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 !

 LAWLESS BORDER (1935 Spectrum)
The border patrol (John Elliott) is trying to stop illegal arms smugglers who are supplying Mexican revolutionary forces led by Joe De La Cruz. Government agent Bill Cody and his Mexican counterpart, Martin Garralaga, lull the outlaws (express agent Ted Adams, Roger Williams, Budd Buster, former silent lead Bill Patton) into submission, all the while lulling us to sleep watching Cody fall in love with Adam's sister, Molly O'Day. Reissued by Miramar as BORDER VICTORY.

 DRIFTIN' RIVER (1946 PRC)
Outlaws realize with the coming of the railroad comes people --- and law. So their concentration is bent on stopping the advancement of railing equipment and supplies for the iron horse. Government agents Eddie Dean and Roscoe (Soapy) Ates are sent on a Cavalry remount journey, to purchase horses for soldiers guarding the railroad. When Eddie agrees to buy rancher Shirley Patterson's herd, a traitorous ranchhand spy of hers, Lee Bennett, tips off the gang's boss, saloon owner Dennis Moore. Bennett and Moore's men (Robert Callahan, Lee Roberts) steal the herd to prevent the sale. They also brutally ambush and murder a detachment of Cavalry and, later, gun down Patterson's foreman, William Fawcett, who has been appointed Sheriff. To get the goods on them, Eddie gets in with the gang posing as outlaw Whistlin' Sam. Eddie's about to made a round-up when the real Whistlin' Sam (Wiley Grant) happens by. The familiar plot is a remake of producer Robert Tansey and screenwriter Frances Kavanaugh's WILD HORSE STAMPEDE ('43) w/Trail Blazers. Watch for Marion Carney (unbilled) as a saloon girl. Late in life Carney married veteran B-western heavy Terry Frost, and still later she was Lash LaRue's 12th or 13th (who's counting by now?) and last wife. The upbeat "Way Back In Oklahoma" written by Dean and Johnny Bond is sung by Eddie and the Sunshine Boys. Much of the footage was recycled for Dean's TIOGA KID ('48).

 KING OF THE BANDITS (1947 Monogram)
The origins of the Cisco Kid are traced to O. Henry, the American writer who introduced the character in his short story, The Caballero's Way in 1904. Over the years O'Henry's story provided the inspiration to a number of features with a wide variety of actors portraying Cisco (Warner Baxter, Cesar Romero, Duncan Renaldo and Gilbert Roland). Roland's portrayal was spicier with more of the daring rogue and womanizer. He drank, he smoked, he loved the ladies, often by reciting poetry written for the screen by Roland himself. Following Roland, Duncan Renaldo provided a much cleaner image of Cisco, aimed more toward a juvenile audience. KING OF THE BANDITS is Roland's final outing as Cisco in which he takes the blame for a string of stagecoach robberies perpetrated by a phony Cisco (Anthony Warde). Problem is, under Christy Cabanne's direction, the film moves slower than molasses. The most interesting segment is the opening in which Pancho (Chris Pin Martin) dreams he and Cisco are being executed by a firing squad. Cowboy cancer alert: Cisco smokes incessantly.

 STORM OVER WYOMING (1950 RKO)
Two-gun Tim Holt and his senorita-loving pal, Richard Martin as Jose Gonzales Bustamonte Rafferty, stop the lynching of Richard Powers (he used to be Tom Keene), foreman of the Flying X Cattle Ranch, by Bill Kennedy, foreman of the Big M Sheep Ranch. Hired by the cattlemen, led by Kenneth MacDonald, Tim and Chito find themselves in the middle of a cattleman/sheepherder range war. Soon it becomes clear Kennedy (with his flunky Holly Bane) is fanning the feud to cover up his rustling activities. Two girls, sheep ranch owner Noreen Nash, and quite good newcomer Betty Underwood as a saloon girl (she sings one song) with whom Chito flirts. Another Holt hit with beautiful Idyllwild, CA, location photography by J. Roy Hunt.

 DESERT GOLD (1936 Paramount)
Zane Grey's tale of desert greed had been filmed three times before, but this was the only talkie version --- and it isn't good. Monte Blue wants to mine gold on the hidden land in the Superstition Mountains belonging to Indian Chief Buster Crabbe (badly miscast). Blue and his men (Frank Mayo, Walter Miller) torture Crabbe trying to make him reveal the whereabouts of the mine. When that doesn't work, mining engineer Tom Keene (he's really the star despite the bigger billing of Buster Crabbe and Robert Cummings) and eastern tenderfoot Cummings are hired by Blue to find the mine. Meanwhile, Keene is romancing dentist Raymond Hatton's daughter, Marsha Hunt. Eventually, with the help of Glenn (Leif) Erickson, Blue's brother, Keene saves Crabbe, helps the Indians and wins Hunt. Problem with the picture lies in director James Hogan's mixture of slapstick comedy (Cummings' constant silliness; a stage passenger, James P. Burtis, imitating Oliver Hardy; Raymond Hatton in banter with Cummings) and straight western adventure. The picture manages to generate some real excitement in the last 10 minutes, but it's too late to overcome the prior foolishness.

 THE LAST BANDIT (1949 Republic)
It's outlaw brother (Forrest Tucker) against reformed outlaw brother (William Elliott) with gorgeous Adrian Booth and a million dollars in express company gold caught in the middle. Tucker (and his gang --- Grant Withers, George Chesebro, feisty old saloon owner Minna Gombell) and Booth try to involve Elliott in their elaborately planned train robbery but, when he won't cooperate, they frame him, making railroad official Jack Holt and railroad security man Andy Devine believe Bill is part of the well-staged hold-up in which the outlaws hide the train and stolen gold on a long forgotten railroad spur line. Some great Joe Kane directed action footage around picturesque Red Rock Canyon and Vasquez Rocks, CA. Big budget Trucolor remake of Bob Steele's GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY ('41). Adrian Booth sings "Love Is Such a Funny Thing" to the tune of "Careless Love".

 WHIRLWIND HORSEMAN (1938 Grand National)
Ken Maynard comes looking for his partner, Budd Buster, only to find he's being held prisoner by crooked banker Kenneth Harlan and his ranihans (Glenn Strange, Dave O'Brien, Roger Williams, Lew Meehan) until Budd reveals on whose ranch he discovered oil. Along the way Ken helps rancher Joe Girard and his daughter, pretty green-eyed Joan Barclay. Nothing new here except the casting of William 'Bill' Griffith (1897-1960) as Maynard's saddle-pal Happy. It was the character player's only western until an important role in Whip Wilson's RANGE LAND ('49).

 PINTO CANYON (1940 Metropolitan)
Cattle rustlers, the scourge of the southwest, brought to justice by battlin' Sheriff Bob Steele. Bob suspects one of the rustlers (Kenne Duncan) is the brother of Steele's girl, Louise Stanley. The rustler boss, Ted Adams, places notorious gunman George Chesebro in as Bob's deputy to spy on him. When one of Adams' rustlers, Steve Clark, is discovered by Steele, Chesebro guns him down before Clark can give up the name of his boss. Steele fires Chesebro and eventually he and his deputy, Jimmy Aubrey, round-up the gang when Duncan owns up to his connection to the rustlers. Director Raymond K. Johnson (1901-1977) began in '31, bouncing around the fringes of mainstream Hollywood at Puritan and Spectrum (several Fred Scott westerns). He then helmed, ineptly for the most part, several Jack Randalls at Monogram and this final (of 8) Steele Metropolitans. By 1941 he'd disappeared from directing and relegated himself to an assistant cameraman. Note Steele's pinto horse is Tex, later ridden by Jack Randall, John King, Raymond Hatton, Art Davis and even heavy Jack Ingram. Jimmy Wakely later rode Tex, but the pinto's name was, by then, changed to Lucky. Wakely liked the horse so much, according to Merrill McCord in his new book BROTHERS OF THE WEST, that he bought him in 1945 but later allowed Tex/Lucky to be given away as a prize on the Queen For a Day radio program.

 UNDERCOVER MAN (1935 Booth Dominion)
The interest here is seeing Charles Starrett in a Mountie uniform a few years before he donned one in his long-running Columbia series. This Canadian made quickie (directed by Sam Newfield) has Mountie Starrett tracking down a modern day gang of vicious bank robbers led by, it's finally discovered, Kenne Duncan. Adrienne Dore is the girl. Pretty slow going.

 DRUMS ACROSS THE RIVER (1954 Universal-International)
Under Nathan Juran's clear direction, this is one of Audie Murphy's best from his early screen years. Audie is a young freight-line operator who teams with businessman Lyle Bettger to invade Ute Indian land for gold exploration. Then, realizing Bettger is actually intent on starting an Indian war for his own profit, Audie joins his father, Walter Brennan, in an attempt to thwart the conflict. Framed for a gold robbery and sentenced to hang, Audie is rescued by Bettger when the devious crook learns only Audie knows where the gold is hidden. Audie leads Bettger and his men into an Indian ambush and clears his name. Bettger was then at the peak of his career and made a formidable heavy for Audie in this and his next film, DESTRY. Hugh O'Brian (a year away from becoming TV's WYATT EARP) clad entirely in black, makes only a brief appearance midway as a professional gunman, but steals every scene he's in. Lisa Gaye, Debra Paget's sister, and one of the most prolific actresses in TV westerns in the '50s and '60s, has a thankless role as Audie's girl.

 SOUTH OF CALIENTE (1951 Republic)
Roy Rogers owns a transportation service for horses. Dale Evans rejoins the Rogers pictures after a year or so away from the camera as a rancher in financial trouble forced to sell her favorite race horse, Miss Glory, to save the ranch. Dale hires Roy to transport the prize race horse to Mexico for the sale but Dale's crooked horse trainer, Douglas Fowley, and his henchman Frank Richards (in his best role) plan a horsenapping during the trip, killing handler Willie Best. Fowley knows without the cash for Miss Glory, Dale will lose the ranch to him. He also plans, with a dye job, to enter Miss Glory in the sweepstakes as a ringer. But Dale has Roy, Pat Brady and the Roy Rogers Riders on her side. It's a good one for horse lovers as Trigger also figures in prominently, but it's reduced in value by vaudevillian Pinky Lee's malarkey that just doesn't jell in a RR western. His moments on screen smack more of a Leon Erroll comedy short.

 THE MASKED RIDER (1941 Universal)
Not the best, not the worst in the 13 film run of Johnny Mack Brown/Nell O'Day co-starrers. Mine owners Guy D'Ennery and O'Day are being continuously raided by the White Mask gang. That the gang is actually bossed by mine superintendent Grant Withers is pretty obvious from the outset, although the story keeps it "secret" until Nell's old friend Johnny Mack Brown and his pal Fuzzy Knight unmask Withers. D'Ennery's daughter, incidental to the plot, is Virginia Carroll. A pre-Republic Roy Barcroft is Wither's henchman. Much is made about Fuzzy Knight singing to Carmela Cansino, but thankfully the four Spanish-tinged songs are left to the Guadalajara Trio.

 A LAWMAN IS BORN (1937 Supreme)
Wanted outlaw Johnny Mack Brown replaces his friend, Sheriff Earle Hodgins, after he is gunned down, and a lawman is born. Brown inherits the job of settling the squabble between the small ranchers led by Frank LaRue and his daughter Iris Meredith, and the big ranchers under Warner Richmond and Dick Curtis. Meanwhile, dirty-deed-doer Charlie King, who is infatuated with Meredith-Brown's girl, secretly works for Richmond to stir up trouble. When lawman Steve Clark comes to town, Richmond learns Brown used to be an outlaw and tries to use the information against him. Unusual story with a few new twists from Harry Olmstead. Al St. John is the titular sidekick, running a general store. Noteworthy also that Brown performs some of his flashy gun tricks.

 SHADOWS ON THE RANGE (1946 Monogram)
"Don't try to figger it out now", Johnny Mack Brown tells leading lady/ranch owner Jan Bryant at one point. You too may need a scorecard to determine at one point who's who, with who and when as Brown plays a deep double game to save Jan's ranch from shyster lawyer John Merton and his accomplices (weak-kneed Ted Adams, crooked deputy Jack Perrin, Cactus Mack, Marshall Reed, Terry Frost, Pierce Lyden and Lane Bradford). More double-crosses and pretenses in this Jess Bowers script than in 10 other Bs. Usual background extra in dozens of westerns, Ray Jones has more lines in this Brown than in anything I've ever seen him in. Probably Perrin's biggest role since his '20s-'30s starring days.

 MAN TRAILER (1934 Columbia)
Buck Jones' last at Columbia, for awhile, is a remake of his first at Columbia in 1930, THE LONE RIDER. The plot was remade again in 1939 as THUNDERING WEST with Charles Starrett. Buck Jones breaks away from cattle rustler Arthur Vinton's gang (Lew Meehan, Dick Botiller, Artie Ortego) but ends up saving a stagecoach strongbox (which he'd planned to rob himself) by routing Vinton's boys. Also rescuing Sheriff Clarence Geldert's daughter (Cecilia Parker), Buck is acclaimed a hero and made town marshal. The Vinton gang makes a raid on the town and involve Buck who must then ride and fight like never before to prove his innocence.

 RED TOMAHAWK (1967 Paramount)
Another of A. C. Lyles' "over-the-hill" all-star westerns. Cavalry captain Howard Keel overacts wildly as he comes to Deadwood to warn the town of a possible Sioux attack after Custer's massacre at the Little Big Horn. At first treated with mistrust, the townspeople fail to heed his warnings. Befriended by Scott Brady (as Ep Wyatt --- a play on --- you guessed it) and Broderick Crawford as the town wheeler-dealer, Keel learns of the existence of two gatling guns --- hidden away by saloon madame Joan Caulfield as Dakota Lil. Needing the guns for the Cavalry, Keel must then fight the townspeople for use of the guns. As usual, the interest in Lyles' westerns lies in spotting the former stars. Don Barry and Henry Wills are two Army deserters; Richard Arlen is the telegrapher; Wendell Corey is the town rabble rouser; Tom Drake is a wild eyed preacher; Roy Jenson and Dan White are miners; Reg Parton and Saul Gorss are townsmen and Ben Cooper is a young Cavalry Lieutenant. Old-hand Republic director R. G. Springsteen handles the action well aided by doses of mismatched stock footage but Jimmie Haskell's music score is limp.

 DALLAS (1950 Warner Bros.)
It may run 94 minutes, be in Technicolor, star Gary Cooper and have all the top flight production of Warner Bros.' behind it, but DALLAS remains (like many Randolph Scott WB flicks) a big-budget B-western. Three vicious brothers plunder Gary Cooper's plantation and murder his family. The former Confederate officer vows revenge and is helped by the new tenderfoot local lawman, Leif Erickson. The two men exchange identities. At Antonio Moreno's rancho, Erickson reveals Cooper's plans to Moreno's pretty daughter, Ruth Roman, to whom Erickson is engaged. Meanwhile, Cooper guns down Zon Murray, the youngest of the outlaw brothers. In the shoot-out he is wounded and goes to Moreno's hacienda to recover, where he and Roman fall in love. Cooper then trails the second brother (vicious but stupid Steve Cochran) and eliminates him. The third, and smartest brother, Raymond Massey, brings his renegade gang to the rancho to destroy or capture Moreno's family. Good action direction from Stuart Heisler and second unit work from B. Reeves Eason. Finely photographed by Ernest Haller with a rousing Max Steiner score. Nice support from luscious Barbara Payton as a saloon girl, Reed Hadley as a cartoonish Wild Bill Hickok and Monte Blue as the sheriff.

 WILD BEAUTY (1946 Universal)
Uninvolving human interest horse story with a strong pre-"Broken Arrow" plea for understanding the plight of the Indians, especially at one point when physician Don Porter delivers what amounts to more of a speech than dialogue. Porter looks pretty bored with the whole picture, deadpanning it all the way whether it's sorrow, anger, love or joy. Actually, the story revolves around kid actor/stunt rider Robert 'Buzzy' Henry who nurses a wild colt, the Wild Beauty of the title, back to health and helps to prevent rancher Dick Curtis (and his men, Pierce Lyden and Roy Brent) from slaughtering a herd of wild horses for their hides to be made into shoe leather for unscrupulous Eastern businessman Robert Wilcox. There's a secondary love story triangle between Porter, schoolmarm Lois Collier and Wilcox. Uninspiringly produced and directed by Wallace Fox.

 SPURS (1930 Universal)
Hoot Gibson and young Buddy Hunter track down a band of rustlers in their secluded Lone Pine mountain hideout replete with gatling gun. A friend of Hoot's Dad (Robert Homans) has been murdered by the rustlers (Cap Anderson, William Bertram and lapsed silent star Pete Morrison) led by undercover boss Philo McCullough. All the while Hoot tries to win the affections of Helen Wright. This early sound effort features Hoot's pal Pee Wee Holmes singing in the bunkhouse. After hearing him it's a wonder any further "singing cowboys" were ever allowed in westerns! Early sound release suffers from immovable microphones, therefore static camera placement.

 OLD OKLAHOMA PLAINS (1952 Republic)
Rex Allen fights Uncle Sam's first enemies of mechanization. It's 1926 and the Cavalry is experimenting with tanks vs horses. There's to be a cross country race between horses and tanks with ex-Cavalry officer Rex Allen called back to Army service to help clear the free range for the race. The ranchers are afraid the free range will become a test range for the Army, and, if tanks win out over horses, Roy Barcroft loses out on $100,000 in horse sales. So he and his helper Fred Graham plan sabotage on the tank trail. Slim Pickens is Rex's sidekick. It's a loose remake of Republic's ARMY GIRL ('38) with lots of borrowed stock footage.

 WYOMING HURRICANE (1944 Columbia)
Another of Russell Hayden's under-rated, continuous action B's with plenty of western swing music (five tunes) from Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys (all written by Cindy Walker). Dishonest café operator Tris Coffin (and his gun-hawks Paul Sutton, Bob Kortman) murders local lawman Joel Friedkin, placing the blame on the boyfriend (Hayden) of the lawman's daughter (Alma Carroll) so Coffin can have the field clear with Alma. Believe it or not, Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor is a doctor! Would you trust your life to this rural bumpkin? There's one hilarious belly-laugh when Cannonball is mixing up medicine to drug Sheriff Hal Price.

 TRAIL RIDERS (1942 Monogram)
When Charlie King's outlaw gang robs the bank and guns down Sheriff Kenne Duncan, the Sheriff's Marshal father (Steve Clark) sends the Range Busters (John King, Dave Sharpe, Max Terhune) to restore peace and find the murderer of his son. Palace Saloon owner King and his gang (Kermit Maynard, Bud Osborne, Frank Ellis) are masquerading as Vigilantes and have roped rancher Forrest Taylor's son, Lynton Brent, into their employ. Eventually, seeing the error of his ways, Brent 'fesses up to the lawmen and his hard riding sister, Evelyn Finley. Very basic Frances Kavanaugh penned, Bob Tansey directed B-western. For whatever reason, when 'Crash' Corrigan left the Range Busters group for four films, the director of all previous R B titles, S. Roy Luby, left also. Producer George W. Weeks brought in Tansey. When Corrigan returned for the final four films, Luby also returned. Somehow, a loyalty between Corrigan and Luby seems quite evident here.

 DAYS OF BUFFALO BILL (1946 Republic)
The cards stacked against him, Sunset Carson and toothless Tom London are framed by card sharps James Craven and Rex Lease for the shooting of hard-luck gambling loser Jay Kirby. Learning Kirby discovered gold on his ranch before his death, the two gamblers form an uneasy alliance with banker/forger Ed Cobb to take the ranch away from Kirby's sister, Peggy Stewart, who is unaware of the gold but owes the banker for her brother's debts. When she tries to raise the money by selling off her herd of horses, the outlaws strike and all her hands quit. Peggy then hires Sunset and Tom, unaware they are suspected of her brother's killing. When she does learn, she tries to kill Sunset but he escapes and eventually discovers the truth about Kirby's murder. Plenty of typical hard-edged action in the Sunset Carson manner (including a wild fist-fight finale on the Republic cave-set) but somehow, Sunset seems more laid-back, ill at ease and uncomfortable than usual in the dramatic scenes. Incidentally, there's not a hint of 'Buffalo Bill' or his 'Days'.

 RAIDERS OF THE BORDER (1944 Monogram)
Lightweight Johnny Mack Brown, poorly directed, especially in crucial action sequences, by John McCarthy (1885-1962) whose career as a writer/director goes back to the early '20s. All his work over the years tends to be slow-paced. McCarthy doesn't develop well the Jess Bowers (aka Adele Buffington) plot of rustlers (Ed Cobb, Stanley Price, Dick Alexander) trading their hijacked beef for stolen jewels smuggled in pottery by Indian-hogan-habitating-hermit Ray Bennett. Ellen Hall is the trading post owner from whom the rustlers are stealing. U.S. Marshals Brown and Raymond Hatton (bringing a few bright spots to the picture feigning deafness with his ear horn) investigate. Remade as ARIZONA TERRITORY ('50) with Whip Wilson.

 PRAIRIE MOON (1938 Republic)
Gene Autry meets the Dead End Kids! Store owner Stanley Andrews and his rustlers (Warner Richmond, Ray Bennett, Bud Osborne, Tom London) are using on-the-lam gangster William Pawley's ranch as a hideout for their stolen cattle. When Pawley is gunned down by lawmen, he makes childhood friend Gene Autry promise to care for his three boys who are "orphans" in Chicago. The little tough guys (Tommy Ryan, Walter Tetley, David Gorcey) resent Gene (and pal Smiley Burnette) at first when he brings them West to live on the ranch to which they are heirs. Eventually, Gene teaches the tough kids the difference between right and wrong as they help bring to task Andrews' rustlers. Shirley Deane is the schoolteacher with one of her students being Buster (Brad) Slaven, seen to better advantage in post WWII westerns with Lash LaRue, Eddie Dean and Jimmy Wakely. Art Baker (later of TV's popular YOU ASKED FOR IT) is a judge. David Gorcey is the brother of Leo Gorcey of the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys films of which David was seen in several. Walter Tetley is best known as the Great Gildersleeve's nephew, LeRoy, on radio. Band leader Peter Potter became famous as a deejay on "Peter Potter's Platter Parade" and "Jukebox Jury". An in-joke reference to THE LONE RANGER serial, also '38, has Tetley riding a wooden horse, shouting "Hi-Yo, Silver" . When he falls off, Ryan snaps, "Don't worry, he'll get up in the next episode." Gene sings-and yodels, which he didn't always do, "In the Jailhouse Now".

 BELLS OF SAN ANGELO (1947 Republic)
A seminal Roy Rogers film. The first of the rougher, tougher, harder-edged Rogers films (under director William Witney). The last film for leading lady Dale Evans, until after their marriage later on New Year's Eve '47. This was the last time we'd see Dale with any sensuality. When she returned in 1949 for SUSANNA PASS and others she bore a new wholesomeness that carried over into Roy and Dale's TV series. Roy gets a new sidekick in Andy Devine (Gabby Hayes had left after HELDORADO in late '46, and Republic filled in for one film with Olin Howlin before selecting Devine who would stay on until Evans' return.) In Trucolor, at 78 minutes, it's Roy's second longest film, beaten by MY PAL TRIGGER by one minute. It's a tough story of murder and smuggling with Roy a Border Patrol investigator tracking down a treacherous gang of silver thieves and murderers (led by John McGuire) illegally operating a silver mine. Dale is a hack western fiction writer coming to the border locale looking for material. The real shock to Rogers fans that makes this western memorable, is when Roy is thoroughly beaten up at the mine by Dave Sharpe and Fred Graham. Witney wanted to skew the direction of B-westerns slightly to show even the cowboy hero can be vanquished when faced with overwhelming odds. He also showed us the first hint of blood, bruises and torn garments in garish Trucolor. The one drawback to Sloan Nibley's script is the silly sub-plot of comic Sheriff Andy Devine turning out to actually be an English Earl by relationship, bringing in Englishman Olaf Hytten and an implausible fox hunt in the desert. Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers have good parts, contributing "Lazy Day" and "Cowboy's Dream of Heaven". Easily, one of Roy's best.

 THUNDERING HOOFS (1941 RKO)
Crooked lawyer Archie Twitchell tries to underhandedly buy Charles Phipps and daughter Luana Walters' struggling stageline cheaply so he can resell it at a profit. Tim Holt and his pals Ray Whitley and Lee 'Lasses' White go to work for Walters, throwing Twitchell and his gunnies' (Monte Montague, Frank Ellis, Bob Kortman) plans awry. A few unusual plot twists but needed a dose of more action. This film is a location lover's delight --- using the RKO ranch, Jauregui Ranch, Iverson's and Corriganville. It also offers a trio of surprises in the supporting cast. Fred Scott (wearing a mustache), the singing cowboy star of a series of Spectrum B's from '36-'40, is the guitar-playing but non-singing leader of the Six Bar Cowboys. Spade Cooley joins them on fiddle and a pre-Chito Richard Martin has a non-speaking role as he takes a turn around the dance floor.

 RIDING THE SUNSET TRAIL (1941 Monogram)
Crooked rancher Kenne Duncan has his men (Tom Seidel, Earl Douglas, Sherry Tansey) ambush Duncan's half-brother, rancher Jimmy Aubrey. With Aubrey dead, Duncan inherits Aubrey's ranch with a forged will-leaving Aubrey's real heirs, daughters Betty Miles and Sugar Dawn out in the cold. When Duncan orders the girls off the ranch and takes their cattle, Tom Keene and his pal Frank Yaconelli intervene. Soft voiced but tough Betty Miles has a great chase sequence, evading the bad guys. Yaconelli has a lot of really unfunny stuff over bear traps. Gene Alsace (aka Rocky Camron) is a south of the border badman who ends up helping Keene. Western Boo-Boo: In Keene's fight with Duncan about 15 minutes into the film, Tom's final haymaker starts with a right cross, but the follow through is with his left arm. Remade by producer/director Bob Tansey as TUMBLEWEED TRAIL ('46) with Eddie Dean.

 NAVAJO KID (1945 PRC)
Bob Steele's tracking down the murderer of father #643. Or is he? The Indian agent Bob believed was his Dad is murdered and robbed. At that point Bob discovers the agent is only the man who raised him with the Navajos after Apache raiders killed his parents. Bob soon discovers the killers are Stanley Blystone, Charles King and Edward Howard. He also discovers his real father is alive and turns out to be-Well, watch and see. It's the one surprise in an otherwise routine PRC. Leading lady Caren Marsh, in her only B-western, is cute but inconsequential to the plot. Bob Steele had been grinding 'em out since late 1927, a pretty spectacular 19 year run, third only to Buck Jones and Ken Maynard. (We're counting silent and talkie films here.) This was the first of the last series of four for Steele.

 RIDERS OF THE DEADLINE (1943 United Artists)
Texas Rangers Hopalong Cassidy, Andy (California) Clyde and Jimmy Rogers champion the cause of young Richard Crane (later star of TV's ROCKY JONES, SPACE RANGER) who has fallen in with bad company at Anthony Warde's gambling joint. The threesome support Crane when his Ranger appointment comes through, but Crane is indebted to crooked banker William Halligan who puts the squeeze play on Crane in order to use him and his sister Frances Woodward's ranch for his border-hopping gun smuggling activities in league with Warde and his top gun Robert Mitchum. When Crane refuses to help them, the gang frames him, then with the conniving aid of crooked sheriff Hugh Prosser, kill Crane and blame Hoppy for trying to help Crane escape. Supposedly cashiered out of the Rangers, Hoppy joins Warde's gang. Unusual for a Cassidy picture, Hoppy calls his horse Topper by name. Watch for roper Montie Montana as one of the Rangers. Bennett Cohen wrote the screenplay, and it's a redo of his own DESERT BANDIT ('41) with Don Barry.

 OLD LOS ANGELES (1948 Republic)
Warmed over B situations inflated to 87 minutes with songs (Estelita and Catherine McLeod) and romantic trifles between John Carroll and Estelita (even Carroll sings a little). William Elliott (with pal Andy Devine in tow) leaves Missouri for California to join his brother (Henry Brandon) and prospect for gold. Upon arrival he finds his brother has been killed, his claim stolen, and outlaws, led by saloon owner Joseph Schildkraut in cahoots with crooked Marshal Grant Withers, terrorizing the countryside in a land grab spree. Elliott meets Schildkraut's saloon entertainer, McLeod, who is secretly a government agent working to get the goods on Schildkraut. Eventually, the hotshot of the gang, John Carroll, becomes power-mad and kills Schildkraut and everyone else who could help him run the gang. Elliott, learning also Carroll is the one who murdered his brother, faces Carroll in a shootout on the streets of old L.A. Stretched about 30 minutes beyond its ability to hold interest.

 GUNPOINT (1965 Universal)
Audie Murphy's last western for Universal is a hodge-podge of faked studio sets, impressive St. George, Utah, locations, contrived plotting (from Mary and Willard Willingham) and liberal doses of stock footage from earlier Murphy westerns. Therein lies one of this film's primary interests --- guessing from which films various action sequences were lifted (NIGHT PASSAGE, KID FROM TEXAS, CIMARRON KID, KANSAS RAIDERS, SIERRA, even Jimmy Stewart's BEND OF THE RIVER). Audie is sheriff of a tough town who leads a posse in pursuit of an outlaw gang (led by Morgan Woodward) who have kidnapped saloon singer Joan Staley after robbing a train. The posse gradually dwindles to three, Murphy, the rescued Staley and saloon owner Warren Stevens who wants the robbery loot --- and Staley --- for himself. Also with Edgar Buchanan, Royal Dano, David Macklin, Denver Pyle, Roy Barcroft, Kelly Thorsden, Nick Dennis. Technicolor. Directed by Earl Bellamy --- but a lot of credit has to go to editor Russell Schoengarth for tying together all the stock.

 ROLL THUNDER ROLL! (1949 Equity)
The third of four Cinecolor Jim Bannon Red Ryder outings finds him helping Mexican Robin Hood, El Conejo (overplayed by I. Stanford Jolley), who is being framed by saloon owner Ace Hanlon (Glenn Strange), barber Lee Morgan and gunman Lane Bradford for their banditry. Barber Morgan's niece is Nancy Gates who is in love with Sheriff Steve Pendleton. Don Kay Reynolds --- Little Brown Jug --- is Little Beaver, Emmett Lynn is Buckskin hamming it up, (trying to steal every scene he's in) and Marin Sais makes a good Duchess. Bannon's double is Rocky Shahan who later gained fame as trail drover Joe Scarlett on TV's RAWHIDE. There's a montage of action stock footage from Eddie Dean Cinecolor westerns. Working title for this one was COUNSELOR AT GUN LAW. The final title refers to Ryder's horse, Thunder.

 MYSTERY RANGE (1947 Dorado)
You'll squirm in your seat waiting for this painful excuse for a western to conclude. Written/directed/produced by Ande Lamb, the "story" has Jim Lambert on trial for the murder of his brother. Circuit riding judge Lee 'Lasses' White and his deputy Don Haggerty ferret out the real killer. The only reason to suffer this bore is to watch as yet undeveloped actor Jack Elam steal the show as a half-wit. Also with singer Texas Jim Lewis, Ruth Whitney (she's also in TEXAN MEETS CALAMITY JANE '50 with Lasses, also directed by Lamb), veteran heavy Forrest Taylor and a whole bevy of unknowns. At the time this was made, late 1946, Lamb and White had just finished two Jimmy Wakely features together (MOON OVER MONTANA, WEST OF THE ALAMO).

 WICHITA (1955 Allied Artists)
Joel McCrea is Wyatt Earp, marshal of wide open cowtown, Wichita, Kansas, in another Hollywood mixture of fact and fancy, mostly the latter. In reality, in 1874 Earp was hired as a policeman in Wichita where his brother James was a bartender and James' wife ran a brothel. Wyatt moved to Dodge City in 1876. Bat Masterson (Keith Larsen) is a young newspaper reporter (working for editor Wallace Ford). Actually, Bat was a buffalo hunter in 1874 and most likely first met Wyatt in Dodge in 1876. Masterson became deputy sheriff in 1877, then sheriff. His newspaper work didn't come until the last few years of his life in New York City. (He died in 1921.) But forget the question of whether the film does an accurate job with reality, it presents great action and drama under director Jacques Tourneur for a tightly scripted (Dan Ullman) 81 minutes as Earp brings law and order to wild and wooly Wichita. Excellent support from Walter Coy (a railroad man), Vera Miles (his daughter --- and Keith Larsen's real life wife), Edgar Buchanan (bad Doc Black), Walter Sande (boss of trail herders), Lloyd Bridges (hothead gunman), Rayford Barnes, Jack Elam, Bob Wilke (trail herders), Peter Graves (Morgan Earp), John Smith (Jim Earp), Carl Benton Reid (Mayor). Tex Ritter sings the title tune.

 SING, COWBOY, SING (1937 Grand National)
Tex Ritter and pal Al St. John stop a freight wagon raid in which Louise Stanley's Dad is killed. In a drive-out, Karl Hackett and his badmen (Charles King, Tex Palmer, Chick Hannon) want exclusive rights to the freight hauling business. There's a spectacular finish with one of the wildest, unscripted wagon and horse wrecks ever filmed. Earlier, Tex and Charlie have another of their two-fisted barroom set-tos after Charlie declares, "This place ain't big enough for the two of us." Tex sings four songs including his "Goodbye, Old Paint" and there's one by Tex Ritter's Tornadoes led by Rudy Sooter. Horace Murphy and Snub Pollard are in this film but are not yet the Ritter sidekicks Stubby (or Anninias) and Pee Wee that they would become in the next few films. Here Murphy is the local sheriff and Pollard is his dopey prisoner.

 ARIZONA LEGION (1939 RKO)
George O'Brien, working undercover to secretly form the Arizona Rangers with Judge Edward Le Saint, is ostracized by his sweetheart (and Le Saint's daughter) Laraine Johnson (later Laraine Day) and other townsmen for his association with a gang of bandits led by Whiskey Joe (Harry Cording). Because of his undercover work, O'Brien nearly loses his girl to unlikable, wimpy young Army lieutenant Carlyle Moore Jr. before O'Brien learns Cording's gang is secretly bossed by Commissioner Tom Chatterton and saloon owner William Royle. This is the first of several films with Chill Wills as O'Brien's sidekick Whopper Hatch, bold teller of tall tales. Okay, but nothing special for O'Brien.

 ROARING WESTWARD (1949 Monogram)
Tough town-tamer Marshal Jack Ingram kills young Buddy Swan by mistake, believing him to be a claim-jumper. Buddy, a friend of Jimmy Wakely's, has been on vacation at Aunt Claire Witney's ranch and is a student at the newly formed Sheriff's association school for wayward boys. Trouble is, the benefactor left a large trust fund to support the school with the provision if any boy got into trouble within five years after the fund was started, the trust would be revoked. It's up to Wakely (and pal Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor) to worm his way into the claim jumping gang (Kenne Duncan, Dennis Moore, Holly Bane) and prove Buddy innocent. Trying to help, Marshal Ingram's daughter, pretty blonde Lois Hall interferes and nearly messes up Jimmy's well laid plans. Strong Ronald Davidson story directed by Oliver Drake. But sadly, not a song in earshot for Wakely's last-produced B-western over a healthy 5 year period ('44-'49).

 LAWLESS EMPIRE (1945 Columbia)
One of the first group of eight Durango Kids made with Dub Taylor and Tex Harding as sidekicks before Smiley Burnette arrived at Columbia and a certain sameness settled into the Durango epics. This one's the old story of greed and power as gambler John Calvert and his range renegades (Ethan Laidlaw, George Chesebro) try to drive out all the homesteaders. But their real boss turns out to be --- surprise, surprise --- kindly Doc Forrest Taylor. Charles Starrett as Steve becomes marshal while his alter-ego, The Durango Kid, works slightly outside the law to bring the gang down. Action is stymied at one point as sky pilot Tex Harding, leading lady Mildred Law, and Bob Wills' Texas Playboys all join in on a dreary dirge, "Farther Along". Much better is Wills with Tommy Duncan on "Home In San Antone", "Stay All Night" and "Devilish Mary".

 SIX BLACK HORSES (1962 Universal-International)
Burt Kennedy's taut script for this basically three-person western recycles several ideas and lines from Kennedy's Budd Boetticher directed Randolph Scott films. One whole sequence in which a group of Coyotero Apaches (led by Henry Wills) try to trade Joan O'Brien for a horse is a copy of a scene from RIDE LONESOME ('59). Kennedy also recycled his famous "Some things a man can 't ride around." line from Scott's TALL T ('57). Kennedy's own "A man needs a purpose to ride this land" was likewise recycled here by Dan Duryea who, with Audie, has been hired by O'Brien to make a four day trek to escort her across hostile Indian territory to reach her husband. On the way, we learn Duryea killed O'Brien's husband, so she now wants revenge --- to see him dead. Murphy does his usual adequate job while Duryea performs his third (and best) go-round with Audie (RIDE CLEAR OF DIABLO, NIGHT PASSAGE). Overall, with recycled ideas from Kennedy, and the lack of biting direction that Budd Boetticher was able to instill in Burt's scripts, SIX BLACK HORSES under Harry Keller's direction comes off as a slightly plodding story, enlivened now and then by violent outbursts. Republic vets George Wallace, Roy Barcroft and Bob Steele all have small roles.

 SUNSET IN THE WEST (1950 Republic)
Plenty of action but uninspiring songs in this William Witney directed Trucolor Roy Rogers adventure that finds gun runners using a train to escape and hide their spoils. Gun runners William Tannen and Gaylord (Steve) Pendleton are working for rare gun collector Pierre Watkin. Aging Sheriff Will Wright is in danger of losing his job unless he, with the help of Roy, Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage, can track Watkin down. Pretty Penny Edwards is Wright's daughter in her first Rogers film, but there's no romance, just friendship. (At one point Penny scribbles a beard onto a wanted poster of Roy Barcroft --- who is not in the movie.) Strangely, Republic regular Estelita is billed above Edwards and has far less to do, just sing a song in the cantina and look suitably Spanish. Guess she had a good agent and was employed by Republic earlier, so. Comedy relief in the capable hands of Gordon Jones, a barber and deputy.

 CHECK YOUR GUNS (1948 PRC)
Lean and tough, Joseph O'Donnell's screenplay is all-out action as Ray Taylor directs with a surer hand than usual making this one of Eddie Dean's best. Plain and simple, there's no law and order in Red Gap until Eddie Dean and Roscoe Ates clean-out the bottom-dwelling element: I. Stanford Jolley, George Chesebro, Terry Frost, Lane Bradford, Marshall Reed, Mikel Conrad and Russell Arms (later a singer on TV's YOUR HIT PARADE) and crooked judge William Fawcett. Andy Parker and the Plainsmen sing and Eddie duets with pretty Nancy Gates.

 OLD TEXAS TRAIL (1944 Universal)
In Galveston, crooked businessman Joseph H. Greene hires George Eldredge to thwart pretty Marjorie Clements and her father, Harry Strang, from putting her postal road stagecoach line through Texas before her option rights expire. Eldredge's man Art Fowler kills Strang, then wounds and trades clothes with Rod Cameron, the trouble shooter on the way to help finish the road. Meanwhile, the heavies have hired unscrupulous Virginia Christine (later Mrs. Olsen on TV coffeemercials) to operate a saloon where all Marjorie's men are influenced against finishing work on the road. Cameron is helped by silly insurance salesman Fuzzy Knight. With Cameron's credentials, and clothes, Eldredge has henchman Ed Cobb impersonate Cameron for Marjorie and Eddie Dew, her foreman. Now Cobb is in a position to sabotage the work. Cameron, meanwhile, is taken for Fowler by Christine and her bunch and manages to undermine Cobb's sabotage efforts. And if you think that plot's complicated, wait til you see the rest. It's a fast moving merry mix-up with screenwriter William Lively borrowing some plot elements from his BILLY THE KID'S RANGE WAR ('41). The windup is a wild stagecoach ride over an unimproved cattle trail with the badmen about to blow up the coach at Rock Creek Bridge. As usual in some Universal westerns, some of the comedy elements are played too broadly by Fuzzy Knight, Christine McIntyre and Sheriff Jack Clifford. George Turner has a small role as one of the outlaws. He later starred in Republic's SON OF ZORRO serial ('47) then seemed to forever disappear. Merle Travis sings "Ridin' Down That Old Texas Trail", a Fleming Allan song, while Eddie Dew and Ray Whitley sing "Trail Dust" (not the same as the one heard in a Hoppy western).

 SINGING GUNS (1950 Republic)
Bland but likeable Vaughn Monroe in the first of his two Republic starrers. Vaughn is wanted outlaw Rhiannon who has stashed a million dollars in gold stolen from Great Western Mine Co. who have done him wrong in the past. Determined to capture Rhiannon is Sheriff Ward Bond who is critically wounded in a fight with the outlaw. Suffering an attack of conscience, Rhiannon takes a chance and brings Bond into the town doc, Walter Brennan. Appreciating what he's done, and not realizing who he really is, the town appoints the outlaw Sheriff until Bond is well. Rhiannon accepts, at first with ulterior motives to rob Great Western, but eventually begins to appreciate being on the right side of the law. Monroe also falls for Bond's girl, Ella Raines-and she for him. When Bond recovers he discovers what has happened and sets out to jail Rhiannon and regain his girl. In a terrific scene in the saloon, Monroe cleverly croons "Singing My Way Back Home" to Great Western owner Jeff Corey. Monroe also belts out his 1949 hit "Mule Train". Watch for both Billy Gray and Elinor Donahue in bit parts --- the pair co-starred as Robert Young's children on TV's FATHER KNOWS BEST in '54. Listen to the narrator's voice --- it's Republic badman Roy Barcroft.

 PHANTOM GOLD (1938 Columbia)
Jack Luden's B-western career was over practically before it started. This was the last of four produced by Larry Darmour for Columbia release. Darmour was responsible for the Ken Maynard, Bob Allen and Jack Luden series released by Columbia --- seemed like Darmour was getting farther and farther away from success until he next signed Gordon (Bill) Elliott to finish out the four remaining westerns he'd contracted to produce for Columbia. With Luden, Darmour had tried various approaches, in this one he tries a trio --- Luden, singer Art Davis and black actor Jimmy Robinson as Pancake, which actually worked quite well and might have developed into something if given a chance. (Although it is kinda odd to watch Luden strumming a gee-tar while Art sings!) Luden and his pals find Forrest Taylor's orphaned son, Barry Downing and his dog Tuffy, on the prairie after outlaws wiped out his parents in a robbery. The outlaws (Slim 'Rattler' Whitaker, Hal Taliaferro, Whitaker's lady friend Marin Sais, Jack Ingram) scheme to start a phony gold rush to bring people and cash back to their ghost town by salting an old mine that's petered out. Into this town ride Luden and his entourage. Beth Marion is the cute blonde Luden romances who works in Sais' diner. Highlight of the film are the outrageous comical scenes between Whitaker and Sais. Well directed by Joseph Levering and nicely photographed by the always more than competent James S. Brown Jr. who had lensed many westerns for Darmour. Brown went on to shoot the Ellery Queen series, many of the Crime Doctor entries, several good Bowery Boys and other later westerns with Jimmy Wakely, Eddie Dean and Lash LaRue.

 TOPA TOPA/CHILDREN OF THE WILD/KILLERS OF THE WILD (1938 Pennant; 1939 Grand National; 1940 Times Exchange)
Even though it's release title got stronger each time, the film is still a total loser. A wolf dog (Silver Wolf) is falsely accused of the murder of a trapper (Trevor Bardette), a crime committed by LeRoy Mason who lusts after Bardette's daughter, Helen Hughes (later Joan Valerie). Naturalist James Bush sets things right. Possibly notable for the inclusion of Jack Kirk, Rudy Sooter and his group who do a couple of songs at a dance.

 BORDER OUTLAWS (1950 Jack Schwartz Prod./United International/Eagle Lion)
Rustlers of Douglas Woods' cattle are receiving smuggled diamonds in exchange for beef from a black-cloaked Phantom Rider-not too difficult to figure out it's Bill Kennedy posing as an easterner who can't ride well at Spade Cooley's Dungaree Dude Ranch. Enter special agent Bill Edwards, a 6' 5" lanky, low-key non-actor who came from rodeo into westerns at the tail end of the era. He left acting and became an artist creating covers for paperbacks as well as painting fine art scenes. Edwards died in 2000 at 81. Edwards and Cooley join forces to track down the gang (John Laurenz, George Slocum, Johnny Carpenter). Maria Hart, as Woods' niece, sings one song while Spade and the boys fiddle around. Stuntman/director Richard Talmadge has his brothers --- the Metzetti Boys --- perform all sorts of tumbling routines as comedy relief. Different --- but out of place! So low budget that not even one head of cattle is seen in this rustling story!

 GUN SMOKE (1935 Kent)
Adapted from GUNSMOKE ON THE GUADALUPE by Paul Evans Lehman, who also possibly wrote the script, although no screenwriter credit is given. Billed as a Montie Montana produced western, it was Willis Kent who financed the film, simply paying Montie for the use of his name which Kent hoped would help sell the picture. Also, possibly included in the deal, was Montana's paint horse which "star" Buck Coburn rides. The same year Kent starred Montie in CIRCLE OF DEATH. With both GUNSMOKE and CIRCLE OF DEATH, Kent was searching for a cowboy "star" to replace his now defunct Reb Russell series. Neither clicked, so Kent stayed with exploitation features under the Real Life Dramas banner (WAGES OF SIN, MAD YOUTH, PACE THAT KILLS etc.) until 1940. Kent died in 1966 at 87. Buck Coburn is better known as Gene Alsace playing heavies in B-westerns from '35-'42 under that name before he, or producer Robert Tansey, changed his moniker to Rocky Camron when Tansey co-starred him in some Trail Blazers at Monogram. Born in 1902, Camron died in 1967. Disreputable law-shark Philo McCullough and his hired gunnies led by Bud Osborne run 20,000 sheep onto the cattle ranch of Henry Hall and his beautiful daughter, Marion Shilling, in revenge for Hall's refusal to let Osborne court Shilling. Hall and Shilling are helped by new hand Buck Coburn and his friends (Roger Williams, Ben Corbett, Nelson McDowell, Dick Botiller) who suspect McCullough actually takes orders from Lloyd Ingraham who was run off his range 25 years ago by Hall. That night, Hall's son was born on the open range and Hall's wife died. Ingraham gave up his son for adoption and lost track of him over the years. Possibly you can guess who the long-lost son turns out to be! Poorly acted (as most Kent films are), crudely directed (by Bartlett Carre) and saddled with stilted western pulp-fiction dialogue. Many prints carry the title GUNSMOKE OVER THE GUADALUPE.

 SADDLE BUSTER (1932 RKO)
Scripted by Oliver Drake, well-directed by Fred Allen (not the radio comedian), this rodeo yarn defies the conventional B-western with heroes and outlaws. Star rodeo rider Tom Keene goes to work for Fred Burns' outfit and is cajoled by flirting Marie Quillan, a female rodeo rider, into riding Burns' most vicious horse, Wild Fury. Severely thrown and stomped by the animal, Keene develops a haunting fear of ever breaking horses again. Alone in the mountains, he must confront his inner fears so he may return to the rodeo and once again mount the notorious Wild Fury. Unfortunately, budgeted at $38,000, the film grossed only $25,000 and RKO put Keene back in more conventional westerns. Jack Kirk and cowboys sing several songs including "Girl of My Heart" and Fred Burns performs some fancy rope tricks.

 ARIZONA BOUND (1941 Monogram)
Filmed in Prescott, Arizona, the summer of '41 saw the first of one of the most beloved and well-remembered B-western series ever made. The Rough Riders (Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, Raymond Hatton) was the inspiration of producer Scott Dunlap to star two near-legendary B-cowboys in a series with a well known sidekick. Monogram, in need of a strong series, bought the premise and eight Rough Riders features were made before, with the onset of WWII, Colonel Tim McCoy, a long-time reservist, was placed on active duty. Jones and Hatton carried on (with Rex Bell replacing McCoy) in the dismal DAWN ON THE GREAT DIVIDE ('42). Before more could be made, Buck died tragically in the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston the night of November 28, 1942. (Buck actually survived the fire but died two days later.) From there, Monogram lured Johnny Mack Brown away from Universal and the "series" carried on with Brown (as Nevada Jack McKenzie) and Hatton remaining as Sandy Hopkins. Although there had been "trio" westerns before (3 Mesquiteers, Range Busters), the Rough Riders created the concept of two former stars co-starring together. The idea was repeated by Monogram with Ken Maynard/Hoot Gibson (and later Bob Steele) as the Trail Blazers, James Newill and Dave O'Brien (and later Tex Ritter) as The Texas Rangers, even Republic joined Tom Tyler with Bob Steele in their 3 Mesquiteers series when Bob Livingston left the second time. Then, there were other one-off hybrids such as Roy Rogers' gathering of stars for BELLS OF ROSARITA ('45) and TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD ('50). Screenwriter of all 8 Rough Riders entries, Jess Bowers' story here has Buck Jones drawn from retirement on his ranch to go to the lawless town of Mesa City, overrun by saloon owner Tris Coffin and his hired gun-throwers (Slim Whitaker, Ben Corbett, Gene Alsace). Luana Walters' stageline is being plagued by holdups, more than her sweetheart Dennis Moore can handle. Joining Buck are Tim McCoy (posing as a Sky Pilot) and Raymond Hatton as a cattleman. The first half is a bit slow as the characters of Jones, McCoy and Hatton are established in their first film, but the second half literally explodes as Buck goes to chewin' gum and the Rough Riders ride again! Watch for another former star, Bob Baker, at the tail end of the picture as Sheriff Bat Madison.

 PHANTOM STAGECOACH (1957 Columbia)
It's all-out action as badmen Hugh Sanders and his gunslicks (John Doucette, Lane Bradford) seek to drive rival stageline operator Frank Ferguson out of business. William Bishop (a highly under-rated actor who should have "starred" in more westerns) saves one of Ferguson's stages and goes to work for the stageline operator only to immediately butt heads with Richard Webb (later TV's CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT) who is in love with Sander's niece Kathleen Crowley and is secretly in league with Sanders. Directed with all the verve Ray Nazarro put into his Durango Kid B's and enlivened by a generous amount of stock from TEXAS, STAGE TO TUCSON and other fine Columbias. Good supporting cast includes Perry Helton, Lane Bradford, Eddy Waller, Dennis Moore, Kermit Maynard, perennial Sheriff Ray Teal, Maudie Prickett.

 WEST OF EL DORADO (1949 Monogram)
Johnny Mack Brown is on the trail of $10,000 stolen bank loot. Only the late Kenne Duncan's little brother Teddy Infuhr knows where it's hidden (in the lining of his coat) and he ain't telling. Also after the cash are outlaws Marshall Reed, Boyd Stockman and Duncan's old partner Terry Frost and his gang. Johnny must win the confidence of young Teddy-and that's gonna be tough as Brown's the one who killed his brother, Duncan, in a shoot-out. Johnny gets help from Old Brimstone (Milburn Morante) and ranch hand Max Terhune and his dummy Elmer --- both of whom work for Reno Browne. Bill Potter gets to sing a song. Why, I have no idea. Somebody must have heard some talent I do not. Johnny performs some gun tricks.

 NIGHT STAGE TO GALVESTON (1952 Columbia)
Not one of Gene Autry's best Columbias. The banditry is not strongly developed (main heavy Robert Livingston doesn't appear til halfway through the picture), the pacing is off and it lacks the hard-edged Columbia action most Autrys of this period contained. For the first half, Gene basically stands around smiling, letting the plot develop. In a plot similar to Charles Starrett's WHIRLWIND RAIDERS ('48) (both were written by Norman S. Hall), the Texas Rangers are disbanded and the corrupt state police take over. Gene and pal Pat Buttram re-form the Rangers and restore law and order, all the while managing to look after little Judy Nugent, orphaned after outlaws killed her father (Harry Lauter). They eventually turn her over to blustery newspaper owner Thurston Hall and his daughter-editor Virginia Huston while Gene and Pat fight the heavies --- Robert Bice, Frank Sully, Riley Hill, Clayton Moore (on a salary dispute hiatus from THE LONE RANGER TV series), Ben Weldon, Harry Cording --- who all come and go with no regularity. One nice scene has Gene and Judy reciting "The Lord's Prayer".

 LIGHTNIN' CRANDALL (1937 Supreme/Republic)
This contains one of the truly great Bob Steele/Charles King barroom battles. Story has lightnin' fast Bob Steele leaving Texas trying to outrun his gunfighter reputation but winding up in the middle of an Arizona range war when he tries to help Lois January and her father Frank LaRue. Lois' brother Dave O'Brien is on the run from rancher Charlie King for killing one of his men in self defense. King tells Lois he'll call off the hostilities only if she'll marry him --- which she has no intention of doing. While in town, Steele meets up with old friend Earl Dwire, the man who taught him everything he knows about gun-fighting, who is now working for King --- which means Steele will have to face his instructor, gun to gun. Short story writer E. (Edward) B. (Beverly) Mann's story was adapted for the screen by Charles Francis Royal. Mann also wrote the original stories for BOSS RIDER OF GUN CREEK, STORMY TRAILS, GUNS FOR HIRE, GUNS IN THE DARK, RIDIN' THE LONE TRAIL, STAMPEDE and others.

 IN OLD COLORADO (1941 Paramount)
Wealthy cattleman Stanley Andrews and his foreman Morris Ankrum fence off their water holes so as to keep out Andrews' matronly nester-neighbor Sarah Padden and her attractive daughter Margaret Hayes (who found fame in '55 as the sensuous high school teacher in BLACKBOARD JUNGLE) whom Andrews blames for raids on his cattle herds. Ma Padden likewise blames Andrews for her losses. Naturally, it's a group in the middle stirring up trouble for their own profit --- Weldon Heyburn, one of Padden's own men (James Seay), and Andrews' foreman, Ankrum. Ma Padden writes a letter to old friend Buck Peters of the Bar 20 to sell her cattle so she can meet her bank notes, so naturally Peters sends his best men to help her with $20,000 in cash to make the purchase --- Hoppy, Lucky (Russell Hayden) and California (Andy Clyde). Once there, Hoppy easily ferrets out the real troublemakers. Russell Hayden is credited in publicity material as a contributing screenwriter but the on-screen credits only list Norton S. Parker and J. Benton Cheney. Too much screen time is given over to Padden's cook, double talk artist Cliff Nazarro.

 RUSTLER'S ROUNDUP (1946 Universal)
Ex-Marshal/town tamer Kirby Grant arrives in Rawhide planning to buy a few cattle and settle down but finds the town run by a corrupt element (Sheriff Earle Hodgins and three rustler brothers-Ed Cobb, Frank Marlo, Ethan Laidlaw). At first reluctant to get involved, he changes his mind after leading lady Jane Adams' father, Eddy Waller, is murdered by Cobb. Being appointed U.S. Marshal, with the help of pal Fuzzy Knight, Kirby brings the gang to justice in a gun-battle riddled action finish. You've never seen so many riders, buckboards and wagons racing hell-bent over hill and dale, crossing rivers in a mad dash to reach town and help Kirby. Kirby sings a couple of songs and Jane sings "Vote For Cal Dixon" based on "Vote For Emily Morgan" from Johnny Mack Brown's SILVER BULLET. The name Cal Dixon comes from Brown's LAW AND ORDER. RUSTLER'S ROUNDUP utilizes story elements from both Brown films --- even crediting Sherman Lowe/Victor McLeod (LAW AND ORDER) for the original story. Screenplay here assigned to Jack Natteford. Western Boo Boo: In calling juror names, Judge Charles Miller reads off the name "Pete Hannigan" twice.

 BELLE STARR'S DAUGHTER (1947 20TH Century Fox)
New Marshal George Montgomery raids the outlaw laden Cherokee Flats held by Belle Starr (Isabel Jewell --- who also played the lady outlaw in BADMAN'S TERRITORY '46). Fleeing, nasty "Bittercreek" (Rod Cameron) and his wimpy pal, William Phipps, kill Belle in an argument. Belle's daughter, Rose of Cimarron (Ruth Roman) winds up working in a beanery in Montgomery's town, where they begin to fall in love until Cameron's new gang (including Jack Lambert) arrives and leads Rose astray, making her believe it was Marshal Montgomery who killed her mother. Good support from Wallace Ford, Charles Kemper and a host of B-vets in lesser parts-Kenneth MacDonald, John Cason, Carol Henry, Chris Pin Martin, Christine Larson, Charles Stevens, Lane Chandler, Bill Kennedy, Harry Harvey, William H. Ruhl. George may be the star, but Cameron steals the picture in the larger and far showier role as bandit Bittercreek. Solidly in the "famous outlaws" cycle of the late '40s, but surprise, surprise, historically inaccurate as Belle's children were Pearl (fathered by outlaw Cole Younger) and Edward. The real Belle was bushwhacked mysteriously.

 HOLLYWOOD COWBOY (1937 RKO)
A minor entry in the George O'Brien canon of westerns, but an all-important one to director George Sherman and those of us who benefited from his work for four decades. While on location in Lone Pine, CA, director Ewing Scott was injured in a car accident. O'Brien suggested assistant director Sherman take over. So happens, Sol Siegel and a Republic crew were in the area and saw little Georgie directing O'Brien, a major western star. Back at Republic, they gave him a full-shot helming the 3 Mesquiteers WILD HORSE RODEO ('37) which proved to be one of the best of their series and a major directorial career was launched. (See WILD HORSE RODEO.) Movie cowboy O'Brien and sourpuss pal George Caits get involved with a city administration fighting to kick out the gamblers and grifters (Charles Middleton) forming a Cattleman's Protective Association, the old shakedown game, charging cattlemen (and women-like tough ol' Maude Eburne and her lovely niece Cecilia Parker) one cent a pound. Retitled WINGS OVER WYOMING for TV.

 TAMING OF THE WEST (1939 Columbia)
After "peaceable man" Wild Bill Saunders (Bill Elliott) brings in killer Lane Chandler (in one of the most exciting, dramatic beginnings to any B-western), the decent citizens of Prairie Port (fiery restaurant owner Iris Meredith, Judge Ethan Allen, handyman Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor) appoint Elliott marshal to tame the town's helldorado gang (Dick Curtis, James Craig, Stanley Brown, Art Mix and Bob Woodward bossed by banker Kenneth MacDonald). Unadulterated excitement all the way. One of Wild Bill's finest hours.

 LONE AVENGER (1933 KBS/World Wide)
Ken Maynard returns to town after a lengthy absence on the day of his banker father's death, at what appears to be by his own hand. With a huge bank shortage, townspeople believe Ken's father was stealing from his own bank and took his own life. But Maynard knows his Dad was murdered and sets out to bring in the real embezzler, bank VP Niles Welch and his cohorts Al Bridge and William Norton Bailey. Comedy relief, such as it is, supplied by Nip (Charles King) and Tuck (Ed Brady). Film tends toward the town-bound talky side but sports an interesting --- if a bit drawn-out, finale in a driving rainstorm.

 OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS (1938 Republic)
Little Georgie Sherman cranks up the action content full throttle for this modern day 3 Mesquiteers adventure that involves trains, planes, parachutes, buses, cattle thieves and plenty of gun-blazing thrills. Although the railroad and its coming is often a focal point in B-westerns, actual trains are seldom seen. (Cost?) OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS is one of the few to make full use of a horse/train chase/shootout action sequence --- and it's a rouser! As part owners of an airport, the 3 Mesquiteers (John Wayne, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, Max 'Lullaby' Terhune) convince the owner of the Oro Grande Gold Mine to make his shipments by air rather than stagecoach, as the coaches have been surreptitiously robbed over and over by stageline owner Gordon Hart's gang. But when even the airplane is hijacked (the bandits are tipped off by disgruntled, duplicitous airport employee Archie Hall), the Mesquiteers and airline co-owners Anthony Marsh and his sister Louise Brooks are given 24 hours to recover the stolen gold. Watch for Ralph Bowman as a pilot. He'd soon become better known as John Archer. This was leading lady Louise Brooks' last role. She'd been a big star in late silents here and in Europe, but her career had slid since her return from Germany. Director George Sherman tracked Brooks down living in a run-down apartment and helped her resolve some problems so she could make the film. After the picture, Brooks left Hollywood within a couple of years and returned home to Wichita, Kansas. She later moved to New York where she did a lot of writing, including her biography.

 CORONER CREEK (1948 Columbia)
Strong revenge yarn based on a Luke Short story. The long trail leads Randolph Scott to Coroner Creek in search of the renegade white man who led a band of Indians on a stagecoach raid in which Scott's fiancée was killed. In town Scott is befriended by hotel operator Marguerite Chapman as well as rancher Sally Eilers (who in real life was now married to the producer of the film, Harry Joe Brown). Eilers hires Scott as she fights to keep her ranch from greedy George Macready who operates a freight line. Scott is immediately at odds with Macready's man Forrest Tucker who captures Scott, and, in one of the most brutal, vicious scenes in westerns, cruelly stomps on Randy's gun hand. When Scott later gets the upper hand, he returns "the favor" by stomping on Tucker's hand. Although Chapman reminds Scott "Vengeance is mine", he counters with "an eye for an eye". Eventually, Scott ekes out his violent revenge on Macready. Wallace Ford is Eilers' ranch hand and Edgar Buchanan is the Sheriff and father of Barbara Reed who is married to wife abuser Macready. Gorgeously filmed in Cinecolor around Sedona, Arizona, anyone who saw this originally has never forgotten it for its locale grandeur as well as its well developed, although vicious, adult themes. A pivotal film in Scott's career.

 BORN TO BATTLE (1935 Reliable)
Working for the Cattlemen's Association, Cyclone Tom Tyler and his pals Julian Rivero and Nelson McDowell go undercover to investigate a cattle rustling ring. Tom hires out to Charles King, William Desmond and Dick Alexander to drive out rustling nesters while Rivero and McDowell go to work for platinum blonde Jean Carmen and her father Earl Dwire to protect their house. Turns out Alexander is the real rustler. Oliver Drake's story is a bit unusual in that one of the principal good guys is killed midway. Actually, Drake's story is a remake of his own TROUBLE BUSTERS ('33) for Jack Hoxie. Much of it was also incorporated into William Lively's DEATH RIDES THE RANGE ('40). Note that Jimmy Aubrey plays two different small roles back to back.

 MARKED TRAILS (1944 Monogram)
After Bob Steele's lawman uncle (Steve Clark) is knifed and killed by criminals Mauritz Hugo and femme fatale Veda Ann Borg, Steele, who has resisted becoming a marshal, changes his mind and gets hot on the trail of the rangeland Bonnie and Clyde who are now pulling some sort of convoluted oil swindle in another town. Bob's pal, Hoot Gibson (basically assuming a sidekick role here), goes undercover, posing as a dude town-builder. Steele also goes undercover, posing as a tough outlaw and joins Charles Stevens' outlaw gang who are working for Hugo. It's an unfocused mish-mash plot from J. (John) P. McCarthy who also directed.

 UNDERCOVER MAN (1942 United Artists)
Hopalong Cassidy battles border raiders! Sounds promising, but the plot and execution is dull and lifeless, short on visual action, long on explanatory dialog and overburdened with too much supposed comedy-fill dealing with Andy Clyde and Mexican Chris-Pin Martin's eating habits and romancing of Eva Puig. Incidentally, Paramount consulted with Mexican authorities regarding the script and casting in keeping with the "good neighbor" policy being promoted at the time. As a result of requests by Mexican authorities, Mexican characters were played by actors of Mexican descent --- Antonio Moreno, Eva Puig, Chris-Pin Martin, Martin Garralaga, Joe Dominguez and Tony Roux. Ella Boros, originally set to play a lead, was replaced by Esther Estrella. American outlaws, led by Pierce Lyden, have been crossing the border for raids into Mexico while simultaneously Americans have been raided by Mexican bandits, straining relations between the two countries. Ranger Captain Jack Rockwell and his deputy John Vosper send for Hopalong Cassidy and his pals Andy Clyde and Jay Kirby (whose screen name is changed from Johnny to Breezy for this one entry). The trio travels to Mexico and meet up with rancher Antonio Moreno, his daughter Esther Estrella, their American friend Nora Lane and her son Alan Baldwin. The undercover mystery man boss of the raiders impersonates both Hoppy and Moreno throwing suspicion on both men. But who is the black-clad leader of the raiders? Sounds interesting but in execution is pretty dull.

 PARDON MY GUN (1942 Columbia)
Thrill-a-minute action as water company surveyor Charles Starrett stumbles into a plot by crooked Judge Noah Beery and his gunnies (Dick Curtis, Ted Mapes, Lloyd Bridges) to steal $100,000 from cattleman Guy Usher --- money earmarked for a dam to establish electric power. The daughter of sheepherder Joel Friedkin, pretty Alma Carroll, witnesses Usher tossing the money satchel into the bushes as Beery's gunmen chase down and kill him. Carroll hides the money to stop the killers from getting it but they soon kidnap her, hoping to force her to tell them where she stashed it. At one point, when Starrett and Carroll are themselves accused of Usher's death, photographer 'Arkansas' Arthur Hunnicutt testifies on their behalf. Involved and intricate story from Wyndham Gittens who spent most of his time cranking out dozens of serials for Mascot (PHANTOM OF THE WEST, VANISHING LEGION, LIGHTNING WARRIOR) and Universal (FLAMING FRONTIERS, FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS) and even Columbia (CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT, HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE). Texas Jim Lewis and his Lone Star Cowboys (who fall somewhere between the Hoosier Hot Shots and Bob Wills) give out with three tunes.

 CORNERED (1932 Columbia)
The good citizens of Bandera Gap turn against their respected sheriff, Tim McCoy, when Tim's old friend, Niles Welch (falsely accused of the murder of his girl Shirley Grey's father), breaks jail. Removed of his badge, Tim, following a trail of broken match sticks found at the murder scene, finds his way to another town where Welch has also come in search of the real killer --- rustler Noah Beery Sr., who plays it mad-dog outrageous. A pre-code western, it ends with McCoy about to take Beery who exclaims, "The hell you will!" Contains one of the best fights of Tim's western career with Bob Kortman. Art Mix has a nice little role as Tim's deputy, Pee Wee Holmes is a drunk and Walter Brennan (in an early role) is noticed as the court bailiff. Exciting start, slow trial section for 20 minutes, then its non-stop excitement. Much better than the remake, Charles Starrett's TWO FISTED SHERIFF in '37. Also quite similar in plot structure to Buck Jones' RED RIDER serial.

 SEVEN WAYS FROM SUNDOWN (1960 Universal-International)
Audie Murphy is a fresh recruit Texas Ranger given the job of tracking down the killer of his brother, another Texas Ranger. He's assigned the job by Ranger Capt. Kenneth Tobey who is the man actually responsible for Audie's brother's death. Audie captures his prey, Barry Sullivan, but is frequently forced to enlist his help. Crisp direction from Republic vet Harry Keller and a well-written screenplay from Clair Huffaker make this one of Audie's best. The easy, gentle authority of Murphy contrasts perfectly with the bravura display of smooth charm and cunning savagery from Sullivan. Venetia Stevenson, with whom Audie developed a real-life affair, is the token "girl back home". Their on-screen chemistry is obvious.

 ROMANCE ON THE RANGE (1942 Republic)
Fur thieves are operating on the range. One of them, Glenn Strange, says to another who asks about that "wailing sound", "That's just some cowboys singing themselves to sleep!" Sure enough, Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers are singing "Cowboy Serenade" while a cowhand watches over the cattle. But when the cowhand spots the fur thieves and is killed by one of them (Roy Barcroft), Roy and the boys set out after the gang, actually bossed by Edward Pawley, ranch business manager for New York socialite Linda Hayes who comes west with friend Sally Payne to find out what is happening. Coincidentally, Payne has been "dating" Pioneer Pat Brady through a matrimonial club. Linda immediately falls for Roy, but he, at first, sees her as a "snooty eastern owner". After several typical Republic misunderstandings, Roy and Linda get together as the Sons sing "Romance Rides the Range". Gabby Hayes is in there too, hooked on one of those tricky "finger-games". Working title of the film was SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES which was relinquished to 20th Century Fox for $1,160 for use as a Betty Grable picture.

 LOADED PISTOLS (1949 Columbia)
Leisurely paced Gene Autry effort with a mystery angle befitting Charlie Chan or Sherlock Holmes. Old timer Leon Weaver, rancher Robert Shayne, young Russell Arms, waiter Vince Barnett and stalwart Jack Holt are all present at a dice game when the lights suddenly go out and Gene's friend Stanley Blystone is shot and killed. Russell Arms (later of TV's YOUR HIT PARADE) is suspected because his gun was used. Russ' sister, Barbara Britton (the only leading lady ever to receive above the title co-star billing with Gene), defends him when Autry investigates and roots out the real killer. There are two major action pieces --- a bust-up-the-joint fight with Fred Kohler Jr. and a furious stagecoach chase at the end. Gene sings the title song and "When the Bloom Is On the Sage". Watch for bits by old time silent comics Snub Pollard (Pee Wee in some Tex Ritter titles) and Heinie Conklin.

 FIGHTING BILL CARSON (1945 PRC)
Look out! Sneaky I. Stanford Jolley urges all the ranchers to put their money in Fuzzy St. John's newly established bank. Fuzzy as my banker? Not if I was a rancher! Of course, Jolley's idea is to have all the money in one place, making it easier for he and his polecats (Kermit Maynard, John Cason) to rob. One neat plot turn has leading lady Kay Hughes, who gets a teller's job in Fuzzy's bank, turn out to be Jolley's niece who is just toiling there to get the combination to the safe for her rotten uncle. Our old pal Buster Crabbe nabs the crooks, natch. Ends with Fuzzy doing an old vaudeville money-counting routine which is always humorous. Shortest running time at 50 1/2 minutes of all the PRC Crabbes. I wonder if John L. Buster, a minor outlaw killed early on, is the son of perennial PRC player Budd Buster? This is one of only two credits John L. ever amassed --- the other is Crabbe's PRAIRIE BADMEN ('46).

 ARIZONA TRAIL (1943 Universal)
When Johnny Mack Brown left Universal for other pastures at Monogram (replacing the Rough Riders on their releasing slate), Universal tried a few top-lining Brown's former co-star, Tex Ritter, now paired up with either Dennis Moore or Russell Hayden. But within a year, Ritter too was gone (he hooked up with lowly PRC) and Rod Cameron was in at Universal. Sidekick Fuzzy Knight remained the one common denominator at Universal, no matter who the star was. Discharged from Roosevelt's Rough Riders, Tex Ritter and pal Fuzzy Knight head home to Arizona where Tex meets Janet Shaw, a nurse who is caring for Erville Anderson, Tex's Dad. Problem is, Tex is not welcomed by his estranged father who has disinherited him in favor of legally adopted ranch foreman Dennis Moore. Trouble brews between Tex and Dennis, but eventually they join forces to rout land grabbing, heavy-set, pill-rollin' Doc Joseph J. Greene with land baron Jack Ingram and his gun-galoots Glenn Strange, Art Fowler. Johnny Bond and his Red River Valley Boys (including Wesley Tuttle) contribute several songs including "Let's Go" recycled from WEST OF CARSON CITY ('40) when it was sung by Bob Baker.

 MEN OF THE PLAINS (1936 Colony)
Postal inspectors Rex Bell and John Elliott are on the trail of train robbers. The case gets complicated when Bell encounters an old girlfriend, Joan Barclay, now engaged to wimpy George Ball, one of the bandits tied in with suave Forrest Taylor and his gang (Charlie King, Roger Williams). Catch this --- Bell's character name is James Dean! Bit player Jimmy Aubrey turns up in two separate roles --- as a messenger at the start, then later as one of the outlaws. Routine stuff well handled by director Robert Hill and cameraman Robert Cline who did fine work on B's from '32-'47 with Harry Carey, Jack Perrin, Bob Steele, Fred Scott, Range Busters, Tom Keene, Buster Crabbe, Newill/O'Brien, Eddie Dean and others (even several East Side Kids entries).

 RODEO RHYTHM (1942 PRC)
Amateurish, juvenile time-waster is simply an excuse to put the Roy Knapp Rough Rider Kids, the Joe Mackey Riding Group and others into a rodeo arena in an effort to save their orphanage from foreclosure by nasty old skinflint John Frank. A mustached Fred Scott in his last "western" (if you can call it that) belts out several songs as does Pat Dunn, a booming baritone "cowboy singer" you'll wish you never heard. Produced by Del Cal Theatres, Inc. Pass this up at all costs! Cowboy cancer alert: Fred puffs on his pipe.

 PRIDE OF THE PLAINS (1944 Republic)
Bob Livingston's return to Republic after leaving the 3 Mesquiteers in 1941 is a remake of a 1937 Mesquiteers film, HIT THE SADDLE, requiring Livingston to don his old Stoney Brooke outfit for part of the film to match stock footage director Wallace Fox planned to use. With his return to Republic, Livingston took over the aborted Eddie Dew as John Paul Revere series, with Livingston now called simply Johnny Revere. Respected citizen Kenneth MacDonald heads a gang illegally capturing and slaughtering wild horses. To arouse public opinion against the state law protecting wild horses, MacDonald's henchman, Yakima Canutt, paints a trained vicious black stallion to look like the pinto leader of the wild herd. Controlling the black with a whistle, Yak has the stallion kill the foreman of Charles Miller's ranch. Certain the wild horses are not truly vicious, Livingston and veterinary pal Smiley Burnette (sort of a buffonish early horse whisperer) refuse to sign a petition to repeal the law, which puts Bob and his brother, Sheriff Stephen Barclay as Inspector for the Game Commission, at loggerheads. To force the issue, MacDonald and Canutt's gang (Bud Geary, Kenne Duncan, Jack Kirk) cause a stampede, this time trampling Miller to death. Miller's daughter, Nancy Gay, and Barclay turn against Livingston when he still refuses to believe the wild horses are guilty. In the end, the pinto Livingston believed innocent and saved, in turn saves Livingston's life. Bob Williams and John K. Butler revised Oliver Drake's original script from HIT THE SADDLE, spicing it up with an ongoing, charming war of words between Livingston and Gay. Incidentally, Gay, who was quite good, disappeared after two other Republic westerns, MAN FROM THE RIO GRANDE ('43) w/Don Barry and OVERLAND MAIL ROBBERY ('43) w/Bill Elliott.

 PRAIRIE PALS (1942 PRC)
They really ripped this Texas Marshals entry off fast. Shoddy production values from director Peter Stewart (Sam Neufeld/Newfield) even by PRC standards. You can hear mumbling, off camera background voices several times during the course of the film, the worst being just as Art Davis bulldogs an outlaw off his horse. Listen for him (or his stunt double) to yell, "Here we go!". Marshals Art Davis and Bill Boyd infiltrate a gang led by saloon owner I. Stanford Jolley (listen for him to fluff a line --- no retakes). Jolley is having his snakes (Charlie King, John Merton, Kermit Maynard) hold a chemist prisoner in a cave. The chemist, Jack M. Holmes, knows the secret of turning Vanadium ore into synthetic gold. As the local ranches are rife with Vanadium, Jolley's gang is systematically raiding the ranchers, driving them off their land. The chemist's daughter, Esther Estrella, poses as a waitress in Jolley's establishment hoping to get a lead on where the badmen have stashed her Pop. Not faring well in busting up the gang, Art and Bill send for their pal, Marshal Lee Powell. There is one clever scene in the saloon where Art picks out Morse code on his guitar strings for Powell to pick up on. Several songs as usual, including "You'll Be Sorry" written by Fred Rose and Gene Autry and "Prairie Moon" by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter which they previously used in Fred Scott's SONGS AND BULLETS ('38). PRC let no grass grow under Al 'Fuzzy' St. John's feet --- he squeezed in an appearance here (unbilled) as leader of the ranchers while simultaneously sidekicking with George Houston in the Lone Rider series and Buster Crabbe in the Billy the Kid films. Fuzzy made 17 films in '42, even moonlighting away from PRC for some Don Barrys at Republic and a role in the big budget VALLEY OF THE SUN at RKO.

 WESTERN GOLD (1937 20TH Century Fox)
Producer Sol Lesser had been active in the western field since 1933, primarily in series entries starring George O'Brien and Richard Arlen for release through 20th Century Fox. But now, Lesser was unable to negotiate a loan-out from Columbia for Arlen to complete his contract of six westerns for Lesser. (SECRET VALLEY had already been made.) Big band singer Smith Ballew was signed by Lesser to replace Arlen, making 5 pictures altogether --- this was the first, and is a disappointment considering the behind-the-scenes talent familiar with westerns that was involved --- director Howard Bretherton, assistant director George Sherman and writer Earle Snell. As it is, the film is quite tame, without hero Ballew even getting in the "final shot". During the Civil War, President Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.) personally assigns Cavalry officer Smith Ballew to root out the gold thieves (LeRoy Mason, Al Bridge) preventing western gold from reaching the east and the National Gold Reserve. Most of the gold is being looted from Wells Fargo stages run by Howard Hickman and his daughter Heather Angel, whom Ballew, naturally, falls for. Some completely unnecessary "comedy" is injected by Victor Potel and Lew Kelly. A barbershop sequence grinds the film to a screeching halt midway. Texan Smith Ballew had his own big band in college, and later in Chicago. He also sang and recorded at various times with Joe Venuti, Red Nichols, The Dorseys, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. Smith sings several songs here, in particular "Tenting Tonight On the Old Campground" and a great rendition of "Camptown Races". However, his screen presence was rather bland and uninspiring and, after completing the aborted Arlen series, he was never a lead again, although he did appear in a few other westerns over the years with Gene Autry, Johnny Mack Brown and Jimmy Ellison.

 KANSAS TERRITORY (1952 Monogram)
Although Wild Bill Elliott is wanted in Kansas on old Civil War charges, he returns to the territory when he learns his brother has been shot and killed. To Bill's confusion, he finds everyone in town hated his detestable brother and resent him because of his name. Some of them even attempt to bushwhack him. Convinced his brother has been wronged and misunderstood, Bill comes to believe his brother's saloon owner partner, I. Stanford Jolley, was the murderer. With overwhelming comments about his "outlaw" brother from Peggy Stewart (who was engaged to the brother), her crippled father (Lyle Talbot), two rough-neck brothers --- Marshall Reed and Lane Bradford, and the town councilmen (Lee Roberts, attorney House Peters Jr., Piece Lyden, Ted Adams), Bill gradually comes to realize his mission was a mistake but is still determined to gun down his brother's killer. But who is the real killer? Plenty of tough action and dialogue from screenwriter Dan Ullman and director Lewis Collins. Definitely one of Wild Bill's best latter-day Monogram B's.

 FIGHTING LEGION (1930 Universal)
Fugitives Ken Maynard and Frank Rice help a dying Texas Ranger (Bob Walker) who was pursuing them. The ranger then excuses the rambunctious cowboys for shooting up the town if they'll take his place in bringing to justice an outlaw gang in Bowden. Later, mistaken for a Texas Ranger, Ken becomes the lawman in Bowden where he's up against town bosses Stanley Blystone, Ernie Adams and Jack Fowler who try to lay the death of the ranger on Ken because Ken is romancing the girl, Dorothy Dwan, the boss wants. There are some broad comic moments in a barroom brawl with the Hook brothers (Les Bates, Slim Whitaker and Bill Nestell) and this early Maynard talkie is a bit long at 70 minutes but, overall, plenty of fun.

 COVERED WAGON DAYS (1940 Republic)
The 3 Mesquiteers (Robert Livingston, Duncan Renaldo, Raymond Hatton) ride to clear the name of Renaldo's brother! The Mesquiteers arrive to attend the wedding of Renaldo's brother, Paul Marion, to Kay Griffith. Meanwhile, trading post owner George Douglas and his henchmen (Tom London, John Merton) are buying Mexican silver at 30¢ an ounce and selling it across the border at $1.29 against the Bland/Ellison act. The gang is smuggling the silver from a mine on the Mexican side through a secret tunnel they've dug that opens into an old mine on the U.S. side owned by Marion's uncle. Afraid they 'll be discovered when the uncle (Guy D'Ennery) decides to begin working the old mine, Douglas' men kill the uncle, placing the blame on Marion. There's plenty of non-stop stunts, thrills, action and excitement as the Mesquiteers fight to clear Marion's name. At one point, Livingston dons his Lone Rangerish mask, using a whip long before LaRue or Wilson. Incidentally, despite the title, there's not a covered wagon in sight. Leading lady Kay Griffith soon retired and married actor Broderick Crawford. Republic reused Earle Snell's story for MAN FROM THUNDER RIVER ('43) w/ Bill Elliott. The rewrite screenplay was then credited to J. Benton Cheney.

 GLORY TRAIL (1936 Crescent)
First "historical epic" from E. B. Derr's new Crescent Pictures Corp. to star Tom Keene. At the close of the Civil War, former soldiers headed west to open up new territory. The Bozeman Trail into Sioux Territory is opened and Ft. Phil Kearny in Wyoming is established. It's here that former Confederate Captain Tom Keene and Union Lieutenant Frank Melton clash. Redleg renegades Walter Long and Allan Greer lure Union troops away and steal the ammunition wagon which is then recovered by Keene's men. This, and other action set-pieces all take place off screen and are only discussed until the 57 minute point at which time the "big"Indian battle lasts all of two minutes! Gloming onto Joan Barclay gives the viewer the only interest in this dreary, tedious, overwrought 63 minute melodrama. Derr's Crescent was off and failing! Edward B. Derr, a corporation lawyer, came to Hollywood in the mid-'20s with Joseph P. Kennedy, having been associated with the unscrupulous Kennedy since WWI shipbuilding days in Massachusetts. Derr worked for Kennedy at FBO, holding power of attorney for Gloria Swanson til 1930. For a time he worked for MGM before starting up Crescent. When Crescent folded in '39, Derr produced a few for Monogram and PRC, briefly reactivating Crescent in 1946 to reissue REBELLION and OLD LOUISIANA under new titles and building up leading lady Rita Cansino who had struck it big as Rita Hayworth. GLORY TRAIL is definitely not one for "political correctness". Although John Lester Johnson (as Toby) rides along with Keene, he's definitely, at times, subservient. "I ain't nobody, I's just Toby." There are "colored folks" and "drumsticks" remarks and Johnson is referred to as "black boy". As well, Etta McDaniel is Joan Barclay's servant and at one point is told not to be "impudent". However, at the end, a mass wedding is performed and McDaniel and Johnson are included.

 BRAND OF HATE ('35 Supreme)
Strapling Bob Steele is in love with Lucile Browne, daughter of new homesteader William Farnum. Both Farnum and Steele's father, Charles French, approve of what appears to be a hot romance. All that changes when Farnum's long-lost worthless half brother (George Hayes) shows up and moves in to Farnum's house with his two no-count sons, James Flavin and Archie Ricks. Hayes threatens to expose the fact Farnum was once in jail if Farnum doesn't let them hide out there. To keep Bob from harm, both Lucile and her father pretend to rebuff Bob. The situation escalates when Bob's father is shot by the rustler family, Bob's dog, Pardner, is shot and wounded, Lucile's little brother, Mickey Rentschler is abused, and Hayes' two sons begin to look at Lucile with lust in their eyes. Steele goes on a rampage of revenge! One time silent star Bill Patton is one of Bob's ranch hands. Early on, Supreme quite often offered adult themes in their B-westerns, elevating them just a bit beyond the juvenile Saturday afternoon market. From 1934-1938 Steele made 32 westerns for A. W. Hackel's Supreme outfit.

 SILVER ON THE SAGE (1939 Paramount)
Windy (Gabby Hayes) and Lucky (Russell Hayden), in charge of a herd of cattle from the Bar 20 set for delivery to rancher Frederick Burton, find them mysteriously rustled before they can complete the sale. Investigating, Lucky is suddenly accused of the murder of Burton. Lucky believes foreman Dave Talbot (Stanley Ridges) guilty-but he was in town playing cards with Hopalong Cassidy who has just arrived in town and is sizing up the situation --- undercover. Unknown to Hoppy and Lucky, saloon owner Earl Brennan is Talbot's twin brother, although he usually "appears" different by disguising himself with glasses, hairstyle and clothing. The twins therefore "alibi" one another. When Hoppy exposes their "double" dealing, Brennan and his gang (Roy Barcroft, Sherry Tansey, Ed Cassidy, Jim Corey) head for the desert, where they trap a pursuing Hoppy among the cactus. Watch for Buzz Barton in a bit role as one of Burton's ranch hands. Wen Wright is one of the Bar 20 boys as well as doubling for William Boyd. Very entertaining 67 minutes.

 ROUGH TOUGH WEST (1952 Columbia)
A tough mining town is ablaze with corruption until the Durango Kid takes a hand to put out the flames. Charles Starrett is invited to town by his old Ranger buddy, Big Jack Mahoney ("Buck High, Ranger!"). Mahoney, now owner of a local gaming palace, and engaged to singer Carolina Cotton, leads Starrett to believe he is an honest and generous businessman, then appoints Starrett town marshal. Unknown to Starrett or Carolina, Big Jack plans to bilk local miners, using his henchman, Marshall Reed, to carry out his dirty work. Fiery local newspaper editor Valerie Fisher wages a campaign against Big Jack. When Reed and his ruffians try to wreck her office, Starrett begins to doubt his old friend's honesty. As the Durango Kid he operates against Big Jack while maintaining his position as marshal. Eventually, the viciousness of Reed turns even Mahoney against him. A battle rages in which Fisher's grandson, crippled Tommy Ivo, is trapped in a burning town. Smiley Burnette (gratefully well limited in this one) is the local fire chief along with Pee Wee King and His Slowpokes Band. Carolina sings/yodels two songs with the group. Watch for former Durango Kid director Fred Sears as an actor in this one --- in two roles. Mainly as bewhiskered miner Pete Walker, but also as the town doctor. This is one of the few Durango films that screen billed both his horses, Raider and Bullet. The series, which began in 1945, was about to end its twelve year run; only two more, JUNCTION CITY and KID FROM BROKEN GUN, both unavailable for viewing currently, were made before one of the most popular B-western series ever made rode its final trail. This film was remade as an episode of TV's TALES OF THE TEXAS RANGERS.

 FIGHTING SHADOWS (1935 Columbia)
Good script from Ford Beebe with some unusual elements, directed by David Selman (19??-1957) who shepherded several McCoys and Starretts about this time. Mountie Tim McCoy relentlessly tracks down a gang terrorizing trappers into selling them their furs for next to nothing. In the region Tim butts heads with an old nemesis, Ward Bond, both men are in love with Geneva Mitchell. Tim suspects Bond is involved in the fur trading racket along with helpless little squirt, timberland agent Otto Hoffman. Si Jenks is Tim's trapper friend. Young Ward Bond's excellent acting elevates this B beyond the norm. He and McCoy face off in possibly the best screen brawl of Tim's career. Bob Allen, soon to have his own series, is another Mountie. You'd think McCoy's military bearing would make him a natural for more Mountie roles, but his was his only one.

 HELL BENT FOR LEATHER (1960 Universal-International)
Director George Sherman, responsible for a goodly number of B's at Republic in the '30s and '40s, as well as several above average Universal westerns in the '50s, turns in a good one with Audie Murphy amidst the spectacular backdrop of the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine. Horse trader Murphy has his horse stolen by outlaw Jan Merlin, but not before Audie grabs his shotgun. Opportunistic, reward-hungry lawman Stephen McNally deliberately mistakes Audie for Merlin, handcuffs him and plans to kill him before he reaches prison. Audie escapes, taking schoolteacher Felicia Farr hostage as they escape to a town where he believes the vicious Merlin, the only man who can clear him, may be hiding. McNally, normally quite dependable, is allowed to rant and rave to a near ludicrous degree as the corrupt marshal. Small roles go to Allan Lane as a townsman and Bob Steele as a rancher.

 JESSE JAMES AT BAY (1941 Republic)
Roy Rogers' final historical western is a double-header, with Roy playing both Jesse James as a Robin Hood-like figure and badman Clint Burns. It's a very complex script from James Webb that needed more than 56 minutes to do it justice. When farmers are being land-swindled by crooked railroad magnate Pierre Watkin and his double-dealing lawyer Hal Taliaferro, Sheriff Gabby Hayes sends for his ol' pal Jesse James who robs from Watkin then pays him back the overdue farmer's mortgages with Watkin's own money. Along comes Jesse look-a-like Clint Burns who Watkin hires to impersonate Jesse to sully Jesse's "good" name. Becoming involved are two of the dumbest Eastern girl newspaper reporters ever seen --- Sally Payne and Gale Storm. Even when they realize who's who they can't seem to figure it out, or tell anyone! Needless to say, historically, none of this is to be taken with any grain of seriousness. Roy sings one song to Gale and Paul Sells and Ken Card perform a novelty number. But big changes were in store at Republic for Roy. With Roy's next film, RED RIVER VALLEY, the historical west was gone and Roy came into the modern era, adding the Sons of the Pioneers and much more music and light-heartedness.

 ON TOP OF OLD SMOKY (1953 Columbia)
Showfolks Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys are mistaken for Texas Rangers after they help out Gail Davis who is being harassed by optician and rock collector Grandon Rhodes and his no-goods (Kenne Duncan, Robert Bice, Zon Murray and saloon gal Shelia Ryan) because they want Gail's land for the valuable Isinglass on it. Gene's pal Smiley Burnette operates a stageline. Gene sings the popular title tune and he and Smiley have a ball dueting on Hank Williams' "I Hang My Head and Cry", a real highlight from all of Gene's Columbias. Bit of a weak ending dilutes the impact.

 THE DRIFTER (1944 PRC)
This merry chase of Who's Who plays more like one of those Leon Erroll Mexican Spitfire comedies in which Leon and Lord Epping are constantly mistaken for one another. Believe it or not, there's even an extended in-one-door-out-the-other comic situation mix-up here. To top it off, Buster Crabbe's sidekick, Al 'Fuzzy' St. John, comes across a bicycle at the end and does a comedy routine on it. Basically, Drifter Davis, an exact double for Crabbe, has been impersonating him in order to cover up a series of bank robberies staged by him, businessman Ray Bennett, and the manager of Carol Parker's medicine show (Jack Ingram) where Drifter works as a sharpshooter when he's not being a bank robber. Cowboy cancer alert: as Drifter, Buster smokes.

 SIX GUN MESA (1950 Monogram)
Involved Adele Buffington plot is heavy on story, light on action. Lawman Johnny Mack Brown helps cattleman Riley Hill when Hill is blamed for the murder of Holly Bane by the badguys (Leonard Penn, Marshall Reed, Carl Mathews, George De Normand). Gail Davis is the girl, and as sweet and cute as she is, it's easy to see why she didn't sing in other pictures.

 GUNFIGHT AT DODGE CITY (1959 United Artists)
Joel McCrea's last film after a fabulous 30 year career --- until he and Randy Scott came out of retirement in '62 for RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY. GUNFIGHT is a highly sanitized tale of gambler Bat Masterson (McCrea) who becomes County Sheriff in Dodge City, Kansas, after his brother Ed (Harry Lauter) is gunned down while campaigning for Sheriff against the gang controlling politics led by current Sheriff Don Haggerty. The basic story is "mildly" accurate. Bat Masterson moved to Dodge in 1876 and became deputy sheriff while his brother Ed was town marshal. Ed was killed in a gunfight and Bat was elected Sheriff. Closely allied with the gambling in Dodge (he runs an honest saloon with Nancy Gates in the film) he was voted out of office in 1879. In the film, Bat loses his badge by illegally helping friend Ben Thompson (Walter Coy) get his half-wit brother (Wright King) out of a hanging and is then re-elected after gunning down crook Haggerty. The picture alludes to Wyatt Earp being lawman concurrently in Wichita while in fact that was circa 1874 and Wyatt was deputy marshal in Dodge in 1878 while the described events were taking place. That's where the real Wyatt and Bat became friends, controlling (along with Luke Short) gambling and prostitution. A subplot here of a fictional conflict between Bat and gunman Dave Rudabaugh (Richard Anderson) is never fully developed and feels as if the editor's scissors were employed along the way. Speedily directed by Joseph M. Newman with good support from John McIntire (town doctor) and Julie Adams (Lauter's fiancée).

 BORDER ROUNDUP (1942 PRC)
Badman I. Stanford Jolley and his rattlers (Charlie King, Frank Ellis, Nick Thompson, Curley Dresden) kidnap kindly John Elliott intending to force him to reveal the whereabouts of his gold mine. The Lone Rider, George Houston, and his pal, Fuzzy St. John (How can he be alone if Fuzzy's always there?), along with Dennis 'Smoky' Moore, intercede to help Elliott's daughter Patricia Knox (wearing clothes and hairstyle right out of the 1940s rather than the 1880s) find her Pop. The badguys use carrier pigeons to transfer messages between their hideout and Jack Kirk's blacksmith shop in town. After Houston intercepts one of these messages, there's a hilarious scene in a coffee shop between Houston and slow-witted Frank Ellis. There's also some other funny scenes between Fuzzy and Ellis over a gold mine. It's the only scripting credit for Stephen Worth. Was that a pseudonym or didn't PRC appreciate his oddball sense of humor? If all Houston's unmemorable songs sound Fred Scottish, it's because Johnny Lange and Lew Porter previously wrote material for Scott's Spectrum series and a lot of their stuff tended to sound alike.

 BLACK BANDIT (1938 Universal)
A good plot short on action content degrades this to one of Bob Baker's lesser efforts. Twin sons (Bob and Don) of Arthur Van Slyke are quite different in nature. Bob is kind and good natured, Don is jealous and ill-tempered. After an argument, Don runs away from home, eventually riding the outlaw trail as the Black Bandit. Bob grows up to be a lawman, not realizing, at first, he's pursuing his own brother (both roles played by Baker). You can probably guess the ending. The girl is Marjorie Reynolds. Bob's pal is Hal Taliaferro. The Black Bandit's henchman is Carleton Young. The four songs are all by Fleming Allan. One odd scene early on is badly filmed, making it look like Hal Taliaferro is talking to another Hal Taliaferro. Cowboy cancer alert --- as the Black Bandit, Bob rolls his own. Re-released by Realart in 1950.

 WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES (1934 Regal)
The Lightning of the title is the Wonder Dog, certainly not any excitement generated by the film or its male star, Francis X. Bushman Jr., who, unlike his silent film matinee idol father, failed to stir any boxoffice interest. The non-emotional son was simply bland as wallpaper. Crudely acted and photographed, accompanied by a dreadful score (Lee Zahler) that at times is overtly sappy and sentimental, this was the first release from Regal Dist. Corp. in what was a proposed series to star Lightning, the Wonder Dog. Lightning survived this J. P. McGowan directed "barker" and went on to appear in such A-films as A DOG OF FLANDERS. He's also in James Newill's B-Mountie film, RENFREW OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED. The plot (such as it is) involves Bushman and his father, Murdock MacQuarrie (misspelled Maquarie on screen), fighting off the evil machinations of J. P. McGowan (who also wrote and directed. He did everything! --- if you can call it that --- more like penned some notes and aimed the camera) and his northwoods baddies (Tom London, Blackie Whiteford) to steal valuable timberland leases. Regal's shoestring operation, owned by producer Sherman S. Krellburg from '34- '39, only managed to churn out 13 mini-budget films over a five year period and only included one other western, THUNDERBOLT ('36). In '35 Krellburg also made the notorious serial, THE LOST CITY, under the Regal banner although it was distributed by Principal. John 'Jack' King and his dog Kazan made FIGHTING FURY for Krellburg's Regal but it wound up being released as OUTLAW'S HIGHWAY in '34 by J. D. Trop. Krellburg reissued it under his own banner in '35 under the original title. Regal's last releases were foreign imports.

 MY PAL THE KING (1932 Universal)
Pure old fashioned melodrama! And pure fun. It's a charming and different type of western from one of the screen greats, Tom Mix, as he instills in King Rooney the idea of "life, liberty and happiness". The last 15 minutes is old-fashioned high adventure as Tom Mix and his Wild West Show riders storm the castle to rescue the 10 year old boy-king (Mickey Rooney) of Alvonia and his doctor protector, Wallis Clark, who have been kidnapped by evil Count James Kirkwood and are being put to death by drowning in a flooded dungeon. Directed by Kurt Neumann and beautifully photographed by Dan Clark (who shot all of the Mix talkies.)

 NEAR THE RAINBOW'S END (1930 Tiffany)
In his talking film debut, Bob Steele made this singing cowboy movie five years before Gene Autry came along. It's not the age-old sheepman/cattleman dispute over a fence story you're watching this early soundie for, it's to hear and see Bob Steele and Perry Murdock sing "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" and another song, as well as a campfire cowboy song sung by an unknown group. Also notable is one of the classiest heels-over-head backward mounts you'll ever see in a western. Early sound direction by J. P. McGowan is a bit static, but Bob has two dandy fistfights with heavy Al Ferguson.

 THE MISSOURIANS (1950 Republic)
It's a shame Republic ended the Monte Hale westerns in 1950 with THE MISSOURIANS as Monte's last 8-10 films under producer Mel Tucker's guidance were far superior to his earlier efforts, even those shot in Trucolor. Arthur Orloff's THE MISSOURIANS develops solid story telling points for young viewers of the time against prejudice and for equality (in this case Polish immigrants). The vicious Missourians gang led by Roy Barcroft (in one of his best roles) and Lane Bradford are on the dodge from the law. They decide to hide out in Laredo, TX, where Barcroft's estranged mother (Sarah Padden) and kid brother (Robert Neil) are trying to lead respectable lives even though the townspeople, riled up by Mayor John Hamilton, are prejudiced against them because of their nationality and their outlaw kin. Barcroft brings in his compatriot, and front man, Shakespearean actor Howard J. Negley, and they scheme a plan to blame young Neil for robbery and Mayor Hamilton's murder. It takes everything Marshal Monte Hale, his friend lawyer Paul Hurst (and his daughter Lyn Thomas) can do to free Neil and capture Barcroft's band. THE MISSOURIANS ended Hale's 19 B-western film tenure at Republic on a definite high note.

 STAGECOACH WAR (1940 Paramount)
Going against convention and flip-flopping many traditional B-western cliches, this is one of the oddest Hopalong Cassidy films made. Basically a "stagecoach race for the Wells Fargo contract" story, we have a weak band of outlaws led by smiling Rad Robinson (and the King's Men) who constantly sing --- on the range, in the saloon --- in a manner that mixes Dick Foran with barbershop harmony! Then there's the supposed villain (Harvey Stephens) who vies for Pop J. Farrell MacDonald's stage-line contract who turns out to be an okay fellow and even winds up with the girl, the very unattractive daughter of MacDonald, Julie Carter, who, for some reason, Russell 'Lucky' Hayden is also ga-ga over. We'll give screenwriters Norman Houston and Harry F. Olmstead along with director Les Selander an "A" for effort but, ultimately, it remains unsatisfying, with Robinson one of the silliest, weakest villains Hoppy ever encountered.

 SUNSET RANGE (1935 First Division)
First Division was a distribution arm of Pathe for release of independent product on the states' rights market as the company had its own system of exchanges. In 1935, they set up a production company for a proposed four film Hoot Gibson series, of which only two were made, this one and RAINBOW'S END. The company had been distributing Hoot Gibson's Allied titles for producer M. H. Hoffman. First Division acquired Hooter's contract from Hoffman after he and Hoot argued over Hoot's wanting to return to Universal when Allied went belly-up in '34 after two films. First Division released Hoot from the agreement and he signed with Walter Futter's Diversion Pictures. A witty, clever script by Ray Schrock and Paul Schofield make this one of Hooter's better sound films. Mary Doran arrives from Chicago to assume ownership of Sunset Ranch in Arizona, unaware gangster Walter McGrail has hidden $100,000 in stolen bank money in her trunk. Mary's brother, James Eagles, is involved with the heisters. Mary arrives in Arizona to find foreman Reasonin' Bates (Hoot) and the other ranch hands (John Elliott and former silent stars Fred Gilman, Fred Humes) resent her as they'd hoped to purchase the ranch for themselves. Nicely done by director Ray McCarey who went on to direct many light B-comedies, but no more westerns.

 PECOS RIVER (1951 Columbia)
When outlaws continuously raid the stagecoach line of pretty Delores Sidener (her only film or did she change her name and become ???), her driver, Edgar Dearing, sends for help in the form of government postal investigator Charles Starrett who goes undercover and takes a job with Sidener as a driver. About the time ol' Dearing is murdered by the bandits (whip wielding Steve Darrell, Zon Murray and "sniffing" Paul Campbell), Dearing's son, tenderfoot Jock Mahoney, shows up fresh from school back east. Starrett, as the Durango Kid, takes Jocko under his wing and teaches him how to shoot and ride. Take note at this point: Jocko is blatantly wearing his RANGE RIDER belt buckle. (The TV series was being filmed concurrently-'50-'53.) Together, they trap the outlaws. As a spec specialist (glasses salesman), Smiley Burnette's segments are very intrusive. Harmonica Bill plays a couple of tunes with Smiley --- but says nothing!

 DESPERADOES OF DODGE CITY (1948 Republic)
Leave it to scripter Bob Williams to come up with new and interesting plotlines for B-westerns. He does it again here when caravans of homesteaders are constantly being killed and driven off before they can settle the territory known as the strong hold of notorious but never seen outlaw McBride. Now Allan 'Rocky' Lane, stage driver Eddy Waller and five passengers are trapped in a way station by McBride's outlaws. Inside the station with them is McBride himself --- but which one of the five is he? Gambler Tris Coffin? Young easterner headed for Texas Bill Phipps? Surly Roy Barcroft who refuses to give his name? Dancer Mildred Coles? Rancher James Craven? Only a stolen paper one of them possesses will give him --- or her --- away. Credit Williams with something different, exciting and mysterious. Watch for Steve Raines as one of the couriers. He was later trail drover Quince on TV's RAWHIDE ('59-'65).

 BULLDOG COURAGE (1935 Puritan)
Too much palaver! The Phantom Bandit (Tim McCoy) swears banker Karl Hackett stole his mine with a legal technically and vows he'll keep robbing Hackett's gold shipments til Hackett's broken. However, in one of the robberies the Phantom is mortally wounded, but not before he leaves a legacy of revenge to his young son. When he becomes a man, the son (also McCoy) takes up the fight against Hackett (and his gang, Bud Osborne, Edward Hearn, Ed Cobb) where his father left off. He begins by helping his father's old partner, miner John Cowell, and his daughter, Joan Woodbury. The most interesting aspect of the film shouldn't be one of its potent points: Paul Fix's broad comic turn as a "powder monkey" hired by Ed Cobb to dynamite Cowell's mine. Women's libbers will not appreciate the "Girls should be seen and not heard" comments from McCoy and Cowell, although a woman, Frances Guihan, contributed to Joseph O'Donnell's script. It was her first work before moving over to Universal and the Buck Jones series.

 EL PASO KID (1946 Republic)
Associate producer Bennett Cohen recycled his Ken Maynard TEXAS GUNFIGHTER ('32) script for this Sunset Carson B, assigning rewrite duties to Norman Sheldon. After Sunset and his saddle-pal, Hank Patterson, pull out of Robert Filmer's gold-robbing gang (Zon Murray, Tex Terry) when Filmer murders a banker, Ed Cobb and other townspeople, upon Cobb's pretty daughter Marie Harmon's suggestion, appoint Sunset the new deputy sheriff of Laramie City. Even though Filmer tries to blackmail Sunset, the El Paso Kid, back into the gang, Sunset vows to go straight and bust up the gang at the expense of his own past being exposed. For Hank Patterson (1888-1975) this role is possibly the best of his long character-actor career which he wound up by playing stableman Hank Miller on TV's GUNSMOKE. Future B-western star Johnny Carpenter has a minor role. Action-plus windup makes great use of the Republic cave set.

 POSSE FROM HELL (1961 Universal-International)
Audie Murphy leads a rag-tag, slowly diminishing posse in pursuit of a quartet of brutal escaped convicts (vicious Vic Morrow, Lee Van Cleef, Charles Horvath, Henry Wills) who have violently massacred a large proportion of the population of a small town, including the Sheriff, a friend of Audie's. The posse, split by personal differences, gradually loses interest until only Audie, green easterner John Saxon and Indian Rudolph Acosta remain. The western hints at darker depths-Indian racial prejudice, the gang rape of a girl (Zohra Lampert) taken hostage by the fugitives, and a posse of psychotic misfits: the arrogant two-gun youngster (Paul Carr), the glory seeking ex-officer (Robert Keith), the agitated, embarrassed uncle of Lampert (Royal Dano). Performances all around add a richness that lifts the film far above the average trackdown tale. Also featuring: Walter Reed, Allan Lane, Harry Lauter, Ray Teal, Stuart Randall, Rand Brooks, Don Harvey, I. Stanford Jolley, Steve Darrell.

 ROLLIN' HOME TO TEXAS (1940 Monogram)
A really wild one with Tex Ritter releasing the convicts of a prison honor farm to round-up a band of bank robbers. Crooked Harry Harvey is working with prison inmate I. Stanford Jolley helping unsuspecting convicts escape. Harvey's gang (run by Gene Alsace) then enlists them in bank holdups. Then, as the unsuspecting escapee starts to flee, a member of the gang guns them down and claims a reward. Besides the obvious reward money, Harvey is trying to discredit the prison warden (Tex's uncle) and put ousted pal Jack Rutherford back in as warden to cash in on graft money. The gang goes too far when they try to frame a bank robbery on leading lady Virginia Carpenter's anxious-for-a-job young brother. Tex (and his pal Slim 'Hunkapillar' Andrews) vows to help his uncle by enlisting the aid of the trustee-prisoners. Filmed on location in Prescott, Arizona, with plenty of music (8 tunes) from Cal Shrum's Rhythm Rangers, Slim, Tex and Eddie Dean --- who nearly steals the picture singing "Desert Moonlight".

 HOME IN OKLAHOMA (1946 Republic)
Filmed on location at and around the Flying L Ranch near Davis, Oklahoma, this is one of the most expensive looking Republic films of the era. Roy and Dale must have liked the ranch, they were married there in December of '47. This is a tough murder story written by Gerald Geraghty and directed by William Witney. The late Sam Talbot leaves his Flying T to 12 year old Lanny Rees, the ward of ranch foreman Gabby Hayes, upsetting Talbot's vicious niece Carol Hughes, her foreman George Meeker and lawyer/coroner Arthur Space. Local newspaper editor Roy Rogers suspects foul play in Talbot's death when he finds a message left in the Talbot family Bible. Roy investigates, along with St. Louis newspaperwoman Dale Evans. Ruby Dandridge, mother of Dorothy Dandridge who achieved fame with CARMEN JONES, is featured. There's a terrific rendition of one of Tim Spencer's best songs, "The Everlasting Hills of Oklahoma", sung by the Sons of the Pioneers (with Doye O'Dell performing substitute duty).

 WINDS OF THE WASTELAND (1936 Republic)
With the cessation of the Pony Express, two of its best riders, John Wayne and Lane Chandler, decide to pool their dough and go partners in a stagecoach-line business. They are snookered out of their $1,000 by crooked stageline owner Douglas Cosgrove who pawns off to them a franchise in Crescent City, which turns out to be a near ghost town with only two residents, one of whom is old 'Doc' Sam Flint whose daughter Phyllis Fraser soon arrives from the east. Undiscouraged, Wayne and Chandler fight back by entering in a Republic staple --- the stagecoach race for the government mail contract. Cosgrove and his boys (Bob Kortman, Yakima Canutt) do everything they can to stop Wayne from winning --- even to nearly killing Chandler (at which point he virtually disappears from the film). Possibly the best use ever of the Brandeis location ranch (near the famous Iverson Ranch) which often "played" a ghost town in B-westerns. Watch early on for a bit by Charles Locher --- later Jon Hall --- as a pony rider. Stupid line: One pony rider to another: "He's due here in ten seconds!" Really? Didn't know those Pony Express riders were quite that accurate on their arrivals.

 TEXANS NEVER CRY (1951 Columbia)
Starting with one of the best brawls in any of his Columbia pictures (with Kenne Duncan), Texas lawman Gene Autry foils a plot by Richard Powers (usta be Tom Keene) and his trained apes (Duncan, Don Harvey, Stan Jolley, printer Roy Gordon and his daughter, Power's girl, Mary Castle) to make his fortune via counterfeit Mexican lottery tickets. When Gene gets too close to Powers' operation, things heat up. Powers imports hired gunman Russell Hayden (in a very different role for him) to get Gene out of the way. Things get complicated when Hayden falls for Gene's girl, Gail Davis. One of Gene's best (and often overlooked) Columbia efforts with two good songs, the title tune and the reprised "Ride, Ranger, Ride". Besides that, it's a most intriguing title.

 KANSAS CYCLONE (1941 Republic)
Gold ore bandits led by Harry Worth (with Buddy Roosevelt, Jack Kirk, Eddie Dean) are robbing the miners blind. When Don Barry, a geologist from the Kansas School of Mines, arrives he's suspected of being one of the bandits and jailed by Sheriff William Haade, who is secretly in league with Worth's ore bandits. Haade, basically an honest man, needs money to take his sickly wife (Dorothy Sebastian) east for her health. Don is helped by Wells Fargo manager Milton Kibbee and Haade's newspaperwoman sister Lynn Merrick. Working to trap the bandits, Don is tricked and about to be hung by the enraged townspeople who believe he has now murdered Kibbee. But wait --- there's a few surprises left! Another good entry in an always, for some reason, under appreciated series. There's one amusing scene in the saloon when Don knocks out three heavies 1-2-3 as they all fall in a perfectly straight row. Director George Sherman obviously intended a comic moment, but it just comes off odd. Black actor Charles Watts turns in a purely stereotypical and humiliating "yas-suh" performance.

 BETWEEN MEN (1935 Supreme)
The second entry in Johnny Mack Brown's series for producer A. W. Hackel is a perfect example of how an intelligent script (Charles Francis Royal), good acting (strong performance by William Farnum in a role almost equal to Brown's) and thoughtful directing (Robert North Bradbury) can elevate a B-western far beyond its norm. Certainly, coincidence is the name of the game in Royal 's story as Virginia blacksmith Farnum flees west, mistakenly believing he is responsible for the death of his young son. Actually, the boy was only hurt in the melee and is adopted by wealthy Lloyd Ingraham who, two decades later, sends the now grown Brown to New Mexico to locate his granddaughter, Beth Marion, the child of the daughter Ingraham disowned for marrying rancher Frank Ball. In New Mexico, Ball is having trouble keeping slimy ranch hand Earl Dwire away from pretty Beth. Dwire works for Farnum, who has assumed a new name and idenity. To get even, Dwire and his rustlers (Sherry Tansey, Budd Buster) steal Ball's cattle and kidnap Beth. Ball is killed but Brown and new found prospector friend Milburn Morante rescue Beth. Farnum swears to get Dwire for Ball's killing and hires Brown to help him, not realizing, of course, Brown is his son. Protective of Ball's daughter (Beth), and mistakenly thinking Brown has seduced her, Farnum engages Brown in a fight at a remote cabin (reminding older viewers of Farnum's classic battle with Tom Santschi in THE SPOILERS ('14). During the fracas Farnum sees a birthmark on Brown and realizes he is his son. But --- there's still Dwire's gang to contend with. It's a complicated plot, but director Bradbury moves it along at a steady pace, wringing out every moment of drama possible. In the ranks of B-westerns, this is an important picture. It's worth noting, perennial B-western player Budd Buster plays two roles, as a Virginia townsperson, then as one of Dwire's rustlers.

 THE RENEGADES (1943 PRC)
Enough action but routine and lackluster Buster Crabbe Billy the Kid B. It's a land grab plot by Mayor Ray Bennett and his varmints (Tom London, Frank Hagney, Jimmy Aubrey). Crabbe and pal Fuzzy St. John help banker Karl Hackett and daughter Lois Ranson. Ranson, a singer and dancer, had been in Republic's Higgins Family series and UNDER TEXAS SKIES ('40) with 3 Mesquiteers; in all, 10 features at Republic. But after she left Republic she made only a couple more features before disappearing as so many leading ladies did. THE RENEGADES was re-released in 1947 in a 38 minute "streamliner" version as CODE OF THE PLAINS.

 TIMBER TERRORS (1934 Empire/Stage & Screen)
John Preston as Sgt. Morton of the Mounties shuts down the evil activities of Canadian backwoods crooks Tom London, Jim Sheridan and William Desmond. Possibly the best role ever for Sheridan who was also known as Sherry Tansey in dozens of B-westerns. He's the brother of director Robert Emmett (Tansey) who directed this minor effort. This was the second --- and final --- film of a planned Morton of the Mounties series which failed to ignite at the box office. Morton's dog, Captain, plays a big part in this one --- supposedly vicious in his attacks on the bad guys, he's always wagging his tail. Reckon that's a hard thing to control among canine "actors".

 RED SUNDOWN (1956 Universal-International)
Rory Calhoun's best western and an overlooked '50s gem. Traditional story of a gunfighter (Calhoun) trying to go straight becoming involved in the midst of a range war, it's the fine performances all around and Martin Berkeley's tight script (based on Lewis B. Patten's novel Black Trail) that makes RED SUNDOWN a cut above. Director Jack Arnold proves himself more than adept with a good western script as he did on Audie Murphy's NO NAME ON THE BULLET. Calhoun and another down-on-his-luck gunfighter, James Millican in one of his best roles, are on the run from a gang of toughs led by Leo Gordon. Before Millican dies (and Calhoun escapes daringly like you've never seen before) he makes Calhoun promise to go straight. So he does, becoming a deputy in Durango to Sheriff Dean Jagger whose town is caught in a range war between greedy cattle baron Robert Middleton and the small ranchers led by Trevor Bardette and Steve Darrell. Middleton imports cold, cruel, calculating gunman Grant Williams (excellent, unlike anything else he did) to get rid of Calhoun and Jagger. Martha Hyer provides the love interest as Jagger's daughter while Calhoun's real-life wife Lita Baron has a small role. Terry Gilkyson's title tune is one of the better ones of the era. Speaking of better ones, the final barroom brawl between Calhoun and Middleton is just that --- one of the best ever from the period. Note that Calhoun's "Flash Pasts" with Lee Van Cleef come from Calhoun's own DAWN AT SOCORRO ('54).

 OUTLAW WOMEN (1952 Howco/Lippert)
Anybody wearin' trousers don't stand a chance in Las Mujeres, a town run all by women. Marie Windsor, owner of the Paradise Saloon, in particular. It's a town where women tell men what to do. District judge Lyle Talbot is the only man who can vote or hold office. Windsor's tough enforcer is Maria Hart. Then there's good girl Carla Balenda who's in love with 'Doc' Allan Nixon. Gambler Richard Rober, an old flame of Windsor's, and his gunman Jackie Coogan try to muscle in on Windsor's set-up. Meanwhile, outlaws Richard Avonde and Leonard Penn plan to rob the bank where all of Windsor's money is cached. All these elements come together in a windup of producer Ron Ormond and director Sam Newfield. Watch for Tom Tyler in a neat cameo as a gunman; Kermit Maynard as a townsman; Brad Johnson (later of TV's ANNIE OAKLEY) as an outlaw; Riley Hill as Johnny Ringo; and barbershop music by the Four Dandies. A catfight? You bet there's a hair puller! It's a neat twist --- and in Cinecolor too --- on standard western themes. Bit overacted at times, but fun.

 PIONEER DAYS (1940 Monogram)
Uninvolving, sleepy story has express company detective Jack Randall and his two compadres, Frank Yaconelli and Nelson McDowell, investigate a wave of stage holdups and save a girl (June Wilkins) from being swindled out of inheriting her uncle's saloon by crooked Ted Adams and his gun-buzzards (Bud Osborne, Robert Walker, George Chesebro). Monogram apparently lost any real interest in Jack Randall with this entry, the first film of his last series --- and with a new producer. The rag-tag Harry S. Webb unit, who had just ground out eight slipshod B's with Bob Steele under the Metropolitan banner, now held the Randall reins. It was still Webb's Metropolitan production set-up, with most of his cronies from as far back as the mid-'20s, simply releasing under the Monogram logo. Webb even replaced Randall's horse Rusty with a pinto named Tex, a horse Steele had ridden at Metropolitan. Webb had Bennett Cohen touch up a story Cohen had written in '34 for Jack Perrin, RAWHIDE MAIL. Nelson McDowell must have felt a touch of deja-vu, he was Perrin's sidekick in the former film. June Wilkins' career lasted only 5 years, this being her only featured role among bits in CAMILLE and WHEN THE DALTONS RODE.

 RIDE ON VAQUERO (1941 20TH Century Fox)
The Cisco Kid (Cesar Romero) and Gordito (Chris-Pin Martin) are recruited from their jail cell to find the leader of a gang of kidnappers led by-the Cisco Kid! The kidnappers are using Cisco's name to throw the soldiers off the track. The kidnappers' latest victim is Robert Lowery, son of a family that raised Cisco. Lowery's wife, Lynne Roberts, has mortgaged her rancho to banker Edwin Maxwell who is in cahoots with the kidnappers, saloon owner Don Costello and hayseed sheriff Arthur Hohl. Saloon girl Mary Beth Hughes (in a stand-out role) helps Cisco as he romances her. Black comedian Ben Carter (who performed those hilarious double-talk routines with Mantan Moreland in a couple of Charlie Chan films) practically steals the picture as a night watchman in Maxwell's bank. This was the last of the Fox/Romero Ciscos. One more, CISCO KID RIDES AGAIN, was planned but was shelved. It would be four years before the Latin Robin Hood appeared on the screen again, this time in the persona of Duncan Renaldo.

 BULLETS AND SADDLES (1943 Monogram)
After 24 adventures, this spelled the end of the trail for the Range Busters. And it's nothing special; routine land grab stuff. After rancher Budd Buster threatens to form a vigilante band to stop the raids on valley ranchers by saloon owner Glenn Strange and his varmints (Steve Clark, Ed Cassidy, John Merton), they frame him for a cattle buyer's murder. His wife (Rose Plumer) and daughter (Julie Duncan) send for help in the form of the Range Busters (Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, Dennis 'Denny' Moore and Max 'Alibi' Terhune with his dummy Elmer). A year later, Monogram replaced the Range Busters on their production schedule with singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely --- co-starring Range Buster Dennis Moore (at least for a while).

 OVERLAND STAGECOACH (1942 PRC)
Bob Livingston takes over the Lone Rider series from George Houston with this film, causing the series to undergo a complete metamorphosis. Houston sang, Livingston didn't. Houston did not wear a mask, Livingston did, as he'd done in some 3 Mesquiteers films --- making a loose LONE RANGER connection. Fuzzy St. John continued as Livingston's sidekick as he had with Houston. In this first of 6 Livingston/St. John Lone Riders, Fuzzy narrates the story, an unusual angle for a B-western. The late John Elliott leaves his half-interest in a stagecoach line to his daughter, Julie Duncan. Her partner, Glenn Strange (and his gunslicks Art Mix, Budd Buster, Charles King), want to take over the stageline totally and prevent the railroad from coming in. Fuzzy, as a driver for Julie, sends for help in the form of pal Tom Cameron, the Lone Rider. The foreman of the railroad gang, Dennis Moore, is also a friend of theirs. The implausible gimmick in the film has Strange hiding a man inside the trick seat of the stagecoach who then dynamites the railroad, throwing blame on stage driver Fuzzy. The hidden man also shoots a delivery courier and robs a railroad payroll. As it is, all six of the Livingston Lone Riders are salvaged by the obvious camaraderie of Livingston and St. John who appear to be having fun making these films. Also noteworthy, in this initial film, Livingston wears a wide-brimmed Stetson with the brim oddly turned down on one side. In the next five, his hat reverted to his Republic style. In this first feature, Livingston is Tom Cameron, as was his predecessor George Houston, but by film #2 (WILD HORSE RUSTLERS) he was called both Tom and Rocky Cameron, and Rocky for the other four.

 BUCKSKIN FRONTIER (1943 United Artists)
Most of Richard Dix's westerns since his success in CIMARRON ('31) were in the empire building genre, and this high spirited, free wheeling, well conceived Harry 'Pop' Sherman production is no exception. Lee J. Cobb runs a freight line (assisted by Albert Dekker and Max Baer). Spunky Jane Wyatt is Cobb's daughter. Meanwhile, Richard Dix represents the railroad as a surveyor. Wyatt falls in love with Dix despite her father's objections. Representing a competing railroad, Victor Jory and Joe Sawyer want Dix out of the way, stirring up animosity between Dix and Cobb, particularly when Cobb is adamant in his opposition to Dix's railroad using his pass for a right of way. When Cobb, in his fight with the railroad, hires Jory and Sawyer, Dekker switches sides and joins Dix. Jory begins a reign of terror which climaxes in a gun-blazing, action-packed finale, including a terrific fight between Dix and Jory in Kernville (Davy Sharpe doubling). Dix's best of several collaborations with producer Sherman. Originally, producer Sherman wanted to cast William S. Hart, Hoot Gibson, William Farnum and Jack Holt in the picture. Unsure what happened to allay those plans and if they intended to be principal characters or simply cameo roles.

 OVER THE SANTA FE TRAIL (1947 Columbia)
A truly "old west" Ken Curtis/Hoosier Hot Shots B, rather than a modern-day dude ranch musical. The Hot Shots and sisters Jennifer Holt and Noel Neill are troupers with 'Doc' Holmes Herbert's traveling medicine show. After rancher Ken Curtis and his saddle-partner Big Boy Williams encounter the entertainers, they begin to suspect someone on the show is in league with a gang of bank robbers (Jim Diehl, John Cason) who have hit banks in every town the medicine Show has played. Sure 'nuff, both Herbert and his show manager, George Cheseboro, are in on the dirty deeds. Watch for Jock Mahoney as a deputy. In stock footage from a Durango Kid film, you can spot Smiley Burnette riding out of town with a group of riders. Songs are plentiful: Two each from Ken and Noel, four by the Hot Shots, and one each by the DeCastro Sisters and Art West and His Sunset Riders.

 THE LAW OF 45'S (1935 Normandy/First Division)
When the Sheriff's law fails, Big Boy Williams employs the law of the '45s to bring down crafty shyster attorney Ted Adams, as nastily smooth as he ever was in any western. The story itself is a fairly faithful adaptation of William Colt Macdonald's 3 Mesquiteers characters (predating the Republic series by a year). Still, Bob Tansey's script changes Stony Brooke to Stoney Martin and places him in the role of comic sidekick. Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams has the lead as Tucson 'Two Gun' Smith. Macdonald's source novel is THE LAW OF THE FORTY-FIVES and print advertising calls the film THE LAW OF THE 45'S, but the on-screen title is THE LAW OF 45'S. Jack Kirk's ad-hoc musical group, the Wranglers (including Glenn Strange), sing by a campfire --- and even Big Boy attempts a few notes with leading lady Molly O'Day. Williams had made five westerns in 1934-'35 for producer Max Alexander under his (and his brother Arthur's) Beacon banner. Arthur Alexander produced this final Big Boy starrer for his newly formed Normandy Productions after Beacon ran out of operating capital. First Division was the distribution arm of Pathe. Slumming silent name Bill Patton can be spotted if you don't blink.

 SMOKING GUNS (1934 Universal)
Often referred to as the weirdest western ever made, SMOKING GUNS is still full of traditional western elements. Although its off beat elements (a Mexican swamp full of crocodiles, fever, gangrene, amputation, suicide, tarot cards, a secret cave under an old dark house with an exit through a crypt, and a black "romance" foiled in a graveyard) did goad Universal into firing its ticket selling (but demanding) producer/writer/cowboy star. Ken Maynard's story has him wrongly accused of a crime, taking the place of the lawman (Walter Miller) who was sent to the Mexican jungle after him, and returning to prove his own innocence. Problem is, Ken doesn't look at all like Miller, even though everyone, including his girl (Gloria Shea) believes he is Miller. Eventually, Ken smokes out the real killer (Harold Goodwin) and rescues his father, Ed Coxen, who has been held prisoner in an old mine shaft by Goodwin and his father, William Gould, the man Ken was accused of killing. It's all just wild enough and unlike any other B-western so as to be highly entertaining.

 THE THROWBACK (1935 Universal)
This was the first screenplay Frances Guihan authored for Buck Jones. She went on to do 10 of his 17 Universals --- nearly all of them contained unusual elements, apparently what Jones (now also producing his series) was looking for. As a child Buck is shunned and bullied by his classmates because of his father's reputation as a rustler. Buck is befriended only by Muriel Evans whose brother Eddie Phillips and his pal Paul Fix constantly harass Buck. When Buck's father is killed, Buck is sent away to be reared by a foster family. Returning to town 15 years later, he finds Phillips is a gambler and rustler and that Muriel still cares for him. Buck also finds an alliance with this Dad's old friend, George Hayes, and Bryant Washburn of the Cattlemen's Association. Both fight to help Buck when Phillips frames Buck for cattle rustling of Phillips' own father's (Frank LaRue) stock. Guihan's script is sturdy and literate, supplying a surprise twist ending. Allan Ramsay plays Buck as a kid, Margaret Davis is Muriel, Bobby Nelson is Eddie Phillips and Mickey Martin is Paul Fix.

 HOMESTEADERS OF PARADISE VALLEY (1947 Republic)
Allan Lane as Red Ryder and Bobby Blake as Little Beaver lead a group of homesteaders in search of land on which they can settle, which turns out to be Paradise Valley. This disrupts the elaborate plans of nearby Center City newspaperman Milton Kibbee and businessman Emmett Vogan to gain control of all the land in Paradise Valley, thereby securing water rights. Kibbee and Vogan soon hook up with two trouble-making brothers amongst the homesteaders (Gene Stutenroth, Mauritz Hugo) to set fires, steal water, plot robberies and generally drive the homesteaders (the Duchess --- Martha Wentworth, John James and his young sister, Ann Todd, among others) out of Paradise Valley. One unusual plot aspect gives badguy Roth an innocent wife and young son.

 SINGLE HANDED SAUNDERS (1932 Monogram)
Tom Tyler, town blacksmith, is Saunders of the title, but referred to as Sanders in the film, spoken and on welcome home banners. Tom's young lawyer brother, Robert Manning, returns home and is promptly politically corrupted by crooked senator John Elliott who, with gunmen Glenn Strange and Dick Alexander, are attempting to drive out the homesteaders. Manning has a change of heart after he cheats Margaret Morris, Tom's girlfriend and general store owner who has been giving aid to the homesteaders, out of $5,000. Unusual role for Tyler, or any other B-western hero, to actually be a member of the community. Fred 'Snowflake' Toones is along in another stereotyped black role.

 COMANCHE STATION (1960 Columbia)
Except for his emergence from retirement two years later for RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY ('62), this was Randolph Scott's last western --- and it's a splendid exit. It's also the final film for the expert combination of (writer) Burt Kennedy / (director) Budd Boetticher / (star) Randolph Scott. Kennedy's sparse script sparkles as it traces Scott's search for his wife, taken captive by Comanches years ago. He rescues another white woman (Nancy Gates) from the Comanche and decides to take her back to her husband, unaware there's a reward for her. A trio of gunmen (Claude Akins, Richard Rust, Skip Homeier) intercede, and they are aware of the reward, desiring to take Gates away from Scott. Like all Boetticher/Scott/Kennedy westerns, the hard bitten COMANCHE STATION is head and shoulders above other westerns of the period.

 OVERLAND RIDERS (1946 PRC)
Buster Crabbe and sidekick Fuzzy St. John bring land-grab pirates to justice when the crooks (land and water company boss Jack O'Shea with polecats John Cason, Al Ferguson, Frank Ellis) try every underhanded trick to do rancher Slim Whitaker and his daughter Patti McCarty out of their ranch because they know the railroad is coming. Hackneyed old plot but nice to see a change of regime at PRC with O'Shea as the big boss instead of Stan Jolley, Charles King, Karl Hackett or Jack Ingram.

 INDIAN TERRITORY (1950 Columbia)
Government agent Gene Autry is working undercover for the Chief of Indian Affairs to stop Indian uprisings perpetrated by renegade white gunrunners Phil Van Zandt and the Apache Kid (James Griffith). Gene's favorite leading lady, Gail Davis, is wasted in this one as a love interest for both Gene and Army Lieut. Kirby Grant. (There's a running comic-fistfight bit between Autry and Grant that seems a bit strained at times.) Pat Buttram is Gene's friend, an Army scout. Bert Dodson of the Cass County Boys turns up alone in a small non-singing role. Stock from LAST ROUND-UP ('47) which itself came from ARIZONA ('40) is re-used. Also that famous Indians crossing the Wind River scene from Tim McCoy's WAR PAINT ('26) is recycled one more time. Good Autry action but Norman S. Hall's script is a bit disjointed in story construction.

 SUNSET SERENADE (1942 Republic)
When scheming housekeeper Joan Woodbury receives orders to vacate the Bagley ranch, over which she has held sway since the death of the owner, she and devious neighboring rancher Onslow Stevens (with his right-hand galoots Roy Barcroft and Jack Ingram) plot to swindle the property from the rightful heir, who turns out to be a baby, cared for by guardian Helen Parrish. Enter itinerant cowboys Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes and the Sons of the Pioneers who quickly wise up to Stevens' smooth but tricky plans to divert water to his property, leaving the Bagley ranch high and dry. A fast 58 minutes with drama, music, a little action and a good story (from Earl Fenton) well-handled by director Joe Kane.

 RIDE A CROOKED TRAIL (1957 Universal-International)
Firmly in the tradition of the best Audie Murphy westerns. Audie is once again an anti-hero, a bank robbing bandit with the unlikely moniker of Joe Maybe who is mistaken for a famous lawman by shoot-first frontier Judge Walter Matthau and given control of a tough town. Audie's initial idea is to use his lawman position for unlawful purposes, but that is thwarted when old girlfriend Gia Scala arrives. To protect himself, Audie pretends she is his wife. They are then made foster parents of orphan Eddie Little. Murphy's change of heart is completed when he routes an attempted bank robbery by bleak-eyed Henry Silva and his gang (Mort Mills, Morgan Woodward, Leo Gordon, Rayford Barnes, Henry Wills). Watch for former star Bob Steele in a small part. CinemaScope. Color.

 TEXAS CYCLONE (1932 Columbia)
It's a pure case of mistaken identity as Tim 'Texas' McCoy rides into Stampede where everybody believes he is Jim Rawlins who "disappeared" 5 years ago, even his "wife", Shirley Grey, who is beset by rustlers Wheeler Oakman, Wallace MacDonald and Harry Cording. Since he is the spittin' image of Rawlins, Tim decides to help Grey overcome her rustler problem by pretending to actually be her "lost" husband. It's a solid story, with a twist ending, aided greatly by watching two developing stars in their salad days --- Walter Brennan as a crotchety old Sheriff and John Wayne as a fastdraw young ranch hand. Cowboy cancer alert: Tim rolls his own (then tosses it away) and Wayne lights up. Remade by Columbia in '37 as ONE MAN JUSTICE w/Charles Starrett.

 KNIGHT OF THE PLAINS (1938 Spectrum)
Fred Scott has the best of his many screen set-tos with lantern-jawed heavy John Merton. Gravel-voiced, snarling Richard Cramer (always fun to watch) and rustler Merton plot a Spanish land grant swindle on easterner Frank La Rue and his daughter, pert blonde Marion Weldon, which would dispossess ranchers like Lafe McKee from their land. Cattlemen Fred Scott and saddle pal Fuzzy St. John intervene after Merton rustles their herd and wounds Fred. What happened to the pretty and talented Weldon? She started off in small roles in '32, gained the lead in three Bob Steeles (COLORADO KID, DESERT PATROL, FEUD MAKER) and one Charles Starrett (DODGE CITY TRAIL) before this one with Scott. In 1938 alone she appeared in 12 films including SCANDAL SHEET, IN OLD CHICAGO and TIP-OFF GIRLS but by 1939 and four films she disappeared from the screen. Our loss.

 DESERT GUNS (1936 Beaumont)
To quote tiresome Budd Buster, "Great Godfrey, what a muddled mess!" A bizarre western that opens with Conway Tearle watching a rhumba team at a nightclub for two solid minutes. Tearle is far too erudite for a western hero, but here he is as a federal marshal sent to apprehend a rustler who happens to look just like him. Lots of boring misidentification ensues as Tearle, impersonating the rustler, saves the bad Tearle's sister, Margaret Morris, from marrying duplicitous outlaw William Gould. The over the top histrionics of Kaye Brinker, as the rustler-Tearle's girlfriend, reach a new level of unbelievability. The person who wrote this (Jacques Jaccard) is obviously totally unfamiliar with westerns. However, it must rank as the most "polite" western ever made. Tearle walks through it all with a bored stiff attitude. Look at his face at the end. "Is this finally over?" (Fred Church, often credited, is not in this film.)

 ABILENE TRAIL (1951 Monogram)
Starts, as any good, self-respecting B-western should, with a burst of action as a posse chases Whip Wilson and Andy Clyde on a mistaken charge. Helped to escape by Tommy Farrell, who is wounded, Whip and Andy sign on with Tommy's cattleman father (Steve Clark) and sister (Noel Neill) to get the big herd through to Abilene ahead of conniving cattleman Bill Kennedy and his plug-uglys (Lee Roberts, Dennis Moore, Marshall Reed). Mild, with Whip never using his bullwhip even once. This was the last Wilson featuring Andy Clyde as his sidekick.

 WEST OF THE ALAMO (1946 Monogram)
Some of the actors are low-rent thespians but there's a neat mystery angle devised by screenwriter Louise Rousseau that's not been seen before, making this one of Jimmy Wakely's better early period B-westerns (late '44-mid '47 with more songs and fancier clothes). There's four songs here by Wakely, one by saddle pal Lee 'Lasses' White, one by Ray Whitley and one by Arthur Smith, including the title tune (written by Whitley), "Git Along Little Pony" and "He's Gone Up the Trail" (written by Tim Spencer). Produced and directed by Oliver Drake, the plot has Texas Rangers Wakely and Lasses investigating bank robberies in Cedar Rock. It appears as if Iris Clive (who runs the saloon with her manager, Ray Whitley, and sister Early Cantrell) is behind the stick-ups. Eventually, it begins to look like the banker himself, Jack Ingram, with his teller, Red Holton, and Ingram's gunnies (Eddie Majors, Billy Dix, Ted French) are behind the plot. But there's more to go, and we won't give away the surprises.

 GUNFIRE (1935 Resolute)
Rex Bell's six-guns bark angrily against the crooked element of the range --- Philo McCullough, his brother Ted Adams, Ted Lorch, Lew Meehan and their inside man, Milburn Morante, who works for Bell. Rex's partner is Ruth Mix (Tom's real life daughter). In love with Rex, Ruth is jealous of Jane Irving, the abused stepdaughter of Meehan, whom Bell has taken under his wing for protection at his ranch. Rex's pal is out of work cowpoke Buzz Barton whom Bell also saves from meanie Meehan. (Watch for Barton's startling backward somersault horse mount!) An unknown cowboy group sings "Big Rock Candy Mountain" (with a prominent juice harp) on the range and do a couple more numbers at an extended barn dance sequence that interrupts the main story. The film is also marred by some very bad, laughable, barns-burning miniature work.

 BADMAN'S GOLD (1951 Eagle Lion)
Johnny Carpenter (1914-2003) was the last of the independent shoe-string B-western combination producer/stars. He never made top-drawer B-westerns, but through all the budget pinching and corner cutting, his love of westerns shows through on the screen. He tried hard, when TV was quickly bringing to a close the B-western screen era, to make decent, exciting westerns. Problem was, Johnny didn't get started til it was all over. His best is BADMAN'S GOLD, with a recycled Bob Tansey story that we'd seen first in GUN PACKER ('38) with Jack Randall, then as RANGE LAND ('49) with Whip Wilson. Tansey also directs as law pushers Carpenter, Alyn Lockwood (best known as little Mary in Columbia Blondie films), Troy Tarrell (previously known as Clarke Stevens in several Bs) and Daisy the Dog (also from the Blondie series) go after Kenne Duncan, Bill Chaney and their gang who rob gold from stages, then have Professor Jack Daly melt it down to salt a mine with gold quartz. Afterward, the crooks mine the gold "legally". Cheap, but fun.

 ENEMY OF THE LAW (1945 PRC)
The Texas Rangers (Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien) place their gangly sidekick Guy Wilkerson in a jail cell with convict Charlie King hoping to learn the location of a strong box filled with stolen gold. While Guy sleeps, Charlie draws a map to the location on Guy's foot, then destroys his original. Once paroled, Charlie must keep track of Wilkerson to make sure he doesn't wash his feet. The pair meet up with Charlie's old pals (Jack Ingram, Kermit Maynard, Frank Ellis) and it's a madcap race to retrieve the loot. Dumb and silly, yes, but with good ol' Charlie King at his utmost, looking so pitiful, it's highly entertaining fun. Written and directed by Harry Fraser, a remake of his own LIGHTNING STRIKES WEST ('40) with Ken Maynard.

 BEAU BANDIT (1930 RKO)
Rod La Rocque as Montera in the absolute worst Cisco Kid knockoff ever made. Attempting to be a romantic rogue, La Rocque, with a Mexican accent so bad it would be laughable if the film wasn't played so serious, doublecrosses skinflint Charles Middleton after the crook hires La Rocque to kill his rival, dirt farmer George Duryea (later Tom Keene), over the affections of Doris Kenyon. I guess with the advent of sound, audiences would suffer any indignity. It's the only explanation for this staggering hour of nothing but endless prattle.

 LONE TEXAS RANGER (1945 Republic)
When crooked Sheriff "Iron Mike" Haines (Tom Chatterton) and town blacksmith Roy Barcroft along with their gun-wolves, Bud Geary and Rex Lease, frame and kill kindly Jack Kirk in a silver stick-up, the Duchess (Alice Fleming) sends for her nephew, Texas Ranger Red Ryder (Bill Elliott), and his little Indian pal, Little Beaver (Bobby Blake), to help out. Elliott catches Iron Mike in a robbery, killing him in a gunfight, but doesn't tell anyone he was a crook. Iron Mike's son (Jack McClendon) then arrives from an eastern college vowing to get the man who killed his father, unaware his Dad was an outlaw. Made sheriff to replace his Dad, McClendon is told by Barcroft that Elliott killed Iron Mike. McClendon is out to kill Elliott until Barcroft's pet crow gives away his double-dealing. It's an outstanding Bob Williams' screenplay that breaks new ground for B-westerns as well as giving heavy Bud Geary a fine support role as a henchman with a sense of humor.

 EMPTY SADDLES (1936 Universal)
From 1935-1937, Frances Guihan wrote some of the most offbeat screenplays for Buck Jones. When Buck became a producer in '35 of his own pictures, he ambitiously liked to toss in unusual or weird aspects uncommon to westerns, apparently thinking it would broaden their appeal. Guihan's scripting fit this style and he used her over and over again. Unfortunately, the quaint touches and curious twists did not work. Buck Jones fans wanted him doing typical cowboy feats astride Silver and terse, tense dialog. Somewhere along the way, Jones (and Guihan) became obsessed with an overabundance of dialog to the detriment of the action. EMPTY SADDLES boils down to a cattleman/sheepman range war disfigured by ghostly apparitions and a dude ranch. Leading lady Louise Brooks (1906-1985) was a dancer in London, the Ziegfeld Follies, George White's Scandals and other revues. Her marvelous "look" (sleek bangs, brunette bob) became the "in" thing of the '20s. Signed by Paramount, she made many films here (and in Germany) in the late '20s. Most consider her ill-used by Hollywood and after this B-western and OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS ('38) with 3 Mesquiteers she left Hollywood and returned home to Wichita, Kansas. She later moved to Rochester, New York, in '43 and wrote about movies for various periodicals. Becoming a cult figure, her autobiographical essays were published as a book, Lulu In Hollywood.

 PRAIRIE PIONEERS (1941 Republic)
Shortly after the Mexican-American War and California's admission into the U.S., the 3 Mesquiteers (Robert Livingston, Bob Steele, Rufe Davis) lead a group of settlers to the Provendencia Valley in California where Don Ortega (Guy D'Ennery), his son (Robert Kellard) and daughter (Esther Estrella) and other Spanish land owners are being invaded by Americano hydraulic mining land-grabbers led by half Spaniard/half American Don Carlos (Davison Clark) and his men (Kenneth MacDonald, Yakima Canutt, Jack Ingram, Jack Kirk) who are fueling the fires of discontent between Spaniards and Americans. The Mesquiteers must help when Kellard is framed for murder, causing a riff between Stoney and Tucson.

 RAINBOW VALLEY (1935 Lone Star/Monogram)
Lesser entry in John Wayne's Lone Star series. Undercover agent Wayne helps isolated townspeople build a road through to the next town to bring law and order to the valley dominated by gunmen (LeRoy Mason, Buffalo Bill Jr., Bert Dillard). Wayne is aided by mail carrier George Hayes in his Model T Ford from which, at one point, Hayes chases the badmen throwing dynamite at them. Lucile Browne is Hayes' daughter who falls for Wayne.

 FRONTIER OUTPOST (1949 Columbia)
Charles Starrett, the Durango Kid, and Smiley Burnette help the army bust up a gang of renegades who are constantly robbing gold shipments on the way to Fort Navajo. Steve Darrell's outlaws have taken over the garrison, holding Capt. Paul Campbell and his newly arrived wife, Lois Hall, prisoner and forcing Campbell to send false telegraph messages allowing more gold shipments to pass through. Jock O'Mahoney is as blandly bored as I've ever seen him as a Cavalry Lieutenant. Naturally, he's also leaping walls and running across rooftops doubling Starrett. Hank Penny and Slim Duncan perform a couple of instantly forgettable songs with Smiley. Nothing at all special about this Durango entry.

 WALK THE PROUD LAND (1956 Universal-International)
A long, leisurely tribute to Indian Agent John P. Clum (Audie Murphy) who is involved with Apache rebel Geronimo (Jay Silverheels). (In actuality, Geronimo's capture occurred a decade after Clum left the Indian agency.) The film traces Clum's career from his acceptance of the post, through difficulties with Indian-hating white men and suspicious tribesmen, to the final proving of Clum's integrity to both sides. Romance is introduced via Anne Bancroft as an Indian girl (she's badly miscast) presented to Clum and the jealousy that evolves when Clum's fiancée (Pat Crowley) arrives. No real villains and virtually no action sequences, the film relies on human relationships. Cinemascope. Color.

 ROARIN' GUNS (1936 Puritan)
Guns roar very little in this Tim McCoy melloduller. Powerful cattle barons Wheeler Oakman and Karl Hackett stir up a range war to grab up smaller ranches. One of the smaller ranchers, John Elliott, sends for his old friend Tim to help out. Elliott's niece is Rosalina Price, a very poor man's Jean Harlow. Child-star Tommy Bupp, Elliott's son, has a neat little role but is billed tenth. Yet oddly, one-time star Rex Lease has only one scene as one of Oakman's gunmen and is billed third! Milburn Morante is seen as Elliott's foreman in early scenes then totally disappears from the film. Same thing happens to Oakman's henchman Dick Alexander. Billed 7th then out of the pic after one scene. Obviously producer and director Sig and Sam Newfield had their minds on other matters when this mess was patched together.

 PAROLED-TO DIE (1938 Supreme)
Certainly some of Bob Steele's best westerns came from his Supreme series. There's much here that's simplistically worthy. Young rancher Bob Steele is in love with Kathleen Eliot, daughter of Sheriff Steve Clark, an honest official, but one prone to be easily led. Also in love with Eliot is banker and political power Karl Hackett. Jealous of Steele, Hackett and the plug-uglies in his employ (Budd Buster, Sherry Tansey) frame Bob for a bank robbery. Circumstantial evidence is so strong against him, Bob is convicted and sent to the state-pen for 20 years. But suddenly and mysteriously, Bob is back within two months --- gunning for Hackett. Lurking in the background is dim-witted stranger Horace Murphy, who Hackett hires to take his place in a showdown with Steele. But who is this mysterious stranger? Watch for the cute scene when Bob pokes fun at Hackett, pretending to twirl his mustache and talking in a deep voice, doing his best imitation of a silent era Oilcan Harry. Former silent kid star Buzz Barton can be spotted riding extra.

 THREE MEN FROM TEXAS (1940 Paramount)
One of the finest Hopalong Cassidy pictures produced, it marks the debut of Andy Clyde to the series as California Carlson. After losing George 'Windy' Hayes to Republic in mid '39 , producer Harry 'Pop' Sherman struggled along with Britt Wood, trying to find a suitable replacement. Sherman found it with Clyde (1892-1967) who continued with the series til the end in 1948. Scottish born Clyde was trained in English music halls and was best known to this point in comedy shorts. Clyde had never been in a western before, but Norton S. Parker's script more than satisfactorily introduces California as a distinctive, scruffy, comic character who spins long-winded tales of his glorious deeds. A winning character that audiences immediately adhered to. Hoppy and Lucky (Russell Hayden) are Texas Rangers being advised of the terror tactics being employed by Morris Ankrum, the town boss of Santa Carmen, CA, who is stealing Spanish land grants. The local citizens committee asks the Rangers to send a man to help. Lucky, aching to strike out on his own, becomes Sheriff of Santa Carmen. Cassidy remains in Texas and meets up with good-hearted, blowhard outlaw California Carlson working in a low-level position for outlaw Dick Curtis. After cleaning out the gang, except for Curtis and Glenn Strange who head for California, Hoppy becomes a U. S. Marshal and rides for California (with Clyde in tow) to capture Curtis and Strange, and, of course, lend Hayden a hand. Once there, they find Mexican Thornton Edwards forced into banditry by Ankrum's land swindles. Working with the Mexicans, Hayden and Clyde, Hoppy rounds up Ankrum as well as Curtis and Strange (who have joined forces with Ankrum) in a massive battle. Not only one of Hoppy's best, but one of the finest B-westerns produced in anyone's series. Far superior to many so-called A-westerns.

 SHERIFF OF TOMBSTONE (1941 Republic)
After cleaning up Dodge City, former Sheriff Roy Rogers and friend Gabby Hayes are traveling to Tombstone. (All similarities to the Earp story are purely on purpose.) Along the way they gun down outlaw Shotgun Cassidy (Harry Woods). In Tombstone, pretty dressmaker Elyse Knox's clan are the prime targets of disreputable Mayor Addison Richards because he wants their mine, owned by Granny Zeffie Tilbury. Richards has sent for Shotgun Cassidy to do his dirty work and, because Roy holds the weapon, Richards believes him to be Cassidy and installs him as the new Sheriff. Naturally, Roy goes along with the ruse to get the goods on Richards and is about to bust up the gang when the real Cassidy shows up very much alive! Jay Novello steals the screen in a dual role as foppish Wells Fargo manager John Anderson and Mexican bandit Joe Martinez. Hal Taliaferro (Wally Wales) is Richards' saloon owner henchie. Jack Ingram has a small role as Roy's brother and Sally Payne is Gabby's dance hall entertainer daughter. Roy gets to sing Bob Nolan's "Ridin' On a Rocky Road". Remade as CALIFORNIA FIREBRAND with Monte Hale in 1948.

 STAGECOACH OUTLAWS (1945 PRC)
Badmen break Al 'Fuzzy' St. John out of jail, believing him to be notorious outlaw Matt Brawley (Bob Kortman). It's all a case of mistaken identity with ol' Fuz caught in the middle. The badmen (John Cason, Kermit Maynard) bossed by snake-in-the-grass I. Stanford Jolley are out to wreck kindly Ed Cassidy's stageline and grab it for themselves, so they kidnap his pretty daughter, PRC regular Frances Gladwin. Buster Crabbe arrives to help break up the gang but runs into trouble when the real Matt Brawley shows up! Lots of genuine fun and action (Buster has five fights, three with Kermit Maynard). Interesting to see director Sam Newfield's inventive use of Corriganville as two separate towns, the right side of the street as Red River and the left side of the street as a ghost town outlaw hideout. Buster (or screenwriter Fred Myton) borrows Bill Elliott's "peaceable man" phrase --- three times! Watch Crabbe carry Fuz out over his shoulder at the end, accidentally banging Fuz' s head on the door frame as he does. You can even hear Fuzzy go, "Ooooh."

 OUTLAWS OF STAMPEDE PASS (1943 Monogram)
A nicely constructed story builds up, all set for a rip-roaring finish --- then nothing. Director Wallace Fox wimped out on the ending. Jon Dawson, the anxious nephew of U.S. Marshal Raymond Hatton, has his cattle herd rustled and is shot after being cheated in a card game by Mauritz Hugo, working for saloon owner Harry Woods. Nevada Jack McKenzie (Johnny Mack Brown) has been observing and secures the marked deck of cards, later helping the wounded Dawson by secreting him with kindly blacksmith Sam Flint and his daughter Ellen Hall. Brown contacts Uncle 'Sandy Hopkins' (Hatton) and the two set out to break up Woods' gang (Charles King, Ed Cobb, Art Mix).

 THE LAST ROUND-UP (1947 Columbia)
Gene Autry's first film under his Gene Autry Productions banner at Columbia relies more on drama than music (although there are 5 songs) and perhaps stretches its 77 minute length 5-10 minutes longer than necessary, but it still remains one of Gene's, and his followers, favorites. Government agent Autry tries to relocate an Indian tribe so an aqueduct can be built to irrigate their presently worthless land, making it suitable for crops. Crooked land baron Ralph Morgan, his son mark Daniels, and their hired bullies (John Cason, Lee Bennett) hold notes on most of the ranches. By selling out to the water company, the ranchers can pay Morgan off, which he doesn't want. Then he can't complete his land grab. Morgan attempts to start an Indian uprising but it's thwarted by Gene. The Indians are led by Russ Vincent, his wife Carol Thurston and son Bobby Blake. They're befriended by Gene's love interest, Jean Heather. Also in the Indian cast are Jay Silverheels, Iron Eyes Cody, his brother J. W. Cody and Rodd Redwing. Note that besides Bobby Blake, there is another one-time "Little Beaver" in the cast --- Don Kay Reynolds who played the role in the Jim Bannon features. Here Reynolds has a cute cameo as an Indian boy in school who can't get the required hand motions correct on the group sing-a-long, "Comin' Round the Mountain". No doubt the baseball sequence with Blake was instigated by Autry himself, as he loved the game. Noteworthy also is the fact Gene uses TV (remember this is 1947!) to sell the Indians on the idea of moving to Cedar Valley. The TV announcer is Lou Crosby, Gene's radio announcer on MELODY RANCH. Stock footage was taken from Columbia's ARIZONA ('40) on which Earl Bellamy was an assistant director --- as he is here to John English.

 TRAIL TO VENGEANCE (1943 Universal)
Possibly Kirby Grant's best B-western with several quirky plot turns from scripter Bob Williams. Kirby at first believes rancher Walter Baldwin killed his brother but, eventually, partly through the innocent-insistence of Baldwin's daughter Jane (Poni) Adams, realizes Baldwin is not guilty and goes searching for the real skunks who happen to be undertaker Glumm (There's a Dick Tracy name for you!), Tom Fadden, and banker (and forger) Frank Jacquet who are after two ranches --- Baldwin's and the one belonging to Grant's brother. Undertaker Fadden's big, sleepy, raspy-voiced underling, John Kelly, sleeps in a coffin when he isn't being a henchie and Fadden tries to embalm Baldwin while he's still alive! Perhaps Universal made so many classic horror films some of the elements spilled over into this western. Universal was certainly getting their money's worth out of Everett Carter and Milt Rosen's song, "On the Trail of Tomorrow" --- using it three times in four years. It was first sung by Bob Baker in WEST OF CARSON CITY ('40), then by the Notables in ARIZONA CYCLONE ('41) and again here by Grant. Fuzzy Knight contributes a tune with his squeezebox.

 COLORADO SUNDOWN (1952 Republic)
A film of many firsts in Rex Allen's series. Rex accompanies new pal Slim Pickens to Colorado where Slim is supposed to inherit a large area of ranch land. Upon arrival, they find the will divides the land three ways --- Slim, pretty city girl Mary Ellen Kay, and a conniving, murdering brother and sister team (June Vincent, Fred Graham) who didn't count on having to split the ranch. They'd planned to raze the whole 60,000 acres to keep their faltering lumber mill going, despite new logging laws in Colorado. To help them, they poison a forest ranger and bring in a ringer-their brother, crooked John Daheim. In addition to Rex getting a new sidekick in Pickens, the film is the first Rex Allen directed by William Witney and produced by Edward J. White who introduce a new toughness to Rex's films-including three slam-bang fights. It's also the first of six Allens to feature the Republic Rhythm Riders. Louise Beavers as Mary Ellen's maid/friend brings a lot of laughs to the proceedings. One of the songs, "Under Colorado Stars", is retooled from Roy Rogers' "Under California Stars".

 CALIFORNIA JOE (1943 Republic)
Controlled by Texas killer LeRoy Mason (and his gunmen, Pierce Lyden, Ed Cobb, Bob Kortman, Charlie King), efforts are being made by the Knights of the Golden Circle to get California to secede from the Union during the Civil War. Confederate operatives are tapping the new telegraph line into California and sending out false orders, costing the Union several valuable and vital gold shipments. From Richmond, VA, confederate military intelligence agent Major Brian O'Hara is coming west to coordinate East-West operations with Mason. Traveling with him is his sister, pretty Helen Talbot, completely unaware of her brother's nefarious activities. Union Lt. "California Joe" (Don Barry) (with his pals Wally Vernon and hot-headed Terry Frost) is assigned to find the intelligence leak. Meanwhile, Governor Edward Keane is planning to doublecross the Confederacy and establish the Empire of the Pacific, aided by Napoleon in France. Engaging and original plot (as were many of the Barrys) by Norman S. Hall. But yeah, obnoxious tyke Twinkle Watts is worked into the plot as murdered telegrapher Karl Hackett's daughter.

 WHISPERING SMITH SPEAKS (1935 20TH Century Fox)
Crooked businessman Edward Keane and lawyer Kenneth Thompson deviously plot to obtain the property of Irene Ware and Maude Allen for the tungsten on their land. To get the ore out, they also need the nearby railroad line managed by Ware. George O'Brien is the son of a wealthy major railroad president who prefers to work for a living instead of taking the easy way to advancement through his Dad. He ends up working for Ware and soon discovers what the culprits are plotting. Not sure where the "Whispering" comes in, as O'Brien is never referred to by that name and the film has nothing to do with writer Frank Spearman's railroad detective (about which an Alan Ladd A-western was made). This is a light outdoor romance, stressing O'Brien's way with light comedic elements.

 GUNS OF HATE (1948 RKO)
Gold, greed and gunplay as ruthless saloon owner Steve Brodie hears of prospector Jason Robards' find of the Lost Dutchman gold mine and murders him before Robards can file his claim. Tim Holt and Chito (Richard Martin) are in the wrong place at the wrong time and are blamed for the murder by Sheriff Jim Nolan and Robards' daughter, Nan Leslie, who has just arrived. Eventually, Tim and Chito, with help from saloon girl Myrna Dell, clear themselves and capture Brodie, his crooked assayer Tony Barrett and hardcase Robert Bray. Tim's 6th post-war western, and one of his best, expertly directed by Les Selander. Often, when fine B-westerns were made, Selander was on hand.

 AVENGING WATERS (1936 Columbia)
Ken Maynard, owner of the Diamond K Ranch, in love with pretty Beth Marion, comes to her rescue when desperadoes seek to kill her father (John Elliott) and take away his land. Ward Bond, chief of the gang, and henchie Tom London try to oust Elliott by blocking the headwaters of a river whose water flows through Elliott's property. Pretty dry first half, exciting second half with stampedes, gunplay, Ken being drug across the desert and rescued by his horse Tarzan, fist fights, Ken captured and saved again by Tarzan and finally a roaring climax flash flood (although it's a little pathetic looking under Larry Darmour's penny pinching budget). Ken and the Diamond K Boys play several tunes together with Ken on harmonica. Cast includes two former (albeit minor) B-stars, Wally (Hal Taliaferro) Wales and Buffalo Bill Jr.

 ROUGH RIDERS OF DURANGO (1951 Republic)
A gang of rough riding bandits are robbing grain shipments around Durango. When the ranchers can't make any money and pay up their notes, local harness shop owner Steve Darrell plans to move in and grab up their land. Desperate sheriff Ross Ford manages to get the grain buyers at the county seat to send some advance money by couriers for the next shipment to prevent the bank from calling its notes. After special courier Allan 'Rocky' Lane delivers the money to courier Russ Whiteman, Darrell's outlaws (Stuart Randall, Denver Pyle, Dale Van Sickel) kill Whiteman and make off with the cash. Pursued by Rocky, Pyle hides the money in a grain sack in rancher Walter Baldwin's barn. But when the outlaws return the next day, Baldwin has rearranged all the grain sacks. Remainder of the picture is a hot-lead search for the money. Who'll find it first? The outlaws or Rocky? Baldwin steals the show with his boisterous attitude. Aline Towne, Baldwin's niece, in love with Ford, whom Baldwin finds incompetent, is the token female who has virtually nothing to do. The concluding fight in the harness shop is one of the finest in the Lane series.

 CANADIAN PACIFIC (1949 20TH Century Fox)
Producer Nat Holt dressed up a standard B-western plot with a big budget, added a romantic triangle for Randolph Scott, and filmed in Cinecolor in Canada (glorious scenery around Banff, Lake Louise, Kicking Horse Pass, the Yoho Valley and on the Morley Indian Reserve near Calgary using Indians from the Yiskabee or Stony tribe, related to the Sioux). Its B-trappings are especially noticeable in one scene when Scott's "sidekick", scroungy J. Carroll Naish, escapes from the dimwitted Indians by giving them dynamite sticks to "smoke". Pure Fuzzy Knight material. Story has railroad troubleshooter Scott helping engineer Robert Barrat put a pass through the Canadian wilderness. Victor Jory, fearing his trading posts will go broke if this new transportation goes through, stops at nothing to destroy the railroad. Scott is romantically torn between fiancée Nancy Olson (her first film) and Jane Wyatt, a nurse whom he falls for when she cares for him over a long winter after he's been injured in a dynamite explosion. Good, but the next two Scott/Holt collaborations, FIGHTING MAN OF THE PLAINS and CARIBOO TRAIL, were much better.

 LEATHER BURNERS (1943 United Artists)
After an eight month hiatus, Hopalong Cassidy has a new studio, United Artists, and a new juvenile sidekick in Jay Kirby. U.A., who previously released only prestige pictures, suddenly found itself without product in 1943 to fulfill its contractual obligations. An agreement with Paramount was made whereby 21 pictures planned for release by Paramount were handed over to U.A., including the Hoppy series. When rustlers make life miserable for Jay Kirby, and equally as rough on Kirby's girl, Shelly Spencer and her railroad, Jay sends for his old pals, Hoppy and California Carlson (Andy Clyde). The culprits are rancher Forbes Murray working with seemingly meek Victor Jory, owner of a local mine. In Jory and Murray's employ are gun-hand Robert Mitchum and telegraph operator Hal Taliaferro. Eventually, Hoppy finds insane maniac George Givot living deep within the labyrinth Coffin Canyon mine (actually Bronson Cave), plotting to bankrupt all the ranchers and use the territory as his operational headquarters in a crazy effort to become president of the United States. It's an offbeat one directed by Joseph E. Henabery (1888-1976), oddly his only sound feature. After working in silents for D. W. Griffith, Henabery began directing silents. With the advent of sound, he moved east, helming Vitaphone shorts and Army training films. As United Artists had been founded in 1919 by Griffith, someone in the organization obviously remembered Henabery and gave him a shot with U.A. 's first HC feature. LEATHER BURNERS sports an exceptionally exciting music score from Samuel Kaylin who had scored hundreds of films since 1933, particularly at Fox, although this was his last.

 SUNDOWN SAUNDERS (1936 Supreme)
After Bob Steele wins a ranch in the Panamint district, he learns swindler Ed Cassidy has "sold" the property to pretty Catherine Cotter and her pop, Jack Rockwell. Steele, already wanted for the killing of bully Charlie King (a crime he didn't commit) is then blamed for the murder of Rockwell. There are plenty of turns and twists to Robert N. Bradbury's plot (he also directed) but Steele, his friend Milburn Morante and Sheriff Earl Dwire straighten it all out by the end. High on the list of Steele favorites.

 RAGTIME COWBOY JOE (1940 Universal)
Fuzzy Knight is far too silly as a duded up 'cowboy' trying to be rancher Nell O'Day's foreman, Ragtime Cowboy Joe. Even at best, this is a beaten to death plot about crooked lawyer Walter Soderling and his rustlers Dick Curtis and Roy Barcroft trying to drive little Nell off her ranch because they know the railroad is coming through. Fuzzy's silliness drags down even that hackneyed plot making 58 minutes seem much longer. Johnny Mack Brown is the Cattlemen's Protective Association investigator who brings Soderling to justice --- with the help of the lawyer's secretary (Marilyn Merrick) who just happens to be Brown's old girlfriend. Fuzzy sings a couple of tunes as do the Texas Rangers. There's also a saloon song from Vyola Vonn. For the record, Kermit Maynard has one good but quick scene as a posseman.

 SHERIFF OF SAGE VALLEY (1942 PRC)
The first of several dual roles for Buster Crabbe. Kansas Ed (Crabbe), secret bandit leader, plots to kill the local sheriff and take over the town which is about to become the Sage Valley County seat. Doing away with the sheriff, Kansas Ed now needs to off Mayor Hal Price before he can take over. When he saves Price's life, Billy the Kid (Crabbe) is appointed sheriff by Price, with Billy's pals, Fuzzy St. John and Jeff (Dave O'Brien) made deputies. Kansas Ed's sweetheart, Maxine Leslie, lures Billy to Ed's hideout where he is made a prisoner and Ed takes Billy's place as sheriff. Eventually, Crabbe escapes and learns Ed is his twin brother he hasn't seen since they were kids. Buster tries for real emotion when his "twin" dies in his arms, but PRC's no-budget special effects are no help. Oh yes --- you gotta be there when Leslie "sings" "The Man Who Broke My Heart". (Judy Garland, I think you're safe.) For the record, Ed's gang consists of saloon owner Charlie King, Jack Kirk, Curley Dresden, John Merton.

 THE BIG SHOW (1936 Republic)
One of Gene Autry's most unusual westerns. And it was just this type of unusual material that made Gene the biggest cowboy star in the country. A fabulous mixture of action, comedy, music and fun, all filmed before the backdrop of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas. It's also the first Autry film to run 70 minutes; it would be three years before Republic elevated Gene again to lengthier titles with IN OLD MONTERREY ('39). Gene plays a dual role as Mammoth Pictures' arrogant, egotistical cowboy star Tom Ford and his dead-ringer stunt double, Gene Autry. When Ford goes fishing, publicity man William Newell talks Gene into impersonating Ford at 'The Big Show', the Texas Centennial. Trouble erupts on all fronts when Gene sings on the radio when everyone believes Ford can't sing a note. Mammoth Studios, thinking Ford can sing after all, announces in Variety they're now going to make musical westerns. A gangster, Harry Worth, to whom Ford owes a gambling debt, comes looking for Gene (believing him Ford), as does Ford's fiancée and the real Ford when he discovers the deception. Worse, when Gene's girl (Kay Hughes), believing him to be Ford, learns of the deception, she leaves him. In joke: a Herbert J. Yates lookalike hears Gene (thinking it Ford) sing and proclaims to Newell, "From now on we're making nothing but musical westerns. What? They won't go over? Why, a year from now every studio in the business will be making 'em!" Later, a one sheet of Gene Autry in SINGING COWBOY is seen to complete the inside joke. The film is loaded with musical talent --- Gene, the Sons of the Pioneers (with Roy Rogers), Beverly Hillbillies, Sally Payne, the Light Crust Doughboys, SMU 50, Jones Boys, even Max Terhune and Elmer. Pure fun, and one of the scant few B-westerns about making B-westerns. Others in that sub-genre include: QUICK TRIGGER LEE ('31) w/Bob Custer, SCARLET RIVER ('33) w/Tom Keene, THRILL HUNTER ('33) w/Buck Jones, MYSTERY RANCH ('34) w/Tom Tyler, COWBOY STAR ('36) w/Charles Starrett, HOLLYWOOD ROUNDUP ('37) w/Buck Jones, HOLLYWOOD COWBOY ('37) w/George O'Brien, SHOOTING HIGH ('40) w/Gene Autry, CHATTERBOX ('43) w/Joe E. Brown, TWILIGHT ON THE PRAIRIE ('44) w/Johnny Downs, BELLS OF ROSARITA ('45) w/Roy Rogers, DING DONG WILLIAMS ('46) w/James Warren, OUT CALIFORNIA WAY ('46) w/Monte Hale, UNDER CALIFORNIA STARS ('48) w/Roy Rogers, SONS OF ADVENTURE ('48) w/Russell Hayden, GRAND CANYON ('50) w/Richard Arlen, KID FROM GOWER GULCH ('50) w/Spade Cooley, HOEDOWN ('50) w/Jock Mahoney.

 BILLY THE KID RETURNS (1938 Republic)
Roy Rogers' second starring western established Roy in the old west rather than the Gene Autry fantasy world. (Roy's first, UNDER WESTERN STARS, was originally intended for Gene.) It's quick moving under Joe Kane's direction, but needed a punchier finish. The film begins as Billy the Kid (Roy in a dual role) meets his death under the guns of Pat Garrett (Wade Boteler). Soon, Roy, as a Billy the Kid double, is mistaken for the notorious outlaw whom townsfolk believe to still be alive. Garrett then fuels this speculation by having Roy masquerade as the Kid to help him find the real villains (store owner Morgan Wallace, big rancher Fred Kohler Sr. and their polecats Tex Palmer, Jim Corey) who are trying to oust the homesteaders. Certainly, Roy wins out --- with the help of (more tolerable than usual) Smiley Burnette (purveyor of Dixie Band instruments) and storekeeper Edwin Stanley and his daughter, Mary Hart (Lynne Roberts) in her first Rogers/Hart western. Roy sings some 7 songs including Eddie Cherkose's "Born to the Saddle" which Republic later adopted as Rex Allen's themesong over opening credits in several films. Watch for soon to be star George Letz (Montgomery) in a bit role.

 GUNS OF FORT PETTICOAT (1957 Columbia)
Audie Murphy made a big mis-step with his first film as an independent producer. Under the terms of his new contract with Universal, Audie was allowed to make occasional films away from U-I. Teaming up with producer Harry Joe Brown (a longtime associate of Randolph Scott), the basic idea was intriguing. Army officer Murphy, appalled at his commanding officer's slaughter of an Indian village, deserts in order to warn an outpost of women of expected Indian reprisals. He forms them into a crack fighting unit and repulses the savages. Murphy hired George Marshall (with whom he'd worked on DESTRY) to direct. Unfortunately, Walter Doniger's script was lacking humor, had no style or vigor and the pace was sluggish. Most of the film's interest was generated by the formidable Hope Emerson in another of her tough frontier woman roles.

 RIDING WILD (1935 Columbia)
A pretty droll beginning, an exciting midsection and a mild windup serve to make this a mid-range (no pun intended) Tim McCoy. Roundup boss Tim sides with the small ranchers (Ed Cobb, Richard Botiller) against the large ranchers in a range war. Rancher Niles Welch hires some rustlers (Dick Alexander) to steal his own cows and frame some nesters. Welch also imports gunslinger Tex Ravelle who is a dead-ringer for McCoy to take Tim's place and lead the nesters into a death trap.

 ROUGH RIDIN' JUSTICE (1945 Columbia)
Charles Starrett, the leader of a gang of outlaws, decides to ride the straight and narrow trail when he's offered the job of guarding the ranchers' wagon shipments. This leaves a bitter Jack Ingram to boss the outlaws (Bob Kortman, George Chesebro, Dan White) who then attempt to frame Starrett, making it look as if he's still in with the gang. Fine supporting cast: Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor, Betty Jane Graham, Jimmy Wakely, Wheeler Oakman, Forrest Taylor, Jack Rockwell, Ed Cobb. Fast and furious with music too --- Jimmy Wakely sings Bob Nolan's "Bandit Song" and Tim Spencer's "There's A Rainbow Over the Range" while Robert Ross (in his only western) sings "A Spot In Arizona". Director Derwin Abrahams (1903-1974) served as an assistant director on Hopalong Cassidy films ('36-'41) before getting his chance to direct BORDER VIGILANTES in '41. After several more Hoppys, he found most of his work split between Columbia and Monogram, including five serials at Columbia. A craftsman whose work never rose above mediocrity, he later helmed under the name Derwin Abbe when he directed HOPALONG CASSIDY and JUDGE ROY BEAN TVers in the '50s.

 FIGHTING TEXANS (1933 Monogram)
Smart-alec young Texas oil salesman Rex Bell persuades an entire town to invest in an oil well not knowing the boss of Nash Petroleum, Gordon De Main, is a swindler peddling what he believes is worthless stock. When the "dry well" comes in a gusher De Main is defeated and the whole town gets rich. Two girls-Betty Mack and Luana Walters vie for Bell's affections. George Hayes has a role. Not up to par for Bell.

  FLYING LARIATS (1932 Big 4)
Z-grade western written and directed by David Kirkland who had begun in the business as far back as 1913, both acting in and directing Broncho Billy Anderson one-reelers. The high point of his career came when he helmed (and wrote) several Fred Thomson FBO silents in '25-'26. He hung on as a bit player in some big films til the mid-'40s. Filmed around Sonora, CA, this befuddled plot has two rancher brothers, Wally Wales and Sam Garrett, helping homely Bonnie Jean Gray and her pop, Joe Lawless, outwit (one-time silent star) crooked Fred Church (sporting a mustache --- and the most natural actor in the cast) who is in league with bank employee Don Wilson (not the Jack Benny radio/TV announcer) and Church's lady-friend Tete Brady. There's a truly awful cowboy singer on the street, a lousy cowboy band at a dance and a 10 minute long stretch of rodeo footage midway. The Brownie camera quality photography doesn't help much either. Old-timers Buzz Barton and Denver Dixon picked up a coupla days work and a coupla dollars for this one too.

 RIDIN' ON (1936 Reliable)
Beautiful, gorgeous green-eyed Geraine Greear is Tom Tyler's leading lady. Who? Oh --- Joan Barclay working under one of her aliases. (Her real name was Mary Elizabeth Greear.) Concerning an elaborate range war frame-up, this a better than average job from producer/director B. B. Ray. The sneaky foreman (Roger Williams) on the ranch of Tom's father (John Elliott) is conniving with owlhoot Slim Whitaker to rob Elliott of his water rights. Joan's brother, Rex Lease, is framed for a shooting. Much is made of Lease being left-handed, but his six-gun is always on his right hip. (?) For the record, B. B. Ray was following the Autry singing-cowboy trend by having cowboys sing around the campfire.

 STRANGER FROM PECOS (1943 Monogram)
The second Johnny Mack Brown western in his Nevada Jack McKenzie series has many referrals back to the initial entry, GHOST RIDER, which was released about three months prior, making it a definite sequel and not just a "series" continuation. In the original film, while tracking down the murderers of his family, Brown played a lone hand while being helped by U. S. Marshal Raymond Hatton. At the end, he preferred to stay just outside the law. But now, he has taken Hatton's advice and become a Marshal also. Brown and Hatton come to the aid of young Kirby Grant when his father, Robert Frazer, is murdered and Grant framed for the deed by crooked sheriff Roy Barcroft and his snakes (Charlie King, Bud Osborne, Lynton Brent, Tom London, telegrapher Milburn Morante and town banker Sam Flint). Brown and Hatton enlist the support of Christine McIntyre, local café owner and sweetheart of Grant's, and her Pop, Steve Clark. Solid story, remade as SHADOWS OF THE WEST ('49) w/Whip Wilson. Big band singer Grant got his own brief series at Universal in 1945.

 SHADOWS OF THE WEST (1949 Monogram)
Adele Buffington (aka Jess Bowers) recycled her STRANGER FROM PECOS Johnny Mack Brown screenplay from 1943 for this second Whip Wilson entry. When Ted Adams and his son Riley Hill inherit a ranch they are framed for murder by banker Bill Kennedy and crooked sheriff William Ruhl (with their gunslicks Pierce Lyden, Bob Woodward, Dee Cooper, Keith Richards). Then Adams is killed and son Riley implicated in that murder. It takes Marshal Whip Wilson and his old pal, café owner Winks (Andy Clyde), with the assistance of his niece Reno Browne, to reveal the dirty plot. Whip sang "Red River Valley" in the theatrical version (and a piece of it can still be heard in the preview trailer) but TV prints have cut the song. Whip does sing as he rides away at the end. Whip use: a liberal four snaps!

 OLD LOUISIANA (1937 Crescent)
"In 1808 the Mississippi formed the western boundary of the U.S. The vast empire beyond, settled by France and ruled by Spain, lay on the bargain counter of Europe. The Spanish Governor of Louisiana, alarmed by the rapid growth of American river trade, suddenly revoked the existing treaty rights and imposed a tax on all American goods shipped through the port of New Orleans." It helps to have a historical background on events from this period to follow this talkative, sleepy melodrama. Smarmy Robert Fiske, factor of the Louisiana Fur Co., plots to stir up a rebellion among the American settlers so he can become head of the territory, overthrowing the district Governor of upper Louisiana, Carlos DeValdez. Fiske sends henchman Raphael (later Ray) Bennett to stop respected leader Tom Keene who is on his way to Washington for President Jefferson's (Allan Cavan) help. Rita Cansino is DeValdez's daughter, and Keene's love interest. When she became Rita Hayworth and a big star, Crescent top-lined Hayworth and re-released this film as LOUISIANA GAL in '43 to cash in on her new found fame. Doubt it helped this boring quagmire.

 CONQUERING HORDE (1931 Paramount)
Shortly after the Civil War, cattle ranchers in Texas face poverty because the Union Pacific railroad is bypassing the state and going through Kansas. Unscrupulous carpetbagger and state treasurer Ian MacLaren (best noted for his silent costume dramas) buys land script cheap from desperate ranchers and is distraught when Yankee Richard Arlen rides in ready to lead pretty Fay Wray's cattle to the railhead at Abilene. Pursued by MacLaren, the trail drive faces storms, mutiny, river-crossings and Indians. Remake of Jack Holt's 1924 NORTH OF 36 with some stock footage from the original (in particular the final stampede).

 ONE WAY TRAIL (1931 Columbia)
Columbia was making money handling Buck Jones' westerns made for Sol Lesser's Beverly Productions and was interested in expanding their B-western output. Colonel Tim McCoy had arrived in Hollywood in 1923 to attend to technical details and Indian relations for THE COVERED WAGON. He soon became MGM's first and only cowboy star in 16 features from 1926-'29. With the advent of sound, he took the lead in Universal's all-talking INDIANS ARE COMING serial, followed by a non-western Universal serial, HEROES OF THE FLAMES. But while Universal hemmed and hawed about making a western series, Columbia signed Tim. ONE WAY TRAIL, directed by Ray Taylor, was his first talkie feature. Coming to visit his brother (Carroll Nye) only to find him murdered, Tim believes the killer is leading lady Doris Hill's father, a saloon owner, and sets out to ruin him. Nearly too late Tim discovers the real killer is gambler Al Ferguson (supported by his girlfriend Polly Ann Young and gun-rannies Bud Osborne and Slim Whitaker). Tim remained with Columbia through 1935. When his contract came up for renewal, he opted to sign with independent Puritan Pictures.

 THE LONE RIDER (1930 Columbia)
Buck Jones had not made a film since 1928. When he left Fox, where he'd made a successful series of silent westerns, he was earning $2,500 a week. Striking out on his own, his first effort was THE BIG HOP, a silent with synchronized music and sound in 1928. The film about a cowhand turned aviator was a flop with audiences. He next tried a Wild West Show but was screwed by a duplicitous show manager, wiping out Buck's savings of $250,000 and leaving him owing even more. Facing an uncertain future, Buck returned to Hollywood vowing to pay off every creditor in full. He struck a deal with producer Sol Lesser's Beverly Productions to make eight westerns a year for release by Columbia. However, Buck was to be paid only $300 a week. He gritted his teeth and set about rebuilding his lost fortune and film career. THE LONE RIDER was Buck's first all-talkie and proved he had a fine voice to match his physical appearance. In a beautifully photographed "good-badman" yarn, Buck is an outlaw who quits Harry Woods' gang and falls in love with Vera Reynolds during an attempted stage holdup in which Vera mistakenly believes Buck is rescuing her. When Buck is persuaded to become head of the Vigilance Committee, Woods returns to rob the bank, implicating Buck in the holdup. Trying to clear himself, Buck is soon pursued by the Vigilantes and Woods' gang. The yarn was so strong, Buck remade it as MAN TRAILER, his last for Columbia in '34. Columbia dusted it off one more time in '39 for Charles Starrett's THUNDERING WEST. LONE RIDER was a huge success, propelling Buck to new heights of stardom. Buck's personality came through in sound films even better than it had in his silent features. By the mid '30s he was the top western screen star, surpassing his popularity in the silent era.

 THUNDERING WEST (1939 Columbia)
A third version of a story previously used by Columbia in Buck Jones' LONE RIDER ('30) and MAN TRAILER ('34). Solid story, three/four songs from the Sons of the Pioneers (the highlight is Bob Nolan's "Rocky Roads") with most of the action coming in a torrent at the finish. Charles Starrett and pal Hank Bell (he of the handlebar mustache) break away from Dick Curtis' outlaw gang (which includes Ed Cobb, Art Mix). After Starrett accidentally saves a Wells Fargo stagecoach shipment and rescues gorgeous Iris Meredith, Iris' father (Judge Edward Le Saint) and the townsfolk appoint the former outlaw sheriff, believing there's good in him. That faith is tested when Curtis forces Starrett into helping him rob the Wells Fargo office.

 RAWHIDE TERROR (1935 Security)
Sloppily made, intended as a serial originally, RAWHIDE TERROR nevertheless remains no-budget producer Victor Adamson's film legacy, primarily due to the film's unbelievable awfulness. It's the PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE of westerns. Mixing the horror film and the western, the title character (wearing a grotesque rawhide mask) anticipates 1974's Leatherface of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE by 40 years! The story (such as it is) has two young brothers, both with identifying birthmarks, witness the murder of their parents by a gang of white renegades disguised as Indians. One boy escapes to safety while the oldest, deranged by a blow to the head, wanders off onto the desert. Years later, the renegades have become respectable citizens who control the town of Red Dog. However, they are all afraid of a murderous, frightening, masked horseman known as the Rawhide Terror who rides the countryside bareback on a paint horse. On each victim he kills he leaves a strip of rawhide with the message, "Remember 10 years ago." The banker, George Holt, onetime leader of the renegades, tries, unsuccessfully, to capture The Terror. In the convoluted plot (which would have become at least slightly clearer had the full serial been made --- or released if it was completed), young Tommy Bupp comes for aid to the ranch of brothers Art Mix and William Desmond and their sister Frances Morris, Sheriff Ed Cobb's girlfriend. The boy has been abused by his father, William Barrymore. Eventually, The Terror is revealed to be Barrymore (who has now avenged his parents' murder) with his brother being Sheriff Cobb. Before the credits fade out at the start, you can catch a glimpse of "Chapter Two: The Terror's Return", proving this conglomeration was originally intended as a serial. Whether it was ever finished or whether severe editing to make a feature caused all the name and continuity confusion, it's now nothing but a disjointed 46 minute patchwork with characters never properly introduced, missing scenes and plot strands that lead nowhere. Someone named Ed appears out of the mist just as Art Mix, William Desmond and Tommy Bupp disappear altogether. At one point, Desmond accidentally calls Bupp "Tommy", his real name, rather than his screen name of Jimmy. The interesting aspect of the film is all the former silent stars it employs --- Art Mix, Ed Cobb, William Desmond, William Barrymore, Bill Patton. Even producer Victor Adamson using his acting moniker of Denver Dixon has a small role. Has to be seen to be believed!

 VIGILANTE HIDEOUT (1950 Republic)
Range detective Allan 'Rocky' Lane is bewildered as to why someone would continue to run off inventor Eddy Waller's three old cows, Faith, Hope and Charity, night after night. Guilty party is Don Haggerty, manager of a freight line in Cottonwood Springs, who is aware of an old copper mine underneath Waller's corral leading to the bank. Running off the three cows causes Nugget to leave nightly, allowing Haggerty to work on the tunnel to the bank which he plans to rob of $25,000 (the local aqueduct fund). Haggerty enlists the aid of muley Roy Barcroft (and his bullwhip). Lane and Barcroft stage a terrific wham-bammer in Virginia Herrick's eatery. Haggerty also blackmails Herrick's father, Cliff Clark, into helping him, threatening to expose Clark's tainted vigilante past. Banker Paul Campbell was primarily under contract to Columbia for his 10 years in the business ('47-'57) and was featured in 10 Durango Kid B's. This is his only Republic film. One of the best running gags of the Lane series has Waller inventing all sorts of gadgets (record player, airplane, automatic door opener, etc.) just for fun, all the while belittling their commercial value.

 ARIZONA RAIDERS (1965 Columbia)
Ultra violent western has Audie Murphy and Ben Cooper as part of Quantrill's Raiders. When Quantrill (Fred Graham) is killed, Audie and Ben are captured by Cavalry Capt. Buster Crabbe and sent to prison but offered pardons by the Governor if they cooperate and infiltrate the remnants of the gang, now led by cutthroat George Keymas and vicious Michael Dante who are terrorizing Arizona. Crabbe is now heading up the newly formed Arizona Rangers and allows the pair to escape a chain-gang so it will appear to the raiders as if they are still outlaws. Directed by old pro William Witney, the film is filled with new-found '60s violence --- Yaqui Indian cactus torture, a knife through the hand in a card game, back shooting, bloody bullet hits and intended rape. Actually, it's a remake of TEXAS RANGERS ('51) with George Montgomery, produced by Edward Small who is the uncredited money-man behind credited producer Grant Whytock here. Cooper takes the former Noah Beery Jr. role and Ray Stricklyn has the role of Audie's Ranger brother played earlier by Jerome Courtland. A boring 9 minute prologue by a newspaper editor, spoken directly to the camera/audience about Quantrill's background, was apparently added on to TV prints to pad out the running time to 97 minutes for showings (w/commercials) in two hour time slots. Filmed at Old Tucson, Arizona.

 THE MAVERICK (1952 Allied Artists)
It's a real llooonnnggg trek as Lt. Bill Elliott's Cavalry detail (Myron Healey, Robert Bray, Rand Brooks, Terry Frost) escorts four prisoners (Denver Pyle, Richard Reeves, Gene Roth, Gregg Barton) across the plains to Ft. Jeffrey for trial. A gang of outlaws, friends of the prisoners (led by Bob Wilke and Joel Allen), are trailing, waiting to ambush them and free the four. Along the way, Elliott's detail picks up a wagon with Phyllis Coates and Grandma Florence Lake. Troublemaker Healey, with an intense dislike for Lt. Elliott, is eventually bribed by the four prisoners to help in turning them loose. Florence Lake is best known as Edgar Kennedy's scatterbrained wife in a series of RKO comedy-shorts. The usually acceptable music score by Rauol Krausharr gets quite wearisome here, making the trek seem quite longer than its 71 minutes. Cowboy cancer alert: Bill smokes his pipe.

 GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES (1937 Republic)
Holds the distinction of being the first in a long line of Gene Autry Vs. his leading lady (in this case, Judith Allen) plotlines. May not be to every B-western fan's taste as this Depression-era romp (it even ends with everyone singing "Happy Days Are Here Again") lays on the music and Smiley Burnette antics (he's trying to catch butterflies) quite thick with over 15, count 'em, 15, songs. At one point an oil stock fundraiser turns into a full-fledged community sing, with the various tunes' words superimposed on the screen so the audience can sing along. All that's missing is a bouncing ball! But there's a lot to commend, an interesting story with a few surprises as cattleman Gene (after entertainingly feuding with Judith Allen for 30 minutes) eventually joins forces with the modern miss radio station owner to help her father (William Farnum), who is soon found dead, put over the digging of an oil well in cattle territory. Gene is successful in saving the payroll for the oil workers when smooth Weldon Heyburn, as the heavy in charge of oilfield operations, tries a doublecross, for he is stalling on bringing in the well, expecting to take it over when Farnum's option expires in a few days. Director Joe Kane provides an exciting climax at the oil derrick. Watch for Art Davis as a fiddle player at the fund raiser. Catch the BAR Z BADMEN and ROARIN' LEAD movie posters clearly in evidence at the 30 minute mark. Gene and Republic worked the black youngsters, The Cabin Kids, into the proceedings as they'd done in ROUND-UP TIME IN TEXAS. Around since 1926, The Maple City Four (Al, Art, Fritz and Pat), called "the four Marx Brothers of radio", a hot act on WLS National Barn Dance from whence cometh Gene, hooked up with Republic for this one as well as OLD BARN DANCE in '38 and Roy Rogers' first UNDER WESTERN STARS ('38) - which was actually a film intended for Gene - however, their washboard band novelties were not quite suitable for westerns. Another specialty act in GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES is Will and Gladys Ahern. Connecticut born Will hooked up with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Troupe as a teenager and learned rope spinning. During the heyday of vaudeville he met and married Gladys Reece. They worked in several RKO shorts and took their act on the road til both were well into their 80s. Will appeared in HELLO DOLLY in '69 at age 73. The twosome toured with Gene on a USO unit in Saipan.

 BILLY THE KID'S RANGE WAR (1941 PRC)
Weak Bob Steele that simply doesn't hold interest in its involved plotline. Begins strongly as Sheriff Ted Adams and Carleton Young are chasing Rex Lease dressed as Billy the Kid (Steele) whom they believe is responsible for a dozen killings in Lincoln County. Young knows his pal is innocent but Adams is crooked and tied in with Karl Hackett, a swine who wants to sabotage Joan Barclay's freight line. Her father was promised a government mail contract if he built a road from West City to Pebble Creek, making a cross country route practical. But Hackett, Sheriff Adams and Milton Kibbee, a spy in Barclay's employ who actually answers to Hackett, want the contract for Hackett's steamship company. Steele, Young and Fuzzy St. John eventually get the road open for the first stage. Someone explain the title to me. There is no hint of a range war! Screenwriter William Lively borrowed some of his own ideas when he wrote OLD TEXAS TRAIL ('44) for Rod Cameron. Watch for onetime minor star Buddy Roosevelt as one of the heavies.

 UNDER MONTANA SKIES (1930 Tiffany)
A strange mixture of western action, comedy and music with one-time silent matinee idol Kenneth Harlan who began in films in 1917. Shortly after this film, he moved into supporting roles, many of them westerns. He retired in '43 and lived until '67 when he died at 71. Harlan and lanky pal Slim Summerville try to help a troupe of stranded and broke vaudeville performers put on a show at the local opera house. Convincing skinflint hotel owner Harry Todd to drop unpaid hotel rent charges against the troupe, Harlan then has to convince Todd's wife (Ethel Wales) to let them do the show as she owns the opera house. Wales is a comic delight as the allegedly prudish wife who in reality has the hots for Harlan when he pretends to romance her in order to persuade the old biddy to let them use her opera house. In the midst of the show, Harlan's old enemies, Charlie King and Slim Whitaker, plan to stick-up the boxoffice. Several songs by troupe leader Nina Martan as Blondie, who also has some scenes where she thoroughly whups-up on Summerville. Actually, the strong-willed Martan has a far superior role than higher-billed leading lady Dorothy Gulliver, who also sings in a chorus line rendition of "Harlem Hop". Written by English music hall man Jimmy Aubrey (who worked in scads of U. S. westerns) and Bennett Cohen (who scripted dozens of B-westerns). Because it comes from Tiffany (the MGM of '30s independents) and has a few well-staged action sequences (expertly photographed by Harry Zech --- a Hollywood trick photographer who was usually unbilled in early films) it's worth a look, but granted, the plot mixture of comedy/music/action is not for everyone. It's a shame Tiffany (or anyone) didn't develop a western series around Harlan, they could have had a real winner.

 ON THE OLD SPANISH TRAIL (1947 Republic)
Republic was attempting to gain south of the border audiences by adding Tito Guizar and Estelita Rodriguez to their Roy Rogers pictures. Smiling, charming, romantic and silvery-voiced, Tito brought a new dimension to Roy's films. He excels here on "I'll Never Love Again" based on "La Borrachita". "Helping Hand" by the Sons of the Pioneers is also first rate. In Trucolor and directed with a sure hand by William Witney, the plot centers on a destitute tent show run by the Pioneers from which manager Charles McGraw operates a robbery ring (Fred Graham, Marshall Reed, Steve Darrell). With money invested in the show, Roy has to join the boys to ensure success. Jane Frazee is the show's leading lady, Andy Devine is Sheriff Cookie Bullfincher who is trying to catch romantic outlaw 'The Gypsy', Tito Guizar, and his love interest Estelita Rodriguez who is constantly jealous of Tito's falling for Frazee. Fred Graham has some real fun with his role of a punch-drunk knife thrower. Frazee's husky singing voice blends well with Roy's. Director Witney injected one of the wildest, stunt-filled stagecoach chase/fights you'll ever see on screen for the finale with Roy, Andy, Frazee, McGraw and Graham all joining in.

 CONCENTRATIN' KID (1930 Universal)
Cute Hoot Gibson romantic comedy as the Hooter falls in love with the voice of radio songstress Kathryn Crawford and bets his fellow cowhands an expensive $300 radio he can woo and marry the gal. While doing so, Hoot (and his steed Goldie) manage to round-up barbershop romeo Duke Lee's rustlers --- but not until the last reel. Crawford sings the plaintive "I Want My Man of the Golden West" --- three times! This was the last of Gibson's Universal westerns. Plagued by diminishing returns brought on by the Depression, Universal made the decision that galloping hoof beats were not for them and did not renew the contracts of either Gibson or Ken Maynard.

 SKULL AND CROWN (1935 Reliable)
Mexican border patrol trooper Regis Toomey and his faithful dog Rin Tin Tin Jr. await the arrival from the east of his sister, Lois January. When Toomey is summoned by trooper Jack Mulhall to pursue some of Jack Mower's smugglers he leave Rinty to protect Lois. Mower himself, in an attempt to escape, murders Lois. When Toomey returns, he assumes Rinty abandoned Lois and drives the dog away. Toomey resigns to pursue the smugglers on his own, infiltrating the gang at a resort owned by John Elliott and his daughter Molly O'Day who are being held hostage. Rinty, still loyal to Toomey even after his banishment, follows his master to the lodge and saves the day. Mower (1890-1965) had been a big name in silent serials and starred in some westerns. SKULL AND CROWN is a remake of the '31 Metropolitan serial, SIGN OF THE WOLF w/Rex Lease and the dog King. Mower was in it as well. Both were produced by Harry Webb. One of Mower's henchmen, James Murray, had been a big star in silents for King Vidor (THE CROWD) but a drinking problem brought his career to an end as he drifted into small parts in low budget independents. This was his last role before his alcohol related death in 1936. Everyone concerned here does good work, elevating this to an above average Reliable.

 SHERIFF OF WICHITA (1949 Republic)
"In the historic annals of the U.S. Army there are many strange stories - and one of the strangest concerns the mysterious disappearance of Major Alvin Bishop and the court martial of Lt. Raymond d'Arcy (Clayton Moore). The case lay unsolved and dormant until a September night in 1891." Scripter Bob Williams' excellent who-done-it begins as Moore escapes prison with only two months to go on his five year sentence. Moore was falsely convicted of an Army payroll robbery --- and Maj. Bishop is the only one who can clear him. Now, Moore and several others who were there the night of the robbery (scout Eddy Waller, ex-troopers Gene Roth and Trevor Bardette) have been summoned to the abandoned Army post by the mysterious Maj. Bishop. Also arriving are outlaw Roy Barcroft (searching for the never found payroll), Sheriff Allan 'Rocky' Lane in pursuit of the escaped Moore, and Maj. Bishop's daughter (Lyn Wilde) trying to prove her father's innocence. Watch for Steve Raines as one of Barcroft's men. Raines later became trail drover Quince on TV's RAWHIDE. Boo Boo --- That's Lane Bradford wounded in stock footage chasing Eddy Waller --- but in the close-up it's Stanley Price who ends up dying.

 GREAT MEADOW (1931 MGM)
After witnessing this utterly abysmal frontier failure fraught with overwrought theatrics, it's a wonder anyone ever took a chance on Johnny Mack Brown again. It's pure "Ham" as a group of Virginians (led by Brown and new wife Eleanor Boardman), inspired by Daniel Boone, trek from Virginia to Kentucky in 1777. Battling Indians, clearing forests, crossing rain-swept rivers and foraging for food pale in comparison to the fight we have attempting to listen to the overblown script and watch the bad acting. Just so you're aware of who's responsible for this grandiose pain in the ass --- Charles Brabin wrote and directed! MGM-for shame!

 RIDERS OF BLACK MOUNTAIN (1940 PRC)
Disguised as a gambler, U.S. Marshal Tim McCoy and his pal Ralph Peters swing into action against banker Alden (later Stephen) Chase and his gunmen (Ted Adams, Jack Rutherford, Dirk Thane, George Chesebro). Chase is robbing his own bank gold shipments and collecting the insurance. There's lot of trickery and double dealing before Tim rounds up the crooks. He'd have done it a lot sooner but he must contend with Sheriff Rex Lease who believes Tim one of the gang. Pauline Haddon (whose brief career included three westerns, two with McCoy) is Lease's love interest.

 THUNDER IN THE DESERT (1938 Supreme/Republic)
"Sworn to vengeance, Bob Steele takes to the trail, headin' straight into dynamited danger", so read the ads for this one. Hooking up with railroad hobo Rusty (an annoying Don Barclay), Bob arrives in the desert country where he has inherited a ranch from his uncle who was mysteriously murdered. Through a set of circumstances, he and Rusty join up with the gang (Ed Brady, Lew Meehan in one of his best roles, Sherry Tansey) and learn sneaky neighboring rancher Charlie King is behind the ranch-grab. Naturally, Bob quickly falls for attractive Louise Stanley whose father, Steve Clark, is managing the uncle's ranch til the new owner (Bob) arrives. Besides Barclay, we have to suffer bumbling sheriff Horace Murphy and his dopey deputy Budd Buster. Barclay (1892-1975) also side-kicked once for Bob Baker. The tubby comic came out of the Ziegfeld Follies into film in '36. He was seen in MARY POPPINS as Mr. Binnacle. This western utilizes both cabins on the oft-used-in-B-westerns Walker Ranch situated along Newhall, California's Placerita Canyon Rd. The most frequently used cabin sports a stone chimney on the right with trees directly in front. There was a mine entrance to the left rear and a chase road running in front of the cabin with a (usually) dry creek bed surrounded by mottled-bark sycamore trees opposite the road. This familiar cabin still stands on what is now a state park. Another much less used cabin, surrounded by hills, once stood about a mile east of the main filming area. The Walker family called this structure the Summer cabin. It is wider with a step leading up to the front porch. THUNDER IN THE DESERT may be the only western in which both cabins appear.

 SQUARE DANCE JUBILEE (1949 Lippert)
Don Barry turns singing cowboy (for one song) in a picture that combines a traditional western story with a "Let's put on a show" musical revue. While searching for authentic western entertainers to place on Spade Cooley's TV show, talent scouts Barry and Wally Vernon encounter cattle rustlers (nightclub owner John Eldredge and henchmen Tom Tyler, Lee Roberts, Clarke Stevens) who are victimizing pretty young rancher Mary Beth Hughes. One of Don Barry's productions in association with writer/producer Ron Ormond. Plenty of music and song from Cooley, Cowboy Copas ("Signed, Sealed and Delivered"), Britt Wood, Claude Casey, Broome Brothers, Smiley and Kitty and many more -- including comedy spots from Vernon and Sheriff Max Terhune (doing all his bird and animal imitations). More entertaining than it sounds. Listen for the inside joke. Don Barry: "We were looking for the old west --- we've found it. An old town, a beautiful blonde, changing brands, rustlers, dry gulching. Reminds me of a Don 'Red' Barry western." Wally Vernon: "Don 'Red' Barry? He's my favorite actor. Did you see the picture where -" Don (interrupting): "I never liked him!"

 GUNNING FOR VENGEANCE (1946 Columbia)
Action piled upon action as Marshal Charles Starrett, foiled by the state boundary line, calls on his alter ego --- The Durango Kid --- and goes gunning for vengeance when renegades use trail drives to stampede cattle through town and over ranches to enforce their crooked protection racket. Starrett befriends Marjean Neville, the very young daughter of rancher Jim Nolan, when he is injured by saloon owner Lane Chandler's outlaws --- George Chesebro and Bob Kortman. Starrett is also helped by barn operator/inventor/deputy sheriff Smiley Burnette along with Curt Barrett and the Trailsmen, who get a job in Chandler's saloon to keep an eye on his activities --- which eventually include kidnapping little Marjean and having his saloon girl Belle (Phyllis Adair) hold her captive in order to trap Starrett/Durango.

 HOSTILE COUNTRY (1950 Lippert)
Jimmy 'Shamrock' Ellison and his pal Russ 'Lucky' Hayden are riding in to join Jimmy's stepfather (whom he's never met) as half owners of a ranch, but villain George J. Lewis has kidnapped the man (George Chesebro) and replaced him. Lewis and the Brady gang (John Cason, Tom Tyler, Bud Osborne, Dennis Moore) have erected a barricade on the land blocking the pass to town which neighboring rancher Betty (Julia) Adams (and her in-tandem foremen Fuzzy Knight/Raymond Hatton) needs to drive her horses through to sale, saving her from ranch foreclosure which would allow Cason's gang to take over. Neat little remake of Bob Steele's NO MAN'S RANGE ('35).

 SUNDOWN JIM (1942 20th Century Fox)
Jarrin' John Kimbrough played fullback for Texas A&M from 1938-1940 and was unanimous All-American in '40 and runner-up for the Heisman Trophy that year. In the 1940 Sugar Bowl John rushed for 152 yards on 26 carries, scored two touchdowns, one on a 10 yard run ending in an 18 yard pass-lateral play. Kimbrough is in the College Football Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Noting his national fame, 20th Century Fox signed John to star in their Zane Grey westerns, replacing George Montgomery who had been elevated to bigger productions. Only two were produced before WWII interrupted his screen career. After the war, John returned to Haskell, TX, and ranching. Neither of the Kimbrough pair were anything spectacular, but Fox wisely surrounded his high pitched Texas twang and rather stiff delivery with solid production values, great Lone Pine locations and strong supporting casts, making then much more palatable. Based on an involved Ernest Haycock (STAGECOACH, UNION PACIFIC) story, Marshal Sundown Jim (Kimbrough) arrives in the town of Reservation to settle a bitter range war just as Virginia Gilmore's rancher father Eddy Waller is killed. The two most influential and powerful ranchers in the Valley, Moroni Olsen (with daughter Arleen Whelan) and Lane Chandler have both hired gunfighters to fight their range war - Joe Sawyer and Don Costello. The two gunmen join forces and plot to doublecross both ranchers, leaving the way clear for them to run things. The gun battle climax holds a few surprises and there is an exciting final gun duel amidst the mist and fog of a hot springs. Supporting cast includes LeRoy Mason, Kermit Maynard, Paul Hurst, Frank McGrath (later cook Charlie Wooster in TV's WAGON TRAIN), Cliff Edwards, Paul Sutton, Syd Saylor and Glenn Strange.

 KID FROM TEXAS (1950 Universal-International)
Audie Murphy is bland and totally expressionless in his first starring role as New Mexico outlaw Billy the Kid. But somehow, for this character in this film, surrounded by a strong cast of total pros and non-stop action, it seems to work. Previous Billy the Kid sagas had starred Johnny Mack Brown, Robert Taylor and even Buster Crabbe, but this was the most factual version thus far --- allowing for an unrequited romance between Billy and the young wife (Gale Storm) of deceptive lawyer Albert Dekker. Billy's character is glossed over to fit Audie's romantic image as he becomes embroiled in a range war. Siding with rancher Shepperd Strudwick, Billy is urged to lay aside his six-guns, but takes them up again following Strudwick's vicious murder, cutting a swath of revenge through New Mexico territory until he finally meets his end (unhistorically longing for Storm) at the hands of Pat Garrett (Frank Wilcox). Filmed around Idyllwild, CA, and the Jack Garner Ranch (where so many Tim Holt B's were lensed) in Technicolor by director Kurt Neumann. Also in the top flight cast --- William Talman, Will Geer (stealing every scene he's in), Ray Teal and Robert Barrat with small roles going to a host of B-western players such as Pierce Lyden, Jack Ingram, Don Haggerty, Zon Murray, William Fawcett, Ed Cobb and Terry Frost.

 OUTLAWS OF THE RANGE (1936 Spectrum)
Cowboy Bill Cody quashes a scheme by the neighboring rancher (Gordon Griffith) of nice old rancher William McCall, his daughter Catherine Cotter and young son Bill Cody Jr. (in reality Bill's real son) to rustle their cattle and grab his ranch which only Griffith knows is oil rich. Griffith is supported is by McCall's foreman Dick Strong. Strictly routine, lowbudget seen-it-all-before-done-better stuff.

 THE PIONEERS (1941 Monogram)
Tex Ritter finishes off 32 films for producer Ed Finney with a good one --- loaded with action and song. Along for the ride are Red Foley and his Saddle Pals from WLS' National Barn Dance and Doye O'Dell, star of NBC's WTIC, Hartford, CT. Foley delivers his lines with a definite ease and sincerity. It's a shame he didn't want to make westerns (as is rumored) or that producer Finney didn't do something further with him in the singing cowboy vein. Settlers led by Del Lawrence and daughter Wanda McKay are put upon by land office owner Karl Hackett and his sidewinders (George Chesebro, Lynton Brent) who want the settlers intended land at Beaver Creek. They stir up the Indians to attack the settlers' wagon train. James Fenimore Cooper's LEATHERSTOCKING TALES is listed as inspiration for the story, but the film bears no resemblance to Cooper's story which leads one to believe Cooper was listed for name-sales-potential value only. Slim Andrews is Tex's sidekick.

 MARSHAL OF LAREDO (1945 Republic)
More often than not, when unusual, out of the routine B-western plots are written, they come from Bob Williams. Saloon owner Denver Jack (Roy Barcroft) keeps his thieves and thugs in line through incriminating photographs taken by his flunky, Pretty Boy Murphy (well played by Don Costello as a scar-faced-by-fire photographer who is sadistically and constantly tortured with matches by Barcroft). When Barcroft's lawyer, young Robert Grady (the only one Barcroft has nothing on) decides to quit the crooked saloon owner and go straight so he can marry his gal, Peggy Stewart, and receive approval of her disdainful father (George Carleton), Barcroft murders Peg's pop and blames Grady. New marshal Red Ryder (Wild Bill Elliott) and his pal Little Beaver are charged with learning the truth before Grady is hanged before the very eyes of his beloved mother (Sarah Padden) who has just arrived thinking she'll attend her son and Peg's wedding. Some terrific brawls staged by director R. G. Springsteen.

 RIDIN' ON A RAINBOW (1941 Republic)
This is singer Mary Lee's 6th with Gene Autry. What the young charmer brought to Gene's films is immeasurable; some of his best films were made beginning in 1939 when Mary joined Autry for SOUTH OF THE BORDER. Here, Mary and her washed-up hoofer Pop, Byron Foulger, get mixed up with bank robbers Ralf Harolde and Anthony Warde. It's up to Gene (and Smiley Burnette) to recover the bank money as Gene convinced all the ranchers it was safe to put their hard earned cattle earnings in the bank. A lot of the action (and 7 songs) take place on a Showboat run by Capt. Ferris Taylor, his daughter Carole Adams and his wife Georgia Caine. Songs include a plaintive "I'm the Only One" from Mary and Gene's "Be Honest With Me" which was nominated for an Academy Award. Pure entertainment.

 PALS OF THE SADDLE (1938 Republic)
Modern west 3 Mesquiteers (John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune) adventure as deadly Monium gas threatens the nation. As a bit of a history lesson, the Neutrality Act of 1935, noted in newspaper headlines as the film opens, banned the sale of war materials to warring nations. In John Wayne's first outing as a Mesquiteer (replacing Robert Livingston as Stony), he and his pals stumble onto a plan by evil judge Josef Forte to export the deadly chemical to Mexico to sell to foreign interests, using a salt refinery, run by Ted Adams, as their smuggling cover. When Wayne is framed for the murder of one of Forte's men (George Douglas), his only escape route is to fake his own death. Leading lady Doreen McKay is a Secret Service agent after Forte who helps the Mesquiteers in capturing the mastermind. The thrill and stunt packed windup in Red Rock Canyon is a stunner. Well directed by Little Georgie Sherman. Remade as SONG OF THE RANGE ('44) with Jimmy Wakely.

 TWILIGHT ON THE TRAIL (1941 Paramount)
TWILIGHT ON THE TRAIL is more like "Sundown On the Cassidys". It's the absolute nadir in the Paramount Hoppy films with boring, lazy direction by Howard Bretherton who provides not one single closeup in the entire film! The whole thing is unbelievably filmed with no style at all in medium and long shots! Simple plot has rancher Jack Rockwell and daughter Wanda McKay plagued by rustlers (his own foreman Norman Willis), hiring range detectives Hopalong Cassidy, Andy Clyde and Brad King who arrive masquerading as foppish eastern dudes. After 37 minutes of this, Hoppy says, "I thought we'd be more help if we'd disguise ourselves, but it didn't work out so good." You're telling me! The Jimmy Wakely Trio performs Johnny Bond's "Cimarron" and Brad King sings two songs with the Wakely Trio, including "Twilight On the Trial", sung far better by Fuzzy Knight in TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE ('36). Actress Ellen Corby contributed to J. Benton Cheney's nothing script. Shame on every one for this entry!

 RIO GRANDE (1949 Lautem/Astor)
A strong candidate for the worst B-western ever made, edged out by BORDER FENCE, but certainly the worst ever with a major star --- Sunset Carson. If you think Sunset's Yucca Productions in 1948 were bad, wait til you see (if you must) this abysmal excuse for exposed film. Written and directed by Norman Sheldon, the perpetrator of BORDER FENCE as well. Filmed on the Rio Grande in Juanita, TX, a run-down village about 25 miles east of Laredo, everything about it is inferior, especially Jack Specht's motionless inept photography for which he used no lights (other than the sun) and no reflectors, leaving faces in total shadow much of the time. There's a car horn on the soundtrack, an unbelievable off-key girl singer, several amateurish local actors and unintentional yuks --- such as when the badguys, sent to ambush Sunset and strongly warned not to miss with the first shot, not only miss the first shot, but the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th in a row! The plot is all about a struggle over a waterhole held by Bobby Clark (grown up from SAGEBRUSH FAMILY TRAILS WEST) and sis Evohn Keyes and heavy Bob Deats' efforts to get it away from them, employing gunman Lee Morgan and crooked sheriff Henry Garcia.

 WILD HORSE (1931 Allied)
Hoot Gibson often mentioned this as his favorite sound film, but one wonders why. Perhaps because much of it is devoted to capturing a wild palomino played by Hoot's horse Mutt. Otherwise, its pretty pedestrian as Hoot is framed for a murder he didn't commit. Hoot's rodeo nemesis, Ed Cobb, breaks the wild horse loose after Hoot and pal Skeeter Bill Robbins have captured him, then kills Skeeter in a struggle for which Hoot is blamed by Sheriff Ed Peil. Fortunately, the real murder was witnessed by bank robber Neal Hart (the former silent star) who straightens things out by the end. George Bunny (brother of noted silent comedian John Bunny) is the rodeo owner and homely Alberta Vaughn (1904-1992) is his daughter, Hoot's love interest. Embarrassing to watch is black comic Stepin Fetchit's intolerable and painful attempts at comedy in his usual (but seemingly worse here) incomprehensible mumbling slur. Based on the COSMOPOLITAN Peter B. Kyne story. Re-released by Astor Pictures in the '40s as SILVER DEVIL.

 PISTOL HARVEST (1951 RKO)
This first film in the last group of eight Tim Holt made for the '51-'52 season begins to exhibit RKO's budget tightening practices as the B-westerns began to fade in attendance due to that box in the living room --- TV. Cowhand Holt plans to marry Joan Dixon, the boss' daughter, until her father (Guy Edward Hearn) is robbed and killed by import/export magnate Mauritz Hugo when he needs money for a big deal and is told by his bookkeeper cohort, William Griffith, that he has none. Hugo tries to lay blame off on itinerant cowhands Robert Clarke and Bob Wilke. Bit of a weak ending for a Holt western.

 THE KID'S LAST RIDE (1941 Monogram)
Starts off a bit weak for the Range Busters (Ray "Crash" Corrigan, John "Dusty" King, Max "Alibi" Terhune) when they have their horses snookered away, making them the laughing stock of the town, then Crash has to "shoo" a skunk underneath schoolmarm Luana Walter's schoolhouse, but they redeem themselves in the second half of the film. A remake of Ken Maynard's BRANDED MEN ('31), the plot centers on weak "juvenile delinquent" Edwin Brian (who needs his teeth fixed if he was going to stay in films --- which he didn't) who gets into the bad company of brothers Al Bridge and Glenn Strange. The brothers, through overdue gambling debts owed by Brian, force him to help on robberies, planning to eventually turn him in to hang in retribution for their other brother who was sentenced to the gallows back in Kansas by Brian and sister Luana Walters' father who was a Judge. A key role goes to Corrigan's white horse who identifies Strange as one of the bad guys. Crash and Strange stage one of the best fights of the Range Busters series. The comic tune "It's All A Part of the Game" sung by all three Busters and Elmer while they have to walk into town is also a standout.

 SIX GUN TRAIL (1938 Victory)
From the U.S. Department of Justice In the West, Lightning Bill Carson (Tim McCoy) and his pal Magpie (Ben Corbett) are on the trail of a gang of jewel thieves (Alden Chase, Ted Adams, Karl Hackett, Bob Terry) who have pulled a big railroad heist. Discovering the outlaw's lair (by vividly and morbidly describing to Karl Hackett what his "long last walk" would be like and how he'd die slowly in the gas chamber if he didn't confess), Tim is then aided by Nora Lane (Chase's accomplice and singer in his saloon hideout), a girl whom he helped arrange a pardon for years ago. (You're also required to pardon her sour note singing --- as well as that of cowboy balladeer Hal Carey!) The outlaws think they've killed Tim, but he re-emerges as a well-dressed, educated Chinese merchant, Sam Sung (possibly an early relative of the Japanese VCR manufacturer?), ready to fence the badmen's stolen goods so as to trap the thieves. The first half of SIX GUN TRAIL moves along well, but once Tim dons the Chinaman disguise the film comes to a grinding halt and doesn't revive until the final showdown. Note: That's songwriter Lew Porter we glimpse playing piano for Lane's "singing".

 RAINBOW OVER THE RANGE (1940 Monogram)
Dennis Moore and his sister Dorothy Fay have a contract to supply the government with horses as Cavalry mounts. Former silent screen Tarzan Jim Pierce wants that contract but he's under-bid, so he and his boys (Gene Alsace, Chuck Morrison and Warner Richmond --- who must not have been around for the whole shoot as he appears and disappears) steal Moore and Fay's stock so the pair can't deliver. Then Pierce plans to step in and take over. State marshals Tex Ritter and Slim Andrews bring the gang to justice. Art Wilcox and his Arizona Rangers sing "My Tonto Basin Home" (written by one of them) over the titles, but don't appear in the film. A schoolroom segment midway slows the film as does the part where Slim plays the bells and a balloon for the kids. It's poorly scripted with important plot points never mentioned earlier in the story revealed in the last 10 minutes. Villain Pierce should have stayed away from talkies as he can't deliver lines well at all. Still, with all these drawbacks, there's some good action, including a well staged wild horse stampede at the end, making it overall one of Ritter's more entertaining Monograms. Ritter and Fay were real life man and wife. Tommy Southworth, the brother of Dorothy Fay (Southworth) has a bit in this one. Filmed in Prescott, AZ, employing plenty of local residents and school-kids.

 TWILIGHT ON THE RIO GRANDE (1947 Republic)
The five post-WWII films Gene Autry made for Republic are transitional and minor to Gene's overall career. Republic prexy Herbert J. Yates figured Gene owed him more films, Gene reckoned none at all, so they settled on five, but everyone concerned seems to be only going through the motions, get 'em done and move on to Columbia where Gene had a full-fledged production company waiting in place. Border café dancer Adele Mara is looking for the murderer of her father while Howard J. Negley and Charles Evans are smuggling jewelry purchased from European refugees across the Mexican border into the U.S. Gene and the Cass County Boys get involved when their partner Bob Steele is killed (in the first few minutes) while inadvertently carrying jewels across the line. Champ does a dance and the Cass County Boys put some change in Smiley Burnette's pocket by singing his "It's My Lazy Day". Watch for Donna De Mario (soon Martell) in a bit as a telephone operator. Directed by Frank McDonald.

 RUSTLER'S VALLEY (1937 Paramount)
After 11 nearly all really good Hopalong Cassidy films (HEART OF THE WEST is weak though), comes this lukewarm affair, and the shortest in running time at only 58 minutes since the series began. Russell ("Lucky") Hayden is falsely accused of a bank robbery to hide the real crime as staged by Ted Adams (rancher Morris Ankrum's foreman), who is secretly in league with sneaky lawyer Lee Colt (aka Lee J. Cobb) and banker Oscar Apfel in a plot to gain control of Ankrum's ranch which is the key to the watershed in the valley. Lee also plans to marry pretty Muriel Evans, Ankrum's daughter, to get the ranch. At first believing Lucky dead, Hoppy and Windy (George Hayes) slowly realize there is a nasty plot afoot. This was director Nate Watts' last of six Hoppy films (he returned in '39 to direct one more) --- fortunately the other five were far superior to this one. In his book THE FILMS OF HOPALONG CASSIDY, Francis Nevins notes the background music at the climax of RUSTLER'S VALLEY is lifted from Paramount's Zane Grey series. The trend continued into the next season of Hoppy titles. RUSTLER'S VALLEY was remade, and made even duller, in 1942 as LOST CANYON. Of all the far better Cassidy films to select for a remake, this was an odd choice. Filmed in the gold mining country of Columbia, CA.

 SOMEWHERE IN SONORA (1933 Warner Bros.)
Falsely accused of misconduct during a rodeo race, John Wayne is befriended by rancher Henry B. Walthall whose son (Paul Fix) is a member of outlaw J. P. McGowan's gang in Mexico. In gratitude, Wayne and his argumentative pals (Frank Rice and Billy Franey whose bantering gets a bit wearisome) ride the trail of missing men to Mexico to find Fix. On the way, John rescues Shirley Palmer from a runaway horse team and learns her father (Ralph Lewis) owns a silver mine being besieged by McGowan's gang (Slim Whitaker, Glenn Strange, Frank Ellis). Wayne manages to infiltrate the gang but is discovered, leading to a well-staged shootout. Taken from Levington Comfort's novel serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1924 and previously filmed by First National with Ken Maynard in 1927, this version utilizes lots of Maynard stock footage --- you can even plainly see Ken's face in the scene where Wayne rescues Palmer and friend Ann Faye's runaway buckboard.

 ARIZONIAN (1935 RKO)
Hands down the best western of 1935, even with initial entry competition from both Gene Autry and William Boyd. The first-rate original screenplay (owing much to the Tombstone Earp legend) by Dudley Nichols was so good, RKO let Jack Lait Jr. recycle it for George O'Brien's MARSHAL OF MESA CITY ('39). Nichols won an Oscar in '35 for his THE INFORMER screenplay. A strong cast, talented photography from Howard Wenstrom and expert direction from Charles Vidor make this not only '35's best, but one of the best westerns of the decade. Richard Dix reluctantly becomes the reforming marshal of Silver City when Sheriff Louis Calhern (superb in one of his few westerns) and his gun-throwers Joe Sauers (soon Sawyer), Ray Mayer and Bob Kortman ruthlessly gun down Marshal J. Farrell MacDonald. Dix falls for dance hall singer Margot Grahame, then learns his kid brother (James Bush) is also in love with her. Calhern brings in gunman Preston Foster to eliminate Dix, but instead the two men develop a mutual respect for one another culminating in Dix appointing Foster his deputy as they clean out Calhern's gang together.

 WOMAN OF THE NORTH COUNTRY (1952 Republic)
1890, in the forested desolation of Northeastern Minnesota, iron ore miner Rod Cameron stakes out a rich claim in the wild Mesabi Range over the objections of cruel and ruthless Ruth Hussey's family who are already entrenched in the area and don't favor any competition. She's backed by her brothers --- roughneck, stop at nothing Jim Davis, and spineless John Agar (really wasted in this film with only one decent scene) along with banker J. Carroll Naish who will do anything for the iron mistress he's in love with. When Cameron emerges victorious, the delectably treacherous Hussey charms Cameron into marriage. Blindly falling for her trick, Cameron jilts his true love, Gale Storm. Eventually, Cameron wakes up to the fact heartless Hussey is only after his money and is out to break him in revenge. Good supporting cast in this Trucolor adventure: Grant Withers, Jay C. Flippen (as Storm's Dad and Cameron's mine manager), Dub Taylor, Hank Worden, Howard Petrie, Barry Kelley, Stephen Bekassy. At one point Flippen, Taylor, Worden and others sing around a campfire.

 BELLS OF ROSARITA (1945 Republic)
Republic added a winning trick (which they reused a couple of times later) to this Roy Rogers film that paid off handsomely at the boxoffice and added plenty of fun to the film by having five other Republic cowboys as guest stars. Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers play themselves as Republic western stars making a movie on location at a ranch left Dale Evans by her father that crooked realtor Grant Withers (and henchie Roy Barcroft) are trying to cheat her out of. Life imitates western filmart as Roy tries to save the ranch from the baddies for Dale and her friends, Gabby Hayes and movie-struck Adele Mara. To help do so, Roy calls upon his Republic western star saddlemates to appear at a fund-raising circus and to round up the heavies. When they're contacted, Don Barry (who had actually concluded his western series at Republic a year earlier) is shooting a non-western on stage 10, Sunset Carson is in the midst of a screen fight, Bill Elliott is training Thunder at his ranch, Allan Lane is in a story conference and Bob Livingston (who was also without a current western series) is in his car heading home. (At this point there's also some terrific overview shots of the Republic studio lot.) At the circus finale Republic spotlighted Lane and Elliott separately (and of course Roy center ring) but let lesser-lights Carson, Livingston and Barry ride out in a threesome. Oh yeah, when Roy calls his pals, John Wayne is mentioned as being out of town --- obviously his pricetag was too elaborate for a guest spot in a B-western. A simple plot, the fun is in watching Roy, the Sons of the Pioneers and the guest stars pretending to be what they really are. Bob Nolan has a good role, trying to keep Roy from getting involved but becoming smitten with --- and jitterbugging with --- Adele Mara. There are plenty of inside jokes, such as Roy Barcroft's astonishment when he finds Withers and his car gone, "There must be some crooks around here!" Later, when Roy shoots the smokestack off a cabin roof, he grins, "I did that once in a picture." There is one gaffe though --- Roy and the Pioneers are chasing and firing at a stagecoach loaded with outlaws. The stagecoach, followed by Roy and the boys, passes a station wagon with Dale, Gabby and others, forcing it off the road. Then --- and only then --- do we see it's only a movie being filmed with the camera truck revealed. In actuality, in order to get the film, the camera truck would have to have been directly ahead of the stage and would have also passed the station wagon --- which we never see. Even with the guest star element, the film is on the mild side until the finale, with a bit too much harmony from the Robert Mitchell Boy Choir, but comes home a winner because of its truly original plot. Watch for Helen Talbot, a regular Don Barry leading lady, as a background extra.

 RAW TIMBER (1937 Crescent)
"In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt provided the Forest Service with police powers to preserve the remaining timber on the public domain." Energetic forest ranger Tom Keene and Washington forestry investigator Raphael (later Ray) Bennett are investigating the over-cutting of timber in the Valley of the Moon by timber company operator snotty Richard Fiske and his wood boss Lee Phelps. Forestry supervisor John Rutherford is in league with Fiske, falsifying cutting records and trying to pass the blame on to Keene whose girlfriend (Peggy Keyes) is co-owner of the lumber company with Fiske. When Bennett is murdered, the timber thieves again attempt to put the blame on Keene. Best of the Keene Crescent historical adventures --- which isn't saying a great deal.

 IN OLD MONTANA (1939 Spectrum)
Fred Scott, traveling with old friend Harry Harvey's medicine show, arrives where his father, cattleman Wheeler Oakman, has a ranch only to find his Dad waging a range war over grazing rights with sheepman Walter McGrail and his daughter Jean Carmen. The culprit here is McGrail's partner, John Merton, who is stirring up the range war in a foreclosure scheme with another rancher, Frank LaRue. Too many silly songs (like "Rattlesnake Joe" and "Windy Bill") and virtuoso vocal demonstrations and not enough action --- although there are some good fisticuffs between Scott and Merton.

 ROARING FRONTIERS (1941 Columbia)
This hot-lead adventure, the second of the eight Bill Elliott/Tex Ritter co-starrers, is worth it just for the wild free-for-all ending as Bill and Tex ride a stage into town and jump from it together onto the second floor of the saloon as they begin their gun-flaming showdown battle with murdering political knave Bradley Page and his thugs (Tris Coffin, Joe McGuinn, Francis Walker, George Chesebro). Scripted by Robert Lee Johnson who had done three in the Wild Bill Elliott series and turned in the fine DEVIL'S TRAIL for this series. Would that he have done more! Interesting by-play between Elliott and Ruth Ford --- a girl who doesn't like the west. Directed with a sure hand for action by old pro Lambert Hillyer.

 FIDDLIN' BUCKAROO (1933 Universal)
Ken Maynard achieved super-star status in silent westerns. Universal signed him in '29 for a series of 8 sound westerns, but with diminishing profits in the Depression era, Universal quickly abandoned both Ken and Hoot Gibson in 1930. After stints with Tiffany and World Wide ('30-'33), Universal rethought their position on B-westerns and re-signed Ken for the '33-'34 season, offering him not only starring position at an increased salary, but his own production unit. It is this group of eight films that are most vividly remembered by western fans. Ken directed FIDDLIN' BUCKAROO, which was probably filmed first but released second, with the other seven in the capable hands of Alan James with scripts from James and Nate Gatzert and customary superb photography from Ted McCord. As with some of his earlier Universals, Ken incorporated music into his films. Here Ken plays his fiddle while pal Frank Rice follows along on his harmonica (even trying to teach bumbling deputy Bob McKenzie how to play it in one jailbreak scene), leading lady Gloria Shea sings the beautiful "Quadroon" song Ken has played and even Fred Kohler's outlaws (led by Jack Kirk) sing around the campfire. Fiddler, ventriloquist and undercover government man Maynard infiltrates Kohler's bank robbers and is arrested for complicity in a hold up. But he and Rice break jail and go after the gang who have kidnapped Shea and are holed-up in the rugged Alabama Hills of Lone Pine. Marvelous stunts, good music, several Tarzan-horse tricks, plenty of action and thrills and the gorgeous Lone Pine locations make this a winner.

 BRAND OF FEAR (1949 Monogram)
A really engaging story, two sensational Bob Nolan/Tim Spencer songs, more action than usual and an above average cast add up to one of Jimmy Wakely's best westerns --- if not the best. Veteran western/serial scribe Basil Dickey's story installs amiable but tough Tom London as gunfighting town marshal of Oreville, AZ, welcoming to town his guardian, Gail Davis, as the new schoolmarm. London has not seen Davis in years since he sent her back east for her education ostensibly after her "parents" died. Arriving in Oreville concurrently and coincidentally are border outlaw William Ruhl and his hardcase right-hand man, Holly Bane. They plan to muscle in on crooked blacksmith Marshall Reed's territory --- his outfit steers clear of London's Oreville but works the outlying district. Not desiring a "partner", Reed informs London that this notorious outlaw is in town, hoping London will drive him off. Surprise --- London knows Ruhl from the old days when they once rode the owlhoot trail together. Matter of fact, back in Texas there's still a 20 year old outstanding warrant for London on a murder charge --- a murder both Ruhl and London know Ruhl committed but London can't prove it. On top of that, London is actually Davis' father, not her guardian, but he's hidden his outlaw past and true relationship from her all these years. Attempting to arrest Ruhl and Bane after an altercation with Wakely, both outlaws are killed, but not before Ruhl spills the beans to Marshall Reed about London's outlaw past. Reed then blackmails London into looking the other way as he and his gang (Bob Curtis, Boyd Stockman, Frank McCarroll) begin to expand their outlawry into Oreville proper. Scripter Basil Dickey (1880-1958) began writing westerns in 1926 with Harry Carey's FRONTIER TRAIL and went on to contribute many for Fred Gilman, Tom Tyler, Buck Jones and Tim McCoy in the '30s. He also helped write the groundbreaking FLASH GORDON and TARZAN THE FEARLESS serials. In all, Dickey contributed plot and action to a staggering 61 Republic, Universal, Columbia, Victory and Principal serials! It's fair to say, serials wouldn't be what they are without Dickey's expertise on GREEN HORNET, GORDON OF GHOST CITY, RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY, PHANTOM RIDER, WINNERS OF THE WEST, HAUNTED HARBOR, BLAKE OF SCOTLAND YARD, SON OF ZORRO, CRIMSON GHOST, MASKED MARVEL, MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND, SPIDER'S WEB, MANDRAKE, SECRET CODE and dozens more. When he left Republic in '48 after a five year stint, Oliver Drake, now directing the Wakelys at Monogram, wisely grabbed Dickey up to pen four of Jimmy's westerns. It was Dickey's last work in a grand nearly 30 year screenwriting career. His best line in this film is Wakely to badman Ruhl: "I've collected a lot of useless information in my time, but up to now no news of you has reached me." Speaking of writing --- Wakely and an unknown group perform Tim Spencer's "There's a Rainbow Over the Range" (using the dubbed in off-screen voice of Ray Whitley --- and the tune never sounded better!) and Bob Nolan's "Cool Water" (also with off-screen Whitley).

 STORMY (1935 Universal)
Young Noah Beery Jr., in all his "Aw shucks" wide-eyed innocence, is thrown (by villainous Harry Woods) from a train carrying a valuable race horse. A year later, Beery finds the horse and her colt (Rex, King of Wild Horses) which has been fathered by a wild horse. Beery befriends the colt and is the only one who can get near it-except for Beery's girl, gorgeous Jean Rogers, daughter of rancher J. Farrell MacDonald who has taken Beery in. MacDonald is himself in conflict with his brother Fred Kohler Sr. who, with foreman Walter Miller, wants to slaughter all the wild horses on the range for profit. Pretty typical wild horse saga. Shot in the Painted Desert of Arizona and around Tuba City where heat reached 131 degrees during filming. Navajo Indians rounded up about 1,000 wild horses from the area for use in the film. Songs performed by the Arizona Wranglers, a popular radio group of the time consisting of Charles Hunger, L. F. Costello, Curtis McPeters (aka Cactus Mack), Cal Short, John Jackson, Glenn Strange and Johnny Luther.

 CANYON HAWKS (1930 Big 4)
The interest in this shoddy affair is to see Yakima Canutt in his only starring talkie role. Too bad it had to be for John R. Freuler's low budget Big 4 Pictures which was formed at the dawn of talkies to provide fodder for small communities in need of product cheaply. Freuler's fare for a couple of years consisted of hiring the second echelon (or maybe even the third) of silent cowboy stars such as Jack Perrin, Bob Custer, Lane Chandler, Buzz Barton, Buffalo Bill Jr., Wally Wales and Yakima Canutt and casting them in cheap, quickie westerns. Often, as here, Wales (or Buffalo Bill Jr., Buzz Barton, Yakima) would be the bad guy in one, the star in the next. Freuler also employed other out-of-work onetime silent stars to flesh out his supporting casts --- Pete Morrison, Bob Reeves, Franklyn Farnum, Bob Burns and Fred Church. In this one, cattleman Yak develops a soft spot for sheepherder Rene Borden and her kid brother Buzz Barton and rounds up rustler Robert Walker. Wally Wales has a bit as another rustler; Bob Reeves (having an awful time with his lines) is the sheriff. Frank Ellis, who played badmen for the next 30 years, has his first role here.

 SONG OF THE TRAIL (1936 Ambassador)
Kermit Maynard, billed as Tex Maynard, had starred in a late silent series for Rayart, then spent the early sound years in secondary roles. Independent producer Maurice Conn signed Kermit in 1934 for a series of seven Northwest Mountie films (and one logging story) which were well received. For the '36-'37 season, Conn and Maynard switched to a straight western format, of which SONG OF THE TRAIL was the first of eight. (But before the second western, two more Mountie films were released, most likely filmed earlier.) Getting the film off to a running start, rodeo rider Kermit and his horse Rocky go through their whole range of tricks. To help his girlfriend, Antoinette Leeds (aka Andrea Leeds), save her father, inveterate gambler George Hayes, from the combined clutches of crooked gambler Wheeler Oakman and his gang (Roger Williams, Lee Shumway, Ray Gallagher, Charles McMurphy), Kermit Maynard (and pal Fuzzy Knight) must sequester the old man away long enough to give Oakman and his cohorts ample opportunity to quarrel among themselves over the spoils. Fine actress Evelyn Brent is here for marquee value only, totally wasted as Oakman's dancehall galpal. Producer Conn opened up the budget for this initial entry in Kermit's pure western series with a better than average cast, great stuntwork (besides the display of horsemanship, there's a terrific barroom fight scene with Kermit swinging from chandeliers and curtains, leaping over stairwells and up walls like a western Doug Fairbanks), plenty of extras and a full 61 minute running time. In a pretense to art, actor Russell Hopton (in his only directorial effort for whatever reason) plays out several scenes over a pendulum-clock ticking away the time. (Hopton had done duty as a heavy in one of Kermit's earlier Mountie films, NORTHERN FRONTIER). Kermit drifted into supporting roles, usually as a heavy, after his Ambassador series ended, and wound up playing extras in dozen of TV westerns.

 RUSTLER'S HIDEOUT (1944 PRC)
The triumvirate of producer Sig Neufeld, director Sam Newfield and scripter Joseph O'Donnell recycled their ACES AND EIGHTS Tim McCoy Puritan starrer from 1936 for this Buster Crabbe entry. As banker John Merton and saloon owner Charles King plot to take over Hal Price's packing plant by fleecing his son, Terry Frost, at the gambling table, gambler Lane Chandler is killed and Frost blamed. The Merton/King gang includes Al Ferguson, Frank McCarroll, John Cason and Bud Osborne. Above average PRC in photography (Jack Greenhalgh, who shot dozens of B-westerns, having a very good day), script and acting. Two dandy Crabbe/King fights. However, two Boo Boos crept in. As Crabbe crosses the Wyoming line, pursued by Sheriff Ed Cassidy, listen for someone behind the camera coughing. Also Crabbe as Billy Carson --- always --- is here credited as Billy Gibson.

 DARING CABALLERO (1949 United Artists)
Mild Cisco Kid (Duncan Renaldo) and Pancho (Leo Carrillo) adventure with a weak courtroom ending. At youngster Mickey Little's request, Cisco rescues the boy's father, bank founder David Leonard, who is about to be hanged for a banking crime he didn't commit. To clear the man, Cisco and Pancho must outsmart the real crooks-corrupt Mayor Stephen Chase, bank employee Charles Halton and the sheriff in their back pocket, Ed Cobb. Unusually and seldom seen, actress Kippee Valez uses her real name on-screen as a bank employee. Dave Sharpe doubles Renaldo in the action sequences. Retitled GUNS AND FURY for TV.

 APACHE AMBUSH (1955 Columbia)
President Lincoln (James Griffith), in a conciliatory mood just before his assassination, sends a mixed group of Union and Confederate soldiers led by Bill Williams to drive a large herd of cattle from Texas to the northern markets as Lincoln feels trade must be resumed between the states following the Civil War. Williams and his men are opposed by renegade gun-running Confederates (Tex Ritter and Ray "Crash" Corrigan in small parts with big billing) as well as Mexican banditos led by Alex Montoya. David Lang's screenplay and Fred Sears direction aspires to an A, nevertheless this remains strictly a B-western, but a good action packed one. Producer Wallace MacDonald's casting of former stars Tex Ritter and Crash Corrigan as heavies, along with roles for Clayton Moore, Ed Cobb, Chris Alcaide, Lane Chandler, Iron Eyes Cody, Don Harvey, Harry Lauter, George Chandler, George Keymas, Movita, Frank Sully, Richard Jaeckel, Ray Teal, Bill Hale and Robert Foulk sort of paved the way for the great casts producers Alex Gordon and A. C. Lyles assembled for their last-ditch westerns in the '60s.

 RIDERS OF THE DAWN (1937 Monogram)
With the onslaught of Gene Autry at Republic, Dick Foran at Warner Bros. and Fred Scott at Spectrum, Monogram needed a singing cowboy too. They found him in Jack Randall, brother of Bob Livingston who was doing well as part of the Three Mesquiteers at Republic. As Addison Randall, he'd knocked around in small non-western roles for a couple of years at RKO, Universal, Republic and Chesterfield prior to a supporting role in the Scotty Dunlap produced BLAZING BARRIERS with Frank Coghlan Jr. in April '37. Dunlap saw in Randall's good looks and booming baritone voice the makings of a singing cowboy and by September of '37, with a name change to the more solid Jack Randall, RIDERS OF THE DAWN inaugurated the series, which had its virtues as well as its faults. On the plus side, RIDERS OF THE DAWN looked great under Robert N. Bradbury's direction with excellent photography from Bert Longnecker. The cast included good support work from heavies Warner Richmond and Earl Dwire with busy character player George Cooper as Jack's (unfortunately) doomed sidekick, Grizzly, who, as he dies in Jack's arms, swears, ";I'll be with you at the finish by thunder and lightning!" That especially thrilling, edge of your seat finale follows with a running gun battle between outlaws and Jack's state marshals, topped off by a runaway stagecoach across the salt flats of Lone Pine destroyed by a bolt of lightning amidst the thunder and lightning of a desert storm, all of this pushed to a high level of excitement by Frank Sanucci's throbbing score. It's one of the most stimulating climaxes in B-westerns! Unfortunately, the series never again reached this level of art. On the minus side was Randall's singing voice which took the edge off an otherwise superior B-western. Jack's voice exhibited his Broadway stage background, approaching operatic range. Monogram wrongly assumed a more trained singer was a better singing cowboy, ignoring the heartland appeal of country and real western music that, so far, only Gene Autry had exhibited. Protests from theatre exhibitors about Randall's booming baritone poured in, and Monogram soon dropped his singing in favor of straight action westerns, which under less caring producers (Bob Tansey, Harry Webb) diminished and brought an end of Randall's B-western career by the close of 1940.

 GUN TALK (1947 Monogram)
Johnny Mack Brown speaks the only language badmen understand --- gun talk. When Brown comes looking for his cousin, he stumbles into a plot by saloon owner Douglas Evans and his gun-rannies Carl Mathews, Bill Hale, Zon Murray and Boyd Stockman; highbinders who cook up a robbery that will get them Raymond Hatton's mine if he doesn't prove up on it within 30 days. Their secret boss is barber Wheaton Chambers, complete with nasty-sharp razor strop and secret passageways behind his barber chair. Complicating matters further, nice girl Geneva Gray, the sister of Evans' gal-pal saloon dealer, Christine McIntyre, comes west to visit her sis, not realizing she's in with a bad bunch. McIntyre creates a ruse as a housekeeper to keep her naïve sister from learning the truth but it backfires when skirt-chaser Evans begins to savor after the sweet young thing. Moves a little quicker than some of Brown's entries, making it a bit above average.

 FIGHTING CHAMP (1932 Monogram)
Probably the hollerinist B-western you'll ever see! Badguy George Chesebro cranks up the decibel level and the crowds follow! Washed up Navy prizefight champ Kit Guard and his loudmouthed manager George Chesebro come west looking for opportunities. They're set to take on rancher Frank Ball's blustery foreman Charlie King (looking odd with no mustache) until cowboy Bob Steele decks Charlie with one punch in an argument. Instead of King, Ball hires battling Bob to take on Guard so as not to lose all the dough that's been wagered. Angered, King pulls some underhanded deeds to guarantee Guard will win. George Hayes is pretty much wasted in this one as Bob's trainer. Sheriff Lafe McKee shines in a few scenes. Leading lady Arletta Duncan (as Ball's daughter) was awarded a trip to Hollywood in '31 and a subsequent Universal contract (FRANKENSTEIN as a bridesmaid) after she won a beauty contest in her native New Orleans. She only made two westerns, both with Steele, and disappeared from Hollywood by '37. Wellyn Totman, who often added new twists to B-westerns, wrote this one and it's the first talkie B-western in the sub-genre of prizefight westerns. Many more were made over the years: HIDDEN GOLD w/Tom Mix ('32), RAINBOW RANCH w/Rex Bell ('33), FIGHTING RANGER w/Buck Jones ('34), WILDCAT SAUNDERS w/Jack Perrin ('34), GHOST TOWN GOLD w/3 Mesquiteers ('36), RIP ROARIN' BUCKAROO w/Tom Tyler ('36), SUNSET CARSON RIDES AGAIN w/Sunset Carson ('47), VIGILANTES OF BOOMTOWN w/Allan Lane ('47), COWBOY AND THE PRIZEFIGHTER w/Jim Bannon ('49), JESSE JAMES' WOMEN w/Don Barry ('54). Watch for former silent juvenile star Buzz Barton in the crowd.

 JESSE JAMES' WOMEN (1954 Panorama)
Don Barry as an actor was fine. Don Barry as a producer/director guiding his own work is inept. As Jesse James (Robin Hood or outlaw?), Barry vainly romances, trifles and quadruple-times four women: a saloon lady from New Orleans (Lita Baron), Cattle Kate (local Mississippi actress Betty Brueck), saloon owner Peggie Castle and banker's daughter Joyce Reed. Highlight of the boring film is a clothes-ripping, hair pulling cat fight between Brueck and Castle. Rambling plot involves bank robbery, prizefighters, cattle, jealousy.making it easy to see why this was Barry's only directorial job. Financing for this oddity came from Lloyd Royal who owned the Royal Theatre Circuit in Meredian, MS. The film, filled with plenty of local actors, was shot on location in Silver Creek, MS. Lita Baron was once married to Rory Calhoun. Peggie Castle went on to a co-starring role on TV's LAWMAN.

 WAGON TRACKS WEST (1943 Republic)
Young Indian medico Fleetwing (Rick Vallin) returns west from college just as his father, Pawnee Chief Brown Bear (Charles Miller), dies. Actually he's murdered by evil medicine man Clawtooth (Tom Tyler) who is under the pay of deceitful Indian Commissioner Robert Frazer and his gunmen (Roy Barcroft, Bill Nestell, Kenne Duncan) who have designs on making the Indian Territory a cattle empire. Bill Elliott and his pal Gabby Hayes get involved in the Indian's plight when Fleetwing treats Gabby, stricken with fever from bad water. Anne Jeffreys, appearing regularly in Elliott films at this time, is completely wasted here as Indian girl Moonhush --- she only utters a meager three lines! Director Howard Bretherton (a veteran of many Hoppy films) was somehow never able to inject real excitement into any western he ever directed. It's amazing he worked as steadily as he did.

 BAD MEN OF THUNDER GAP (1943 PRC)
Speedy, action packed second entry in the Texas Rangers series with everyone seeming to be having a good time. Hijackers are stealing supplies before they reach their destination with the idea of starving the local miners and forcing them to sell out cheap. Storekeeper boss Michael Vallon heads up the usual PRC gang, freight-line co-owner Jack Ingram, Charlie King, I. Stanford Jolley, Kermit Maynard, Carl Mathews and Bud Osborne. Undercover Rangers James Newill and Guy "Panhandle Perkins" Wilkerson arrive in town masquerading as part of Cal Shrum's medicine show. Their partner, Dave O'Brien, pretends to be an out of work cowhand. Cal Shrum's Rhythm Rangers (Shrum, Robert Hoag, Rusty Cline, Don Weston, Art Wenzel) arrive in town with a rousing version of Shrum's "Ride, Ride, Ride". There are five songs in all, about two more than in the usual Texas Rangers western. Janet Shaw (aka Ellen Clancy) is the niece (named Martha Stewart!) of Vallon, unaware of his evil activities. Unusual for one of the PRC's, O'Brien calls his horse by name --- King.

 PALS OF THE PECOS (1941 Republic)
It's action all the way as the Three Mesquiteers (Robert Livingston, Bob Steele, Rufe Davis) have a tough time proving to Sheriff Tom London that they are innocent of the murder of Dennis Moore, son of honest Pat O'Malley who is building the Sierra Express, a tough overland stage route. O'Malley and his daughter --- mousy June Johnson --- and his young son, Robert Winkler, are opposed by rival stageline owner and greedy opportunist Robert Frazer, shyster lawyer John Holland, saloon owner Roy Barcroft and gunmen George Chesebro and Chuck Morrison. Note Winkler's costuming --- sort of a juvenile Bob Livingston. Watch for a young Eddie Dean who has a brief fight with Livingston in Barcroft's bar. Many elements of Oliver Drake's story found their way into OLD TEXAS TRAIL ('44) with Rod Cameron --- produced by Drake.

 CHEROKEE FLASH (1945 Republic)
One of Republic's most unusual westerns, in that it gives all time heavy Roy Barcroft a sympathetic role as Sunset Carson's foster father, a former outlaw known as the Cherokee Flash. Barcroft has paid his debt to society years ago and is now living peacefully as a respected citizen of Red Bluff when his old gang (Pierce Lyden, James Linn) involve him in a bank robbery he had no hand in. It's a vicious plot by underhanded lawyer John Merton (whom Barcroft believes to be his friend and has confided in him about his outlaw past) to frame Barcroft and grab off his ranch which controls the local water. Working with Merton are crooked sheriff Bud Geary and his deputy Joe McGuinn. Aiding Sunset are Barcroft's ranch foreman, toothless Tom London, the local doc, Frank Jacquet, and his daughter Linda Stirling. Original screenplay by Betty Burbridge, directed by Tommy Carr. One of Republic, and Sunset's, best.

 RIDING THE WIND (1942 RKO)
Unscrupulous Eddie Dew has built a dam on his property which will deprive ranchers like Tim Holt of water unless they make a deal with him. Failing a court order to prevent Dew from continuing to blockade the water, Tim and his pals, Ray Whitley and Lee "Lasses" White, along with the other ranchers (Karl Hackett, Earle Hodgins, Hank Worden) hire windmill man Charles Phipps (and his pretty daughter Mary Douglas (Joan Barclay renamed by RKO for this film for whatever reason) to sink a well and have the water pumped by windmill. They encounter trouble when Ernie Adams, posing as a rancher, is secretly a spy for Dew who does everything he can to stop the construction. There's an exciting ending (at Lake Sherwood) atop a dam with Holt and Dew in a fight to the finish. Watch for fiddler Spade Cooley in the hayride scene.

 CRIPPLE CREEK (1952 Columbia)
This and TEXAS RANGERS were George Montgomery's best two B-plus westerns. Director Ray Nazarro skillfully handles the reins as three Secret Service Agents (George, Jerome Courtland, Richard Egan) infiltrate slick William Bishop's outlaw gang (Don Porter, John Dehner, Zon Murray, Chris Alcaide, crooked marshal Roy Roberts) to land a death blow on a smuggling operation during gold rush days. Saloon owner Bishop's wholesale looting of Cripple Creek miners (such as George Cleveland --- whose daughter Karin Booth works in Bishop's joint) involves lead plated gold bricks smelted in a secret underground mine which George slithers into during a tense sequence. The three agents teeter constantly on the brink of discovery by Bishop's gang. Richard Schayer's script is tense and exacting with a few twists. In Cinecolor.

 TRAILING TROUBLE (1930 Universal)
Hoot Gibson was just plain folks which is one of the reasons he remained popular with theatre audiences over the years, they cottoned to him because he was one of them, not some fancy-clothes movie cowboy. This also made him popular with adult audiences, more so than the juvenile trade. For his boss, Hoot and pal Pete Morrison (the former silent star) head for the big city to pick up the money for the sale of some horses. Jealous of Hoot and in love with Hoot's girl (Margaret Quimby), Morrison arranges for a gang of thugs to rob Hoot who also manages to get involved during his one night in the big town with a Chinese girl (Olive Young). Watch for major silent western star Art Acord as one of the crooks. Hoot's old pal, in his only sound film, has three lines. Lotsa fun! Well done by writer/director Arthur Rosson who went on to major movie second unit work for Cecil B. DeMille on UNION PACIFIC, NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE. (Rosson must have liked the title TRAILING TROUBLE, he reused it in '37 for a Ken Maynard title.

 CAUGHT (1931 Paramount)
Talk. Talk. Talk. Stilted, stodgy, stagy. Hard-hearted saloon Madame Calamity Jane (vastly overplayed by Louise Dresser) brings in naïve young Frances Dee to work as a saloon girl. Dresser is also a rustler and is about to kill Army officer Richard Arlen, who has been sent to clean up the town, when she discovers Arlen is the long lost son of her no good husband kidnapped when he was an infant. Plays like an old time melodrama.

 MARK OF THE SPUR (1932 Big 4)
The "fresh" new riding boss, Bob Custer, for tough old rancher Lafe McKee and his adopted daughter Lillian Rich, saves the day when McKee's long lost wife (Adabelle Driver) and her apparent son, George Chesebro, arrive at the ranch. Turns out Chesebro is a swindler and a thief who hooks up with two villainous ranch hands (Blackie Whiteford and Bud Osborne) who have a grudge against Custer. Actually, it's Rich who really solves the crime. The actress is very good, delivering her lines with quiet authority. The dark-haired English born Rich had starred for Cecil B. DeMille in 1925's THE GOLDEN BED and opposite Harry Carey in MAN TO MAN among others, but by 1930 was appearing in lowbudget affairs such as this and two reel comedies. After a couple of good roles at Chesterfield, she was "lost" in bigger pictures at MGM and Columbia and completely disappeared by 1940. She died in 1954 at 54. Former silent star Franklyn Farnum is the sheriff. Director J. P. McGowan took full advantage of a light California snowfall for the early train arrival scenes. Jack Kirk's group sings a song behind the credits and another about Susie. There's a big Boo Boo towards the end --- Custer jumps out an obviously open window --- you can see the curtain blowing in the breeze --- but we hear the sound of breaking glass.

 BLAZING GUNS (1934 Kent)
Mistaken for wanted outlaw Frank McCarroll, Reb Russell is arrested by Sheriff Joseph Girard. Before things are straightened out, Reb is slugged, beaten up, handcuffed, set fire to, besieged by McCarroll's men, shot at, chased by vigilantes, knocked out and even hung! Not a good day for our hero! If it wasn't for beautiful leading lady Marion (misspelled Marian) Shilling, Reb would have been killed several times over. Good ol' Lafe McKee plays another of his ever-understanding father roles. Thin plot --- plenty of blazing gunplay and fisticuffs.

 RODEO KING AND THE SENORITA (1951 Republic)
Rex Allen and his trick horse Koko (billed for the first time in 7 films as "The Miracle Horse of the Movies" rather than "His Wonder Horse") sign on as top attraction of the Foster and Morales Wild West Show, replacing Rex's old friend Morales who was killed while doing his sensational roman-riding car-jumping act. Rex and sidekick Buddy Ebsen discover Morales' death was no accident and set out to solve the murder which was perpetrated by Morales' partner Tris Coffin and his brutal henchman and silent partner Roy Barcroft. Coffin has been made guardian of Morales' young daughter, Juanita Morales (Bonnie De Simone), but he is swindling the youngster out of her profits from the Wild West Show. Juanita's companion is pretty Mary Ellen Kay, with whom Rex sings a duet on "Juanita"" --- a real standout. RODEO KING AND THE SENORITA has been called a remake of MY PAL TRIGGER, and altho there are similarities, there are also major differences. However, this is Rex's most heartwarming western. Watch for Bobby Clark (OVERLAND WITH KIT CARSON serial, SAGEBRUSH FAMILY TRAILS WEST, etc.) performing an uncredited rope trick about midway.

 LARAMIE KID (1935 Reliable)
Trying to help his gal, homely Alberta Vaughn, and her father, Murdock MacQuarrie, earn $1,000 to pay nasty banker Al Ferguson who wants to foreclose on their mortgage, Tom Tyler innocently gets mixed up in a bank robbery. Realizing Alberta and her father's plight, Tom pleads guilty, allowing Alberta's father to claim a reward for him and pay off their mortgage. Sent to prison for five years, Tyler learns behind bars that Ferguson hired his own bank robbed to cover up his embezzlements. If you're looking for a heroic Tyler film, this isn't it, as for most of the film he's framed, jailed, beaten, chased and on the run from the law.

 FRONTIER PHANTOM (1952 Western Adventure)
Sequel to Lash LaRue's OUTLAW COUNTRY is basically 24 minutes of new wraparound footage of Lash and sidekick Fuzzy St. John trying to convince dorky sheriff Archie Twitchell that Lash is not his outlaw twin brother, the Frontier Phantom. This is accomplished, of course, with 29 minutes of stock footage from the previous '49 film. The new footage includes some unfunny bit with waitress Virginia Herrick and a newly lensed barroom shootout with Kenne Duncan. Stock footage whip use --- two.

 PRAIRIE THUNDER (1937 Warner Bros.)
The final Dick Foran B-western has a "wrap-it-up" cheap feel to it from the overuse of Indian-raid stock footage from Ken Maynard silents. Army scout Foran and Cavalry Corporal Frank Orth are assigned to duty along the telegraph lines. Wagon freighter Albert J. Smith and his right-hand man George Chesebro are stirring up the Kiowas to fight the intrusion of the singing wire and the iron horse that frighten away the Indians' buffalo. Without the telegraph and railroad, Smith has a monopoly on trade goods brought into the area. Leading lady Ellen Clancy (aka Janet Shaw) is only there to be rescued and sung to by Foran. Excluding a Northwest Mountie film (HEART OF THE NORTH in '38 at WB), Foran's next westerns were two terrific serials at Universal, WINNERS OF THE WEST ('40) and RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY ('41) which co-starred Buck Jones. Yakima Canutt, playing an Indian Chief, uses the same funny "Hi Yu Skookum" line he used in John Wayne's STAR PACKER ('34).

 FIGHTING COWBOY (1933 Superior)
Every expense was spared in director Denver Dixon's no budget "Let's make a cowboy movie!" vein of filmmaking. Nasty Allen Holbrook and his boys (Bart Carey --- aka Bart Carre who was also technical director --- , Jack Evans and Boris Bullock) try to claim-jump pop William Ryno and his daughter Genée Boutell's gold mine. There's no gold, but it's rich in tungsten. In rides Buffalo Bill Jr. from the smelting plant to save the day. It would take a full page to outline the plot discrepancies in Dixon's production! Boutell and Bill Jr. (Jay Wilsey) became real life man and wife. 6' 4" Bart Carre started as an actor in 1922. Not particularly fond of acting, he got a job as production manager/assistant director on a series of J. B. Warner silent westerns. Even so, he continued to play roles in many of the poverty row westerns he worked on for Victor Adamson (Denver Dixon), William Pizor, Willis Kent and Henry Goldstone, often doubling as production manager. He even managed to direct GUNSMOKE ON THE GUADALUPE ('35) w/Rocky Camron. He continued to work as assistant director/production manager on into the '60s at American International and on producer Alex Gordon's westerns. Boris Bullock worked under three names in silents. Bullock was an ex-Cavalry man in the Russian Army who'd come to the U.S. as a young man and still had a deep accent, which didn't matter in silent films. After a run in various stage productions, Bullock began playing mostly heavies until indie producer Robert J. Horner changed his name to Kit Carson in 1925 for a brief starring series. Following this, he went back to Bullock for supporting roles in westerns while using William Barrymore in non-western parts. His film career ended with the advent of sound except for a few cheapie westerns such as this one in the early '30s. From '33-'53 he was a deputy with the L.A. Sheriff's department. He died in 1979 at 79.

 BORDER PATROLMAN (1936 20TH Century Fox)
Tepid George O'Brien modern day western was the last of his Sol Lesser produced Principal Productions distributed by Fox. It owes as much to '30s romantic comedies as it does western action films. A few miles from the Mexican border, border patrolman O'Brien encounters spoiled, wild-living Polly Ann Young (real life sister of Loretta Young), granddaughter of wealthy William P. Carlton living at the Desert Springs Hotel (actually Furnace Creek Inn at Death Valley). Following a fiery spat with Young, O'Brien resigns from the service and hires out to Carlton as willful, headstrong Young's "guide" , eventually preventing her from foolishly marrying smooth playboy/diamond smuggler LeRoy Mason and breaking up Mason's smuggling ring (Mary Doran, Al Hill, Tom London). There's no action til the 50 minute mark, the film is carried along by O'Brien's natural charm. Smiley Burnette adds a couple of songs and a bit of comedy. Although Smiley was already making B-westerns with Gene Autry, BORDER PATROLMAN was filmed in May '36 just prior to when his term contract with Republic began in July.

 BUCKAROO FROM POWDER RIVER (1947 Columbia)
When the Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) series was good, it was very good, as here with a fast-moving Norman Hall script that gives extra characterization to Forrest Taylor as the mean-as-a-snake outlaw leader who plots to kill his own stepson (Doug Coppin) and leads his other two boys (Paul Campbell, Casey MacGregor) down a path of violence as they counterfeit territorial bonds. Hall started writing at Republic by contributing to some of their classic serials (RED RYDER, HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS, ADVENTURES OF CAPT. MARVEL, SPY SMASHER, KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED, etc.), moved on to Don Barry, Bill Elliott, Allan Lane and Sunset Carson scripts before traveling over to Columbia with this entry. He continued to write other Durango Kid and Gene Autry stories while still freelancing back at Republic on a few Monte Hale and Rod Cameron (the excellent BRIMSTONE) scripts. Starrett integrates himself into Pop Taylor's gang letting them believe he is gunman Frank McCarroll hired to do away with the stepson. Meanwhile, Starrett works with stepson Coppin and his girlfriend, Eve Miller, to bring justice to the family --- even so far as letting the lovers know he is Durango. Smiley Burnette is a barber, allowing for some fine barbershop harmony with the Cass County Boys.

 VENGEANCE OF RANNAH (1936 Reliable)
When platinum blonde Victoria Vinton's Pop is murdered in a $10,000 stagecoach (actually a car in this modern western) robbery, insurance investigator Bob Custer is put on the case. Bob discovers Pop's faithful dog Rannah (Rin Tin Tin Jr.) is the only one who can identify the killers --- Eddie Phillips, Oscar Gahan and George Chesebro, secretly directed by banker Roger Williams. While the killers try to eliminate Rannah they also waylay a deputy (Wally West), replace him with their own man (Ed Cassidy) and try to frame Custer for the murder and robbery. Possibly the best of Custer's "epics" with an actionful ending high on the precipitous Kernville swinging bridge, even if it isn't Rannah who gets vengeance at the end. Actually, the dog disappears three-quarters of the way through the film?!? Boo Boo: as Bob interrogates a wounded Wally West, West's hat is on, off, back on again! Directorial credit goes to Raymond Samuels, another name for producer B. B. Ray. "Continuity" (script) credited to George Stevenson, his only credit. Wouldn't be surprised to learn that's an alias for prolific Joseph O' Donnell.

 BORDER BANDITS (1946 Monogram)
Mild Johnny Mack Brown as crafty land and water company owner Frank La Rue and his gang (John Merton, Tom Quinn, Bud Osborne, Terry Frost) murder Mexican rancher Lucio Villegas, while they're after precious jewels hidden in Villegas' ranch house. Romantic angle added by Riley Hill as LaRue's nephew and Rosa del Rosario as Villegas' granddaughter. Too much milling around back and forth from town to the rancho and rancho to town and too little hard action. Director Lambert Hillyer (1893 or 1895-1969), born in Plymouth, IN, started out as a newspaperman and short story writer, moving into summer stock and vaudeville as a performer, entering the motion picture business with Mutual and eventually being given a chance to direct at Triangle in 1917. He later helmed several William S. Hart silents such as SQUARE DEAL SANDERSON. In the '20s he directed Tom Mix, Buck Jones and others. He found a home at Columbia in '31 where he did some of his best work on Buck Jones' early talkies and later Bill Elliotts during his tenure at Columbia. By 1943 he was exclusively at Monogram toiling away on one Johnny Mack Brown after another. Perhaps, because he'd done so many Browns, he became bored with them, occasionally causing a laxidasical film like BORDER BANDITS to creep into his usually competent work.

 ADVENTURES IN SILVERADO (1948 Columbia)
Highly under-rated sleeper! Terrific action sequences staged by director Phil Karlson with the absolute best six-up stagecoach races ever filmed. Add a few touches of humanity and a heartwarming horse story and you have a real winner. Itinerate stagecoach driver William Bishop comes to Silverado and clashes with rival driver Forrest Tucker working for stageline owner Gloria Henry who is being plagued by a mysterious hooded bandit known as the Monk who turns out to be --- surprise --- kindly doctor Edgar Buchanan. Based on "Silverado Squatters" story by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson --- who interestingly takes a role in the film as played by Edgar Barrier. Superior outdoor location work lensed by Henry Freulich, partially filmed at Joshua Tree National Monument.

 JACK McCALL DESPERADO (1953 Columbia)
George Montgomery western sets up a plausible but totally fictional account of why and how Jack McCall (George) killed Wild Bill Hickok (Douglas Kennedy) in Deadwood, SD. Toward the end of the Civil War, Union cavalryman Montgomery is framed (by Southern soldiers uniformed as Yankees) then sentenced to death for treason. He escapes, hoping to track down William Tannen, one of those who framed him. Meanwhile, George's cousin (James Seay) and Hickok --- pursuing George --- murder his parents and take over their plantation. When the war ends George seeks revenge, with everyone winding up in the Dakotas where Hickok is trying cheat the Indians (led by Jay Silverheels and Eugene Iglesias) out of their gold-studded land. As far as I know, Hickok was never a Union sergeant, only a scout. He didn't come to Deadwood until 10 years after the Civil War was over where he was shot in the back by lowlife, murderous McCall, not in a fair fight as shown here. The real McCall was hanged for his crime. This movie must be about two other individuals coincidentally with the same historic names.

 BADMAN FROM BIG BEND (aka SWING, COWBOY, SWING) (1946, 1949 Westernair)
The defining line comes midway when Max 'Alibi' Terhune states, "Boy, this is terrible!" Independently produced by and starring unheroic looking, pudgy, squeaky-voiced, back mustached, minor western musician Cal Shrum --- along with his stone-faced wife Alta Lee and Shrum's whole Rhythm Rangers troupe, including Don Weston, Cal's brother Walt Shrum and his Colorado Hillbillies. Basic plot involves a mystery killer with a rifle plaguing the local opera house where the boys are set to perform. I. Stanford Jolley seems to realize he's in a washout and camps it up although there's not much he can do with the material. Picture has the look and feel of a Monogram with familiar canned Frank Sanucci music, direction by Elmer Clifton, photography by Robert Cline (who lensed many Range Busters titles) and filmed at Corriganville and Placerita Canyon. Production manager is William Nolte of Range Busters B's.

 PIRATES OF MONTEREY (1947 Universal-International)
Action and adventure take a deep back seat to the romantic intrigue between Rod Cameron, Maria Montez and Mexican officer Phillip Reed in 1840 California when American soldier of fortune Cameron is hired by the Mexican government to take a shipment of rifles from Mexico City to California. Trying to take them away from him are Spanish royalist pirates led by Gilbert Roland masquerading as Reed's best friend and a Mexican Army officer. Deadly dull first 28 minutes, and putting up with the supposedly comic intervention of Mikhail Rasummy as Cameron's aide is pure torture. Cowboy cancer alert --- Rod smokes.

 SUGARFOOT (1951 Warner Bros.)
It's Randolph Scott vs. Raymond Massey as the two men come west, a strong dislike for one another, to Prescott, AZ, after the Civil War. That dislike grows to hatred as each vies for control. "I knew this town wasn't big enough to hold the two of us", Massey actually says! (Russell Hughes scripted that trite line from a novel by Clarence Buddington Kelland). Scott, the "Sugarfoot", soon learns the ways of the west from prospector and general old-coot Arthur Hunnicutt. The vile Massey clashes with Scott over saloon singer (but good girl) Adele Jergens (she sings one song) as well as a freighting business, in which Massey aligns himself with oily businessman Hugh Sanders, whom Scott has snookered. As directed by Edwin L. Marin, Hughes' script is comical much of the time, exciting at others, but overly episodic. The only similarity to Will Hutchins' later Warner Bros. TV series of the same name is Max Steiner's music (to which lyrics were added for TV). The movie was retitled SWIRL OF GLORY for television broadcasts so as not to confuse viewers. Only b/w prints of this Technicolor film seem to exist.

 SHADOWS ON THE SAGE (1942 Republic)
A montage of action always kicks a B-western off to an exciting start and director Les Orlebeck provides it here as the Curly gang terrorize the citizens of Holbrook in a reign of fear. Nasty banker Bryant Washburn is behind the desperadoes. Holding the mortgage on Griff Barnett's rich mine, he is determined to foreclose and sends his men out to raid each shipment. An old friend of Bob Steele's Dad, old timer Harry Holman, is appointed Sheriff when no one else will take the job and sends for help in the form of the 3 Mesquiteers (Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, Jimmie Dodd). Problems arise when it's discovered the leader of the Curly gang is a dead ringer for Steele. From there on, it's full bore action as the Mesquiteers help Holman, Barnett and his daughter, Cheryl Walker, round-up the bandits. This was the first Mesquiteers adventure for Jimmie Dodd (replacing Rufe Davis) and Republic let him loose with his sing-song ditties. Dodd was the biggest Mesquiteer misfit in the history of the long running series --- which ended after six with Steele, Tyler and Dodd. Jimmie was better suited as a Mouseketeer than a Mesquiteer. Cowboy cancer alert: as Curly, Bob Steele smokes. Oddly, Curly is also Steele's name in the classic OF MICE AND MEN in 1940.

 CYCLONE KID (1942 Republic)
John James, kid brother of Don Barry, has come west as a doctor only to find brother Don slinging his gun as the Cyclone Kid --- a hired gun in the employ of big cattleman Alex Callam who is pushing all the small ranchers out of the valley with his gun-toters (Rex Lease, Joe McGuinn, crooked Sheriff Monte Montague), even corrupt judge Joel Friedkin. When James stirs the ranchers to rebel against Callam, Callam orders Barry to drive James out of town. When the Judge's daughter, Lynn Merrick, is injured in some gunplay, the Judge vows to produce the necessary evidence to overthrow Callam. Barry also sees the error of his way and organizes the ranchers to band together to fight Callam's gang. Jack of all trades Slim Andrews (stage driver, express agent, hotel clerk, justice of the peace, etc.) rides his mule Josephine. Barry complained to studio head Herbert J. Yates that the much-taller-than-he Andrews was stealing scenes and he didn't want him as a comic in any more of his films. Okay Barry western --- but less than clyclonic.

 WILDCAT OF TUCSON (1940 Columbia)
Stanley Brown as Dave Hickok, the brother of Wild Bill Hickok (Bill Elliott), gets himself embroiled in Kenneth MacDonald and crooked marshal George Lloyd's shady but within-the-law land grab plot when it involves Judge Ben Taggart and his daughter, Evelyn Young, with whom young Hickok is in love. Dave, winding up in jail for attempted murder, has pal Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor send for Dave's brother, Wild Bill, who takes the law into his own hands and eventually rids the town of undesirables. Tanglefoot Taylor sings a "tune" accompanied by his squeeze box. To see Elliott at his best, the epitome of "western cool", this is the one. Bit of trivia: Newt Kirby was Bill Elliott's double, John Day for Stanley Brown. Bert Young doubled Taylor, Dorothy Andre was Evelyn Young's double.

 UTAH BLAINE (1957 Columbia)
75 minute battle of wits, fists and guns based on a Louis L'Amour novel. Gunfighter Rory Calhoun rescues the owner of the large 46-Connected Ranch from being hanged and left for dead by land-grabbing Ray Teal and his pack of wolves. Calhoun saves the rancher's life and earns enough gratitude to inherit half the ranch (the other half going to love interest Susan Cummings) after Teal's gunman, George Keymas, finds the reprieved rancher and this time guns him down. Aided by huge storekeeper Max Baer, fellow gunfighter Paul Langton, neighboring rancher Angela Stevens and, eventually, the townsfolk, Calhoun wins out in the end. Produced by Sam Katzman and directed by Fred Sears, the film is filled with their western vets --- Terry Frost, Don Harvey, Steve Darrell, Gene Roth, Pierce Lyden, Jack Ingram, Rory Mallison, Dennis Moore.

 RAINBOW RANCH (1933 Monogram)
Another variation on Rex Bell's East-goes-West theme. This time Bell's a Navy pugilist who receives leave to return home out west to investigate the murder of his uncle. Nasty rancher Bob Kortman has blocked the roads to Rainbow Ranch, Bell's widowed Aunt's home, in a plot to secure all the water rights. Kortman also plans to marry sweet Cecilia Parker whom Bell has met on the train ride home-and, of course, is smitten with. Very routine.

 HURRICANE HORSEMAN (1931 Kent)
Ah Caramba! It ees a battle of terrible Spanish accents between Walter Miller (he ees zee badmans) and Senor Lafe McKee who ees kidnapped with hees daughter, Marie Quillan, and are being held til they reveal where their gold mine ees. No? Si. Gunsmith Lane Chandler saves the day. Some very nice stuntwork on horseback by Yakima Canutt doubling Chandler but it's not enough to save this tedious early talkie written by Oliver Drake, elements of which he recycled for BATTLING BUCKAROO ('32) again with Chandler and BEYOND THE ROCKIES ('32) with Tom Keene. Producer Willis Kent began his career as an independent producer in 1928 with the exploitive ROAD TO RUIN which he remade several years later as a talkie. With the coming of sound, Kent moved squarely into cheapjack westerns (of which HURRICANE HORSEMAN was the first) with Lane Chandler, Reb Russell, Buck Coburn (Gene Alsace/Rocky Camron) and Montie Montana --- material he'd sell on a state's rights basis for a flat $25 (or so) rental fee. By 1935 he was back to sex and drugs exploitation features (MAD YOUTH, SOULS IN PAWN etc.) for his own company and later, Real Life Dramas. Kent died in 1966 at 87.

 DEATH RIDES THE RANGE (1940 Colony)
Just as wounded archeologist Michael Vallon is about to reveal the location of a hidden Indian cave, the lights go out and he is murdered. The cave has a secret helium gas well foreign agents are using for fueling airships. Your murder suspects are grouchy trading post owner John Elliott, his niece Fay McKenzie, archeologists Sven Hugo Borg and William Costello and singer Kenneth Rhodes (who intones an absolutely awful cowboy song!). I'm with post owner Elliott, "That yahooin' gets on my nerves!" Into this melee ride Ken Maynard and his pals Ralph Peters and Julian Rivero. Black hearted Charlie King, working for Borg, hires Ken to take over a shack which holds the secret entrance to the cave. Meanwhile, Ken's pals are hired to protect the shack which is actually owned by Fay and her Uncle. The whole mess is neatly wrapped up at the end with Ken's Charlie Chan-like explanation. William Lively's screenplay "borrows" way too many elements from Oliver Drake's TROUBLE BUSTERS ('33) with Jack Hoxie to be coincidental. I once asked Drake about this sort of thing, and his unconcerned reply was simply that it was a common practice in those days. Writers went from studio to studio (more like office to office), they'd open a drawer full of old scripts. The producer needed something "next week", so you rewrote what was on hand. They all did it, so it all balanced out in the end.

 CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER (1953 Warner Bros.)
Guy Madison leads a band of misfits --- a reluctant but heroic guardhouse brigade --- on a mission to rescue young Ron Hagerthy's two sisters (Helen Westcott, Vera Miles) from their Indian captors --- only to find Miles reluctant to return to a white man's world. With a better screenplay than most, this is one of the best Indians Vs. Cavalry crop of '50s westerns with some intense battle scenes. Only Dick Wesson's misplaced "comedy" mars the seriousness. You could call Madison's guardhouse brigade a forerunner to the "dirty dozen". There's the tough sergeant (Frank Lovejoy), the womanizer (Steve Brodie), the comic thief (Wesson), the Yank and the Rebel still fighting the Civil War (Lane Chandler, Neville Brand), the alcoholic (Henry Kulky), the journalist (Onslow Stevens) as well as RIN TIN TIN cavalry vets James Brown and Rand Brooks. Watch for Carl Andre as Hudkins --- he was one of the top horse wranglers in the film business. Remade as an episode of TV's CHEYENNE, "West of the River".

 DESPERADOES (1943 Columbia)
Randolph Scott may get top billing, but it's newcomer Glenn Ford's movie all the way. Columbia's first color film has Scott as the stalwart sheriff and Ford as his wrong side of the law friend with Evelyn Keyes as the tomboyish gal who persuades Ford to go straight. Edgar Buchanan surprises as the conspiratorial postmaster who plots with banker Porter Hall to rob his own bank and throw the blame on Ford. Big Boy Williams is along for the fun as Ford's sidekick, Nitro, in this fast-paced, light-hearted big budget western adventure.