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

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

Individual film reviews - as well as the complete The Best (and Worst) of the West! film review collection - is copyright ©2000-2009 by Boyd Magers. All rights reserved.

The Ratings

Superior

Good

OK

Poor

A real dud !

 FUGITIVE FROM SONORA (1943 Republic)
Two Don Barrys are better than one. Most likely Barry's most unusual western in possibly the most unrecognized, under appreciated B-western series ever made. Barry's pictures were always so much better than they needed to be. Don's character here is much in the vein of William S. Hart's good/badman roles. Territorial Parole Commissioner Harry Cording concocts a scheme with cattle barons Jamesson Shade and Karl Hackett whereby Cording will parole certain hardened convicts on the condition they become part of henchman Ethan Laidlaw's gang or be killed. The outlaws then target the ranchers and homesteaders on land coveted by Shade and Hackett. Once the settlers are driven out, the gang claims the land as their own. One of the parolees, Keeno Phillips (Barry), is riding with Laidlaw's gang when a traveling preacher, Fighting Parson Dave Winters (also played by Barry), arrives to help leading lady Lynn Merrick and other ranchers. Keeno and Winters are twin brothers, Keeno having run away from home as a boy to become an outlaw. His preacher brother has searched the west for Keeno for years. At first denying his brother, Keeno and his brother eventually reconcile as Keeno vows to end Cording's evil reign of lawlessness in his own way.

 PHANTOM COWBOY (1935 Aywon)
Insufferably bad low budget "gem" ... one of those pictures that resembles a car wreck. You don't want to look, but you're oddly drawn toward it. Produced and directed with nonexistent talent by Robert J. Horner. Bad photography with actors firmly planted in front of a stationary camera, microphone shadows, sloppy continuity, poor editing, vicious overacting - especially from Ted Wells' lame comedy sidekick Jimmy Aubrey as Ptomaine Pete. No overacting by lead Wells though - he just plain can't act at all! Worst sequence of many involves Wells who, arriving at the Phantom Bandit's shack, finds the outlaw to be his double ... at least in close-ups. Otherwise, in medium shots, the "double" is obviously played by George Chesebro, even to speaking lines in his own unique voice! Five minutes later, Chesebro is playing the crooked saloon owner. Ridiculous, incoherent plotting isn't worth describing. Doris Brook is the no-talent leading lady and Sherry Tansey (weirdly credited as Cherry Tausie!) is her misguided mixed-up-with-the-wrong-crowd brother. Star Ted Wells experienced brief stardom in late silents at Universal in the late '20s, sometimes credited as Pawnee Bill Jr. With the coming of sound, he couldn't hack it and pretty much disappeared from view after two atrocious grade-Z westerns for Horner - this one and the lost DEFYING THE LAW ('35). However, Wells continued to work in Hollywood, doing bit roles, doubling and stunting, including much work in Hopalong Cassidy westerns from '41-'43. Born July 11, 1899, in Midland, TX, Wells died of heart attack June 7, 1948, in Wickenburg, AZ, at only 48. Cowboy Cancer Alert - Wells smokes.

 FLAME OF THE WEST (1945 Monogram)
Many critics rate this as one of Johnny Mack Brown's best B-westerns. Perhaps it is, but not because of Brown who plays the mild new medical doctor in town who's sworn off guns, but rather because of the plot - dissimilar to Brown's normal Monograms - and in particular, the excellent performance by that fine actor Douglas Dumbrille as a tough town tamer sent for by the Trail Forks Citizens' Committee. Dumbrille totally steals the picture from everyone! The film is also given extra length (it runs 70 minutes) to develop its distinct plot. Trail Forks is overrun by crooked gamblers and outlaws headed up by saloon owner Harry Woods, gambler Jack Ingram and gunmen Ray Bennett, Bob Duncan and Frank McCarroll. Woods' dance hall queen is Joan Woodbury who, as we soon see, has a "history" with Dumbrille. Naturally, when Dumbrille is gunned down by the gang, Brown must reluctantly strap on his six guns to avenge his new found friend's murder. But other than that, and until then, Dumbrille owns every scene he's in. The complacent, mild tempered Brown is simply no acting match for Dumbrille's talent. Brown regular Raymond Hatton is featured, but in a totally minor role this time. Woodbury sings one song; Pee Wee King and His Golden West Cowboys do a couple (but have no speaking parts) and Johnny Mack is allowed to perform some quick gun tricks early on just to convince you he can be a man of action when need be.

 40 GUNS TO APACHE PASS (1967 Columbia)
Audie Murphy's last movie, save a minor role in A TIME FOR DYING ('72) is a tired effort comparatively - especially given the fact it's directed by action vet William Witney. Cavalry Captain Murphy escorts a shipment of 40 new repeating rifles through hostile Apache territory (Red Rock Canyon, CA) to a fort. Along the way he's beset by problems and betrayals among his own men (Kenneth Tobey in an especially vile and deceptive role) as well as threats from Apache chief Cochise (Michael Keep). Faced with a court martial when he loses the guns, Audie sets out to retrieve them alone. Unnecessary narration of events throughout the film only intrudes and interferes with the natural flow of events. You'd think Tobey was Freddy Krueger or Jason Vorhees by the amount of killing he takes at the end. Western Boo Boo: Audie has beaten the crap out of Tobey early in the film and Tobey shows it with a brilliant split lip and a loud shiner. However, later that day, as he volunteers for a mission, all signs of the beating have vanished.

 BILLY THE KID'S SMOKING GUNS (1942 PRC)
The last film in Sig and Sam Newfield's Bob Steele/Buster Crabbe series to use "Billy the Kid" in the actual title. Saving youngster Joel Newfield (most likely the son - or grandson - of either producer Sig or director Sam) after his father is killed by outlaws, Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe) and his pals (Dave O'Brien, Fuzzy St. John) come to the rescue of Joel's pretty widowed Mom, Joan Barclay, who is put upon by slippery doctor Milton Kibbee, Ranchers Cooperative President John Merton, crooked Sheriff Ted Adams and their gunslingers Frank Ellis and Slim Whitaker. They've learned the government is about to buy up all the Valley at high prices to build a Cavalry post. A highlight of this otherwise mediocre entry is Fuzzy's "escape" with a tall ladder.

 HOT LEAD (1951 RKO)
"Arizona rocks to bandit gunfire as Tim Holt avenges a murder and wins a fresh start for a reformed convict", proclaimed the ads. By 1951 the Holts were becoming quite systematical - Chito and the girls, a joke or two about Chito's name or his mangling of the English language, a standard trio of badmen rather than a whole gang, more and more stock footage (here a whole cattle stampede segment from SADDLE LEGION only two films earlier is reused), tightening of the budget with less supporting players, less action and more dependence on plot. In HOT LEAD (a great title) crafty train robber John Dehner and his two henchmen (Bob Wilke, Paul Marion) have killed one of rancher Joan Dixon's men in a failed holdup. Dehner shrewdly has convict/telegrapher Ross Elliott released from prison, planning to set him up to work in the telegraph office in Trail Head, New Mexico, and glean info on future gold shipments for the gang to rob. As Dixon's foreman, Tim (and his pal Chito - Richard Martin) get involved and give Elliott, who is actually trying to go straight, a job as a cowhand. Together they are able to trap Dehner's gang. For more confirmation of budget encroachment at RKO, the town, business signs (Landry's) pertaining to the previous Holt film, GUN PLAY, are still in evidence in HOT LEAD.

 TRIGGER FINGERS (1939 Victory)
The next to the last of Tim McCoy's Lightnin' Bill Carson series for Sam Katzman's Victory Pictures. Its only innovation is adding attractive, bright Joyce Bryant to McCoy's team of FBI sleuths, which in the previous pics only included dim-bulb Ben Corbett as Magpie. When the marauding Lasson County gang (Boss Carleton Young, Ted Adams, Kenne Duncan, Ralph Peters, Forrest Taylor) run afoul of the government, our three intrepid operatives disguise themselves (quite badly), audaciously posing as traveling horse trading gypsies to help out befuddled young deputy Bud McTaggert, his girlfriend Jill Martin (formerly Harley Wood) and her rancher-father John Elliott. Plot is simple, there's very little action, save one Walker Cabin free-for-all, plus McCoy just plain annoys and is unwelcome, suited out as a silly mustachioed gypsy fortune-teller. Why producer Katzman and director Sam Newfield allowed Tim to run amok in this series as a Mexican, Chinese, a masked phantom, an outlaw double, or whatever, is unknown. Perhaps, with the loss of stalwart Tom Tyler, Katzman was happy to sign McCoy and give him free rein in order to keep his Victory banner flying. With the exit of McCoy (to PRC), Katzman folded Victory and moved his production operations to Monogram where he produced East Side Kids, Bela Lugosi and TeenAgers B's. For the record, Katzman's Victory churned out 30 pictures (including 8 Tylers and 8 McCoys) as well as two serials from July '35 to December '40.

 VALLEY OF HUNTED MEN (1942 Republic)
Made just before Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941), this 3 Mesquiteers (Tom Tyler, Bob Steele, Jimmie Dodd) adventure finds a murderous trio of Nazis, led by ringleader Roland Varno, breaking out of a Canadian POW camp and immediately crossing into Wyoming for safe refuge. Patriotic rancher Hal Price reckons Americanized Germans may be helping the Goose-steppers with suspicion falling on refugee scientist Dr. Edward Van Sloan and his daughter Anna Marie Stewart who are in reality trying to aid the Allied cause with their research. Two of the Sig-Heilers are killed but Varno hides out at Van Sloan's ranch by impersonating his nephew. Further complications set in when Gestapo agents go after Van Sloan's experimental formulas. Naturally, the Mesquiteers win the war in Wyoming.

 VANISHING RIDERS (1935 Spectrum)
For the 1935-'36 season, producer Ray Kirkwood promised eight westerns starring Bill Cody and his son Bill Cody Jr. for release by Spectrum. Cody made eight all right, but his son was only in three of them (the pair had made FRONTIER DAYS a year earlier in '34 for Spectrum release, but it was not a Kirkwood production). VANISHING RIDERS truthfully is Bill Cody Jr.'s movie all the way - the story revolves around him and he is involved in more action than his Dad, including the final lasso-capture of badman Wally Wales. Story has Sheriff Cody resigning his lawman badge after being forced to kill Bill Jr.'s outlaw father. Now he's caring for the boy as they happen upon the Cross M Ranch run by leading lady Ethel Jackson, her brother Donald Reed and ghost town store-keep Budd Buster in one of his best roles. The Cross M is being plagued by rustlers Wally Wales and his gang (Buck Morgan, Ace Cain, Milt [Milburn] Morante). Codys Sr. and Jr. rout the owlhoots by disguising themselves - and their horses - as skeletons. Laughable, to be sure, but it seems to scare these rustlers. There are some impressive, above average camera set-ups from cinematographer Williams Hyer who lensed a lot of B-westerns from '32-'40 with Bob Steele, Big Boy Williams, Tom Tyler, Herb Jeffries, Bob Custer, Jack Randall and Ken Maynard.

 TEXAS PANHANDLE (1945 Columbia)
It's a wild free-for-all roundup of action, thrills and music as the Durango Kid busts up a thieving gang of land grabbers (land swindler Forrest Taylor and his never-ending gang of gunnies - Edward Howard, Jack Kirk, George Chesebro, Ted Mapes, Hugh Hooker). If you've seen 10 or 12 Durango Kid B's, you'll not find much to separate this one from the pack, except early ones like this are perhaps a little better done. Tex Harding is along as usual in these early Durangos. Real name John Thye (born January 4, 1918), his singing voice was dubbed in these films by James T. 'Bud' Nelson (1914-1994). Columbia was apparently grooming Harding for a series of his own but when he failed to impress, the idea was abandoned. Spade Cooley and his band give out with a couple of tunes - especially noteworthy is their version of Bob Wills' "Take Me Back to Tulsa". Carolina Cotton once again sings "I Love To Yodel". God love her, but did her repertoire consist of only 3 songs? Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor is comic relief and the girl is quickly forgettable Nanette Parks. Most unusual here is the fact Taylor and his gang discover midway that Charles 'Steve' Starrett is The Durango Kid!

 RIDIN' DOWN THE CANYON (1942 Republic)
There's a lot to like in RIDIN' DOWN THE CANYON, Roy Rogers' last before Republic began the third phase of his career, expanding the budgets, spending more in lavish settings, more songs, choirs, etc. Starting with the title tune (the biggest hit Smiley Burnette ever wrote), RIDIN' ... has a sound story, cheerful music, above average cast and plenty of hard riding and gunplay. The comedy between Gabby Hayes (a "professional rustler catcher") and Pat Brady is well done also - a running conflict on "deefness" with Roy and Bob Nolan mischievously egging the two on. Storywise, pert Linda Hayes and her kid brother Buzz Henry capture and sell wild horses to the government for their experiment on the reclamation of wild horses, breeding their cunning and toughness with the proud, gentler thoroughbreds. But they are being plagued by rustlers Hal Taliaferro, Tom London and Roy Barcroft who are taking their orders from Lariat Lodge dude ranch owners Addison Richards and Lorna Gray (later Adrian Booth) as well as Linda's supposed "friend", James Seay. Buzzy, a fan of radio entertainers Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers, enlists their aid in tracking down the horse-thieves who are taking coded orders on where to strike over the radio from Lorna Gray broadcasting from the dude ranch (a plot device used earlier in Gene Autry's COLORADO SUNSET '39). A very pleasant Rogers picture with some outstanding songs including "Blue Prairie" (sung by Roy and the Pioneers), "Sagebrush Symphony" (sung by the Pioneers) and "My Little Buckaroo" (sung by Roy to Buzz Henry), a song written by Jack Scholl and M. K. Jerome which originated in CHEROKEE STRIP ('37 WB) as Dick Foran sang to young Tommy Bupp. An oddity here is that Buzz Henry's screen name is Bobbi Blake - same moniker as Bobby Blake who'd reach stardom at Republic riding with Red Ryder in '44. Linda Hayes makes a nice enough heroine but female acting honors (and screen time) go to "bad girl" Lorna Gray. Sadly, the last Rogers picture from his "happy" period when Roy, Gabby and the Pioneers worked so well together without the intrusion of added and unwanted other musical elements.

 THUNDERBOLT (1935 Regal)
Certain to initiate drowsiness. Lobo the Marvel Dog (another grade Z Rin Tin Tin rip off) is the title character in this crude study in violence and retribution. Robber and unscrupulous storekeeper Barney Furey, along with crooked deputy Frank Hagney, kill young Bobby Nelson's dog Pride while Furey is after a gun in Nelson's home which has Furey's incriminating fingerprints on it. Nelson's Dad is Sheriff Bob McKenzie. Then the blackguards try to pin the crime on miner Kane Richmond whose dog Thunderbolt just happens to be a dead ringer for Pride. Notable as the first film for Fay McKenzie, character actor Bob McKenzie's daughter. Story and screenplay by Jack Gevne (aka Jack Jevne/Jack West/Jack Levine - see GHOST RIDER). For more on Regal, see WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES.

 FIGHTING RANGER (1934 Columbia)
An almost scene-for-scene remake of Buck Jones' BORDER LAW ('31) as Buck and pal Frank Rice ride the vengeance trail south of the border to avenge the bank robbery murder of Buck's Texas Ranger kid brother (Paddy O'Flynn) at the hands of the Cougar (Bradley Page) and his gang, headed up by tough Ward Bond. Great barroom battle between Jones and Bond, and you'll love the way Buck exacts final retribution on Page, pumping more lead than really necessary into the border bandido. Meanwhile, Buck romances singing cantina entertainer Dorothy Revier, the weak spot in this otherwise fast-riding Jones. Cowboy cancer alert - Buck smokes.

 RANGE WAR (1939 Paramount)
From Hopalong Cassidy's "dull" period. Instead of hard riding action, this one just sort of moseys along. There's a lack of solid villainy from Willard Robertson whose role amounts to a bit part until the final 15 minutes when the listless film finally kicks into high gear with a shootout at Padre Pedro de Cordoba's mission. Matt Moore is trying to build a railroad spur line for the ranchers so they won't have to pay toll to Robertson to cross his land. Robertson's thugs (Francis McDonald, Eddie Dean, Ray Bennett, Stanley Price) do all they can to sabotage their progress. Lucky (Russell Hayden) has a fleeting romance with diminutive Betty Moran, Moore's daughter. Also hurting the dynamics of the film is the series' loss of George Hayes who moved over to Republic after completing RENEGADE TRAIL. He's replaced by harmonica-blower Britt Wood as Speedy in four '39-'40 Hoppys. The series didn't fully recover until the producer Harry 'Pop' Sherman brought Andy Clyde on board with THREE MEN FROM TEXAS in November of '40.

 NIGHT RIDERS OF MONTANA (1951 Republic)
When headstrong rancher Myron Healey is framed for the murder of fellow horse rancher Marshall Bradford, "The range roars with action", Republic's ads blazed, as state ranger Allan 'Rocky' Lane comes to the aid of Sheriff Chubby Johnson and Myron's sister, cute Claudia Barrett. Meanwhile, the respected town gunsmith, Arthur Space, actually the secret leader of the night-riding rustlers, deceives Healey into believing he is out to help the accused rancher and tricks Bradford's trigger-happy son, Mort Thompson, into revealing where the ranchers are bunching their herds. It takes Rocky's fists, guns and wits to bring the cunning Space and his rustlers (Roy Barcroft, Don Harvey, Ted Adams) to justice. M. Coates Webster's script includes a funny line ... Space to Barcroft: "I pay you to act not think, and right now you're being overpaid."

 CHEROKEE STRIP (1940 Paramount)
There's the usual trademark slow build-up to an action packed finale common to many of producer Harry 'Pop' Sherman's westerns, and when it comes, it is certainly one of his best staged wind-ups. An unsettled Texas feud is brought to Oklahoma Territory when the Barretts (crooked banker Victor Jory, his wimpish killer-brother Douglas Fowley and the rest of the clan - Morris Ankrum, Addison Richards, William Haade, Bob Kortman, Hal Taliaferro) set up a crooked empire in (and near) the as-yet unopened Cherokee Strip. Down in Texas, Fowley killed the brother of Richard Dix, who is now U.S. Marshal based in the town run by Jory. It's a tense situation but when young and gun-foolish census taker Bill Henry, the brother of Dix's girl Florence Rice, is murdered by Fowley, everything flares into dynamite action with Dix's brothers (Tom Tyler, Ray Teal) joining in the fight. Hopalong Cassidy regular Andy Clyde is along for a few laughs as Dix's partner.

 SHOWDOWN (1950 Republic)
Bill Elliott's last for Republic after seven years with the studio is an excellent example of western film noir, wonderfully scripted and directed by Dorrell and Stuart McGowan with cinematography from Reggie Lanning, a longtime staple at Republic whose career seemed to end with the cessation of Republic itself in the mid-'50s. The McGowan brothers were scriptwriters who began at Republic in '36 with Gene Autry's COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN. They went on to write dozens more for Autry, the Weaver Brothers and Elviry, Roy Rogers, Roy Acuff and others. They'd scripted and produced Elliott's excellent HELLFIRE a year earlier and many of the religious overtones seen there are present in SHOWDOWN. However, this is the first time the McGowans ever directed a film - and they come through with a distinctive western about vengeance, retribution and redemption. Ex-Texas State Policeman Bill Elliott is stern and driven in his ruthless determination to find and kill the man who shot his kid brother in the back and stole the money with which the pair were to buy a ranch. Elliott is convinced one of Walter Brennan's trail drovers is the killer, and after Elliott kills trail boss Leif Erickson over another matter, Brennan offers Elliott the job of getting his herd to Montana. Still convinced one of the men (Jim Davis, Yakima Canutt, Harry Morgan, Nacho Galindo, William Ching, Rhys Williams) is the man he's looking for, the bitter Elliott takes the job hoping to identify the killer. Before they leave, saloon owner Marie Windsor, also a suspect, buys out Brennan's herd and also joins the drive. Along the way, Brennan preaches to Elliott to forget revenge and let God's law of retribution take care of the man. Not dissuaded, the determined Elliott's relentless driving and suspicion of the drovers in his hunt for the killer makes him bitterly hated. However, once he eventually does find his brother's murderer, the higher law of retribution and redemption takes over. An overlooked minor classic, far superior to some of Elliott's better known B-plus westerns. Cowboy cancer alert - Bill smokes his pipe.

 KID RANGER (1936 Supreme)
A great showcase for William Farnum as a dedicated Sheriff forced to kill his old friend Frank Ball after Ball and accomplice Earl Dwire pull a robbery in order to make a decent life for Ball's three year old daughter Mary (Reetsy Adams). Remorseful at what he's done, Farnum resigns, vows never to carry a gun again, and adopts Mary. Years later, in a new town, Mary (Geraine Greaer aka Joan Barclay) has grown into a gorgeous woman engaged to Ranger Bob Steele who knows nothing of these past events. Re-enter ruthless Earl Dwire, now known as border outlaw El Lobo, and his gang headed up by Charlie King. Dwire threatens to expose Farnum's secret to Joan if Farnum doesn't help his gang rob the stage. The situation is truly a test of character for Farnum. Exciting finish as Steele rounds up the gang in a cave hideout. Watch for Steele's real life father, director/screenwriter Robert North Bradbury, early in the film as the head of the citizen's committee to whom Farnum resigns his badge. Only drawback to another well-plotted Steele Supreme is the dead-spot midway with Spanish dance team Paul and Paulina. The film quickly revives itself though with one of those great Steele/King slugfests.

 MASSACRE CANYON (1954 Columbia)
Alcoholic West Pointer Phil Carey doesn't relish being "sent west" but manages to help Sgt. Douglas Kennedy (embittered because he thought he would be awarded Lieutenant's bars instead of Carey) and Pvt. 'Peaceful' (Big Boy Williams) take a load of Henry repeaters through hostile Indian country ruled by Black Eagle (Steven Ritch) and Running Horse (Chris Alcaide). Along for the ride are discredited Pvt. (former Major) Ross Elliott and two mail order brides, Audrey Totter and Jeff Donnell. Donnell plays her role strictly for broad laughs (just the way she did when paired with Big Boy in those Hoosier Hot Shots/Ken Curtis musical westerns) when the part here calls for a bit more finesse. All the dramatic subplots only come up for air in-between director Fred Sears' action scenes. Screenwriter David Lang needed a lot more than 66 minutes to explore the bitterness, romance, alcoholism, cowardice and hostility he tried to build into this script.

 TRAIL OF THE SILVER SPURS (1941 Monogram)
The 4th film in the Range Busters series is one of their most remembered, but in actuality, not one of their best. With hidden gold in a desert ghost town, a spooky old hotel, a mystery gunman, secret passageways behind a grandfather clock and a wild-eyed villain named The Jingler because of his jingling silver spurs, this should have been a top-notch western thriller. All the elements are there, but writers Elmer Clifton and Earle Snell fail to make it all come together. The Range Busters (Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, John 'Dusty' King and Max 'Alibi' Terhune) are dispatched by the government to track down The Jingler (I. Stanford Jolley), who killed two men and is hiding in the ghost town of Bottle Neck amongst gold bars stolen from the Denver Mint. Old timer Milburn Morante and his daughter Dorothy Short are the only inhabitants of Bottle Neck, believing a rich ore vein still exists in a nearby abandoned mine. The Jingler attempts to scare them off through "ghost messages" while another outlaw, George Chesebro, is after Morante's mine while trying to kill The Jingler. When Alibi salts Morante's mine in an attempt to revive the ghost town, he unleashes a flood of phony looking gold-rush stock footage that feels and looks totally out of place. John King sings two songs, with Eddie Dean (as a miner) helping out on "Goodbye Old Paint". An entertaining enough entry, but so much more could have been down with the story elements.

 GHOST RIDER (1935 Superior)
Franklyn Farnum's ranch is stolen by Lloyd Ingraham and his men (Blackie Whiteford, Bill Patton, Jack Ward) and Farnum sent to prison for a deed he didn't do. Escaping prison years later, he's returned to seek revenge, leaving an ace on each dead man's chest. New deputy sheriff Rex Lease works with Farnum's daughter (Ann Carroll - looking like a left-over Jean Harlow) and son (Bobby Nelson) to clear Farnum's name. Farnum practically steals the show from top-billed Lease who doesn't appear til the halfway mark. Lots of unexpected nuances from writer "John West" and director "Jack Jevne", make this a worthwhile lowbudgeter. Jevne/West was really a pseudonym for Jack Levine who later wrote several excellent Laurel and Hardy scripts for producer Hal Roach. Former silent star Bill Desmond has a bit as a prison guard. Jack Kirk appears on bookends of the film to sing.

 ADVENTURES OF THE TEXAS KID: BORDER AMBUSH (1954 Franklin Prod.)
Before watching, locate a good trowel, because you'll be scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one. Our "stars" are stuntman Hugh Hooker and sidekick John Laurenz (basically reprising his 'Chito' role from James Warren's CODE OF THE WEST and SUNSET PASS). As produced by John Jay Franklin (who?), written and directed by Bob Tansey (on his worst day), the film is choked with bad acting, poor staging, sloppy direction, muffed lines and disjointed plotlines, giving one reason to suspect this might have been intended as a pilot or pilots for a TV series that (gratefully) never sold. Although shot in color (Tansey must have spent his wad on color film stock), probably circa 1950-'51 just before Tansey died in '51, much of it is filmed silent with narration and sound effects dubbed-in during post production. Release, such as it was, was held up til '54. The "plot" has (yawn) lawyer Frank Scannell and hired gunmen (Terry Frost, Frank Marlowe, Kid Chissell, Johnny Carpenter) out to grab rancher James Kirkwood and his daughter Pamela Blake's oil rich land. Old pro Monte Blue makes a brief appearance as the Sheriff.

 WHISTLIN' DAN (1932 Tiffany)
Ken Maynard and his pals Don Terry and oldtimer Harlan Knight have just been paid $5,000 for their cattle and deposited it in the bank, paying off their debts. Wanted outlaw Georges Renavent and his outlaw band kidnap Don and threaten to kill him unless Ken pays them $5,000. When the bank refuses Ken the loan, he robs the bank and rushes to ransom Don. Unfortunately, Ken is too late, the renegade has already executed his friend. Even though he returns the $5,000, the banker presses charges and Ken and Harlan are jailed. In jail they meet outlaw Frank Ellis who happens to be one of Renavent's men. When the renegade breaks Ellis out of jail that night, Ken and Harlan "join" the outlaw band hoping to get the goods on the bandido. Complications arise when the outlaws hide out at the cantina of Terry's Mexican girlfriend Joyzelle who recognizes Ken from a picture Terry showed her. Exciting finale but a bit talky leading up to it. Remade in 1941 by RKO as Tim Holt's ALONG THE RIO GRANDE. Director Phil Rosen (1888-1951) had a career that stretched back to work with Edison in 1912 as a cinematographer. Born in Russia, Rosen came to the U.S. with his parents and was educated in Machias, Maine. After starting with Edison, he moved to Fox to photograph many silent films, becoming a director in 1920 on such acclaimed features as ABRAHAM LINCOLN ('24) and BRIDGE OF SIGHS ('25). Unfortunately, his style of theatrical composition from the silent days carried over in his work with talkies, relegating him to (usually) independent studios. Most of his scenes are done in wide shots and masters, inter-cutting only when really necessary. Most of his western work is early on at Tiffany, Allied and Monogram with Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson and Bob Steele. Most of his later work was B-mysteries especially Charlie Chan and Shadow films at Monogram, although he did helm two Duncan Renaldo Cisco Kid entries in '45.

 ALONG THE RIO GRANDE (1941 RKO)
The third of Tim Holt's pre-war B-westerns has he and his pals Whopper (Emmett Lynn) and Smoky (Ray Whitley) out to avenge the murder of their friend and boss (Harry Humphrey) by joining the outlaw gang of rustler Robert Fiske (cold-heartedly excellent) and his gun-hands (Monte Montague, Slim Whitaker) that committed the murder. They get help (and hindrance) from Betty Jane Rhodes who, for want of a job, sings in Fiske's outlaw cantina. Watch for former stars Hal (Wally Wales) Taliaferro as the Sheriff, Bob Baker as his deputy and Buzz Barton, barely noticeable as a posse member. This is a remake of Ken Maynard's WHISTLIN' DAN ('32) written by Stuart Anthony, scripted here by Arthur Jones and Morton Grant. Grant penned several more for Holt as well as some for George O'Brien, Hoppy, 3 Mesquiteers, Eddie Dew - and Disney's SONG OF THE SOUTH. Jones wrote other westerns for Holt, George O'Brien, Johnny Mack Brown, Don Barry and Russell Hayden. Watch for perennial Gene Autry guitarist Frankie Marvin backing up Whitley during a musical number.

 DAWN RIDER (1935 Lone Star)
John Wayne returns to town after a long absence to see his father and winds up crossways between two men. One of them, Dennis Moore (still using the moniker Denny Meadows), kills Wayne's Dad in a daring express company holdup and turns out to be the brother of a girl Wayne has fallen for (Marion Burns). The other, Reed Howes, is John's best friend who also has eyes for Burns. Strong story, good characterizations, hard action and some thrilling stunts by Yakima Canutt make this one of Wayne's best Lone Stars. Robert N. Bradbury had a hand in script and direction of both. Wayne's younger brother, Bob Morrison (1911-1970) has a bit role in DAWN RIDER. Throughout the years, as Wayne became a top star, he always placed his seemingly unambitious brother in various production positions at Wayne-Fellows and Batjac. Morrison is listed as producer on SEVEN MEN FROM NOW ('56), GUN THE MAN DOWN ('57) and ESCORT WEST ('59).

 GOD'S COUNTRY AND THE MAN (1931 Syndicate)
Best remembered as the B-western in which loveable rapscallion George (later Gabby) Hayes dies in Tom Tyler's arms. Hayes' tragic death scene here predates by four years his death scene at Hoppy's side in HOPALONG CASSIDY ENTERS ('35). Government agent Tyler and "outlaw" Hayes go into Mexico to apprehend gunrunner Al Bridge wanted for murder. As he often did, Julian Rivero chews up the scenery with his Mexican general role. He was much more accomplished by the time of GIANT ('56). Co-scripter Bridge created a memorable villain for himself - vain and paranoid, delighting intimidating all around him with his inept violin playing.

 HIDDEN VALLEY (1932 Monogram)
Known as the Bob Steele with the Goodyear blimp. Otherwise, a fairly routine Steele with a touch of Indiana Jones in the search for a hidden valley of gold and turquoise protected by an ancient Indian civilization. Steele is convicted for the murder of an archeologist, breaks loose and goes after the real killer, Francis McDonald and his cohorts, George Hayes, Dick Dickinson, Joe de la Cruz and the brother (Ray Hallar) of Bob's girl, Gertrude (Gertie) Messinger. Goodyear Rubber Co. loaned the blimp to Monogram and it was flown by Captain Vern L. Smith over Lone Pine, California. Outstanding camera work from director Robert N. Bradbury's oft-used cameraman Archie Stout, whose low budget work here compares favorably with his later cinematography on A-films like BEAU GESTE ('38) and FORT APACHE ('48).

 LONE RIDER FIGHTS BACK (1941 PRC)
This one opens up with a dandy of a bar room brawl, then badmen Frank Hagney, Charlie King, Frank Ellis and Dennis Moore go after leading lady Dorothy Short's gold rich ranch (the Jauregui location ranch). However, George Houston (the Lone Rider) and perennial PRC sidekick Fuzzy St. John intervene. Leading lady Dorothy Short was once married to Dave O'Brien who was in dozens of B-westerns both as a star and a badman. Before the Lone Rider series ('41-'42), prolific natural comic Fuzzy St. John had previously ridden the trail with Fred Scott, Bob Steele and Don Barry. When Houston left to return to NY, Fuzzy saddled up with Robert Livingston, Buster Crabbe and Lash LaRue. The Houston/Lone Rider series has taken a lot of knocks by western critics but, in retrospect they're all full of fun, action and good B-western casts. The personable Houston acquits himself far better than some other B-stars we could mention. His main drawback was his operatic singing voice ... good, but not suited for westerns. Screenwirter Joseph O'Donnell must have seen Kermit Maynard's GALLOPING DYNAMITE ('36) because he uses some of the same plot ploys setting one outlaw against another in eeking out justice.

 LONE STAR MOONLIGHT (1946 Columbia)
Modern western horseplay as returning GI Ken Curtis and his pals, the Hoosier Hot Shots, make plans to convert their old radio station into a TV station. There's a love angle with old girlfriend Joan Barton and her jealous suitor Robert Stevens. No mind, these plots are just something to fill in between some 12 songs by Merle Travis, Judy Clark (a junior Betty Hutton), the Hot Shots and Curtis, who does a plaintive version of "Home On the Range". This one's a bit weaker than some others in the series. Barton (1925-1976) was a popular radio singer who made several westerns (ROMANCE OF THE WEST ['46], ANGEL AND THE BADMAN ['47] and STRANGE GAMBLE ['48], then became a well respected song voice-dubber for various actresses (BODY AND SOUL, KID FROM BROOKLYN, etc.)

 OUTLAW TAMER (1935 Empire)
The second in a series of six projected "Phantom Rider" westerns starring Lane Chandler; LONE BANDIT was the first but no others were made. Chandler helps prospector George Hayes recover his poke when he's cheated out of it by saloon owner Slim Whitaker. Acting honors go to Hayes, polishing up his Gabby act, who has been grubstaked by leading lady Janet Morgan (formerly Blanche Mehaffey). Mehaffey (1907-1968) was a Wampus Baby Star in 1924 who spent a year with the Ziegfeld Follies and started off well in films with Charley Chase, Glenn Tryon and Hoot Gibson but in the early sound era was never in the right company to break away from low budget Gower Gulch affairs at Syndicate, World Wide, Superior, Reliable etc. She's always better than the material given her in these poverty row escapades. Five more films and she quit to devote time to her husband, Ralph Like (sound man and owner of Mayfair Pictures, '31-'34) whom she married in '32. The 6 ft. plus rawboned Chandler was just too awkward and lumbersome for hero leads and fared far better as a second lead or character player for years - on into TV westerns (WAGON TRAIN, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, etc.) in the mid '60s. Working for director J. P. McGowan in OUTLAW TAMER and LONE BANDIT didn't help Chandler's status any either. Australian born McGowan (1880-1952) was an adventurous workaholic. Writer/actor/producer/director/editor - he often tried to do too much. In the '30s, after his glory days in silents from 1911-1929, his workaholic disposition led him to poverty row outfits like Empire where there simply was no budget for his ambitious attitude, so, much of his directorial work with Tom Tyler, Bob Custer, Bob Steele and Buzz Barton is hurried and crudely fashioned. For OUTLAW TAMER, obviously made on the cheap by a company who only stayed in business 18 months and turned out just nine films, much of the outdoor sequences seem to have been shot silent with sound poorly dubbed in later. McGowan also plays the Sheriff in this one.

 SON OF ROARING DAN (1940 Universal)
Johnny Mack Brown wreaks vengeance on the back-shooting murderer of his Marshal father. To do so, Brown masquerades as tenderfoot Horace McPhail, long absent son of blustery Roaring Dan McPhail (Robert Homans) who assigns silly Fuzzy Knight and his sister Nell O'Day the task of teaching (believed) tenderfoot Brown how to take care of himself on the rough frontier. Brown soon discovers John Eldredge is his father's slayer. Sleazy saloon owner Eldredge heads a gang of rustlers (Ethan Laidlaw, Jack Shannon, John Beach, and silent serial star Eddie Polo). When visiting New York debutante Jeanne Kelly witnesses a killing, Eldredge has the girl kidnapped, but Brown and Knight rescue the girl and turn the tables on Eldredge's bunch. The Texas Rangers sing two songs but, we're in luck, Fuzzy does not. Clarence Upson Young's screenplay is a bit heavy on the comical aspects of the idea. This was the second of a trio of Brown Universals Ford Beebe (1888-1978) directed from '39-'41. The first of the trio was OKLAHOMA FRONTIER ('39) which Beebe also wrote. Historian Mike Nevins notes, for this film, he received no script credit but did much of the writing anyway. "I spent the night before production rewriting about 20% of it. During shooting I had a desk in the prop truck and would frequently write the next scene on the spot and have copies given to the actors for rehearsals. I was fighting a bad case of flu and would have liked nothing better than to have crawled under a bush and gone to sleep. But we finished only five hours behind schedule - and I got properly bawled out for the overtime."

 TEXAS TERRORS (1940 Republic)
The parents of young Don Barry (played as a youth by Sammy McKim) are gunned down before his eyes by claim jumping outlaws Arthur Loft, Eddy Waller and William Ruhl. Young Don had promised his father (Hal Taliaferro) never to take up the way of the gun, but to depend on the law to right injustices, so Don becomes a lawyer. Under an assumed name he returns to bring justice to his parents' killers. Loft is now a pillar of society, although actually still the crook he always was, and has positioned Waller as his personal Judge. As a land official, Loft is cheating and swindling the local miners. Making matters difficult for Barry, the girl he learns to care for is crooked judge Waller's daughter, Julie Duncan. When Don's legal tactics fail, he's forced to break his promise to his dad and resort to six gun justice. Midway there's a song and dance by Ann Pennington backed up by an embarrassed looking Jimmy Wakely and his Rough Riders. Even old man Pappy Yates must have quickly realized this girl had less talent than a two-by-four and she was thankfully never heard from again. Screenwriters Doris Schroeder and Anthony Coldeway must have dug into a pile of old Republic scripts because the premise for TEXAS TERRORS is lifted straight from John Wayne's KING OF THE PECOS ('36).

 CHIP OF THE FLYING U (1939 Universal)
It's war on the range as 5th Columnists hide munitions on Forrest Taylor's Flying U Ranch until time to ship them by boat from the nearby cove. Johnny Mack Brown is Taylor's foreman in love with Taylor's sister, Doris Weston. Neighboring rancher Anthony Warde wants the Flying U because of its proximity to the cove, making it easier for him to supply stolen munitions to the Nazis. Knowing the loss of money might prevent Taylor from getting a loan and persuade him to sell, Warde's men (Karl Hackett and Chuck Morrison) rob the bank, killing banker Henry Hall and trying to lay blame on Brown. In his 3rd of six outings with Brown, Bob Baker is relegated to the role of back-up cowboy. He sings two songs including "Mr. Moon" (which was also sung by Frances Langford in Universal's COWBOY IN MANHATTAN ['43]) and that's about all he does. The Texas Rangers also chime-in with two and sidekick Fuzzy Knight cackles one. Based on B. M. Bower's novel, CHIP OF THE FLYING U had three previous outings ... the first with Tom Mix in '14, the second, renamed GALLOPING DUDE in '20 with Bud Osborne, and the third with Hoot Gibson in '26. For his 3rd Universal western, Brown traded in his white horse for Rebel, a palomino he'd ride for the rest of his Universal and Monogram westerns.

 COLORADO AMBUSH (1951 Monogram)
Who's ambushing the Wells Fargo payroll riders and where are the ambushers getting their information as to which rider has the payroll? That's the mystery confronting Johnny Mack Brown in this Myron Healey scripted B with a nod to Shakespeare. It's femme fatale saloon mistress Christine McIntyre and her boy-toy Myron Healey who are leading young Tommy Farrell astray, causing him to betray his father, Marshall Bradford. Gorgeous Lois Hall as Farrell's sister never looked prettier. Lyle Talbot has a good role as the Sheriff while John Hart goes unbilled as a gambler.

 DESTRY (1955 Universal International)
Director George Marshall's remake of his own 1939 hit, DESTRY RIDES AGAIN with James Stewart, presented the culmination of all the qualities Audie Murphy had been gradually developing, the quiet sincerity, gentle humor and taut control of action sequences. In DESTRY, Audie and the Destry character were fused in total harmony. Audie's Destry is a bit less forced and a shade more human than Stewart's Destry, the actor is less in evidence, therefore it can be strongly argued, the remake is better than the original, except for Mari Blanchard who is no Marlene Dietrich. You know the plot, Tom Destry, son of a famous lawman, is made deputy sheriff of the tough town of Restful, ruled with a strong-arm by saloon owner Lyle Bettger (never better). His appointment is something of a joke to Bettger and the town as they see Destry as a complete tenderfoot - which certainly is not to be, as his quiet sleuthing, amateur psychology and, when it comes right down to it, quick action proves. Also in on the fun are Thomas Mitchell as the town drunk appointed Sheriff who must find his inner courage, Edgar Buchanan as the corrupt Mayor, Lori Nelson, wasted as Audie's girl, Wallace Ford and Mary Wickes as bickering Mr. and Mrs. 'Doc' Curtis and George Wallace as Bettger's gunman. Careful eyes will also spot western regulars Lee Aaker, Jimmy Hawkins, Alan Hale Jr., Walter Baldwin, Richard Reeves, John Doucette, Trevor Bardette, Henry Wills, Ralph Peters, Rex Lease and Jack Mower. Director Marshall skillfully blends semi-satire and hard action into a really first class western.

 TRAILING NORTH (1933 Monogram)
Boredom sets in quick with all the snow and ice cold dialogue. Bob Steele's on the frozen, snowbound, dogsled trail of the man who killed his Ranger surrogate father (Fred Burns). Vowing to bring the killer and a girl singer (Doris Hill) back to justice, Bob is faced with the dilemma of having fallen in love with Hill whom he believes to be an accomplice of the killer. Once again, way before Gene Autry, Bob Steele becomes a "singing cowboy", warbling "I'm Headin' Home".

 OUTLAWS OF THE ROCKIES (1945 Columbia)
"Hard-riding action! Pulse-tingling rhythms" as the Durango Kid must clear his friend Tex Harding of a false bank robbery charge as well as restoring the good name of his own alter ego, Sheriff Charles Starrett. The real bandits are the Lanning gang - I. Stanford Jolley, George Chesebro and tip-off man Phil Van Zandt on his peddler's wagon. By this time the Durangos were working a formula of plot/music/action with the music end of things here in good hands with Spade Cooley's Western Swing Band (featuring Tex Williams, Deuce Spriggins and Smokey Rogers), Carolina Cotton and Tex Harding. Actor Harding (real name John Thye) didn't really vocalize; turns out he just lip-synched the words while James T. 'Bud' Nelson (1914-1994) did the real singing. At any rate, Columbia kept Harding around for the initial eight Durangos trying to build a fan base for him hoping they could launch a "singing cowboy" series starring him. For whatever reason (perhaps Harding's own ego got in the way, I understand it was inflated), it never came to pass and Columbia replaced Harding (and Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor) with Smiley Burnette after 8 films. Note one piece of stock footage of Starrett comes from a pre-Durango western. This entry is unusual in that outlaws and good guys alike all learn who Durango really is. In later entries, only Smiley was privy to such secret information. Leading lady is the gorgeous Carole Mathews.

 FRONTIER PONY EXPRESS (1939 Republic)
In a fast 58 minutes director Joe Kane slams across a story of the Civil War, the pony express, spies and outlaw raids with a mixture of hard riding, blazing guns, romance between Roy Rogers and Mary Hart, character comedy from Raymond Hatton, a dance sequence and two songs (including "My Old Kentucky Home"). Even Trigger has a terrific scene on his own! A perfect example of the formula that made Roy's films of the early era so popular and the type of picture that put him on top. Roy rides for the pony express and falls in love with Mary Hart whose brother, Donald Dillaway, is an agent of the Confederate Secret Service posing as a newspaper reporter. Dillaway is secretly in league with Senator Edward Keane, another Reb, who's double crossing even the Confederacy with his own plans to set up the Republic of the Pacific. Keane hires staring, mean-eyed outlaw Noble Johnson (very menacing - would that he'd done more western heavies) to waylay pony riders and grab Union dispatches. When Dillaway learns of Keane's trickery to his beloved Confederacy, he challenges Keane but is murdered, setting up an action-packed finish. Watch for newcomers George Letz (Montgomery) and House Peters Jr. in small roles as Union Cavalry. This was supposed to be George Hayes' first role with Roy as Gabby, but Raymond Hatton was called upon once more as Hayes was still involved with the filming of Richard Dix's MAN OF CONQUEST, a Republic A.

 SECRETS OF THE WASTELANDS (1941 Paramount)
In this exciting, offbeat entry, Hopalong Cassidy, Andy Clyde and Brad King agree to take a group of archaeologists on an expedition to a lost city hidden in the rimrock. The party consists of archaeologist Dr. Gordon Hart, his prim and pretty niece Barbara Britton, Professor Hal Price and Keith Richards of the U.S. Mint. The local Chinese element wants the expedition to stay away from the rimrock area near the city of Pueblo Grande which leads to a mesa and a secret city in Peaceful Valley; a virtual western Shangri-La. Crooked lawyer Douglas Fowley suspects a gold mine in the lost city so he and his men (Ian MacDonald, Earl Gunn) follow Hoppy's expedition.

 SONG OF THE RANGE (1944 Monogram)
Prolific screenwriter Betty Burbridge dusted off her old 3 Mesquiteers PALS OF THE SADDLE story for Jimmy Wakely's first starring western, subbing Wakely, Dennis Moore and Lee 'Lasses' White for John Wayne, Crash Corrigan and Max Terhune. The main difference is, this one has nine songs to, of course, none in the Mesquiteers adventure. Jimmy gets the most songs with five, Lasses hands out two, Coleen Sumners (later Mary Ford of Les Paul and ...) with the Sunshine Girls does one and Cay Forester contributes one. Johnny Bond and the Red River Valley Boys (Wesley Tuttle, Jimmie Dean - Eddie's brother, Paul Sells) accompany. Our saddle pals find a wallet belonging to Forester. Denny takes it to her at a nearby inn arriving just in time to see her lure Hugh Prosser to her room where she and George Eldredge relieve him of his credentials. In a scuffle, Prosser shoots Eldredge but Eldredge kills Prosser and escapes. Denny is accused of murder but is rescued by Jimmy and Lasses who then find Eldredge dying in a deserted shack. Eldredge gives them his marshal's badge and tells them Forester is a government agent on the trail of bullion smugglers Ed Cobb and Pierre Watkin. An excellent mixture of song and action in Wakely's first, although Moore really seems to take the lead. Apparently, Moore felt usurped by "singing cowboy" Wakely after he had worked for years to get his own series. Moore and Wakely only made one more before the "saddle pals" had a row one dark night and Moore was replaced by John James. Wakely went on to make 28 starrers for Monogram through 1949.

 WRANGLER'S ROOST (1941 Monogram)
On the trail of a notorious stagecoach bandit, the Range Busters learn he is extremely courteous, always carries an unloaded gun and has a habit of playing the number 3 in all gambling enterprises. Entering wide-open Apache Butte they find the Deacon (Forrest Taylor) trying to bring order via religion to the town while George Chesebro and Frank Ellis run a crooked gambling den. The Deacon is attempting to build a church called Wrangler's Roost. Several clues lead the Busters to believe the Deacon is really Black Bart. However, the real stage bandits are Chesebro and Ellis laying blame on Black Bart's reputation. Gwen Gage is the girl Crash Corrigan and John King "wrangle" over. It's an offbeat story, an excellent role for Forrest Taylor, but with minimal action as written by Earle Snell, John Vlahos and Robert Finkel, directed as usual by S. Roy Luby.

 KING OF THE STALLIONS (1942 Monogram)
Indian Rick Vallin is befriended by loner and wise old forest dweller Chief Thundercloud and white man Dave O'Brien against rustler Ted Adams. Just another lame excuse for producer/director Ed Finney to recycle his wild-horse-fight stock footage.

 HOEDOWN (1950 Columbia)
Funny, bright, witty, thoroughly enjoyable. The funniest spoof of westerns you'll ever see as broken-down, naïve ex-cowboy star Jocko Mahoney (as Stoney Rhodes) tries to raise the money to pay his mother's mortgage. Jocko is an absolute delight as he hooks up with world-wise reporter Jeff Donnell. They discover the latest residents of Eddy Arnold's singing dude ranch are really bank robbers (Doug Fowley, Don Harvey, Charles Sullivan). Inspired by love, Jocko saves the day. Country singer Eddy Arnold is top billed, but it's Mahoney's show all the way. Arnold's billing is just an excuse for him to sing his hits like "Big Bouquet of Roses" and "Just a Little Lovin'". His agent at the time was Colonel Tom Parker who later managed Elvis Presley. Jocko "sings" in his movie within a movie, "Bang 'Em Up Buckaroo", but it's really Gene Autry's voice. When Jocko really sings, "Froggy Went a Courtin'", you'll howl. There's also a cute scene when Jocko talks to a Gene Autry STRAWBERRY ROAN poster. Yodelin' Carolina Cotton is along for the merriment as is Big Boy Williams as Arnold's friend.

 CODE OF THE LAWLESS (1945 Universal)
Hugh Prosser, the manager of Stanley Andrews' Hilton Corporation, a holding company combine, and his enforcer, Edward Howard, are pulling the wool over Andrews' eyes, raising and levying unwarranted taxes upon ranchers while keeping a double set of books. They're helped by Andrews' nurse, Barbara Sears, who is secretly working for Prosser. Kirby Grant smashes their racket by posing as Andrews' son, eventually revealing himself to be an agent of the U.S. government. Lots of double-dealing, twists and turns winding up with a weak ending. Sidekick Fuzzy Knight sings "Jackass", one of the worst he's ever sung. Leading lady Jane (Poni) Adams is here for window dressing only. Barbara Sears, born Jievute Paulekiute in 1917 in Pennsylvania, was later married for six years ('48-'54) to millionaire Winthrop Rockefeller, later governor of Arkansas. During this time she was best known as Bobo Rockefeller.

 HANGMAN'S KNOT (1952 Columbia)
One of Randolph Scott's biggest commercial and critical successes. Captain Scott commands an irregular band of Confederate raiders (Lee Marvin, Frank Faylen, Claude Jarman Jr., John Call) at the end of the Civil War. After robbing a Yankee gold shipment in Nevada and killing 12 Union soldiers, to their horror they are told by a dying soldier the Civil War has been over for a month. Now facing criminal prosecution for acts committed while they thought the war was still being fought, they commandeer a stagecoach with two passengers (cowardly Richard Denning and Union nurse Donna Reed) then take shelter in a stagecoach way station run by old timer Clem Bevans and daughter Jeannette Nolan. While the men plot their next move, they are besieged by bloodthirsty bandits (Ray Teal, Big Boy Williams, Monte Blue, Reed Howes, Frank Hagney) who have every intention of taking the gold and hanging the Rebs. Tense and exciting with terrific second unit action work from Yakima Canutt. Written and directed by Roy Huggins who later created TV's MAVERICK.

 STAGECOACH KID (1949 RKO)
The chemistry between Tim Holt and pert Jeff Donnell is absolutely delightful. Both seem to be having wonderful fun with their roles. Tim was never more charming. Crooked ranch foreman Joe Sawyer is swindling his absentee boss (Thurston Hall) out of cattle and money. When he learns Hall is coming west via stage, Sawyer dispatches two gunmen (Robert Bray, Robert B. Williams) to drive back the millionaire landowner. Tim and Chito (Richard Martin), owners of the stageline, drive off the gunmen, causing Sawyer to become even more vicious in his plans. Jeff Donnell is Hall's daughter, accompanying him on the stage, but making it quite clear she doesn't want to live out west. She flees her father disguised as a "boy", planning to take the next stage back East, but gets mixed up with Tim and the killers. The "Hoppy Cabin" in Lone Pine is used as Tim's ranch house.

 NOOSE FOR A GUNMAN (1960 Premium/U.A.)
Remake of story writer Steve Fisher's TOP GUN ('55) with Sterling Hayden, which was made one more time in '64 with Audie Murphy as QUICK GUN. Banished from his hometown, gunslinger Jim Davis returns only to meet the stage with his fiancée Lyn Thomas. In so doing, he encounters evil cattle baron Barton MacLane (and his gunmen Leo Gordon, John Hart) who has murdered Davis' brother. MacLane twists things, accusing Davis of killing his sons. MacLane is also in league with outlaw raider Ted DeCorsia and his gang (William Challee, William Tannen) who plan to riad the town. The town council consists of Sheriff Walter Sande, Lane Chandler, Wells Fargo agent Harry Carey Jr. and Jan Arvan. Note that Ted DeCorsia played the same outlaw gang leader in the '64 Audie Murphy version, and that actor William Tannen is in all three versions. This was one-time star Kermit Maynard's last big screen western, appearing here as townsman Carter. Make an evening of it and watch all 3 versions back to back. What's interesting is to see how Hayden, Davis and Murphy, three very different actors, approach the same role.

 WILD STALLION (1952 Monogram)
Anything that features Ben Johnson on horseback has some merit, but otherwise this is a mild little wild horse western, enhanced a bit by Cinecolor and an adequate supporting cast - Edgar Buchanan, Martha Hyer, Hugh Beaumont, Don Haggerty, Hayden Rorke - none of whom seem very inspired by Lewis Collins' leisurely direction. Collins (1897-1954) started with low budget westerns at Kent and Majestic, graduating to Monogram in the '30s, then was a workhorse at Columbia from '37-'46 on their westerns and B crime films before finishing out his days once again at Monogram/Allied Artists from '50-'54 on Whip Wilson, Bill Elliott and Johnny Mack Browns.

 GUN BELT (1953 U.A.)
Better than average George Montgomery western (in color) directed by Ray Nazarro with performances all around that reach beyond the material - except maybe Tab Hunter, who was a current teen favorite but is out of his element here. Solid pro John Dehner, as Tab's outlaw Dad and Montgomery's brother, dominates the initial part of the film but is killed early on. Set in Tombstone with historical characters like Johnny Ringo renamed Billy Ringo and Ike Clanton renamed Ike Clinton for some reason while others, Wyatt and Virgil Earp (James Millican, Bruce Cowling) retain their real names. Makes no matter, there's not a whit of historical accuracy to this story in which Dehner (Matt Ringo) tries to lure his brother-gone-straight, Montgomery as Billy Ringo, back into a "big job" planned by supposedly legit businessman Hugh Sanders. Montgomery has been raising Dehner's son (Hunter) on the right side of the law while his father rode the outlaw trial. When Montgomery kills Dehner in a fight, Hunter rebels, joining the other outlaws - Douglas Kennedy, William Bishop, Jack Elam (wasted in a nothing part), Joe Haworth, William (Bill) Phillips - and vowing to gun Uncle George. There's plenty of suspense, action and double-up-crosses, all nicely done, before the gun=blazing finale. Keep your eyes peeled for a lot of old-pros in bit parts: Rex Lease, Lane Chandler, Syd Saylor, Emil Sitka, Bud Osborne, Ed Cobb, Robert Bice, Byron Foulger. Remade as FIVE GUNS TO TOMBSTONE in '61.

 CHEYENNE ROUNDUP (1943 Universal)
Sheriff Tex Ritter runs outlaws Gils Brandon (Johnny Mack Brown), Harry Woods, Roy Barcroft and Robert Barron out of the country. The men ride to the ghost town of El Dorado where they bamboozle Fuzzy Knight into selling them 51% of the town where Fuz's pal Budd Buster has just discovered gold. The gold rush is on, the gang takes over and runs El Dorado to their satisfaction. Vigilantes, seeking to curb the lawlessness, hire Tex Ritter as town marshal. On the day Gils' fiancée, Jennifer Holt, is due to arrive, Ritter shoots it out with the badman who escapes wounding only to die in the arms of his twin brother Buck (Johnny Mack Brown in a dual role) who has been searching the west for his twin. Dying, Gils regrets his outlawry and asks brother Buck to clean up the town. Working together, he and Ritter bring the badmen to justice. The film is a loose remake of BAD MAN FROM RED BUTTE ('40) also with Brown in a dual role. The Jimmy Wakely Trio sings two songs, Tex Ritter sings "Rose of the Hills" and Fuzzy Knight reprises "Ain't Got Nothin' and Nothin' Worries Me" from BOSS OF HANGTOWN MESA ('42). Producer Oliver Drake "borrowed" the script and remade it as LONESOME TRAIL with Jimmy Wakely in 1945 at Monogram. Director Ray Taylor's credits are extensive and he specialized in serials, some 47 or them from '28-'46 at, chiefly, Universal, but a few at Republic, Principal and Columbia. Some of the best are GORDON OF GHOST CITY ('33), VIGILANTES ARE COMING ('36) DICK TRACY ('37), SPIDER'S WEB ('38), GREEN HORNET ('39), RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY ('41), MASTER KEY ('45) and SCARLET HORSEMAN ('46). Born in 1888, Taylor started as a stage manager, then became an assistant director for John Ford during the silent era. His first directorial job was on Ted Wells' BORDER WILDCAT ('29 Universal). Over the years he helmed westerns with Buck Jones, 3 Mesquiteers, Tex Ritter, Johnny Mack Brown, Lash LaRue, Eddie Dean and Whip Wilson. He died in 1952.

 JUSTICE OF THE RANGE (1935 Columbia)
Cattle buyer Guy Usher convinces range detective Tim McCoy to look into a range war raging between rancher Edward Le Saint and his daughter Billie Seward and brothers Ward Bond and Jack Rutherford. Truth be known, Usher is the clandestine leader of rustlers (Allan Sears, Jack Rockwell) stirring up the range war and rustling from both sides. Tim's friend George Hayes is killed by the rustlers and Tim is blamed. It's a true western detective yarn from Ford Beebe as McCoy must prove his innocence and bring the rustlers to the justice of the range.

 NEVADA BUCKAROO (1931 Tiffany)
Captured after a stagecoach holdup, Bob Steele is imprisoned. After his old gang tricks the Governor into pardoning him, Bob decides to go straight and is forced to go after his former partners (George Hayes, Ed Brady, Merrill McCormick). Dorothy Dix is the girl whose faith in Steele is severely put to the test. Artie Ortego has one of his biggest roles as Dix's rejected suitor. Solid story by Wellyn Totman but light in the action department. And Bob really does ride off into the sunset! Kindly John Elliott is Dix's father, a role he became so accustomed to playing he could have done it in his sleep.

 CIMARRON KID (1951 Universal International)
Audie Murphy is real-life western badman Bill Doolin, a member of the Dalton gang who took over its leadership when the Daltons were killed in the dual-bank raid in Coffeyville, Kansas. With gallons of whitewash slung over Audie's Doolin, he emerges as a misunderstood youth hounded by a vindictive railroad detective (David Wolfe) after his release from prison, forced to take on a life of crime and eventually captured after all his gang have been killed in an abortive train robbery set up by double-crosser John Hubbard. Well directed by Budd Boetticher, the Doolin gang is populated by members of Universal's talent school: James Best (who really has the best role in his romance with Yvette Dugay), Hugh O'Brian (impressive in a fiery beard as outlaw Red Buck who challenges Audie's leadership), John Hudson (as Dynamite Dick), William Reynolds (later to star on TV's THE F.B.I.) as Will Dalton, Palmer Lee (later Gregg Palmer) as Grat Dalton, Richard Garland as Big Jim Moore, John Bromfield (soon to star as TV's U. S. MARSHAL aka SHERIFF OF COCHISE) as Tulsa Jack. Also on hand were western vets Leif Erickson as a marshal pursuing the gang, Roy Roberts as a rancher who befriends Doolin because his daughter Beverly Tyler loves him, Noah Beery Jr. as Bob Dalton, Rand Brooks as Emmett Dalton and Eddie Dew as a railroad detective. Factually, the film was more accurate than the earlier Randolph Scott version, THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA, in which Scott died a self-sacrificial hero's death at the end. Murphy's Doolin surrendered quietly to lawman Erickson and trotted off to jail, as had the real-life badman, although the real Doolin later escaped and was gunned down. The original script called for Audie to be shot in the back by Wolfe but director Boetticher felt Audie's fans would reject this ending, so he rewrote the script to have Audie captured. CIMARRON KID, like most Hollywood westerns, mixes fact and fiction. Bill Doolin was indeed a member of the Dalton gang as of late 1891, however, he did not participate in the infamous Coffeyville bank hold-ups of October 5, 1892, as the movie depicts. He was busy robbing a bank in Spearville, Kansas, with Bitter Creek Newcomb (who is shown in the film to participate in the Coffeyville raid and escape.) Grat and Bob Dalton were killed in Coffeyville and Emmett was wounded whereas the film shows all three being gunned down. John Moore (referred to as Jim Moore in the movie) was also killed as he is on film. Bill Dalton (referred to as Will in the picture) was not in the real raid, he joined Doolin's gang later in 1892 as did Tulsa Jack, "Dynamite" Dick Clifton and "Red Buck" Waightman. Bill Dalton was killed June 8, 1894, by a deputy. Bitter Creek and others were slain on May 1, 1895. Red Buck was killed by marshals on March 4, 1896. "Dynamite" Dick (who was never a traitor to the gang as the film depicts) was arrested in June 1896. Bill Doolin, actually married as of March 14, 1893, was arrested by Marshal Bill Tilghman on January 15, 1896. He, "Dynamite" Dick and twelve others escaped a Guthrie, Oklahoma, jail on July 5, 1896. Doolin was ambushed and killed by deputies on August 24, 1896, and "Dynamite" Dick was killed by deputies on November 7, 1897.

 WACO (1952 Monogram)
Wild Bill Elliott emulates the good-badman roles of his idol William S. Hart in WACO, Elliott's second Monogram outing. Forced to flee, with a price on his head despite acting in self defense after killing town boss and crooked gambler Ray Bennett, Elliott joins up with I. Stanford Jolley's wild bunch (Paul Fierro, Rand Brooks, Richard Avonde). Later, after being shot and captured during a bank holdup, Elliott is returned to Waco by two of its leading citizens (Terry Frost, Pierce Lyden) who want him to be their Sheriff and clean up the town. They have faith in Elliott's true innocence and in his ability to drive out gambler Bennett's left-over lawless element still terrorizing Waco. Elliott encounters tangled trails when he's faced with arresting the old outlaw, Jolley, who once befriended him, and in dealing with Bennett's daughter, Pamela Blake, who is bent on revenge. Cowboy cancer alert: Elliott smokes (and drinks). Originally released in Sepia-Tone. Remade as BADLANDS OF MONTANA with Rex Reason in 1957.

 IN OLD MEXICO (1938 Paramount)
The Fox, Hopalong Cassidy's excellent border rustler adversary in 1937's BORDERLAND, returns seeking revenge on Hoppy, the man who sent him to prison. Problem here is, Stephen Morris (aka Morris Ankrum) apparently wasn't available to recreate his role as one of the nastiest, meanest Hoppy heavies ever to cross trails with our hero. The dull, lifeless Paul Sutton was substituted as The Fox, and he simply isn't up to the task. In Harrison Jacob's story, The Fox uses his sister (Betty Amann) to lure Hoppy to his lair in the desert after The Fox has baited Hoppy by murdering Cassidy's friend, Colonel Gonzales (Trevor Bardette repeating his role from BORDERLAND), who is the son of Don Carlos (Allen Garcia) on whose ranch Hoppy and his friends (Gabby Hayes, Russell Hayden) are visiting. There's a slow 50 minute buildup while Jan(e) Clayton, Don Carlos' daughter, makes eyes at Hoppy while Hayden frets and Gabby scratches his beard. Hoppy suspects Amann of being in league with The Fox, so he plays up to her advances. Finally, there's a gun-blazing 17 minute finale among the desert Joshua trees between The Fox and his men (headed up by Glenn Strange) and Hoppy and his compadres. Partially filmed at the Boca del Toro Ranch in Baja, California. Jan(e) Clayton (who sings "Muchachita") and Russell Hayden were married for several years.

 UTAH (1945 Republic)
42nd St. meets Gower Gulch in UTAH. This could have been one of Roy Rogers' best pictures of the period had it not been for the intrusion of the "Oklahoma" Broadway musical-like finale. Directed by John English, comedy and romance are prominent with Gabby Hayes' eternal complaints about "them darn persnickety wimmen" given free rein as he combats Vivien Oakland and a host of Chicago showgirls, leading light of which is Dale Evans inheriting a ranch where Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers work. Dale wants to sell the Utah spread to invest in a faltering Chicago production but Roy and Gabby try to convince her not to do so. There's a lot of screwball comedy mix-up over which ranch is which as crooked, conniving cattlemen Grant Withers and Hal Taliaferro (Wally Wales) try to swindle Dale out of her valuable ranchland which she believes nearly worthless. The lengthy 78 minute running time leaves plenty of room for romantic shenanigans, (Bob Nolan even gets his own romantic subplot with Peggy Stewart) and songs from Roy and the Pioneers. The final showdown between Withers and Taliaferro and Roy and Trigger in the Chicago stockyards is well done with fine stunt work.

 BOSS RIDER OF GUN CREEK (1936 Universal)
You'll need a Rand McNally road map to follow the plot of this dual role Buck Jones convoluted, overwritten Frances Guihan script that sacrifices action and adventure for way too much plot. Muriel Evans is the girl. Harvey Clark is Buck's "Pop". Banker Ernest Hilliard and Sheriff Edward Keane with their rustler henchies Mahlon Hamilton and Allan Sears are the bad guys.

 SAVAGE FRONTIER (1953 Republic)
Marshal Allan 'Rocky' Lane has his hands full trying to keep reformed outlaw Bob Steele from being drawn back into a life of crime by blackmailing gang boss Roy Barcroft, the "respectable" town hotel/café owner, who has secretly sent for three notorious outlaws, Lane Bradford, John Cason and the extremely brutal killer Richard Avonde. Trouble escalates when Steele's kid brother Bill Phipps believes Rocky has shot his brother and is now bent on gunning the Marshal. Eddy Waller has his usual role as Nugget Clark, this time doing double duty as sheriff and town dentist. He's admired for his "tall-tales" by young Jimmy Hawkins who gained fame on TV a year later as Gail Davis' kid brother, Tagg, on ANNIE OAKLEY ('54-'57). Leading lady is Dorothy Patrick as Steele and Phipps' sister. Although the Lanes were nearing the end of their six year run, only two more were released, the quality of the films never lessened one iota.

 GUNS AND GUITARS (1936 Republic)
Gene Autry and his friends, touring with delightful Earle Hodgins medicine show (Smiley Burnette, dancing Eugene Jackson), get mixed up in local battles for sheriff and control of the valley's cattle herds with J. P. McGowan, president of the Cattlemen's Association and phony vet Harrison Greene, masterminding a plot to get their Texas Fever diseased cattle through to market over Dorothy Dix's ranch. When McGowan lets his boys (Tom London, Charlie King and Pascale Perry) violate quarantine laws, they all quickly find out Gene and Hodgins know a bit about veterinary medicine as well. Gene takes the place of a murdered sheriff (Jack Rockwell) who turns out not to be dead but in hiding until Gene gets proof against his attempted killers. Gene sings "Dreamy Valley" and the title tune while Smiley has fun with his "Fine Relations". That's Art Davis on fiddle in Gene's group. A favorite among Autry's early westerns and it's easy to see why.

 PRAIRIE BADMEN (1946 PRC)
Fuzzy St. John joins the medicine show of Ed Cassidy, his daughter Patricia Knox and her brother John L. Buster (actor Budd Buster's real life son who "sings" - terribly). Simple plot has Cassidy in possession of a map to buried gold that owlhoots Charlie King, John Cason and Kermit Maynard will do anything to obtain. It takes Fuz's old pal Buster Crabbe as Billy Carson to set things right. The song "Cactus Pete" by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter had been sung by Fred Scott in CODE OF THE FEARLESS in '39. Boo Boo: At the end, Fuzzy calls Buster "Bus" rather than his screen name of "Billy".

 RIP ROARIN' BUCKAROO (1936 Victory)
Highly entertaining, one of the best of Tom Tyler's low-budget Bs. After he's doped and framed, causing him to lose a prizefight, Tyler, soured on the dirty fight racket, hangs up his gloves and heads west with his dog, landing a job on John Elliott's ranch. Tom masters Elliott's wild horse which Elliott hopes to run in the Cattlemen Convention horse race, and Elliott gives the horse, Bluebonnet, to him. Tom also strikes up a relationship with (never prettier) Beth Marion, Elliott's daughter. All goes wrong when Forrest Taylor, the crooked promoter who framed him back East, arrives to convince Elliott Tyler is a crook who "laid down" in the prizefight. Elliott dismisses Tyler and his horse - jeopardizing the possibility Elliott will win the big horse race and lose everything he has in a bet with Taylor. At one point Tom (unnecessarily, in our view) becomes a "singing cowboy", warbling "Home on the Range". There's a minor sub plot with nasty ranch foreman Charlie King which allows Tom and Charlie to mix it up. Tom's pal on Elliott's ranch is Jewish comic Sammy Cohen (??-1979) (also in Tyler's PHANTOM OF THE RANGE) whom director Bob Hill allots screen time for one of Cohen's vaudeville routines. Later, Cohen does a bit in drag. Filmed at Lone Pine, California.

 CROSSROAD AVENGER (1953 Tucson Kid Productions)
Tom Keene as two-gun insurance investigator The Tucson Kid brings swift justice to the West. Saloon owner Lyle Talbot (with his gunnies, Don Nagel, Kenne Duncan, Bud Osborne) tries to frame Keene for the murder of Talbot's partner. Deputy Tom Tyler (looking pretty haggard) helps Keene. Written and directed by the infamous Ed Wood Jr. (who has a bit scene as a pony express rider). Wood regular Harvey Dunn plays a "comical" prospector who wears his gun where his jock-strap should be. That's supposed to be humorous. Wood filmed a sequel (CROSSROADS AVENGER RETURNS) to this 25 minute color film. The two were combined in a 50 minute film called ADVENTURES OF THE TUCSON KID. According to Wood, The Tucson Kid was passed up as a TV series in favor of WILD BILL HICKOK with Guy Madison. Wise move.

 BORDER ROMANCE (1930 Tiffany)
What was poverty row Tiffany attempting to do here? Striving to be a poor man's MGM, they saddle us with a low-rent South of the border Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald fiesta in Don Terry and petite, squeaky-voiced, overly cute Armida. After killing a man in self defense during a bar brawl, horse trader Terry (along with his idiot pal Victor Potel and young Wesley Barry) head into Mexico after J. Frank Glendon who rustled his horses. Chased by a band of operatic Federales, Terry seeks refuge in Senorita Armida's hacienda where they develop a whirlwind romance. Stock footage of a famous horse fight is thrown in mid way for no reason other than to alleviate the tedium. Is this a musical? A western? A comedy (way to much idiocy from Potel)? Not much of anything. Terry, a cross between Dick Foran and Richard Arlen, found fame in the '40s as serial star DON WINSLOW OF THE NAVY and DON WINSLOW OF THE COAST GUARD.

 LUCKY COWBOY (1944 Paramount)
Sandwiched in between his abbreviated Republic series and his co-starring roles with Rod Cameron, Eddie Dew made this 20 minute curiosity at Paramount. It's an odd mixture of musical western (Dew sings solo and duets with Julie Gibson), comedy and out and out vaudeville (Frank and Jean Hubert's inebriated act). New Marshal Dew stops stagecoach bandit/saloon owner Bernard Nedell and his henchies (Syd Saylor, LeRoy Mason) without breaking a sweat.

 TREASURE OF RUBY HILLS (1955 Allied Artists)
Overlooked, taut, well-scripted (based on a Louis L'Amour story) little gem directed competently by Frank McDonald. Zachary Scott, trying to outrun his fast-gun reputation, returns to Ruby Hills to set himself up with a homestead. Although he's helped by hotel owner Raymond Hatton and his daughter Lola Albright, he must contend with two groups of ranchers set against one another for the prize of Ruby Hills' water rights. On one side is former WB B-western star Dick Foran and his hirelings (Gordon Jones, Lee Van Cleef, Rick Vallin), on the other is Barton MacLane. Carole Mathews is excellent as Vallin's sister who falls in love with Scott, becoming caught in the middle of the range war. Steve Darrell turns in a small but fine role as an outlaw who has outlived his era. He often claimed it was one of his favorite roles.

 WHISTLING HILLS (1951 Monogram)
Wham-bam and we're off! A stage holdup by gun rannies Marshall Reed and Lee Roberts led by a black caped, whistling ghost rider on the bluff, followed by a doozy of a barroom brawl between Pierce Lyden and Johnny Mack Brown. Stageline owner I. Stanford Jolley and Sheriff Jimmy Ellison are plagued by holdups until Johnny Mack lends a hand to discover the meaning of Spanish Vengeance and a silver whistle. Two girls, Jolley's niece Noel Neill, and beanery operator Pamela Duncan, girlfriend of Sheriff Ellison. Absolute best of the later Brown Monograms with terrific action, a mystery villain and a twist ending. Scripted by Fred Myton from a Jack Lewis story and directed by Derwin Abrahams.

 COWBOY COUNSELLOR (1932 Allied)
Fred Gilman, Shelia Mannors' brother, is framed for a stage holdup by rotten Jack Rutherford who is sweet on Mannors but is rejected by her. When traveling law book salesman Hoot Gibson is mistaken by Mannors' kid brother, Bobby Nelson, as a real lawyer, he brings Hooter to his sister in order to defend big brother Gilman. Although Hoot is not a real counselor, he agrees to help but almost finds himself blamed for another stage robbery when he speaks his favorite phrase, "But a gent never passes up the chance to say 'thank you.'" Clever, witty Gibson, lots of fun with Sheriff Al Bridge and deputy Skeeter Bill Robbins (Hoot's real life ranch manager whom he found work for in several of his westerns.) Hoot also cast good friend and former minor-silent-star Fred Gilman in most of his talkies.

 MEXICALI KID (1938 Monogram) Jack Randall is tracking down, one by one, the Collins gang who murdered his kid brother in a bank robbery. He's down to two - Bud Osborne and George Chesebro - when he saves a young outlaw, the Mexicali Kid (freckle-faced minor late silent days star Wesley Barry), from heat exhaustion in the desert. The Kid has been sent for by pretty Eleanor Stewart's ranch manager, William Von Brincken, who (with the two outlaws Randall is tracking) is seeking to "acquire", by crookedness, Stewart's ranch. Both the Kid and Jack join the gang with Jack pretending to be the long lost heir to the ranch. Although Whip Wilson milked the vengeance theme much better when this story was remade as HAUNTED TRAILS ('49), and the action content is only moderate, this is still one of Randall's better films, owing greatly to the camaraderie of Barry and Randall. Unfortunately, Barry's voice doomed him for sound films. This is also the first Randall to feature Rusty as his steed - and the horse practically steals the picture performing unlimited tricks, including lifting a pistol from an outlaw's holster! Von Brincken, a former German military officer, also acted under the names William Vaughn and Roger Beckwith.

 TUMBLEWEED (1953 Universal-International)
One of Audie Murphy's best westerns, crisply directed by Nathan Juran. Audie is a young wagon train boss accused of betraying the people he was guiding (including leading lady Lori Nelson) to the Indians. In actuality, Audie was knocked unconscious by the Indians after trying to prevent their murderous raid. Arrested and jailed when he returns to town, he is broken out by Eugene Iglesias, a young Indian he had earlier befriended and saved from death on the desert. Managing to stay one jump ahead of Sheriff Chill Wills' posse with the help of the title character, a seemingly mangy dapple grey horse who makes up in stamina and desert smarts what he lacks in appearance, Audie sets out to prove his innocence. Also with Lee Van Cleef, Russell Johnson, Roy Roberts.

 RAINBOW OVER THE ROCKIES (1947 Monogram)
Old man Jack Baxley and his son Dennis Moore have proved up on the former free range and the stubborn old man won't let anyone's cattle go through any longer, not even old friend Jimmy Wakely, his hotheaded uncle Budd Buster and saddle pal Lee 'Lasses' White. Chicanery from Bob Duncan, who works for Baxley, and Zon Murray, who works for Wakely, as they plot to start up a range war (using the hard feelings on both sides) and rustle from both ranchers. Baxley's daughter is Pat Starling, providing love interest for Jimmy. Wesley Tuttle and his All Stars provide some music. Mid-range Wakely western.

 TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN (1958 UA)
A somber, mesmerizing, offbeat western which casts Sterling Hayden as a Swede who returns home after many years at sea to find his farmer father (Ted Stanhope) has been brutally gunned down by black-clad, left-handed gunman Ned Young upon orders from overstuffed, chortling, landgrabber Sebastian Cabot who knows there's oil on the land. The only witness to the crime is Mexican rancher Eugene Martin who is afraid to talk, but who, assuredly, eventually does, bringing about his own death at the hands of Young who by now has had enough of Cabot's taunting and guns him also, planning to take over the oil-rich ranches himself. In the final showdown, Hayden dispatches Young with a harpoon! Young's henchmen, who wisely leave town before Hayden harpoons them as well, are Sheb Wooley (who would soon find fame as scout Pete Nolan on RAWHIDE), Fred Kohler Jr. (son of famous screen badman Fred Kohler Sr. and star of a couple of '30s independent B's of his own) and Steve Mitchell. Beautifully and articulately directed by Joseph H. Lewis.

 YUKON GOLD (1952 Monogram)
Mountie Kirby Grant helps a murdered man's niece (Martha Hyer) and the man's gold field gambling-hall girlfriend (Frances Charles) smoke out his killers. Seems he was murdered over a worthless gold mine he bought from assayer Mauritz Hugo and storekeeper Phil Van Zandt. Weaker entry in Grant's Northwest Mountie series with less action than usual.

 DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS (1942 Universal)
"With the close of the Civil War, Texas, having supported the Confederacy, was refused permission to rejoin the Union until the holders of large land grants relinquished their titles and vowed new oath of allegiance. Many unscrupulous land owners refused to accept this decision and, banding together, organized the Republic of the Rio Grande, an independent territory whose boundary lines spread like wildfire across the state." Johnny Mack Brown returns from the Civil War to his home in Texas to find his father, William Farnum (in an excellent role that he makes the absolute most of), has set himself up as the ruler of the Republic of Texas and is leading a bunch of land grabbers (enforcer Harry Woods - hamming it up too much with comedy relief Fuzzy Knight - Kenneth Harlan, Ed Cobb, Earle Hodgins). They rule the Republic by force of arms. When Brown learns of this from newspaper editor Pat O'Malley and his daughter Jennifer Holt, he opposes his father to put Texas back in the Union. Tex Ritter, in his first of 7 excellent features with Brown, is the representative from the Governor's office, also opposing Farnum's illegal Republic. Tex sings "Streets of Laredo", the Jimmy Wakely Trio sings one while Fuzzy gets to sing two, including the title tune. One of Universal's more ambitious and best B-westerns.

 TUCSON RAIDERS (1944 Republic)
Republic proclaimed: "Red Ryder ... Number one comic strip hero of fans coast to coast! Dashing, fearless, exciting ... riding to his most amazing action adventure on the trail of desperate killers who terrorize the west." Red Ryder on the B-western screen, whether it be Don Barry, Bill Elliott, Allan Lane or Jim Bannon, was completely different than Fred Harman's popular newspaper comic strip. No matter. The Republic series can stand on its own merits as one of the best B-western series of all time. And it all began here, as millions thrilled to watch Red Ryder (Bill Elliott) and Little Beaver (Bobby Blake) step out of the pages of that illustrated book for the first time. In this first entry, Painted Valley is run with an iron hand by crooked governor Stanley Andrews along with president of the territorial bank LeRoy Mason, Sheriff Ed Cassidy and their gunhands Bud Geary and Edward Howard. The Duchess (Alice Fleming) and Gabby Hayes oppose their rule but are helpless, so the Duchess sends for her nephew, Red Ryder and Little Beaver. Arriving, Red is quickly blamed and jailed for a murder he didn't commit. The Duchess' supposed friend, Ruth Lee, is actually in the employ of Mason and engineers a trick for Red to break out of jail, then be killed. It boomerangs; Red shoots his way out and sets a six gun trail to cleaning out the outlaws. Peggy Stewart makes the first of her several Red Ryder films, this time playing the Duchess' niece who is in love with the Duchess' foreman, John Whitney. Note: Listen for the voices of Roy Barcroft, Kenne Duncan and Jack Kirk ... heard but "not seen".

 WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM (1938 Monogram)
Starts off as government buffalo scout Tex Ritter is assigned to head off the outlaw buffalo skinners slaughtering the buffalo so as to keep peace with the Indians. As soon as producer Ed Finney used up his stock-footage of buffalo herds, he and writer Bob Tansey dropped that plotline altogether - it's never mentioned again - and Tex (along with his pals Horace Murphy and Snub Pollard) goes to Santa Fe to avenge the murder of his mother by John Merton. Merton's gang includes - Richard Alexander (who disappears midway and is not caught in the finale), Charles King (billed here as Charles King Jr. - but it's the same ol' Blackie), and Ernie Adams (who curiously plays a dual role as an outlaw and a stage passenger under heavy makeup so as not to be recognizable). Dave O'Brien and Dorothy Short play brother and sister. In reality, they were husband and wife. Louise and Curt Massey and the Westerners contribute a few songs. All in all, Tex's second B at Monogram is a pretty sloppy mess.

 SON OF BILLY THE KID (1949 Western Adventure)
Billy the Kid (William Perrot) is killed by Pat Garrett in 1881. But was he? It's now 1896 in Baldwin City where the undead Billy has assumed the identity of banker Thorne (George Baxter). Marshals Lash LaRue (as Jack Garrett, son of Pat) and his pal Fuzzy St. John arrive to investigate crooked land speculator Terry Frost and his jaspers (I. Stanford Jolley, John James). Marion Colby, banker Thorne's niece, is secretly working for Frost. An old member of Billy's gang, Bob Duncan, comes to join Frost and recognizes Billy, forcing him to help rob the bank or expose Billy and - his son, John James, working in Frost's gang. Turns out James is working with his Dad to capture Frost's gang. Whip use - two. Bit different for LaRue, his only starring picture where he wasn't either Cheyenne Davis or Lash LaRue.

 TEXAS MANHUNT (1942 PRC)
First and most coherent in the Frontier Marshals series starring Lee Powell, Art Davis and Bill 'Cowboy Rambler' Boyd. A stock footage wave of cattle sabotage (designed to halt the Allied food supply) instigated by Nazi spy Arno Frey brings U.S. Marshal Lee Powell to Pebble Creek, Texas. With war victims in Europe starving, Powell must stop the saboteurs (banker Karl Hackett, rancher Frank Hagney, ruffians Frank Ellis, Kenne Duncan) who are being paid by Frey. Powell's first clues come from cute beanery owner Julie Duncan and radio entertainers and "cowboy commentators" Art Davis and Bill Boyd (who perform 3 songs in a row ... 7 in all ... written by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter). Even though this is the best of the series, it's still slapdash B-western filmmaking from Sig and Sam Neufeld (aka Peter Stewart).

 THE DRIFTER (1932 Kent)
William Farnum philosophically chews up all the northwoods scenery he can find and affects a French accent you could slice with a Bowie knife as he tries to prevent trouble between two lumber company operators, Noah Beery Sr. and Bruce Warren. Wordy subplots of unrequited love, vengeance, lost relatives, impersonation, self-sacrifice and murder abound in Oliver Drake's tedious, drawn out pretense-to-art script.

 THE SINGING HILL (1941 Republic)
Gene Autry saves yet another ranch for still another wacky, madcap big city girl (Virginia Dale) from one more conniving cattle broker (George Meeker). If you're looking for a song laden (9 tunes) western screwball comedy, this is it. Gene also deals with Dale's haughty butler (Gerald Oliver Smith), a kindly old judge who'd rather fish than judicate (Spencer Charters), pert Mary Lee and, of course, Smiley Burnette. If you're looking for action, skip this one - it all comes in the last few minutes of the over-long 75 min. Cactus Mack has one of the bigger roles of his long screen career. Watch for Art Davis accompanying Gene on fiddle. This was Mary Lee's last with Gene.

 LAW OF THE PANHANDLE (1950 Monogram)
When Texas bandits loot, rob and terrorize, Marshal Johnny Mack Brown rides hard to enforce the LAW OF THE PANHANDLE. Sheriff Riley Hill can't handle the lawlessness and sends for Marshal Brown. They discover the railroad is coming through and someone is buying up all the ranches in Green Valley to make a nice profit. But who? Is it big land owner Ted Adams? Stage line owner Myron Healey? Telegrapher Milburn Morante? Johnny Mack fights hard to stop the panhandle raiders (Marshall Reed, Lee Roberts, Carol Henry). Jane Adams is Adams' daughter, in love with Sheriff Hill. One of Brown's better latter-day B's, filled with gunplay, fights and action. Directed by Lewis Collins. Tris Coffin offers some off-screen narration.

 DEADWOOD PASS (1933 Monarch/Freuler)
Cheapo J. P. McGowan directed B finds postal inspector Tom Tyler masquerading as the Hawk, a notorious outlaw who buried $200,000 in stolen mail securities in Deadwood Pass before he was imprisoned. Tyler gets in with the gang that controls Deadwood Pass (Slim Whitaker, Ed Cobb, Blackie Whiteford, Merrill McCormick, Bill Nestell) so he can find the buried loot. All goes well until the real Hawk (Bud Osborne) shows up. Director McGowan sloppily inserts himself into the proceedings midway as "The Chief" for no apparent reason. At one point, Tyler has switched Whitaker's hat and coat for his own while the outlaw slept. Later, Whitaker ridiculously seems to take no note of it as he wears Tom's hat. Also, about that time, as Whitaker is about to gun down McCormick, he has on Tom's hat in the medium shot, then no hat in an over the shoulder close-up, then back on in another medium shot. It all amounts to cheapjack continuity from McGowan.

 STRANGER WORE A GUN (1953 Columbia)
Following the bloody Civil War, ex-Quantrill spy Randolph Scott settles in wild and wooly Prescott, AZ, hoping to lose the black mark on his reputation. At first he hooks up with another ex-Quantrill man, George Macready (and his toughs Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine), plotting against leading lady Joan Weldon and her father (Pierre Watkin) who ship gold via the stagecoach line. Scott goes straight, instigating a feud between Macready and slimy Mexican bandit Alfonso Bedoya. When the smoke clears, it's down to Scott vs. Macready in a top notch action sequence set in a blazing saloon. A co-production from Harry Joe Brown and Scott who worked together many times in the '50s. Directed by Andre De Toth for 3-D release, hence guns, fists, chairs are thrown at the screen, but that's easy enough to disregard. By the time of the film's release, the 3-D craze had ended as fast as it arrived, and most releases of STRANGER ... were in regular 2-D version. For the record, James Millican plays Confederate raider Quantrill. From a novel by John Cunningham who wrote THE TIN STAR, the source novel for HIGH NOON.

 SANTA FE STAMPEDE (1938 Republic)
Director George Sherman never lets up on the action pace as William Farnum and his daughter June Martel strike gold and send for their friends The Three Mesquiteers (John Wayne, Crash Corrigan, Max Terhune) to help out. Crooked mayor Le Roy Mason and his cohorts (crooked Sheriff Dick Rush, lawyer Walter Wills, Judge Ferris Taylor and gunmen Charles King, Bud Osborne and Dick Alexander) attempt to get the mine, eventually ambushing and killing Farnum and his younger daughter Genee Hall in a vicious wagon wreck. The crooks accuse Wayne of the murder, but with Corrigan and Terhune he fights to clear his name. Note the Oro Grande Hotel sign left over from the previous Mesquiteers, OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS.

 TARGET (1952 RKO)
With only one more Tim Holt western to go, the budget tightening by RKO is quite noticeable in this next to last film. Tim is even riding a non-descript black horse rather than his palomino, Lightning. Slick Walter Reed is buying up land for the railroad as cheap as he can while using the strongarm tactics of his henchies (Lane Bradford, Riley Hill, Holly Bane) to move rancher John Hamilton off his land. Newspaperman Harry Harvey, Tim and Chito send for fighting Marshal Terry Moran to stop the lawlessness, but his daughter - also named Terry Moran - arrives instead. A very neat plot twist, but screenwriter Norman Houston didn't develop this facet at all like he should have, spoiling the eventual outcome.

 THE KID RIDES AGAIN (1943 PRC)
Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe) goes after the skunks who framed him for an express robbery (PRC's best, I. Stanford Jolley, Glenn Strange, Charlie King). Buster and pal Fuzzy St. John find the gang in a town protected by a crooked sheriff. Consequently, the local banker Edward Peil Sr. and his daughter Iris Meredith and the area ranchers have been suffering from cattle rustling without any protection. The crooks buy up mortgages on ranches that have been rustled poor. Average, nothing special other than the appearance of Meredith at the end of her Columbia contract slumming at PRC. She does pretty up the Corriganville scenery.

 OUTLAWS' PARADISE (1939 Victory)
Outlaws Ted Adams, Dave O'Brien, Carl Mathews, Bob Terry and Forrest Taylor stage a post office robbery and steal $30,000 in negotiable government bonds. This is done while their boss, Trigger Mallory, is in prison. What a coincidence - FBI man Tim McCoy, a dead ringer for Mallory, infiltrates the gang posing as their boss to get the goods on them. So clever is Tim's pose that even Trigger's girl, Joan Barclay, is deceived - at least at first. Ben Corbett is Tim's FBI pal. Odd to see actor Forrest Taylor as simply "one of the gang" with no lines, his roles were usually much more substantial. An unknown girl saloon singer warbles "A Rainbow Is Riding the Range", a Johnny Lange/Lew Porter tune. Speaking of saloons, a lot of these Sam Katzman produced Victory saloons look more like nightclubs than western saloons. One of the better Lightnin' Bill Carson McCoys because Tim doesn't portend to be a Mexican, Chinese or whatever.

 LUCKY LARRIGAN (1932 Monogram)
Spoiled New York playboy Rex Bell tries to impress and marry Helen Foster, the daughter of his father's business partner (John Elliott). Bell's dad is a business partner in Elliott's western cattle ranch which is suffering losses from rustlers, the foreman of the ranch Stanley Blystone and his henchman George Chesebro. Helen, knowing she prefers the wide open spaces to Bell's city life, returns west with her father. Smitten, Bell and a Mexican bandit he meets, with knowledge of "things western", follow the girl. They are able to get in with the rustlers and discover Helen's own father (Elliott) is head of the band, rustling his own cattle to swindle Bell's dad back East. But how does Rex break the news to the girl he loves? It's another of Bell's East-goes-West westerns which is fine, except midway when Bell is disguised as a Mexican bandito to fool Helen - it's a cute idea perhaps carried to extremes.

 WESTWARD BOUND (1931 Syndicate)
What kind of cowboy hero is this? Buffalo Bill Jr. appears about as unheroic as can be having his car stolen, his horse stolen, his clothes stolen, being arrested as a rustler, cleaning out the stable and washing dishes! As much a light comedy as a western, problem is, Bill isn't the light comedian Hoot Gibson was, and poverty row director Harry Webb isn't up to the task either. The Rex Bell-like plot revolves around Eastern senator's son, tenderfoot Bill, and his chauffer, Ben Corbett, heading west and becoming involved with rustlers Tom London, Yakima Canutt and (former silent star) Pete Morrison who are harassing (silent serial heroine) Allene Ray and her ranch foreman Buddy Roosevelt - who comes across more heroic than Bill Jr.

 CARYL OF THE MOUNTAINS (1936 Reliable)
Rin Tin Tin Jr., alleged son of the great silent canine star, was nowhere near the dog his "father" had been, forcing trainer Lee Duncan to settle for Mascot and Reliable rather than Warner Bros. Reliable paired the four-legged thespian with Bob Custer and Rex Lease and featured him in northwoods adventures like THE TEST ('35), SKULL AND CROWN ('35) AND CARYL OF THE MOUNTAINS in which Lois Wilde, niece of businessman Josef Swickard, "steals" some bonds from her uncle's company when she learns her immediate boss, Robert Walker, plans to embezzle funds from the firm. In an attempt to recover the securities, Walker kills Swickard and wounds his loyal dog Rinty. Now only Rinty knows where Swickard hid the bonds and limps for help to Mountie Francis X. Bushman Jr. (one of the dullest leads ever to grace the screen). Little or no action with the "legal sections" completely out of whack - scheduling Wilde for trial even before she's been brought in, charged or arraigned!

 LAW COMES TO GUNSIGHT (1947 Monogram)
Young Lanny Rees enlists the aid of Johnny Mack Brown to help he and his sister, Reno Blair (later Browne), fight off horse rustlers: saloon owner William Ruhl and his underlings Zon Murray, Gary Garrett, Artie Ortego. Not the most action packed Brown, although it has its moments. Still, a good town-tamer script from J. Benton Cheney. Note one of the stage outlaws is Willard Willingham who became Audie Murphy's double and a screenwriter on several of Audie's westerns. Raymond Hatton is Brown's pal as usual.

 SIERRA (1949 Universal-International)
Audie Murphy's second western after KID FROM TEXAS is a letdown. The remake of Noah Beery Jr.'s FORBIDDEN VALLEY ('38) has Audie as a young mountain man raised from boyhood in a secluded valley by his father (Dean Jagger), an escapee who has been unjustly accused of murder years ago. Audie's real-life wife Wanda Hendrix is unbelievably miscast as a lady lawyer who accidentally stumbles upon their mountain hideout but who ultimately helps prove Jagger's innocence. Murphy, at this stage in his career, is simply not up to the dramatics called for, appearing wooden and awkward. Burl Ives, still years away from winning an Academy Award, is not much better, playing a whimsical, folk-song singing character who rides the hills on a mule. Popular on records at the time, billed as "America's Beloved Balladeer", his inclusion was strictly for ticket sales potential. The story was remade once more by Universal as HIDEOUT, an episode of THE VIRGINIAN TV series.

 BORDERTOWN GUNFIGHTERS (1943 Republic)
Wild Bill Elliott held for murder! Scoundrel Ian Keith runs the Lone Star lottery racket in which people are being swindled. Keith becomes worried about the law when his niece (Anne Jeffreys) arrives and tells him of traveling on the same train with Wild Bill Elliott and Gabby Hayes, obviously on their way back from Washington, DC, sent there by Marshal Harry Woods (in a rare good-guy role). Realizing they are closing in on him, Keith sends the unsuspecting Jeffreys off to Las Palmas with the lottery money and incriminating papers. Wild Bill eventually convinces Jeffreys her uncle and his men (Sheriff Roy Barcroft, deputy Charlie King, and Karl Hackett) are behind the crooked lottery. Jeffreys sings "Camptown Ladies" in the saloon ... and watch for a young extra, Ben Johnson, in Keith's saloon. Expertly directed by Howard Bretherton who was born in Tacoma, WA, February 13, 1896. He came to Hollywood quite young in 1914 and earned his first film editing credit in 1922. By 1924 he'd landed at newly formed Warner Bros. Producer Harry 'Pop' Sherman saw his directorial possibilities and assigned the first six Hopalong Cassidys to Bretherton. In the ensuing years he directed westerns with Smith Ballew, Charles Starrett and Russell Hayden, more Hoppys, the Rough Riders, Don Barry, 3 Mesquiteers, Bill Elliott, Johnny Mack Brown, Allan Lane, Jimmy Wakely and Whip Wilson. He also directed two serials for Columbia, MONSTER AND THE APE and WHO'S GUILTY (both '45). He wound up his career directing various TV episodes. He died April 12, 1969, at 73.

 ROARING RANGERS (1946 Columbia)
Notable as the first Charles Starrett/Durango Kid to co-star Smiley Burnette who replaced Dub Taylor and Tex Harding. Smiley stayed with Starrett til the end in 1952. The town of Powder River is plagued by a wave of lawlessness which Sheriff Jack Rockwell seems powerless to stop. Unknown to the lawman, his own brother, Ed Cassidy, and his owlhoots (Ed Cobb, Bob Wilke, Ted Mapes) are behind the raids on local ranchers in an attempt to take over the land for a profitable sale to the railroad. Rockwell's young son, Mickey Kuhn, an admirer of the Durango Kid, sends for Durango to help. More crooked than an arthritic rattlesnake, Cassidy has henchman Mapes dress up as Durango to discredit him, even to the point of shooting Kuhn in a robbery, injuring his spine so that he needs an operation. Now the real Durango is hunted by Rockwell. Screenwriter Barry Shipman turned in a good one, however, musical group Merle Travis and his Broncho Busters are wasted backing up Smiley who plays a very active role in his first with Starrett.

 IN OLD AMARILLO (1951 Republic)
A rousing, solid B-western marred greatly by Roy Rogers' new sidekick, former vaudevillian Pinky Lee, who was simply all wrong for a western saddlepal. Lee's pie-in-the-face slapstick bits are totally out of place. And, God, who blocked his stupid hat? When Republic replaced Gordon Jones with Lee, as well as Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage with the Roy Rogers Riders, the handwriting was on the wall, it was all over, big-screen-wise, for Roy after two more. As for the plot, severe, damaging drought brings rancher Elisabeth Risdon and her granddaughter Penny Edwards to the brink of financial ruin. Big time rancher Pierre Watkin tries to help but unscrupulous Roy Barcroft and Archie Twitchell plan to profit from the disaster by purchasing drought-starved cattle at a fraction of their real value for a canning factory. The prospect of Watkin hauling in water or of a rainmaker seeding the clouds is foiled by the ruthless Barcroft who even finagles Watkin's playboy son, William Holmes, into helping him. Republic regular Estelita Rodriguez is worked into the affair, unnecessarily, as Howell's girlfriend. Somebody at Republic liked this Latino chickee. Soon to be Roy Rogers TV sidekick, Pat Brady, can be seen as one of the RR Riders along with Buddy Dooley, George Bamby, Michael Barton, Darol Rice and Jimmy Bryant.

 BLUE CANADIAN ROCKIES (1952 Columbia)
A throwback to Gene Autry's lighter-fare Republic days that actually plays more like a left-over Ken Curtis/Hoosier Hot Shots script. Among Autry aficionados, this is Gene's least popular Columbia effort. Sent to Canada by his employer to try and discourage the man's daughter (Gail Davis) from marrying a fortune hunter (Ross Ford), Gene arrives to find Gail has turned the place into a dude ranch and wild game preserve on which some mysterious killings are taking place. Songs are routine. Also with Carolina Cotton (reprising "Yodel, Yodel, Yodel" once more), Tom London, Don Beddoe, John Merton, Gene Roth, Cass County Boys and Gene's pal Frankie Marvin as an Indian!

 SUNSET TRAIL (1932 Tiffany/SonoArt-World Wide)
Taking jobs as cowpunchers to raise a friend's orphaned boy (Buddy Hunter), Ken Maynard and pal Frank Rice find their new boss, squeaky-voiced platinum blonde Ruth Hiatt, under siege by banker Philo McCullough and his pesky snakes Dick Alexander and Bud Osborne trying to scare Ruth off her ranch. Takes too long to tell its meager tale.

 LEADVILLE GUNSLINGER (1952 Republic)
Eddy Waller as Nugget Clark returns to the Allan 'Rocky' Lane series after an absence of just over a year and regular screenwriter M. Coates Webster included a scene at the start, that fit the script, but for those aware, certainly was intended to welcome Waller back to the series. It's obvious Lane is pleased to have him as his sidekick again. Waller (1889-1977) had begun the series with Lane in '47, becoming a good personal friend, then left to take a better/different (?) job - most likely as Douglas Kennedy's saddlepal on TV's STEVE DONOVAN, WESTERN MARSHAL. When that series failed to click, Waller returned to finish out the Lane series. This one's a routine story well done as slick banker Grant Withers and his hired thugs (Roy Barcroft, I. Stanford Jolley, Mickey Simpson - with whom Lane has a terrific brawl in the Republic cave-set) try to wrest control from Waller of his oil rich property. Richard Crane and Elaine Riley are tossed in as nearly an afterthought as the young love interest but are practically invisible. Art Dillard as a cave sentry has more to do than Riley who has only two brief scenes. Produced and directed by the talented Harry Keller.

 WHEN A MAN SEES RED (1934 Universal)
A western TAMING OF THE SHREW as Eastern society girl Peggy Campbell comes west to inherit her late uncle's ranch only to find she must live at the ranch for one year under guardian Buck Jones, her uncle's foreman. A rustler, LeRoy Mason, adds a little action to the proceedings, but it's probably Buck Jones' fans who will be seeing "red" after viewing this western, over-laden with class and skimpy on excitement.

 LEGION OF THE LAWLESS (1940 RKO)
Not quite as action-packed as some of George O'Brien's westerns (there's enough to satisfy), but a strong story by Berne Giler fleshed out by Doris Schroeder. So good in fact, RKO remade it two years later as PIRATES OF THE PRAIRIE with Tim Holt. This is a far superior version thanks to David Howard's always expert direction and Harry Wild's camera work. Lawyer O'Brien comes to Ivestown where he finds vigilantes led by ruthless Norman Willis have split East Ivestown off, extricating it into a separate village. This will allow the vigilantes to dominate when the railroad comes through Ivestown proper. The actual instigator of the vigilantes, kindly Hugh Sothern, is being duped by Willis and his men (Monte Montague, Slim Whitaker, Bud Osborne, Richard Cramer) into believing they are doing the right thing. As O'Brien opposes the strong-arm tactics of Willis, Sothern decides to disband the vigilantes when it is learned the railroad will come through East Ivestown and not Ivestown. Enraged, Willis murders Sothern and tries now to grab control of East Ivestown as well. Virginia Vale as Sothern's daughter and O'Brien's love interest is at her best. Note that growly Richard Cramer is the bartender in both this and the remake with Holt.

 PIRATES OF THE PRAIRIE (1942 RKO)
A Tim Holt remake of George O'Brien's superior LEGION OF THE LAWLESS ('40). Two small towns, Spencerville and East Spencerville are separated by a dry gulch and governed by a ruthless vigilante group headed up by second-in-command Roy Barcroft who has duped the titular head of the vigilantes, John Elliott, into believing they stand for law and order while all Barcroft really craves, with the proposed railroad coming through Spencerville, is land and power. Undercover U.S. Marshal Tim Holt poses as a gunsmith and combats Barcroft's tactics. When banker Elliott learns of Barcroft's treachery, and that the railroad line will actually come through East Spencerville, he plans to disband the vigilantes but is murdered by Barcroft's men (Charles King, Reed Howes, Bud Geary) before he can do so. Holt, Elliott's daughter (and Tim's love interest) Nell O'Day, and Tim's friend Cliff Edwards, round up the honest citizens and fight back as Barcroft attempts to run the settlers from East Spencerville. Note that Richard Cramer plays the same role in both versions - a bartender in vigilante employ. Dave Sharpe doubles Holt in fight scenes. Within a year, Eddie Dew, who has a small role here, would be starring, briefly, at Republic.

 OUTLAW'S SON (1957 Bel-Air/United Artists)
Unusual and different story by Richard Alan Simmons based on Clifton Adams' novel GAMBLING MAN. Ben Cooper is the deserted son of gunfighter Dane Clark whom the town believes killed the local banker when actually it was outlaws Les Mitchell and John Pickard. Clark's estranged sister-in-law, Ellen Drew, in her hatred for Clark, knows the truth but won't reveal it, desiring to raise her nephew without the influence of his gunfighter father. Years later, Cooper tries to fit into society by becoming a deputy marshal but the temper he inherited from his father begins to flare up, causing him to take to the outlaw trail with Mitchell and Pickard. Clark must return to keep his son from following in his wayward footsteps. Lori Nelson is Cooper's willfully independent girlfriend. Cooper, at a younger age, is played by Joseph Stafford. Well directed by Les Selander. Overlooked minor western that deserves more attention. Capable performances all around. Both Cooper and Clark should have made more westerns.

 WYOMING MAIL (1950 Universal-International)
Another of U-I's expanded budget, Technicolor '50s westerns that is really nothing more than an inflated Tom Tyler plot. A rash of unsolved train robberies targeting the U.S. Mail has postal inspector Stephen McNally going undercover as a wanted outlaw to infiltrate the gang (pre GUNSMOKE James Arness, Howard Da Silva, Frankie Darro, Gene Evans, Richard Jaeckel, Felipe Turich) and rout out the higher up who turns out to be district commissioner Roy Roberts. Working with the train robbers, McNally falls for saloon singer Alexis Smith only to discover she is part of the gang. As usual in U-I's westerns, bit roles are populated by many B-western players - John Cason, Guy Wilkerson, Ed Cassidy (as a Sheriff, what else?), Dave Sharpe (stunts), Frank Fenton, Frank Richards.

 HEART OF THE ROCKIES (1951 Republic)
Thirteen years of Roy Rogers westerns were nearing the end of the trail. Only three more were made after this one, which could arguably be termed the last one with class as it still had Gordon Jones as Roy's sidekick and the music of Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage. In the last three they were supplanted by the low-rent Pinky Lee and the RR Riders. Roy is building a road over the hills, part of which is land belonging to proud and stubborn old man Ralph Morgan who opposes the road and the work camp for young offenders (including Rand Brooks, Buzz Henry) Roy is utilizing to support their rehabilitation. Meanwhile, Morgan's foreman, Fred Graham, is robbing the wheelchair bound Morgan of his prize cattle. Morgan's niece, pretty Penny Edwards, and dude ranch owner Gordon Jones are on Roy's side to finish the road and keep the workcamp open. Roy's dog Bullet has a big role and Roy gets to call a square dance. Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage contribute some music. The film also contains one of Roy's best screen fights ever - with stuntman/actor Fred Graham.

 RIDERS OF THE BADLANDS (1941 Columbia)
Texas Ranger Charles Starrett and his singing dentist pal Cliff 'Ukulele Ike' Edwards are on the trail of Mac Collins and his gang of bandits (George J. Lewis, Ethan Laidlaw). Meanwhile, another Ranger, Russell Hayden, believes Starrett killed his new bride (Kay Hughes) in a stage holdup, but it was really look-alike Collins (also played by Starrett). Ranger Starrett is tried, convicted and sentenced to death based upon Hayden's identification. But when Edwards convinces Hayden otherwise, Hayden sets out to find the real Mac Collins. What a gorgeous singing voice Cliff Edwards had, and he never sounded better in any film than he does on "Take Me Back to My Home On the Range". Goosebumps.

 RETURN OF WILD BILL, THE (1940 Columbia)
The last of Bill Elliott's foursome as Wild Bill Saunders - in his next western he became Wild Bill Hickock. Elliott returns home to find his father (Edward LeSaint) dying of gunshot wounds inflicted by the Kilgore brothers (George Lloyd, Francis Walker, Chuck Morrison). Brutish vigilante Lloyd and his brothers hang pretty Iris Meredith's father (John Ince) as they're framing wealthy ranchers then meting out their vigilante justice in order to gain control of several valley ranches. Lloyd's daughter, Luana Walters (in a superb performance), disavows her father, coming to the aid of Wild Bill, Iris and rancher Frank LaRue. Several unusual plot twists from Robert Lee Johnson and Fred K. Myton (based on a Walt Coburn story), more character development than usual with good sequences made all the better by Joseph H. Lewis' expert direction and camera set-ups. Bill's usual sidekick, Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor, plays only a minor role in this one.

 NIGHT PASSAGE (1957 Universal International)
Universal finally figured out Audie Murphy belonged in westerns - but not until they'd unsuccessfully tried him in fight films (WORLD IN MY CORNER) and comedies (JOE BUTTERFLY). With NIGHT PASSAGE he returned to westerns in top form as James Stewart's wayward young brother who eventually undergoes a change of heart and helps Stewart shoot it out with crazy Dan Duryea's gang (John Day, Bob Wilke, Tommy Cook, Henry Wills, Jack Williams, Jack Elam, others). Anthony Mann, who'd already given the studio several top flight Stewart westerns, was originally assigned to direct, but production delays with another commitment forced U-I to go with James Neilson, the film's only drawback. Without Mann's special talent as a western director, the otherwise fine film loses its drive and image as a big budget B. Fine support from Dianne Foster (in love with Audie), Brandon De Wilde (the young boy Stewart befriends in a role not unlike his role in SHANE), Jay C. Flippen (railroad magnate), Elaine Stewart (Flippen's too young, sexy wife), Hugh Beaumont, Olive Carey, Paul Fix, Herbert Anderson.

 RIDERS OF THE SAGE (1939 Metropolitan)
Both Carleton Young and Jimmy Aubrey changed their names for this one - maybe they realized it was going to turn out poorly. Young became Gordon Roberts and Aubrey is rechristened James Whitehead. Bob Steele rides smack into a range war where sheep rancher brothers Gordon Roberts, Earl Douglas and Reed Howes are intent on taking over the cattle spreads of Frank LaRue and James Whitehead. The brothers are holding LaRue's son, Dave O'Brien, captive. The mysterious Robin Hood-like Ted Adams, who is an enemy of the land grabbing brothers and is in love with the brothers' sister, Claire Rochelle, vows to help Steele. This is an uncredited remake of Tim McCoy's RUSTY RIDES ALONE ('33) which was based on a Walt Coburn story. No credit is given here to Coburn or original screenwriter Robert Quigley, but instead goes to Forrest Sheldon and Carl Krusada. Maybe they thought no one would notice. At any rate, their remake isn't up to the original with parts of it not making much sense. You can fast forward through vocalist Bruce Dane's wearisome, dreary "Home On the Range", "Swanee River" and one other song.

 TEXAS WILDCATS (1939 Victory)
An "outlaw" known as the Phantom strikes out against the richest man in the territory, Forrest Taylor, who killed the partner of Marshal Lightnin' Bill Carson (Tim McCoy). Taylor offers a reward for the Phantom's capture. Unbeknownst to him, the Phantom is McCoy. Meanwhile, the rich and powerful Taylor and his son, Bob Terry, with their gun-rannies (Frank Ellis, Reed Howes) hold the mortgage on the ranch owned by gorgeous green-eyed Joan Barclay. When her brother, Dave O'Brien, goes to pay off the mortgage, he is shot and robbed by Taylor's men. McCoy, as the Phantom, and his pal Ben Corbett vow to get to the bottom of all this nasty business and bring Taylor to justice.

 TRAILING DANGER (1947 Monogram)
Screenwriter J. Benton Cheney turned in a nice "original" here. Outlaw leader Marshall Reed has someone in town (I. Stanford Jolley) tipping him off as to when gold shipments are going out by stagecoach. Reed is captured, then escapes vowing vengeance on express officer Steve Darrell who set up the trap to capture him. Darrell is now riding on a cross-country stage-run which sets the "stage" for one of the most hard-riding, action-packed Johnny Mack Brown adventures as he, Darrell and grizzled Raymond Hatton outsmart, outgun and whittle down Reed's gang (Ray Jones, Wally West, Eddie Parker, Bud Osborne, Willard Willingham) one by one. Also on the exciting stagecoach ride are Darrell's niece Peggy Wynne, the cowardly son of the stage-line's owner Patrick Desmond, namby-pamby Ernie Adams, driver Cactus Mack and café entertainer Bonnie Jean Hartley. Working title was DEVIL'S DEPUTY, referring to Reed who has a terrific windup fistfight with Johnny Mack.

 YUKON FLIGHT (1940 Monogram)
Lots of lighthearted byplay between yellowstripes Sgt. Renfrew (James Newill) and Constable Dave O'Brien - mostly over pretty mine owner Louise Stanley (who does virtually nothing more than smile at the boys) - and not much story, although there is one exceptionally well photographed fight in a warehouse, shot from high angles by Mack Stengler, (he used a similar idea in DANGER AHEAD.) Stengler was a workhorse at Monogram on through '49, lensing dozens there from horror films (APE MAN, BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT) to East Side Kids adventures (GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE, KID DYNAMITE) to comedies (CAMPUS SLEUTH, REGLAR FELLERS). Every now and then he'd venture away, (SAGEBRUSH LAW with Tim Holt and all 12 of the last 12 Hopalong Cassidy features). Oddly, Stengler's originality with the warehouse doesn't hold up all through the film - with the aerial gunfight ending being quite a bore. Perhaps Stengler "shot-up" his budget in the warehouse. The nothing plot involves aerial gold smuggling, a couple of murders by Karl Hackett, William Pawley, Roy Barcroft, Bob Terry and an old friendship between Renfrew and pilot Warren Hull who comes to work for Hackett's gang. Screenplay is by Edward Halperin, producer of Bela Lugosi's classic WHITE ZOMBIE. He also wrote SKY BANDITS and DANGER AHEAD for the Renfrew series. Jack Clifford as deaf trader Whispering Smith is a running gag-character in several Renfrew films (MURDER ON THE YUKON, SKY BANDITS) and provides some genuine belly laffs.

 MASON OF THE MOUNTED (1932 Monogram)
Mountie Bill Cody goes into the states as a "cowboy" to catch a murderer. Cody meets young runaway Andy Shuford and returns him to his uncle James Marcus and cousin Nancy Drexel who are losing horses to Mexican rustler Joe Dominguez who is working for the man (LeRoy Mason) Cody is searching for. Poorly handled by Harry Fraser. Choppily edited.

 REBELLION (1936 Crescent)
"California was tossed into the lap of the United States at the end of the war with Mexico in 1848. For two years Congress quarreled bitterly over whether California should become a slave holding state. During this time, America violated its guarantee under the Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty to protect the lives and property of Mexicans residing in the newly acquired territory. Lawless adventurers seized this opportunity to exploit the lands and attack the families of Mexican aristocracy and peons made helpless by the utter lack of civil law." At Senorita Rita Cansino's (later Hayworth) urging that it is gringos who are looting California and not her brother, Duncan Renaldo, upon whom the real bandits place the blame, President Zachary Taylor (Allen Cavan) personally sends Capt. Tom Keene to enforce peace. Renaldo leads a band of guerrillas against the land grabbers (William Royle and his boring bumblers, land commissioner Roger Honeycutt and Judge Robert McKenzie) to aid Keene and prove his own innocence. When Renaldo loses his life, he becomes a martyr to his fellow Californians who rise up in rebellion against Royle's brigands. Better and more "western" than some of Keene's Crescent historical dramas, but still not on a par with his Monogram series.

 CIRCLE OF DEATH (1935 Kent)
Dreadful one-time starrer for Montie Montana, a great trick roper who gained fame years later riding in dozens of Rose Parades. White settlers are raided and all are killed except an infant taken and raised by the Indian Chief. Years later, Montie Montana and his pal, Yakima Canutt, cross paths with saloon keeper Henry Hall (and his henchmen Ben Corbett, Slim Whitaker, Dick Botiller) when they try to grab gold on cattleman John Ince's land. Montie falls for Ince's daughter, Tove Lindan, and is freed to marry her when his "father", the Chief, reveals Montie is not really his son, but a white man. Pitiful direction (aided and abetted by a lot of silent stock footage) by J. Frank Glendon (who also plays the Sheriff). Montana did act again, but not in a lead role. His acting makes Reb Russell look like Spencer Tracy.

 SAN ANTONE AMBUSH (1949 Republic)
Solid story, good action but somehow uninvolving. In the period of reconstruction after the Civil War, Cavalry scout Lt. Monte Hale is tricked and set up to take the fall for an Army payroll robbery engineered by Roy Barcroft. Thrown in jail, Monte is helped to escape by Sgt. Paul Hurst who believes in him, then the two fugitives set out to find the man responsible for the robbery. They soon encounter the town of Mustang Wells in the iron grip of crooked Trevor Bardette, the federal commissioner for West Texas. Bardette and Barcroft are systematically raising taxes to drive local ranchers off their land. The thieves are opposed by James Cardwell and Lane Bradford, Robin Hood-like bandits robbing tax money shipments from Bardette and turning the cash back over to area ranchers. Monte and Hurst join forces with the do-gooders to thrash out Bardette's corrupt ways. Watch for Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune clearly visible in 3 Mesquiteers stock footage at the end.

 GUNS OF THE LAW (1944 PRC)
It's a redistricting land grab plotted by lawyer Charles King with the Texas Rangers (Dave O'Brien, James Newill, Guy Wilkerson) right in the midst of it as they try to help Guy's relatives, Budd Buster (who's a little tetched in the head and thinks he's still fighting the Civil War) and his daughter Jennifer Holt. King's gang includes crooked surveyor Jack Ingram and gun-toughs Bob Kortman, Frank McCarroll and Robert Barron. Action aplenty, one of the best of the series with the last 10 minutes being one long battle. Give this PRC cheapie an extra half star.

 DAKOTA KID (1951 Republic)
Best of the four Rough Ridin' Kids westerns, the last in a long history of Republic western series. Michael Chapin is Red, Sheriff James Bell's grandson, and Eilene Janssen is Judy, Red's friend. House Peters Jr. is her father. When the outlaw situation gets too much for him to handle, Bell sends for his nephew whom he's not seen in a while. The outlaws, saloon owner Robert Shayne, crooked lawyer Mauritz Hugo and gunman Roy Barcroft, employ outlaw Danny Morton, the Dakota Kid, to take the place of Bell's nephew. But spending time with Red and Judy and becoming a part of Bell's family and the community gets under Morton's skin and turns him straight as he rebels against the gang that hired him. Eilene sings a quick ditty.

 MYSTERIOUS RIDER (1933 Paramount)
Nevada ranchers are thrilled to learn the Boulder Dam project, and an aqueduct flowing from it, will increase the value of their land threefold until shyster lawyer Irving Pichel informs them he is the legal owner of their lands based on old Spanish land grants of which he is in possession. The ranchers pay him $20,000 for the rights but then crooked landowner Benton Churchill offers Pichel $100,000 so Pichel steals back the receipt he gave lead rancher Kent Taylor, making it appear Taylor stole the rancher's money. Taylor escapes jail and becomes a black-clad, night-striking Rider to uncover Pichel's dirty deed. Taylor's love interest is Lona Andre, Churchill's secretary. Okay, but somehow uninvolving. Retitled FIGHTING PHANTOM for reissues. The Zane Grey story had been filmed twice before in 1921 and in 1927 and this version owes more to the '27 Jack Holt screenplay than it does the Grey novel of 1921. Taylor was obviously cast for his physical similarity to Jack Holt so silent stock footage could be employed.

 MYSTERIOUS RIDER (1938 Paramount)
Under Lesley Selander's expert direction this Pop Sherman produced B rises to A status. Zane Grey wrote the original story in 1921 for serialization in COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. It was first adapted to the screen in 1921 with Robert McKim. Critically panned, Grey turned the story into the play HELL BENT WADE. A 1927 Paramount version ignored all previous versions, substituting its own story for star Jack Holt. The first sound adaptation followed the Holt version but was routine. By the time of this remake, Sherman assigned Maurice Geraghty to write the script. He returned to the original novel for inspiration. Douglas Dumbrille is masked bandit Pecos Bill who, with his sidekick, Sidney Toler (who soon won fame as Charlie Chan), returns to the ranch where his daughter (Charlotte Field) has been raised by Stanley Andrews. Though in love with foreman Russell Hayden, Field has been promised to Weldon Heyburn, Andrews' son, who is just back from a stretch in prison for rustling cattle with Monte Blue and his gang (Glenn Strange, Bob Kortman, Dick Alexander). Field was only a child when Dumbrille fled, framed for the murder of his partner by Blue, so she does not know him. Nor does Andrews, who was foreman of the ranch back then, 20 years ago, and more or less "took over", claiming it as his own - along with Field. When Hayden finds out who Dumbrille really is, they work together to right past wrongs. Every scene is a joy to watch, all performances are carefully enacted, especially Dumbrille, whom you might think an unlikely choice for the lead, but he brings a desperate world-weariness and a subdued sense of humor to the role. The always excellent actor was never better than he is here.

 GUNSMOKE (1945 Monogram)
Johnny Mack Brown blasts bandits robbing old Indian graves full of valuable gold-laden jewelry. Vicious Ray Bennett and his men (Wen Wright, Steve Clark, Frank Ellis, Marshall Reed, Kansas Moehring) try to torture the location of the Indian burial ground out of a professor's son, Riley Hill. There's no honor among thieves, as Reed and Moehring decide to double cross Bennett and grab the gold for themselves. Bit different, but another Brown with a weak ending.

 BRASS LEGEND (1956 United Artists)
Sheriff Hugh O'Brian acts on a tip from the kid brother (Donald McDonald) of his fiancée (Nancy Gates) and captures infamous outlaw Raymond Burr. As a result, when the news gets around, McDonald's life is in danger from outlaw-worshiping town drunk Eddie Firestone and three gun-slick brothers (Stacy Harris, Dennis Cross, Jack Farmer), friends of Burr's. Eventually, Burr escapes leading to a showdown with O'Brian. Gerd Oswald's direction is tedious with only a well-staged, quick saloon gunfight livening matters up. Script is unimaginative and HIGH NOON derivative. Paul Dunlap's music score is intrusive.

 MASSACRE RIVER (1949 Allied Artists)
Highly underrated and overlooked Cavalry western, truly Shakespearian tragedy in nature, lust, broken friendships, secret trysts, unrequited love, unexpected death, hatred, revenge ... it's all here. Three Calvary officers (Guy Madison, Rory Calhoun, Johnny Sands) are assigned to Indian Territory after the Civil War. Both Madison and Calhoun are in love with Sands' sister, Cathy Downs, who eventually agrees to marry Madison. Then Madison falls for shady lady in town Carole Mathews, leaving Downs brokenhearted. When Mathews' saloon partner (Steve Brodie) tries to force her to sell out to him, Madison kills him during an argument. Madison resigns from the Army and plans to leave with Mathews. Distraught over his sister's plight, and believing Madison is making a big mistake, Sands tries to change Madison's mind but, in a scuffle over Mathews, he too is shot and killed. Angered, Calhoun vows to track down and kill Madison, who has now fled into treacherous Indian Territory with Mathews. The final tragic showdown comes in the desert when the three are trapped by marauding Apaches. A real departure from the norm. Well directed by John Rawlins.

 COURTIN' WILDCATS (1929 Universal)
A new twist on "The Taming of the Shrew" as tenderfoot Hoot Gibson joins a wild west show to avoid working in Dad Joe Girard's foundry. He meets up with pistol-packin' wildcat showgirl Eugenia Gilbert and, eventually, has her eating out of his hand - literally. Women's libbers stay away from this one! You'll be throwing brickbats at the screen! Hooter's light-comedy westerns were not everyone's cup of tea, but if you are a Gibson fan, you'll enjoy his comedy antics in this one. Gibson also produced and saw to it his ol' silent screen pals got work - Pete Morrison has an enjoyable role as a Wild West Show cowboy (but it proves why he didn't transfer to starring sound roles), Fred Gilman has a barely noticeable bit, Benny Corbett stands in the background, strongman Joe Bonomo has one neat scene, and even Iron Eyes Cody is one of the show Indians.

 HIS FIGHTING BLOOD (1935 Ambassador)
This, and several other Kermit Maynard's B's, are the first films directed by former editor John English. While the talent is recognizable, it's also apparent English yet has a way to go. Some of the close-up riding/chase scenes are hilariously dreadful; Kermit's display of horsemanship midway is very forced and the whole film craves a shock of verve. Kermit's worthless brother, Paul Fix, helps Ted Adams and Frank McCarroll commit a jewel robbery. When Fix is nearly caught, Kermit takes the blame for him, even going to the penitentiary in his stead. Later, when the truth comes out, Kermit is pardoned and becomes a Mountie. Meanwhile, his no-good brother has learned nothing from all this, forcing Kermit to bring him and Adams to justice. The girl, who might as well have stayed at home for all she has to do, is Polly Ann Young (Loretta's sister). Featured in a break are the Singing Constables - Kermit with Jack Kirk, Glenn Strange, Chuck Baldra. Obviously included to fit in with the new "singing cowboy" trend. A ponderance if I may - how 'cum when Kermit (or any cowboy) is riding low on the side of his horse trying to avoid outlaw's gunfire, none of the badman's bullets ever hit the horse?

 COLT .45 (1950 Warner Bros.)
"A gun, like any other source of power, is a force for either good or evil, being neither in itself, but dependent upon those who possess it." Cold-blooded, wild-eyed killer Zachary Scott steals gun salesman Randolph Scott's fancy new pair of Colt .45s and goes on a rampage of robbery and murder, hiding out at the ranch of weakling Lloyd Bridges and his lusty wife Ruth Roman. Randy vows to track down Zachary and bring an end to his murderous ways. He's helped by Chief Thundercloud after Randy saves his life. Zachary's gang consists of Ian MacDonald, Zon Murray, Walter Coy and greedy, crooked sheriff Alan Hale Sr. The picture loosely served as a basis for WB's TV series COLT .45 with Wayde Preston. In Technicolor with fast and furious action direction by Edwin L. Marin that can't be marred even by Zachary Scott's outrageous, vicious overacting. Written by Tom Blackburn.

 HONOR OF THE RANGE (1934 Universal)
Ken Maynard, in one of his best for Universal, plays a dual role, as the heroic sheriff in love with Cecilia Parker and as the sheriff's meek, slump-shouldered and dishonest twin-brother storekeeper, Clem. Clem works at the general store and agrees to let outlaw Fred Kohler (and his gang Jack Rockwell, Al Smith, Slim Whitaker) rob the safe by giving him the combination to the store safe and letting Kohler tie him up so it doesn't appear Clem was complicit in the robbery. The plan is to split the take later, but Kohler double crosses Clem. The town believes Sheriff Ken is covering for brother Clem and arrests Ken, making gruff Frank Hagney sheriff. Clem, also in love with Parker, makes a play for the girl, telling her Ken has been injured and needs her. He takes her to the outlaw hideout where the final exciting showdown comes. Ken's wonder horse Tarzan really shines in this one - he rings the town fire bell, breaks a door down, carries a note to Ken and shows Ken the outlaw cave entrance. What a horse! The one miscue in the film comes in the beginning scenes. Maynard, influenced by Mae West's gay '90s "She Done Him Wrong" ('33), inserted a cheesy music hall revue into the early scenes.

 GUNMEN OF ABILENE (1950 Republic)
"This is the story of a greed so great it deluged an entire community with terror, bloodshed and murder ..." This one's all action as repulsive general store owner Peter Brocco hires gunmen Roy Barcroft and Don Harvey to tear the town apart and run off the residents so they can have a free hand to mine the gold vein they've discovered running beneath the townsite. Sheriff Eddy Waller and niece Donna Hamilton are at a loss as to how to stop the reign of terror until Deputy Marshal Allan 'Rocky' Lane arrives to establish six gun law.

 BALLAD OF A GUNFIGHTER (1964 Bill Ward Pictures)
Marty Robbins' truly touching gunfighter ballad "San Angelo" would have made a terrific music video, but as a full length 84 minute western, it becomes a padded tale of unrequited love that moves at an all-talk snail's pace with amateurish acting by everyone but Robbins who is, actually, quite natural. Written/produced/directed by stuntman Bill Ward, the film only comes alive during the initial chase and the "San Angelo" music-video ending. Robbins' "El Paso" is also integrated into the plot. Independent low-budget curiosity photographed by old-timer Brydon Baker. Marty's gorgeous white horse (owned by Ward who also once owned Clayton Moore's Silver) is named Traveler.

 PAINTED DESERT (1938 RKO)
Laraine Johnson (later Laraine Day) and her grandfather Lloyd Ingraham stake out a mining claim on land belonging to George O'Brien who does not drive them off as he fancies Laraine. Crooked mining-engineer Fred Kohler buys the claim from Ingraham, although he doesn't think it valuable. He just wishes to make trouble for O'Brien whom he hates. For Laraine's sake, George buys the claim - his own land, really - from Kohler, then learns the mine actually holds valuable tungsten deposits. Realizing Laraine still thinks she owns the claim, O'Brien and his pals (Ray Whitley, Stanley Fields) offer to become her partners since she can't operate without capital. As their operation gets underway, Kohler, realizing he sold a valuable claim for peanuts to O'Brien, dispatches his men (Harry Cording, Max Wagner, Lee Shumway) to make trouble for O'Brien and the girl, eventually going so far as to dynamite the mine. Little bit different entry in O'Brien's RKO series.

 BAR 20 RIDES AGAIN (1935 Paramount)
Effete, Napoleonic Harry Worth is one of Hopalong Cassidy's most unforgettable villains. Meticulously dressed, savoring snuff, devoted to chess and obsessed by the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Worth leads his rustlers (Paul Fix, Al St. John, John Merton, Joe Rickson) from an isolated mountain fortress. Worth's passion for chess is really just a metaphor for the "real" chess game played out between Worth and Hoppy. Cassidy's old friend Howard Lang writes for help and Hoppy brings along young Jimmy Ellison who promptly falls for Lang's daughter, Jean Rouverol, who is already being courted by Worth, posing as a neighboring cattleman. In the hills, Hoppy meets cantankerous old grouch Windy (George Hayes - brought back by producer Pop Sherman after he realized he'd made a mistake killing off Hayes in previous pictures) who helps Hoppy, Ellison and Red Connors (Frank McGlynn) rout Worth's rustlers. This, the 3rd Hoppy adventure, is the first picture in which Hoppy dudes up in his gambler clothes he used in subsequent films. Chill Wills and his Avalon Boys sing "When the Moon Hangs High" over the credits and Ellison (or someone dubbing him) sings a love song to Rouverol.

 BANDIT QUEEN (1950 Lippert)
Producer/director William Berke's reworking of the Zorro legend - with a female twist. Beautiful Barbara Britton is the daughter of some "original Californians" who comes home to witness the murder of her mother and father by Sheriff Barton MacLane who is in the employ of crooked land-grab lawyer Willard Parker. As masked avenger Zara, Barbara fights Mexican oppression and takes her revenge on MacLane and Parker, all the while falling in love with the fabled Mexican Robin Hood, Joaquin Murrieta (Phillip Reed).

 JEEPERS CREEPERS (1939 Republic)
Sheriff Roy Rogers arrests puffy Thurston Hall, president of the United Coal Mine Owners Association for creating a fire hazard. His daughter Maris Wrixon's rudeness causes Judge Abner Weaver (of the Weaver Brothers and Elviry) to sentence them both to a day of hard labor. While digging with a pick axe, Hall discovers a rich coal vein on the Weaver's property. Hall tries to buy the land and when the Weavers won't sell, Hall sneakily pays up the back taxes owed, acquiring title to the property. Now he must get the Pineville citizens out so he can begin strip-mining operations. When one of the roughneck workmen kills an old man in a drunken car accident, the hillbillies rise up in bitter rebellion, starting a forest fire. Needless to say, justice and honesty eventually prevail as they always do in Weaver Brothers and Elviry pictures, providing good moral lessons for '30s viewers - as well as today's viewers - about love and respect for your neighbor and helping hands. Loretta Weaver, June and Leon Weaver's daughter, made her acting debut in this entry. Republic never attempted to break Gene Autry out of B-westerns into different or bigger budgeted productions the way they did Roy Rogers. Perhaps they felt Gene was "doing just fine where he was, thank you," or perhaps Gene wasn't interested. But on several different occasions, beginning with JEEPERS CREEPERS, Roy was cast as something other than a B-western cowboy hero. JEEPERS CREEPERS was released after Roy had made 10 B-westerns for Republic. A year later, in 1940, they cast Roy in their big budget John Wayne epic, DARK COMMAND, then in '41 paired him once again with the Weavers for ARKANSAS JUDGE. His other non-B-western appearances (LAKE PLACID SERENADE, BRAZIL, HIT PARADE OF 1947) at Republic were all guest shots. Republic also loaned Roy out to Warner Bros. to sing "Don't Fence Me In" for HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN ('44). But Republic soon learned Roy's audience preferred to see him in traditional westerns.

 DESERT HORSEMAN (1946 Columbia)
Captain Charles Starrett of the U.S. Cavalry is framed for the robbery of an army paymaster. Jailed and court-martialed, he breaks out, and disguised as the Durango Kid, he is intent on finding the real culprits. Aided by Smiley Burnette, Durango proves lawyer Richard Barley and his cohorts, John Merton and George Morgan, were responsible for the payroll robbery and are now trying to get Adelle Roberts valuable ranch away from her. Much is built up about a left-handed gunman and a mystery "desert horseman" gang leader, but very little of it is ever explained. Walt Shrum and his Colorado Hillbillies (with an unknown girl singer) belt out "I Wish I Could Be a Singing Cowboy" (written by Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin) which Columbia also used in GO WEST YOUNG LADY in '41 and LONE STAR MOONLIGHT with Ken Curtis the same year of this Starrett B.

 GALLANT LEGION (1948 Republic)
"When Texas was admitted into the Union in 1846, it had the right to subdivide itself into as many as four separate states. In 1874, the northern carpetbaggers and ill-reputed state police were kicked out of office. But they did not accept defeat without a fight to regain power, using brute force and chicanery to make west Texas a separate state under their control." William Elliott comes west to ranch with his kid brother (Hal Landon) who he learns is mixed up with saloon owner Bruce Cabot's partitionist renegades who are trying to discredit the Rangers and restore their own crooked state police. When Landon is killed in a bank raid, Elliott reluctantly joins the Texas Rangers headed up by Capt. Jack Holt and his son James Brown. Elliott also falls in love with newspaper correspondent Adrian Booth assigned to write about the Ranger's exploits. That romance is nearly destroyed when her writings turn against the Rangers - then it's discovered her Uncle, Senator Joseph Schildkraut, is secretly working with Cabot (and his gunnies Grant Withers, Hal Taliaferro) by changing her stories before they are dispatched. Some comedy relief by Ranger cook Andy Devine. Gorgeous Adele Mara is given three songs to sing in the saloon and abruptly whisked out of sight. Former silent star Jack Perrin and Academy Award Winner to be Ben Johnson can be glimpsed in bit parts.

 BULLET FOR A BADMAN (1964 Universal)
Former Texas Ranger Audie Murphy is out to apprehend wanted bandit and former colleague Darren McGavin who is determined to kill Audie for marrying McGavin's former wife (Beverly Owen). Once Audie captures McGavin, with his girlfriend Ruta Lee, the pair is forced into an uneasy alliance (a Murphy film staple) to fight off marauding Indians, a corrupt group of posse members determined to get their hands on the loot from McGavin's recent bank robbery (George Tobias, Alan Hale Jr., Edward C. Platt) as well as McGavin's henchmen (Skip Homeier, Mort Mills). Their former friendship in the final minutes is reaffirmed when McGavin sacrifices himself protecting Audie. There's a nice blend of humor and tension all through the film between Audie and McGavin - who practically steals every scene he's in. Watch closely for Bob Steele in a small role as the town sheriff.

 SMOKEY SMITH (1935 Supreme)
Bob Steele's parents are attacked and viciously killed by bandits who even shoot off the finger of Bob's father (Horace Carpenter) to steal a ring. Bob goes on the revenge trail, eventually getting in with a gang led by George Hayes who only robs so he can send stepdaughter Mary Kornman off to school, away from this outlawry. Bob finally discovers it was gang member Warner Richmond who killed his parents, but not before Richmond commits another horrendous act of violence by throwing lye in Hayes' face. Remade in 1950 with Jimmy Ellison as CROOKED RIVER. One of Steele's best.

 WESTERNER, THE (1934 Columbia)
This Tim McCoy starts slow, but interest builds. A strong story and solid cast hold it together, even though it eschews action for drama. Based on Walt Coburn's short story, "Burnt Ranch", McCoy and his pal Ed Cobb attempt to prevent cattle rustler Hooper Atchley and his minions (Bud Osborne, Paul Fix, Slim Whitaker, Tom Forman, Bill Patton) from impoverishing his employer, pretty Marion Shilling. Good climax.

 WEST OF THE RIO GRANDE (1944 Monogram)
This Johnny Mack Brown holds your interest well enough, due in part to a nicely underplayed snake-evil performance by Kenneth MacDonald, but suffers from a rather tame ending after a nice buildup. MacDonald and his gang (Hugh Prosser, Art Fowler, Ed Cobb) have been cleaning up in Keenesville at the expense of the taxpayers since MacDonald had it made his "own" county seat. Now voters want that changed in a free election that will put MacDonald out of business, so he's doing all he can to prevent such an event. MacDonald has Sheriff Jack Rockwell killed and plans to bring in gunman John Merton to run the town under his orders. His plans go awry and Johnny Mack infiltrates the gang by taking Merton's place while his marshal partner Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton) goes undercover to "learn" things as a school master. Johnny Mack faces trouble not only from MacDonald's forces, but from Rockwell's hot tempered son, Dennis Moore, and Judge Frank LaRue who aren't "in" on the fact Brown is playing a double game. Neat screenplay by Betty Burbridge needed more action.

 UNTAMED BREED (1948 Columbia)
Sonny Tufts?!? Even with a sterling character-actor supporting cast, Tufts is stiff and uneasy in his Texas wrangler role trying to catch a famed Brahma bull as well as a famed wild horse. Film is severely crippled by far too much narration (you're overwhelmed by it right from the start) when dramatics and dialogue would have worked better. The constant narration makes UNTAMED BREED feel like a Disney true life film. The supporting cast includes Barbara Britton, Gabby Hayes, Edgar Buchanan, William Bishop, Joe Sawyer and Gordon Jones.

 FIGHTING CARAVANS (1931 Paramount)
Very dated early sound COVERED WAGON imitator, although it claims to be based on a Zane Grey story. Expensive, well-photographed (Lee Garmes, Henry Gerrard) but - hopelessly boring. At an overlong 84 minutes, it is terribly talky (much of it sappy and overly sentimental) and overacted to nearly the point of broad comedy at times as directed by Otto Brower and David Burton. Boyish in buckskins, wagon train scout Gary Cooper, and his two pals, Ernest Torrence and Tully Marshall, leave Missouri with freight wagons bringing supplies and immigrants to California while the Civil War rages back east. Along for the trip is French girl Lily Damita (once married to Errol Flynn) with whom Cooper strikes up a romance during tedious, over-scripted campfire scenes. Over mountains, through the snow, cross the plains, on the caravan (and the film) drags - until outlaw Fred Kohler Sr. and his renegade Indians attack the train. The production was so big it took two directors, two cinematographers and nine musical score composers. All to no avail. There was so much left over footage it was used in the 1934 remake WAGON WHEELS with Randolph Scott, which wasn't much better, but shorter.

 WESTWARD BOUND (1944 Monogram)
As pure a Saturday afternoon no-brainer western as you can get. Three heroes - The Trail Blazers (Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson, Bob Steele) ride, fight, rope and provide plenty of adventure, thrills and fun as they go into nearly constant action against a land grabbing bunch of owlhoots who would use oncoming Montana statehood to their own greedy advantage (governor's secretary Weldon Heyburn, devious town selectmen Harry Woods and John Bridges, crooked judge Karl Hackett, and their gun-rannies: Frank Ellis, Curley Dresden, Al Ferguson, Dan White). Ranchers Hal Price, Roy Brent and Betty Miles enlist the Trail Blazers' aid when they're put-upon by these slippery cusses.

 GUNS FOR HIRE (1934 Kent)
If you need one representative Lane Chandler starrer in your video collection, this is probably your best bet. There's range war so sheep rancher John Ince, daughter Sally Darling and son John McGuire hire gunfighters Lane Chandler, Ben Corbett, Bill Patton, Hank Bell and Steve Clemente to protect them from cattle invaders Slim Whitaker, Neal Hart (misspelled Neil on screen), Yakima Canutt and Jack Rockwell. That puts Lane on opposite sides of the range with the man who raised him, Neal Hart (the onetime silent star). Making matters worse, there's a traitor amongst Chandler's gunfighters. Nicely photographed by James Diamond.

 ARIZONA BADMAN (1935 Kent)
Ed Cobb as the Arizona badman of the title easily takes the lion's share of on-screen time, acting chores and heroics away from lead, ineffectual Reb Russell. Reb is a Cattleman's association investigator after rustlers Charles 'Slim' Whitaker and Dick Botiller who have hired gunman Cobb to run their rustled steers across the border. Whitaker is also a child beater having custody over his step children, Lois January (borrowed from Universal for this "epic") and her handicapped little brother Tommy Bupp. Picture drags to a start with a long introductory dance hall sequence, then we're treated to a full 3 minutes of simply looking over stolen cattle! There's a couple of poorly staged fist fights from director S. Roy Luby (who also edited - but not enough - this loser under the name Roy Claire). You can't see 'em in the dark, but that's Jack Kirk's music group singing a campfire tune. Producer Willis Kent's westerns got worse as they went along. Starting with the low budget but okay Lane Chandler for the '31-'32 season, Kent skipped '32-'34 but was back with football hero Russell for 9 in '34-'35, finishing with one Rocky Camron and, finally, one Montie Montana. Kent then wisely got out of the Z-western biz.

 CATTLE EMPIRE (1958 20TH Century Fox)
Effective Joel McCrea western casts him slightly against type as a tough trail boss recently released from five years in prison. Returning to a town where everybody hates him, he is hired by the rancher he blinded years ago (Don Haggerty) but who now can't afford to do without McCrea's expertise. McCrea makes sure all the townspeople who hate him are along on the drive which will save the town from going broke. Why the townspeople hate him and what happened is gradually made known. Also on the drive are McCrea's former girl, Phyllis Coates, now married to Haggerty; Haggerty's brother Bing Russell and young Gloria Talbott (in a thankless role) in love with McCrea. A separate trail drive, trying to beat McCrea's group to the finish, is bossed (and well played) by Richard Shannon. Other roles are played by Charles Gray, Paul Brinegar, Steve Raines and Rocky Shahan, all of whom became regulars on TV's RAWHIDE ('59-'65) - no wonder, CATTLE EMPIRE is the precursor to that series, directed by Charles Marquis Warren, the creator and original producer of the TV series. One of the film's writers, Endre Bohem, was producer on RAWHIDE '61-'62, '64-'65. Photographed by Brydon Baker whose photography elevated a lot of early '30s very lowbudget C-grade westerns beyond their expectations. He seemed to disappear in the '40s but returned in the '50s for this and several other medium budget oaters and sci-fi epics (STORM RIDER, FROM HELL IT CAME, SNOWFIRE, RETURN OF THE FLY, BALLAD OF A GUNFIGHTER).

 CODE OF THE FEARLESS (1939 Spectrum)
Gotta wonder about the merits of a western that starts off with hero Fred Scott washing his feet after his horse has been stolen and ends up singing an operatic aria while riding a jackass. Then later Scott, while dressed as an Indian, makes funny faces thru the window at the Chinese cook. Basic plot has John Merton's Skull Mesa gang (Carl Mathews) stealing Ranger Fred Scott's horse and framing poor Fred for an express stick-up. Very little action til Fred's fistic fling with Merton at the end. As stated before, Fred's operatic song stylings just don't fit in westerns, especially on a song such as "Here's Romance". Claire Rochelle is Fred's girl.

 SILENT BARRIERS (1937 Gaumont)
Empire building epic of the Canadian Pacific railroad has Richard Arlen, after pushing 2,000 hard fought miles through heat and cold, impenetrable wilderness and insurmountable barriers, now within sight of the towering Rocky Mountains, their last obstacle. Barry MacKay, Arlen's pal, who, after displaying cowardice, sacrifices himself during Arlen and surveyor J. Farrell MacDonald's expedition to find a pass through the Rockies. Arlen's girl is Lilli Palmer who went on to major stardom in the '50s. Altho this film is British made, it features a lot of American B-regulars such as Jack Rockwell, Ben Weldon, Tom London, Arthur Loft and Slim Whitaker. Cowboy cancer alert: Arlen smokes.

 VALLEY OF THE LAWLESS (1936 Supreme)
Johnny Mack Brown tracks down outlaw George Hayes to locate a treasure map Hayes stole from Brown's parents years ago. Forced to flee, he never dug up the treasure but has the map to the buried gold tattooed on his chest. Two former members of Hayes' gang come after him and he is mortally wounded. Before he dies he reveals the map to his grandkids, Joyce Compton and Bobby Nelson, who, with their father, Frank Ball, head for the Valley of the Lawless where the gold is buried. The Valley is controlled by renegade Frank Hagney and his gunmen (Charlie King, Blackie Whiteford). Meanwhile, Sheriff Jack Rockwell sends his son Dennis Meadows (later Moore) to scout the valley. Dennis has always been in love with Compton, but Compton has fallen for Johnny Mack after he protected them from Hagney's gang. Charles Francis Royal's plot gets even more involved, with exciting new developments every five minutes. Not a frame is wasted in Robert North Bradbury's direction making this another supreme Supreme. Cowboy cancer alert: Brown smokes (to make him appear tougher, like an outlaw).

 QUICK GUN (1964 Columbia)
The first of four films Audie Murphy made with producer Grant Whytock is a remake of a twice filmed story. It had previously been seen as TOP GUN ('55) with Sterling Hayden and NOOSE FOR A GUNMAN ('60) with Jim Davis. Noted screen heavy Ted De Corsia plays the same outlaw in both the Davis and Murphy versions. Gunslinger Murphy returns to a hostile town to warn the townspeople of a coming outlaw attack by De Corsia and his gun toters (Mort Mills, Gregg Palmer, Rick Vallin, William Tannen). Despite opposition from those who hate him from the old days (Walter Sande and his son Rex Holman) and even friends (old girlfriend Merry Anders, Sheriff James Best), Audie saves the town. Cliché-ridden, but good action handled by up and coming director Sidney Salkow.

 OLD WYOMING TRAIL (1937 Columbia)
See if you've heard this one before-shyster land shark mine owner Guy Usher and his "associates", Dick Curtis and lawyer George Chesebro, try to grab off Edward Le Saint and daughter Barbara Week's ranch 'cause the railroad is coming through. Curtis robs Le Saint of $5,000 paid him by Charles Starrett for cattle but Weeks informs Starrett and his pals (Donald Grayson and the Sons of the Pioneers) who set out to trap the varmints. There's one vicious torture scene in which Curtis comes at Le Saint's bare foot with a lit candle. This one features probably the best of all the Starrett/Curtis bare-knuckle brawls fueled by reel screen animosity. Roy Rogers was still with the Sons of the Pioneers who sing "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", "Ridin' Home", "Love Song of the Waterfall" and Ray Whitley's "Old Paint". Incidentally, Whitley can be spotted playing guitar with the Pioneers. One time silent star Bob Reeves has a bit role. Si Jenks performs a novelty number.

 FOOL'S GOLD (1947 United Artists)
Often referred to as the Hoppy "spider" movie. Colonel Forbes Murray, Hopalong Cassidy's old friend, asks Hoppy to go undercover in his civilian "dude" suit infiltrating a robber's roost looking for his Army deserter son, Stephen Barclay, who has fallen in with bad company.maniac Professor Robert Emmett Keane and his henchmen (Harry Cording, Bob Bentley, wrestler Wee Willie Davis). The "bugologist" professor is forcing Barclay into helping him commit a $200,000 government mint-shipment robbery to shame Barclay's military father, thereby eking out revenge on the military that once sent him to Leavenworth. Jane Randolph, Keane's daughter, is in love with the very bland Barclay and tries to persuade him not to go through with the theft. Naturally, Hoppy's pals Rand Brooks and Andy Clyde are on hand to help Hoppy. At one point, when the crazed Professor Keane tries to kill the trio by loosing deadly spiders, he meets with poetic justice. Scripted by Doris Schroeder who wrote, or co-wrote, the first five Paramount Cassidys.

 SMOKE TREE RANGE (1937 Universal)
Buck Jones and his grandfather, crotchety old John Elliott, owner of Smoke Tree Range, have a love-hate relationship. Elliott is trying to push squatters off the range, to which Buck objects. Elliott's foreman, Ted Adams, secretly works for saloon owner Donald Kirke who is out to gain all the water rights he can, including those of Muriel Evans and her small brother Dick Jones who own Los Posos Ranch. Buck helps Evans and Dickie, mends fences with his grandfather who realizes he's being duped and capture Kirke. The action content is de-emphasized in favor of relationships, another attempt by Jones to make his Universal films less juvenile-oriented.

 HEIR TO TROUBLE (1935 Columbia)
Hellion Ken Maynard adopts the infant son of an old fiend, hoping to hang up his wild spurs and marry longtime sweetheart Joan Perry. Ken's plans are disrupted when Harry Woods, the owner of the adjoining mine, plots to steal Ken's mine. When Ken has dance hall mistress Queenie acquire some "baby things" for the child, Woods sets the gossip mongering Ladies Aid Society, run by bluenose Fern Emmett, on Ken's trail. Tarzan steals the show caring for the baby, making breakfast, rescuing Ken and saving the baby at the climax when Ken is nullified. Maynard wrote the story, obviously to please himself, but brings in too much screwball antics popular in mainstream pictures of the '30s to be satisfying to his action fans. Ken also satisfies his thirst for music, playing the guitar and turning his nasal tones loose on "Cowboy's Lament". And lamentable this Maynard pic is!

 APACHE COUNTRY (1952 Columbia)
Chief of Scouts for the Southwest Cavalry Command Gene Autry and his pal Pat Buttram are commissioned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (former silent matinee idol Francis X. Bushman) to break up a frontier ring headed up by Harry Lauter and Gregg Barton who use phony Indian raids to cover up their bandit activities of hiding out wanted outlaws such as Mickey Simpson, Frank Matts and Steve Raines. Medicine show owner and entertainer Carolina Cotton assists Gene while searching for the killer of her father. The picture stops dead cold at 20 minutes, 34 minutes and 50 minutes while Tony Whitecloud's Jemez Indian dancers do the Eagle dance, the Buffalo dance, etc. while an off-screen Autry explains each dance. It simply doesn't work, giving the film a stitched together feeling. Gene and Carolina sing "Crime Will Never Pay", Gene sings Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart", Carolina yodels "I Love To Yodel" (is this the only song she knew??) and the Cass County Boys perform. That oft-repeated stock footage of Indians crossing the Wind River from WAR PAINT ('26) is reused.

 RHYTHM OF THE RIO GRANDE (1940 Monogram)
Pablo the Mexican Bandit (Martin Garralaga) is wanted dead or alive for robbery and murder. Problem is, the good/badman is not guilty, it's really rancher Tris Coffin whose men (Warner Richmond, Chick Hannon, Earl Douglas), under his orders, are doing all the plundering, laying the blame on Pablo's head. Tex Ritter and knockabout comic Frank Mitchell come to Sheriff Forrest Taylor's aid to uncover Coffin's devious deeds. Turns out Coffin is also responsible as the betrayer of Pablo's sister. As usual in Ritter's pictures, several plot points under Al Herman's sloppy direction are wholly under-developed. Particularly, in this one, James McNally being a deputy for Sheriff Taylor but acting as a spy for Coffin. This is never discussed and McNally's character name is not even mentioned til the very end when Tex casually mentions 'Ransom' spilled the beans on Coffin. Slipshod work like this severely harmed the Ritter pictures. Notably, this is the film that introduced Slim Andrews to Ritter's series. He has only a bit here (with his music group) but was elevated to Tex's sidekick with PALS OF THE SILVER SAGE. Screenwriter Robert Emmett (aka Bob Tansey) had obviously seen Gene Autry's MEXICALI ROSE the year before he wrote this film as he "borrows" the good/bad Mexican bandit capturing-the-hero-and-getting-him-to-sing idea, finally having the two team up to capture the evil doers.

 ACES AND EIGHTS (1936 Puritan)
Gambler and gentleman Tim McCoy is blamed for the murder of card cheat John Merton. At the same moment, Rex Lease, who was cheated by Merton, has an argument with the crook and believes he killed Merton. Actually, the real murder was done by ambush by an unknown assailant that turns out to be Wheeler Oakman who, with saloon owner Frank Glendon, cheats Lease at cards in a scheme to steal the rancho of Lease's father, Joe Girard, and Lease's sister, Luana Walters. Tim is pursued by Sheriff Earle Hodgins, more subdued than usual, until gambler Tim beats the crooks at there own sly game. There's little or no action and it's another case of McCoy trying "something different" from the usual fast action hero. You'll be annoyed in all the saloon scenes (and there are plenty) by the background noise which is a continuous sound-loop constantly repeating the words "another one" every seven seconds. Producer/director Sam Newfield recycled the plot when he made RUSTLER'S HIDEOUT with Buster Crabbe in 1944.

 FEUD MAKER (1938 Supreme)
The proof of the pudding is in the execution with a routine range war story, but here, Sam Newfield turns in a better than average B-Steele. Tense, but lacks one of those Steele brawls we've come to expect. Karl Hackett is the feud maker of the title who, with his cohorts Lew Meehan and Sheriff Roger Williams, are setting the ranchers and nesters against one another and then plan to step in and grab everything for themselves. Hackett pretends to be an upright opponent of the feud and friend of the nesters (Frank Ball and daughter Marion Weldon). Bob Steele inherits a ranch from his uncle and, with foreman Budd Buster, exposes Hackett's plan. Watch for former silent juvenile star Buzz Barton as a rider for rancher Jack C. Smith.

 I SHOT BILLY THE KID (1950 Lippert)
Don Barry was 38 when he played cocky kid outlaw Billy the Kid, who is supposed to be 21 or so. Otherwise, the basic facts of the Lincoln County War in New Mexico and Sheriff Pat Garrett's (Robert Lowery) trackdown of him are fairly accurate in this William Berke produced/directed B. The casting of Wally Vernon as a Mexican compadre of Billy's is a little hard to swallow though. Watch for '30s B-star Jack Perrin as a Sheriff. The "famous outlaws" film cycle more or less began with Randolph Scott's BADMAN'S TERRITORY in '46 and ran till about 1955, encompassing many films about Billy the Kid, Jesse James, the Younger Brothers, the Doolin Gang and others. Barry himself made westerns about Billy, Jesse James and the Dalton Gang.

 LAW VS. BILLY THE KID (1954 Columbia)
Maybe this should have been titled "The Facts Vs. Billy the Kid". Scott Brady was a bit too old, 29, to play the role of 21 year old Billy the Kid, and other historic aspects of this Sam Katzman color production are inaccurate as well - especially the completely fictitious love story with Betta St. John as the daughter of Pete Maxwell (played by Richard Cutting). After English rancher John Tunstall (Paul Cavanaugh) is murdered by Sheriff Brady (renamed Watkins here - played by Steve Darrell), Billy the Kid and his followers Charlie Bowdrie (William 'Bill' Phillips), Tom O'Follard (George Berkeley) and Dave Rudabaugh (William Tannen) (Rudabaugh belongs to the Earp "story" not the Kid's) set out after Watkin's murderous posse. Another fictional story builds up a hatred between Billy and deputy Bob Ollinger (Alan Hale Jr.) whom Billy eventually guns down. The ending is also pure movie hokum. James Griffith does well as Sheriff Pat Garrett. Watch for B-vets Bud Osborne, Gregg Barton, John Cliff, William Fawcett, John Cason, Rory Mallison and Bill Hale in minor roles.

 CROSSED TRAILS (1948 Monogram)
Slick saloon owner Douglas Evans, his lawyer Steve Clark and accomplice Milburn Morante are after 13 year old ranch owner Kathy Frye's land so they can control the water rights in the valley. When Johnny Mack Brown, with whom Kathy is infatuated, and her guardian Raymond Hatton turn down the "too lucrative" offer, the crooks have Kansas City saloon girl Lynne Carver endeavor to use her charms to convince Johnny to let Kathy sell. When that fails, Evans and Clark frame Hatton for Morante's murder and hire roughnecks Zon Murray and Bob Woodward to "convince" Hatton's friend, and his alibi, Ted Adams, to lie at the trial by not vouching for the accused foreman/guardian. Few different angles, but basically standard late '40s Brown fare scripted by Adele Buffington using the pen name of Colt Remington.

 RAINBOW OVER TEXAS (1946 Republic)
One of the last of Roy Rogers' romantic musical-comedies. Western movie star Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers are touring the country when they arrive in the town of Dalyrmple owned by rich meat packing magnate Robert Emmett Keane who now disavows his western background. However, his daughter, Dale Evans, loves the west - and Roy Rogers music. Dale runs away, disguising herself (she thinks) as a boy, ending up in her Pop's town with Roy. This, of course, leads to all sorts of romantic screwball comedy mix-ups, especially when you factor in Sheriff Gabby Hayes. Sheldon Leonard is the heavy who runs a crooked gambling establishment and plans to win the annual Frontier Days pony express horse race by hook or crook with the help of his boys, Kenne Duncan and Pierce Lyden. Roy and Dale duet on "Smile For Me Senorita", Roy singles on the title tune and "Lights of Old Santa Fe" reprised from his '44 film, and the Pioneers do their classic "Cowboy Camp Meetin'". The Broadway style finale has the whole gang singing and cavorting around a swimming pool. Good fun, but rough on "traditionalist" western fans. Story is based on an ARGOSY magazine Max Brand short story.

 PRESCOTT KID (1934 Columbia)
Mistaken for a marshal by the outlaw rustlers that rule San Lorenzo (saloon owner Hooper Atchley with a huge gang - Albert J. Smith, Charles King, Ed Cobb, Art Mix, Steve Clark, Slim Whitaker, Ernie Adams, Jack Rockwell, Lew Meehan, Tom London, Bud Osborne), tough as nails Tim McCoy goes to work for rancher Carlos De Valdez and his lovely daughter Sheila Mannors (who, dubbed, sings a Spanish song). When Tim is then suspected of being a rustler, he is silently and secretly aided by the real law, undercover marshal Joe Sauers (later Sawyer). Together, they turn the tables on "respected citizen" big boss Alden Chase. A bit town-bound as many of McCoy's Columbia's were, but still one of his best due to David Selman's suspenseful direction. Watch for a youthful Walter Brennan as a stage driver.

 OVER THE BORDER (1950 Monogram)
Although there's the requisite amount of gunplay and some fisticuffs, this Wallace Fox directed Johnny Mack Brown adventure never seems to build up a full head of steam. A pleasant one hour diversion, nothing more, as Wells Fargo courier Johnny Mack Brown goes after outlaws led by Myron Healey who steal $30,000 from banker Pierre Watkin then purchase silver in Mexico for one-third of its U.S. value and smuggle it across the border via an old mine which opens up on the U.S. side in oldtimer Milburn Morante's shack. Watkin's daughter is Wendy Waldron and Johnny Mack is helped by House Peters Jr. who is in love with Wendy. Helping boss Healey (but actually hindering him by his drinking and stupidity), Watkin's nephew is Marshall Reed.

 NEAR THE TRAIL'S END (1931 Tiffany)
New town marshal Bob Steele crosses paths with town boss and rustler Hooper Atchley (and his partner Jay Morley) over beanery girl Marion Shockley. Bob's sidekick is Si Jenks. Slight. Note that Bob does sing in this early entry.

 GUNFIGHT AT COMANCHE CREEK (1963 Allied Artists)
The 5th remake of the plot that started with FLAMING BULLETS ('45). A gang breaks wanted outlaws out of jail then kills them to collect the reward. WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE ('51) with Whip Wilson, STAR OF TEXAS ('53) with Wayne Morris and LAST OF THE BADMEN ('57) with George Montgomery are all the same with this Murphy remake being a nearly scene-for-scene, word-for-word remake of the latter. Audie, looking out of place usually wearing a jacket and no hat, must realize this is the bottom of the barrel for him as he seems to have little interest in anything that's going on. Supported by Ben Cooper, Colleen Miller (wasted in a semi-screen-comeback), DeForrest Kelley (he's in there pitching and overacting - but at least it creates some interest), Jan Merlin and John Hubbard. Blink and you'll miss Damian O'Flynn. The film, like LAST OF THE BADMEN, emulates a DRAGNET voiceover narrative style with Reed Hadley.

 COLORADO PIONEERS (1945 Republic)
A cross between OLIVER TWIST and John Wayne's THE COWBOYS as Red Ryder (Bill Elliott) and Little Beaver (Bobby Blake) save two street urchins (Billy Cummings and Freddie Chapman) from a Chicago Fagin (Roy Barcroft) who urges the boys into helping him commit robberies. Red vouches for the boys to the judge, having them and, as it turns out, a whole group of delinquents paroled to Duchess Alice Fleming's ranch for rehabilitation. Meanwhile back at the ranch, The Duchess's jovial neighbor (Frank Jacquet) and his foreman (Bud Geary) are trying to make sure the Duchess doesn't get her cattle to market on time so they can grab off a hunk of her grazing land. Their plan is foiled when Little Beaver and Red turn the kids into drovers. Then, just when it looks as if Red has put young Cummings on the straight and narrow path, Barcroft re-appears to lead him astray. Tamer than some Ryder entries, eschewing some action for character and plot development. Watch for Buckwheat Thomas of Our Gang as one of the kids - who makes a now politically incorrect pickaninny reference. Monte Hale, still being broken in by Republic, has a few lines as one of the Duchess' cowhands.

 SAGA OF DEATH VALLEY (1939 Republic)
Good combination of story and action in the capable hands of director Joe Kane make this one of Roy Rogers' best early entries. In Death Valley, outlaws Frank M. Thomas and Jack Ingram raid the Rogers ranch, killing him (Lane Chandler) and abducting young Tim Rogers. Older brother Roy witnesses this and grows up vowing vengeance. Tim (Don Barry in a star maker role) grows to manhood as an integral part of Thomas' outlaw band, even to calling Thomas his uncle. Thomas eventually settles in Death Valley running a local protection racket to control water rights and charging exorbitant prices. Now grown, Roy buys his father's old ranch, under another name, and re-meets his childhood sweetheart, Doris Day (not the later famous singer/actress). Roy, Gabby Hayes and the ranchers organize the Riders of Death Valley to oppose Thomas. In the final showdown, Tim learns who he really is and turns on Thomas. Barry's brooding, angry persona neatly contrasts with the easygoing Rogers so they compliment one another. As one of Thomas' outlaws, Hal Taliaferro (Wally Wales) is given some well-written lines and several excellent scenes in which he really shines, momentarily stealing the screen from Thomas, Barry and Rogers. Music from Roy as well as a group comprised of Johnny Bond/Dick Rinehart/Cactus Mack/Frankie Marvin and Jimmy Wakely. With this and WYOMING OUTLAW under his acting belt, Republic saw Don Barry's potential and within the year starred him in a serial (ADVENTURES OF RED RYDER) and his own series.

 UTAH WAGON TRAIN (1951 Republic)
There's a killer on the trail as Rex Allen races against time to beat a gang of cutthroats to a fortune buried on the old secret Colorado trail from Utah to California. Headed up by tough old Sarah Padden and her pretty niece Penny Edwards, all descendants of the original pioneer party that crossed the trail 100 years ago are on a sentimental journey commemorating their ancestors' route. When Rex's uncle, trail boss Al Bridge, is shot and killed, Rex (and pal Buddy Ebsen) takes over as wagon master. Along the way, Rex learns of a million dollars worth of buried gold bullion hidden in a cave by the original party years ago. But who is the mystery killer? Padden herself? Roy Barcroft? Grant Withers? Arthur Space? Rex sings "Toolie Rollum", "Streets of Laredo", "Colorado Trail", "Big Corral", while Ebsen gets to show off his hoofing abilities.

 SHORT GRASS (1950 Allied Artists)
Rod Cameron is blamed for the killing of Jack Ingram at Jonathan Hale's trading post, a murder actually committed by Ingram's partner Myron Healey. Struggling rancher Cathy Downs and her father Stanley Andrews save Rod's life after Rod and Healey shoot it out, a gunfight in which Healey is killed but in which Rod has recovered the money stolen from Hale. With that cash Rod helps Andrews and Downs buy valuable grasslands in Willow Creek. Big rancher Morris Ankrum and his young hothead brother Riley Hill also covet the grasslands. After Rod guns Hill in an argument and learns he bought into the grass with stolen money, he deeds his half of the ranch over to the wronged Hale and heads north. Time passes. Hale sells out to Ankrum and opens a saloon near the railroad. Hale prospers, buying up grassland for Rod who eventually returns only to encounter the vengeful Ankrum who still wants to kill him for gunning his kid brother. Meanwhile, Cathy Downs has married a drunken lout (Tris Coffin) and now runs the town newspaper for him. Rod is befriended by rancher Alan Hale Jr. and Marshal Johnny Mack Brown. Down's drunken husband is killed when Rod tangles with Ankrum's gunman (Harry Woods) in a saloon shootout. The violence escalates as Ankrum tries to move his cattle onto the local ranchers' land. It's a great Tom Blackburn story well told by director Les Selander and producer Scotty Dunlap. Not to be missed.

 THE RANGERS STEP IN (1937 Columbia)
The last of Bob Allen's six film B-western series. Scheming John Merton wants Hal Taliaferro's ranch because he has advance knowledge the railroad wants it for right-of-way. (Howcum in all westerns, the bad guys always have this first hand knowledge before the good citizens?) Merton and his hirelings (Bob Kortman, Lew Meehan, Ray Jones) stir up an old feud between the Warrens (Taliaferro, his daughter Eleanor Stewart, Lafe McKee, Jack Ingram) and the Allens (Joe Girard) knowing there are more Allens in the Valley so they will drive out the Warrens - then he'll step in buy up the property cheap and sell it to the railroad for a huge profit. Ranger Bob is Girard's nephew but also engaged to Stewart of the Warren clan. Because of these circumstances, Ranger Capt. Buffalo Bill Jr. accepts Bob's resignation so he can investigate the trouble and bring peace to the warring factions. Then Merton frames Bob for the murder of Taliaferro! In some of Allen's films, Buffalo Bill Jr.'s role as Ranger Captain was miniscule, but it's got some meat to it in this one. Jack Rockwell has yet another of his myriad Sheriff roles. You are truly shocked when you watch a western and Rockwell isn't the Sheriff.

 SHOWDOWN AT ABILENE (1956 Universal-International)
The showdown referred to turns out to be much more emotional than gunfight. When Jock Mahoney, the former sheriff of Abilene, returns home from the Civil War, he brings home more emotional baggage then he can carry. His girl, Martha Hyer, believing him dead, is now engaged to the town boss, Lyle Bettger, who lost his right hand in an accident caused by Mahoney years ago. Remade sheriff, Jocko is afraid to use a gun because he accidentally killed Bettger's brother during the war. To say Mahoney feels a debt to Bettger is a large understatement, and Bettger uses that to lay a guilt trip on Jocko. Added to this is Bettger and henchman Ted DeCorsia's plot to rule the valley. It's always a pleasure to watch two screen heavies like Bettger and DeCorsia strut their meanness. Mahoney does a credible job brooding over his myriad problems, but you come expecting more action from a Jocko western than you get. Technicolor. Remade, to no advantage, in 1967 as GUNFIGHT IN ABILENE with Bobby Darin.

 GAUCHO SERENADE (1940 Republic)
Gene Autry at the peak of his career, giving the public exactly what they expected in an Autry film with his relaxed, reassuring personality in one of his absolute best films. As written by Betty Burbridge and Bradford Ropes, GAUCHO SERENADE, basically a "road picture", contains some of the wittiest dialogue (and obvious ad libs) and scenes of all Gene's films. Burbridge was a well-respected western film scripter while Ropes wrote others for Gene (and Roy Rogers) and went on to script other comedy films, including two for Abbott and Costello (TIME OF THEIR LIVES and BUCK PRIVATES COME HOME). This utterly charming picture has down-and-out rodeo stars, Gene and Smiley Burnette, leaving New York for California by car and horse trailer only to discover that young English-boy Clifford Severn Jr. has stowed away with them believing they are there to pick him up and take him to his father's ranch. Severn has just arrived by steamship to reunite with his father, Lester Mathews, whom he believes to own Rancho San Quentin, not realizing his father has been railroaded on an embezzlement charge by crooked members of Western Packing Co. (Joseph Crehan, Walter Miller) and is in prison San Quentin. In order to prevent Mathews from testifying against the crooks, they send their flunkies (Ted Adams, William Ruhl) out to kidnap the boy. June Storey and Mary Lee appear "on the road" with Gene and Smiley as a runaway bride and her young sister. Gene collects them in his caravan, eliciting one fun mishap after another, including an amateur talent show sequence at Gaucho Cantina, headed up by a very animated, energetic Duncan Renaldo. Watch for the incident where Smiley wades in the lake to retrieve Storey from her car she's just driven into the water. Smiley, unscripted, actually steps into a pothole and you can see Gene, on shore, burst into laughter, although Smiley recovers with a quick ad-lib. Former 20th Century Fox B-western star Smith Ballew appears as a suitor for Storey, but finally announces he's been called by Hollywood to become a western movie star. It's quite obvious everyone concerned was having a great deal of fun while making GAUCHO SERENADE - and it's contagious. Gene introduces "The Singing Hills" song which he used as a title tune a year later.

 DEATH VALLEY OUTLAWS (1941 Republic)
This one's got it all! One of Don Barry and Republic's most action-packed hours from director George Sherman in a serial-like manner. Crooked banker Karl Hackett forces ranchers to take out large insurance policies naming him as beneficiary in order to secure loans. Then his black hooded vigilantes (Marshal Rex Lease, John Cason) raid and burn the ranches to collect the insurance. Don Barry and his dog Duke, searching the west for his long lost brother, end up helping young Michael Owen, pretty Lynn Merrick and Doc Robert McKenzie battle the vigilantes. When Owen is killed by the gang, Don swears to "pay 'em off". He passes himself off to the vigilantes as tough outlaw Joe Earle and discovers gang member Milburn Stone, who is trying to quit the gang, is his long lost brother.

 COME ON, TARZAN (1932 KBS/World Wide)
Ken Maynard tells leading lady Merna Kennedy, "That ain't western!" No B-western ever extolled the virtues of the west better than COME ON, TARZAN. Shifty Niles Welch's packing company (Bob Kortman, Roy Stewart) is slaughtering wild horses for dog food. Ken is foreman of the Flying A Ranch and won't allow the hunting of wild horses on his range. The owner of the ranch, Merna Kennedy, arrives fresh from the East. Her uncle had willed her the ranch and she is determined to run it. To her dismay, she discovers her uncle had other ideas. According to his will, Ken is appointed administrator until he feels Merna is capable of running the spread. Naturally, they fall in love by the end. The last half-hour is a whirlwind of wild action and fabulous stunts.

 BOLD FRONTIERSMAN (1948 Republic)
The 4th Allan 'Rocky' Lane series entry boasts another excellent script by Bob Williams, as had the previous two, BANDITS OF DARK CANYON ('47) and OKLAHOMA BADLANDS ('48). Williams gave main heavy, gambler Roy Barcroft, the memorable trait of flipping a coin as he was about to have a shoot-out with someone. It's one of Barcroft's most polished performances as saloon owner Smilin' Jim. 'Rocky' Lane saves the day when meek John Alvin, in debt to Barcroft for gambling losses, is framed for a murder and theft of water drilling project money, a deed of which even Alvin's father, Francis McDonald believes him guilty. Barcroft, and his bodyguard Fred Graham, are done in by a chiming watch. Eddy Waller is once again Nugget Clark, this time the (a bit on the skittish side) town sheriff.

 SOUTH OF THE RIO GRANDE (1932 Columbia)
Buck Jones ventured south of the border into Mexicano roles several times, none too successfully. Perhaps his attempts to be versatile are laudable, but his accent didn't cut it and fans didn't appreciate him in these roles. SOUTH OF THE RIO GRANDE begins with an exciting opening battle, then soberly falls into dullsville. As a Mexican Rurale Captain, Buck helps young George J. Lewis regain a lost life by becoming a Rurale. Now, oil syndicate operative Philo McCullough is trying to obtain the rancho of Lewis and his sister, Doris Hill, with whom Buck has fallen in love. Helping McCullough in his swindle is scheming Mona Maris who previously helped swindle Buck's brother (Paul Fix) out of their inheritance and caused Fix to commit suicide. Now Buck must prevent headstrong Lewis from falling for Maris allowing her to bedevil him and ruin another life. Charles Stevens is McCullough's vicious henchman.

 HIDDEN GOLD (1940 Paramount)
A routine story told with style as Hopalong Cassidy rides shotgun on gold shipments and goes gunning for stagecoach bandits. Reformed outlaw Minor Watson is being suspected due to his past but his daughter Ruth Rogers will not believe it. Much is made over "who" the real boss is, but it turns out to be just who you figured it was, town big shot George Anderson with mine foreman Roy Barcroft and henchie Ray Bennett.

 RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE (1931 Fox)
The third Fox version of Zane Grey's classic western story stars George O'Brien as good/badman Lassiter who has come to Arizona searching for the man who killed his sister and abducted her baby daughter. When O'Brien arrives, he finds himself pitted against an illegal Law and Order organization trying to drive lady rancher Jane Withersteen (Marguerite Churchill) from her land. Heading the gang is Judge Dyer (Noah Beery Sr., who turns out to be the man O'Brien is seeking) and his paid gunmen Frank McGlynn and Stanley Fields. Fields is revealed as the man who has actually raised O'Brien's niece, Bess (Yvonne Pelletier). With the help of one of Churchill's riders, Venters (James Todd), O'Brien discovers his niece and rescues her. She quickly falls in love with Venters and as Venters, Bess, O'Brien, Churchill (and her adopted daughter Fay - Shirley Nails) are pursued by McGlynn, O'Brien sends Venters and Bess away while he, Churchill and Fay are trapped in Surprise Valley when they roll a huge boulder down on the gang, effectively closing off the trio's escape from the valley (forever?). Unfortunately, at a quick 55 minutes, there is no time for this involved, complicated story to evolve naturally and for much needed character development. Earlier versions starred William Farnum in 1918 and Tom Mix in 1925. Another was made in 1941 with George Montgomery. Marguerite Churchill was the real life wife of O'Brien.

 RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE (1941 20TH Century Fox)
Surprisingly, under director James Tinling, the complex relationships and events are better explained and the pacing is better in this version of the Zane Grey novel, filmed earlier in 1931 with George O'Brien. Unfortunately, star George Montgomery doesn't quite have the same charisma George O'Brien brought to the previous version. Lassiter (Montgomery) comes to Cottonwood, AZ, seeking revenge on the man who stole his sister and her baby from her husband 15 years earlier. Montgomery sides with rancher Mary Howard against ruthless Judge Dyer (Robert Barrat) and his nephew (Kane Richmond) who operate a corrupt vigilante group out to grab off all the prime ranchland, including Howard's. Montgomery confronts Dyer's right hand man, Oldring (Richard Lane), who confesses it was Dyer who stole Millie and gave her daughter Bess (Lynne Roberts) to him to raise after Millie died. Bess now rides with the vigilantes. The plotline and ending is pretty much identical to the O'Brien version, but the overall storytelling is better handled in this version.

 RAINBOW TRAIL (1932 Fox)
The sequel to George O'Brien's RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE a year earlier finds him playing a completely different role. It's now eight years later when prospector Shefford (O'Brien), searching for the legendary gold-filled Surprise Valley, comes across a dying man-Venters (now played by James Kirkwood) who has returned to try and rescue Lassiter (now played by Edward Hearn), Jane (now played by Alice Ward) and Fay (now played by Cecilia Parker) from the sealed off Surprise Valley. O'Brien promises to try and rescue them, then learns Fay has been taken by Dyer (now played by W. L. Thorne) to his quasi-brothel in a mountain hideaway run by his "lieutenant", Niles Welch. With the aid of the local Navajo Indian leader (Robert Frazer), O'Brien frees Fay from the outlaw stronghold as will as rescues Lassiter and Jane from Surprise Valley. Director David Howard (who later helmed many of O'Brien's RKO westerns) allows into the flim too much unneeded silliness from Roscoe Ates and J. M. Kerrigan. This sequel was made twice before in 1918 with William Farnum and in 1925 with Tom Mix.

 CHEYENNE TAKES OVER (1947 PRC)
Marshals Lash LaRue and Fuzzy St. John try to take a much needed vacation but ride right into the middle of a land grab. Chicagoan George Chesebro has killed the real owner of the ranch and taken his place. The only witness to the murder was pretty Nancy Gates whom Chesebro has threatened to kill if she talks. But, as the ads proclaim, "The prairie plunderers feel the six shootin' sting of 'The Lash'!" Whip use: 2.

 RIDE OUT FOR REVENGE (1957 United Artists)
With BROKEN ARROW in 1950, westerns began to change in how they portrayed Indians. Gone also were the Buck Jones/Roy Rogers type of hero, replaced by troubled, turmoil-ridden anti-heroes surrounded by a supporting cast of characters with all sorts of emotional problems. RIDE OUT FOR REVENGE is a classic example of the new adult-western formula. Lloyd Bridges is a fearful yet treacherous cavalry captain put in charge of the Cheyenne migration from the Dakotas to Oklahoma. When gold is discovered on the ancestral land, Bridges has henchman Richard Shannon murder the old chief (Frank De Kova) in cold blood. Ex-marshal and ex-Indian fighter Rory Calhoun now sympathizes with the plight of the Cheyenne, especially since he's in love with the dead chief's daughter, Pretty Willow (Joanne Gilbert). Battling an epidemic of hate, while trying to get the Indians some fair treatment, Rory is ridiculed by Bridges and the townspeople. When his nephew (Michael Winkelman) is accidentally killed in a retaliatory raid on the town by the new chief, Lone Wolf (Vince Edwards), DeKova's son, even Calhoun finds himself with torn loyalties between redman and white. Thrown into the mix is boarding house owner Gloria Grahame (badly miscast out of her film noir element) who has lost her husband to Indians and now lusts after Calhoun. Director Bernard Girard's film is a bit melodramatic in its approach to the new cliches, resulting in a movie of mixed quality.

 CATTLE STAMPEDE (1943 PRC)
Poor Charlie King, even sidekick Al 'Fuzzy' St. John beats him up in this routine Buster Crabbe in which he and Fuz take a herd of cattle to the railhead for rancher Ed Cassidy and his strong-willed daughter Frances Gladwin. They are plagued at every turn by Glenn Strange and his rustlers, Charlie King, Frank Ellis, Roy Brent, Steve Clark.

 ROUGH RIDING RHYTHM (1937 Ambassador)
Bandits Olin Francis, Curley Dresden and Cliff Parkinson pull a stagecoach robbery, then Francis hides the loot in his house. When Francis' wife, Betty Mack, says she is leaving him with their young baby because of his banditry, the beefy, abusive Francis beats and kills her, then escapes, abandoning the baby. Kermit Maynard and his saddle pal, Ralph Peters, who is Mack's brother, come to visit and find Mack dead and the baby in need of care. Neighboring rancher Beryl Wallace helps the cowboys care for the baby while they search for the vile Francis. Meanwhile, Francis' pals want their share of the loot hidden in the house and a detective (Dave O'Brien) shows up to complicate matters, believing Kermit to be the stagecoach bandit. You're in for a "treat" at the start, as Kermit and Peters "sing" while riding the trail.

 APACHE WARRIOR (1957 20th Century Fox)
Apache scout Keith Larsen, aiding good friend Jim Davis with the U.S. Calvary in tracking down renegade Indians, is himself hunted when he revenges himself by killing an Indian (George Keymas) who murdered his brother. When Davis finally captures Larsen, he lets his Apache friend go, realizing Larsen was only following an Apache code of honor, not the white man's law. Supposedly based on the life of the notorious Indian outlaw, the Apache Kid. Interesting ideas spoiled by Elmo Williams' weary direction.

 YUKON VENGEANCE (1954 Allied Artists)
Probably the high water mark in Kirby Grant's series of Northwest Mountie films as he and his snow dog Chinook go after a bandit (wrestler Henry Kulky) who uses a trained bear to carry out his mail robberies. Investigating, Grant is pursued by a mysterious killer. Is it trapper Monte Hale (now playing character roles after his own Republic series ended), trading post owner Park MacGregor, Indian girl Carol Thurston who believes Grant killed her husband, or even pretty blonde Mary Ellen Kay who works at the trading post? Livelier than many in this series. Incidentally, a real bear was used in all sequences except in the two fights with Chinook.

 NORTH OF ARIZONA (1935 Reliable)
Loose story from lowbudget writer Carl Krusada barely survives close scrutiny. Director B. B. Ray allows some awful continuity lapses between the first and second major scenes in this Jack Perrin quickie. Then, at the end, Jack has George Tully (Al Bridge), Ray Keeler (Lane Chandler) and Joe Borga (Frank Ellis) sign an express robbery confession. But, a moment later, when he shows it to Sheriff Murdock McQuarrie, it's signed by George Tully, Joe Borga and - Dick Smith - who is George Chesebro, knocked out by the roadside miles away! At about the 28 minute mark, as Perrin rides by the camera, you can see the shadows of some of the crew in the foreground. Later, as Jack and his Indian friends (Artie Ortego, Budd Buster) load scrap iron into a strong box in place of gold, you can hear director B. B. Ray, off screen, say, "That's enough". Blanche Mehaffey is the inconsequential-to-the-story girl who is McQuarrie's daughter operating the general store. Constant movement with plenty of those wild swinging, push and shove fights save this from total disaster.

 COVERED WAGON TRAILS (1940 Monogram)
Average Jack Randall as he nears the end of his B-western trail. The scene in which he has to chew his way through ropes that bind him about his wrists may have hastened his demise. Surely scriptwriter Tom Gibson could have been more inventive than this! Frank Ellis, usually third henchman through the door, is here elevated, for once, to the big boss when the Cattlemen's Association decides to dissuade, at any cost, a wagon train of homesteaders (led by Lafe McKee) from settling in their valley. When horse trader Jack Randall's young brother (Dave Sharpe), traveling with the wagon train, is murdered by Ellis' gang (Glenn Strange, Kenne Duncan, George Chesebro, Tex Terry, Jimmy Aubrey, Carl Mathews), Jack and his pal Budd Buster go after the culprits. The same unknown cowboy singer who appeared in Bob Steele's RIDERS OF THE SAGE ('39) pops up again here to sing "Under the Western Sky" beside a campfire, apparently for no reason other than to have a song in the film. (Remember, Jack's singing cowboy days were over by now.) Dancer Sally Cairns, who hung around Hollywood with no real success for four years in the early '40s, has very little to do (and does it rather poorly) as McKee's daughter. Usual bit player Hank Bell (he of the droopy mustache) has one of his most substantial roles in B-westerns as the Sheriff.

 DUEL AT APACHE WELLS (1957 Republic)
"In the old west, when the territories were without law or order, the size of a man's ranch was often determined by his ability to take the land, and to hold it against all comers." DUEL is a solid Republic B with Ben Cooper as a wayward son (known around the border country as the Durango Kid - no relation to Charles Starrett films) who returns home to his father's (Harry Shannon) Arizona ranch after a four year absence to find rustler turned rancher Jim Davis (and his hired gunmen headed up by Bob Steele) has siphoned off the only water hole in the area thereby slowly killing Shannon's ranch. Cooper tries peaceful means at first but when his efforts fail he is pushed into a showdown with Davis. Anna Maria Alberghetti (on loan out from some major studio) gets top billing but is basically window dressing in a routine "hero's girlfriend" role. Skillfully produced and directed by Joe Kane from a Bob Williams screenplay. He'd been writing for Rocky Lane, Monte Hale and others at Republic. This is the same type of picture (albeit with a bigger budget) Audie Murphy was making at Universal in the late '50s. Cowboy Cancer alert: Cooper smokes - a lot.

 SOUTH OF ARIZONA (1938 Columbia)
With a rousing rendition of "When Payday Rolls Around" by the Sons of the Pioneers, we're off on another really fine Charles Starrett adventure. Plagued by rustlers, Valley ranchers send for a Texas Ranger (Wally Wales) who is gunned down before he can reach town on orders from the head rustler, local cattle broker Robert Fiske who then has his own man, Dick Curtis, impersonate the Ranger. Starrett reaches Wales before he expires, learning Curtis is an imposter and that Wales' sister, Iris Meredith, is due on the stage the next day. Fiske also learns of Meredith's arrival and, knowing she can expose he and Curtis, sends his minions (Ed Cobb, Art Mix, Richard Botiller) out to kill Meredith. Starrett saves Meredith but Curtis manages to turn the tables on Starrett, accusing him of being the head rustler. Columbia prexy Harry Cohn did us all a disservice by having Bob Nolan's beautiful voice dubbed by someone else. Why he never liked Nolan's solos, yet hired the Pioneers, is still a mystery. Bennett Cohen reused this script at Monogram in 1947 for Jimmy Wakely's RIDIN' DOWN THE TRAIL.

 RIDIN' DOWN THE TRAIL (1947 Monogram)
Plagued by raiders, the townspeople of Trail City send for a Ranger who is gunned down before he reaches the town on orders from big boss Douglas Fowley, head of the local Cattle and Land Company, who then has his hireling (Doug Aylesworth) impersonate the Ranger in their plot to take control of the whole area. Jimmy Wakely reaches the real Ranger before he dies, learning Aylesworth is an imposter and that the Ranger's sister (Beverly Jons) is due by stage the next day. Fowley also learns of Jons' existence and, knowing she can expose his plot, sends his minions (John James, Mathew [Brad] Slaven, Kermit Maynard) out to kill the girl. Wakely saves her but Aylesworth manages to turn the tables on Jimmy, accusing him (and his saddlepal Dub Taylor) of being the Ranger's killer. If this all sounds slightly familiar - it should. Screenwriter Bennett Cohen dusted off his SOUTH OF ARIZONA 1938 Charles Starrett script for this one. In addition, while working on the Republic Sunset Carson series, he utilized the same ending device in CHEROKEE FLASH (45) that he used in the Starrett and Wakely films.

 ACES WILD (1936 Commodore/Astor)
Cheyenne Harry Carey heads for Durango with intentions of tracking down his old nemesis, slippery gambler Ted Lorch. Carey becomes partners in a newspaper with young Gertrude Messinger after Lorch and his bushwhackers (Roger Williams, Chuck Morrison) have killed her father. Lorch's sneaky plan, which he's worked before, is to move into a town with no bank, convince townsfolk to deposit their cash and valuables in his safe, then he robs the safe and splits the breeze. But Cheyenne Harry and a series of double-crosses thwart Lorch's plot. Clever screenplay by Weston Edwards, an alias for Monroe Talbot which was an alias for Harry Fraser, the director.

 WHEN A MAN RIDES ALONE (1933 Monarch)
Tom Tyler as Robin Hoodish stage bandit the Llano Kid ekes out revenge on Al Bridge who gunned his mine partner, Tom's father, some years back and left investors in the mine empty handed. Tyler is only robbing gold shipments from what is now Bridge's mine to repay the investors. Along the way, Tom befriends another mine owner, Frank Ball, whom Bridge is also trying to swindle, and falls for Ball's easterner-come-west daughter, Adele Lacy. Onetime minor silent star Bob Burns has a good role as the sheriff. Scripted by Oliver Drake, directed by J. P. McGowan (who plays a bit role himself) it's a pretty droll hour. No wonder he's riding alone.

 FIGHTING FRONTIER (1943 RKO)
Tim Holt is working undercover, commissioned by the governor, to break up a gang robbing gold shipments (Tom London, Monte Montague, Bud Osborne). Tim and his pal Cliff 'Ukulele Ike' Edwards finagle their way into the gang but are captured by a vigilante group led by Eddie Dew and sentenced to be hanged. Eventually, with the aid of Judge Davison Clark and his daughter Ann Summers, Tim clears himself and captures the real leader of the bandits, well-respected citizen William Gould. Ray Whitley recycles his "Outlaw Trail" song from '41s BANDIT TRAIL. J. Benton Cheney and Norton S. Parker's script is a remake of the Bernard McConville/Oliver Drake George O'Brien RKO, ARIZONA LEGION ('39).

 SANTA FE SCOUTS (1943 Republic)
The title of the couple-months previous 3 Mesquiteers western BLOCKED TRAIL more appropriately fits this film and it's always been my suspicion, somehow, the two titles became reversed in production. Here, the 3 Mesquiteers (Tom Tyler, Bob Steele, Jimmie Dodd) run into plenty of trouble attempting to keep carefree young John James, son of their ranch owner employer, and mother of James, Elizabeth Valentine, out of trouble. They think their worries are over when James announces his intentions to marry pretty Lois Collier and run his mother's spread. But Valentine's sneaky lawyer, Tom Chatterton, is plotting to grab the ranch through a squatters rights legal loophole and also by framing Lois for murder (of henchman Budd Buster) and blackmailing James into helping another henchman (Tom London) in their water-hole racket. The long string of Mesquiteers adventures were about to end, only one more, somewhat tongue in cheek, thriller remained. Watch for former B-western star Kermit Maynard in a small role here as a beleaguered cattle rancher.

 TEXAS KID (1943 Monogram)
A real showcase for Marshall Reed. And one of the best of Johnny Mack Brown's Nevada Jack MacKenzie Monogram series which had begun earlier in '43. (This was the 5th film.) It's an intricate but original screenplay from Jess Bowers (Adele Buffington) filled with crosses and doublecrosses. Reed is a friend of Brown's who's also a member of Ed Cobb's hold-up gang, but is trying to go straight by buying a half interest in the trading post Shirley Patterson has sold to Robert Fiske. Unbeknownst to Reed, Fiske is the real boss behind Cobb's buzzards (Stanley Price, Lynton Brent, Charlie King [killed early on], Kermit Maynard, Bud Osborne). U.S. Marshals Brown and Raymond Hatton (posing as a peddler) round up the gang.

 CISCO KID (1931 Fox)
Totally undistinguished Warner Baxter Cisco Kid western has Bronx cavalry Sergeant Edmund Lowe chasing down carefree Cisco who is helping widowed ranch owner Nora Lane save her spread from lecherous banker Willard Robertson. All yak with no real substance, then it's over. Baxter won an Academy Award, for reasons I'll never quite fathom, for his portrayal of Cisco two years earlier in IN OLD ARIZONA and repeated the role in RETURN OF THE CISCO KID in '39. Lowe's role was a holdover from IN OLD ARIZONA also. Irving Cummings directed this film. He'd taken over IN OLD ARIZONA and completed it after original director Raoul Walsh lost his eye in an accident. Cummings was a pioneer of the silent screen making his first leading man appearance in 1909. He appeared in dramas as well as in two-reel western shorts, including a Canadian Mountie series in the '20s. He also made two serials.

 SILENT CODE (1935 Stage and Screen)
Mountie Kane Richmond must prove his innocence when he's accused of killing a prospector who has just struck gold. The man's daughter, Blanche Mehaffey, is Richmond's girl and the guilty party is really her uncle, greedy outpost operator Barney Furey and his cohorts, Carl Matthews, Pat Harmon, Ben Corbett. As with most northwest movies, there is a dog, Wolfgang - known as Rex in the film. One hilarious scene early on has actor Clarence Davis as Indian Redwing speaking with an hilarious Texas twang.

 STRANGE GAMBLE (1948 United Artists)
Hopalong Cassidy and his pals California (Andy Clyde) and Lucky (Rand Brooks) help a young girl (Elaine Riley), her sister and brother-in-law who have come west to claim the Silver Belle mine. Town boss James Craven and his henchmen (Robert B. Williams, Francis McDonald) try to drive them out because the crooks are using the mine as cover for their counterfeiting operation. There's some mystery and suspense, but little action. This is the 66th and final Hopalong Cassidy film over 13 years. It was scripted by Doris Schroeder who wrote (or helped write) the first 6 Hoppy westerns. Hoppy soon joined the growing ranks of screen cowboys who made the transition to TV.

 MONTANA MOON (1930 MGM)
Johnny Mack Brown's backwoods hayseed delivery is tough to swallow, even for a few minutes, and there's 91 minutes of MGM operetta-on-the-range here to suffer through. The film follows Joan Crawford, quite good as a stuffy, spoiled Eastern jazz baby, on the lam from her wealthy rancher Pop (Lloyd Ingraham), who meets cowboy Brown one night on the range and falls in love. From there it's strictly culture-clash. Five songs (with Crawford's singing voice obviously dubbed), none of them in the least bit memorable. Besides Brown's ghastly performance, the film saddles us with long, insufferable "comic" segments with Benny Rubin and Cliff Edwards. The film was a box office dud, and deserved to be.

 COLUMN SOUTH (1953 Universal-International)
Audie Murphy is wooden and seems, oddly, ill at ease in a Cavalry uniform and in his romantic scenes with leading lady Joan Evans, commandante Robert Sterling's just-out-from-the-East sister. Comedy director Fred De Cordova was a poor choice to direct a straight action western (his only one besides GAL WHO TOOK THE WEST in '49 which had more light moments in the script). Universal wisely didn't assign him any more. Plot has Audie averting an Indian uprising arranged by Confederate spies. The cast of troopers included U-I's stock of young hopefuls - Gregg Palmer (billed at this time as Palmer Lee), Jack Kelly, Richard Garland, Ray Montgomery, Russell Johnson, James Best, Johnny Downs - and one old timer, Bob Steele. Dennis Weaver was a poor choice as the Indian chief.

 ROARIN' LEAD (1936 Republic)
The first in the "Mesquiteers-save-the-orphanage" sub-genre. Vile Hooper Atchley, general manager of the Cattlemen's Protective Association, with his men (led by George Chesebro) have rustled cattle from a dozen ranches and exhausted the association's funds by paying ranchers insurance claims for their losses, thereby forcing the association to close their orphanage run by pretty Christine Maple. The Three Mesquiteers (Robert Livingston, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune), trustees to the estate that runs the association, become suspicious when not one head of cattle is retrieved by the association. Maple has only 3 days to raise enough money to keep the orphanage open and save the children from being placed in homes of townspeople who only want to adopt them as house labor instead of hiring servants. Co-directors Mack V. Wright and Sam Newfield really keep this one moving until an orphanage fundraiser with the Meglin Kiddies stops the action dead in its tracks! That's followed by a ridiculous scene in which Livingston poses as a Swami with mystic powers in an attempt to force a confession from henchman Yakima Canutt. Fast forward through this nonsense and get to the action-packed roarin' lead showdown.

 PARTNERS OF THE TRAIL (1944 Monogram)
What do the murders of a Chinese restaurant cook, a doctor and Christine McIntyre's father at the Wells Fargo office have in common? It's up to undercover U.S. Marshals Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton to discover. It's Land and Water Co. boss Joe Eggenton and his boys-crooked deputy sheriff Jack Ingram, Ted Mapes, Marshall Reed, Lynton Brent-behind it all. Routine JMB. Scripter Frank H. Young's work was spotty, between '44-'48 he penned some of Brown's best (GHOST GUNS, HAUNTED MINE, FLASHING GUNS) and some of his duller entries (BORDER BANDITS, RANGE LAW). In his brief time he also wrote MILLION DOLLAR KID, a good East Side Kids comedy.

 THUNDERING CARAVANS (1952 Republic)
Marshal Allan 'Rocky' Lane helps Edgewater Sheriff Eddy Waller put an end to the constant attacks on area ore wagons. Waller's deputy, Richard Crane, is in love with Mona Knox, daughter of mine owner Stanley Andrews. Waller and Crane are in a tight election for sheriff against Bill Henry, one of the outlaws himself and brother of newspaper owner/editor Isabel Randolph - the real hard-bitten boss of the bandits. Soon, Crane finds his past as a young outlaw catching up with him as his former cell-mate, Roy Barcroft, shows up to blackmail him - at the same time tipping off Randolph who uses the "story" to scandalize Crane in the election and throw blame for the ore robberies on him. This film makes great use of the Republic cave set.

 SUNSET OF POWER (1935 Universal)
Ranch owner Charles Middleton greets his eastern educated granddaughter (Dorothy Dix) harshly when she arrives out west. Middleton resents the fact his only grandchild, who will inherit his spread, is a girl. He appoints Donald Kirke foreman - and wants Dix to marry Kirke immediately, not realizing Kirke has been rustling his cattle. It takes cowhand Buck Jones (and his pals Ben Corbett and Charles King) to rescue Dix, catch Kirke and show Middleton where his thinking has gone astray. Definitely not a "typical" Jones western but, as producer of his own films, the star was trying new approaches to the traditional western format.

 PARADISE CANYON (1935 Lone Star)
If you only obtain one B-western with Earle Hodgins' Indian remedy Medicine Show spiel, this is the one! He's so effective here. I had my dollar out ready to purchase a bottle of his cure-all tonic! Federal agent John Wayne, on the trail of some counterfeiters, joins Hodgins' Medicine show as a sharpshooter. The show also features Hodgins' daughter, Marion Burns, and two musical entertainers, Perry Murdock and Gordon Clifford who sing two numbers. When the show reaches a Mexican border town where counterfeiters Yakima Canutt and Reed Howes are operating, Yak is fearful Hodgins will recognize him and the game will be up, as Yak framed Hodgins years earlier. Portions of the plot were lifted and used in Tim McCoy's BORDER CABALLERO ('36) while the whole idea was reworked (poorly) by Bob Tansey for Ken Maynard's last B-western, HARMONY TRAIL ('44).

 SONG OF THE SADDLE (1936 Warner Bros.)
Dick Foran's second B-western. Snaky trading post operator Charles Middleton and his boys (Monte Montague, Gene Alsace) rob and murder young Dick Foran's father, Addison Richards. Young Dick (played by George Ernest) recognizes the owlhoots and swears revenge. 15 years later, a young man known only as the Singing Kid comes to town and begins robbing Middleton-owned stages. Of course, it's Dick, now full grown-and aided by his pals Julian Rivero, Victor Potel, Pat West. Middleton, unable to stop the Singing Kid, plots to frame him. At one odd point, outlaw Gene Alsace bursts into song - and his voice is dubbed by Bob Nolan. Oddly, Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers are also in the picture. Foran's love interest is Alma Lloyd (played at a young age by Bonita Granville). Watch for former silent star William Desmond as a stagecoach driver.

 WILD HORSE AMBUSH (1952 Republic)
See pinto horse spots change right before your eyes! Three different pintos battle it out using stock last seen in PRIDE OF THE PLAINS ('44). Republic's junior Roy and Dale, the Rough Ridin' Kids (Michael Chapin, Eilene Janssen), in their fourth and final B-western (aborted from a planned 6) give support to Mexican border patrolman Capt. Richard Avonde who is masquerading as Jalisco, a Mexican bandit. Avonde is on the trail of counterfeiters Roy Barcroft, John Day and Drake Smith who are forcing Mexican engraver Julian Rivero and his daughter Movita (who really takes a roughing up from Day) to work for them. Constant movement helps from director Fred C. Brannon. For you earnest equine watchers, Chapin refers to his horse as Arrowfire.

 MARK OF THE LASH (1948 Western Adventure/Screen Guild)
Typical Lash LaRue/Fuzzy St. John thrashing about with all the usual plot improbabilities. At one point, Lash has caught bad guy Marshall Reed red-handed about to bushwhack Jimmie Martin, then lets him go. Next thing we know Reed has a kangaroo court charging Lash with murder. No logic here at all. Basic premise has Reed and his sidewinders (John Cason, Lee Roberts, Steve Dunhill) damming up the water, planning to set himself up as a land dictator. Lash helps out ranchers Jimmie Martin and sis Suzi Crandall. Director Ray Taylor was more laxidasical then usual, letting two boo-boos slide through. Lash tells Cason to reach for his gun when he feels lucky - then Lash draws first. At the end, caught in his own trap, Fuzzy calls for help to Lash, then to "Suzi". However, Suzi Crandall's screen name is Mary. Whip use - 3.

 OLD CHISHOLM TRAIL (1942 Universal)
Chiseling rancher Mady Correll along with her tough foreman and crooked driller George Sherwood are charging an exorbitant $5 a head to water Johnny Mack Brown's trail herd steers on the Chisholm Trail headed for Abilene. Additionally, Correll is trying to oust Jennifer Holt and gambler Tex Ritter from the trading post Jennifer owns because there's water on her property. Brown and his pal, traveling hypnotist Fuzzy Knight, must find Lost River and drill an Artesian well in order to save the day. Tex sings a couple of songs as do Jimmy Wakely and his boys (Johnny Bond, Scotty Harrell). There's some tiresome material about a pet longhorn steer (Oswald) and a running gag about Indian chief Earle Hodgins demanding money back from Knight's hypnotism show. Average Brown/Ritter, no better, no worse than many others. Story/director: Elmer Clifton.

 WESTERN JUSTICE (1935 Supreme)
Filmed concurrently with KID COURAGEOUS, this is by far the better of the two Bob Steele films, registering several unique details. Bob's director father, Robert Bradbury, had a penchant for imbuing his westerns with touches of the bizarre. In addition to a cave with a secret tunnel, the film has villain Arthur Loft being skinned alive (off screen) for the murder (and implied rape) of Julian Rivero's daughter. Possibly Bradbury borrowed the idea from Universal's THE BLACK CAT with Karloff and Lugosi a year prior. In the beginning, Rivero finds his daughter robbed and left for dead by the evil Loft and sets off on the vengeance trail. Meanwhile, on the run, Loft has robbed a store in another town and killed the owner. Through a set of circumstances, the local sheriff believes Bob Steele guilty and sets out after him. Actually, Steele is trailing Loft. Coincidentally, the three men meet in an eerie deserted cabin, unaware of their mutual involvement with Loft, and form a friendship. In Mirage City they find greedy businessman Jack Cowell hoarding water with his niece Renee Borden opposing him. Cowell is planning to drive the ranchers away, then grab up all the property. Lo and behold - Loft is now his henchman. Besides Loft's comeuppance, the offbeat finale has Steele blowing up the bad guys in an ambush, releasing a torrent of water from the underground river. "The town wanted water, they're gonna get it," Steele unmercifully exclaims as he blows up the dam. Also noteworthy, Bob plaintively sings "Desert Breeze". Steele had sung before in his films and would again. Renee Borden (real name Edith Lavoy) (1908-1992) had but a brief fling at films - appearing in only two others - the aforementioned KID COURAGEOUS and FIGHTING HERO ('34) with Tom Tyler.

 PARTNERS (1932 RKO Pathe)
Off-times too syrupy cowboy and the kid western. Brutish Lee Shumway frames Tom Keene for the murder and robbery of traveling notions and trinkets dealer, Billy Franey. Franey's death leaves his grandson Bobby Nelson (who becomes way too emotional at times) to be raised by Keene as they become "partners". Of course, Tom must first prove to Bobby, his girl Nancy Drexel, and the townsfolk he didn't kill Franey. Pretty slow stuff, punctuated by two cowboy songs from Jack Kirk.

 CANYON CITY (1943 Republic)
Eureka Power Co. representative Morgan Conway (best known for his Dick Tracy roles at RKO) conspires with banker Emmett Vogan and their henchmen (LeRoy Mason, Pierce Lyden, Kenne Duncan, Bud Geary) to ruin the ranchers of Riverdale. The crooks temporarily disrupt service from the Power Company dam so the ranchers (led by Roy Barcroft in a good guy role for a change) will not be able to grow crops or sell their cattle. When the ranchers go broke and cannot meet their mortgages, Conway and Vogan can foreclose, then sell the property to the Power Company for a huge profit. Undercover as the notorious Nevada Kid, Don Barry (and Bronx pal Wally Vernon) are sent by Eureka to investigate Conway whom the company suspicions. After Helen Talbot's father, Judge Forbes Murray is killed by the outlaws, she loans $25,000 to the ranchers to help them out-but it too is stolen by the unprincipled bandits. Once again, Republic found a way to work their poor man's Shirley Temple, Twinkle Watts, into the plot.

 BORDER BUCKAROOS (1943 PRC)
Writer/director Oliver Drake wiped the sludge off his TEXAS RAMBLER Bill Cody fiasco from 1935 and improved on it slightly for this James Newill/Dave O'Brien Texas Rangers entry. Lots of who's who as Newill impersonates Keene Duncan, half heir to the Box Diamond Ranch, and Dave impersonates gunman Reed Howes, hired by crooked rancher Jack Ingram to help grab off the Box Diamond from Duncan and the other half heir, Christine McIntyre. Ingram is aided in his deviltry by lawyer Michael Vallon and gun-galoots Charlie King and Ethan Laidlaw. Highlight is a well photographed (by Ira Morgan) stagecoach chase.

 WILD HORSE ROUND-UP (1936 Ambassador)
Lead flies and hooves pound as Kermit Maynard goes after wild horse night riders. But producer Maurice Conn's idea to turn Kermit and his pals (Dick Curtis, Jack Ingram, Budd Buster) into singing cowboys (after the advent of Gene Autry) with an obviously dubbed-in chorale group was a truly bad idea and a ridiculous sight. Swindler John Merton (and his night riders Frank Hagney, Roger Williams) knows the railroad is coming and wants pretty Beth Marion's land. (Billed as Betty Lloyd, Beth told me she didn't know the producers had done that til years later. She had no explanation as to why.) Beth and her kid brother, Dickie Jones, need to roundup their horses, who are mixed in with a wild herd, by the 16th or lose her ranch to Merton. Naturally, we get to see that pinto/black wild horse fight one more time - taken from DEVIL HORSE, a 1926 silent starring Yakima Canutt.

 YAQUI DRUMS (1956 Allied Artists)
Rod Cameron settles on land once owned by his brother, who was driven off and murdered by nasty saloonkeeper and landgrabber (based on phony Spanish land grants) Roy Roberts and his gun-thrower Denver Pyle. When Roberts tries to evict Cameron, he tangles with more than he bargained for as Cameron is helped by Yaqui bandit J. Carroll Naish whose life Cameron once saved. Mary Castle is the sexy saloon singer (she warbles "Frankie and Johnny") both Cameron and Roberts' wimpy son Robert Hutton are in love with. Tries hard, and fails, to incorporate adult themes with traditional western material. Naish chews up all the scenery in sight from a script that is talky and slow under Jean Yarbrough's lazy direction. Yarbrough (1900-1975) entered the business in 1922 as a property man for Hal Roach and worked his way up to director by the late '30s. His westerns were scant, he's better known for his low budget horror films (DEVIL BAT, KING OF THE ZOMBIES), Abbott and Costello comedies (IN SOCIETY, HERE COME THE CO-EDS, A&C TV series) and Bowery Boys titles.

 CONQUEST OF COCHISE (1953 Columbia)
Evidently George Montgomery and William Bishop were busy elsewhere, so producer Sam Katzman recruited Robert Stack for this medium budget color B-western. George and William should both thank Stack 1,000 times over! Charming lady-killer Major Stack is sent to make peace with Apache leader Cochise - ludicrously miscast, pudgy-faced former MGM star John Hodiak. Looking bored to tears, Hodiak seems to be thinking, "Remind me to fire my agent for this!" (Less than two years later he died of a heart attack at 41.) Try as he may, Stack (who found immortality at the end of the decade on TV's UNTOUCHABLES) cannot save this historically inaccurate, imbecilic western loaded with mismatched action stock footage and some of the phoniest looking green sets ever constructed. Inaccurate in that the film would have us believe there were 40,000 well-mounted ferocious Apache warriors in 1853 Arizona firing 1894 Winchesters. In fact, there were a few hundred rag-tag Chiricahua Apaches, on foot, with bows and arrows at most. But did Sam Katzman ever pay attention to accuracy? Stone-faced, non-actress Joy Page (Jack Warner's step daughter) is the leading lady in love with Cochise. William Castle's direction makes it feel like an extra 0 has been added to the 70 minute running time.

 SON OF A BADMAN (1949 Western Adventure Prod./Screen Guild)
A long hard day - you need a coupla beers, a tub of popcorn and a no-brainer B-western. Budweiser, Jiffy-Pop and Lash LaRue to the rescue! Knife-wielding masked bandit El Sombre is terrorizing the countryside in retribution for the vigilante hanging years earlier of his outlaw father. The first half of this B is one long Lash and Fuzzy vs. badmen Jack Ingram/Zon Murray cat and mouse chase. Then we settle down to figuring out if El Sombre is Sheriff Don Harvey, dentist Michael Whalen or land buyer Francis McDonald. Noel Neill is the token girl, who doesn't even show up until the last 15 minutes. Whip use - a three popper for Lash.

 THUNDER OVER THE PLAINS (1953 WARNER BROS.)
Texas, 1869: Following the Civil War, with Texas not yet having rejoined the Union, Texan and ex-Confederate soldier, Randolph Scott is now a Captain in the Union Army engaged in routing out Texas rebels led by Charles McGraw, a local Robin Hood opposing the carpetbaggers (Hugh Sanders, Elisha Cook Jr.) who have overrun the area, swindling local ranchers and bleeding them to death. While Scott has great distaste for his martial law assignment under his commander Henry Hull, he is a good soldier and performs his duty. Scott begins to act on his own after Sanders murders an informant (Jack Woody) and throws the blame on McGraw. A sub-plot involves brash young Capt. Lex Barker, fresh to the west - and not liking it - who makes a play for Scott's wife, Phyllis Kirk. Former B-western lead Lane Chandler has a good role as McGraw's second in command. Fess Parker, soon to gain fame as TV's DAVY CROCKETT, is also in McGraw's band. James Brown, TV star as Lt. Rip Masters on RIN TIN TIN, is Sander's gunman. Informant Jack Woody, a stuntman/actor, has one of his best roles here. He was once married to superb '30s screen actress, and later stage actress, Helen Twelvetrees. Andre de Toth directs crisply, but most viewers prefer Scott as a rugged westerner rather than confined to a Cavalry uniform. In color.

 WEST OF THE PECOS (1945 RKO)
Thoroughly entertaining B-western that borders on A status. This and NEVADA were absolute star-maker turns for Robert Mitchum who was supposedly only taking over RKO's B-westerns while Tim Holt was in the service. Witnessing Mitch's screen charisma, RKO quickly moved him up to A features with STORY OF G. I. JOE and replaced him in the westerns with James Warren. Great chemistry - sparks fly between Mitchum and Barbara Hale - who is delightful, also showing her star power as an eastern girl coming west with her father (Thurston Hall) and maid (Rita Corday). Hale masquerades as a young boy and the scenes at this point between she and Mitchum are electric. Your badguys are vigilante bandits Harry Woods and Russell Hopton who go after Mitchum and sidekick Richard 'Chito' Martin after Mitch guns downs Woods' outlaw brother (Perc Launders) who has killed Mitch's friend, stagecoach guard Bill Williams (Hale's real life husband) in a holdup. But the real core of the film is the dynamite relationship between Mitchum and Hale. Chito sings the Mexican standard "Celito Lindo". Filmed in Lone Pine, CA.

 LURE OF THE WASTELAND (1939 Al Lane Pictures)
Undercover Marshal Grant Withers helps outlaw LeRoy Mason break out of prison to discover where Mason hid $250,000 in stolen loot. Mason's old gang (Karl Hackett, Bob Terry, James Sheridan - aka Sherry Tansey) are also after the loot. But wait-it's already been moved by another former member of the bunch-now ranch-cook Snub Pollard. Written by director Harry Fraser under his alias of Munro Talbot, this is a very routine film with only the novelty of being in color giving it any interest. Song "Winds of the Wasteland" was written by badman Glenn Strange (who is not in the picture). Fleming Allen's "Ring Around the Moon" had been heard a year earlier in Bob Baker's GUILTY TRAILS. Both are sung here by an unbilled-and unknown-cowboy singer who also chimed in with the traditional "Home on the Range". Filmed in Kanab, UT.

 FORT UTAH (1967 Paramount)
Like most of the A. C. Lyles produced westerns, the joy is in seeing former stars banded together in a sort of all-star western. Like most of Steve Fisher's scripts, this one is filled with unnecessary exposition and trite dialogue but, to its credit, has more action than usual (the fist fights are practically uncountable) and more outdoor activity. John Ireland (as legendary Tom Horn) and Indian agent Robert Strauss try to save a wagon train (led by John Russell) from Indians and renegades (led by Scott Brady). Along the way Ireland falls for soiled dove Virginia Mayo as she attempts to ward off the unwanted attentions of James Craig, the wagon train bully. Rounding out the cast: Richard Arlen (man on the wagon train), Jim Davis, Harry Lauter, Don Barry (Army deserter renegades). Directed by Les Selander.

 MONTANA TERRITORY (1952 Columbia)
Young Lon McCallister witnesses the murderous killing of miner Trevor Bardette by club-footed Jack Elam, goateed Clayton Moore and guitar-strumming Robert Griffin. Later, McCallister, after saving Wanda Hendrix and her father Eddy Waller, is made a deputy by Sheriff Preston Foster, unaware Foster is himself the leader of the gang robbing miners of their claims. Although smallish Lon isn't what you envision as a two-fisted hero, the film (written and directed by Durango Kid action vets Barry Shipman and Ray Nazarro) is thrill-packed and better than you'd imagine. Excellent photography from Henry Freulich whose career reached back to 1929 and included mostly crime dramas and comedies. He didn't lens any westerns until the excellent ADVENTURES IN SILVERADO in '48. He did several after that at Columbia including this one and several Durango Kid and George Montgomery B's. Director Earl Bellamy worked with him many times and complimented the "skinny" but "very fine" cameraman's "wonderful work. He was fast, kept up the pace."

 RIDE CLEAR OF DIABLO (1954 Universal-International)
The first of three teamings of Audie Murphy and badman Dan Duryea. Their contrasting screen personalities made the most of George Zuckerman's witty screenplay. Duryea's manic gunfighter, with semi-deranged laugh, sloppy appearance and totally amoral outlook, was the perfect counterpoint to Audie's relaxed, neat, wryly comic, understated acting. Audie is a young railroad surveyor on the trail of cattle rustlers who have gunned down his father and brother. Crooked sheriff Paul Birch, actually responsible for the rustling and murders along with Russell Johnson and William Pullen, deputizes Audie and sends him off believing notorious gunman Dan Duryea is the guilty one in hopes Audie will be killed. To their surprise, Audie not only captures Duryea but wins him over as an ally in smoking out the real killers. The chemistry between Duryea and Audie is explosive, but the film is hurt by the weak villainy of Birch, Pullen and Johnson. Also with Susan Cabot (the sheriff's niece and Audie's love interest), saloon singer Abbe Lane, Jack Elam, Mike Ragan and Lane Bradford as outlaw brothers, Denver Pyle as a reverend along with bit parts assigned to Lee Aaker, Eddie Dew, James Griffith, Ray Bennett, Hank Patterson, Carol Henry, Ray Boyle (later Dick London) and Robert Bray.

 SONG OF ARIZONA (1946 Republic)
Republic's version of BOY'S TOWN ('38) which they also touched on in IDAHO ('43). Longtime outlaw Lyle Talbot, on the run from the law, stops by Gabby Hayes' Half-A-Chance Boy's Ranch to see his son, the excellent Tommy Cook, whom he left at the ranch years ago. Over the years, Talbot has sent his son "a package" to hold for him, which contains stolen money. Before Talbot can recover the loot, the sheriff arrives causing Talbot to flee.and eventually be shot and killed. Meanwhile, Gabby is about to lose his ranch for back payments on a loan to skinflint banker Sarah Edwards. Enter Roy Rogers, an ex-graduate of the ranch, who helps Gabby rehabilitate young Cook to the point Cook secretly pays off Gabby's loan with the stolen loot. All the while, Dick Curtis, Kid Chisell and Tom Quinn, remaining members of Talbot's gang, are trying to force Cook into giving them the money. Dale Evans enters the picture as Cook's long-lost half-sister from back East who comes west to reunite with Cook after she learns her outlaw father has been killed. Besides Cook, nearly every kid actor working is featured in this one - Michael Chapin, Tommy Ivo, Don Kay Reynolds, Teddy Infuhr, Johnny Calkins and the Robert Mitchell Boychoir, to whom too much running time is given over to their ill-fitting-in-a-western music, leaving Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers stranded, at least until the finale. The delightful highlight of the film is Roy, Dale (and a calf) singing "Will You Be My Darlin'". Beaware, there is one glaring politically incorrect blackface joke that is quite embarrassing for a Rogers picture. Make a note in your calendar to watch this come Halloween for the big musical entry, "When Mr. Spook Steps Out".

 UNDER FIESTA STARS (1941 Republic)
Rodeo star Gene Autry and spoiled city gal Carol Hughes jointly inherit late Dad Erwin's ranch and mining property. Carol's the niece, Gene's the orphan Erwin raised. Naturally, neither can sell without the other's consent. Gene is interested in operating the mine according to Dad's wishes, thereby helping the Mexican rancheros who work there. However, Carol wants to sell out for the ready cash. After a flirtation with Gene (and Smiley Burnette by Carol's pal Pauline Drake) fails to dissuade him, Carol unwittingly hooks up with unscrupulous lawyers Ivan Miller and Sam Flint who plot to steal the mine from Carol and run Gene off by force through their henchman John Merton. This release introduced the character of Tadpole, a junior look-a-like version of Smiley, as played by Joe Strauch Jr. in five of Gene's films (and one with Smiley and Bob Livingston). He wasn't welcomed by Autry fans - and from the serious smacks in the head Smiley gives him here, he wasn't welcomed by the egotistical Burnette either, who probably saw Strauch as stealing screen time and laughs from him. The mine area here is Bronson Cave, seen first in an Autry film in Gene's PHANTOM EMPIRE serial as the entrance to the underground world of Murania. Watch for the unique two-men-on-one-horse fight at the windup. The idea was repeated in Roy Rogers' MAN FROM MUSIC MOUNTAIN ('43).

 GUNNING FOR JUSTICE (1948 Monogram)
By early 1947, Barney A. Sarecky took over the producing chores on Johnny Mack Brown's series from Scotty Dunlap and Charles Bigelow, marking a noted downturn in the films. Assuredly, there were some good westerns made under Sarecky's helmsmanship, but overall Johnny Mack's Monograms began to assume a grist-mill sameness. Sarecky did bring in Max Terhune (1891-1973) with SHERIFF OF MEDICINE BOW ('48) to work with Brown and long-time saddle-pal Raymond Hatton, giving the series two comics for a matter of three films - then Hatton hung it up, leaving only Terhune who was gone himself after five entries. By then Sarecky himself left the series. GUNNING FOR JUSTICE, a good title, was no better or no worse than the other Sarecky Browns in the '47-'49 period. When Ted Adams is released from prison, owlhoots I. Stanford Jolley, House Peters Jr., Carol Henry and Boyd Stockman ambush him looking for a map showing the location to hidden gold hijacked during the Civil War. Brown disrupts their ambush and before he dies, Adams passes a note to Johnny Mack to give to "Ed". Problem is - Ed who? Medicine show operators Raymond Hatton and Max Terhune (with his "animated splinter" Elmer) help Johnny Mack and leading lady Evelyn Finley find out who "Ed" is and where the gold is buried, but not without lots of interference from Jolley's outfit.

 TO THE LAST MAN (1933 Paramount)
After spending 15 years in prison for a feudal killing, Noah Beery Sr. and jail cell pal, Jack LaRue, bring Beery's old Kentucky family feud to Nevada to even the score with the Hayden family-patriarch Egon Brecher, son Buster Crabbe and his wife Muriel Kirkland, daughter Gail Patrick and son-in-law Barton MacLane, and son Randolph Scott. The two clans virtually annihilate each other before the love of Scott for Beery's wild daughter Esther Ralston brings an end to the bitter, bloody feud. Zane Grey's 1921 novel was loosely based on the Tonto Basin War (aka Pleasant Valley War) in Arizona in the 1880s and 1890s. Henry Hathaway's picture is a remake of Victor Fleming's 1923 version of Paramount's film with Richard Dix. Loosely remade once more by RKO in '47 as THUNDER MOUNTAIN with Tim Holt. Watch for a four year old Shirley Temple in a small part as MacLane and Patrick's daughter. Esther Ralston's much talked about "nude bathing scene" is way overblown. She's glimpsed diving off a boulder from a mile away. Besides, Ralston wore a body suit. Hathaway took the unique approach of introducing each character by printed on-screen titles as they make their entrance - which, for some, runs halfway into the film.

 ROBBERS OF THE RANGE (1941 RKO)
At one point Tim Holt tells leading lady Virginia Vale, "It must be a little hard for you to understand all this." It is an involved plot, so don't get in even 5 minutes after it starts. Lusting for land, crooked land agent LeRoy Mason and his range-rats (Ernie Adams, Bud Osborne, Tom London, Ray Bennett) representing the railroad, frame Tim for the murder of a neighboring rancher when Tim refuses to sell his property. To fight back, Tim and his pals, Ray 'Smokey' Whitley and Emmett 'Whopper' Lynn join up with the Rancher's Protective Association headed by Howard Hickman and his daughter Virginia Vale. As the ads read, "Desperate ranch owners defending their homes in the seething Southwest's last-ditch hideout of two-gun terror - with Tim the target of both friend and deadly foe."

 HIDDEN VALLEY OUTLAWS (1944 Republic)
Wild Bill Elliott and Gabby Hayes are really up to their necks deep in cow-patties this time! "Head Rights" certificates were issued to Civil War veterans by a grateful U. S. Government. Each paper entitled its bearer to any quarter section of land not then occupied. But often these "Head Rights" fell into the unscrupulous hands of crooked individuals such as lawyer Roy Barcroft who seeks, by misuse of them, to grab choice lands on which earlier settlers had lived for years. Barcroft's land grab "heads righters", whistling LeRoy Mason, Kenne Duncan, Charles Morton and Frank McCarroll murder rancher Charles Miller and, although caught, are acquitted. Miller's son, headstrong John James, swears vengeance on the four against his sister Anne Jeffrey's protests. After James guns down Morton and McCarroll, the fearful outlaws put into play an elaborate scheme, sending for legendary lawmen Wild Bill and Gabby to get James, dead or alive, on instructions from a phony sheriff, actor Earle Hodgins hired by Barcroft. Thinking they killed James, when it was really the land grab gang, Bill and Gabby are jailed by the real sheriff, Tom London. It takes all the muscle and wit Bill and Gabby can muster to straighten this one out! Excellent plot-driven Bob Williams/John K. Butler script with witty by-play between the badmen with Hodgins a standout as actor Hamlet. One point misfires - Mason is called Canary, whistling all the time, but it's poorly done and too obviously dubbed in.

 SON OF OKLAHOMA (1932 SonoArt-World Wide)
Off beat, unusual Bob Steele in which coincidence is accelerated to a prominent degree. While Robert Homans sleeps in his wagon in the desert, despicable Earl Dwire threatens Homan's wife (Josie Sedgwick) that he will kill Homans if she does not leave with him. She does so reluctantly, leaving a note for her sleeping husband. Her baby son falls out of the back of Dwire's wagon and is lost. Meanwhile, Dwire returns and kills Homans. The baby is found in the desert unharmed by Julian Rivero, who with his wife, rear the child to adulthood as Bob Steele. Years have passed and now Sedgewick is the tough owner of a saloon known as Shotgun Mary. She has long parted with Dwire, but he reappears trying (here's where coincidence comes in) to rob Rivero and family of their gold mine. Coincidence hastens coincidence, but suffice it to say, without revealing all the startling surprises, all's well that ends well. Production was delayed when Steele broke his arm on location near Palmdale, CA.

 RIDING FOR JUSTICE (1932 Columbia)
One of Buck Jones' most unusual westerns has him becoming involved with a married woman (Mary Doran). The film begins innocently and playfully with a fun-loving devil-may-care attitude from Buck teasing his fellow ranch hands about eating snails in France. Popular with the gals at the local saloon, Buck gets his hackles up when he's told by town deputy Walter Miller to obey the new law and check his gun. Showing off for the girls, he refuses, bracing Miller and sending him skittering off to tell Marshal Russell Simpson of Buck's defiance. The scowling Simpson is married to Mary Doran who feels trapped in a loveless marriage to an older uncaring man. When Simpson also braces Buck in town about the new "no guns" law, Buck escapes with Simpson's posse in hot pursuit. During his escape, he playfully decides to hide out at the Marshal's own house - figuring it's the last place the lawman would look for him, having no idea Simpson is married. Upon meeting Mary, the two fall nearly instantly in love, but Buck tells her he's broken many laws, "but this is one law I won't break." They attend a masked ball together where they are recognized by deputy Miller who has lust in his heart - and elsewhere - for Mary. After Mary vows to return to Vermont to obtain a divorce and Buck agrees to wait for her, Buck takes Mary home, leaving his gun with her for protection. Shortly after he leaves, Miller enters. Buck hears a scream and a gunshot, returning to find Miller dead as Mary collapses, having killed him to ward off his lecherous advances. Just then - Marshal Simpson and the posse return, believing Buck to be the murderer. To protect Mary, Buck says nothing of what really happened. The next day, with the maddened town and Marshal ready to hang Buck, Mary confesses to her husband what really transpired. Although Simpson tells Mary he will release Buck, the prideful Marshal secretly plans to go ahead with the lynching. The film is well structured by director D. Ross Lederman as it builds quickly from its not unusual comedic carefree Buck Jones manner to quite unusual for a B-western adult themes. All concerned deserve credit for their bravery in trying something very different within the B-western framework.

 MARSHAL OF CEDAR ROCK (1953 Republic)
Marshal Allan 'Rocky' Lane allows Bill Henry, wrongfully imprisoned for the theft of $100,000 from the Cedar Rock Bank, to escape from prison hoping the stolen money can be recovered. The real culprit is ruthless banker Roy Barcroft (with his henchmen John Crawford, Art Dillard) who have now killed a railroad representative sent to purchase right-of-way land from local ranchers (such as Eddy Waller and his daughter Phyllis Coates) and replaced him with their own imposter, Robert Shayne, in a plot to buy up the land at dirt cheap prices and sell high to the railroad. Under the have-you-ever-noticed category - is it an unwritten rule in B-westerns that the least important henchman get shot first, then the right hand man, finally the big boss?

 RAIDERS OF THE RANGE (1942 Republic)
Serial-like in construction as the 3 Mesquiteers (Tom Tyler, Bob Steele, Rufe Davis) fight oil well sabotage by local saloon owner Frank Jacquet who holds a second option lease on 'Doc' Tom Chatterton's oil property. To remove him, oil driller Dennis Moore, in the employ of Jacquet, frames Doc Chatterton for the inadvertent poisoning of another driller, Fred Kohler Jr. Eventually, Moore's cowardice gives him away when he believes Jacquet has poisoned him also in order to shut him up. Chatterton's daughter is Lois Collier, often referred to as the 4th Mesquiteer because she was the leading "girl" in so many of the 3M titles. Plenty of thrills make this one of the best latter-day Mesquiteer adventures. Directed by John English.

 BROTHERS OF THE WEST (1937 Victory)
Dorothy Short sends for her Cattleman Detective Agency brother-in-law, Tom Tyler, when her husband, Tom's brother (Bob Terry), disappears and is suspected of robbery and murder of a bank president. Tom then encounters Lois Wilde, daughter of the murdered banker, who is also searching for Tom's brother, believing Terry killed her Dad. Meanwhile, Terry is being held prisoner in a shack by the real varmints, lawyer Roger Williams (Wilde's sort-of fiancée), Dave O'Brien (Dorothy Short's real life husband) and Jim Corey. Seems Terry hid the money after the robbery and Williams is keeping him prisoner until he reveals where he stashed the loot. Whoa, Tom! Watch where Tom places his mitt when he helps Lois Wilde onto her horse-and her reaction. Sam Katzman produced - and directed this one. His directorial work had a quiet directness to it - straight forward A-B-C storytelling with no frills and never any real excitement. The film is there, you watch it, it's pleasant, it's over, and quickly forgotten. Tom Tyler was scheduled to marry his oft-time leading lady, Jeanne Martel, the evening this film was completed and was to join Wallace Brothers Circus the next day. What? No honeymoon?

 LAWLESS NINETIES (1936 Republic)
In 1890, lawless elements are opposed to Wyoming statehood as it would spell the end to their illegal activities. Crusading southern newspaperman, Major George Hayes, has moved west with his lovely daughter, Ann Rutherford. Hayes supports statehood and opposes the crooked politics of the so-called chairman of the Committee On Law and Order, Harry Woods, and his range rats Al Bridge, Tom London, George Chesebro, Charlie King, Cliff Lyons, Lew Meehan. Just before the statehood election, the Dept. of Justice sends in two 1890's G-Men of the range, John Wayne and Lane Chandler, to ensure an honest election. The lawless element fights back, murdering both Chandler and Hayes, but their political corruption and crooked dealings backfire and eventually the citizens rise up and Wyoming wins statehood. Black actors Etta McDaniel and Fred 'Snowflake' Toones, although servants, are allowed to be more human rather than film stereotypes in Joseph Poland's script. Incidentally, Earl Seaman plays Teddy Roosevelt, although he's not really "seen".

 WHERE THE NORTH BEGINS (1947 Screen Guild)
Russell Hayden brings redcoat justice to whiskey runners in 40 minutes. Steve Barclay is a Mountie working undercover with Cariboo town boss Tris Coffin (and his whisky runners Anthony Warde, Keith Richards, Denver Pyle) but is discovered to be a Mountie and is killed by Tris. Pyle's unwitting sister, Jennifer Holt, is then used by Pyle to throw investigating Mountie Hayden off their trail. Although writer James Oliver Curwood's name was used, the story was not based on any of his works. This was the last of four "streamliners" (40 minute running time) produced by Robert L. Lippert for his Screen Guild corporation. By early '49, Lippert reorganized Screen Guild and was releasing product under the new name of Lippert Pictures.

 NORTHERN PATROL (1953 Allied Artists)
Pretty good Kirby Grant Northwest Mountie entry as he and his dog Chinook track down killers searching for treasure in the ancient Indian burial ground known as the Valley of the Dead. Warren Douglas' script keeps this one moving. Grant finds Gloria Talbott's fiancée hanged with a suicide note attached, but the Mountie's instincts tell him it's murder. Soon he and Chinook are on the trail of the Quebec Kid, a leather-clad lady gunslinger (Marian Carr), card sharp Dale Van Sickel and Talbott's obnoxious brother, Bill Phipps. Unusual for the series, Grant wears his corporal uniform all the way through the film.

 FIGHTING VALLEY (1943 PRC)
Pretty Patti McCarty's Independent Smelting Company is being forced out of business when their ore shipments are hijacked on their way from various mines by Stanley Price, Charles King, Carl Mathews. McCarthy's fiancée and business consultant is sleazy tenderfoot Robert Bice (in his first film) who plans to sell out to mine owner John Merton (secretly the boss of the ore raiders). Mary MacLaren, owner of another mine, asks for help from the Texas Rangers (Dave O'Brien, James Newill, Guy Wilkerson). Tex Williams and two other musicians provide a little music along with Newill. Routine PRC stuff.

 SEMINOLE UPRISING (1955 Columbia)
Lt. George Montgomery is the half-white/half-Indian brother of Seminole Chief Black Cat (Steven Ritch) who has fled his Florida reservation in 1855, headed for Texas. Montgomery is sent to retrieve Black Cat who has taken Colonel Howard Wright's daughter (Karin Booth) prisoner. Conflict arises between Lt. Montgomery and treacherous Capt. Ed Hinton who are both in love with Booth. Hinton is the real life father of Darby Hinton who was Israel Boone, Fess Parker's son on TV's DANIEL BOONE. This was the first of many western movies and hundreds of TV shows (RIN TIN TIN, LONE RANGER, LARAMIE, SGT. PRESTON, TALES OF WELLS FARGO, RAWHIDE, VIRGINIAN, WAGON TRAIN, etc.) directed by Earl Bellamy who had started as an assistant director back in 1935. Veteran character actor William Fawcett is Montgomery's trusty scout (and part-time narrator of the film). Movie suffers from mismatched action stock footage.

 WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE (1951 Monogram)
The genesis of this plot really began with FLAMING BULLETS ('45) with Tex Ritter and Dave O'Brien and was then milked to death every few years - STAR OF TEXAS ('53) with Wayne Morris, LAST OF THE BADMEN ('57) with George Montgomery and finally - -and thankfully - GUNFIGHT AT COMANCHE CREEK ('63) with Audie Murphy. A gang (Marshall Reed, Zon Murray, Kenne Duncan) bossed by Leonard Penn is breaking wanted outlaws out of jail then killing them to collect the reward. Marshals Whip Wilson, Fuzzy Knight and Jim Bannon bring to justice these polecats. Features Christine McIntyre. Whip uses his snakeskin once very quickly.

 UTAH KID (1944 Monogram)
Bob Steele/Hoot Gibson co-starrer is a remake of John Wayne's MAN FROM UTAH ('34). Lindsley Parsons wrote the Wayne film (the weakest of his Lone Star series) and was now producer of this short-lived Gibson-Steele threesome. Screenplay here is credited to Victor Hammond, but it's just a rewrite with Steele and Gibson as Marshals uncovering a gang (Mauritz Hugo, Evelynne Eaton, Dan White, Ralph Lewis) who have made a racket out of fixing rodeo events. Although Hooter is billed first, it's really a Steele film. Either way, it's pretty slim stuff with a weak plot and nondescript heavies burdened by too much rodeo stock footage (over 8 minutes) and rodeo announcer "comedy antics" from Earle Hodgins.

 CAST A LONG SHADOW (1959 United Artists)
Audie Murphy's first western away from home territory at Universal, and, significantly, his first in b/w, is a below par Thomas Carr directed feature obviously made on a limited budget, made apparent by the cattle drive stock from RED RIVER. Believed to be the illegitimate son of a wealthy rancher, derelict wanderer Audie unexpectedly inherits a huge cattle spread. Wallowing in self pity and, at first, a bullying tyrant, Audie's acting is overshadowed by John Dehner's compassionate, authoritative performance in a father-figure love/hate relationship. Forced to undertake a cattle drive to save the ranch from ruin, Audie overcomes turmoil from outside - and inside - and succeeds. Terry Moore is Audie's girl with James Best a rival for her affections.

 CHEYENNE CYCLONE (1932 Kent)
Lanky, out of work cowpoke Lane Chandler goes to work for rancher Jay Hunt and his grand-daughter Marie Quillan whose Lost River Ranch is failing for lack of water. Lane and Marie (looking like Snow White) are put upon by businessman Edward Hearn and his henchies led by Slim Whitaker who know there's water underground and want the ranch to control water rights. After Lane's orphan pal Frankie Darro discovers the underground river, Chandler hires driller Yakima Canutt to sink an Artesian well not realizing Yak is actually in the employ of Hearn. Bottom of the barrel stuff. Screenplay by Oliver Drake who takes a bit part as a driller in the picture. Director Armand 'Mandy' Schaefer (1898-1967) is better known as a producer. Born in Ontario, Canada, he entered the movie business as a prop man for Mack Sennett in 1924, became an assistant director, then a director from '31-'35 for independents like Kent, Mascot (8 serials), Majestic and Monogram. When Mascot merged with Republic, Schaefer went along. As he'd supervised Gene Autry's PHANTOM EMPIRE at Mascot, Mandy produced most of Autry's westerns from '35-'37. By 1944 he was producing Roy Rogers' films. After the war, Mandy produced three of Gene's final five at Republic, then moved with the singing cowboy to Columbia where he became president of Flying A Productions and was producer on Gene's films and TV series.

 PALS OF THE WEST (1934 Pizor Imperial)
Rangers Wally Wales and Al Hoxie capture a band of outlaws led by Yakima Canutt. All in 30 minutes. Simple as it gets. Sheriff is oldtimer Franklyn Farnum. Girl is Jean Harlow-ish Dorothy Grittins.

 GHOST TOWN (1936 Commodore)
A fast beginning, a slow midsection while 'Cheyenne Harry' Carey is mistakenly in jail, and a punch finish make for fair entertainment. Crooked promoters Roger Williams, Lee Shumway and Chuck Morrison, hiding out in ghost town, shoot miner Earl Dwire who is carrying $10,000 and throw suspicion on Cheyenne Harry. Dave Sharpe is cast as a young deputy. Commodore picked up the Carey westerns where Ajax left off in late '35 with LAST OF THE CLINTONS. Although Carey had played a character not unlike his Cheyenne Harry role which he'd essayed in silents for director John Ford, he wasn't referred to specifically as Cheyenne Harry until two for Commodore (ACES WILD is the other). Although the films were still under the same production set-up as the Ajax four (William Berke producing, Harry Fraser directing, and writing, too, under his Monroe Talbot alias), there was one other slight change, Harry's horse Sonny was now billed as "Sonny, the Marvel Horse" rather than "Sonny, the Wonder Horse". Incidentally, although spelled "Sonny" in all advertising for the six Ajax and Commodore titles, Harry Carey Jr. says, "My father's horse was Sunny, not Sonny, because his coat reminded my Dad of the Sun. Sunny died at John Ford's Photo Farm in 1951 at 28. Dad didn't share the horse with any other actors." So, other horses named Sonny (ridden by Betty Miles, etc.) may look similar but are not Carey's Sunny. Commodore, started by independent film distributor William Steiner, was formed to handle product for Reliable and Supreme. They also produced eight features of their own, four of them B-westerns, two with Carey and two with Fred Kohler Jr. The company lasted just less than a year.

 OUTLAW'S DAUGHTER (1954 Regal/Fox)
Kelly Ryan is the daughter of an ex-outlaw (Nelson Leigh) whom she believes was killed by Marshal Jim Davis and his deputy Big Boy Williams. Ryan goes on the owlhoot trail with Bill Williams (and his gang, Elisha Cook Jr., George Barrows) unaware it was Bill Williams who really murdered her father. Eventually, Ryan wises up when Williams shows his true brutal colors.) Ryan, who was married to Guy Madison at the time, made her film debut here, beginning an abbreviated movie career. Watch for Richard (Tom Keene) Powers in the role of a bank manager. Filmed around Kanab, UT, in Eastmancolor. Produced and directed by Wesley Barry, a former silent child star. Audiences in the '50s seemed to gravitate to the sub-genre of westerns that featured outlaw women - and they remain popular today. A few of the others were HELLFIRE ('49) with Marie Windsor, TWO GUN LADY ('56) with Peggie Castle, OUTLAW WOMEN ('52) with Marie Windsor, DALTON GIRLS ('57) with Penny Edwards and Merry Anders, ROSE OF CIMARRON ('52) with Mala Powers, BELLE STARR'S DAUGHTER ('47) with Ruth Roman, HAWK OF POWDER RIVER ('48) with Jennifer Holt, TEXAN MEETS CALAMITY JANE ('50) with Evelyn Ankers, BANDIT QUEEN ('50) with Barbara Britton, WOMAN THEY ALMOST LYNCHED ('53) with Audrey Totter, JESSE JAMES' WOMEN ('54) with Peggie Castle, MAVERICK QUEEN ('56) with Barbara Stanwyck, among others.

 STAGE TO CHINO (1940 RKO)
Virginia Vale comes into ownership of a stageline between Prescott and Chino, unaware her devious uncle, Carl Stockdale, who is managing the line, is secretly plotting with saloon owner and rival stage line owner, fancy dressing dude Roy Barcroft, to force Virginia to sell out at a ridiculously low figure. Postal inspector George O'Brien, even more cock-sure of himself than usual, comes to beleaguered Virginia's aid as a stage driver. Barcroft's men (Tom London, Harry Cording, Glenn Strange) do everything they can to wreck Virginia's chances of success. There's some well-developed friendly camaraderie between O'Brien and roughneck rival stageline driver William Haade. Hobart Cavanaugh as a timid drummer passes for what is usually termed "comic relief". Fleming Allen's title tune is sung (over the credits) by Ray Whitley although he's not seen in the picture. The 3 songs come from yodeler Nora Lou Martin and the Pals of the Golden West, a group also seen in Universal's BOSS OF HANGTOWN MESA and SILVER BULLET both with Johnny Mack Brown in '42.

 CARSON CITY CYCLONE (1943 Republic)
Many of Don Barry's film stories had unusual twists, different from the usual hero/badman plots found in standard B-westerns. It elevated Barry's series. CARSON CITY CYCLONE is no exception, in fact, one of the best with a script by Norman S. Hall that must have inspired director Howard Bretherton to put a little extra into it. Matching brain against brawn, Barry is a regular frontier Johnnie Cochran, defending and getting off murderer Curley Dresden as he opposes prosecutor Roy Barcroft. Barry's disapproving father is banker/judge Noah Beery Sr. while his secretary is Barry's girl, Lynn Merrick. Respected Dr. Bryant Washburn is the secret leader of an outlaw gang (Stuart Hamblen, Jack Kirk, Bud Geary). When the bank is robbed and Don's Dad killed by Washburn (cleverly using a doctor's stethoscope to hear the bank safe tumblers), Don is arrested for the crime. It's Linda who gives Don info that eventually leads him to Dr. Washburn.

 FEUD OF THE WEST (1936 Diversion)
Hoot Gibson looks a little out of his element as a two gun wearing hombre when he hooks up undercover with nasty Bob Kortman's outlaw bunch to obtain evidence they killed the son of Hoot's rancher employer, Ed Cassidy. In a saloon brawl, Hoot is blamed for the stabbing of Cassidy and flees, getting help soon from pretty Joan Barclay and her grandfather Nelson McDowell. Cassidy recovers from the stabbing only to find his foreman, Reed Howes, working in cahoots with Kortman's gang. After several plot swerves and deviations it's discovered McDowell's granddaughter (Barclay) is the daughter of McDowell's daughter and Cassidy's son, leaving her heir to Cassidy's vast ranch, as Hooter's wife, natch. The overly complicated plot is based on Russell Bankson's story, Feud of the Rocking U.

 DOWN LAREDO WAY (1953 Republic)
The ads proclaimed "More action than ever before" - but there isn't. Way too much screen time is spent on young Judy Nugent and gypsy Dona Drake in this skimpy budget near-the-end-of-the-trail Republic B. Rex Allen (with pal Slim Pickens) is the star attraction of a western Rodeo Circus. Aerial attraction Clayton Moore discovers his fiancée Marjorie Lord is a diamond smuggler, hiding the Mexican diamonds inside his 8 year old daughter Judy Nugent's doll, The Duchess (an inside Republic joke?). When Moore is killed in a circus accident, Lord conspires with a phony Judge (gnomish, whispery-voiced Percy Helton) and his henchmen, Roy Barcroft and Zon Murray, to gain custody of Judy and discover where Moore hid the booty. If you like "cat-fights", there's a good one between Lord and Drake at the end. Republic nepotism invaded the Allen pictures at this point as prexy Herbert J. Yates replaced producer Edward J. White with Rudy Ralston, the brother of Yates' wife, Vera Ralston. Rudy was totally unqualified according to many Republic employees of the era, spending hardly any time with the remaining four Allen films, or any others he was assigned to. A section of a Republic one-sheet substitutes for an Allen rodeo poster in the first scene of the movie.

 SAN ANTONE (1953 Republic)
Mexico is struggling under the leadership of Jaurez to overthrow the foreign dictator, Maximilian. From the Civil War, Rod Cameron and Forrest Tucker have a long standing dislike for each other stemming from a fight over love interest Arleen Whelan (who overacts with wild abandon). Tucker becomes a Rebel marauder, killing Cameron's father in a raid. Cameron swears revenge and later locates Tucker, captured by Mexican revolutionaries when he tried to join Maximilian, when Cameron and his boys (Harry Carey Jr., Bob Steele, James Liburn) head up a cattle drive to Mexico. Along with Cameron on the drive is Rod's Mexican girlfriend Katy Jurado, whose brother Rudolph Acosta, is the revolutionary holding Tucker ransom for 500 head of cattle, and the double-dealing Whelan, now Tucker's fiancée. Whelan and Jurado's hatred for one another finally erupts during the trail drive into a mean cat-fight. It's a complicated 90 minutes, and writer Steve Fisher leaves nothing out of Curt Carroll's novel, The Golden Herd. Director Joe Kane strives for an epic sweep, the Civil War, President Lincoln (played by Richard Hale), Lee's surrender to Grant, the Mexican revolution and the Battle of Monterey, but it all comes off a bit flat. One of the highlights is Harry Carey Jr., Bob Steele and James Liburn (using their real names (Dobe, Bob, Jim) singing "Ten Thousand Cattle", "Streets of Laredo" and "South of San Antone".

 IDAHO (1943 Republic)
With Gene Autry in the service, Roy Rogers was getting the big publicity buildup from Republic. With the bigger budgets and added running time (this was Roy's first to go 70 minutes), it is clear Roy was now "King of the Studio". Judge Harry Shannon wants a clean community for the wayward youngsters of his Boy's Town to grow up in, feeling the local gambling joint run by Osa Munson should be closed down. Rangers Rogers and Onslow Stevens are friendly rivals for the affections of Shannon's daughter, Virginia Grey. Problem here is, Shannon has a past, he was once a hold-up man, but has now gone straight trying to help youths. Bank robbers on the lam, Dick Purcell and Arthur Hohl, stumble across Shannon and are aware of his past. Once they form an alliance with Munson it begins to look bad for Shannon's Boy's Town rehabilitation center. Plenty of music from the Robert Mitchell Boy Choir, Sons of the Pioneers and Roy, but too little action.

 RANGE JUSTICE (1949 Monogram)
Typical Johnny Mack Brown B for the time-pleasant (a good bar fight, some gun play, time-worn plot, mild ending) but nothing special. Brown goes to work for good friend/rancher Sarah Padden to straighten out the old feud between she and neighboring ranchers Riley Hill and his sis (hardly noticeable Felice Ingersoll). At the bottom of it is real estate agent Tris Coffin stirring up both sides so Padden will sell out, giving him all the water rights. Coffin's main henchie is Padden's foreman, Fred Kohler Jr., who has a variety of gunnies working for him who come and go throughout the picture - Eddie Parker, Myron Healey, Kenne Duncan, Bob Woodward, Bill Hale. For a break, director Ray Taylor gives Brown film-regular Bill Potter a chance to warble a song on the bunkhouse porch midway through the film. Watch for the scene when Brown fires at some heavies, really startling his friend Max Terhune who is standing beside him. Also Brown blows a line, saying to Max, "Still see you've got Elmer." Should have been "I see you've still got Elmer."

 SADDLE PALS (1947 Republic)
This remake of the Weaver Brothers and Elviry's IN OLD MISSOURI ('40) was better suited to their rural comedic style and should never have been adapted as a Gene Autry picture by Bob Williams and Jerry Sackheim. Dorrell and Stuart McGowan wrote the original. As is, it's the worst of Gene's postwar Republics with way too much silliness from nervous hypochondriac Sterling Holloway and too little western adventure. Land Corporation board members Damian O'Flynn and Charles Arnt sneak extravagant rent increases through while Holloway fishes. With Holloway's power of attorney, Gene helps out pretty Lynne Roberts and her kid sister Jean Val. "Amapola" by Gene and the Cass County Boys is a standout as well as "You Stole My Heart" which Gene warbles twice.

 LONE HAND TEXAN (1947 Columbia)
Froggy (Smiley Burnette) goes a courtin' and stupidly gives away all the good guys' plans to widow Mary Newton who is secretly heading up the gang (George Chesebro, John Cason, Art Dillard) wrecking oil man Fred Sears' oil drilling operations so he'll lose his oil leases, allowing Newton to buy them up cheaply and sell high to the unscrupulous Sky-Hi Oil Company. Their scheme is thwarted by Charles Starrett-The Durango Kid. Smiley's silly-ditty songs are more uninspired than usual with the aid of his two near-clones, Mustard and Gravy. Routine Durango.

 THE DEAD DON'T DREAM (1948 United Artists)
One of the most intriguing titles ever assigned to a B-western. Unfortunately, the film itself is a slow moving (but not uninteresting) old dark house murder mystery in which three men die and disappear from a closed room after Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and California (Andy Clyde) accompany their young pal lucky (Rand Brooks) to an inn where he's to marry Mary Tucker (aka Mary Ware in the previous HOPPY'S HOLIDAY). Your suspects are wheelchair-bound inn owner John Parrish, his young brother Bob Gabriel, hulking handyman Richard Alexander, Sheriff Forbes Murray, old prospector Stanley Andrews, and mine co-owners Leonard Penn and Francis MacDonald. Frances Rosenwald's screenplay owes much to all the locked-room, old dark house mysteries of the '30s and early '40s.

 PRINCE OF THE PLAINS (1949 Republic)
The film opens with this prologue: "Much has been written, both truth and fiction, of the exploits of Bat Masterson. This story deals with a little known incident which is believed to have led Masterson to embark on his career as a peace officer." In actuality, the story presented here of Masterson's father being killed in a stage robbery has no basis in fact. With banker Owens murdered, photographer and bank stockholder Rory Mallison plans to take over as soon as he also kills off the soon-to-arrive son of Owens, Harry Lauter. Through a set of circumstances, Monte Hale foils the attempted murder, but believing Lauter dead, Monte (with the help of Sheriff Paul Hurst) masquerades as Lauter to save the institution from bankruptcy. Via more odd circumstances, Mallison and henchman Roy Barcroft find the only stunned Lauter, befriend him, then confront Hale with the real banker's son, making it look to the town like Hale was out to benefit only himself. Mallison is abetted by timid bank clerk George Carleton and gunmen Barcroft and Lane Bradford. As a 'singing cowboy', Monte's day had passed. He only sings about two bars of "Owensville Jail" in this feature. Strong, involving story but a bit slow on the action content. Stock footage of a cliff top fight from Bill Elliott's OVERLAND MAIL ROBBERY is reused at the climax.