on a lot of unrewarding tangents. Mary Carr, who has only a bit role here, was quite an actress in silent film. She's the mother of noted director Thomas Carr.

 OUTLAWS OF THE DESERT (1941 Paramount)
Here come them A-rabs! Hopalong Cassidy is way out of his element as he and his friends Andy Clyde and Brad King travel to Arabia to purchase Arabian horses for a rancher friend and get mixed up with desert outlaws. Inane plot and script; minimal and carelessly directed action; unfunny Andy Clyde comic bits involving belly dancers, Arabs and snake charmers that belong in one of his comedy shorts and a weak cast, most of whom are not suited to westerns (especially a spoiled eastern educated daughter played badly by Jean Phillips). This one leaves me stranded! (Also --- Brad King was a mighty poor replacement for Jimmy Ellison and Russell Hayden.) The Alabama hills and nearby desert dunes of Lone Pine stand in for Arabia.

 HEADIN' EAST (1937 Columbia)
Only the presence of Buck Jones saves this lame West meets East entry as Buck, representing the California lettuce (yep-lettuce) growers association, heads for New York City to wipe out protection racket mugs (bossed by Don Douglas) threatening the growers enterprise. Way too much misplaced silliness from Shemp Howard and especially his secretary girlfriend Elaine Arden. Watch for Dead End Kid Leo Gorcey heading up a gang of kids that come to Buck's aid.

 BIG LAND (1957 Warner Bros.)
In a word --- dull. Alan Ladd sleepwalks through this town building B-western in big budget trimmings. Edmund O'Brien tries his best as an alcoholic architect but gets no help from Ladd who seems to be bored with the whole affair. John Qualen performs admirably --- but all they've given him to work with is his stock Swedish immigrant character. Anthony Caruso is so far over the top as the villain he seems to be the last refugee from a 1920's mustache twirling melodrama with a performance that reminds me of Oil Can Harry in a Mighty Mouse cartoon. Worse yet is Virginia Mayo's saloon girl song --- a 1950's blues number in 1860's Kansas City-with the saloon patrons faultlessly joining in on the chorus, sounding like the Hall Johnson Choir. Absolutely ludicrous! What was director Gordon Douglas thinking? A director since 1937, he certainly had better days with Laurel and Hardy's SAPS AT SEA, DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA, GREAT MISSOURI RAID, THEM, CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER and dozens more.

 BOTH BARRELS BLAZING (1945 Columbia)
When a fortune in gold coins is stolen, Texas Ranger Charles Starrett (The Durango Kid) is sent over the border into New Mexico to recover the loot which outlaw Lucky Thorpe (Al Bridge) is using old codger prospector Emmett Lynn to move out of the area. Director Derwin Abrahams, schooled in the more methodical Hopalong Cassidy films, doesn't bring the zip and spark to this third title in the Durango Kid series that future helmers like Vernon Keays and Ray Nazarro were able to do. Musical toilet time from Smiley Burnette and the Jesters.

 BLAZING THE WESTERN TRAIL (1945 Columbia)
Crooked stage line owner Al Bridge (as Brent) hires gunman Mauritz Hugo to force rival stage line owner Nolan Leary and his daughter, gorgeous Carole Mathews, out of business. The crooks are doing okay until Charles Starrett (as the Durango Kid) and his singing pal Tex Harding take a hand. The earliest Durango Kids were the best, before the series became too systematic, and this is one of the most enjoyable. Action and song-packed, its efficiently directed by Vernon Keays with a wild stagecoach race windup. 'Aaaaha!' Certainly one of the highlights is the music of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys performing three of their biggest hits, "Ida Red", "Goodbye Liza Jane" and "Time Changes Everything".

 LAST DAYS OF BOOT HILL (1947 Columbia)
This Durango Kid blends stock and new footage logically, unlike later Durangos that used stock simply to fill time. Using clips and loose storylines from both BOTH BARRELS BLAZING and BLAZING THE WESTERN TRAIL, this film is turned into a sequel to the previous films. The original storyline to BOTH BARRELS BLAZING is changed a bit by eliminating Emmett Lynn's daughter and letting Lucky Thorpe (Al Bridge) get away (he was killed at the end of BOTH BARRELS BLAZING) so the writers can create a 'new' story, allowing Thorpe to live and change his name to Brent so they may use footage from BLAZING THE WESTERN TRAIL with Al Bridge now playing Brent. So now, in this new Charles Starrett film, the widow (Mary Newton) of Brent as well as the daughter of Thorpe by his first marriage (Virginia Hunter) arrive to collect an inheritance left by the outlaw. Confused? For a fun evening watch all three Durangos in a row --- if you can suffer Smiley Burnette x 3. The Cass County Boys, taking time off from backing up Gene Autry, appear in this one.

 THE FORTY-NINERS (1932 Monarch)
Wagon train west. A crooked scout (Al Bridge). A hero (Tom Tyler). A girl they both want (Betty Mack). Talk, talk, talk. It's 45 minutes into this boring 52 minute movie before there's any action --- and that's nearly all stock footage. While the buffalo stampede is interesting, it's not nearly enough to save this drudgery. Made pre-code ... Al Bridge calls Mildred Rogers, "You damn half-breed". This was the first of only four Tyler westerns Monarch managed in their brief year and a half existence. In 1932, following the demise of his ultra poverty row Big 4, John Freuler formed Monarch with an ambitious schedule that quickly petered out due to their, not unlike Big 4, hurried, slipshod look.

 SANTA FE UPRISING (1946 Republic)
It's top notch Republic action all the way when the Duchess (Martha Wentworth) inherits what had been a crooked toll road and Red Ryder (Allan Lane) becomes Marshal to stop rustlers (Dick Curtis and Jack LaRue) led by crooked newspaperman Barton MacLane. This was the first of seven Red Ryder titles for Lane, replacing Bill Elliott who'd been upped to A features. All were produced by Sidney Picker, directed by old hand R. G. Springsteen and written by Earle Snell who was now in his sixties and had been writing since 1925 and kept on til the mid '50s. Bobby Blake continued on as Little Beaver. He's let it be known in recent years he much preferred Elliott to Lane.

 ROLL ALONG COWBOY (1937 20TH Century Fox)
Director Gus Meins seems to go out of his way to make this an actionless western as (former big band singer) Smith Ballew and saddle pal Stanley Fields (a New Yawker out of his league as a sidekick) save the ranch for Ruth Robinson and daughter Cecilia Parker from nefarious rancher Gordon (Bill) Elliott (with a sleazy black mustache). Gives story credit to Zane Grey's DUDE RANGER, an earlier Fox film with George O'Brien, but actually has nothing to do with that story (which wasn't published as a novel til 1951). Obviously, this lackluster film is the reason Meins' only other western was the also deficient THE CALIFORNIAN.

 THE CALIFORNIAN (aka GENTLEMAN FROM CALIFORNIA) (1937 20TH Century Fox)
Ricardo Cortez is fine as Don Ramon who returns home to his native California after being educated in Spain to find his father and friends being robbed and taxed by the Americanos (Morgan Wallace). Turning bandit, ah --- you've seen it all before in Zorro, Cisco Kid, Robert Livingston's VIGILANTES ARE COMING serial, Buck Jones' THE AVENGER, etc. It's routinely done and some of the incidents with the comic tax collector are played way too broadly. Based loosely on the Joaquin Murieta story and legend. Ann Gillis plays the 'young' Katherine De Mille.

 GUN LAW (1933 Majestic)
When outlaw Paul Fix is killed, his pal - the Sonora Kid - Jack Hoxie, takes his place with Fix's nearly blind mother (Mary Carr) whom Fix hasn't seen in years. Hoxie helps her rout rustler J. Frank Glendon, an old enemy of Hoxie's. Jack Kirk (who plays one of Glendon's gang) is the briefly dubbed 'singing voice' for Hoxie. Remade as CYCLONE RANGER in '35 with Bill Cody, both scripted by Oliver Drake. Remade again, with Drake uncredited, as GAUCHOS OF EL DORADO ('41) with the 3 Mesquiteers. Drake reused the GUN LAW title for a George O'Brien RKO western in '38, but the resemblance ends there.

 CYCLONE RANGER (1935 Spectrum)
Literal remake of Jack Hoxie's GUN LAW, both scripted by Oliver Drake. A third uncredited remake is GAUCHOS OF EL DORADO with 3 Mesquiteers ('41). But the burning question here is --- why is this film titled CYCLONE RANGER? There's no ranger in sight! Very miscast is Earle Hodgins as Mexican Pancho Gonzales with an absolutely terrible accent. Donald Reed, actually born in Mexico, has an even worse accent. And when star Bill Cody meets up with pal Donald Reed's mother, Soledad Jiminez, she asks, "Why you speak like a Gringo?". Cody stammers while Hodgins explains, "Senora, I'ma gonna tell you a story you're not gonna believe." And we certainly don't! Also miscast as the heavy is comedian Eddie Gribbon.

 OUTLAWS OF BOULDER PASS (1942 PRC)
Uninvolving Lone Rider as George Houston and Fuzzy St. John come to the assistance of old friend Dennis Moore and Moore's sister, Marjorie Manners, as PRC regular I. Stanford Jolley and his gang, headed up by good ol' Charlie King (in one of his delightful fraidy-cat dopey outlaw portrayals) operates a high priced cattle toll-gate. In a word, lackadaisical. This was the 11th and last of Houston's Lone Riders. Bob Livingston finished out the series. Houston left Hollywood and died two years later of a heart attack at only 48.

 DEATH RIDES THE PLAINS (1943 PRC)
When crooks Ray Bennett, I. Stanford Jolley, George Chesebro and Kermit Maynard sell the same ranch over and over again then kill and rob the buyers of the $25,000 price before the papers are signed, the Lone Rider (Robert Livingston, wearing a black Lone Ranger-like mask) and saddle comic Fuzzy St. John take a hand. Livingston seems to move nonchalantly through the whole thing while wondering, "Is this a step up from Republic or did I made a bad career move?" Cowboy cancer alert: Fuzzy smokes as he rides the trail. This was leading lady Nica Doret's only film. One wonders where they came from and where they went.

 BLAZING FRONTIER (1943 PRC)
Fuzzy St. John steals the picture posing as a real tough hombre to get in with Frank Hagney and I. Stanford Jolley's gang who are operating a railroad swindle on Kenne Duncan and other local ranchers. Rancher lawyer Milt Kibbee sends for help by way of his pals Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe) and Fuzzy. By this time Buster and Fuzz had truly meshed as a duo, as comfortable together as Laurel and Hardy. Neither tried to upstage the other, rather as easygoing hero and the best of the western sidekicks, they complimented each other. PRC production values aside, they were pure fun to watch. All 36 were directed by Sam Newfield and produced by brother Sig Neufeld.

 WILD DAKOTAS (1956 Associated)
Heap plenty red man-white man pontificating as Bill Williams (in his KIT CARSON TV series garb) and Dick (BUFFALO BILL JR.) Jones stop scheming wagon boss Jim Davis from stirring up an Indian war. Very standard wagon train/Indians 50's fare. One more use of silent Wind River Indians crossing the river stock footage. With Coleen Gray, Iron Eyes Cody, Bill Henry, John Litel. After nearly 40 years, nearly 200 talkies and countless silent shorts, B-western producer/director brothers Sig and Sam Newfield (Neufeld) were still at it in 1956, although this was producer Sig's last effort. Prolific Sam (1899-1964) directed and produced a couple more in Canada before hanging it up. Associated was owned by Lippert, for whom the Neufeld brothers had been working. It seems likely Associated was formed for the express purpose of making westerns by Sam and Sig. At that, the company was only around for a year or so.

 CATTLE THIEF (1936 Columbia)
When rancher Jim Marcus is double-crossed by his crooked foreman, Ward Bond (in league with sneaky Sheldon Lewis), cattleman's association investigator Ken Maynard, posing as a dim-witted peddler, foils their plans when he strikes as the masked mystery rider. Bond and phony doctor Edward Cecil have been keeping Marcus incapacitated so they can cheat him, but his nurse, a very good Geneva Mitchell, discovers their plot and warns Ken. At one point, as the peddler, Ken strums his gee-tar and sings (in his best nasal tradition). Even within the confines of the B-western, Ward Bond's star potential is quite noticeable. It's obvious he was destined for bigger budgeted pictures. Elements of the story by Jesse Duffy were incorporated into Tex Ritter's RIDERS OF THE FRONTIER ('39), both directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet.

 RIDERS OF THE FRONTIER (1939 Monogram)
Jack Rutherford's gang holds elderly Marin Sais a prisoner of her own ranch, slowly poisoning her. It takes lawman Tex Ritter, infiltrating the gang, and Sais' nurse, Jean Joyce, to unravel the foul plot. I'd swear I've seen this same plotline used in an old dark house murder mystery, but can't recall what it is. It's also a partial reworking of the plot from Ken Maynard's CATTLE THIEF ('36), also directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet who, incidentally, came up with a few unique camera angles during a early stagecoach holdup in this one. The duet of the "Boll Weevil Song" by Tex and black comic actor Mantan Moreland is a pure delight. Marin Sais (1890-1971) reached stardom in the silent era. She married Jack Hoxie in 1920. They divorced sometime around 1928. Sais continued to work into the '50s and was the Duchess in Jim Bannon's four film Red Ryder series.

 TOLL OF THE DESERT (1935 Astor)
Young lawman Fred Kohler Jr. is forced to hunt down the outlaw whose personal code he has always admired, unaware the man is his estranged father whom he has not seen since they were separated during an Indian raid when Fred was a child. This is one of two starring westerns Kohler (son of famous heavy Fred Kohler Sr.) made for producer Bill Berke through William Steiner's Commodore Pictures. Four others were planned but after the second, PECOS KID, the series was abandoned when Commodore ceased production after a year. Fred appears awkward and unsure, but surrounded by an experienced cast (Roger Williams as the father, Earl Dwire, Betty Mack who sings briefly during a party sequence, Tom London, George Chesebro, Ted Adams, John Elliott, Ed Cassidy, Budd Buster), he's able to pull it off. Unusual for a B-western is the very downbeat ending.

 RECKLESS RANGER (1937 Columbia)
Ranger Bob Allen gets involved in a cattleman/sheepman range war after his twin brother is lynched by raiders bossed by Harry Woods. Bob and his brother's friend, Jack Perrin, set everything right. Moves along at a good clip but Allen was just never able to ride the same range as Ken Maynard, who he replaced in the Larry Darmour production set-up at Columbia. Allen had played second string to Tim McCoy a few years earlier and had convinced Darmour he was star material. Even with trusted director Spencer Gordon Bennet, Allen had only a mild effect on western movie goers and after six was replaced with Jack Luden, who turned out no better. Luden lasted only four films, then producer Darmour struck gold with Bill Elliott. Watch for Lane Chandler as the ranger captain. And, although some reference works list Jay (Buffalo Bill Jr.) Wilsey as portraying Bob's ranger pal, Jay, in this one, it is not Wilsey.

 DESERT OF LOST MEN (1951 Republic)
Allan 'Rocky' Lane may not have been the best liked actor by his co-workers but, that aside, every one of his two fisted adventures is totally believable and enjoyable. DESERT is no exception as Marshal Lane tracks down an outlaw gang (led by town boss Cliff Clark and dog heavy Roy Barcroft) who are out to steal Doc Ross Elliott's incoming $40,000 hospital fund. Regular Rex Allen leading lady Mary Ellen Kay is Elliott's nurse. While Eddy ('Nugget Clark') Waller was on a one year 'leave' from the Lane series, several actors filled in for him --- Walter Baldwin, Chubby Johnson, Clem Bevans and, in this one, longtime character actor Irving Bacon.

 RANGE LAW (1931 Tiffany)
Ken Maynard, unjustly accused of a crime and imprisoned (as every western hero was at least 10 times in their screen career), escapes with the aid of ageless old codger Lafe McKee (dressed in drag for the occasion). Ken captures Frank Mayo and Charlie King and saves Frances Dade. Must have been nice for her, she'd recently been one of Dracula's victims! No great shakes as a Maynard.

 RIDERS OF DESTINY (1933 Lone Star)
One of the pivotal B-westerns of all time (along with IN OLD SANTA FE, TUMBLING TUMBLEWEEDS, UNDER WESTERN STARS, THREE MESQUITEERS, SONG OF OLD WYOMING, HOPALONG CASSIDY ENTERS, etc.). John Wayne had just shown he had western 'stuff' in co-starring roles with Buck Jones and Tim McCoy, the big budget failure THE BIG TRAIL and an under appreciated series of six for Warner Bros. But he didn't seem to be gaining a real foothold on stardom until director Robert N. Bradbury (father of already established Bob Steele) devised the role of Singin' Sandy for Wayne who took a step down from WB to star in a 16 film series at poverty row Monogram/Lone Star. Roughhewn action westerns (but ones that hold up to constant viewing lo these many years later), the fast paced Lone Stars gave Wayne further training to develop his screen personality. As Sandy, Wayne is wont to break into a somber song of death when the time is ripe for gunplay. The showdown scene between Wayne and Forrest Taylor's gunman, Earl Dwire, is a minor classic. Certainly Wayne was no vocalist, his voice was dubbed by Bradbury's son Bill (Bob's brother), definitely not Smith Ballew as so many 'scholars' have proposed. Often misrepresented as a the 'Singin' Sandy series', this was the only time Wayne played that character (although he did 'sing' on screen a few times in the future, always dubbed by either Bill Bradbury or, later, Jack Kirk.) At one point, Wayne serenades heroine Cecilia Parker with "Desert Breeze". After 15 B-westerns from '32-'37 opposite George O'Brien, Buck Jones, Rex Bell, Ken Maynard, Wayne and others, Cissy Parker went on to bigger things at MGM in '37. This was the first of several pairings for Wayne and George (later Gabby) Hayes. Sometimes in the Lone Stars Hayes was fatherly (as here), other times he was nasty as all get out as in RANDY RIDES ALONE. Of course, Hayes became the most revered sidekick in B-western history working with Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Bill Elliott, even Randolph Scott. RIDERS OF DESTINY, unfortunately, has it's missteps, including some badly misplaced slapstick comedy between two outlaws, Al St. John and Heinie Conklin, both ex-Keystone Kops. Director Bradbury definitely goofed there --- you just can't be that overtly comedic with outlaws. This was also the beginning of a lifelong association between Wayne and stuntman/actor Yakima Canutt, seen here as one of the dog heavies and doubling Wayne in several action sequences. Over the course of the 16 Lone Star films, Yak and Wayne developed new routines for filming fight sequences that included carefully chosen camera angles and sharp editing that gave their screen brawls a far more realistic look than had ever before been attained. It was a system all stuntmen and directors quickly adopted. Note also --- that's director Bradbury's youngest son, Jim, as one of the kids ecstatic about the new river created when Hayes' well (leading to an underground river) is dynamited. These Lone Star 'quickie westerns', as Wayne in later years affectionately referred to them, led to a better series at Republic, then the Three Mesquiteers and, finally, STAGECOACH and monumental stardom.

 DAWN TRAIL (1930 Columbia)
Sheriff Buck Jones is faced with a range war when he's forced to arrest Charles Morton, the brother of Buck's fiancé (Miriam Seegar), a cattleman who has gunned down a sheepherder. The mystery is --- why Buck would even want to marry this silly twit of a girl who doesn't understand right from wrong. Charlie King is hilarious as a stuttering barfly. Very adult in its approach. Remade as TRACY RIDES ('35) w/Tom Tyler and again as AMBUSH VALLEY ('36) w/Bob Custer.

 TRACY RIDES (1935 Reliable)
Sheriff Tom Tyler must bring in cattleman Edmund Cobb, the brother of the girl he loves (Virginia Browne Faire), for the murder of a sheepman and prevent a range war. Rose Gordon and Betty Burbridge are credited with the screenplay. Bennett Cohen and Forrest Sheldon took proper credit when the same script showed up a year later as AMBUSH VALLEY w/Bob Custer. Sheldon originated the idea for Buck Jones' DAWN TRAIL in 1930. Both the Tyler and Custer versions were directed by Harry S. Webb for B. B. Ray's low rent Reliable Pictures. I'd rate the Jones version tops followed by Tyler's (partially due to cinematographer J. Henry Kruse), leaving Custer in third place.

 VENGEANCE OF THE WEST (1942 Columbia)
The final film in the Bill Elliott/Tex Ritter series features a major change of pace with Elliott as Mexican Robin Hood Joaquin Murieta --- the Black Shadow --- sought by Marshal Tex Ritter and feared by the real crooks --- Dick Curtis and Robert Fiske who are out to steal beautiful Adele Mara's ranch. Little disconcerting at first to see Bill with a black mustache. Good remake of Buck Jones' THE AVENGER. Boo-Boo: after Tex reads Robert Fiske's confession, he tosses it towards a table, where it flutters to the floor as he draws a gun on Bill Elliott. Instantly, as Frank Mitchell gets the drop on Tex, the confession is mysteriously back in Tex's hand.

 DESPERATE TRAILS (1939 Universal)
The first in a series of Johnny Mack Brown B's produced by Albert Ray. (Also director for this one. He'd directed some of the Browns at Supreme.) Peace officer Brown comes to Denton to put an end to the rustling and robberies plaguing the citizenry who are unaware it's being caused by their own sheriff (Russell Simpson) and his banker compadre, a nervous Clarence Wilson. Johnny operates out of the ranch owned by Frances Robinson and cousin Fuzzy Knight. Not quite finding their way until film #3, CHIP OF THE FLYING U, this first Brown Universal plays baddies Simpson and Wilson too broadly for laughs and has a very unfulfilling windup. Bob Baker as Brown's pal has little to do other than sing "Ridin' Home" twice --- once in front of a very poor process screen. It was quite a comedown for Baker who'd starred in 12 of his own in '38-'39. Frustrated with second billing and roles that often didn't even warrant that, Baker quit after six films. The film benefits from the Sonora and Kernville locations most later Brown Universals didn't have. Young Bill Cody Jr. (western star Bill Cody's son), although billed 4th on some advertising, has only a brief bit. Considering his various series at Supreme, Universal and Monogram, Brown rode the B-range for 18 years, a B-western feat only equaled in talkies by Charles Starrett and Bob Steele. Brown made 110 while Starrett topped his total with 132. Steele eked out 103.

 BLAZING GUNS (1943 Monogram)
An illegal toll road (run by LeRoy Mason) is all the plot you need in this Trail Blazers western to start the non-stop action and fun rolling as Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson outwit and outfight Mason's men (Weldon Heyburn, Charlie King, Dan White, Charles Murray Jr.) at every exciting turn while they help Roy Brent (Mason's good brother) and his gal, Kay Forrester, clean up Willow Springs. Hoot paroles three jailbirds to help them clean up the town (Frank Ellis, Eddie Gribbon, George Kamel). Pure, unadulterated B-western fun! Possibly the best of the Trail Blazers series. Tansey reworked this one for CATTLE QUEEN in '51. A small role is played by Robbie Kavanagh, screenwriter Frances Kavanaugh's sister. It was her only film.

 CATTLE QUEEN (1951 United International)
A loose remake of director Bob Tansey's own BLAZING GUNS (Trail Blazers '43) with Maria ('Queenie') Hart, Drake Smith and Johnny Carpenter filling in for Hoot Gibson and Ken Maynard. It was the prolific Tansey's next to last film, he died after making one more, BADMAN'S GOLD, with Carpenter. Bland newcomer Drake Smith quickly disappeared after a role in the Rough Ridin' Kids' WILD HORSE AMBUSH and a CISCO KID TV episode. Maria Hart fared little better with roles in BORDER OUTLAWS, FIGHTING STALLION, OUTLAW WOMEN and THE LUSTY MEN. Nothing has been heard from either since, and their fate is undetermined. Perhaps the one who prospered most is one of the three convict gunslingers, Emile Meyer, who went on to a distinguished career in many A-westerns such as SHANE, SILVER LODE, KING OF THE WILD STALLIONS and others. Another of the three imported gunmen is former silent screen Tarzan Jim Pierce.

 FIGHTING DEPUTY (1937 Spectrum)
Not Fred Scott's shining hour in B-westerns. He's the deputy son of a sheriff (Frank LaRue) killed by rustler Charles King, the brother of Fred's girl, Phoebe Logan, who asks Fred not to become sheriff because she's fearful Charlie will kill him also. Quite dreary with several unfunny segments between sidekick Fuzzy St. John and his pie-making gal pal, Marjorie Beebe. Lifted a bit by the always enjoyable menace of Charles King in one of his two films with Fred. But this one's so lowbudget we never even see one rustled cow --- 'the herd' is just referred to. Fred's operatic song stylings simply weren't suited to the range --- and the songs assigned him in this entry are just plain bad.

 RIDERS OF THE DUSK (1949 Monogram)
U.S. Marshal Whip Wilson rides to the aid of another Marshal in capturing a cattle rustler known as the Phantom Rider but is mistaken for the Rider and blamed for the other Marshal's death. Whip then fights on the side of Reno Browne and her friend Lee Roberts --- who is the real mystery rider --- as they've only been 'reclaiming' cattle rustled from them by outlaws Tris Coffin, Marshall Reed, John Merton, Holly Bane and Dee Cooper. The earlier Wilsons were among his best --- and this was 4th in his series of 22 from '49-'52. Whip-use: 5

 SINGING COWBOY (1936 Republic)
Cowhand Gene Autry becomes a singing cowboy, traveling on a TV wagon to raise $10,000 for an operation for paralyzed Ann Gillis, injured when her father was killed by his partner, Lon Chaney. Yes, TV --- but this was 1936, the audience couldn't have numbered more than 50-60 folks. Typical early fantasyland Autry --- screwy but fun with an element of PHANTOM EMPIRE in that Gene must make his broadcast daily regardless of the predicament he's in. This movie may be where Chuck Barris got the idea for THE GONG SHOW as several acts get gonged midway. Gene's 7th film, still being produced by his 'founder' Nat Levine, is edited by Joseph H. Lewis who would graduate to directing A-westerns in years to come.

 RIDING SPEED (1934 Superior)
Border patrolman Buffalo Bill Jr. thwarts Bud Osborne's plans to smuggle Chinese across the Mexican border. Not much to this bottom rung Victor Adamson cheapie that credits Jay Wilsey (Bill Jr.'s real name) as director as well (assuredly with the help of Adamson).

 GENTLEMAN FROM ARIZONA (1939 Monogram)
For some absurd reason John King's name is Pokey, which pretty well describes this Charles E. Goetz (a Phoenix businessman) production filmed in Cinecolor on location in Arizona. It all centers on captured wild stallion Rex and saving J. Farrell MacDonald's ranch from back taxes by winning the big race (the actual Phoenix Handicap). Naturally, Rex wins and King wins MacDonald's daughter, beautiful Joan Barclay. The film is desperately in need of a professional director. Director (and co-writer) Earl Haley had been assistant director under Cecil B. DeMille on SQUAW MAN in '31 but obviously didn't learn much from the master. The film was possibly made as a vanity piece for youngster Ruthie Reece and Spanish dancer Adrianna Galvez. The film momentarily comes alive when John King sings a beautiful "Call of the Range" to Ruthie and talks about how Rex belongs on the open range. The Golden Westerners do a terrific job on Bob Nolan's "Way Out There".

 GAUCHOS OF EL DORADO (1941 Republic)
When a bandido known as The Gaucho (Duncan Renaldo --- a former Mesquiteer himself) is killed by his outlaw gang while trying to take $5,000 to the mother he hasn't seen for many years in order to pay off her upcoming mortgage, the 3 Mesquiteers (Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, Rufe Davis) intervene. The mother (Rosina Galli) mistakenly believes Bob to be her long lost son. From there it's a merry mix-up of action and adventure as the Mesquiteers unravel all the problems caused by Norman Willis, William Ruhl, Ray Bennett and their gang (one of which is soon to be B-western star Eddie Dean). This is an uncredited remake of Jack Hoxie's GUN LAW ('33).

 THE NEVADAN (1950 Columbia)
In a year of outstanding westerns (WINCHESTER 73, THE GUNFIGHTER, BROKEN ARROW, KID FROM TEXAS, TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD, RIO GRANDE, ROCKY MOUNTAIN, SHORT GRASS, STARS IN MY CROWN, WAGONMASTER), Randolph Scott was at his prime in three excellent A's --- COLT .45, CARIBOO TRAIL and THE NEVADAN. Scott's the undercover marshal on the trail of likable badman Forrest Tucker and $25,000 in hidden loot. The intelligent script unites them against vicious George Macready (one of the best the screen ever had to offer in most any role) and his two underlings, bickering but loyal to each other brothers, Frank Faylen and Jeff Corey, whose banter and acting are a delight to watch. Dorothy Malone is Macready's daughter, caught between her strained devotion to her father and a love for newcomer to her life --- Scott. Jock Mahoney has one of his early noteworthy parts as another of Macready's henchmen. (He also doubled for Scott in the action sequences.) This is superior western entertainment under the more than competent direction of Gordon Douglas, filmed amid the rugged grandeur of Lone Pine by Charles Lawton Jr. and spurred on by that thrilling Columbia chase music. Watch for great use of the 'Hoppy cabin' at Lone Pine. In many ways the characters and the film are forerunners of the Scott/Burt Kennedy/Budd Boetticher classics. Remember, producer and cinematographer Harry Joe Brown and Charles Lawton Jr. were involved in those as well as Scott. Here's everything that's good in the A-westerns of the '50s (or any decade).

 TUMBLEWEED TRAIL (1942 PRC)
The Frontier Marshals (Lee Powell, Bill Boyd, Art Davis) come to an Oklahoma border town to extradite outlaw Charlie King, eventually joining Karl Hackett and the ranchers to oppose King, his boss Jack Rockwell, crooked sheriff Frank Hagney and even Rockwell's daughter, Marjorie Mannors (a very bad actress, she nevertheless stayed very busy at PRC, Monogram and Republic from '42-'47.) Masked, like the Lone Ranger he portrayed in the 1938 Republic serial, Lee leads a vigilante group against the gang. Some nice western swing by Bill Boyd ("Tumbleweed Trail") and Art Davis ("Lazy Moon").

 SIX GUN RHYTHM (1939 Grand National)
Before it went belly-up, Grand National tried radio singer Tex Fletcher as a new singing cowboy. Oddly, for a film that introduces a "new singing cowboy", his first scenes portray him as a football player (he's too scrawny!). He also plays his first scenes with his back to the camera! Tex returns to his home range with pal Ralph Peters to find his missing Sheriff father being blamed for all the recent rustling. Windup has Tex's old football team coming to the rescue. There's a memorable ending with Tex tracking down outlaw boss Reed Howes in a desert sand storm. Check out the saloon --- with a Mexican pop-tune playing 'orchestra' and lights on the table, it appears more like a western nightclub! Grand National gave Tex lots of support with Joan Barclay, Howes, Bud McTaggart, Robert Frazer and Ted Adams, but whether the limp-jawed Fletcher would have succeeded as a western star remains an unknown as GN went out of biz before a second Fletcher starrer could be made. Ralph Peters (1903-1959) made an acceptable sidekick and saw work as just that opposite Kermit Maynard, Jack Randall and Ken Maynard. But usually only for one feature. Otherwise, he was a busy character player in westerns from 1936-1958. Watch for future PRC 'star' Art Davis as one of the outlaws.

 OUTLAW TREASURE (1955 American Releasing)
Semi-incoherent, rambling, disjointed storyline has Army troubleshooter Johnny Carpenter finding missing government gold shipments hidden by Jesse James on land belonging to Johnny's Dad. Typical Carpenter film finish has everyone shooting everyone else every which a way. Above average cast for a Carpenter --- Adele Jergens, Harry Lauter, Glenn Langan, Michael Whalen, Hal Baylor. Directed with no budget by old pro Oliver Drake from Carpenter's script. For whatever reason, Johnny was now billing himself as John Forbes while the writer/producer credit still read Johnny Carpenter.

 VALLEY OF VENGEANCE (1944 PRC)
Separated as kids when their parents are killed in a wagon train raid, Billy Carson (Buster Crabbe) and Fuzzy St. John find each other years later-and both are still seeking their folks' killers (Lynton Brent, Jack Ingram). Buster and Fuzzy are helped by Evelyn Finley and opposed by Brent and Ingram's men Glenn Strange, Charlie King and Steve Clark. The scene where Buster and Fuz find each other again is well done --- especially by St. John. Much of the story is related in flashback.

 NO MAN'S RANGE (1935 Supreme)
Bob Steele and his pal Fuzz (Buck Connors) are set to join Bob's stepfather (whom he's never met) as half-owners of a ranch but villain Steve Clark has kidnapped the man (Charles French) and replaced him with his own hireling (Earl Dwire) until the stepfather he's holding reveals where the $35,000 he brought to buy the ranch is hidden. Meanwhile, pert Roberta Gale is being stopped by a huge fence blocking the pass to town which she needs to drive her horses through to sale. The Sheriff is played by Jack Rockwell (1890-1947) who probably essayed the part of more Sheriffs in westerns than any other actor. Directed, as was often the case, by Steele's father, Robert N. Bradbury. Campfire songs obviously use Jack Kirk's group, although Kirk is not shown.

 TERROR TRAIL (1933 Universal)
Governor's man Tom Mix brings to justice a gang of cutthroats and thieves known as the Paint Horse Riders. The girl is (homely) Naomi Judge whose brother, wimpy Arthur Rankin, is in with the gang. Their presence along with weak villainy leadership from John St. Polis set this one back a pace or two. Incorporates a few comedic moments so typical of Tom's silents --- such as when he is awakened one night and wears two guns into the saloon --- but forgets to put on his pants. A humorous piece later cowboys like Starrett, Brown, Holt, Livingston, Lane etc. could never get away with.

 YOUNG BILL HICKOK (1940 Republic)
Civil War history and Republic fiction blend together to form an action-packed entertainment package as Bill Hickok (Roy Rogers), Gabby Hayes and his niece, Calamity Jane (Sally Payne), foil a plan by European agent (John Miljan) to seize control of California's fabulous wealth by forcing the state to break away from the Union. Jacqueline Wells (later Julie Bishop) is Roy's spirited Southern belle bride-to-be. Yakima Canutt does his fall-from-the-team-of-horses, under-the-wagon, grab-the-back-end-and-climb-back-on stunt. Sally Payne nearly steals the show as Calamity Jane. One of the best from Roy's historical period with reliable Joe Kane at the helm.

 DEPUTY MARSHAL (1949 Lippert)
Deputy Marshal Jon Hall comes to Tumult, WY, seeking two outlaws whom he's never seen --- Dick Foran and Joe Sawyer --- and lands smack in the middle of a plot to obtain a railroad right of way. As Hall digs deeper, he finds Foran's sister, Julie Bishop, quite attractive as well as a murdered railroad employee's daughter, singer Frances Langford (in reality Hall's wife of 11 years), who has a hot headed cousin, Russell Hayden. Hall is caught in a crossfire of affection for the two girls and a series of doublecrosses. Langford is given two 'showcase' songs to warble. Good cast, but offers nothing new, even though Lippert promoted this film as being "filmed with the new Garutso Lens for 3-Dimensional effect." Supposedly, the new Garutso Balanced Lens would give a depth and fullness to people being photographed instead of the old flatness and an extremely deep focus which makes people in the foreground and background equally clear and sharp. As handled by old time B director William Berke, I couldn't tell any difference. Just another gimmick to fight the onslaught of the ever encroaching TV tube. Oddly, the beginning of the film is padded out with 6 minutes of a tale told by actor Clem Bevans (as the doctor) and a montage of stock footage. It feels like it was tacked on to pad the running time out to 73 minutes so as to get classier theatrical bookings.

 MAN FROM MONTREAL (1939 Universal)
Richard Arlen is framed for robbery and murder by Reed Hadley and his wife (Kay Sutton) whom Arlen is in love with and believes to be Hadley's 'sister'. Comic Mountie Andy Devine and another girl, Anne Gwynne, help Arlen clear himself. Watch for Lane Chandler as one of the Mounties. Eventful screenplay but ultimately mild. Filmed at gorgeous Cedar Lake near Big Bear, CA. Unneeded and off putting is a whining chubby kid (Tom Whitten) who resembles a teeny-tot Andy Devine.

 BIG STAMPEDE (1932 Warner Bros.)
John Wayne rounds up New Mexico cattle rustlers Noah Beery Sr. and Paul Hurst with the aid of Mexican bandit Luis Alberni and massive doses of stock footage from Ken Maynard's LAND BEYOND THE LAW ('27) of which this is a remake. (The film was loosely remade once more by WB in '37 as THE LAND BEYOND THE LAW w/Dick Foran.) Noah Beery Sr., brother of Wallace Beery and father of Noah Beery Jr., madly chews up the western scenery as usual. Wayne's 'Miracle Horse' Duke practically steals the show, herding cattle, opening doors and shoving badmen around. Producer of these six Warner Bros. Wayne B's was Leon Schlesinger who later became famous as producer of the early Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from Warner Bros. Pretty Mae Madison, in her only B-western, gives Wayne one of his early on-screen kisses at the fade out.

 PARTNERS OF THE PLAINS (1938 Paramount)
The Hopalong Cassidy version of 'Taming of the Shrew'. Hoppy's in for a free-for-all battle of the sexes as the strong-willed, high-minded Gwen Gaze, British co-owner of the L-D Ranch of which Hoppy is foreman, comes west and sets her sights on Hoppy who realizes the stubborn childlike Gaze is 'playing a game' and resists her every whim. The 'battle' turns serious when Gaze threatens to run sheep on the range and her fiancé (John Warburton) plots with Al Bridge (whom Hoppy once sent to prison) to kill Cassidy by blowing up the dam. Unique, superior film, one of the best of the Cassidys reaching beyond its B-western confines with Gaze excellent in her role. Only minor fault is that one wishes Gabby Hayes (away from the series for two films --- this being one of them --- over a contract dispute) was in the picture. The part fits Hayes' grouchy old timer to a T this time around. However, he's replaced by Harvey Clark as Baldy, a character player director Les Selander had previously employed in some Buck Jones B's at Universal. The change in casting only serves to prove what a natural comic genius Gabby Hayes was. The odd part of the story is that no explanation is given as to how Hoppy came to be foreman of the unheard of L-D Ranch rather than the usual Bar 20.

 COLORADO KID (1937 Republic)
Sentenced to hang for the murder of his boss, Bob Steele swears gunsmoke vengeance on the three real killers (Karl Hackett, Kenne Duncan, Budd Buster). In a true casting switch, Ernie Adams --- usually a badman and squealer --- is Steele's best friend. Hard riding, fast action excitement all the way.

 LONE TEXAN (1959 Regalscope/Fox)
The war between the states is ended. The struggle for peace between countrymen begins as Yankee officer Willard Parker returns to his Texas hometown and is branded a turncoat by half the town including his younger brother (Grant Williams), a Southern sympathizer who rode with Quantrill and is now a Yankee-hating Sheriff. Bit talky --- the adult TV western influence --- but the tension is nicely built (with 'High Noonish' overtones) by director Paul Landres. Well populated by Audrey Dalton, Rayford Barnes, Douglas Kennedy, Gregg Barton, Dabbs Greer, Sid Melton, I. Stanford Jolley, Hank Patterson and Tom London (1884-1963). This was oldtimer Tom's last western movie, although he continued to appear on TV westerns til '61. His last movie was 13 WEST STREET in '62. Having reportedly started his career as the locomotive engineer in THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (unverified), he'd been at it for over 58 years during which he made over 2,000 screen appearances according to the GUINNESS BOOK Of MOVIE FACTS AND FEATS.

 COWBOYS FROM TEXAS (1939 Republic)
The reclamation of vast areas of western wasteland under President Roosevelt opens up large land tracts for homesteading but cattlemen resent the intrusion causing an open range war. Adding fuel to the flame are a crooked Irrigation Supervisor (Ivan Miller), Belle Starkey (Betty Compson), owner of the saloon and her gunman Ethan Laidlaw. They scheme to delay irrigation projects so homesteaders will be frozen out, leaving the schemers to buy abandoned land for practically nothing. But --- they didn't reckon on the 3 Mesquiteers (Robert Livingston, Raymond Hatton, Duncan Renaldo). The more vile and nasty the villain is in a movie, the stronger the heroes become and the better the film becomes. The 'bad guys' --- Miller and Compson --- are far too weak in this one to leave an impression. This is the second of a trio of Mesquiteer films where Livingston dons a black Lone Ranger-like costume and rides alone --- obviously to cash in on the popular LONE RANGER serial he starred in a year or so before. Wisely, Republic soon realized Livingston riding alone severely watered down the threesome camaraderie the viewers appreciated and quickly dispensed with the idea.

 DRIFT FENCE (1936 Paramount)
Larry 'Buster' Crabbe gets top billing, but it's Tom Keene's film all the way as he switches identities with Eastern dude Benny Baker who is heir to an Arizona ranch under fire from rustler Stanley Andrews' gang. Crabbe is a neighboring rancher unfortunately caught up on the wrong side of the drift fence Keene is building --- at least until the big shoot out at the end. Cecil B. DeMille's daughter Katherine is the girl. Directed by Otto Lovering. Not as good as Henry Hathway's entries in the Zane Grey series (TO THE LAST MAN, HERITAGE OF THE DESERT, THUNDERING HERD, etc.)

 SPIRIT OF THE WEST (1932 Allied)
Her father (Lafe McKee) shot down by merciless crooks (Hooper Atchley, Al Bridge), her only friend helpless with a broken ankle (caused by the same two varmints), Doris Hill is herself a captive in the hands of her father's murderers when she falls in love with --- their dishwasher, Hoot Gibson. Hoot's actually playing dumb to outwit and get the goods on the western gangsters. Watch for former silent star Fred Gilman in an unbilled role as Hoot's brother. Clever enough, but way too slow to be one of Hoot's better efforts. According to production notes, a torrential rain storm and a freak snowstorm pelted the film's Saugus, CA, location, often holding up shooting. You'll notice how wet the ground appears in the film.

 BOUNTY HUNTER (1954 Warner Bros.)
Seems half the town has a guilty conscience when bounty hunter Randolph Scott comes to town, but Randy is only after four bandits who have settled down as respectable citizens. Scott surprises as a distant cold killer ("I like my work"). His presence in the town leads the citizens to suspect one another as paranoia sets in before Scott exposes the real offenders. Directed by competent Andre DeToth, however, the practice of throwing objects at the camera early on in the film indicates the picture may have been planned for release in 3-D and the idea scrapped midway. Overall, it's more of a slower, mystery oriented plot than the usual Scott film with definite similarities to Audie Murphy's NO NAME ON THE BULLET which followed in '59. Rather undistinguished supporting cast other than Marie Windsor and Ernest Borgnine.

 LIGHTNING RANGE (1934 Superior)
Deputy U.S. Marshal Buddy Roosevelt, tracking Black Pete (Olin Francis) and his gang, stumbles into a wedding scheme and ends up marrying the girl (Patsy Bellamy) himself. Remake of Buddy's own GALLOPING JINX ('25) written by Betty Burbridge. As lowbudget and as full of plot potholes as producer/director Victor Adamson's films are, there's an inherent sense of fun about them. This one features some marvelous and action-packed stuntwork. Born in New Zealand in 1890, Albert Victor Adamson got involved in films in Australia, coming to the U.S. in the teens. He was making silent westerns as early as 1918 and remained active as either a lowbudget producer/director or actor (under the name Denver Dixon) until the early '50s. He came back, accompanied by his son, Al Adamson, to work on lowbudget horror films in the '60s and '70s. Adamson died in 1972. (For more see: Bottom of the Barrel Awards.)

 HELDORADO (1946 Republic)
When socialite Dale Evans is made 'deputy sheriff' of the annual Las Vegas Helldorado Days celebration, she takes her job seriously and helps park ranger Roy Rogers and pal Gabby Hayes capture counterfeiters Barry Mitchell (later Brad Dexter) and Paul Harvey who are passing the 'queer' through the Vegas gaming tables. The Bill Witney directed 70 min. film suffers a bit from not enough 'open space' riding and fighting, being stifled by the downtown Vegas locations. Watch for Clayton Moore as a reporter, singer Doye O'Dell as a ticket taker and former lowbudget lead Rex Lease as a bartender/badman. One currently 'politically incorrect' newspaper headline over Barry Mitchell's photo reads, 'Host at Gay Party'. Location work utilizes Boulder Dam and Lake Mead. This was Gabby Hayes' last film of 41 with Roy.

 THE BADGE OF MARSHAL BRENNAN (1957 Allied Artists)
This was the first of seven independent westerns produced and directed by Albert C. Gannaway, the country music entrepreneur whose Flamingo Films Company in 1954 secured the cooperation of the Grand Ole Opry to film country music stars performing on stage. The success of that operation led to an additional 92 half hour TV shows lensed in color featuring more than 1,000 performances by Opry stars. These were packaged, packaged again and repackaged for sale to TV on into the '80s. Even several movies were cut from the footage, COUNTRY MUSIC CARAVAN, COUNTRY MUSIC JUBILEE and COUNTRY MUSIC JAMBOREE. The stars, Jim Reeves, Marty Robbins, Ernest Tubb, Minnie Pearl, Faron Young, Little Jimmy Dickens, Webb Pierce, Carl Smith, etc., complained long and vociferously that they were never paid for the multiple use of their talents-if they were paid at all! In 1957, probably with money earned from the country music programs, Gannaway entered film production with THE BADGE OF MARSHAL BRENNAN starring Jim Davis and featuring Carl Smith as the Sheriff and Marty Robbins as a Mexican!?! Oddly, neither are given an opportunity to sing while the title song, "Man On the Run", is manhandled by Ramez Idriss. It's a terrible song to begin with ... maybe Marty and Carl said, "No way!" It's a stinker of a movie with far too much philosophical talk about duty ("Don't ever try to run away from your shadow.") and need. Gannaway must have been quite a con-man to coerce not only Davis, Robbins and Smith into this low budgeter, but also Arleen Whalen, Douglas Fowley, Harry Lauter, Louis Jean Heydt, Larry Dobkin, Rick Vallin and Lee Van Cleef. The single guitar background score was obviously cheap and is, at times, also inappropriate. Gannaway fancied himself a director --- no doubt to save a salary --- but his direction is too laid back and meandering. He went on to produce and/or direct DANIEL BOONE TRAILBLAZER, RAIDERS OF OLD CALIFORNIA, HIDDEN GUNS, MAN OR GUN, PLUNDERERS OF PAINTED FLATS and BUFFALO GUN --- several of which were distributed by an on-its-last-legs-Republic. Gannaway's films often used the same actors --- Bruce Bennett, Faron Young, Tom Hubbard (who also wrote four of them including this one), Jim Davis, Lee Van Cleef and stuntmen Bill Ward (who owned the Lone Ranger's horse Silver and was Clayton Moore's double on THE LONE RANGER for several years), Bill Coontz (aka Foster) and Whitey Hughes. As a matter of fact, RAIDERS OF OLD CALIFORNIA was probably shot simultaneously with BADGE OF MARSHAL BRENNAN as the casts are identical. Even one of both film's lobbycards display the same scene of Jim Davis and Lee Van Cleef! Now that's cheap! Unfortunately, Gannaway's direction didn't get any better as he went along. He was a true '50s throwback to Robert J. Horner, J. P. McGowan, Victor Adamson, B. B. Ray and the other cheapjack directors and producers of the '30s. The TV print was distributed by Max and Arthur Alexander's M&A Alexander Prod. (See DANGER TRAILS, IDAHO KID) who still had their hand in after all those years.

 GOLD RAIDERS (1952 Jack Schwartz/United Artists)
A meeting of two genres --- B-western and slapstick comedy --- as the 3 Stooges come to the aid (as best they can) of George O'Brien protecting gold shipments from outlaws (Lyle Talbot, John Merton). Written by longtime Stooges scripter Elwood Ullman and directed by Stooge director Edward Bernds. Filmed at Iverson's in five days between Christmas and New Years. Some purists pooh-pooh this one, but it's pure fun and no where near as bad a straight western as you might think. I've seen worse sidekicks and sillier humor than the Stooges provide. Good supporting cast --- Fuzzy Knight, Sheila Ryan (who was once married to Gene Autry saddlepal Pat Buttram), Clem Bevans and Monte Blue. Stuntman Hugh Hooker (doubling O'Brien) does an eye-catching backwards somersault off a horse.

 SILVER BULLET (1942 Universal)
Silver Jim (Johnny Mack Brown) searches the west for a gunman with a lightning bolt scar on his left arm who shot him in the back with a silver bullet and murdered his father five years ago. That man is crooked incumbent Senator LeRoy Mason who, with partner Rex Lease, is embezzling money from local ranchers such as Jennifer Holt. Mason goes to Doc William Farnum to have the incriminating scar removed but when Doc gets wise, Mason kills him. Suspecting, Brown and the others stage an election rally and run Doc's widow (Claire Whitney) for Senator opposing Mason. It all winds up in a six gun showdown as Johnny Mack 'returns' the Silver Bullet to Mason. Terrific saloon brawl and other action sequences expertly directed with his customary flair for unusual and unique camera set ups by Joseph H. Lewis. The song, "Sweetheart of the Rio Grande" (written by Oliver Drake, Jimmy Wakely and Milt Rosen), sung by Nora Lou Martin (with as sweet and pure a voice as you ever heard) and the Pals of the Golden West is worth the price of admission. You'll find yourself rewinding the tape and playing it over and over.

 BLACK PATCH (1957 Warner Bros.)
Written by badman actor Leo Gordon (who wrote a terrific likeable outlaw role for himself), this is Leo's attempt at western film noir ... psychological, starkly and darkly photographed with well defined characterizations and top drawer supporting performances from House Peters Jr., Sebastian Cabot, Strother Martin, Gordon himself and, possibly, star George Montgomery's best acting in a western. George loved the script and produced the film, which didn't do well at the boxoffice, probably due to its offbeat film noir underpinnings. Not for everybody, but well worth your time-at least once. Watch for Dan Blocker (as a blacksmith) in one of his earliest appearances.

 GUN STREET (1961 United Artists)
One of those overly scripted adult western 'High Noon' wannabes. When a killer escapes from prison and heads back to his home range (Corriganville), there's a townful of talkative, concerned citizens on edge waiting for him: the Sheriff (James Brown); his ex-wife (Peggy Stewart); the doctor who married his ex-wife (John Pickard); his sister (Sandra Stone) and her husband; the man who turned him in; and the sister of his former partner (Jean Willes) who wants him dead. Unfortunately, GUN STREET never delivers on its promise. It's a half hour TV plot stretched to feature length. Another of producer Robert E. Kent's westerns directed by Edward Cahn. (See GUNFIGHT.)

 SON OF DAVY CROCKETT (1941 Columbia)
"In about one minute you won't be king any longer", Bill Elliott (as the son of Davy Crockett) forcefully tells town boss Kenneth MacDonald (as King Canfield) during their final showdown. During the course of the film, since President Grant (Harrison Greene) delegated the two-fisted Elliott to overthrow the tyrannical MacDonald who rules the unclaimed Yucca Valley strip with an iron grip, the two men have built up a wary respect for one another unlike no other B-western. Elliott and MacDonald (sans mustache for a change) are at their best. Add in Dub Taylor, Donald Curtis (as MacDonald's right hand gunman), quick to anger rancher Richard Fiske, gorgeous Iris Meredith, a young Lloyd Bridges and regulars like Ed Cobb, Steve Clark, Jack Kirk, etc. and the sure guidance of Lambert Hillyer and you've got one fine example of a B-western.

 LAW AND LEAD (1937 Colony)
Cattle Association detective Rex Bell is after the Juarez Kid (Wally Wales). But finally getting him is barely worth the wait through subplots of disguises, dogs, notes, daughters, crooked card games and Mexican Senoras. Not Bell's shining hour. Unbelievably loud truck noises on the inferior soundtrack in some places. This was the final starring western for Bell (although some indicate it was STORMY TRAILS) after prior series at Monogram and Resolute for a total of 18 B-westerns. He did co-star with Buck Jones in Jones' last film DAWN ON THE GREAT DIVIDE in '42. Rex had married the 'It' girl, Clara Bow, in '31 and he was spending more time with her on their ranch outside Searchlight, NV. Rex opened a western wear store in Las Vegas, lost a Republican bid for Congress in '44 but was elected Lt. Gov. of Nevada from '54-'62. At 58, he died of a heart attack on July 4, 1962, two weeks after filing his candidacy for governor. Clara died in '65.

 THAT TEXAS JAMBOREE (1946 Columbia)
Ken Curtis croons his "Prairie Serenade" to Jeff Donnell; the Hoosier Hot Shots clown and perform several novelties; the Dinning Sisters sing "I Still Remember" at a hotdog stand; and amidst all the music Sheriff Ken and Deputy Big Boy Williams manage to close down and run out of town Kenneth MacDonald's crooked gambling joints after a musical jamboree mayoral election. Deuce Spriggens, Carolina Cotton, Andy Parker and the Plainsmen do an energetic job on Bob Nolan's "When Payday Rolls Around" and Ken offers an engaging version of Spriggens' "Trail To San Antone" with Parker and the Plainsmen. Between '45 and '47, Ken Curtis starred in eight musical westerns (some of them 'dude ranch' westerns) all co-starring the Hoosier Hot Shots. Between '44 and '50 the Hot shots made another 10 with the Ken Curtis role supplanted by either Kirby Grant, Big Boy Williams, Tom Tyler, Jay Kirby or Jock Mahoney.

 ARIZONA GANGBUSTERS (1940 PRC)
Trigger Tim Rand (Tim McCoy) and his pal Lanky (Lou Fulton) route out 5th columnist espionage in Arizona at the behest of rancher Forrest Taylor and his daughter Pauline Haddon. Plenty of action all the way. With the coming of WWII, B-western screenwriters found a new plot twist --- pitting our cowboy heroes against the powers of the Axis. For more of the same watch TEXAS TO BATAAN (Range Busters), WILD HORSE RUSTLERS (Bob Livingston), PALS OF THE SADDLE (3 Mesquiteers), DEATH RIDES THE RANGE (Ken Maynard), SOUTH OF THE BORDER (Gene Autry), SILVER CITY RAIDERS (Russell Hayden), VALLEY OF HUNTED MEN (3 Mesquiteers), CYCLONE PRAIRIE RANGERS (Charles Starrett), RIDERS OF THE NORTHLAND (Starrett/Hayden), TEXAS MANHUNT (Powell/Davis/Boyd), WHERE TRAILS END (Tom Keene), COWBOY COMMANDOS (Range Busters), BLACK MARKET RUSTLERS (Range Busters), KING OF THE COWBOYS (Roy Rogers), RAIDERS OF SUNSET PASS (Eddie Dew), CHIP OF THE FLYING U (Johnny Mack Brown), IN OLD MONTEREY (Gene Autry), SUNDOWN VALLEY (Charles Starrett) and, of course, the KING OF THE MOUNTIES (Allan Lane) and KING OF THE TEXAS RANGERS (Sammy Baugh) serials. For your 'They actually said it in a western' file, Tim says, "C'mon, let's head them off at the pass."

 ACROSS THE PLAINS (1939 Monogram)
A superior, fast-paced Jack Randall western because, for a change, it's in the hands of a highly competent director --- Spencer Gordon Bennet. First and foremost a craftsman, Spence planned every camera set-up well in advance so when he got on location (Lone Pine here) he knew exactly what he wanted. The result is a perfectly lit, dressed and composed film with not a wasted frame. It's a real treat for Randall watchers after several mediocre affairs from Robert Hill and Wallace Fox. Bennet breathes real life into Bob Tansey's well used young brothers separated after a wagon raid --- one grows up good, one bad --- script. There's not an interior shot in the whole film as Bennet makes fabulous use of the Alabams and the nearby desert scenery. Dennis Moore is at his best as the all-in-black younger brother who took to the outlaw trail under Robert Card's misguidance. Also with Joyce Bryant, Glenn Strange, Bud Osborne, Hal Price and Frank Yaconelli (Bennet is even able to rein-in most of his usual silliness.)

 SUNSET PASS (1946 RKO)
Two express agents, James Warren and John Laurenz (as Chito!) go after stolen train robbery loot and bandits Harry Woods, Steve Brodie and Robert Clarke, whose sister (Nan Leslie) complicates matters. Strong Zane Grey 'adaptation' with a fine cast and top notch RKO production values. Remake of the 1933 Henry Hathaway directed version with Randolph Scott. John Laurenz (1909-1958) spelled Richard Martin as Chito Rafferty, for whatever RKO reason, in two of the James Warren Bs. Otherwise, his career is undistinguished. Laurenz's gal is Jane Greer who was new to RKO at this time but went on to big things in OUT OF THE PAST, BIG STEAL, STATION WEST and others. Tall in the saddle in the Elliott/Cooper/Scott mold, James Warren had a promising career as a western star but gave up acting to pursue his love of art. He's lived on Maui since the '50s where he's established quite a reputation as an Hawaiian artist.

 FIGHTING SHERIFF (1931 Columbia)
Sheriff Buck Jones and smarmy saloon owner Robert Ellis vie for the affections of Loretta Sayers (1911-1999) whose bandit brother (Paul Fix) Buck has killed. Lots of drama with a big action finish, which was typical for the Jones westerns at Columbia. He seemed to choose stories with a certain William S. Hart deliberateness to them laced with just a bit of comedy, often at his own expense (witnessed here in the 'box of candy' sequence.) Nearly all his Columbia Bs were winners. Watch for silent star Bill Patton as one of the outlaws.

 KANSAS PACIFIC (1953 Allied Artists)
"Bleeding Kansas being a border state was torn apart by violent factions in the days before the Civil War. A railroad to the west could mean the difference between defeat and victory to the Confederates or it could be a lifeline for the Union's western military installations. Some Southern groups took strong steps to see that the Kansas Pacific did not reach completion." So reads the preface to KANSAS PACIFIC, an Allied Artists' (formerly Monogram) economy version of one of those empire building westerns (WELLS FARGO, CIMARRON, WESTERN UNION, DENVER AND THE RIO GRANDE) and, all things considered, not a bad one. Screenwriter Dan Ullman (see FIGHTING LAWMAN) packs plenty of action, drama and railroad history into this 73 min. Cinecolor 'epic'. Strong cast led by Sterling Hayden, Reed Hadley and Barton MacLane supported by Eve Miller (a weak link), Doug Fowley, Myron Healey, James Griffith, Clayton Moore, Lane Bradford and Jonathan Hale. Directed by Ray Nazarro who helmed over 35 Durango Kid titles at Columbia. Mixed in with several distinguished pictures (ASPHALT JUNGLE, SUDDENLY, THE KILLING, DR. STRANGELOVE), Hayden often turned to budget westerns to feed his love of ships and sailing. Hence, you find him in A-fare alongside HELLGATE, ARROW IN THE DUST, SHOTGUN, TOP GUN, IRON SHERIFF and TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN.

 THE ARIZONA KID (aka PURSUED) (1929 Davis)
U. S. Marshal Art Acord pretends to be a 'gay caballero' to round up a gang of bandits led by Cliff Lyons (soon to be a prominent stuntman with John Ford and others). Lowbudget independent made at the tail end of Art's career (he'd been a star at Universal) but one of his few silent starrers to survive, therefore noteworthy for historical purposes. A few of Art's foppish mannerisms are extremely hilarious.

 CODE OF THE CACTUS (1939 Victory)
Lightning Bill Carson comes out of retirement at old pal Ben Corbett's behest when modern cattle rustlers, using high powered trucks, threaten the livelihood of Dorothy Short and other ranchers. Disguised for 90% of the movie as Miguel the Mexican bandito (a ploy Tim McCoy loved to use --- but did so badly), Tim infiltrates the gang, run by Ted Adams and Forrest Taylor. Speaking of trucks, there are several plot holes you could drive one of them through. For instance, undercover range detective Dave O'Brien has been captured by the rustlers and is being held in a cabin. Tim, in disguise, comes to the cabin, but is discovered. Tim makes his escape alone and nothing more is ever mentioned of Dave until the last scene of the movie when he's seen saying farewell to McCoy!?! Art Davis sings a specialty song. Davis, out of Oklahoma radio, had been knocking around the business since Autry's SAGEBRUSH TROUBADOUR in '35. Finally, in '42 he got the chance to co-star with Lee Powell and Bill Boyd in the short-lived six film Frontier Marshals series. Dave O'Brien and Dorothy Short were married for 15 years beginning in 1936. The marriage went sour and ended up in a bitter court dispute. Over the years the couple worked together several times including Columbia's CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT serial ('42) in which Dave had the title role. The screenplay for CODE OF THE CACTUS is by Edward Halperin who, with his brother Victor, were responsible for Bela Lugosi's WHITE ZOMBIE in '32. Edward produced, Victor directed. Edward worked on several other horror films but this was his first western. In 1940 he scripted three of the James Newill Renfrew of the Mounties films.

 CHEYENNE KID (1940 Monogram)
The Cheyenne Kid (Jack Randall) swears off gambling and takes a job as foreman at Lafe McKee's ranch. As Jack takes $1,000 of McKee's to Louise Stanley's ranch to buy yearlings, an old enemy, George Chesebro, and saloon keeper Reed Howes and his henchman Charlie King team up to frame the Kid for the murder of Louise's brother, Kenne Duncan, in order to gain control of her ranch. Lackluster non-singing Randall entry with minimal action. The previous group of 8 Randall's for '38-'39 were produced by Robert Tansey who, no great one for budgets and care himself, was still several notches above producer Harry S. Webb who moved his Metropolitan setup (where he'd churned out 8 of Bob Steele's worst in '39) to Monogram where he lowered the budgets even more and managed to successfully kill the Randall series. For those keeping track of cowboys in drag, Jack dresses as a woman to escape jail. Randall and his wife, Louise Stanley, (see LAND OF THE SIX GUNS) made 5 B-westerns together.

 AMBUSH VALLEY (1936 Reliable)
A remake of Buck Jones' DAWN TRAIL ('30) and Tom Tyler's TRACY RIDES ('35) as Marshal Bob Custer prevents range war between cattlemen and nesters. Eddie Phillips does an effective job of playing John Elliott's no good spineless son whose sister, Victoria Vinton (who's as stiff as Custer), is in love with Bob. Vane Calvert, as Wally Wales' Ma, is also better than the material. This was Custer's first of only 3 features at lowly (but consistent from '33-'37) Reliable before Harry S. Webb and B. B. Ray's 'studio' folded. Their customary leads were Jack Perrin and Tom Tyler, but when Tyler moved over to Sam Katzman's Victory Pictures in '36, Custer, who hadn't worked in a series since '32 (four features at Big 4) and a 12 chapter serial for Mascot (LAW OF THE WILD) in '34, was brought in to fill the void. Both Ray and Webb continued to make lowbudget westerns elsewhere but it was the end of the trail for Custer, at one time --- in silents --- a pretty fair name at the Saturday box office.

 MARSHAL'S DAUGHTER (1953 United Artists)
Hollywood home movie guru and ex-vaudevillian Ken Murray produced (and had a featured role in) this confusing, often silly, episodic, lowbudget independent written by Bob Duncan (a third rate Eddie Dean PRC badman) as a showcase for Laurie Anders, who is so bad you never heard from her again. It's Hoot Gibson's absolute last hurrah as an old time Marshal who raises Laurie after her parents are killed by owlhoot Duncan. Laurie grows up and becomes El Coyote, a masked riding Zorro-like avenger (who lets out a ridiculous coyote yowl as she rides) to aid her father in bringing Duncan (and others like Robert Bray) to justice. The movie stops at about the 50 min. mark for an extended, what's-this-got-to-do-with-the-plot 10 min. draw poker sequence lifted right from Ken's old Blackouts stage show. Sadly, this is the most entertaining segment of the movie with guest stars Johnny Mack Brown, Jimmy Wakely and Buddy Baer. And since Tex Ritter had so successfully sung "High Noon" over the credits a couple of years before, let's get him to do it for our movie also. Problem is, they forgot to compose an even halfway decent song for Tex to warble. This film also may hold the Guinness Record for the most flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks! Even features silent stock footage of Hooter when he was younger. Listen for the in-joke reference to Bob Hope's SON OF PALEFACE ('52). Quite awful, but entertaining --- like looking at a car wreck! Directed by old timer Bill Berke.

 THUNDERING HERD (aka BUFFALO STAMPEDE) (1933 Paramount)
Randolph Scott is the buffalo hide hunter who falls in love with Judith Allen, daughter of outlaw Noah Beery Sr. Director Henry Hathaway carefully emphasizes the people and relationships not the spectacular action (buffalo stampede, Indian battle), most of which is stock footage from the 1925 silent version of this Zane Grey story with Jack Holt. Scott sports a mustache to match the Holt footage. Raymond Hatton plays the same role he did in 1925. Buster Crabbe, billed third, is barely in the film.

 COME ON COWBOYS (1937 Republic)
When their friend, circus owner Ed Cassidy, is framed as a counterfeiter by his partner, Edward Peil Sr., so he can gain control of the circus, the Three Mesquiteers (Ray Corrigan, Bob Livingston, Max Terhune) become guardians of his daughter (Shirley Temple look-a-like) Anne Bennett, who is accompanied by her governess, Maxine Doyle, whom a judge declares one of the Mesquiteers must marry (!) to keep control of Bennett. Excellent example of the screwball western humor and fast action that made the original Livingston-Corrigan-Terhune Mesquiteer team so popular. Their chemistry was never duplicated by any of the 3M trios that followed. At one point, Corrigan, wearing his gorilla costume, takes the head off. This is the only time on film you can see him this way. Corrigan wore the gorilla suit in many jungle and horror films. Leading lady Maxine Doyle was Republic director Bill Witney's wife. Screenwriter Betty Burbridge was the most prolific of all the various women who wrote westerns according to historian Les Adams' findings elsewhere on the Old Corral. Additionally, she was the fourth most prolific scripter of B-westerns among men and women.

 COW COUNTRY (1953 Allied Artists)
Produced by Scotty Dunlap in the same vein as his previous successes with Rod Cameron --- STAMPEDE ('49) and SHORT GRASS ('51). All three were adapted from best selling western novels (this one from Curtis Bishop's SHADOW RANGE), all three were directed with flair and a feel of the real range country by Les Selander, two of them, including this one, were scripted by novelist Tom Blackburn and all three were released through Allied Artists. Although Edmond O'Brien isn't at all bad in the lead, one can certainly see Rod Cameron would have excelled (as in the other two) in the role of a large rancher who helps the small ranchers (Robert Barrat and daughter Helen Westcott, in particular) when banker Barton MacLane tries to bankrupt them with help from another ranch owner, Robert Lowery, who is secretly a rustler in league with Bob Wilke's gang. There's also an interesting subplot of the dirt farmer's daughter, Peggie Castle, who aspires to a better life and is being 'used' by Robert Lowery. Ideal western support from James Millican (another farmer who loves Castle --- regardless of her indiscretions), Raymond Hatton, Marshall Reed, Chuck Courtney, Rory Mallison, Tom Tyler, Lane Chandler and others. It's all pretty traditional, western pulp formula, but originality isn't the only mark of good western film entertainment. As long as it's well done, as here, it's worthy.