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

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

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

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

The Ratings

Superior

Good

OK

Poor

A real dud !

 FIREBRANDS OF ARIZONA (1944 Republic)
A B-western classic! The funniest film Republic ever made. Determined to cure her hypochondriac, pill-guzzling, ranch hand, Smiley (Frog) Burnette, ranch owner Peggy Stewart sends Frog off to a distant medical specialist, accompanied by his pal Sunset Carson. Frog and Sunset are fired upon by a posse believing Frog to be wanted outlaw Beefsteak Discoe, whom he resembles to a T. Badmen (Bud Geary, Jack Kirk, Pierce Lyden, Frank McCarroll, Frank Ellis), also believing Frog to be their boss Beefsteak, rescue the pair who hightail it into town where the local populace, including horses and cigar store Indians, run from them in terror - again mistaking Frog for Beefsteak. Sheriff Earle Hodgins (who practically steals the picture with his mannerisms and ad-libs) captures Frog, pegging him as the notorious outlaw. Poor Frog is about to be hung (at this point every "hanging joke" ever conceived is trotted out) until the real outlaw pulls a stage robbery. Then it's a merry who's who mix-up comedy of errors of which there is none funnier. The surrealistic scenes between Frog and wagon driver Tom London are absolutely delightful. Nothing like FIREBRANDS OF ARIZONA has ever been seen in B-westerns before or since. Delightfully scripted by Randall Faye (1892-1948) who began as a story writer for silent films in 1926. In the '30s he also worked as a director and producer. Oddly, his other scripts are straight action westerns - BRANDED ('31) and McKENNA OF THE MOUNTED ('32) with Buck Jones, TEXAS CYCLONE ('32) with Tim McCoy, CHEYENNE WILDCAT ('44) and GREAT STAGECOACH ROBBERY ('45) with Bill Elliott. This was Smiley's last of four with Sunset Carson who was getting the build-up from Republic. Smiley left Republic to join Charles Starrett at Columbia and Carson went on to unparalleled B-western popularity, only to unfortunately self-destruct in less than three years.

 STARDUST ON THE SAGE (1942 Republic)
There are more top tunes than tough times in STARDUST ON THE SAGE, a partial remake of Gene Autry's own GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES. Cattleman Gene is deceived in business by the local agent of the packing company, Bill Henry, who uses funds derived from the sale of beef on the hoof to dabble in mining property. When Gene and pal Smiley Burnette learn their rancher friends are being hornswoggled into investing their hard earned funds in Henry's hydraulic mining venture, they seek radio station support from sisters Louise Currie and Edith Fellows, but are tricked by them as the gals alter what Gene actually says to an on-air recording promoting the sale of mining stock. Aligning himself against Henry and the girls, Gene eventually discovers mine manager Emmett Vogan is behind all the trouble. In true Autry fashion, he puts the mine on a paying basis, saves the rancher's money, protects Henry from embezzlement charges and wins the heart of Currie. Fay McKenzie, Gene's leading lady in five previous pictures, was set to appear in STARDUST... but was replaced by Currie when Republic cast Fay in REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR. At the end of STARDUST..., Smiley conducts a radio station orchestra, turning at one point to the movie audience and asking them to sing-a-long to "Deep in the Hearty of Texas". This gimmick was a popular short-subject feature in the '40s. Smiley also used audience participation ideas several times in the westerns he made with Sunset Carson.

 LAST OF THE BADMEN (1957 Allied Artists)
A gang breaks wanted outlaws out of jail then kills them to collect the reward. Sound familiar? See: FLAMING BULLETS, WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE, STAR OF TEXAS, GUNFIGHT AT COMANCHE CREEK, they're all the same. Narrated in semi-documentary style, this version with George Montgomery is probably the best. In this version Willis Bouchey is the unsuspected gangleader sheriff, Keith Larsen is George's Ranger-friend and Douglas Kennedy, James Best, Robert Foulk and Michael Ansara round out the cast.

 HEART OF ARIZONA (1938 Paramount)
Belle Starr (Natalie Moorhead) puts the heart in HEART OF ARIZONA with Les Selander directing "one of his best and most personal films", according to Hoppy historian Francis Nevins in his FILMS OF HOPALONG CASSIDY. "Working from a strong screenplay by Norman Houston, Selander used two powerfully drawn women characters to reverse the sex-role conventions of the traditional western." According to Nevins, HEART OF ARIZONA ranks "among the best of all the Cassidys and among the finest movies of any sort in Selander's long career." Sheriff John Beach tries to restrain Belle from returning to her ranch to meet with her daughter, Dorothy Short, after the lady outlaw has spent five years in prison as the result of an unjust conviction. She was implicated in cattle rustling with her ruthless husband. Hopalong Cassidy and his saddle pals, Windy (George Hayes) and Lucky (Russell Hayden) gallantly come to Belle's rescue. Belle is deeply in love with Hoppy but, as an ex-con, is too ashamed to reveal her feelings and Cassidy is unable to communicate his fondness for Belle. Arriving at her old ranch, we learn Belle's foreman, insanely jealous Alden Chase, has his own designs on Belle - and her cattle. He's been rustling from Belle and other ranchers and selling them to crafty cattle speculator Lane Chandler. Aiding Chase is Bar 20 ranch hand Leo McMahon whom Hoppy fires when he suspects his dirty deeds. McMahon tries to ambush Hoppy, but Bar 20 owner Buck Peters' young nephew, Billy King, saves Hoppy's life. Hoppy devises a plan to capture the rustlers but, in a pitched battle, the brave Belle, two guns blazing, is mortally wounded. In her touching last moments, Belle confesses her love for Hoppy, entrusting her daughter to his protection.

 FOUR GUNS TO THE BORDER (1954 Universal-International)
Different, unusual, with Rory Calhoun in a William S. Hart-like good-badman role. Four bandits, all with different motives hold up a bank: Revenge driven Rory Calhoun, old timer John McIntire, young buck George Nader and Yaqui Jay Silverheels. On the run, the outlaws meet up with Walter Brennan and his sensuous daughter, Colleen Miller, on their way to their homestead. When the couple are surrounded by hostile Indians, one by one all four outlaws decide to abandon their getaway to the border, even though they're hotly pursued by Sheriff Charles Drake, and go to help Brennan and Miller. All are killed in the fight except Calhoun who is wounded. Brennan and Miller take the wounded gunman to their ranch where Drake eventually catches up with them. Struggling to face Drake in a final showdown, Calhoun is at the last moment convinced by Miller, whom he's fallen in love with, to give up, serve his time and return to her. Directed by Richard Carlson with an eye for the "adult western", there are times you can cut the sexual tension with a knife. All in all, a satisfactory tale of friendship, love and redemption involving all the cast. Cowboy Cancer alert: Calhoun smokes. Stuntmen Bobby Hoy, Bobby Herron, Henry Wills and Reg Parton all do their stuff as well as enacting excellent cameo roles.

 BROKEN STAR (1956 United Artists)
Marshal Bill Williams has to contend with the unpleasant fact his old friend, Marshal Howard Duff, has crossed over to the crooked side of the law, stealing gold paid to powerful rancher Henry Calvin for water rights and murdering to get it. Calvin sends his henchies John Pickard and Joel Ashley to retrieve his gold. Bruising barroom brawl between Williams/Pickard/Ashley is a standout in an otherwise dreary Howard Koch produced/Les Selander directed western filmed at Old Tucson. Otherwise routine acting (poor in leading lady Lita Baron's case) is enlivened whenever the ominous presence of (usually comedic) Henry Calvin is on screen. Would that he'd have played more badmen roles. Calvin found fame as bungling Sgt. Garcia on Disney TV's ZORRO.

 WEST OF SONORA (1948 Columbia)
One of the more intelligent Durango Kid westerns, finely crafted by Barry Shipman. The result of an ongoing family feud, Black Murphy (Steve Darrell), the outlaw with the hook hand, stops the stage and removes his granddaughter (Anita Castle) before she arrives in town to see her other grandfather, Sheriff George Chesebro. Accidentally stumbling on the hideout of Murphy, where he is keeping Castle, is Charles Starrett who vows not to reveal where the hideout is. Learning Starrett knows the whereabouts of Murphy and his granddaughter, Sheriff Chesebro is enraged. Starrett offers to take Chesebro to Murphy's camp to settle their differences, but the sheriff's crooked brother, Hal Taliaferro - the leader of the gang terrorizing the vicinity and laying blame on Black Murphy, upsets Starrett's plans for peace. It takes the Durango Kid to make peace between the two grandfathers, make sure young Castle inherits the richest mine west of Sonora and bring Taliaferro and his gang to justice. Smiley Burnette? This time he's a showbiz impresario with the Sunshine Boys. When Smiley's female "star" fails to appear, Smiley dances in drag as Fifi Latour.

 BRAVE WARRIOR (1952 Columbia)
Government agent Jon Hall is assigned to discover who is instigating resistance by the Indians during the War of 1812. Hall aligns himself with Indian chieftain Tecumseh (Jay Silverheels) and they discover the father (Harry Cording) of Hall's girl (Christine Larson) is the traitor. Typical tedious Sam Katzman produced "historical" fare.

 ONE MAN LAW (1932 Columbia)
Lambert Hillyer's usual expert direction takes a formula-like B-western plot in which the hero is suspected of being in cahoots with the heavy, even to the girl believing him guilty, and turns it into a suspenseful above average Buck Jones western. At the outset, Buck surprisingly loses his beloved steed, Silver, to Ernie Adams in a horse race. Crafty businessman Robert Ellis, who employs lowlife Adams, returns Silver to Buck and appoints Buck sheriff, plotting to use Buck as a grateful front while he pulls an underhanded - but legal - trick to drive settlers off their ranches then sell the land to wealthy Easterners. Formerly a friend of the ranchers, Ellis' dealings and Buck's insistence Ellis is within the law, leave Buck a hated outcast, even by his girl, Shirley Grey. With the aid of Judge Edward Le Saint, Buck pulls a legal trick of his own to set things right.

 RENEGADES (1946 Columbia)
Offbeat plot centers on Evelyn Keyes who renounces marriage to upright doctor Willard Parker in favor of a life on the outlaw trail with Larry Parks, a reluctant member (at least at first) of an outlaw family that includes Psalm-spouting patriarch Edgar Buchanan and his other two sons, Forrest Tucker and Jim Bannon. But life outside the law proves too much for Keyes, so at the end she's back with Doc Parker, but it takes continual dodging of the law and the birth of a baby to prove to her excitement isn't a good substitutute for true love. In the end, Doc Parker has to perform a six-gun operation. Edgar Buchanan's selfish, nasty outlaw-blood-driven-father steals the picture from Parker, Parks and Keyes who, as leads, just don't stir emotion in the viewer, leaving the picture with an unmemorable feel. Parker was better utilized as a second lead in films such as RELENTLESS or on the small screen as co-star of TALES OF THE TEXAS RANGERS. Even under old-pro George Sherman's direction, and in color, it's a bit lengthy for the material at 88 minutes.

 RANCHO GRANDE (1940 Republic)
Eschewing action and emphasizing music, Gene Autry's friendly nature, Smiley Burnette's comedy and the sweet charms of June Storey and Mary Lee, RANCHO GRANDE, is an enjoyable film that could be widely appreciated by audiences not usually attracted to westerns. As foreman of the vast Rancho Grande, Gene is saddled with the late owner's three grandchildren - June Storey, Dick Hogan, both madcap college types, and their younger, more level-headed kid sister, Mary Lee. Gene tries to impress them with the importance of what they possess, the work ethic and what an unfinished irrigation project will mean to settlers in the Valley. However, June and Dick are more interested in having a good time. All the while, Gene is trying to save Rancho Grande from foreclosure by sneaky lawyer Ferris Taylor.

 DEVIL'S CANYON (1953 RKO)
1887 - in a changing west, ex-marshal Dale Robertson guns down two brothers bent on revenge (John Cliff, Fred Coby) and is then convicted of "gunfighting" and sent to Yuma Prison for 10 years. There he encounters the outlaw Dale sent to prison years earlier, Stephen McNally, as well as the brother of the two men he killed, who plan to kill Dale in prison. Besides some very stilted dialog and lots of bad acting, the ludicrous premise of throwing gorgeous outlaw queen Virginia Mayo (always decked out in the most revealing clothes) into an all-male Yuma Prison is just too much to take. All pro supporting cast can do nothing to save this totally improbable picture, originally lensed in 3-D. Dale's prison pals are Earl Holliman and William Phillips, the Warden is Robert Keith, Jay C. Flippen is the nasty top guard ... and we also get George J. Lewis, Arthur Hunnicutt, Morris Ankrum, Whit Bissell, Glenn Strange, Kelo Henderson, Mickey Simpson, Paul Fix and Larry Blake.

 STRANGER FROM SANTA FE (1945 Monogram)
Johnny Mack Brown displays a slightly tougher personality than usual in his 17th successive B-western for Monogram since 1943. Raymond Hatton makes his 25th appearance as pal Sandy Hopkins, a role he carried over from the aborted Rough Riders series. Johnny Mack vows to help pretty Beatrice Gray run her ranch after her father is killed. On the one hand, devious Jack Ingram befriends Gray, asking her to marry him, while at the same time has his gang (Eddie Parker, Tom Quinn, Bud Osborne, John Merton) out rustling her cattle. Further complicating matters, Ingram sets up a murder frame for Jimmie Martin, Gray's true love interest.

 LITTLE BIG HORN (1951 Lippert)
Lippert's first western, LITTLE BIG HORN, is based on a strange and little known historical incident. Sufficiently different from regular cavalry vs. Indians westerns, this was the directing bow of Charles Marquis Warren who also wrote the solemn screenplay, much of it dealing with the weight of command. Warren later developed RAWHIDE, GUNSLINGER and other projects for TV. Warren draws strong performances from the heavyweight cast, half of whom later starred in their own TV series. Lloyd Bridges, the Captain in charge of the doomed patrol (SEA HUNT, LONER); John Ireland, the Lieutenant having an affair with Bridges' wife Marie Windsor (RAWHIDE, last season); the loner, former Sgt. Major Reed Hadley (PUBLIC DEFENDER, RACKET SQUAD); scout Sheb Wooley (RAWHIDE); the complainer, Corporal Jim Davis (STORIES OF THE CENTURY, DALLAS); the comedian, Pvt. Wally Cassell; the card sharp, Pvt. Hugh O'Brian (WYATT EARP); Pvt. King Donovan waiting for his mail order bride (BOB CUMMINGS SHOW); veteran Sergeant John Pickard (BOOTS AND SADDLES, GUNSLINGER); Pvt. Robert Sherwood whose father is with Custer; Pvt. Richard Emory; the kid-bugler Larry Stewart; the deserters Gordon Wynne and Ted Avery; and the Indian scout, Corporal Rodd Redwing. Based on truth, the story is built around the efforts of Capt. Lloyd Bridges' small cavalry squad trying to reach General Custer in time to warn him of a Sioux ambush. For character clash, a romantic angle is built in. Bridges discovers his wife (Windsor) having an affair with Ireland so forces the Lieut. to accompany him on the foreboding mission on which Ireland may be killed. One of the best small budget B+ westerns made in the '50s.

 BOILING POINT (1932 Allied)
Uncle George Hayes puts nephew Hoot Gibson and his raucous temper on a 30 day probation at friend Lafe McKee's ranch, warning Hooter if he gets into a fight he won't inherit the family spread. It's an interesting idea, but slowly developed as Hoot finds it hard to restrain himself in the face of harassing bad guys (Wheeler Oakman, Tom London, Merrill McCormick) especially since the cutie he's fond of, Helen Foster, believes him a coward.

 HE RIDES TALL (1964 Universal)
Tough, suspenseful, violent B+ western, the type Audie Murphy was making for producer Gordon Kay who also produced this with Republic vet R. G. Springsteen directing. Marshal Tony Young is forced to gun down rancher R. G. Armstrong's drunken abusive son. Young must then inform Armstrong, the man who raised him as an orphan, of what happened, tearing apart a years-long relationship. Meanwhile, R. G.'s vile foreman, Dan Duryea, who is playing around with the rancher's young wife, Jo Morrow, plans to rob R. G. of all his money. In revenge for killing R. G.'s son, Duryea forces Dr. Joel Flueller to sever the tendons of Young's gun hand. Delivers solid western excitement on every level. Solid supporting cast includes Madlyn Rhue (Young's real-life wife), Mickey Simpson, Roy Barcroft, Myron Healey, Bill Henry, John Day, George Keymas.

 THE PLUNDERERS (1948 Republic)
One of Rod Cameron's best bigger budget B+ westerns has him murdering a sheriff in the opening sequences, thus making him a wanted man. It's some time before we actually learn it's only a setup for undercover Army officer Rod to get in with outlaw Forrest Tucker's renegades. Tucker's character doesn't follow the accepted western pattern, allowing a strong bond to develop between Cameron and Tucker. This gives the film more than a little to say about friendship. When Cameron finally does bring Tucker to justice, an Indian attack on the fort has Tuck helping out and dying in the process. Female interest is split between Adrian Booth, Tucker's girl, and Ilona Massey, Cameron's romantic partner. George Cleveland is a smart sheriff aiding Cameron, while Grant Withers is his dumb counterpart. Taylor Holmes is the respected townsman who's really backing Tucker's outlaws. Paul Fix is terrific, standing out as Tucker's righthand man. In Trucolor, director Joe Kane adds his always expert pacing to the action. Supporting cast is studded with B vets - House Peters Jr., Monte Montague, Hank Bell, Hank Patterson, Rex Lease, Forrest Taylor, Tex Terry, Bud Osborne, two Lone Rangers - Clayton Moore and John Hart, Steve Clark, Guy Wilkerson, Francis Ford, Roy Barcroft and Maude Eburne.

 UNDERCOVER MAN (1936 Supreme)
Slow going. A great action finish comes too late to overcome the snail-like plotting and inherent silliness that's preceded it. Harmonica playing, witty, devil-may-care Wells Fargo agent Johnny Mack Brown rescues Suzanne Kaaren, saves the gold in a stage hold-up then moseys along to trap the leader of a gang, saloon owner Ted Adams, and his cohorts: stupid sheriff Horace Murphy, dumber deputy Dick Moorhead and Ed Cassidy. Credit director Albert Ray for the loss.

 OMAHA TRAIL (1942 MGM)
MGM, with all their magnificent resources, just didn't understand the secret of making B-westerns. Fortunately, they apparently realized that and made scant few of them. In this one, evil Dean Jagger tries to sabotage the delivery by oxen train of a railroad engine to Omaha for fear it will put his freighter company out of business. Brave stranger James Craig volunteers to help get the locomotive to Omaha so he can be in on the ground floor of the lucrative westward expansion. Along the way they must contend with marauding Indians while Craig and pretty Pamela Blake develop a romance.

 BLAZING JUSTICE (1936 Spectrum)
There's certainly justice, but it's not blazing! At the start of the film, Bill Cody joins the ranks of singing cowboys as he and Frank Yaconelli perform a duet on "Comin' 'Round the Mountain". Yaconelli, Milt Moranti and some other cowboys also sing "Red River Valley". On a vacation, Cody gets blamed for the murder of rancher Budd Buster. Clearly a case of mistaken identity by Buster's daughter, Gertrude Messenger. Clearing himself, Cody helps Gertrude set a trap for the real bandit, Gordon Griffith. Moranti has way too many scenes that are supposed to pass for comedy sequences. Boo Boo: At one point, chasing Griffith on horseback, Cody's hat blows off. In the very next scene, it's back on. Low budget stuff from director Al Herman with his typical lapses in continuity.

 OUTLAWS OF TEXAS (1950 Monogram)
Better than usual, although conventional, Whip Wilson with Andy Clyde as his hungry sidekick. When Clyde left Whip's side after 12 films, the series definitely took a tumble. Using greenhorn outlaw Tommy Farrell as an introduction, undercover U.S. Marshals Wilson and Clyde infiltrate a gang of bank robbers (Terry Frost, Zon Murray, George De Normand) led by a girl - Phyllis Coates - trading on her famous outlaw father's reputation. Sorehead outlaw Murray gives the film most of its interest. Whip use - 3. Watch for former low budget star Rex Lease in a worthwhile role as a jailer. Dan Ullman script directed by Tommy Carr.

 THE MAN FROM TEXAS (1939 Monogram)
Lawman of sorts, Tex Ritter, and The Shooting Kid (Charles B. "Chuck" Wood) have a tenuous relationship. The Kid continually promises Tex he'll go straight and stay out of trouble, but he immediately hires his gun out to nasty rancher Vic Demourelle Jr. who is pulling a freeze-out on cattle rancher Kenne Duncan and his sister Ruth Rogers who need to pass over part of Demourelle's land to drive their cattle to market. Duncan will be ruined if he can't get his cattle to market, allowing Demourelle to grab off his land and sell it to the incoming railroad. Sheriff Hal Price asks Tex to help Duncan and his sis. Demourelle tells The Kid to gun Tex, but because Tex has tried to help him out of jams in the past, The Kid has a change of heart and sides with Tex in the final barbed wire showdown, losing his life for his efforts. The flashy-borderline-outlaw-who-turns-good-at-the-end idea was a staple of screenwriter (often director) Robert Emmett "Bob" Tansey. Think about it and you'll be amazed at how many times this plot-device shows up in a Tansey western. Another interesting aspect of this film is the casting of Demourelle and Wood, the first an acceptable heavy whose only other western in his brief career was a role in Gene Autry's "Mexicali Rose". As for Wood, he handles himself well, showing promise for future westerns but totally disappears after one more film (a non-western). Roy Barcroft is Demourelle's right hand man in his pre-Republic-contract salad days.

 TRAILING DOUBLE TROUBLE (1940 Monogram)
The addition of a baby to the plot gives an otherwise routine western a hint of novelty in this second outing for the Range Busters (Ray "Crash" Corrigan, John "Dusty" King and Max "Alibi" Terhune). Attempts to gain control of a state contract for gravel held by the Bar H are tied up with the murder of its owner (Kenne Duncan) and the kidnapping of his sister (Lita Conway). The Range Busters have vowed to help Duncan when they nearly save him from being killed by gumen. When Duncan dies, they are left to care for a baby left in Duncan's wagon. The baddies are saloon owner Roy Barcroft, his partner John Rutherford and their gunnies Tom London, Carl Mathews, William Kellogg. There's a fine lullaby from John King to the baby, who is actually his real daughter, Nancy Louise King, and some music by Jimmy Wakely and The Rough Riders while Rex Felker does some rope spinning (he's the one seen twirling rope at the start of all Range Busters westerns). Max Terhune gets in some delightful moments changing the baby's diaper and plying his ventriloquist skills when he swaps dummy Elmer for the baby as London and his boys attempt to kidnap the baby.

 TULSA KID (1940 Republic)
TULSA KID and DAYS OF OLD CHEYENNE are a toss-up for the best B-westerns Don Barry made. Both rank as prime B-westerns among all of Republic's output. This one has Don Barry, an orphan of the range, was brought up by professional gunfighter Noah Beery Sr. Barry becomes alienated from his foster father when he witnesses a killing in which Beery is involved. Barry vows never to again carry a gun. Years later, Barry arrives in Wind River where town boss George Douglas and his highbinders (Ethan Laidlaw, Jack Kirk, John Beach, Charles Thomas) are attempting to steal the water rights from David Durand and his sister Luana Walters. Douglas tries to railroad Durand for the gunning of Douglas' partner in crime, Stanley Blystone. When Barry comes to the aid of Durand and Walters, Douglas engages the services of gunfighter Beery Sr., not realizing the mutual respect the two hold for one another. This places Barry on one side of the law and the man who raised him on the other in a duel to the death. It's purified action all the way, with a stop off for a tune by Jimmy Wakely and his Rough Riders. Screenplay by Oliver Drake/Anthony Coldeway, produced and directed by George Sherman.

 OUT CALIFORNIA WAY (1946 Republic)
After two lackluster attempts to establish Monte Hale as Republic's new singing cowboy (HOME ON THE RANGE, MAN FROM RAINBOW VALLEY), Republic president Herbert J. Yates upped the running time of this third entry to 67 minutes, brought in vet director Les Selander, gave Monte the backing of Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage and for insurance used the guest star gimmick with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (singing "Ridin' Down the Sunset Trail"), Allan Lane and Don Barry. The color process officially changed its name from Magnacolor to Trucolor though the color quality remained the same. With a movie studio setting and not very villainous villainy in egotistical "western star" John Dehner and his flunky Fred Graham, the basic story has Monte trying to break into films while helping young Bobby Blake's horse Pardner do the same. The picture plays more like a Gene Autry leftover from scripter Betty Burbridge. Republic execs quickly realized they needed to tailor Monte's films more to his personality and not try to squeeze him into a Gene Autry format as they seemed to be doing in Monte's first three westerns. Monte and his pictures soon hit their stride in a more action oriented format, down-playing Monte's singing.

 THE MAN FROM HELL (1934 Kent)
Reb Russell is paroled from prison after being convicted of a robbery he's now out to prove he didn't commit. Arriving in town, Reb finds Mayor Fred Kohler, crooked Marshal Jack Rockwell and their gun-waddies (Yakima Canutt and Bill Patton) holding an iron hand over the populace. Kohler holds a trump card over George Hayes who has embezzled funds from the bank and is planning to force Hayes' daughter, Ann Darcy, to marry him until Reb discovers Kohler is an escaped con who framed him. Bad actor Russell appears better than he is when he's surrounded by a talented cast which also includes Slim Whitaker, Charles French, Tommy Bupp, and Mary Gordon with Jack Kirk and friends singing "Ridin' Up the Rocky Trail From Town" behind the title credits, as well as "Old Chisholm Trail". Director Lew Collins included a poor man's THE SPOILERS barroom brawl between Russell and Kohler. Yakima Canutt, doubling Reb, performs his under the buckboard, up and over, stunt. If you need a representative Reb Russell B-western for your collection, this is as good as any, and better than most.

 THUNDER OVER TEXAS (1934 Beacon)
Probably the only profitable pictures produced by Max and Arthur Alexander's Beacon Pictures in its short existence in 1934-1935 were the five minimal budget westerns starring Guinn "Big Boy" Williams. Actually, Beacon only turned out eight films total in their one year existence. Williams was a likeable cowboy, a mite on the oafish side, whose career stretched back to silent oaters. His baffled dumbness combined with his huge frame made him more natural for comedic sidekick roles which he began to play consistently after his Beacon series ended. He worked up until 1961, just before his death in '62. This first of Big's Beacon westerns produced by Max Alexander is also interesting because it was directed by a slumming Edgar G. Ulmer under the name of John Warner, based on a story by his wife, Sherle Castle. Once a top name at Universal, Ulmer angered the powers that be there (speculation runs rampant on exactly how) and wound up on poverty row. Actually, THUNDER OVER TEXAS is a weak western held together by Ulmer directing cameraman Harry Forbes (who never displayed any talent elsewhere) with some innovative photography. Noteworthy too is the little girl played by Helen Westcott who by the '50s was a leading lady in major films like THE GUNFIGHTER, CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER and GOD'S LITTLE ACRE. Perhaps the most amusing plot ploy of THUNDER... has Big's pals (Vic Potel, Ben Corbett, Tiny Skelton) as three dopey, radio program crazy ranch hands, constantly doing impersonations of Kate Smith, Joe Penner, Rudy Vallee, Amos 'n' Andy, Ted Lewis and Baron Munchausen. The phrase "must be seen to be believed" applies! Basic plot has Big Boy protecting the daughter of a man killed in a car wreck engineered by crooked banker Claude Payton and Sheriff Philo McCullough in attempting to obtain railroad right of way maps. Now, Payton wants Big Boy's ranch because it's valuable to the railroad. Siding with Big Boy is pretty schoolmarm Marion Shilling who has rejected Payton's romantic advances.

 BANDIT RANGER (1942 RKO)
Tim Holt has a new saddlepal with Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards in the first of six B-westerns Tim hurriedly made before entering the service for WWII. RKO released the films slowly through 1943. Ike's voice is pure and he had a definite flair for slapstick comedy. Ranger Dennis Moore is ambushed on the way to Trail City to investigate a wave of rustling. Rancher Tim Holt comes upon the dying Moore who implores him to give his money belt to Moore's sister, Joan Barclay. Sneaky town businessman Kenneth Harlan is responsible for Moore's murder and has replaced him with phony ranger LeRoy Mason. Harlan, realizing Barclay will know Mason is not her brother and upset his apple cart, has his men (Frank Ellis, Bob Kortman, Bud Geary) set out to kill the girl. Tim and Ike rescue her, but before they can thwart out Mason and Harlan, they turn the tables on Tim and have the town believing Tim is the head of the rustlers. Interesting to see Glenn Strange playing against type as an honest rancher. Never a dull moment under the guidance of Les Selander.

 BANDITS OF THE WEST (1953 Republic)
The Allan "Rocky" Lane series remained strong right to the end. This next to last Lane adventure over six years features a theme of western progress. Cathy Downs' company is about to bring natural gas to the community but are stymied when they attempt to put the pipeline across Trevor Bardette's property. Bardette has been in prison, framed by burly foreman Roy Barcroft, who is slowly stripping Bardette's rich land of all its assets, therefore he wants no pipeline interference. Released from prison, an embittered Bardette arrives in town seeking revenge on those he blames for causing him to spend time in jail for a crime he didn't commit. Barcroft and his men (Lane Bradford, Robert Bice) plot to use Bardette's attitude to once again frame him and get him out of the way so they can operate his ranch as they see fit. Investigating Marshal "Rocky" Lane works with Down's head engineer, Ray Montgomery, and friend, Eddy Waller, to convince Bardette of the need for natural gas and that Barcroft has framed him.

 SMOKE LIGHTNING (1933 Fox)
A thrilling finale aboard a train and a film noirish opening amidst an electrical storm highlight this excellent George O'Brien adaptation of Zane Grey's CANYON WALLS. Arriving in town, George O'Brien and English pal Frank Atkinson thwart crooked Sheriff Morgan Wallace and his card-sharp partner Clarence Wilson from cheating rancher E. A. Warren. Later, the conniving pair murder Warren and hire outlaw Douglas Dumbrille to impersonate Warren's long-lost brother - and the supposed uncle of Warren's young daughter, Betsy King Ross - in a plot to take over her ranch, Canyon Walls. The plotters also attempt to frame O'Brien for the murder of Betsy's father. In a last ditch attempt, Sheriff Wallace tries to kidnap young Betsy from schoolmarm Nell O'Day's house, planning to spirit her away by train. In the end, O'Brien is appointed Betsy's guardian and plans to marry O'Day.

 BAR 20 (1943 United Artists)
Hopalong Cassidy and young Robert Mitchum (surprisingly playing an honest, if stubborn, hot-headed rancher) each suspect one another of being in league with outlaws Francis McDonald and Doug Fowley who have robbed stagecoach passenger Dustine Farnum (real-life daughter of silent star Dustin Farnum) of a casket of family heirloom jewels given to her by Mitchum as a wedding present. Hoppy wants to help Farnum but Mitchum's having none of it, suspecting Cassidy's in league with the bandits, while actually Mitchum's "trusted" friend Victor Jory is the real brains behind the scheme. George Reeves fills in the young sidekick role here vacated after six films by Jay Kirby. Jimmy Rogers was waiting in the wings and joined Hoppy and Andy Clyde with the next outing, RIDERS OF THE DEADLINE.

 MELODY RANCH (1940 Republic)
Supposedly planned as a pivotal film in Gene Autry's career, Republic budgeted this turkey at $180,000, the most expensive Autry to date. Sporting a huge cast headed by veteran comedian Jimmy Durante (replacing Autry favorite Smiley Burnette), the vaudeville trouper's gnarled phraseology comic antics - especially an extended courtroom scene - proved unfunny and out of place in an Autry film. Durante was not appreciated by Autry fans who preferred Smiley's homespun humor. The overabundance of tap dancing (Ann Miller), barbershop harmony and zany comedy from Barbara Jo Allen (radio's Vera Vague) and Durante resulted in a disjointed, slow moving 84 minutes. Believing the publicity will overcome Gene Autry's sagging radio ratings - which actually have come about by the lackadaisical attitude on his program by debutante Ann Miller - Gene's agent, Durante, persuades Gene to return to his hometown as guest of honor at the town's Frontier Days celebration. Gene finds the town racket-ridden by his childhood enemies, three brothers - Barton MacLane, Joe Sawyer, Horace MacMahon. After being made honorary sheriff, Gene finds city life has made him soft when he's beaten in a fight by the troublesome trio. Humiliated, Gene works out and trains so that in their next encounter he emerges victorious. It's in this mix that the most charming moments of the film arrive - and they're not from Durante, Miller, Allen or any of the high priced "stars", but from Sawyer and MacMahon. After beating Gene in an on-air fight, the rambunctious brothers launch into a hilarious song parody of Gene's "Back In the Saddle". Later, when Gene has toughened up and beaten the boys at their own game, he forces them to sing "What are Cowboys Made Of". Gene eventually regains his reputation and captures the gangsters in a wild trolley car action finale. MELODY RANCH has its moments, but Ann Miller is too chic for an Autry heroine and the disarranged elements are foreign to Autry fans and overpower the picture's basic enjoy-ability. And to set the record straight, John Wayne does not appear in any way, shape or form in this picture.

 STAMPEDE (1949 Allied Artists)
Simply an all-out terrific western! One of Blake Edwards' earliest scripts (co-written and co-produced with John Champion from a novel by Edward Beverly Mann) is uncharacteristic of the lighthearted comedies which later became his bread and butter. Rod Cameron and Don Castle are cattle baron brothers who find their rangeland infringed upon when the government opens up the land to homesteaders. However, all the water is on the brothers' land, which leads shysters Donald Curtis, John Eldredge and banker John Miljan to come up with a plan to swindle the settlers and cause problems for Cameron and Castle unless they open up their Spirit Lake to provide water for the nesters - something Rod has no intention of doing. The tough film, directed perfectly by Les Selander, includes a brutal, graphic scene of cattle being stampeded over a cliff, a fistfight to rival the one in THE SPOILERS, and a cute spanking scene with nester gal Gale Storm on the receiving end of Don Castle's slaps. Cowboy cancer alert - Cameron lights up on horseback and in the bathtub. Repeated viewings simply do not diminish STAMPEDE, it's satisfying every time.

 VIGILANTE TERROR (1953 Allied Artists)
Pinetop is terrorized by both outlaws and vigilantes. Respected citizen Myron Healey has his outlaws pull the jobs while his vigilantes (Zon Murray, Richard Avonde) plant the evidence on someone else, thereby deflecting suspicion from the real outlaws (George Wallace, Denver Pyle, Frank Ellis, Bill Foster). Mayor Henry Rowland appoints (Wild) Bill Elliott sheriff after Bill's brother John James is hung by vigilantes and, in a tense situation, Bill is nearly hung himself. Coming to Bill's aid are deputy Fuzzy Knight and storekeeper I. Stanford Jolley's daughter, Mary Ellen Kay. Sid Theil's screenplay offers a few new twists along the way for director Lewis Collins to embellish.

 SONG OF THE DRIFTER (1948 Monogram)
When Jimmy Wakely's pal Dub "Cannonball" Taylor plans to get married to blacksmith Patsy Moran, Jimmy goes along to keep him out of trouble. They find the widowed Moran being plagued by polluted water in her ranch reservoir by schoolteacher William Ruhl and crooked land developer Frank LaRue who are trying to force Moran off her property by contaminating her reservoir. When that fails, the swindlers hire a phony engineer (Marshall Reed) to give Moran a false report on her water. Jimmy and his friends (Dick Reinhart, Arthur Smith, Cliffie Stone) sing four tunes, including Ernest Tubb's "It's Been Too Long, Darlin'".

 BILLY THE KID'S GUN JUSTICE (1940 PRC)
When owlhoots Charlie King, Rex Lease and Kenne Duncan attempt to drive homesteaders Forrest Taylor and his daughter Louise Currie off their ranch, Billy the Kid (Bob Steele) and his pals, Fuzzy St. John and Carleton Young, come to their rescue. However, Young is surprised to see them living on his own Uncle's ranch, the very place the three saddle pals were bound for. It's soon discovered crooked realtor Al Ferguson killed Young's uncle, then "sold" the ranch to Taylor and Currie, now plotting to drive them off and "sell" it again. The weakest of Bob's six Billy the Kid entries is plot driven and talkative with a weak resolution.

 RIDE LONESOME (1959 Columbia)
Another intelligent Burt Kennedy scripted, Budd Boetticher directed Randolph Scott western in Eastmancolor and Cinemascope, and one of their best. Scott is a bounty hunter who captures and is apparently taking sniveling James Best in for murder. Initially, it seems Scott merely wants the bounty money, but it's eventually revealed Scott hopes Best will lead him to his brother, vicious Lee Van Cleef, who murdered Scott's wife years ago. Pursued by Van Cleef's gang - as well as Mescalero Apaches - at a stage stop Scott is joined by two outlaw bounty hunters, Pernell Roberts and James Coburn, who want to bring Best in themselves as total amnesty is being offered for whoever brings in Best. Also at the stage stop is the station man's young widow, Karen Steele, whom the bounty hunters covet. In the end, Scott revenges Van Cleef's deed and rides off with Steele, allowing Roberts and Coburn to turn in Best, thus collecting their pardons. Kennedy's tight 72 minute script and Boetticher's expert handling of characterization is full of intelligent dialog (Kennedy used his "Some things a man just can't ride around" line once again with Pernell Roberts) and offbeat humor in Best's giggling killer. The rugged Alabama Hills of Lone Pine are as much a character in the picture as the men and women involved.

 MAN FROM CHEYENNE (1942 Republic)
Gabby Hayes' old pal, Roy Rogers, returns to Cheyenne to find his two childhood playmates full grown young ladies - Gabby's niece Gale Storm, and Lynne Carver, heiress to a neighboring ranch. Roy soon discovers Carver and her foreman, William Haade, are heading up a gang of rustlers. Carver hates the west, wants to amass a quick fortune and go East to live. Gabby's niece Gale and Gabby's daughter, Sally Payne, both detest the way Carver flirts with unsuspecting ranchers in order to obtain information from them which she passes on to her rustler gang. It all leads to a blazing climax, including a short catfight between Storm and Carver. The Sons of the Pioneers are on hand for songs, including the joyful "Happy Rovin' Cowboy". The lady rustler angle gives this one some interest, but otherwise it's pretty basic.

 ALIAS BILLY THE KID (1946 Republic)
West of the Pecos there is no law. Into the region rides undercover Texas Ranger Sunset Carson, assigned to track down and bring to justice a female Robin Hood, Peggy Stewart, and her gang (Tom London, Tex Terry, Russ Whiteman). Turns out they are innocent victims of Roy Barcroft's gang (Pierce Lyden and bankers Tom Chatterton and Stanley Price) who are cheating and robbing ranchers with starvation cattle prices. When Peggy's father was killed by Barcroft she vowed to fight back the only way she knew how. Earle Snell and Betty Burbridge scripted, but it's another variation on Bennett Cohen's COME ON, DANGER Tom Keene/George O'Brien/Tim Holt story. Cohen produced this version. Incidentally, this is the film in which Sunset constantly refers to Peg as Baby Sister. Where the title came from is anybody's guess - there's no mention of Billy the Kid.

 BELLS OF CAPISTRANO (1942 Republic)
This is the last film Gene Autry made before entering the U.S. Air Force for WWII. He didn't return to the screen til 1946. An unusually good cast, thrilling action highlighted by an exciting fire sequence, and a rousing patriotic production number finale with Gene singing the WWI tune, "Don't Bite the Hand That's Feeding You", make this Autry a winner. The plot deals with a clash between two traveling rodeo shows, one owned by pretty Virginia Grey, and the other by ruthless Morgan Conway (best known as Dick Tracy in a couple of RKO detective films). By fair means or foul, Conway means to absorb Grey's show into his. Gene is hired by Grey's show as a singing cowboy attraction, naturally gaining the Wild West Show fantastic new popularity. Conway now stoops to violence to quash his competition. Fire, accidents, misunderstandings, dire injuries to friends - the singing cowboy triumphs over all.

 CALLING WILD BILL ELLIOTT (1943 Republic)
This new Wild Bill Elliott series plugged the gap in Republic's schedule left vacant when Gene Autry entered WWII. Smiley Burnette moved over from Gene's films to support the now bigger-budgeted Roy Rogers pictures before moving on to Eddie Dew/Sunset Carson/Bob Livingston, and Republic decided Gabby Hayes would be of more value getting the fledging Elliott series off the ground than he was continuing with Roy Rogers. To instigate the series, this is the first and one of the few times in B-western history that the star's name was incorporated into the film's title. The crooked Governor of the territory, Herbert Heyes, rules with an iron hand, commanding his own private militia (Roy Barcroft, Bud Geary, Charlie King, Frank Hagney, Yakima Canutt, Al Taylor). When the grandfather of Gabby's young friend, Buzz Henry, is killed, Heyes lays the blame on Wild Bill, sending the murdered man's son, Fred Kohler Jr., on a vengeance trail. Bill convinces federal judge Forbes Murray and his daughter Anne Jeffreys (who sings a song) of Gov. Heyes malfeasance in office, but the judge is then shot with Elliott also accused of his murder. Eventually, Wild Bill brings the sagebrush dictator to his knees and clears his own name.

 BEYOND THE LAST FRONTIER (1943 Republic)
Republic had lost Gene Autry to WWII service, but they still had sidekick Smiley Burnette who was not without fans of his own. After partnering ol' Frog with Roy Rogers for a few films, Republic prexy Herbert J. Yates apparently figured Smiley would be of more value bolstering up their new John Paul Revere series with Eddie Dew. Republic had always maintained a policy of offering exhibitors four different western series each season. They now had Roy Rogers, Don Barry and, newly signed, Bill Elliott. The decision had been made to drop the faltering Three Mesquiteers films, so was created John Paul Revere. Hired to play the part was Eddie Dew who'd been playing badmen and character roles mostly in Tim Holt RKO's. BEYOND THE LAST FRONTIER was the initial outing, but after only one more (RAIDERS OF SUNSET PASS) Dew was replaced by Bob Livingston while Eddie quickly rode over to Universal. Unfortunately, the reasons, whether it be salary, audience reception to the first Dew film, fan mail, egos or whatever, are long lost to time. Perhaps it was simply because good/badman Robert Mitchum walked away with the honors in this film. It's a real star-turn for the sleepy-eyed actor who was also now making a mark in Hopalong Cassidy films. Republic should have snapped him up, but RKO beat them to the punch, starring Mitchum in Zane Grey westerns in 1944. Here, Texas Ranger John Paul Revere (Dew) poses as an outlaw to spy on Harry Woods' gang of ore raiders. Realizing there must be a spy among them, Woods retaliates by likewise planting a spy among the Rangers, reckless young adventurer Robert Mitchum. Later, Mitchum finds Woods' brutal treatment of Ranger Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) too much for his taste, and saves Frog from dying in a burning barn. The good/badman eventually sides with Dew and turns the tables on Woods' gang. It may be Dew's debut as a cowboy star, but it's Mitchum's movie all the way!

 THE ARIZONA COWBOY (1950 Republic)
Singing cowboy Rex Allen came along last in B-westerns, but just early enough to catch on with fans, earning him the title, 'The Last of the Silver Screen Cowboys'. His first film, directed by Republic vet R. G. Springsteen, THE ARIZONA COWBOY, is how Rex came to be known. A former rodeo rider, he actually hailed from Arizona (Willcox to be exact), sang beautifully, was a veteran of Chicago's National Barn Dance, learned quickly to ease likeably through westerns, and generally left a believable impression. Rodeo star Rex Allen and his father are accused of robbing the Dusty Acres Irrigation Company. Rex escapes and, disguising his identity, takes a job with new-found pal Gordon Jones as a ditch rider with the irrigation company to learn who is sabotaging the irrigation project and why. Oil on the property at an old ghost town is revealed to be the reason, with chief engineer for the irrigation project, James Cardwell, and his uncle, Stanley Andrews, president of the bank, behind the sabotage carried out by thugs Roy Barcroft and Lane Bradford. Solid story from Bradford Ropes, with four songs from Rex, including "Red River Valley" and two of Rex's own compositions, "The Arizona Waltz" and "I Was Born In Arizona", get Allen's series off to a good start.

 MARSHAL OF CRIPPLE CREEK (1947 Republic)
"One of the best B-westerns Republic ever turned out," wrote the late Alan Barbour in THE THRILL OF IT ALL. We agree, the cast is strong and the action intense - especially when Allan Lane as Red Ryder vows to break chief heavy Gene Roth in half, then proceeds to do so in a brutal fight finale that wrecks the saloon. The discovery of gold in Cripple Creek brings in a lawless element bent on robbing ore wagons. Red Ryder reluctantly agrees to become Sheriff to clean up the town. Saloon owner Gene Roth and businessman Tom London, with their chief henchman Roy Barcroft, are secretly behind the wave of outlawry. The crooked threesome employ down and out gambling-loser Trevor Bardette as their fall guy whom Red captures and sends to prison just as Bardette's wife and son arrive in Cripple Creek. Lying to the imprisoned Bardette about how Red, Little Beaver (Bobby Blake) and The Duchess (Martha Wentworth) are treating his family, Roth and Barcroft turn Bardette into a vengeful killer who, when he escapes prison, goes gunning for Red who has his hands full convincing Bardette the shifty threesome have lied and double-crossed him all along. This was the last of the Republic produced Red Ryders with Lane starting his Allan "Rocky" Lane series two months later.

 MYSTERY RANCH (1932 Fox)
The George O'Brien Fox westerns were obviously aimed more at adult trade than the average Saturday afternoon B-western. Many were based on Zane Grey stories, all were crafted with the utmost technical care. Casts were far superior to that of even Jones and Maynard. Full musical scores were written, used most effectively for suspense and climatic action sequences. Loaded with moody, atmospheric camerawork by Joseph August and George Schneiderman, the David Howard directed film nourish picture is told in Gothic quasi-horror movie fashion. Erudite, piano-playing, but brutal, sadistic Charles Middleton rules his private Arizona valley with a tyrannical iron hand. Holding his dead partner's daughter, Cecilia Parker, hostage, the ruthless Middleton schemes to compel her to marry him to legally control her land. Holding grisly sway over his valley, the tyrant has imposing deaf mute Noble Johnson and sneering half-breed Charles Stevens strangle or hang anyone (including the Sheriff) who interferes with his plans. Ranger George O'Brien is warned by his friend in town, former silent star Roy Stewart in one of his better sound roles, to avoid the impending danger of Middleton's valley, but O'Brien finds he must rescue the trapped girl. Director Howard hones the suspense, finally busting loose in a large-scale action sequence played out atop mountain crags.

 KING OF THE ARENA (1933 Universal)
Ungraciously fired by Universal when sound came in because they had no faith in the future of westerns, Ken Maynard triumphantly returned to the studio in '33 buoyed by increased budgets and his own production unit. Ken's sound westerns at Tiffany and World Wide had been hit and miss affairs, limited by budgetary influences. Now, Ken was making a concentrated effort to return to the glory of his First National silents. Of Ken's sound films, the '33-'34 Universals, of which KING OF THE ARENA was the first, are often on the bizarre side of the genre with action sequences that often tax credibility. In KING..., Ken brings down an airplane with a slingshot! Also involved are Russians with strange death-inducing chemicals, machine guns and secret-hideaway periscopes. Since Ken had a circus background, he elected to use that for his first Universal. The stranger-than-strange plot has Ranger Ken, a former circus star, returning to the midway to unravel the mystery of the Black Death robberies. Seems the trail of crime follows the circus. Aided by old friends little trick rider Bobby Nelson, comic Frank Rice and love interest Lucille Browne, Ken uncovers skulking Russians Bob Kortman and his suave boss Michael Visaroff behind the Black Death murders, armed with never-quite-explained exploding chemical pellets. Off-beat, outlandish, yes - but never boring or uninteresting. The finale in a secret shack laboratory ranks as one of Ken's best! When you watch KING OF THE ARENA, remember it was made in the pre-Civil Rights era of 1933 and forgive Ken for the politically incorrect as you can get naming of black actor Blue Washington in the film as "Sambo". The "Yassuh, Boss" lines are frequent! Behind a cap and makeup, former silent star Jack Mower plays a Mexican police officer, while Wally Wales has a bit in the circus audience.

 KANGAROO KID (1950 Eagle Lion)
American cowboy detective Jock Mahoney is sent down under to Australia to find and extradite a wanted man. Undercover, Jock becomes a stage driver for a gold mine, but when he's held up, he's blamed for the robbery. This Australian western is a novelty, nothing more. Even under old pro Les Selander's direction this is a tepid affair, wasting Jocko's athletic abilities on only one bar fight.

 RAIDERS OF THE SOUTH (1947 Monogram)
"1865 brought to a close the Civil War, but the wounds of battle were still unhealed. Carpetbaggers and renegades roamed the land, leaving in their wake hatred and distrust. The situation became so critical that the Secret Service was called in to prevent martial law in many of the states." An auspicious prologue, a different setting, Civil War clothing, but - the same old Johnny Mack Brown stuff with very little action. Secret Serviceman Brown is sent to stop Evelyn Brent's guerilla raiders (Marshall Reed, Eddie Parker, lawyer John Merton) from fighting the war now that's it's over or martial law will be declared. Lawyer Merton suspicions Brown and plots to take over Brent's gang by himself. Reno Blair (later Reno Browne) is Brent's young daughter. Curt Barrett and the Trailsmen sing three tunes.

 GUNS OF THE PECOS (1937 Warner Bros.)
Belting out "The Prairie is My Home" Dick Foran is hell-bent for thrills riding with the Texas Rangers to bring law and order to a gang of horse rustlers led by Judge Robert Middlemass and his outlaws (Bud Osborne, Monte Montague, Henry Otho, Milton Kibbee) who have killed Major Gordon Hart. Ranger Foran and his pal Eddie Acuff discover the Judge is after the Major's property, planning to cheat his pretty daughter, Anne Nagel, out of her inheritance. Certainly no new ground is broken in this formulaic plot, but it's well handled by director Noel Smith with a big battle finish. Rocky Camron has a nice role as Nagel's foreman while Bill Elliott (still a year away from stardom at Columbia) cameos as a loud talking dude.

 BAR 20 JUSTICE (1938 Paramount)
Devil may care mine owner Pat O'Brien (not the Warner Bros. star) and foreman of the nearby Freeze Out mine, Paul Sutton (noted as radio's Sgt. Preston of the Yukon), kill Freeze Out mine owner John Beach, making it appear to be an accident. Although the mine is labeled a jinx, Beach's widow, Gwen Gaze, suspects her husband's death was murder and that O'Brien is trying to gain control of her mine in addition to his own. Gaze seeks help from old friend Hopalong Cassidy who learns O'Brien has dug a secret tunnel (guarded by malevolent Walter Long) connecting O'Brien's played-out Devil May Care with the still prosperous Freeze Out. Directed by Les Selander, the film's unmemorable heavies and slow development stresses suspense over action, although it winds up with one of the most exciting desert chase finales in any Hoppy adventure. There are some truly humorous moments when Gabby Hayes pretends to be stone deaf, nearly senile and in need of work as a night watchman at the mine. Hoppy's horse Topper makes his debut in this film after Bill Boyd bought him in '37. Bill's wife, Grace, named the steed after the Topper novels written by Thorne Smith.

 BUFFALO BILL IN TOMAHAWK TERRITORY (1952 United Artists)
While Clayton Moore was out on strike for more money in his role as TV's The Lone Ranger, he donned a mustache and goatee for low budget producers Jack Schwarz, Ed Finney and director B. B. Ray who dug up every scrap of marauding Indian stock footage they could locate, clear back to 1926's WAR PAINT with Tim McCoy. I must admit to a guilty pleasure of watching this one-off '50s B-western that is nostalgically like watching an old Finney-produced Tex Ritter, same Frank Sanucci canned music, same production values - even Slim Andrews is along as Buffalo Bill's sidekick (wearing one of Ritter's old shirts no less!) Story revolves around Moore as Buffalo Bill attempting to bring a herd of cattle to the Indians, the U.S. government's contribution to peace talks. However, outlaws are masquerading as warring Indians so the Cavalry will drive the real Indians off their land allowing the no-goods (Eddie Phillips, Tom Hubbard, Bill Coontz and renegade Indian Rodd Redwing) to claim the gold on the Indian land. Buffalo Bill discovers the plot, unmasks the heavies and establishes peace with Chief Yowlachie and Chief Thunder Cloud. Some music from low-rent musicians, The Broome Brothers (Joe, Ray and Lee).

 GUN RUNNER (1949 Monogram)
A little better plot than usual from J. Benton Cheney raises this Jimmy Wakely to above average. General mercantile owner Mae Clark and her boys (Kenne Duncan in one of his best roles, Marshall Reed, Carol Henry) secretly smuggle guns to Indians. Half-breed Ted Adams complains to the gun-runners of faulty guns and is given new rifles by Mae. Leaving town, Adams is discovered by Sheriff Steve Clark. In the excitement, Sheriff Clark is wounded. While recovering, the sheriff asks Jimmy Wakely to look after his "daughter", Noel Neill, revealing she is actually gun-runner Duncan's daughter. Due to past circumstances, neither Duncan nor Neill are aware of this fact. Sheriff Clark also asks Jimmy and pal Cannonball Taylor to bring in the gun-runners. In a showdown, with Neill's life in danger, Duncan learns of their relationship and sides with Jimmy against the crooked Mae Clark's gang. Mortally wounded, Duncan makes Jimmy promise Neill will never learn the truth about her outlaw father.

 SADDLE LEATHER LAW (1944 Columbia)
Charles Starrett unravels a double-murder - of the same man. When rancher William Gould is pressured to sell his ranch to businessman Lloyd Bridges' Empire of the West Corporation, he sends for mineralogist Charles Starrett to find out why the Empire wants his land so badly. When Gould is both poisoned and stabbed to death, the overused B-western plot ploy of blaming Starrett is trotted out while dude Bridges uses his eastern "charms" to try and convince Gould's ward, Vi Athens, to now sell the ranch to him. This is from Starrett and Columbia's non-stop fistfight-action period, so there's a continual battle between Starrett and pratfall sidekick Cannonball Taylor and Bridges' rowdies, Reed Howes, Bob Kortman, Ted French. At this point Starrett's white horse is named Yucca (and he calls him by name once) but Columbia thought kids (eastern ones especially) wouldn't quite understand what "Yucca" was and later changed the name of Starrett's mount. Lotsa music from Jimmy Wakely and his Saddle Pals, along with a good opportunity to see and hear country jug, guitar and "talking" harmonica player Floyd "Salty" Holmes (1909-1970) who used to play in Patsy Montana's Prairie Ramblers group and was later on the Grand Ole Opry. (His only other western is Tex Ritter's ARIZONA DAYS).

 UNCONQUERED BANDIT (1935 Reliable)
After his dad (John Elliott) is killed by San Diego politician William Gould's rustlers (George Chesebro, Lew Meehan, Ben Corbett), Tom Tyler vows to become the feared Nighthawk bandit to break Gould's pocketbook and his heart by marrying Gould's beloved niece Lillian Gilmore, then reveal he is the Nighthawk. Tom makes a deal with the real Nighthawk (Slim Whitaker) who double-crosses him in his checkerboard plan of revenge. Prolific but limited in talent, director Harry S. Webb should be thankful he had cameraman J. Henry Kruse on board to give Tyler's Reliables some semblance of movement. Our Tom deserved better and eventually got it at Republic with the 3 Mesquiteers.

 SILENT MEN (1933 Columbia)
Everyone in this Tim McCoy duller is anything but silent, droning on and on with constant talk, talk, talk. Tim McCoy escapes prison after being framed and convicted for a crime he didn't commit. Quickly becoming a brand inspector for rancher Joe Girard, he finds brothers J. Carroll Naish and Wheeler Oakman, along with henchie Matthew Betz, are rustlers. Complicating matters, Tim falls in love with the rustler-brothers' sister, Florence Britton. If you stay awake long enough, watch for a young Walter Brennan in a small role.

 LITTLE JOE, THE WRANGLER (1942 Universal)
When a reign of terror sweeps over the mining community of Lamplight with dozens of ore robberies, and Sheriff Tex Ritter is unable to stop the outlawry, the townspeople call for Ritter's resignation. When mining executive Johnny Mack Brown arrives to investigate, he's immediately framed for murder by the outlaws (Hal Taliaferro, Ethan Laidlaw, Slim Whitaker, Carl Sepulveda and their boss, respected citizen and smelter manager James Craven). Eventually, convincing Sheriff Ritter of his innocence, Brown, Ritter and the Little Joe of the title, Fuzzy Knight, band together to round up the gang. The Jimmy Wakely Trio offers up two tunes. Way too much screen time is given over to "inventor" Fuzzy's contraptions and we also noted even Mildred the Mule brayed incessantly at Knight's "singing" of the title tune. Ritter also gets to sing the song - at the very end of the picture.

 OREGON PASSAGE (1958 Allied Artists)
Routine '50s Cavalry vs. Indians picture except for one surprise plot deviance towards the end. Cavalry Lieut. John Ericson is out to establish peace with the Indians but finds he must battle more with his new by-the-book commander Edward Platt who knows Ericson had an affair years ago with his new wife Lola Albright. This affects Platt's decision making, causing renegade Black Eagle (H. M. Wynant) to take up the warpath. Terrific scenery, filmed on location in Oregon.

 SILVER SPURS (1943 Republic)
An example of how good the Roy Rogers films were until they went overboard with modern trappings. SILVER SPURS features one of the most thrilling climatic chase sequences ever filmed, with all due credit to director Joe Kane. Story has rich but irresponsible playboy-ranch owner Jerome Cowan caught in the clutches of lodge owner John Carradine. Phyllis Brooks is an eastern newspaper reporter who comes west looking for a story. She gets more than she and girlfriend Joyce Compton bargained for when she gets entangled in Carradine's plot to marry her off to Cowan, kill Cowan, then have his new "wife" sell out cheap to Carradine. When Cowan is murdered, Roy is blamed. Fortunately, Roy has pals like Smiley Burnette, Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers around to help him out of the jam in that slam-bang, helter-skelter finish. Unfortunately, current prints are edited, leaving out about 10 minutes which includes some of the Pioneers' best music.

 BOOTS AND SADDLES (1937 Republic)
Sporting the hit songs "Take Me Back to my Boots and Saddle" and "The One Rose" along with superb direction from Joe Kane, BOOTS AND SADDLES emerges as a real turning point in Gene Autry's film career. Gene is in fine voice with his confident presence on screen more evident than ever before. Orphaned British Earl of Grandby, 12 year old Ra Hould, has to depend on his ranch foreman, Gene Autry, to save his ranch from nasty mortgage holder Bill Elliott (sporting a sleazy black mustache). It's more fun and foolishness than a serious power struggle as Gene decides to win a contract to break and sell horses to the Army in order to save the ranch. With identical bids submitted by both Gene and Elliott, a cross country race (a Republic plot-staple) is planned to decide the winner. All the while, Gene manages another "taming of the shrew" romance with the daughter, Judith Allen, of the Army post's colonel, Guy Usher. A year from now, Elliott would become a major B-western star at Columbia.

 COMANCHE TERRITORY (1950 Universal-International)
Big budget B takes Jim Bowie (Macdonald Carey) to Texas to broker peace with the Comanche whose lands are about to be invaded by a greedy saloon man (Charles Drake) and his sister (Maureen O'Hara) who have stolen from oldtimer Will Geer the treaty/deed which he was delivering from Washington to Comanche Chief Pedro De Cordoba. After falling in love with Bowie, O'Hara defects to help him stop the evil plans of her brother and his henchman Ian MacDonald. Gorgeously filmed around Sedona, Arizona, but Lewis Meltzer's script that he handed director George Sherman is uneven, which at times allows Will Geer broad humor and Maureen O'Hara to unexpectedly burst into an Irish folk song for no good reason. Then Meltzer's script reverts to deadly serious action with the highlight being a knife fight between Bowie and Comanche buck Rick Vallin. Then, after Bowie and O'Hara are triumphant and in love, there's a downbeat ending in which Bowie promises to return to O'Hara after he returns from helping out at the Alamo, from which history, of course, tells us he will not return. B-vet director Sherman populates the lesser roles in his cast with a host of B-western friends - Ed Cobb, Johnny Carpenter, Terry Frost, John Cason, Harry Harvey, Stanley Blystone, I. Stanford Jolley, Glenn Strange, Guy Wilkerson, James Best and Iron Eyes Cody.

 CALIFORNIA TRAIL (1933 Columbia)
California 1838. It's the peons' land Mayor George Humbert and his brother, Commandante Luis Alberni, want - and starvation is the price. The Laurel and Hardyish pair horde all the food supplies and even charge scout Buck Jones with smuggling when he brings supplies to the people. Outlawed, and known as the Robin Hoodish Yankee Bandit, Buck strikes back at the conniving officials. Talk supplants action in this dreadfully dull Lambert Hillyer directed and scripted sleep inducing Jones.

 PLAINSMAN AND THE LADY (1946 Republic)
Overlong (87 minutes) Pony Express yarn with an emphasis on romance was earmarked for John Wayne but the Duke, having just made DAKOTA with Vera Ralston, didn't care for her thespic abilities and begged off this one. He was replaced by William Elliott for Wild Bill's second bigger budgeted western. It did little to enhance Bill's "A" status. In St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1859, noticing tough saloon owner Bill Elliott's affection for his daughter, powerful businessman Rheinhold Schunzel hires Elliott to protect his pony line from hostile Indians and the attacks of the gang led by Joseph Schildkraut, owner of a rival stagecoach line. Bill's position is made difficult because Schunzel's wife, Gail Patrick, is in love with Schildkraut. The in-poor-health owner of the pony line is literally shocked to death by his wife's confession of hate and treachery. Patrick joins Schildkraut as he and his raiders (led by black clad Don Barry) try to destroy the Pony Express stations. After a few false starts like this, Bill finally found his William S. Hart-like niche in B-plus westerns such as THE LAST BANDIT, SAVAGE HORDE, SHOWDOWN and, especially, HELLFIRE.

 ROARING RANCH (1930 Universal)
Cutesy Hoot Gibson oater finds him caring for an infant baby for half the film and the local schoolmarm (Sally Eilers) for the other half. Meanwhile, sneaky Wheeler Oakman plots to snatch off Hooter's oil-soaked ranch. Early talkie is just that. Gibson and Eilers were later married and divorced.

 SIERRA PASSAGE (1951 Monogram)
Off beat premise with fewer than usual clichés is compelling despite its production disappointments. When he's a youngster, Wayne Morris' father (Jim Bannon) is robbed and killed by three outlaws - lustily laughing Alan Hale Jr., Paul McGuire and Richard Karlan. Orphaned, Morris (played as a kid by Billy Gray) is raised by a Wild West Minstrel showman (Lloyd Corrigan) and his trick-shot artist (Roland Winters). Morris grows up to use the spectacular gun skills he's learned from them to tour the west, always searching for the trio of killers with nothing but revenge on his mind. Lola Albright affords the romance angle for Morris and provides a few songs.

 KING OF THE SIERRAS (1938 Grand National)
Production of this wild mustangs horse story was shut down in early July 1937 and not re-started until June 1938, at which time "the cast" was hired - Uncle Hobart Bosworth, his nephew Harry Harvey Jr. and his real life father Harry Harvey Sr. as the foreman. M. H. Hoffman was the original producer, but his name does not appear on the film, only that of George A. Hirliman who took over in '38 and fashioned a moribund wrap-around storyline with Bosworth, Harvey and Harvey discussing and "looking at" previously filmed horse footage (the exciting parts which you've seen many times over). For the record, Shiek is the good white horse and Rex is El Diablo. Suffer at your own risk.

 THUNDER TOWN (1946 PRC)
Mustachioed Bob Steele, released from prison on parole, returns to his hometown and attempts through ballistics to prove himself innocent of bank robbery and that his former partner didn't commit suicide. The real bad guys are Charlie King and his brother Edward Howard who now plan to force, through intimidation, pretty Ellen Hall, Bob's old girlfriend, to marry Howard in order to gain control of her ranch and stymie Steele. Saloon owner Bud Geary and businessman Bud Osborne are in cahoots with King and Howard. Warned to stay out of trouble while on parole, Bob takes a lot of abuse from the gang until he busts loose! Boo Boo: Bob's hat is filthy when talking to Sheriff Steve Clark, but not as he exits Clark's office.

 SAGEBRUSH LAW (1943 RKO)
Looks like Tim Holt's bank president father has committed suicide over "loans" he made to himself, but Tim knows it's murder and enforces the law of the west - in hot lead. With the help of his saddlepal Cliff Edwards, hotel owner John Elliott and his daughter Joan Barclay (whom Tim naturally falls for - who wouldn't?), Tim ferrets out his Dad's partner Roy Barcroft as the real embezzler. Barcroft's gang includes phony bank examiner Karl Hackett and ruffians John Merton and Bud McTaggart. My vote for the singing cowboy with the best voice (if sidekicks count) would be Cliff Edwards. Just listen to the pure, sweet clarity of his voice, like the chime of a gentle, perfect bell. Treat yourself to Edwards' version of Ray Whitley's "Crazy Old Trails" (originated in FARGO KID ['40]). In SAGEBRUSH LAW scripter Bennett Cohen gives us a slight variation on the "saloon confession" ending he first used so effectively in SOUTH OF ARIZONA ('38), then reprised in EL PASO KID ('46) and RIDIN' DOWN THE TRAIL ('47).

 THE ROUND UP (1941 Paramount)
Overlong cattle empire epic has Richard Dix as a rancher whose new bride's (Patricia Morison) old beau (Preston Foster) shows up to complicate matters. Eternal triangle soap operaish melodrama with the last 15 minutes its only saving grace after Dix is accused of the killing of gambler Jerome Cowan - a crime he didn't commit. Morison beseeches Foster to help her save Dix after Foster admits it was really he who murdered Cowan. Cowan's gang, led by Dick Curtis, have captured Dix but he's saved by Foster who is mortally wounded in the fight, but not before he confesses and clears Dix. The King's Men sign a few songs and the supporting cast of western vets (Lane Chandler, William Haade, Douglass Dumbrille, Morris Ankrum, Weldon Heyburn, Lasses White) helps, but it's far from Dix's best.

 GUN SMOKE (1931 Paramount)
Notorious Boston gangster William (Stage) Boyd goes into hiding with his thugs at Mary Brian's ranch in a small town in Idaho who welcome him as an investor. Slowly but surely the town comes under Boyd's rule, even to the murder of the Sheriff. Eventually, Mary's suitor, Richard Arlen, and his wranglers sneak up on the city-bred gangsters in a canyon, stampede a herd of wild mustangs over them, and polish off the rest of the hoodlums in a hail of gunfire. Nothing new, but it's handled well.

 BLACK DAKOTAS (1954 Columbia)
"During the Civil War, Southern sympathizers made desperate efforts to aid the Confederacy by inciting Indian uprisings against defenseless towns along the western frontier. The objective was to force large withdrawals of northern troops from the main battlefronts leaving them more vulnerable to Southern attack." Southern spy Gary Merrill (the bad guy - but he receives top billing and the lion's share of screen time and dialogue over hero John Bromfield) and his gang (Noah Beery Jr., Richard Webb, Clayton Moore, Chris Alcaide) plan to swipe a mess of gold promised the Sioux by President Lincoln. Wanda Hendrix is the daughter of a hanged Southern spy (Faye Roope) who is misled by Merrill while stageline owner Bromfield saves the day and the gold. Screenwriter Ray Buffum, producer Wallace MacDonald and director Ray Nazarro put the primary focus on the heavy, making this an interesting variation.

 VACATION DAYS (1947 Monogram) The Teen Agers (Freddie Stewart, June Pressier, Warren Mills, Noel Neill, Frankie Darro) go out west for summer vacation to their teacher's dude ranch at Gulch's Gulch where Freddie is mistaken for the notorious badman Angel Face by sneaky lawyer Hugh Prosser and his local outlaws (Terry Frost, Frank Ellis and ranch foreman John Hart). Obviously a spoof on westerns from producer Sam Katzman, but actually no less a "western" than some of the lighthearted modern day B's of Ken Curtis, Hoosier Hot Shots and even George O'Brien on occasion. Spade Cooley and his orchestra are featured.

 LAW MEN (1944 Monogram)
Unexciting plot-driven Johnny Mack Brown. Just when you expect a fight or shootout, it slips away under Lambert Hillyer's off-day lazy direction. Crooked banker (was there hardly any other kind?) Robert Frazer and saloon owner Ed Cobb have their hooligans (Marshall Reed, Steve Clark, Bud Osborne, Art Fowler, Ted Mapes) stage a series of bank robberies. The "solid citizens" plan to defraud the ranchers and mine owners by pretending an Eastern bank is calling in the bank's line of credit because of the robberies, then foreclose on the area mortgages. Lawmen Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton (who "sings" in this one - "Dirty Little Coward Who Shot Mr. Howard") are helped in thwarting the scoundrels by bank teller Kirby Grant (who would star in his own series at Universal within the year).

 HIDDEN GUNS (1956 Republic)
Father and son lawmen, Richard Arlen and (country singer) Faron Young set out to reform the town run by gambler Bruce Bennett who hires backshooter John Carradine to gun a witness, then "snipe" Sheriff Arlen from ambush. When Bennett tries the same trick on Faron, he loses. Carradine is far better than the Al Gannaway written/produced/directed material. Also with a young Angie Dickinson in a nothing role, Big Boy Williams, Lee Morgan, Irving Bacon, Lloyd Corrigan, Tom Hubbard (Bennett's right hand man), Ben Welden, Damian O'Flynn and Ed Cobb. A choral group ties various sections of the film together, commenting on the story. Interesting, but slow. Bill Ward (one time owner of the Lone Ranger's Silver) contributes some nice stuntwork. Made independently by Gannaway. Distributed by Republic during their final days.

 SHOOTING HIGH (1940 20TH Century Fox)
Gene's first, and only, feature away from Republic while under contract finds him in unfamiliar surroundings, therefore not at his best. Cast as Will Carson (the only picture where he did not play "himself"), grandson of the local town hero, Gene appears uneasy and when called upon to show emotion in a few dramatic scenes, manages only a bewildered, befuddled expression. An old feud that originated with the grandparents of the Pritchards and the Carsons, who live in Carson's Corners, flares up again when town banker Frank M. Thomas tries to put a highway through where the local monument to frontiersman Will Carson stands. When blustery producer Jack Carson's movie company comes to town to film the life-story of old Will Carson, Gene at first doubles for, then takes the place of, egotistical cowboy star Robert Lowery. Gene captures LeRoy Mason's gangsters who rob the local bank, settles the feud and wins the hand of Marjorie Weaver, the older sister of match-making Jane Withers. Incidentally, youngster Withers was an off-screen matchmaker as well, totally arranging the deal between Republic and Fox so she and Gene could make a picture together. Note that in the film within a film, Gene's leading lady is Kay Aldridge who would soon gain fame at Republic in their PERILS OF NYOKA serial.

 IROQUOIS TRAIL (1950 United Artists)
Starts with a history lesson: "In 1755 a new war in Europe between England and France had re-lighted the fuse under the uneasy peace in America. Everyone knew a final struggle between the rival colonies of Canada and New England was inevitable. Once again that ancient Indian warpath known as the Iroquois Trail, the only natural passage between the St. Lawrence and Hudson River Valley, would provide the main battleground. At the northern end stood Montreal, while to the South, the little city of Albany was the main British base of operations." Colonial cowboy George Montgomery as James Fenimore Cooper's legendary Hawkeye with Monte Blue as his friend, the Sagamore, find Hawkeye's kid brother ambushed and murdered by treacherous scout and French spy John Doucette and Huron chief Sheldon Leonard (very believable in his Indian role). They've stolen vital British war dispatches. Montgomery and Blue aid the British in a French attack on Fort Williams, rescue the commandant of the fort's daughter (Brenda Marshall) and uncover a traitor, Reginald Denny. Superficial script with some good action toward the end. Producer Edward Small seemed to favor historical or period "westerns" (LAST OF THE MOHICANS '36, KIT CARSON '40, DAVY CROCKETT, INDIAN SCOUT '50) as well as historical costume dramas (COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO '34, MAN IN THE IRON MASK '39, SON OF MONTE CRISTO '40, CORSICAN BROTHERS '41, VALENTINO '51, KHYBER PATROL '51, etc.).

 DON RICARDO RETURNS (1946 PRC)
... And he shouldn't have. Slow, derivative and ineffective with scant little activity. Duncan Renaldo, under the alias Renault Duncan, wrote the script (with the help of Jack De Witt) and produced (with J. S. Burkett) this zestless excuse to star stuntman/actor Fred Coby, a smallish non-actor who looks even more tiny next to his "friend" Paul Newlan. In Monterey, California, duplicitous Spaniard Anthony Warde is determined to have the returning Don Ricardo (Coby) dead so he can inherit Ricardo's ranch and marry his fiancée, Isabelita. Warde's lackeys are stereotypical comic, inefficient Mexicans ala a poor episode of TV's ZORRO. Director T. O. Morse failed to infuse the film with any energy. Coby (1916-1970) came to films in 1943. Most of his roles were small parts, although he managed a few good heavies on early western TV series such as ROY ROGERS, LONE RANGER and STORIES OF THE CENTURY and he was one of the two heavies (with Dick Curtis) constantly battling Walter Reed in the Republic serial GOVERNMENT AGENTS VS. PHANTOM LEGION ('51).

 ROCKY RHODES (1934 Universal)
Buck Jones had the ability to appeal to adults as well as children. A large adult audience was not uncommon for Jones' films. Crossing audience "boundaries" gave Buck an edge over many other western heroes which may explain why Universal signed him after dispensing with the demanding Ken Maynard. Universal gave Buck much the same deal as they had Ken - producer/star. ROCKY RHODES is Buck's first at Universal and it's a winner as he and pal, Chicago gangster-type Stanley Fields, come west after a stay back East to find Buck's old friend Paul Fix accused of murdering Buck's father. When Fix is also killed, Buck pledges to get the man responsible, who turns out to be land-grabbing investment company owner Walter Miller who, with his gang (Lee Shumway, Harry Semels, crooked lawyer Carl Stockdale, Monte Montague, Bud Osborne) are trying to dispossess lovely Sheila Terry and her father Alf P. James. Slam-bang finish.

 WYOMING KID (1947 Warner Bros.)
A grand, stirring big budget Warners western. Warner Bros. had a style all their own with roots firmly planted in the B's. Plotline here has an undercover man infiltrate a bandit gang. Sound familiar? The only thing added to this standard B plot is romance. Wells Fargo agent Barton MacLane coerces and makes a deal with gambler Dennis Morgan to bring in the phantom outlaw known only as The Poet. Problems arise when Morgan falls in love with Jane Wyman who turns out to be the Poet's wife. The Poet (banker Bruce Bennett) operates secretly and lets his henchmen (Arthur Kennedy, Tom Tyler, Bob Steele, John Ridgely, John Alvin, John Compton) do all the riding and robbing. Original title was CHEYENNE which was changed for TV release because of the Warners TV series with Clint Walker. 100 minutes of fast, furious fun maintained under Raoul Walsh's direction. Besides Steele and Tyler, another one-time B-star, Jack Perrin, can be briefly glimpsed.

 DRUMS OF DESTINY (1937 Crescent)
"In 1815, Florida was Spanish territory, sparsely populated and totally ungarrisoned. West Florida was a hideout for smugglers, renegade whites and savage tribes of marauding Creeks and Seminoles. Armed with contraband rifles, these Indians raided American settlements across the border, then retreated to their West Florida refuge. Unable to pursue them into foreign land, General Andrew Jackson established a border patrol of Mississippi volunteer militiamen to protect the pioneers." With that premise, you'd expect an action-packed Tom Keene historical adventure. Wrong. Following an Indian raid in which a young boy is killed, Capt. Tom Keene, his scout Budd Buster, and the militiamen cross the border into Florida without orders to track down gunrunners Robert Fiske, Ray Bennett and John Merton. Meanwhile, the gunrunners capture Keene's brother, Lt. Dave Sharpe, and bring him before the Spanish governor, Carlos de Valdez, who orders him executed. From there it's a tepid talkfest as Keene, and deValdez's daughter, try to convince the Governor to release Sharpe.

 A TIME FOR DYING (1969 Fipco)
Audie Murphy is the only decent actor in this aimless, pointless, badly acted, overwritten hodgepodge. Unfortunately, his cameo as Jesse James only lasts 5 minutes. Director Budd Boetticher had helmed a series of excellent Randolph Scott westerns in the mid to late '50s. He then left Hollywood for Mexico to work on a personal bullfighting project. He did not return for 8 years, and when he did, his film making career was at a virtual standstill. This paltry-budgeted, painfully crude film made primarily to help Audie pay his debts (to the IRS and possibly the mob for gambling markers) did nothing to revive either Boetticher's or Audie's careers. It wasn't released until 1971 in France, after Audie's death, and later in the U.S. on homevideo.

 DOWN DAKOTA WAY (1949 Republic)
A more subdued and weaker entry among Roy Rogers' latter-day Trucolor pictures. Sort of a juvenile delinquent theme with bad-boy Byron Barr (the stepson of ex-schoolteacher Elisabeth Risdon) joining up with unscrupulous cattle rancher Roy Barcroft to murder local vet Emmett Vogan in order to obtain a report that shows Barcroft's cattle are infected with hoof and mouth disease. Crafty Barcroft wants to get his herd to market before a quarantine order is issued. In his efforts to unravel the murder of Vogan, Roy is aided by schoolmarm Dale Evans (who sings the only memorable tune, "Candy Kisses", a hit country tune of the time), Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage, wannabe detective Pat Brady and Sheriff Montie Montana. The menace of perennial Republic badman Barcroft is very secondary to that of Barr and Barcroft's henchie James Cardwell. Although director William Witney stages some inventive fights, it's not enough to raise this John Butler/Sloan Nibley scripted Rogers above average.

 ROAD TO DENVER (1955 Republic)
When B+ or A- western stars of the '50s are mentioned - Audie Murphy, George Montgomery, Jim Davis, Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Rory Calhoun, Rod Cameron, Guy Madison, Dale Robertson - it seems John Payne is often overlooked. He shouldn't be. Payne starred in ten westerns in the '50s (and a successful TV series RESTLESS GUN ['57-'59]), of which ROAD TO DENVER is one of the best, helped immensely by veteran Joe Kane's expert knowledge of how to direct an exciting Trucolor western. A feud between two brothers is at the center of the action with level-headed Payne constantly getting younger brother Skip Homeier out of trouble. Tired of bailing Homeier out of jams, Payne heads for Colorado where he eventually becomes partners with stageline owner Ray Middleton and falls in love with his daughter Mona Freeman. Coincidentally, Homeier winds up in the same town, using an assumed name, and winds up a gunhand for town boss Lee J. Cobb (and his gun-rannies Glenn Strange, Lee Van Cleef, Buzz Henry, Red Morgan, Dan White) who is trying to close down Middleton and Payne's stageline. Based on a novel by Bill Gulick. Although set in Colorado, ROAD TO DENVER was filmed in Utah. Terrific supporting cast: Andy Clyde, Tex Terry, William Haade, Fred Graham, John Dierkes, Dick Alexander, Tom Monroe, Bill Hale, Francis J. McDonald, Charles Meredith, John Cason, Hank Worden.

 TWO GUN MAN FROM HARLEM (1938 Merit/Sack)
The best of the Herb Jeffries black westerns. At the ranch where he works, Herb discovers his boss has been murdered by an unknown man with whom his boss' wife (Mae Turner) was having an affair. The manipulative Mae throws suspicion on Herb who flees east to Harlem where he meets a gangster known as The Deacon. As the Deacon resembles Herb, the on-the-run cowboy decides to return west disguised as The Deacon to clear himself. Time passes and a year later, the real murderer, Clarence Brooks, hires local tough Spencer Williams Jr. to kill Mae to protect his identity. Back out west, Herb, as The Deacon, allies himself with Williams, convincing him not to kill Mae but to blackmail Brooks. Eventually, Herb clears his name and rounds up both Brooks and Williams. Besides Williams, who won fame as Andy Brown on TV's AMOS AND ANDY, the all-black western features Stymie Beard of OUR GANG and comic genius Mantan Moreland as Herb's sidekick. Herb sings his hit "Happy Cowboy".

 CODE OF THE WEST (1947 RKO)
The third and final James Warren RKO western based on a Zane Grey novel is Warren's best, solidly directed by William Berke from a Norman Houston screenplay. Grey's story was made in 1923 as CODE OF THE WEST at Paramount starring Owen Moore and remade in 1934 by Paramount as HOME ON THE RANGE w/Randolph Scott. Warren and sidekick Chito (John Laurenz) come to the aid of banker Harry Harvey who is able to lend homesteaders refinance money thereby spoiling the sneaky plans of saloon owner Raymond Burr and his hatchet-men (Steve Brodie, Phil Warren, Marshal Harry Woods) to take over their land and sell it to the railroad. Warren must also contend with Harvey's wayward son, Robert Clarke, and his sister, Debra Alden, with whom he falls in love. Burr bar-girl confidant Carol Forman sings in the saloon as does Chito at a campfire. Silent star William Desmond has a one-line bit as a rancher. Noted stuntman Tom Steele doubles Warren in two well-choreographed fights.

 FLAMING FRONTIER (1958 Regal/20th Century Fox)
B-western director Sam Newfield's last fling has Cavalry Captain Bruce Bennett sent by Washington to bring about a peaceful solution to the uprising in Minnesota by Bennett's half-brother, Sioux chief Little Crow (Larry Solway). Real culprits turn out to be Indian hating fort commander Jim Davis, his civilian brother Cecil Linder and Indian agent Ben Lennick who are cheating the Indians out of their food supplies. The action, when there is any, is boringly staged. Bennett and Davis are the only two American actors in this made in Canada production from Newfield who made the equally poor WOLF DOG with Davis in Canada at the same time under the same production set-up.

 GUNS OF A STRANGER (1973 Universal)
Expectations ran high in 1973 for a new singing cowboy western starring Marty Robbins. All hopes and expectations were quickly dashed after about five minutes of this dumbfoundingly vapid excuse for a western. Producer/director Bob Hinkle obviously is trying to emulate the programmers of the '30s and '40s but fails miserably. The only excuse to put this in your VCR is to scan through the meandering, poorly scripted, dull 90 minute plot, stopping only long enough to listen to Robbins sing six of his gunfighter ballads, plus the title tune, "The Drifter" (also used on his unsold TV series of the same name). Drifter Robbins hires on at the ranch of Chill Wills (looking bloated and probably inebriated) and his daughter, Dovie Beams - a serious candidate for the worst actress ever to make a western, or any other picture - to fight off the landgrabbers (Tom Hartman and plug-ugly Bill Foster (aka Bill Coontz). Other than Robbins, Chill and Foster, plus cameos from old pros Shug Fisher and Fred Graham, the rest of the cast is made up of rank amateur talent rounded-up in Arizona where the film was shot, at Old Tucson. Regrettably, this ultra-lame attempt only served to further bury the singing cowboy western.

 KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (1936 Principal/20th Century Fox)
Virtually actionless Sol Lesser produced Northwest Mountie yarn with Robert Kent far too small in stature and not dynamic enough to play Zane Grey's famous comic strip Mountie sergeant. Several last minute casting changes also damaged the film. George O'Brien was originally scheduled to star, but he was replaced by Richard Arlen and, finally, Robert Kent. Jean Parker, scheduled to play the femme lead, was sidelined by an eye infection so Rosalind Keith was borrowed from Paramount. Drawn-out plot has lawyer Alan Dinehart and his cohort, Arthur Loft, plotting to swindle Keith's share of a gold mine from her. Literally no action till the last few minutes. Watch for Jack Luden in a small role as a Mountie. An unbilled Ray Whitley, in his first screen appearance, seems a bit nervous as he sings two songs at a party.

 TRAPPED IN TIA JUANA (1932 Mayfair)
Watch this and you too will feel trapped! Purportedly a western action-drama-romance, it contains none of these ingredients. Stale and stiff, 61 minutes drag hopelessly by as Duncan Renaldo stars in a dual role. It's the old wheeze of two twin brothers separated by bandits as youngsters. (Rex Lease came up with the story idea.) One twin grows up with his Colonel father (Joseph Girard) as an American Army officer, while his kidnapped twin becomes a Mexican bandit. This dullery reunited Renaldo with his TRADER HORN ('30 MGM) co-star Edwina Booth. This cheapie was obviously made to capitalize on their fame from that picture. Hard to believe, but almost an entire reel is wasted as the Mexican Renaldo and his captive (Booth) prepare coffee and tortillas. This was Booth's last film. No wondering why. Fortunately, Renaldo's career survived this ineptness.

 MAN FROM MONTANA (1941 Universal)
Despite his deep feelings for Jeanne Kelly, Sheriff Johnny Mack Brown warns her father, fiery cattle baron William Gould, and James Blaine, secret head of a band of rustlers, not to resist the lawful invasion of homesteaders into their valley. Blaine and his range rats (Frank Ellis, Dick Alexander, Kermit Maynard, Karl Hackett, Blackjack Ward) plan to stir up strife between cattlemen and homesteaders (led by old Murdock McQuarrie and his granddaughter Nell O'Day) in order to win control of the valley for himself. Except for the intrusion of two little kids Universal was promoting, Billy Lenhart and Kenneth Brown, who sing "Little Joe the Wrangler", the action is non-stop. Well, almost, we do need to suffer Fuzzy Knight as always, this time claiming "Bananas Make Me Tough". The King's Men sing "Follow the Western Trail". One question: Why is Montana in the title when the jail reads Laramie?

 FARGO KID (1940 RKO)
One of Tim Holt's most ingratiating happy-go-lucky roles that shows how good an actor he really was. The light comic touches in the screwball comedy-vein incorporated by director Richard Killy make this a most appealing Holt, and one of the most enjoyable B-westerns ever made. The scenes where Tim's pals Ray Whitley and Emmett Lynn try to sing their way out of jail are laugh-out-loud funny. The story, credited to pulp writer W. C. Tuttle, is a remake of RKO's CHEYENNE KID ('33) with Tom Keene. Crooked assayer Cy Kendall and fidgety henchie Ernie Adams send for gunman Paul Fix to kill miner Paul Scardon so they can buy his goldmine claim cheap from his widow-to-be Mary MacLaren and their daughter Jane Drummond. In the desert, Fix runs across the Fargo Kid (Holt) who is on his way to join his pals, Whitley and Lynn. Through a set of circumstances, Tim winds up with Fix's horse, leading the crooks to believe Tim is the killer-for-hire they sent for. That is, until the real killer, with havoc in his holster, arrives. Ernie Adams, as a comic-badman, was never better, and even gets to do his patented "squealer" bit. Whitley sings "Crazy Old Trails" (a song Cliff Edwards reprised in Holt's SAGEBRUSH LAW ['43]). With original story credit to W. C. Tuttle, the '33 Keene screenplay was by Jack Curtis and Keene Thompson. The revised screenplay for Holt is by Morton Grant and Arthur V. Jones, who, separately and together, scripted many of RKO's best B's for George O'Brien and Tim Holt. Director Killy, who gets the absolute most of the comic situations, came up through the ranks as an assistant director on major films like LITTLE WOMEN ('33), GUNGA DIN ('39) and HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME ('39). FARGO KID was one of many he helmed with O'Brien, then Holt, before returning in the late '40s to assistant director and production director work on more major titles such as SINBAD THE SAILOR ('47), BLOOD ON THE MOON ('48) and THE SET-UP ('49). Much of the outdoor action was filmed on location in Kanab, Utah.

 SECRET VALLEY (1937 20TH Century Fox)
Socialite Virginia Grey seeks a quickie divorce in Reno, NV, after she marries Norman Willis, realizing too late he is a notorious New York gangster. While Willis and his thugs search for his runaway bride, Virginia hides out on Richard Arlen's ranch where romance between them naturally follows. There's a musical campfire interlude with Syd Saylor's "singing voice" quite obviously dubbed. All the action that exists in this Sol Lesser production based on a Harold Bell Wright story comes in the final five minutes.

 LAW COMMANDS (1937 Crescent)
"In 1862, the imminent passing of the Homestead Act, giving all Americans the right to acquire 160 acres of government land, started the tide of empire westward. The rich lands of Iowa beckoned, but no sooner had settlers planted their crops when ruthless land sharks made their appearance. Their terror was especially felt in Johnson County where cowardly night riders descended on the farmers and drove them from their lands," reads the prologue to another Crescent Tom Keene historical drama. Just a fancy way of leading into a standard B-western land-grab plot. Law and order by way of a citizen's claim association fails when prominent farmer Carl Stockdale is gunned down by hoodlums John Merton and Matthew Betz, working secretly for respected pillar of the community Robert Fiske. Dr. Tom Keene takes matters into his own hands, seeking assistance from the Governor. Meanwhile, Fiske and Merton install Stockdale's naïve son, Dave Sharpe, as head of a phony protective association in order to trick landowners into deeding over their property to them. Keene's love interest is Stockdale's daughter, Lorraine Hayes, the real-life younger sister of actress Bernadene Hayes. More watchable than most of the Keene Crescents.

 WESTWARD, HO! (1942 Republic)
Lady banker Evelyn Brent is the suave secret leader of a gang of bandits (Donald Curtis, Kenne Duncan, Budd Buster, Monte Montague, Bud Osborne) who are terrorizing Spring Valley. Fed up, the banker's association, of which Brent is president, offers a $5,000 reward for any member of the gang - dead or alive. With pressure on the outlaws, Brent orders Curtis to frame a passing stranger as a bandit, kill him and collect the reward money to divert attention from their own activities. Returning from the East, unwary Tom Seidel is their victim. When Tom is killed, his brother, John James, vows vengeance. The gang's next target is the unsuspecting Lullaby Joslin (Rufe Davis) as he and his Three Mesquiteers pals (Tom Tyler, Bob Steele) arrive in town. When Lullaby is captured in a phony bank holdup (instead of being killed as the outlaws planned), Tyler and Steele rescue him from hanging. A neat series of crosses and double crosses ensues as the Mesquiteers get in with the gang and eventually aid James, and his sister Lois Collier, and Sheriff Emmett Lynn in exposing Brent and her boys. Action packed with a very original plot from Morton Grant and Doris Schroeder. Directed with zip by John English. Due to the John Wayne film of the same title in 1935, Republic released this western to TV as RIDERS FOR JUSTICE.

 FORBIDDEN VALLEY (1938 Universal)
Riding with her father (Stanley Andrews) in search of wild mustangs, Frances Robinson becomes separated from the group, falls from her horse and is nearly trampled in a stampede. She is saved by Noah Beery Jr. who lives in hiding in the mountains with his father, Samuel S. Hinds, who was falsely accused of murder years ago. Before Beery can return Robinson to town, his father is killed by a runaway horse. Beery leaves the mountains with Robinson, determined to clear his father's name. Beery is just a little too "gosh, ah willikers" for the lead and was better served in character roles over many years to come. Remade in 1950 as SIERRA with Audie Murphy and again in 1965 as HIDEOUT, an episode of THE VIRGINIAN with Roberta Shore.

 MAN FROM TEXAS (1948 Eagle Lion)
A thinly cloaked retelling of the Jesse James story - except for an ending that lets Jesse, known here as the El Paso Kid (James Craig), off with a light jail sentence after he foils a train robbery by his old gang. Hardly worth the 70 minute effort.

 IN OLD MONTEREY (1939 Republic)
With the longest running time (73 minutes) and biggest budget ($98,723) yet afforded a Gene Autry western, Republic was clearly moving their number one star into a higher category of picture. Republic was steering Gene's films away from the traditional B-western programmer. With higher budgets and better casts, they were obviously aiming at A-theatre playdates. The story here deals with real-life war clouds gathering in Europe. Patriotism was clearly on Republic's mind with IN OLD MONTEREY. With war looming, the Army Air Corps needs to purchase ranch land for a bombing range, but ranchers led by Gabby Hayes are unwilling to sell the land they have cultivated. Undercover, Sgt. Gene Autry tries to persuade the ranchers to sell and move without a fight. Unscrupulous Jonathan Hale, president of a Borax company, is informed the government feels the asking price for his mine is too high and will not pay it. In defiance, Hale has his burly foreman (William Hall) keep public sentiment stirred up to force the government to pay a higher price. In an all-out patriotic pitch (obviously aimed squarely at what was really going on in the world) Gene argues if the Army doesn't develop better weapons, the U.S. could be victimized. Stirred by patriotism, Gabby apologizes to his country for thinking only of himself and leads the ranchers in singing "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean". But Gene's victory is short-lived when Hale's men dynamite Gabby's ranch, killing young Billy Lee and blaming the tragedy on the Army's bombing runs. Gene must now prove Hale's sabotage and win back the support of the ranchers. The primary drawback to one of Gene's best pictures is the preponderance of comedy material from Smiley Burnette and WSM Radio's Sarie and Sallie, as well as the Hoosier Hot Shots. Gene sings "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and the apropos "My Buddy".

 SONS OF THE PIONEERS (1942 Republic)
Named after Roy Rogers' famous group, the film is basically served up tongue in cheek by director Joe Kane from a script by Mauri Grashin, Robert T. Shannon and M. Coates Webster, only the latter of which is really known for western screenplays. The basic plot has Sheriff Gabby Hayes under pressure to catch a band of night raiders. Gabby and deputy Pat Brady go back East to corral Roy Rogers, the grandson of a tough lawman, to come west and apprehend the outlaws. However, it seems Roy is an entomologist and a peaceable man, but when duty calls he's up to the rough and tumble task, a fact he, at first, hides from leading lady Maris Wrixon and the rest of the townspeople. It gives the picture a bit of a Destry touch. Bradley Page, behind a cloak of respectability as an upstanding town citizen, is the secret boss of the rustlers (Hal Taliaferro, Jack O'Shea, Tom London) who are after the valuable cromite on the rancher's property. There's some excellent music from the Sons of the Pioneers (including "Trail Herdin' Cowboy") and some funny moments when, riding along the trail believing Roy is dead, Roy and Gabby sing a duet of "He's Gone Up the Trail".

 TROUBLE BUSTERS (1933 Majestic)
Jack Hoxie gets the horse laff when he and his friends try to run skinflint storekeeper William T. Burt out of town by throwing a scare into him, mistaking his niece, Kaye Edward, for Burt. Smitten by the girl, Hoxie rides for Placerville where he believes her to be and runs smack into two "trouble busters", Ben Corbett and Harry Todd. Making friends, the trio arrives in Placerville where Hoxie inadvertently hires out to crooked Slim Whitaker to grab off some property while, unbeknownst to him, Corbett and Todd hire out to Lane Chandler to protect the same property - which turns out to be owned by Burt and niece Edward! The silly contrivances actually play very well with lots of fun generated by director Lewis Collins. Buffalo Bill Jr. doubles Chandler quite noticeably in one blatant fight close-up. William Lively dusted off Oliver Drake's story and turned it into DEATH RIDES THE RANGE for Ken Maynard in 1940. Downgrade the rating on this one to 2 if you can't abide Hoxie.

 BUFFALO GUN (1961 Globe)
All the ingredients are here to deem this the "last" B-western with singing cowboys. In 3 Mesquiteers style, country music singers Marty Robbins, Carl Smith and Webb Pierce play government agents called in to investigate a missing shipment of 50 buffalo guns, stolen by Indian Agent Wayne Morris, gunman Don Barry, telegrapher Harry Lauter and Indian Eddie Little. Our singing trio are helped by old coot sheriff Douglas Fowley and storekeeper lady Mary Ellen Kay (for whom Marty falls) and her embarrassingly bad-actor brother Edward Crandall. Delightful to watch Robbins trying, often unsuccessfully, to choke back his laughter on screen when Fowley, with his teeth out, goes into his seasoned-old timer shtick. Marty's music ("The Same Two Lips", "Clementine") fits the picture but Carl ("You Can't Hunt Me Anymore") and Webb ("Someday") are a bit too country. Worse yet is the belting rockabilly "Sugaree" from the Jordanaires. There are some really exhilarating action sequences (Bill Ward was responsible) with direction by Albert C. Gannaway who produced several westerns in the late '50s. Early on, you can easily spot Jim Davis in stock footage from one of those films.

 RIDERS OF THE TIMBERLINE (1941 Paramount)
Hopalong Cassidy and his pals, California (Andy Clyde) and Johnny (Brad King), ride into a logging camp run by Hoppy's old friend J. Farrell McDonald whose operations are being sabotaged by Eastern capitalist Edward Keane who has hired toughs Hal Taliaferro and Tom Tyler to make sure McDonald is unable to fulfill a contract to deliver logs to a mill. For a change of pace in a Hoppy picture, Victor Jory is on the right side of the trees as McDonald's loyal foreman. McDonald's daughter, Eleanor Stewart, brings in a crew of singing loggers known as the Fighting Forty who team up with Hoppy and the boys to save the day. Lesley Selander directed with plenty of fast action and gorgeous - different - scenery for a Hoppy.

 MONTANA BELLE (1952 RKO)
Unbelievably bad. Ridiculously inaccurate. Although completed in 1948, the movie took nearly four years to be released. Howard Hughes had star Jane Russell under personal contract and lent her to Fidelity Pictures which had a production and release set-up with Republic, which is why the picture is in Republic's Trucolor process and why all the standard Republic production personnel are associated with this 81 minute turkey. For whatever reason, after Hughes saw the completed film, he wanted it to be released by his RKO. He shouldn't have wasted his time. You have to see Jane Russell disguised as a boy to believe it! Premise has just-widowed female outlaw Belle Starr (Russell) throwing in with the notorious Dalton Gang (Scott Brady, Ray Teal, Rory Mallison, Holly Bane) who also run with Forrest Tucker and Jack Lambert. After a fling with Brady, Jane has a falling out with the Daltons over a mistake and takes off on a robbing spree with Tucker and Lambert, eventually meeting totally miscast George Brent, an honest saloonkeeper. At first the outlaw lady plans to rob Brent, but instead partners up with him, falls in love and decides to go straight by double-crossing the Daltons. Naturally, they force her back into outlawry and are wiped out in their raid on the saloon in Gutherie, Oklahoma (not a bank in Coffeyville, Kansas!?!) But forget facts, writers Horace McCoy and Norman S. Hall and director Allan Dwan threw them all out the window from the get-go. Notable only for spotting all the Republic regulars in small parts - Roy Barcroft, George Chesebro, Gene Roth, Rex Lease, Glenn Strange, Gregg Barton, Frank Ellis, Iron Eyes Cody, Hank Bell, Dennis Moore, Chuck Roberson, Dick Elliott, Pierce Lyden, Kenneth MacDonald, Franklyn Farnum, Stanley Andrews. Stuntwork by Dave Sharpe, Tom Steele, Paul Stader, Terry Wilson, Joe Yrigoyen.

 DEAD MAN'S TRAIL (1952 Monogram)
Convicted bandit Dale Van Sickel breaks jail, planning to retrieve the stolen express money he stashed before he was caught. Now, shot and dying, his incomplete last words to Johnny Mack Brown are, "Tell my brother, back of the pic ..." Believing Van Sickel's brother, Jimmy Ellison, knows where the loot is stashed, the Black Hills Gang (Lane Bradford, Gregg Barton, Richard Avonde) helped by crooked deputy sheriff Terry Frost goes looking for Ellison who has only just arrived out west with his mother, Barbara Allen, and has no idea where the money is hidden or what Van Sickel's last words referred to. Strong on story development, short on action.

 THE DESPERADO (1954 Allied Artists)
Leaving his girl (Beverly Garland) behind, Jimmy Lydon and his friend Rayford Barnes flee the carpetbagger rule of oppressive Nestor Paiva. On the trail they meet fugitive gunfighter Wayne Morris who befriends Lydon after Barnes tries to kill Morris for a reward. Returning to town, the treacherous Barnes kills Paiva and another "Bluebelly" carpetbagger, making it appear Lydon did the deed. On the run, Lydon rides the owlhoot trail with Morris until he's captured by Sheriff Dabbs Greer and returned for trial. In court, the traitorous Barnes lies under oath, blaming Lydon, until Morris interrupts the trial at gunpoint to get Lydon off the hook and put Barnes under the noose. Also with Lee Van Cleef (in a dual role), I. Stanford Jolley, brothers John and George Eldredge, John Dierkes, Lyle Talbot, Robert Shayne and Roy Barcroft as Barnes' father. Different in approach during the final days of the B-western, but a bit drawn out at 80 minutes even under the solid direction of Thomas Carr. Problem is, Lydon is no horseman and is slow on the draw when he's supposed to be fast, and Morris looks just plain worn out and overweight. Remade in 1958 as COLE YOUNGER, GUNFIGHTER with Frank Lovejoy in the Morris role, James Best in the Lydon part and Jan Merlin taking over for Barnes.

 COWBOY MILLIONAIRE (1935 Fox)
Easy-going, light-hearted George O'Brien "western". George and pal Edgar Kennedy work for a dude ranch but are quitting to work their newly acquired gold mine. Before leaving, George accepts a $10 bet that he can have high-tone English heiress Evalyn Bostock "eating out of his hand" by week's end. Before he knows it, he truly falls in love with her, but she has found out about the bet. Hurt, she returns to England. Meanwhile, her snooty English beau, Alden Chase, has swindled Kennedy out of the rich mine and also fled to England. George and Kennedy both travel to England for the all too welcome ending to one of O'Brien's dullest pictures.

 FUZZY SETTLES DOWN (1944 PRC)
After capturing two bank robbers (Ted Mapes, Tex Palmer) Fuzzy St. John, with his reward money, decides to settle down in what he believes is the peaceful small town of Red Rock. At auction, Fuz buys the newspaper formerly operated by crusading newspaperman John Elliott who has been murdered by the outlaws (Charlie King, John Merton, Frank McCarroll) who run the town and don't want a proposed telegraph which will provide communication to the area. With Elliott's daughter, Patti McCarty, (and help from pal Buster Crabbe), Fuz carries on Elliott's fight against the crooks, even after they frame Fuz for stealing the telegraph money-fund. Because of its unusual title - the only time a sidekick's name was used in the title of a B-western - this is one of the best remembered of Crabbe's Billy Carson series.

 THE SAGEBRUSH FAMILY TRAILS WEST (1940 Producers Pictures Corp.)
Not as bad as you may think, however saddled with an innocuous title. The first of a planned series, this ended up being the only one filmed. The Sawyer family (led by medicine show huckster Earle Hodgins, his wife Nina Guilbert, their cute daughter Joyce Brant and - the star of the show - 12 year old World's Champion Junior Cowboy Bobby Clark). Although Bobby Clark's Texas twang was a bit hard to take, William Lively's script keeps the action moving and gives plenty of opportunity for Clark to do his expert ridin' and ropin'. Slim plot has deputy sheriff Archie Hall after a gang of outlaws (Kenne Duncan, Wally West, Carl Mathews) masterminded by the town's "solid citizen", Forrest Taylor. It all comes to a head when the gang goes after Hodgins' new invention - a silent explosive. (!?!) Sort of a Hardy family on horseback, produced by Sig Newfield, directed by Peter Stewart. (Sig and Sam Neufeld.)

 SUNDOWN RIDERS (1948 Film Enterprises)
In the midst of the B-western film cycle, "Sundown Riders", an independently-made cowboy-trio oater, was filmed in 16mm Kodachrome color in 1944. The stars were Russell Wade, an RKO contractee seen in several Tim Holt pictures, and former Hoppy sidekicks Jay Kirby and Andy Clyde. Wade told us, "It was shot in '44, although it didn't get released until '48. It was my idea, along with cameraman Alan Stensvold. I had to 'borrow myself' from RKO to make the picture." In such an unusual arrangement, the production setup was a mutual agreement. "All of us shared, to an extent, in the producing of the picture - arranging for sets, horses and all. Jay Kirby's father, H. V. George, put up the actual dough. We shot in 16mm color because it was cheaper than doing it in 35mm. This was a far-thinking project, as I projected it as a pilot for a television series! If this one had gone, we were to do a whole series of them, ready to sell to television when TV came in. And color would have helped it even further!" There is a scene in the film where Evelyn Finley asks, "Nice horse. Where'd you get him?" to which Russell Wade replies "From a fellow named McCutcheon." Russ smiled, "This was an inside joke, as stable owner Ralph McCutcheon put up the horses for the film." He didn't have any money in the film, but did provide some great horses. Dice, the beautiful paint I ride in the film, could do tricks. It was a fabulous horse, very beautiful. Remember the scene where I'm on Dice, and Jay jumps backwards onto the rear of the horse? Well, we did that ourselves - and it didn't take us long to get it in the can!" Andy Clyde, who worked with Jay Kirby in several Hopalong Cassidy pictures, was the sidekick in "Sundown Riders". "We needed comedy, and he and Jay had worked well together before, that's why we cast him ... also, he did his own stunts!" The movie was shot at Iverson's Ranch on a straight rental basis. In the movie, Russell wears some pretty fancy duds. "I wore George O'Brien's boots - the fancy gunbelt belonged to some other star, whom I can't recall." Asked if the film ever showed a profit, Russ is quick to say, "I don't know. I never saw a dime; some of the cast (Jay Kirby, Andy Clyde, Marshall Reed) were paid a straight salary, but I was in on a percentage deal ... and saw nothing." The movie was eventually released in 1948 through Film Enterprises of Denver. "That was owned by H. V. George, Jay's father. Jay's real name was Bill George, originally from Denver. Rodney J. Graham, the screenwriter, was my next door neighbor. He wrote the original draft, but it was unusable, so we had to get somebody else to write it - although Graham still gets screen credit. Actually, Lambert J. Hillyer, who was the director, wrote the script you see on the screen." Wade went on to co-star in "Renegade Girl" ('46) w/Alan Curtis, Ann Savage and Ray Corrigan before leaving the film business to start a profitable career in real estate in Palm Springs in the late '40s. Co-star Jay Kirby was Hoppy's sidekick in 6 titles ('42-'43) before making "Sundown Riders". He later worked at Republic and Monogram with Bill Elliott, Sunset Carson, Rocky Lane, Jimmy Wakely and Monte Hale. Under his real name, Bill George, he was in "Masked Raiders" w/Tim Holt and various TV episodes. He became a landscaper when film work was slow. He died July 30, 1964, reportedly in a car wreck on the California Coast Highway. Scottish born Andy Clyde came to America in 1912 with his vaudevillian parents. By 1919 he was in Mack Sennett comedies. He entered westerns in a "Pop" Sherman produced Richard Dix western. Sherman tried several inappropriate comics when George Hayes left the Hopalong Cassidy pictures before getting it right with Andy for 36 titles. Andy was later Whip Wilson's sidekick in his first 12 films, then did a variety of TV work. He died May 18, 1967. Standard B-western plot has the trio (Wade, Kirby, Clyde) joining ranger Marshall Reed and coming to the aid of Evelyn Finley and her dad Steve Clark battling land-grabbers, "respectable citizen" Hal Price and his bushwhackers (Jack Ingram, Henry Wills, Bud Osborne, Ted Wells). Too bad Wade was unable to continue, it could have made a decent series.

 HAIR TRIGGER CASEY (1936 Atlantic)
The William Berke produced six picture slate of "Blue Ribbon" westerns tried to be different from the usual sagebrush dramas and were designed to put former silent star Jack Perrin back at the top of his field. Unfortunately, they weren't that well-received and only four were made (SONG OF THE GUN and BORDER RANGER were announced but never produced). They were Perrin's last starring hurrah, then he slipped into supporting roles. Directed by Harry Fraser from his own screenplay (under the pseudonym Weston Edwards), HAIR TRIGGER CASEY simply doesn't measure up to the other three in the series. Making it difficult to watch today (and impossible to show on TV in our politically correct climate) are the numerous references to genial black comedian Fred "Snowflake" Toones as "boy" and crass remarks and jokes by not only the bad guys, but Perrin as well. This degradation runs all through the picture, giving it a distinct unlikability. Plot has Army Captain Perrin called back to his ranch near the Mexican border because of mysterious activities there. Perrin and his brother Wally Wales discover Perrin's ranch foreman Ed Cassidy (sans his usual trademark mustache), ranch hand Budd Buster and cook Phil Dunham secretly smuggling Chinese into the U.S. via Mexico. Bizarre twist at the end reveals Perrin saved Cassidy from death during WWI and made him his foreman only to now discover him leading a double-life as a sadistic yellow-slaver. Oddest part is the flashback war-montage that lasts up to three minutes revealing what is going through Perrin's mind when he realizes Cassidy has betrayed him. Berke wanted the Perrin pictures different ... this is. But the lack of action and outright mistreatment of Toones makes it slow going.

 IN OLD ARIZONA (1929 Fox)
Famous for being the first major sound western, IN OLD ARIZONA made progressive use of exterior sound and photography racking up six major Academy Award nominations, however only Warner Baxter as the Cisco Kid actually won. 75 years later, IN OLD ARIZONA is an insufferable 94 minute talkfest, no doubt interesting in 1929, but serving only as a curio today. Slim plot has Cisco pursued by Cavalry Sgt. Edmund Lowe. Cisco's crafty senorita (a way-over-the-top Dorothy Burgess) betrays him to Lowe and falls victim to a bullet from Lowe's gun for her treachery. The direction was begun by Raoul Walsh, who also intended to star as Cisco. However, Walsh had an accident which resulted in the loss of an eye - making way for his trademark eye patch. Irving Cummings took over and completed the picture. Actor/director Cummings (1888-1959) appeared with Lillian Russell's stage company before entering films in 1909. He was a popular silent leading man (including a series of Mountie pictures), but turned to directing in the '20s. He also directed the lame follow up to this picture, THE CISCO KID ('30). From the mid '30s on he specialized in 20th Century Fox musicals and light fare, directing some of the best known films of Shirley Temple, Alice Faye and Betty Grable. Meanwhile, IN OLD ARIZONA was so successful in its day that it fostered two sequels with Baxter (THE CISCO KID and RETURN OF THE CISCO KID) as well as a plethora of, mostly bad, Cisco imitations.

 RETURN OF THE CISCO KID (1939 20TH Century Fox)
Certainly the best of the three Cisco Kid westerns Warner Baxter starred in, but it's now been 10 years since IN OLD ARIZONA and Baxter is getting a "little-mite" long in the tooth to be romancing young Lynn Bari who has come west with her father (Henry Hull) to claim a rancho. Cisco has romance in his heart when he meets Bari and her father, so he helps them retrieve the rancho they were cheated out of by town boss, Sheriff Robert Barrat. When Bari's boyfriend shows up (Kane Richmond) and Cisco realizes she loves him more than he, Cisco sends Richmond on a suicide mission. Heartbroken but realizing his mistake, he saves Richmond and rides off for Old Mexico with his compadres, Chris-Pin Martin and a scroungy Cesar Romero (who, oddly enough, six months later replaced the aging Baxter in the Cisco series).

 LUCKY CISCO KID (1940 20TH Century Fox)
Pursued by the Cavalry (Sgt. Dana Andrews and his men) the Cisco Kid (Cesar Romero) and his rotund pal Gordito (Chris-Pin Martin) stumble into a town where crooked judge Willard Robertson has henchman (Joe Sawyer) impersonating the Cisco Kid and terrorizing local ranchers, thereby driving them into debt so Robertson can buy up their land cheaply. Cisco at first romances saloon singer Mary Beth Hughes (lovely as ever) and then helps widowed Evelyn Venable and her young son (Boy of the MGM Tarzan films, Johnny Sheffield) stave off Robertson and Sawyer's raiders. As directed by H. Bruce "Lucky" Humberstone, several ideas from Warner Baxter Cisco films (IN OLD MEXICO, CISCO KID) are recycled (bathtub and vigilante scenes, a widowed young woman and her son plagued by a landgrabber, the pursuit by Sgt. Dunn of the Cavalry). However, Cesar Romero does capture the fun-loving, romantic adventuresome spirit of Cisco.

 THE LASH (1930 First National)
Another in a long list of Latino-bandido westerns that flowed in the wake of IN OLD ARIZONA, THE LASH owes more to the Joaquin Murieta story. Directed on a grand scale in widescreen projection, called Vitascope, by director Frank Lloyd (WELLS FARGO, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, etc.), it takes some suspension of belief to buy into Richard Barthelmess as a Latin Robin Hood. Barthlemess had been a major matinee idol in the '20s earning two Academy Award nominations. As his star began to fade, he turned to character roles in the late '30s. One of his last films before joining the Naval Reserve and never returning to Hollywood was the John Wayne/Randolph Scott classic THE SPOILERS ('42). For THE LASH, set in California after the American conquest of the Spanish, Barthlemess is a Mexican rancher who becomes a Robin Hoodish avenger, El Puma, in his efforts to win justice for his people. Sheriff James Rennie falls in love with Barthlemess' sister, Marian Nixon, and after El Puma has killed the crooked land commissioner (Fred Kohler Sr.), Rennie allows Barthlemess to escape to Mexico with his sweetheart (Mary Astor). Routinely directed except for a large cattle stampede sequence that's quite thrilling and was used as stock footage in many westerns in years to come.

 ROGUE OF THE RIO GRANDE (1930 SonoArt-World Wide)
I'd rather suffer a brain tumor than watch this "movie" again. Star Jose Bohr is! He's an imitation Cisco Kid, El Malo, (as scripted by Oliver Drake) robbing banks to help the poor. Along the way he falls for operatic-singing saloon girl Myrna Loy (in a role I'm sure she bleached from all future film resumes). Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet on his worst day in the industry. Actually painful to watch.

 CALL OF THE COYOTE (1934 Imperial)
Resolutely rotten in every regard, suffering from the usual ailments of hackery. Cisco Kid wannabe and will-o-the-wisp Don Adios (Ken Thompson) and his pal Pancho (Charles Stevens in a rare good-guy role) are always ready to right wrongs, then with a gay farewell, disappear. With stereotypically bad Mexican accents, the dubious-duo protect a gold mine belonging to Pat Carlyle (who also "directed" this drone) and his baby daughter (Marie Bracco) from outlaws Merrill McCormick and Jack Pollard. Hard to believe on producer William M. Pizor's miniscule budget the film company would travel all the way to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but they did, giving this yawner its only interest.

 HONOR OF THE MOUNTED (1932 Monogram)
To uphold the honor of the Mounted Police, Tom Tyler is given six months to track down Stanley Blystone, the true killer of Tom's friend, Francis MacDonald, whom it "appears" Tom killed. Posing as a fur trader, Tom tracks Blystone to the U.S. and finds him a fur thief in league with Ted Lorch. Romance with the Marshal's daughter, Celia Ryland, also ensues. Slow moving story and direction from Harry Fraser until the last reel saves the picture with some excellent camera angles on the terrific cliff-top action from cinematographer Archie Stout. Beginning circa 1929, Stout shot as many as 20 B-films a year throughout the '30s - Tom Tyler, Bob Steele, Rex Bell, John Wayne, Hopalong Cassidy, etc. - eventually moving up to A-pictures with BEAU GESTE ('39). In the '40s and '50s he photographed such classics as CAPTAIN KIDD, LUST FOR GOLD, FT. APACHE, THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT, QUIET MAN, HONDO, THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY and THE PROFESSIONALS.

 THE LONGHORN (1951 Monogram)
Wyoming rancher Wild Bill Elliott has a vision for a new breed of cattle, cross-breeding his hardy Texas Longhorns with Herefords to develop a heartier, heavier beef stock. To do this he must drive a herd of Hereford's from Oregon to Wyoming. He takes with him a supposedly trusted friend, Myron Healey, who is in reality planning to grab off the herd upon return with the aid of rustlers John Hart and Marshall Reed. En route, Bill saves Myron's life and leaves him to recuperate at the home of Phyllis Coates and her father, I. Stanford Jolley. Elliott hires a trail crew of tough ex-outlaws trying to go straight (Lane Bradford, Zon Murray, Lee Roberts, William Fawcett) and all head back for Wyoming. Near home, at the proposed time for the rustlers to attack, Healey has a change of heart and helps Elliott beat off the gang, only to lose his own life. Dan Ullman's story is a bit different and director Lewis Collins handles it well in 70 minutes. Remade as CANYON RIVER in '56 with George Montgomery.

 CANYON RIVER (1956 Allied Artists)
Scripter Dan Ullman remade his THE LONGHORN which had starred Bill Elliott in '51. Same exact story - substitute George Montgomery for Bill Elliott, Peter Graves for Myron Healey and Marcia Henderson for Phyllis Coates. Henderson has a young son (Richard Eyer) this time instead of a father, the trail crew are Alan Hale Jr., Jack Lambert, William Fawcett and John Harmon and the rustlers are Walter Sande and Bob Wilke. Richard Heermance produced - he was film editor on THE LONGHORN. Cinemascope and color help but the lengthier 80 minute running time slows down the pace under Harmon Jones' direction.

 IN OLD CALIENTE (1939 Republic)
"In the early days when California was first admitted to the Union, a rush of covered wagons, bringing land-hungry settlers, fortune hunters and outlaws, threatened the very existence of the old Spanish Dons, and their vast ranchos," so reads the prologue to what some feel is one of Roy Rogers' best early westerns. Working for "Don" Frank Puglia, Roy is mistakenly accused by the Don's son, Paul Marion, of being in league with outlaws led by Harry Woods. "Don" Puglia sends his major-domo foreman, Jack LaRue, to search the wagon train of settler "Americanos" led by Gabby Hayes, for a stolen payroll. Roy intervenes on the side of the settlers and is banished from Puglia's ranch. Roy discovers La Rue the guilty one in league with Woods, but La Rue turns the tables on Roy and Gabby and has them imprisoned. The Don's daughter, Katherine DeMille, believing in Roy, persuades her father to listen to Roy's explanation but La Rue kills him before that can happen - also blaming the Don's murder on Roy and Gabby. Roy eventually convinces Paul Marion of his innocence and together they bring the culprits to justice. Highlight of the film is the delightful duet between Roy and Gabby, "We're Not Comin' Out Tonight". Also, as far as I know, IN OLD CALIENTE is the only B-western to feature a California earthquake scene.

 GALLOPING THUNDER (1946 Columbia)
Wild mustang herds being rounded up for U.S. Cavalry remounts are being stampeded by outlaws (John Merton, Ed Cobb, Kermit Maynard, Ray Bennett) so they can break lovely Adelle Roberts' remount-sales business. The Stockman's Syndicate sends investigator Charles Starrett to the region to capture the owlhoots. Starrett, masquerading as usual as the Durango Kid, eventually ferrets out banker Richard Bailey - who is engaged to Adelle - as the ringleader of the horse rustlers. Smiley Burnette, a self proclaimed "expert on everything", has some truly comic moments in an undertaking parlor. Even better, Smiley cuts the clowning and sings beautifully with Merle Travis and his Broncho Busters on "The Wind Singing a Cowboy Song". That song segment, and lots of other stock footage from GALLOPING THUNDER, was reused in CYCLONE FURY ('51). Also of note, Smiley uses the phrase "I'm your huckleberry" long before Val Kilmer made it famous in TOMBSTONE.

 TRUSTED OUTLAW (1937 Republic)
Bob Steele, son of an outlaw, wants to settle down with his girl, Lois January, but discovers she is really in love with gunman Charlie King when the pair try to kill him. Angered and hurt, Bob takes a risky job for trusting miner Hal Price to get a large payroll through to his men without bandit Earl Dwire and his boys (King, Sherry Tansey) grabbing it off. Bob wants to show the town he can go straight and throw off his outlaw blood. Lois eventually learns too late how big a snake Charlie King really is, but by that time Bob has fallen for Price's kid sister, Joan Barclay. Produced under A. W. Hackel's Supreme production set-up and distributed by Republic.

 WHERE TRAILS END (1942 Monogram)
There's plenty of action WHERE TRAILS END, a prophetic title for Tom Keene's last starring B-western. When valley residents are driven from their homes and ranches, U. S. Marshal Tom Keene is dispatched to discover why. Tom helps rancher Steve Clark, his daughter Joan Curtis as well as young Donny Stewart whose father is hung by foreign agent William Vaughn and his cutthroats (Charlie King, Sherry Tansey, Tex Palmer) who are after Tungsten deposits on the ranches. Born on Staten Island, NY, in 1935, young Donny Stewart, being an expert rider at a young age, caused Monogram to cast him in WHERE TRAILS END as well a couple of Trail Blazers epics. By age 9 he was out of films. We don't believe a later credited "Donald Stewart" of the TV era is the same person. Monogram's Donny apparently died in 1986.

 FARGO EXPRESS (1932 World Wide)
Crooked saloon owner Roy Stewart cheats Ken Maynard's mine partner, Paul Fix, in a card game, then coerces Fix into robbing the stagecoach to get some money. Sheriff William Desmond's posse captures Fix just as his sister from back east, Helen Mack, arrives. Ken, in trying to clear his partner, is accused himself of being the bandit. Alan James and Earle Snell's plot is a bit different with some exciting moments by not up to the standard of Ken's Universals.

 O'MALLEY OF THE MOUNTED (1936 20TH Century Fox)
The River Gang hides in Canada after raiding American border towns. Mountie George O'Brien poses as an outlaw, having himself thrown in jail with James Bush who is suspected of killing a Mountie. Aided by Bush's sister, Irene Ware, the pair breaks jail and Bush leads them to the hideout of outlaw Stanley Fields and his gang (Richard Cramer, Tom London, Charlie King, Olin Francis, Victor Potel). The original story was by William S. Hart and was filmed by him in 1921. Produced by Sol Lesser's Atherton Productions for Fox, this is a pretty tame affair, saved only by O'Brien's ebullient personality.

 TUMBLING TUMBLEWEEDS (1935 Republic)
Republic publicity announced, "The singing idol of the air now becomes the troubadour of the trails" and "Radio's singing cowboy takes to the saddle in a musical action drama." It was a classic gamble by the newly formed Republic - a practically unknown to the screen singing cowboy - an all new genre that introduced songs and background music to the standard B-western format. Certainly cowboys like Bob Steele and others had sung on-screen before but Gene Autry's first feature film in a lead role was shrewdly constructed as a traditional western with songs introduced naturally through a medicine show element. Surrounded by an array of behind the scenes talent that would go on to distinguished careers of their own, Gene acquits himself well, although he is not quite yet comfortable delivering some of the called-for forceful lines of dialogue. He appears much more at ease in the musical and more relaxed scenes. However, his sidekick, Smiley Burnette, seems a screen natural, complimenting screen veteran George Hayes nicely without getting in the way. In the midst of a heated range war, Gene Autry returns home after a five year absence as a singer with Gabby Hayes' Medicine Show troupe, which includes Smiley Burnette, black actor/dancer Eugene Jackson and Frankie Marvin, only to find his best friend, Cornelius Keefe, accused of the murder of Gene's rancher father, with whom Gene had a quarrel before he left town years ago. Eventually, through Keefe's wife (Norma Taylor), Gene discovers Keefe sold water rights to Gene's father, water rights town big-shot Edward Hearn desired for himself, so he killed Gene's father and framed Keefe. Gene plants a trap for Hearn and his henchmen, giving an opportunity for a slam-bang free-for-all fight with a dozen or more men involved while the medicine show wagon careens along at breakneck speed. Besides this exciting finale, there's a terrific action sequence at the start with plenty of music and excitement throughout the picture. The romance angle is slight for this first entry with Gene reuniting, after five years away, with blonde Lucile Browne. Highlight of the film gives Gene a chance to sing his record hit "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine" just as he learns of his father's death.

 SING ME A SONG OF TEXAS (1945 Columbia)
Ken Curtis must have been busy elsewhere as Tom Tyler takes his "normal place" in this Hoosier Hot Shots western-comedy songfest. But it's a nice change of pace, giving this entry a different feel. To determine which of his two grand-nieces (Rosemary Lane or Carole Mathews) he's never met should inherit his spread when he's gone, blustery rancher Noah Beery Sr. draws up a will leaving it to the one who turns out to be the nicest, sends for the two girls, impersonates the cook (while the cook, Slim Summerville, portends to be the ranch manager). Beery's plan is to sit back and observe the two gals without them realizing they're being scrutinized. Tom Tyler is the ranch foreman with his comic pal Big Boy Williams. Rosemary, an entertainer, brings along the Hot Shots and Marie "Butch" Austin (who's so obnoxious in a couple of Universal B-westerns and no less so here). Kermit Maynard has a bit as a ranch hand. Rosemary Lane sings one song, the Hot Shots offer up three and Riders of the Purple Sage bring on two. Then, in an all star finale, showbiz jack-of-all-trades Pinky Tomlin, and the Hal McIntire orchestra arrive. What they're doing here - your guess is as good as mine.

 HARLEM RIDES THE RANGE (1939 Hollywood/Sack Amusement)
Roving cowboys Herb Jeffries and his sidekick Dusty (Lucius Brooks) hire out to rancher Spencer Williams and get involved in a plot by businessman Clarence Brooks and his gunman Tom Southern to grab-off the rich radium mine of rancher Leonard Christmas. Brooks later kills Southern and throws suspicion on Jeffries who is jailed for the crime. Learning Christmas' daughter (Artie Young) is arriving from the east to pay off her father's debts, Jeffries must escape and rescue the girl before Brooks waylays her. To be seen for the novelty element of black cowboys going through the same B-western conventions as Maynard, Gibson, Jones, Autry and the rest. Jeffries' hit, "Happy Cowboy", is the theme music. Story and screenplay by Williams who later gained fame as Andy Brown on TV's AMOS 'N' ANDY. One must assume there were no black directors in Hollywood at this time, as the picture (and Herb's other two westerns) is directed by Richard C. Kahn (who was also responsible for the two Buzz Henry Z-grade westerns).

 SANTA FE BOUND (1936 Reliable)
The last of Tom Tyler's 18 westerns for producer B. B. Ray. Tyler moved on to Sam Katzman's Victory Pictures. This one's tried and true, the old ranch grab (Jeanne Martel's spread) by gravelly voiced Richard Cramer and his gunslinging parasites, Slim Whitaker, Ed Cassidy and Charles King. When Tom is accused of murder, he poses as a renegade to be accepted by the gang and bring them to justice. Such originality! Director/producer Harry S. Webb (here using his Henri Samuels alias) was born in 1891 in Pennslyvania. After a learning period with Universal starting about 1917, Webb began producing independently in the early '20s, including a group of silent Jack Perrin westerns. He then had an association with Mascot's Nat Levine on several late silent serials. In 1930, Webb and F. E. Douglas organized a company and turned out several Jack Perrin, Tom Tyler, Bob Custer (and other) westerns distributed through Syndicate. From late '33-'37 Webb and B. B. Ray ran Reliable. With Webb as associate producer, the studio produced some 45 features including westerns with Tom Tyler, Jack Perrin (again) and Bob Custer. After the collapse of Reliable in early '37, B. B. Ray and Webb regrouped to form Metropolitan where some very poor Bob Steele product was released. In 1940 Webb moved his Metropolitan production set-up to Monogram to produce a skein of Jack Randall westerns. Webb's last credit for awhile was as producer of LAW OF THE WOLF, an Arthur Ziehm cheapie in May '41. In addition to the Henri Samuels moniker, Webb also used the names Harry Gordon and Harry Samuels. Prolific screenwriter Rose Gordon was Webb's wife and VP of Reliable. They divorced around 1941 and Webb went to work in a WWII defense plant. He reactivated his film career and was assistant director on BRIDE AND THE BEAST ('58) and Oliver Drake's PARSON AND THE OUTLAW ('57). Webb died July 4, 1959. Webb's younger brother, Ira (1899-1971) directed a couple of his brother's Steele films at Metropolitan, went on to be an assistant director and set decorator. Later he wrote and co-produced several Lash LaRue titles for Ron Ormond.

 SILVER TRAIL (1937 Reliable)
Adapted from James Oliver Curwood's Mystery Of The Seven Chests, Rex Lease goes to join his partner in a rich silver strike but finds him missing with no one admitting to knowing of him or his mine. Investigating, Lease enlists the aid of very pretty (and more talented than the usual Reliable leading lady) Mary Russell (whose father was killed and his claim jumped by the Triangle Mine gang) and Rin Tin Tin Jr., the dog who belonged to Lease's partner. The Triangle boss is Ed Cassidy, who customarily played sheriffs, fathers or good townsmen. His gang is headed by Slim Whitaker along with Sherry Tansey, Oscar Gahan and Roger Williams, also playing against type as a wimpy mine recorder. For some unknown reason, probably to appease the onslaught of Gene Autry, director Raymond Samuels (aka B. B. Ray) foisted a "western singer" named "Hank" on us in the first five minutes of the film. It was ill advised, he's very bad and gets this otherwise decent western with some nice mystery angles off to a poor start. Watch for old time silent comedian Snub Pollard as the café counterman. 1937 is the same year he began to play Pee Wee, Tex Ritter's sidekick. Lease made so few westerns, all on poverty row, and was taken so little notice of at the time, besides which his character career so far overshadowed his "starring career", that Lease is seldom even thought of or remembered today as a B-western cowboy of the '30s.

 RIDERS OF THE WHISTLING SKULL (1937 Republic)
The fourth Three Mesquiteers adventure is a radical departure from any other film they made, and one of the series' best outings, featuring a harrowing, imaginative story, high production values, good direction from Mack V. Wright, unusual locations in the Coachella Valley near Mecca, CA, and plenty of expert stuntwork from Yakima Canutt. Perfectly crafted atmospheric "glass shots" make the skull-shaped rock formation known as the Whistling Skull appear to be atop existing peaks in Coachella Valley. Keeping it spooky, ominous drums and an eerie use of distorted shadows are used to introduce a lost tribe led by Chief Thunder Cloud and Iron Eyes Cody. Oliver Drake's script (suggested by stories from William Colt MacDonald) finds archeologists Earle Ross, John Ward, George Godfrey and Fern Emmett outfitting a mission to search for their colleagues, Mary Russell's father, John Van Pelt, and C. Montague Shaw. Suddenly, the 3 Mesquiteers (Bob Livingston, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune) arrive with a half-tortured Shaw who tells the group about the lost city of Lukachukai hidden deep in the desert-mountains at the base of a Whistling Skull rock formation and zealously guarded by an ancient lost tribe of Indians. Before he can fully explain how to reach the lost city, the lights go out and Shaw is slain with a dagger bearing an ancient curse on all who might enter the lost city. Nevertheless, the archeological expedition, guided by the Mesquiteers, sets off to find Mary's father who is held captive by the lost tribe. Along with them go trading post owner Roger Williams and his Indian aide, Yakima Canutt, who are secretly after the golden riches of the lost city. During their trek, several members of the expedition are killed before they finally reach the Whistling Skull and rescue Mary's father. There are some honestly hair-raising suspense sequences, not the least of which is Corrigan being pursued, bare-chested, by Indian tribesmen across the dangerous rocky landscape. Director Mack V. Wright (1895-1963) began working in the silent era of the mid-'20s. During this period he also sometimes worked as an actor. With the advent of sound he became an assistant director at Columbia working on Buck Jones and Tim McCoy westerns. He began to direct with John Wayne B's at Warner Bros. in '32 and continued on at Republic with several Gene Autry and 3 Mesquiteers entries before returning to AD work on Monogram Rough Riders and Universal Johnny Mack Brown westerns. He also co-directed several serials. Oliver Drake restructured his script to fit a Charlie Chan mystery, THE FEATHERED SERPENT in '49.

 NORTH OF THE GREAT DIVIDE (1950 Republic)
"One of nature's great mysteries is the yearly run of salmon to the rivers of the Northwest where the great canning industries have been built. There was a time when this industry and the lives of the people were threatened by the greed of a few men," so reads the prologue to another of Republic's Roy Rogers environmental westerns. Roy Barcroft and his whip-wielding henchman Jack Lambert build a salmon cannery downriver from Indian Chief Noble Johnson's village, depriving the tribe of their natural food source. The office of Indian affairs sends Roy and pal Gordon Jones to work out a peaceful solution to the problem with Barcroft, the Indians and the Mounties on the Canadian side of the river. But Barcroft only sees dollar signs and frames the Chief for the murder of a Mountie in order to keep the pot boiling. Helped by the Chief's son, Keith Richards as a blood brother to Roy, they eventually clear the chief of murder and bring Barcroft and Lambert to justice. The ultra-vicious Lambert steals the picture with he and Roy clashing at the end in a bloody fight with bull whips. Songs are minimal, with Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage and leading lady Penny Edwards (as a field nurse) having scant little to do.

 MAN FROM MONTEREY (1933 Warner Bros.)
California 1848. Army Captain John Wayne has been dispatched to convince the Spanish landowners that lands not registered will fall into public domain. To prevent "Don" Lafe McKee from registering his property, "Don" Francis Ford has his men kidnap McKee. Wayne wins an unlikely ally in outlaw Charles 'Slim' Whitaker and, in the end, calls on the bandit gang to repay a favor by helping him dispatch Ford and his crew. Subplot has Ford's son, Donald Reed, attempting to marry McKee's daughter, Ruth Hall, who prefers the dashing Wayne. The "comedy" elements with fast-talking fortune teller Luis Alberni are laid on way too thick by director Mack V. Wright. And the wedding-breakup-melee finale becomes nearly slapstick in nature. This is a remake of Ken Maynard's CANYON OF ADVENTURE ('28) with Ken and Tarzan replacing John and Duke in some stock footage. A low point for Wayne fans who prefer The Duke in a more traditional western.

 THREE ON THE TRAIL (1936 Paramount)
The better the villain, the better the movie, and Onslow Stevens as suave, cultured gambler Pecos Kane is one of Hopalong Cassidy's slimiest adversaries. This 5th Cassidy adventure also has the distinction of being the first Hoppy in which George Hayes' character of Windy was fully integrated into the trio. (The character was first introduced in Boyd's BAR 20 RIDES AGAIN two films earlier.) Plotwise, the town of Mesquite is in the grip of Steven's saloonkeeper Pecos Kane, leader of a band of lawless desperadoes (crooked sheriff John St. Polis, Ted Adams, John Rutherford, Al Hill). Stevens has just brought in a stagecoach full of buxom broads to work in his saloon. Also on the stage is demure schoolteacher Muriel Evans who came to town by mistake and is now broke and stranded. The crafty Stevens tries to lure Evans into working in his saloon but she is saved by Hoppy and James Ellison. Angered by Ellison's friendship with Evans, Stevens tries to frame him for a stagecoach robbery. When this fails, Stevens' gang takes Hoppy and Ellison prisoner. Escaping across the thirsty desert, Hoppy, Ellison and Hayes round up the Bar 20 gang for an all out assault on Stevens in a blazing, flaming-saloon climax. Mention should be made of Ernie Adams' good-guy (for a switch) role as one of the Bar 20 riders. Adams has a memorable scene at the wind-up as he gives his life while setting Stevens' saloon afire.

 GOD'S COUNTRY AND THE MAN (1937 Monogram)
Tom Keene's first film for his initial Monogram series is closer akin to his RKO series ('30-'33) than the other three in the series. Produced and directed by Robert North Bradbury from a Robert Emmett (Tansey) story, the theme is actually quite adult in nature. Practically stealing the picture from the rather bland Keene, Charlie King, in one of his best-ever roles, holds up and robs Keene's storekeeper father, killing him in the process. Fleeing, King brazenly deserts his wife, Betty Compson (also in a standout role). During his revenge-driven search for King, Keene comes to befriend Compson. They luck upon a rich gold strike with the help of blacksmith Billy Bletcher and his daughter Charlotte Henry, with whom Tom falls in love. Compson spends her part of the gold-mine profits opening a dance-hall saloon, hoping to lure King there for retribution, which is exactly how things work out.

 WINGS OF ADVENTURE (1930 Tiffany)
Dreadful early talkie has aviator Rex Lease and his pal, Australian born comic Clyde Cook, downed in Mexico and captured by guerilla fighters headed up by Nick DeRuiz. Lease is befriended by the talentless Armida and helps her avoid an unwanted marriage to the self-imposed El Presidente, guerilla leader Fred Malatesa. Eventually they are rescued by the U.S. Cavalry. So badly overdone it borders on comedy. Or maybe it was meant to be humorous. Either way, it remains a pathetic and very missable early talkie.

 LAST OUTLAW (1936 RKO)
Harry Carey and Hoot Gibson reunited after their success with POWDERSMOKE RANGE a year earlier for this whimsical, delightful modern-day western romp. Reformed old-time outlaw Harry Carey has served 25 years in prison. Released into a modern day world, the leathery rascal finds he must adjust to the changes that have taken place. While he served his time, Dr. Frank Thomas has raised Carey's daughter, Margaret Callahan, unbeknownst to her who her real father is. Carey looks up old sheriff Henry B. Walthall who originally jailed him and has now graciously arranged for his pardon. Carey also meets Hoot Gibson who becomes sweet on Margaret. When bank robbers (Tom Tyler and his gang) kill Dr. Thomas after he treats one of the gang, Carey, Gibson and Walthall employ old west methods to catch the modern day crooks. Laced with good humor as Carey gets used to big city life and modern day goings-on, the most amusing (and most honest) scene comes when Carey goes to a talking movie to see singing cowboy Larry Dixon (Fred Scott) which, curiously, led to Scott's series later in '36 at Spectrum. Carey's old pal John Ford contributed the original story. A must-see western.

 FRONTIER FEUD (1945 Monogram)
Nevada Jack McKenzie (Johnny Mack Brown) and Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton) intercede in a feud between two big outfits operated by ranchers Dennis Moore and Steve Clark (and his daughter Christine McIntyre - sweet on Moore). The feud is actually being fueled by Clark's partner Jack Ingram who wants to be kingpin of the entire valley. Good solid Jess Bowers screenplay (based on a short story from .44 WESTERN) with the mystery villain not realized til past the midway point. Continuous movement but scant little hard action. "Red River Valley" song is included.

 UNDER COLORADO SKIES (1947 Republic)
A strong contender for Monte Hale's best western, possibly edged out slightly by his next, CALIFORNIA FIREBRAND. After being falsely accused of a bank robbery and murder of the bank president that was actually carried out by three members of the notorious William Haade gang (John Alvin, Gene Evans, Steve Raines), bank teller and medical student Monte Hale is taken into custody. Escaping, Monte infiltrates Haade's gang (which also includes gunman Steve Darrell and card-sharp/town spy LeRoy Mason), secretly planning to orchestrate their capture. Fly in the ointment is, bandit Alvin is the brother of Monte's sweetheart, Adrian Booth, so Monte must somehow cover up to protect her from finding out; all the while trying to convince Alvin to go straight. When Haade discovers Monte's plot, it's all-out breakneck action. Note: One bit player's voice in a saloon scene was dubbed (for whatever reason) by Republic contractee Roy Barcroft. As for music, Monte (on "San Antonio Rose") with Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage never sounded more harmonious. (Al Soley gets a couple of solos with the Riders.) Directed by R. G. Springsteen in Trucolor.

 GOD'S COUNTRY (1946 Action/Screen Guild)
Trapper Robert Lowery, his guide Si Jenks and cook Buster Keaton (?!?), arrive in the California redwood country and wind up helping storekeeper Helen Gilbert, her father William Farnum (and dog, Ace) and the local Indians headed up by Trevor Bardette defeat the irresponsible logging maneuvers of timber magnate Stanley Andrews and his flunkies Al Ferguson and Jack O'Shea. Director Bob Tansey's screenplay (aided by Frances Kavanaugh) is worn and tattered, allowing for oodles of downtime for wildlife shots of bear, cougar, elk, squirrels, wolves, raccoon, owls, etc. The northwoods tale's saving grace is the late-in-the-picture appearance of an unbilled Whip Wilson as the Marshal in his first screen role. One also wonders if that's Whip singing the song "Trees" over the titles. Could be. Originally in Cinecolor, surviving prints all seem to be in b/w.

 TEXAS JUSTICE (1942 PRC)
Rustled cattle are being hidden on rancher Karl Hackett and his daughter Wanda McKay's back 40. Claire Rochelle, the widow of a hanged outlaw, is operating the rustling ring with her gang leader, Archie Hall, who, with his boys, are hiding out masquerading as Monks at a mission. The Lone Rider, George Houston, masquerades as a Padre himself to get into the mission and see what the gang has planned. Dennis 'Smoky' Moore and Fuzzy St. John are along for the rather blah ride. Lots of general trickery and milling about, but too little hard action to satisfy. Factor in weaker than usual villainy and you have the most ineffectual of the Lone Rider PRC's. It is a treat, however, to watch Fuz roll a cigarette one-handed while riding. Houston (1896-1944) received degrees in voice and teaching music from the Institute of Musical Arts in New York (now the Julliard School). From 1917-1919 he was a member of the U.S. Army Ambulance Corps serving in France during WWI. His strong baritone voice landed him on Broadway in 1928 for CHEE-CHEE, an original musical comedy, followed by roles in operettas like FIORETTA ('29), VENETIAN GLASS NEPHEW ('31), A MODERN VIRGIN ('31), MELODY ('33) and THE O'FLYNN ('34). Coming to Hollywood in 1934 his voice was heard in MASKS AND MEMORIES, THE MELODY LINGERS ON, MARIE ANTOINETTE and others before he became the singing Lone Rider on the Plains from '41-'42 in eleven westerns. Two years after he left the series, Houston died of a heart attack.

 BELOW THE BORDER (1942 Monogram)
The Rough Riders ride again to clean up a gang of rustlers and thieves in Border City. Saloon owner Roy Barcroft (with Charlie King, Reed Howes, Merrill McCormick, Bud Osborne) have blackmailed Dennis Moore, the manager of Linda Brent's father's ranch, into using the rancho as a rustler's hideout. Moore threatens to expose them when he learns they stole Linda's jewels, as he is engaged to marry Linda. Tim McCoy poses as a cattle buyer, Raymond Hatton as an inept saloon swamper, and Buck Jones as a tough outlaw in order to get the goods on the gang and bring them to justice.

 STAGECOACH TO MONTEREY (1944 Republic)
When Republic needed a replacement on their release schedule for the Don Barry westerns, they didn't have to go outside the studio to find Allan Lane who had starred in four serials for Republic, the last being the just completed TIGER WOMAN ('44). For the first two, Lane inherited sidekick Wally Vernon (no doubt playing out his contract) from the Barry series. Eastern confidence man Roy Barcroft allies himself with gambler LeRoy Mason and his gun-hawks (Bud Geary, Kenne Duncan, Carl Sepulveda). Together the swindlers victimize miners by means of worthless, forged "mint certificates" with the rumor the U.S. is going on the silver standard. Undercover treasury agents Allan Lane and Wally Vernon investigate and discover local printer Tom London being forced to print the bogus certificates for fear of harm to his grown daughter, Peggy Stewart, and her little sis, Twinkle Watts. Saving them from disgrace and harm becomes a prime objective for Lane.

 PHANTOM RANGER (1938 Monogram)
FBI agent Tim McCoy rides herd on a vicious gang of counterfeiters (Karl Hackett, John Merton, Harry Strang, Charlie King) who are sending $1,000,000 a month in queer dough out by pack horse. They've kidnapped government engraver John St. Polis and are holding him prisoner while he engraves their phony plates. St. Polis' daughter, Suzanne Kaaren, poses as a Spanish dancer at the saloon where the counterfeiters are hiding. Believing Tim to be one of the gang, Kaaren plays up to him, and eventually, discovering each other's true identity, they work together to round up Hackett's boys in an exciting mountaintop climax. Certainly nothing revolutionary, just a good fast-paced job from all concerned. One of prolific director Sam Newfield's best.

 FIVE GUNS TO TOMBSTONE (1961 Zenith/United Artists)
This James Brown remake of George Montgomery's GUN BELT ('53) is nicely handled by director Edward L. Cahn making it nearly as good as the original. Brown is a retired outlaw whose brother, Robert Karnes, escapes from prison and is hired for a bank holdup by respected businessman Willis Bouchey provided he gets Brown involved. Brown has been raising Karnes' son, John Wilder, on the right side of the law while his father was in prison. When Brown kills Karnes in a fight, Wilder rebels, vows to kill his uncle and joins Karnes' gang - Gregg Palmer, Jon Locke, Joe Haworth - who then link up with another gang (Walter Coy, Red Morgan, Quentin Sondergaard) in a massive triple-cross. Gun blazing finale.

 LAST STAGECOACH WEST (1957 Republic)
Ruined by the railroad, vindictive former stage line owner Victor Jory and his boys (Lee Van Cleef, Roy Barcroft, Kelo Henderson, Joe Yrigoyen) stage a series of raids on the railroad. Railroad detective Jim Davis is sent to investigate. When Davis ferrets out Jory as the gang leader, it leaves Jory's heartbroken daughter, Mary Castle, to be consoled by Davis' loving arms. Barry Shipman's packed-with-action plot is simple, but Joe Kane's skillful direction of a talented cast helps it rise above mediocrity. Also with: Grant Withers, Glenn Strange, John Alderson, Francis McDonald, Willis Bouchey, Percy Helton, Henry Wills. Davis and Castle had worked together in similar material on Republic's syndicated TV series STORIES OF THE CENTURY ('54-'55). One of the badmen, Kelo Henderson, was making his first film. He'd later star on TV's 26 MEN with Tris Coffin, who also has a small role in this film. Cowboy cancer alert: Davis smokes cigars.

 GUNSMOKE MESA (1944 PRC)
The Texas Rangers (Dave O'Brien, Jim Newill and Guy Wilkerson) find a married couple murdered in their cabin, leaving their crying baby the only living heir to the Black Star mine. Guilty culprits are Jack Ingram, Sheriff Dick Alexander and their triggermen, Kermit Maynard and Robert Barron, who all planned to split ownership of the mine before they realized there was an heir, the baby. The crooks try to lay blame on The Texas Rangers but they eventually secure the evidence that brings the murderers to justice.

 A TORNADO IN THE SADDLE (1942 Columbia)
It's a tornado of action as new Sheriff of Crestview, Russell Hayden, brings fist-flinging, gun-slinging justice to claim jumpers Tris Coffin and Donald Curtis. Bob Wills has more to do than usual as a hot-headed pal of Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor whose newly found gold mine is being "taken over" by Coffin and Curtis. Wills crosses paths more than once with Sheriff Hayden, however, Wills and his Texas Playboys' music (songs penned by Cindy Walker for the most part) takes back saddle in this entry, with only "Dusty Skies" being even slightly memorable. The picture really amounts to one long battle between Hayden/Wills/Taylor/rancher Jack Baxley and Coffin/Curtis and their gang. Leading lady Alma Carroll is simply an afterthought as Curtis' newly-come-to-town sister.

 THE FABULOUS TEXAN (1947 Republic)
"This story was inspired by the heroic deeds of a war-weary but liberty-loving people over the strangling yoke of political treachery and dictatorship which would enslave free men today. Although terrorized by the despotic state police, the courage of these fabulous Texans will serve as a never-ending inspiration to oppressed peoples everywhere so long as men cherish the divine light of freedom and peace." Republic's third bigger-budget William Elliott A-western is, truthfully, John Carroll's picture all the way. Returning to Texas after the Civil War, buddies Elliott and Carroll find the Texas Rangers disbanded and the crooked state police under the power hungry command of Albert Dekker and Douglas Dumbrille in control. When Carroll's father (Harry Davenport) is murdered by the terrorists, Carroll lashes back, rounding up a band of patriots devoted to crushing Dekker's tyranny. Meanwhile, Elliott chooses the lawful path and is appointed U.S. Marshal to obtain evidence against Dekker. Slowly but surely, Carroll and his men descend into pure outlawry with the eventual showdown coming between Carroll, Dekker and Elliott. An unusual coda at the end with leading lady Catherine McLeod is reminiscent of CIMARRON ('31). Expertly handled by noted director Edward Ludwig, who had oddly never directed a western prior to FABULOUS TEXAN and only helmed a couple of minor ones later in his career. His other accomplishments include AGE OF INDISCRETION ('35), OLD MAN RHYTHM ('35), LAST GANGSTER ('37), COAST GUARD ('39), FIGHTING SEEBEES ('44), WAKE OF THE RED WITCH ('49) and BLAZING FOREST ('52). A thundering score by Anthony Collins adds to the excitement. Oddly, he also never worked on another western. Terrific support cast: Reed Hadley, Andy Devine, Johnny Sands, Jim Davis, James Brown, Russell Simpson, Roy Barcroft, Frank Ferguson, Glenn Strange, Olin Howlin, Harry Woods, John Hamilton, Stanley Andrews, Pierre Watkin, Tris Coffin, Kenneth MacDonald, Jack Ingram, Ray Teal, Dick Elliott, Tom Chatterton, Karl Hackett, Ed Cassidy, Al Ferguson, Pierce Lyden, Ted Mapes, Ethan Laidlaw, Franklyn Farnum, George Eldredge.

 SAGEBRUSH TRAIL (1933 Lone Star)
Convicted in Maryland of a murder he didn't commit, John Wayne flees west pursued by the law while himself pursing the unknown man actually responsible of the crime for which he is held guilty. Befriended by outlaw Lane Chandler, Wayne reluctantly joins Yakima Canutt's robber band. Both Wayne and Chandler are smitten by storekeeper's daughter Nancy Shubert. Wayne secretly tries to let Shubert know she is about to be robbed by the outlaws while he stays on with the gang in hopes of convincing Chandler to go straight. In a spectacular stagecoach chase through a tunnel and over a cliff, Wayne learns Chandler is the man he's after. Wayne's second Lone Star western is a remake of Tom Tyler's PARTNERS OF THE TRAIL ('31). Watch for the pre-code nude painting on the cantina wall. Note stuntman Yakima Canutt's bald spot when he doubles Wayne doing a croupier mount at the start of the film. Screenwriter Lindsley Parsons also served in the capacity of studio publicity chief at Monogram.

 IRISH GRINGO (1935 Keith Productions)
Paraphrasing O'Neill, "A Long Day's Journey Into Schlock." Grimly zestless, describing what's bad about IRISH GRINGO is like describing what's red about red. Mrs. Alice Keith, a housewife, backed the film with a $2,500 investment according to a February '36 HOLLYWOOD REPORTER news item. Later, creditors, including Western Film Lab and AGFA, foreclosed on the negative. According to MOTION PICTURE HERALD this was to be the first of six westerns to star Pat Carlyle who had previously directed the equally abysmal CALL OF THE COYOTE in '34 (produced at grade Z level by William Pizor for Imperial) and had appeared in Noah Beery Jr.'s DEVIL'S CANYON ('35 Sunset). The following year Carlyle gained an odd form of screen immortality by portraying the drug peddler who sells dope to Harley Wood in the infamous MARIHUANA ('36). Carlyle also starred in Sunset's THE TIAJUANA KID in '36 (another talent-challenged opus which remains missing at this point) and was involved in other non-production code exploitation features of the '30s such as POLYGAMY and HONKY TONK GIRL. For IRISH GRINGO Carlyle enlisted the aid of low budget cinematographer William C. Thompson (PUEBLO TERROR ['31], RIDERS OF THE GOLDEN GULCH ['32], MANIAC ['34], etc.) Thompson is listed here as co-producer, writer (w/Carlyle using his real name Patrick Petersalia) and director. To his credit, Thompson, who began in the silent era of the mid '20s, did photograph two excellent Bob Steele B's, A DEMON FOR TROUBLE ('34) and BRAND OF HATE ('36). Disappearing (at least from on-screen credits after POLYGAMY in '37, he resurfaced on such bottom of the barrel epics as WHITE GORILLA ('45), DEVIL'S SLEEP ('49), TROUBLE AT MELODY MESA ('49) and LAWLESS RIDER ('54) then worked extensively for the notorious Ed Wood on GLEN OR GLENDA ('52), BRIDE OF THE MONSTER ('55), PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE ('58) and NIGHT OF THE GHOULS ('59). In this ragged range-epic, Carlyle attempts a Cisco Kid-like character whose credo seems to be "It is better to make a life than a living" as he tries to help oldtimer William Farnum save his discovery of the fabled Lost Dutchman mine for his little girl (Marjorie Medford) from outlaws (Bryant Washburn - one scene - , Ace Cain, Olin Francis) who would have it otherwise. Farnum, more than usual under no strict directorial rein, chews up all the scenery in sight. The scene where he takes off his little girl's blouse in order to scrawl a map to the mine on it must be seen to be believed. Some of Farnum's expressions (as well as those of others) are utterly priceless! Music? IRISH GRINGO has that also. There's a Mexican dance number, a specialty number performed by the African American one man band of Professor Paul Blackman on drums, and pots and pans and finally a Jeanette MacDonald wannabe offers a light operatic number. A totally execrable waste of celluloid.

 ARIZONA MAHONEY (1936 Paramount)
The odd half comedy, half western ARIZONA MAHONEY, supposedly based on Zane Grey's STAIRS OF SAND, is actually adapted from a treatment by fast-talking vaudevillian Joe Cook who receives top billing in this strange mixture of a film which, at times, exudes a charming, offbeat quality. Cook is a traveling circus performer who makes his entrance towed by an elephant. His traveling companion is clumsy, timid Robert Cummings, the real weak link in the film. Stagecoach robber Buster Crabbe reforms his ways when he goes to work for his new boss, June Martel, who has come west to take over her deceased father's ranch which is now besieged by rustlers run by storekeeper John Miljan and his hatchetman Fred Kohler. When Crabbe and friends are outnumbered by the outlaws in the final shootout, Cook saves the day with his elephant and his shooting cannon. It's one to watch when you need something truly offbeat in your western viewing.

 SILVER STAR (1955 Lippert)
Earle Lyon, who also served as producer, stars as a pacifist newly elected sheriff who only took the job because retired sheriff, Edgar Buchanan, shamed him into it. Now Lyon's defeated opponent, Lon Chaney Jr., along with blacksmith Barton MacLane, have hired three gunmen, headed up by Richard Bartlett (who also served as director) to kill Lyon. Ian MacDonald and Richard Bartlett's script draws blatantly on the conventions of HIGH NOON (MacDonald was one of the gunmen come to kill Gary Cooper in HIGH NOON you recall). SILVER STAR also suffers from Lyon's bland acting which consists primarily of looking pitiful and an overly talkative script which meanders to its conclusion. Title tune is sung by Jimmy Wakely - another concession to HIGH NOON. Lyon went on to produce other westerns such as STAGECOACH TO FURY ('56), TWO GUN LADY ('56), QUIET GUN ('57), RAWHIDE TRAIL ('58) and TV's TALES OF WELLS FARGO for the last two seasons.

 ARIZONA KID (1939 Republic)
A flat-out Civil War Roy Rogers western drama with very few songs, tightly scripted by Luci Ward and Gerald Geraghty. It's a grim story in which Roy and pal Gabby Hayes must sentence to death and carry out the execution of Roy's best friend (David Kerwin). At the outbreak of the Civil War, horse-trading Arizona Kid Rogers meets up with his boyhood friend (Kerwin) and attempts to dissuade him from joining up with Stuart Hamblen's bush-whacking guerilla raiders. Failing, Roy and Gabby join the regular Confederate forces and are eventually faced with tracking down both Hamblen and Kerwin. Director Joe Kane provides constant movement and some excellent camera angle work with William Nobles. The firing squad of Kerwin is one of the grimmest scenes in any Rogers film. Acting honors go to singer Hamblen, menacing and brooding, reminding one of a young Steve Cochran.

 SILVERSPURS (1935 Universal)
Joseph Franklin Poland's disjointed screenplay contains too many plot missteps to be enjoyable. We don't expect GONE WITH THE WIND filmmaking in B-westerns, but we can expect not to have so many loose plot threads in a Universal Buck Jones. Worst of all comes when, clearly identified by everyone, known bandit Robert Frazer shows up in one scene identified as one of the Sheriff's deputies. Even when leading lady Muriel Evans, who has seen Frazer rob the train station, tells the Sheriff who he is, the Sheriff pays no attention. And nothing more is made of this plotline! Much of the story is given over to Jones/Evans "taming of the shrew" developments. Buck has given us better. Also with George Hayes, Earl Askam, Dennis Moore (who disappears midway) and Beth Marion.

 THE GHOST RIDER (1943 Monogram)
This is the first of Johnny Mack Brown's Nevada Jack McKenzie series for Monogram, intended to replace their Rough Riders series. Truthfully, it's a bit of a weak entry with a lame ending in which Marshal Raymond Hatton and juvenile lead Tom Seidel actually capture villain Harry Woods and his gang. Plot has Brown as the Ghost Rider out to get the remaining members of a gang that murdered his family. He traces one of them, Charlie King, to a town where King has teamed up with local gang boss Harry Woods and his boys (Ed Cobb, Bud Osborne, Artie Ortego). They've killed Jack Daley, owner of the local slaughterhouse, so they can better operate their rustled cattle scheme. Now, Woods is intimidating old timer Milburn Morante and his daughter Beverly Boyd (a truly awful actress) into signing over two-thirds of their hotel to him. When Brown infiltrates the gang he is truly thought by undercover Marshal Raymond Hatton and Daley's son Tom Seidel to be an outlaw and they nearly disrupt Johnny's lone-hand plans to bring Woods to justice. After this first entry, Nevada doesn't remain a lone-hand vigilante as the ending here indicates, but is also a U.S. Marshal by the second film, STRANGER FROM PECOS.

 TRAIL TO MEXICO (1946 Monogram)
A pleasant blend of south of the border music and action. Beleaguered by gold bandits, Mexican mine owner Julian Rivero has one of his employees, Lee 'Lasses' White, send for his pal Jimmy Wakely to take charge of the ore shipments. On the way, outlaw Brad Slaven (as The Texas Kid) slugs Jimmy and steals his clothes and ID to pass himself off as Wakely to Rivero in order to help his bosses, saloon owner Terry Frost and greedy mine supertendent Forest Mathews (the stiffest, dullest, driest non-actor ever in westerns), grab off the gold. After some identity mix-ups, three songs by Jimmy (one with Lasses joining in), four songs by the melodic Guadalajara Trio ("Cielito Lindo" never sounded finer), a couple of tunes from fiddlin' Arthur Smith and the Saddle Pals, a little romancing of Rivero's daughter Dolores Castelli and, of course, a fiesta, Jimmy and the federales eventually send the bandits off to the calaboose. Scripter/director/producer Oliver Drake recycled a few ideas from his own GUN LAW ('38 RKO) with George O'Brien.

 MAN FROM GOD'S COUNTRY (1958 Allied Artists) "With the end of the Civil War, civilization surged westward in a tidal wave. Lone horsemen gave way to wagon trains and the gleaming steel of railroads snaked swiftly along the wheelmarked trails they left. Some men fought to bring the life blood of the railroads into their towns, others fought to keep them out." George Montgomery trails a herd of cattle to Montana intending to go into ranching with his old Civil War friend, House Peters Jr. Once there, Montgomery learns Peters is in the grip of town boss Frank Wilcox who intends to keep the railroad out in order to control the town's freighting business. Good support from James Griffith, Randy Stuart, Gregg Barton, Susan Cummings in a Scott Dunlap production directed by Paul Landres.

 FRONTIER MARSHAL (1939 20TH Century Fox) Second adaptation of Stuart Lake's book about the Earps and the Clantons in Tombstone (the first was FRONTIER MARSHAL with George O'Brien in '34) is all fiction but highly entertaining. Randolph Scott as Wyatt Earp and Cesar Romero as Doc Holiday clash with dance hall queen Binnie Barnes, gambler John Carradine and outlaws Joe Sawyer, Charles Stevens, Tom Tyler and Lon Chaney Jr. The classic gunfight at the O.K. Corral is prompted here by Holliday being ambushed and killed in the street by Joe Sawyer as Curley Bill. Total fiction, of course, as Doc participated in the O.K. Corral shootout in 1880, not dying til 1887 of tuberculosis. Eddie Foy Jr. has a nice role playing his own song and dance man father.

 FIGHTING STALLION (1950 Eagle Lion)
When Bill Edwards receives his Army discharge after three years of service in the Philippines, he is given the grim news at the hospital that a war injury will eventually lead to the loss of his sight. Edwards returns immediately to the Wyoming ranch of his father (Forrest Taylor) where he tames a wild horse, Starlight. To prepare himself for the future, Edwards wears a blindfold while riding. Then he meets and falls for Doris Merrick, a nurse at the nearby dude ranch, but feels it would be unfair to continue his romance with her because of his condition. When a wild horse called the Black Phantom raids Taylor's ranch and kills a pinto, everyone mistakenly believes Starlight responsible with Taylor ordering the horse destroyed. Starlight escapes and while Edwards searches for him, he falls and is rendered completely blind. Wallowing in self pity, only the return of Starlight will bring back Edwards' spirit to live. When Starlight does return, Edwards rides him but is trapped in a forest fire. Starlight guides Edwards to safety only to come face to face with the Black Phantom in a (stock footage) duel to the death. It's a good horse story penned by Frances Kavanaugh, but hampered by the wooden acting of Edwards and the lowbudget production values of director Robert Tansey and producer Jack Schwarz.

 GUNSMOKE (1946 Standard)
Told in flashback, Nick Stuart, wounded in a gunfight with Craig Lawrence, is saved from death in the desert by Carol Foran who is being held prisoner with her father by Duke's Raiders. (Outlaw leader Duke is played in a dual role by Craig Lawrence.) Marie Harmon (late of Sunset Carson's EL PASO KID) was slumming when she made this dud playing a Mexican girl in love with Lawrence. Filmed on the cheap outside Las Vegas, NV, with canned Monogram Frank Sanucci music, GUNSMOKE (sometimes titled GUNSMOKE KILLERS) offers a dreadful script, amateur acting, muddied, dark night scenes and no-talent comedy scenes that don't belong. Pathetic excuse for a western, incompetent on every conceivable level. Guilty as charged: Screenplay by Reg Browne, direction by Fred King, produced by Fred Walker.

 VIGILANTES RETURN (1947 Universal)
It's an old Bob Steele plot dressed up with a dash of Cinecolor and a little more romance. Jon Hall is a U.S. Marshal who goes undercover with Robert Wilcox's road agents (headed up by Jack Lambert) to stop the robberies. Complicating matters, Hall finds his old flame, Margaret Lindsay, in co-ownership of the saloon with Wilcox. You've seen it all done better before and Hall just wasn't the western hero type. Cowboy cancer alert: Hall smokes.

 SKIPALONG ROSENBLOOM (1951 United Artists)
Parody of B-westerns misses its mark more often than it hits the bullseye. (Ahem ...) singing hero, Skipalong Rosenbloom (ex-fighter Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom) comes to save Uncle Raymond Hatton's ranch from the evil mortgage-holding saloon owner Hillary Brooke and her henchmen, brutish Max Baer and sneaky Fuzzy Knight. There are parodies or send-ups of the singing cowboy, the hidden map, the lost mine, the school marm (Jacqueline Fontaine), the sidekick (Jackie Coogan), the quick mount, the chase, the mountaintop fight, etc. Has its moments but ultimately not very funny under Sam Newfield's flat, tedious direction. Reissued as SQUARE SHOOTER.

 CAVE OF OUTLAWS (1951 Universal-International)
In the '50s, Universal made the best westerns, they were neither A nor B, just solid western adventures, usually in Technicolor and often starring Audie Murphy, Rory Calhoun, Rock Hudson, Joel McCrea, Jock Mahoney, Jeff Chandler or - MacDonald Carey. When loot from a train robbery is hidden in a huge cave (actually Carlsbad Caverns of New Mexico), all the gang members are killed except a young boy who receives a 15 year prison sentence. Released from prison, he (Carey) returns and is followed by Wells Fargo agent Edgar Buchanan who wants to recover the loot. In town, Carey falls for Alexis Smith and wants to help her reopen her newspaper. Also searching for the money is Victor Jory, the most powerful man in town, and his gun-henchie Hugh O'Brian (in his first U-I western of many). Carey's character motivation is a bit of a problem - at first it seems he wants the money for himself, but midway becomes honest, trying to return the money to Buchanan.

 FEUD OF THE TRAIL (1937 Victory)
One of those "the outlaw is a dead ringer for the hero" plots has Tom Tyler pretending to be the estranged son of rancher Lafe McKee, therefore brother of McKee's daughter Harlene Wood, in order to save the ranch from the wicked Holcomb brothers (Roger Williams, Dick Alexander, Jim Corey, Colin Chase) and their evil Ma (Vane Calvert), obviously inspired by Ma Barker. Tyler's Rancher's Protective Association saddle-bum pal is Milburn Moranti who, at one point, for some inexplicable reason, rides into town and "sings" "The Old Chisholm Trail" in a barroom (dubbed by some operatic cowsinger). Moranti and Tyler (not dubbed) also sing the song on the trail and, later, Harlene Wood plays the same song on the piano while she and Tyler sing. Question is ... why would director Robert F. Hill use the same song three times in one film? Incidentally, Hill often took small uncredited roles in his films. He does so here as the Protective Association Chief. Perennial father, affable Lafe McKee (1872-1959), entered films in 1912 and proceeded to appear in over 200 westerns ... usually as the girl's father ... until 1942. Tyler's sidekick is Milburn Morante. (See NORTH OF THE BORDER.)

 LAW AND ORDER (1932 Universal)
Beautifully done, very tense, superior western deserves every bit of its classic status. Known in the west as the killinest peace officer that ever lived, Saint Johnson (Walter Huston), and his partners Harry Carey, Russell Hopton and Raymond Hatton desire to settle down to a life of peace and quiet, so they head for Tombstone unaware it's ruled in a reign of terror by Sheriff Alphonse Ethier and his gun brothers (Harry Woods, Dick Alexander, Ralph Ince). A citizen's committee headed by Russell Simpson appoints Huston deputy marshal. After much bloodshed on both sides, and the loss of all his partners, Huston cleans up Tombstone and realizes his destiny is not to settle down but to continue cleaning up lawless towns. Based on William R. Burnett's novel SAINT JOHNSON, the story (perfectly adapted here by Walter Huston's son John Huston) obviously owes much to the Wyatt Earp legend. Remade in '37 with Johnny Mack Brown as WILD WEST DAYS serial, again with Brown in '40 as LAW AND ORDER and finally with future President Ronald Reagan as LAW AND ORDER ('53). Nevertheless, director Edward L. Cahn's remains the definitive version. John Huston became a director with THE MALTESE FALCON in '41, later featuring his father Walter in TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE in '48. LAW AND ORDER was retitled GUNS A-BLAZIN' and reissued in '50 by Realart to avoid confusion with the Johnny Mack Brown title. By '50 the marquee value of some of the cast members had changed. Huston still got top billing on print material, but bit player Walter Brennan was billed second, Andy Devine (in a wimpery, remarkable performance as the first man to be hanged in Tombstone) received third billing and Raymond Hatton was listed fourth, overlooking Harry Carey and Russell Hopton.

 LAW AND ORDER (1953 Universal-International)
Universal dusted off W. R. Burnett's story for the fourth and last time to make this Ronald Reagan starrer. This is no doubt the picture for which the future President was labeled a B-western cowboy. Universal had first filmed the story in 1932 as LAW AND ORDER with Walter Huston, again as a '37 Johnny Mack Brown serial (WILD WEST DAYS) and again as Johnny Mack's LAW AND ORDER in '40. Burnett's original novel SAINT JOHNSON was loosely based on the Tombstone saga of the Earps and the Clantons. In this version Frame Johnson (Reagan) decides to give up his life as a lawman in Tombstone and settle down with Dorothy Malone on a ranch he's purchased in Cottonwood. Arriving there, he finds old enemy Preston Foster running the town with the help of his gun happy son Dennis Weaver, crooked sheriff Barry Kelley and hirelings Jack Kelly and Don Gordon. The townspeople of Cottonwood want Reagan as town marshal but when he refuses, his brother Alex Nicol takes the job. When Nicol is gunned down in a saloon argument by Weaver, Reagan straps on his guns once again. All of Universal's first rate production values were poured into this 80 minute Technicolor version of the story, making it an exciting western adventure, but still not up to the 1932 Huston classic. Note that Universal's lawyers didn't catch the fact Wally Cassell plays an outlaw named The Durango Kid while Columbia no doubt still owned the rights to the name even though they'd stopped churning out Starrett pictures the year before. Most Universal westerns of the '50s were filled with B-western players in smaller roles and LAW AND ORDER is no exception. Look for Lane Bradford, Gregg Barton, Kermit Maynard, Johnny Carpenter, Tris Coffin, Harry Harvey, Mike Ragan, Rory Mallison, William Tannen, Boyd 'Red' Morgan, Britt Wood, Kenneth MacDonald, Buddy Roosevelt, Ethan Laidlaw, Jack Ingram, Eddie Parker, Sam Flint and Martin Garralaga. Directed with style by Nathan Juran.

 TRIGGER JR. (1950 Republic)
Wheelchair bound ex-showman George Cleveland's daughter, and Dale Evans' sister, was trampled to death center ring causing Cleveland to hate circuses. A sudden storm forces Roy Rogers' Western Show to take refuge at Cleveland's ranch, which the old man only begrudgingly allows. It's then learned Cleveland's 10 year old grandson (Dale's nephew) Peter Miles is deathly afraid of horses because of his mother's tragic death. Meanwhile, in an effort to make his Range Patrol Protective Association a more pressing need to local ranchers, Grant Withers (and his henchmen Dale Van Sickel, John Day, Jack Ingram) acquire a killer horse and turn it loose to destroy valuable horses in the area. When Trigger is confronted with the killer stallion, a fight ensues in which Trigger is knocked unconscious and blinded. Later, when Roy and his press agent pal Gordon Jones are trapped by Withers' gunmen, Cleveland's young grandson must face his fear of horses to rescue Roy and save his grandfather from the killer stallion. The relationship between Cleveland and Miles, backed by a strong Gerald Geraghty story, elevate this Rogers Trucolor effort to one of Roy's best. Terrific horse stunts and several songs with "Stampede" sung by Roy and the Riders of the Purple Sage during a thunderstorm being a standout.

 LONE STAR PIONEERS (1939 Columbia)
The Civil War is over. In far flung West Texas soldiers have returned to find their homes and lands unspoiled by ravages of battles, but infested with a far greater evil - thieving, murdering outlaws who call themselves guerillas. Bossed by supposedly honest citizen Lee Shumway, the guerilla-bandits (Charles 'Slim' Whitaker, Charles King, bartender Kit Guard, Merrill McCormick) are hiding out by holding a family prisoner ('Dad' Budd Buster, daughter Dorothy Gulliver, son Dave Sharpe). U.S. Marshal Pat Barrett (Bill Elliott) - a word play on Pat Garrett - poses as northern guerilla raider Bob Cantrell (another word play on William Quantrill) and infiltrates the band of buzzards and brings them to gun judgment. As an outlaw, Art Davis sings a partial song. Also watch for former silent kid star Buzz Barton, Jack Ingram - offbeat in a non-badman role as a Texas Ranger - and Harry Harvey as a Ranger traitor.

 LAW OF THE NORTH (1932 Monogram)
Boring first half while Bill Cody is in captivity framed for murder, then he hides in the attic while crooked judge W. L. Thorne and the sister, Nadine Dore, of Bill's young friend Andy Shuford, play showdown poker. Even at the windup, retribution is left to someone other than "our hero". Comic support, such as it is, from Al St. John and Heinie Conklin. From the title, it sounds like this might be a Mountie film, but the picture has nothing to do with "The North".

 CONVICT STAGE (1965 20TH Century Fox)
Slim story stretched out to 71 minutes has angry Harry Lauter on the revenge trail for the killing of his sister by two vicious brothers led by their mother, Hannah Landy. Before Lauter can satisfy his bloodlust, Marshal Don Barry captures the brothers and lectures Lauter on the danger of living by the gun while Barry attempts to get the killers to territorial prison before their savage mother sets them free. Story by Barry, scripted by Daniel Mainwaring and directed by B-vet Les Selander. Filmed around Kanab, UT.

 CAVALIER OF THE WEST (1931 Artclass)
Harry Carey had scored impressively for MGM in 1930 with the immensely popular TRADER HORN, but returned to low-budget westerns by November of '31 with this first of four for Louis Weiss' Artclass. In this one he's an Army Captain, who with Sheriff George Hayes (effectively affecting an Irish brogue), is after horse rustlers Ted Adams and Hayes' crooked deputy Maston Williams. However, a preponderance of the picture is thrown over to romantic escapades between Spanish actress Carmen LaRoux (whose thick accent prevents the viewer from understanding half of what she says), Harry, Adams and Harry's kid brother, Cavalry Lieut. Kane Richmond, who has been transferred west to reform his drinking habit under Harry's supervision. Now Richmond also falls for LaRoux. (What do they all see in this woman that I'm missing?) To get back at Carey, Adams frames Richmond for a murder in a barroom. It's all pretty tedious, with a long courtroom finale followed by some brief gunplay, however it's too late to save this duller.

 WESTERN TRAILS (1938 Universal)
Friendly rivals for the affections of cute Marjorie Reynolds, Bob Baker and John Ridgely, go after stagecoach bandits led by Reynolds' brother, Carlyle Moore (a cross between Tim Holt and Bob Nolan). Draggy, weak entry in the Bob Baker series is a remake of John Wayne's far superior DAWN RIDER ('35 Lone Star), both produced by Paul Malvern. Perhaps some of the fault for the slowness in WESTERN TRAILS can be attributed to the fact this was George WaGGner's first directorial effort. WaGGner, who purposely always spelled his name with two capital G's, was born in New York City in 1894. Completing schooling as a pharmacist, after WWI, he moved to L.A. where he was an actor, a songwriter and a screenwriter (COWBOY MILLIONAIRE was his only western), finally becoming a director with WESTERN TRAILS. By the late '40s he was an associate producer on many of his films. Several Bakers were his only B-westerns although he later helmed several A-westerns (BADLANDS OF DAKOTA ['41], GUNFIGHTERS ['47], BITTER CREEK ['54], etc.). His primary claim to film fame comes from his ability to create moody horror films, of which THE WOLFMAN ('41) is his classic. He also directed HORROR ISLAND ('41), GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN ('42) and FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN ('44) along with several entries in Universal's Jon Hall/Maria Montez Technicolor epics.

 HEART OF THE ROCKIES (1937 Republic)
A terrific B-western with quite a different story that addresses adult themes of child abuse and underage incestral marriage. It also contains one of the best fights in B-westerns between Bob Livingston and Yakima Canutt (it took a day to film the 3 minute brawl). HEART... was different from other B-westerns in other ways. The 3 Mesquiteers (Livingston, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune) continually flaunt the law by trying to kill bear in a national park, paying others to do so, illegally carrying firearms onto the refuge, and showing little respect for park rangers. Certainly, their motives are clear, but their methods may have sent a bad message to Saturday matinee front row kids. Basic plot has hillfolk led by J.P. McGowan and his clan (Yakima Canutt, Maston Williams, Guy Wilkerson), rustling the Mesquiteers cattle who at first believe bears are killing their stock and hire the mountaineers to kill the Park bears for them. Subplot has vicious Canutt trying to marry the underage stepdaughter of McGowan, Lynn(e) Roberts. Yet another plotline has Maston Williams' stepson (Sammy McKim), who admires the Mesquiteers, abused by Williams. The abusive Williams even kills one of McKim's pet cubs and uses an adult bear to cover up their rustling. His justified comeuppance arrives when the bear later turns on him, mauling him to death. All these multiple plot ideas are neatly woven by director Joe Kane into one of the best B-westerns of the '30s.

 TREACHERY RIDES THE RANGE (1936 Warner Brothers)
A treaty between the U.S. government and the Cheyenne Indians makes it illegal for white hunters to shoot buffalo. Contemptible buffalo hunter Craig Reynolds hatches a scheme to force the Indians to break the treaty by having his gun hawks (Henry Otho, Monte Montague, Bud Osborne, Tom Wilson) shoot the two sons of Chief Jim Thorpe while dressed as Cavalry officers. Blaming the Army, the Cheyenne go on the warpath. It's up to Cavalry Captain Dick Foran to restore peace and bring Reynolds to justice. All the while Foran romances Col. Monte Blue's daughter, Paula Stone, with a smile and a song ("Ridin' Home"). Fast paced, but not as involving as most of Foran's Warner Bros. B's.

 FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE (1932 Columbia)
Tim McCoy faces tough opposition from crooked land-office manager Hooper Atchley and tax recorder William V. Mong when he tries to straighten out claims to his late father's ranch which has now been sold to rancher Lafe McKee and his daughter Joyce Compton with the crooks pocketing the back tax payments. When old Lafe is killed, Tim is arrested for the murder. Director Otto Brower brings the already slight plot to a screeching halt midway, allowing for the intrusion of five purposeless musical numbers. We get Tom Murray's Hollywood Hillbillies singing "Red River Valley", youngster Micky Conti on accordion and, worse of all - we can blame Otto Brower for being the first to foist the banal, insufferable Fuzzy Knight onto the B-western screen. His "number" here is pure idiocy. Interesting to note Charlie King is a good guy for a change.

 MAN FROM SONORA (1951 Monogram)
A horse belonging to a trio of stage bandits (Lee Roberts, John Merton, Stanley Price) goes lame, so they steal Rebel from ex-U.S. Marshal Johnny Mack Brown. But in so doing, these bad boys bite off more than they can chew. Johnny's had Rebel a long time and, with help from Sheriff Lyle Talbot, he's out to get him back as well as round up the bandits and their boss, who turns out to be respectable citizen House Peters Jr. When Peters tires to ring in a fake Marshal (Dennis Moore) to replace the one they've killed (Pierce Lyden), the gang is tripped up by banker's daughter Phyllis Coates. Certainly not up to the high standard of Brown's Monograms of the mid '40s, but acceptable B-fare. This was the 3rd Brown under producer Vincent Fennelly who cheapened the series in every way he could to save money.

 BLACK HILLS (1947 PRC)
As perfect an example of a mid '40s no-brainer Saturday afternoon singing cowboy B-western as you could possibly get. Simple plot - saloon owner Terry Frost and his gun hawks (Eddie Parker, Lane Bradford, Ted French) kill rancher Steve Clark for the gold mine on his property - plenty of fistfights (one of hero Eddie Dean's best), gunplay, hard riding, chases, stage holdups, with three songs by Eddie, Andy Parker and the Plainsmen woven in as Eddie helps Clark's daughter (beautiful Shirley Patterson) and son (Steve Drake) find their father's killer. No thinking required, a Pepsi (or a Bud) and some popcorn and this typical low budget PRC leaves your B-western appetite for thrills totally satiated.

 TOMBSTONE TERROR (1935 Supreme)
Ostracized from home for several years, drifter Bob Steele has assumed the blame for a theft committed by his no-good twin brother (Steele in a dual role). Tensions run high when Bob returns to see his bedridden father (John Elliott) who believes Bob guilty. When Steele returns he finds his brother tied-in with sleazy saloon owner Earl Dwire in a rustling set-up. Scripted by Steele's friend and fellow actor, Perry Murdock (as was the previous film BIG CALIBRE), this was the 4th of 32 westerns made for producer A. W. Hackel. Directed by Bob's Dad, Robert North Bradbury, as were many of Steele's Supreme/Republic Hackel-produced outings. Ronald Bradbury (his real name) was born in Walla Walla, WA, on March 23, 1886. Educated in Walla Walla and later Chicago, he embarked on a stage career as an actor, appearing with the Baker Stock Co. in Portland, OR. It was there he met his wife to be, Nieta. Their twin sons, Robert and William, were born on January 23, 1906. After touring for seven years with the Orpheum and Pantages circuits as well as heading his own company, stage life began to lose its allure and when the opportunity to join a film company came along, Bradbury did so circa 1915 as an actor. With Mitchell Lewis he formed a film company in 1920, a turning point year in his life. He began to direct his two teenage sons in a series of shorts, THE ADVENTURES OF BOB AND BILL. Of course Bob went on to huge fame as Bob Steele while Bill became a successful doctor. Adept at turning out well-made but low budget westerns and thrillers, Bradbury was much in demand as a writer and director throughout the '20s and '30s. After FORBIDDEN TRAILS ('42 Monogram) with the Rough Riders, Bradbury ended his career at 56. He died in Glendale, CA, November 24, 1949. His widow Nieta died in 1978.

 TROUBLE AT MELODY MESA (1949 Three Crown Prod./Astor)
The real "trouble" is trying to suffer through this untenable excuse for a western movie. Jimmy Shrum inherits a ranch when his Dad is murdered by Jimmy's uncle, I. Stanford Jolley, who covets the ranch for himself. The plot is foiled by former Hopalong Cassidy sidekick Marshal Brad King and musician Cal Shrum who functions here more as a sidekick. Shrum's "Ipple Dipple fish story" (obviously straight out of his stage act) has to be heard to be believed. The music is the only redeeming factor here, and there's an ample amount - one sung by Brad King, one by Walt Shrum, one from Cal's wife Alta Lee, one by Cal and one even from Jimmy. Made sometime around the end of WWII, release of this clunker was held up til 1949 - not long enough. Photographed by William C. Thompson (see IRISH GRINGO).

 RAILS INTO LARAMIE (1954 Universal)
Army troubleshooter John Payne is sent to Laramie, WY, to stop vice king Dan Duryea and his gang of thugs (Myron Healey, Lee Van Cleef, Charles Horvath) who have been waging a war against the new railroad to prevent its completion because Duryea is making too much money off booze and women bought by the railroad workers to let them finish and move on. Once Payne captures the gang in an exciting railroad sequence in the Mojave Desert, there's an interesting twist to the otherwise standard B-plot in which Mari Blanchard, Duryea's dance hall mistress, changes sides and organizes an all-female jury to convict Duryea where previous male jurors had let Duryea go free. Standout among the actors is supporting player James Griffith as a deputy who tries to find his courage. Well handled by director Jesse Hibbs with the title song sung by Rex Allen, just finished with his starring roles at Republic.

 IN OLD NEW MEXICO (1945 Monogram)
Snatching Gwen Kenyon from a stagecoach, the Cisco Kid (Duncan Renaldo) and Pancho (Martin Garralaga) find the innocent nurse is being framed for the murder of scowling scoundrel Norman Willis' aunt in order to claim an inheritance. Cisco captures the crooks (Willis, 'Doc' Richard Gordon, John Laurenz) with chicanery instead of gunplay. Very little action save one bar fight. This was the second of three Renaldo Ciscos after Monogram took over the series in '45 when Fox (and Cesar Romero) abandoned the property in '41. Gilbert Roland took over the Cisco role in '46, making Cisco a much more adult hero for six entries. Renaldo returned in '49 for another revamped five films and long running TV series ('50-'56).

 SUNSET CARSON RIDES AGAIN (1948 Yucca/Astor)
Sunset Carson's personal demons with alcohol cut short his sterling career with Republic in 1946. After only two years he was ranked among the top B-western theatre moneymakers barely behind such veterans as Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Bill Elliott, Charles Starrett and Johnny Mack Brown. If Sunset had behaved himself, he could have remained with Republic as one of their biggest stars until the demise of the genre in '54. Without screen work for two years, Carson resurfaced in late 1948 starring in four dismal efforts produced by Walt Mattox for his Yucca Pictures, all directed by aging vet Oliver Drake. All were released by R. M. Savini's Astor Pictures Corp. All four appear to have been filmed in 16mm color and blown up to 35mm for theatrical distribution. In the process, the color was so grainy most of the films saw only sporadic b/w release. However, SUNSET CARSON RIDES AGAIN, the best of the four if that's any recommendation, survives in color. In this first of the four ultra-cheapies, Sunset (and his pals Joe Hiser and Bob Curtis) have to convince young Al Terry that Sunset didn't kill his father while stopping Sunset's "partner", John Cason, and his cohort, Stephen Keyes, from robbing the school fund. As in all four, there is an over abundance (one would qualify!) of off key campfire songs by Little Joe Hiser and his Wranglers.

 LAST OF THE WILD HORSES (1948 Screen Guild)
Drifter James Ellison foils an elaborate plan by rancher Douglas Dumbrille's foreman Reed Hadley (and his men William Haade, Rory Mallison) involving herds of wild horses to take over several ranches through foreclosure. At 84 minutes it takes too long to tell its meager story which is padded out by a three-way love triangle between Ellison, Dumbrille's spunky daughter Jane Frazee, and neighboring rancher Olin Howlin's daughter Mary Beth Hughes. James Millican has a worthy secondary role as the Sheriff. Nicely filmed (originally in Sepiatone) in the Rogue River Valley and Jacksonville, OR. Although direction is credited to studio head Robert L. Lippert, film editor Paul Landres actually directed the picture with Lippert standing in the background. Lippert's ego needed this because he was attempting to promote a studio in the area for himself and his pictures. He also owned a theatre there. Growing up in Alameda, CA, he started grunt work in the movies at 14. In the mid '40s he began Screen Guild and in '49 changed the name to Lippert Pictures with 28 regional offices in the U.S. and just as many overseas. Lippert produced, co-financed and distributed over 175 movies. In 1955, Lippert dissolved his distribution company and set up offices at 20th Century Fox as producer and executive producer of Regal Films, eventually delivering 121 features. He made an additional four for other studios. In 1965 he retired to Alameda where he's credited with building the first multiplex theatre. He died in 1976.

 BOOTHILL BRIGADE (1937 Republic)
Rancher Frank LaRue is dominated by land-hog Ed Cassidy for reasons unknown. Eventually, Johnny Mack Brown (in love with LaRue's daughter Claire Rochelle) and ranch cook Horace Murphy figure it all out, but by then my interest had drifted elsewhere in this slow moving, heavy-on-palaver story. Cassidy's "boys" are Dick Curtis, Jim Corey, Sherry Tansey, Tex Palmer. The elements of George Plympton's screenplay just don't jell under Sam Newfield's heavy-handed direction. Plus the windup is very weak.

 TWO GUNS AND A BADGE (1954 Allied Artists)
Regarded by many film historians as the last series B-western ever made and released (September '54), an argument could be made against that theory if one factors in the Guy Madison Wild Bill Hickok Allied Artists pictures released clear into 1955. Certainly a "series", but all 16 of those were comprised of two TV episodes strung together into feature form, so many purists dismiss them. Then too, low budget B-star Johnny Carpenter released OUTLAW TREASURE in May '55 and I KILLED WILD BILL HICKOK in June '56. Strong arguments could be made both ways for Carpenter who had been turning out about one B-western a year since 1951. But does that qualify as a series? Again, purists will argue no, as they will also argue against the many one-off or non-series entries, but decidedly B-westerns, made throughout the '50s starring Jim Davis, Bill Williams, John Bromfield, Buster Crabbe, James Craig, etc. Did the B-western so prevalent throughout the '30s, '40s and '50s truly end with TWO GUNS AND A BADGE starring Wayne Morris or did it just metamorphosize into the slightly bigger budgets of Rod Cameron, George Montgomery, Audie Murphy, Sterling Hayden, etc.? Their movies certainly couldn't be called A-westerns of the '50s-'60s on a scope with those of John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Robert Taylor, Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. But, as purists will argue, they aren't true series B-westerns either. Still and yet, did the series B-western simply cease to exist on the theatre screen only to find a new home on TV in a continuation of former filmic heroes like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Cisco Kid - and finding new heroes such as Wild Bill Hickok, Kit Carson, Steve Donovan, Wyatt Earp, Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, Bronco. Certainly series westerns. Certainly not A-westerns. Semantics. Why must we "label" our westerns B, A or TV? The film world and viewers alike seem to have an unquenchable thirst to pigeon hole movies into this category or that. But look at it this way, if TV hadn't come along and Clint Walker and Warner Bros. would have released those CHEYENNE films in theatres, wouldn't we call them b/w, one-hour, series B-westerns and eaten them up week after week (just as we did on television)? Appropriately, for the purists, TWO GUNS AND A BADGE, this "final" series B-western is a story of rustlers and ranchers with a mystery villain who turns out to be not who you think it is. In other words, it ain't Roy Barcroft! Wayne Morris poses as a lawman (who he found dead on the trail and appropriated his distinctive guns) to help Sheriff Morris Ankrum clean up the town of the rustlers. Also with Beverly Garland, William Phipps, I. Stanford Jolley, Bob Wilke, Chuck Courtney, John Pickard, Henry Rowland, Gregg Barton, Holly Bane, William Fawcett, Lyle Talbot, Stanley Price, Ted Mapes.

 LONESOME TRAIL (1930 Syndicate)
Poverty row Syndicate quickly established itself at the dawn of talkies with Tom Tyler, Bob Steele and Bob Custer. Next, producer George A. Durlam tried Charles Delaney as a cowboy who must prove his innocence when he is suspected of being an express bandit. The only thing proven was Delaney, along with the direction and photography, was shockingly inept. The stilted dialogue, also from Durlam, borders on a farce. Delaney's repetitive "singing" of "Oh Susanna" painfully exhibits the restrictions of early sound. Fortunately for all, Delaney made no more starring westerns and Durlam stuck to scripting.

 WYOMING WHIRLWIND (1932 Kent)
Lane Chandler is outlawed as the Lone Wolf trying to regain his ranch after dastardly Al Bridge and his cutthroats (brutish Bob Roper, Yakima Canutt, Harry Semels) shot Lane's Dad on the range, making believe it was a rustler, then stole Dad's real will and forged another, leaving the ranch to Bridge. Chandler's Lone Wolf takes great pleasure in constantly outwitting local lawman Harry Todd, then saves his niece Adele Tracy from drunken Indians. This was the last of 8 lowbudgeters Chandler starred in for Willis Kent during the '31-'32 season. Out of North Dakota, Chandler landed in Hollywood with great promise in 1927. Paramount saw him as another Gary Cooper and starred him in OPEN RANGE ('27) based on the Zane Grey story. But, after starring Chandler opposite some of their biggest leading ladies in several non-westerns in '28-'29, and with the advent of sound, Paramount trimmed its leading man ranks and Chandler was dropped by the studio. Finding work where he could, he starred in FIREBRAND JORDAN ('30) at Big 4 and RIDERS OF THE RIO ('31) distributed by Imperial and supported Robert Frazer, Bob Custer and Rin Tin Tin before signing on with Kent. The scripter on all 8 was Oliver Drake who thought Lane would be a guaranteed star, however, after two more bottom-of-the-barrel westerns for Empire (LONE BANDIT, OUTLAW TAMER, both '35), Chandler's starring days were over and he became a top-flight character player on into the early '60s. Worth seeing - and hearing - in WYOMING WHIRLWIND is the scene where Chandler sings along with Jack Kirk's bunkhouse gang - Whoa! Stuntman/badman Yakima Canutt even joins in on another! Former silent star Pete Morrison can be glimpsed as an extra.

 RAWHIDE (1938 20TH Century Fox)
Producer Sol Lesser had initially signed Yankee baseball great Lou Gehrig to play Tarzan but when he saw Gehrig in a leopard skin, Lesser deemed the iron man of baseball's legs unbefitting that of Tarzan. Lesser hired Glenn Morris to be his Tarzan (TARZAN'S REVENGE '38) and co-starred Gehrig with Smith Ballew. For the picture, Gehrig decides to retire from baseball and settle down on a western ranch with his sister Evalyn Knapp. Arriving in Rawhide, Gehrig finds local ranchers being strong-armed by Arthur Loft and his bullies (Dick Curtis, Cecil Kellogg and crooked sheriff Cy Kendall) to join their Ranchers' Protective Association. Idealistic lawyer Smith Ballew, foreman Si Jenks and Gehrig eventually apprehend the wrongdoers. Singer Ballew warbles a couple of tunes, of which "Drifting" is a standout. When Gehrig joins Ballew on a tune he is obviously dubbed by someone as his New Yawk accent is completely gone when vocalizing. Meanwhile, Ray Whitley's Six Bar Cowboys sing "That Old Washboard Band" at a party. Would that all of Ballew's westerns been this good, he might have endured beyond five starrers in the '38-'39 season. Surprisingly, Gehrig also acquits himself quite naturally and it's a loss we didn't see more of him on film.

 THUNDER IN GOD'S COUNTRY (1951 Republic)
Redheaded Mary Ellen Kay, well received in her last western with Rex Allen, SILVER CITY BONANZA, returns for her second of five co-starrers with The Arizona Cowboy. When Mary Ellen's Dad, newspaperman John Ridgely, recognizes Ian MacDonald as an escaped convict with a violent temper, MacDonald murders him. Western magazine artist Rex Allen discovers the body and, along with his two old Army buddies, Sheriff Harry Lauter and trombone playing deputy Buddy Ebsen, informs Mary Ellen of her father's murder then helps to clean up the community of MacDonald's gang who threaten to turn the peaceful town into a gambling resort. The windup to THUNDER ... features an unusual chase scene and hilltop fight. Rex sings three songs, including a beautiful rendition of "Molly Darlin'". Rex's pictures had really hit their stride by this 6th film and remained top flight B-westerns until early '53 when Republic cut the budgets, songs and running times.

 TOUGHEST GUN IN TOMBSTONE (1958 United Artists)
Ranger Captain George Montgomery heads for Tombstone to infiltrate a gang of rustlers selling their stolen cattle in exchange for Mexican silver, then legalizing it through a U.S. silver mine. The outlaws are led by Jim Davis (as Johnny Ringo), Gerald Milton (as Ike Clanton) and Lane Bradford (as Curly Bill Brocious). Unfortunately, George's young son Scotty Morrow was witness to his mother's murder by the same gang and is now hunted by the killers. When George has to supposedly become an outlaw to infiltrate the gang, it puts a severe strain on his relationship with his son. Lonely and afraid, Morrow seeks the company of sympathetic saloon girl Beverly Tyler. In an unguarded moment the outlaws capture Morrow and hold him to draw in Montgomery whom they now realize is an Arizona Ranger. Also with Harry Lauter, Gregg Barton, Don Beddoe. After 10 years as a top western star, Montgomery now moved to the "new thing" - television, where he held forth as Mayor Matt Rockford on CIMARRON CITY for the '58-'59 season.

 RAGE AT DAWN (1955 RKO)
Old fashioned B-plot has range detective Randolph Scott sent to round up the marauding Reno Brothers (Forrest Tucker, J. Carroll Naish, Myron Healey, Richard Garland) by infiltrating the gang as an outlaw. When he joins the gang, Scott falls for the Reno's sister Mala Powers. Capturing the renegades is made more difficult by the fact the Renos have insulated themselves from prosecution through a variety of legal loopholes and payoffs to their cohorts in town - Judge Edgar Buchanan, prosecuting attorney Howard Petrie and constable Ray Teal. Tim Whelan's direction is lackluster, Scott doesn't seem interested and Ray Rennahan's Technicolor photography is pedestrian. Fleshed out by a solid B-cast - George Wallace, Holly Bane, Jimmy Lydon, Bill Phipps, Denver Pyle, Trevor Bardette, Kenneth Tobey, Chubby Johnson, Arthur Space, Dan White, Dennis Moore, Henry Wills. Overall, it feels like an old Bob Steele B dressed up with color and an 87 minute running time. By this time, we'd come to expect more from Randolph Scott. Filmed in Columbia, near Sonora, CA.

 DAWN AT SOCORRO (1954 Universal-International)
Why can't they make westerns like this anymore? DAWN AT SOCORRO is an overlooked minor classic, tense and enjoyable from start to finish, enhanced by one of Rory Calhoun's best characterizations as a gambler/gunman who wants to outlive his past. At one point he's asked "Who's coming after you?" Calhoun answers, "My past. Every dark, miserable day of it." Unlike some westerns, screenwriter George Zuckerman introduces us to several fully developed characters as he basically moves the Tombstone legend to Lordsburg, New Mexico. (Zuckerman also wrote BORDER INCIDENT ['49], TRAPPED ['49], RIDE CLEAR OF DIABLO ['54]. YELLOW MOUNTAIN ['54] AND WRITTEN ON THE WIND ['56]). With a nod to Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, gambler/gunfighter Calhoun and town Marshal James Millican have trouble with old man Stanley Andrews and his no good sons (Skip Homeier, Richard Garland, Lee Van Cleef) and shoot it out in the street. Andrews, Homeier and Garland are all killed with Van Cleef and a friend who was too drunk at the time to participate in the shootout, Alex Nicol, swearing revenge. Weary gunfighter Calhoun discovers an old would has not healed completely, decides to hang up his guns and takes a stage to Lordsburg. Calhoun and a fellow passenger, Piper Laurie, strike up a friendship. When Calhoun learns she's been ostracized by her father (Forrest Taylor) who labels her a "bad girl" and has taken a job as a dance hall girl in Lordsburg in David Brian's saloon, he tries to persuade Laurie not to work for the smarmy Brian. When Laurie refuses, Calhoun makes an attempt to win Brian's saloon in a card game. Losing, Calhoun tries once again to convince Laurie not to stay with Brian. Enraged, Brian hires Alex Nicol, who is also now in Lordsburg waiting for his chance at revenge, to gun Calhoun. The long night, monitored all the way by nervous Sheriff Edgar Buckanan, finally explodes in a final tense frenzy. Buoyed by a terrific script, director George Sherman turns in one of his sleekest, most satisfying directorial jobs.

 RIDE 'EM COWBOY (1936 Universal)
Buck Jones deviates from the usual shoot 'em up badmen norm for one of his comedy westerns, and it's a keeper. Most of the film's hilarity is derived from the greenness of Jones regarding automobiles. Buck is a slightly bad boy, which is a welcome change of pace. Ordered by a judge to "grow up" after wrecking a Chinese laundry when he can't make the laundryman understand what he wants, Buck outwits a posse by boarding a freight train where he meets a supposed mechanic (George Cooper) and sees his first racing car. Turns out Cooper is masquerading as the race car mechanic and has the real mechanic thrown in jail on a trumped up charge. Convincing Buck to be his driver, Cooper delivers the race car to prosperous rancher J. P. McGowan who will be ruined if he loses the big race to slinky Donald Kirke who gets not only McGowan's ranch if he wins, but McGowan's daughter (Luana Walters) as well. Does Buck also fall in love with Walters? You bet. Does Kirke try every underhanded trick to win the race? You bet. Does Buck eventually win the race, save the ranch, get the girl and punch out the ferret-like Kirke? Altogether now - you bet! Story by Buck Jones, scripted by Frances Guihan and directed with a deft comic flair that never lags by Les Selander.

 LANDRUSH (1946 Columbia)
The lawless section known as The Spur is a haven for outlaws until it is thrown open by the government as free land for homesteaders. Supposedly respected businessman Stephen Barclay and his range rats (Bud Geary, George Chesebro, Bob Kortman, Ted French) do all they can to dissuade the homesteaders from moving in. It's up to government land surveyor Charles Starrett (aka The Durango Kid) to insure a free and open land run. He's helped by feisty newspaper editor Emmett Lynn and his daughter Doris Houck, Smiley Burnette and singing homesteaders Ozie Waters and his Colorado Rangers. This musical group was one of the best the Starrett films ever offered, and Columbia used them in six Durangos. Ozie was born Vernon Scott Waters in Callaway County, MO, December 8, 1903. He was only a teenager when he joined the Navy during WWI and started his radio career in Hawaii. Forming the Colorado Rangers, Ozie wrote some music for and appeared in a couple of Hopalong Cassidy films in '44 (LUMBERJACK, MYSTERY MAN) followed by two Starrett pre-Durangos (COWBOY FROM LONESOME RIVER, SAGEBRUSH HEROES). For LANDRUSH, the first of six Durangos between '46-'50, 6' 3" Ozie has a nice role and sings three traditional songs with his group - an engaging version of "Nellie Gray" and ear-catching versions of "Camptown Races" and "Oh Susannah". Ozie's deep, melodic voice was one of the best in westerns. He returned to Colorado where he appeared on TV and quite often at Elitch Gardens. His Junior Ranger Club numbered over 30,000. His three daughters grew up singing with Ozie, and daughter Darlene was featured in Disney's SO DEAR TO MY HEART ('49). Ozie died of a heart attack March 10, 1978. Stock footage from LANDRUSH showed up in STREETS OF GHOST TOWN ('50).

 THE MARAUDERS (1947 United Artists)
Unusual plot situation has Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd), Lucky (Rand Brooks) and California (Andy Clyde) electing to take shelter from a storm in a "ghost" church whereupon they encounter Mary Newton, widow of the town minister, and her daughter Dorinda Clifton. The two women explain everyone in town has been terrorized into leaving except Deacon Black (Ian Wolfe). Hoppy discovers there's oil on the land as the outlaws (Harry Cording, Dick Alexander) lay siege to the church. Their boss turns out to be Deacon Wolfe. Made on the cheap, but still better than most of the last 12 William Boyd produced Hoppys.

 THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1941 Republic)
In early 1941, while Bob Steele was still operating as a member of Republic's 3 Mesquiteers trio, the studio starred him alone in this throwback-to-the-'30s action melodrama with lots of western overtones. Only the title bears any kinship with the 1903 10 minute western but much of the "long forgotten railroad spurline" plot was recycled for Republic's LAST BANDIT ('49) with William Elliott, directed as this was by Joe Kane. Steele is a short-fused railroad detective assigned to guard a million dollar gold shipment. Another detective (Hal Taliaferro) suspects Steele's train-robber-father genes may have been passed along to Bob. However, it's Bob's no-good bar-owner brother, Milburn Stone, who frames Bob, robs the train and steers it onto an abandoned mining spur, covering the path with a landslide. Old timer Si Jenks is delightful as an eccentric prospector who has the right information at the right time.

 FIGHTIN' THRU (1930 Tiffany)
Ken Maynard goes after the murderers of his goldmine partner Wallace McDonald. The killers (gambling hall owner W. L. Thorne and his gunman Charlie King) are now trying to frame Ken for the murder and wrest control of the mine from McDonald's sister, Carmelita Geraghty, who has just arrived from the East. Slow starter, but gradually builds to an action frenzied ending with a wild stagecoach chase and a terrific bar room brawl between Ken and Thorne. This was the first of eleven westerns for Maynard at Tiffany after his silent glory days at First National and into talkies at Universal ('29-'30). During the height of the financial depression, with diminishing profits, in 1930 Universal decided westerns weren't the way to go and discontinued westerns altogether, leaving Maynard (and others) without a home studio. When Maynard signed with independent Tiffany, gone were the first class production values, large sweeping scenes with dozens of extras, picturesque locales and superior stories. Tiffany, while still a cut above the poverty row material being churned out at this time by Syndicate, Big 4 etc., nevertheless had a watchful eye on the budget. After two seasons ('30-'32) at Tiffany, Maynard moved over to World Wide ('32-'33) before a triumphant return to Universal in late '33.

 BOLD CABALLERO (1936 Republic)
Republic's first big budget color production should have been better. Not only was the $100,000 production plagued by color problems, the Zorro screenplay by first time director Wells Root is afflicted with stilted dialogue and a preponderance of unfunny comic scenes between Robert Livingston and German actor Sig Rumann who plays his main heavy as a buffoon. Livingston "sings" two songs, but it's doubtful it is really his voice on the soundtrack. Karl Hajos wrote the original score for BOLD CABALLERO which was heard over and over again in Republic's 3 Mesquiteers and Gene Autry B-westerns.

 A DAY OF FURY (1956 Universal-International)
Originally titled JAGADE, A DAY OF FURY is a solid western with an excellent characterization by Dale Robertson as gunfighter Jagade who realizes the day of the gunfighter has ended. After saving Marshal Jock Mahoney's life, gunman Robertson stops in Mahoney's town only to find his ex-girlfriend Mara Corday about to marry Mahoney. The jealous Robertson totally disrupts the peaceful town knowing Mahoney "owes him", even going so far as to enlist the aid of cocky, gunfighter-admiring teenager Jan Merlin to stir up the townspeople to lynch Mahoney. Sharp, biting psychological western script by James Edmiston and Oscar Brodney which gave customary hero Robertson his most unusual role. Mahoney was touted in advertising as "TV's sensational 'Range Rider' - now in a great new role" even though Mahoney's series had ended three year earlier. However, reruns were still being aired. Good support from Carl Benton Reid, Sheila Bromley, John Dehner, Sydney Mason. Technicolor.

 MOONLIGHT ON THE RANGE (1937 Spectrum)
On the dodge from the law because of the rustling done by his no-good look-a-like outlaw half-brother, Killer Dane, Fred Scott takes a job on Frank LaRue's ranch and sets out with his saddlepal, Fuzzy St. John, to clear himself. Fred soon learns Dick Curtis, LaRue's fired foreman, is in league with Killer Dane. Fred does a good job with his dual role, slightly altering his appearance to look meaner by taking a couple of cigar holders, cutting them off and shoving them up his nose. Meanwhile, Fred romances LaRue's daughter Lois January. The themesong, closely associated with Fred, "Ridin' Down the Trail to Albuquerque" was written by Don Swander.

 TEXAS BADMAN (1932 Universal)
Tom Mix had some problems on this, his third Universal talkie, when directorial duties were assigned to Edward Laemmle, nephew of studio head Carl Laemmle. Seems Tom resented the interference on his pictures from Laemmle's relatives who, Mix claimed, were inexperienced with Mix's type of pictures. However, the resultant picture is one of Tom's best talkies. Mix is called on by the Texas Rangers to round up an outlaw outfit terrorizing the countryside and hiding out across the border. Mix poses as an outlaw to get in with the gang headed up by supposedly law abiding citizen Willard Robertson who suffers from a Napoleonic complex, delegating duties to henchmen Fred Kohler and Robert E. Milash and oriental manservant Tetsu Komai. Complications set in when Tom falls for Lucille Powers, Robertson's sister. Director Laemmle gives us a really unusual and interesting title sequence with offscreen gunshots shooting down the stone-like titles. Following a promising start, the picture sags midway but is followed by a strong finish. Beautifully photographed by Daniel B. Clark who lensed several of George O'Brien's Fox westerns and had earlier worked on Mix silents such as OH, YOU TONY ('24), RAINBOW TRAIL ('25) and TONY RUNS WILD ('26). He also lensed the fabulous SMOKY in '33.

 PHANTOM OF THE PLAINS (1945 Republic)
Red Ryder (Bill Elliott) breaks up a wedding when his aunt, The Duchess (Alice Fleming), is about to marry crafty confidence man Fancy Charles (Ian Keith) who is only after her money. Keith's confederate, Virginian Christine, is posing as a seamstress helping the Duchess with wedding plans. Enter William Haade and Bud Geary, old cellmates of Keith who threaten to expose him if he doesn't cut them in for a share of the Duchess' money. It's a different and unique plot (by Earle Snell and Charles Kenyon) that could only be carried off in an established series such as this with developed characters like Red Ryder and The Duchess. Terrific action sequences directed by Les Selander with beautiful photography by William Bradford make this one of the best of the 16 Elliott Red Ryders.

 RENFREW OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (1937 Grand National)
Grand National hit upon a good idea by bringing Laurie York Erskin's long popular novels and radio character, Sgt. Renfrew of the R.C.M.P., to the screen. However, the series got off to a weak start with this entry that seems to be trying for a bit of everything - action, songs, romance in the woods, flying sequences, light-hearted banter, Lightning the dog, a kid actor (Dickie Jones) - and there's just not enough time spent on any one element, leaving the picture with a jumpy, episodic feel. The series hit its stride when they gave Renfrew (James Newill) a partner ... MURDER ON THE YUKON probably being the best of the troubled-by-distribution eight film series. In this initial entry, counterfeiters (William Royle, Kenneth Harlan, Dave O'Brien, Robert Terry, Chief Thunder Cloud) are transporting their queer stuffed in frozen trout and packed in blocks of ice. The counterfeiters have blackmailed just-released-from-prison engraver Herbert Corthell into working for them. Renfrew gets on their trail after romancing Corthell's daughter Carol Hughes. At one odd point, Renfrew crashes a perfectly good airplane just so he can "arrive" at the lodge where the counterfeiters are operating. Everyone there seems to know who he is, so the point of parachuting out and wrecking an airplane seems pointless and wasteful. It's a wonder the R.C.M.P. didn't strip him of his sergeant's stripes for that stunt. Biggest laughs in the film come from Dave O'Brien as Dreamy, constantly wild-eyed and smoking (marijuana?), acting as if he's still playing his addicted pot-head from REEFER MADNESS a year earlier.

 PARSON AND THE OUTLAW (1957 Columbia)
This film, produced by Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Z-grade western vet Bob Gilbert, and written and directed by Oliver Drake on his worst days, is so bad it has to rate as someone's "guilty pleasure" - but I have yet to discover who that lone individual might be. Terribly miscast with Anthony Dexter as Billy the Kid and Marie Windsor as gunman Bob Steele's concubine sporting the worst Mexican accent this side of Tim McCoy. There's a dreadful guitar solo score, one of the worst ever, sounding like Hawaiian Luau music at times. Director Drake dug up old pal and another poverty row director, Harry Webb, to be his assistant director. John Mantley, later of TV GUNSMOKE fame, helped Drake write this offense and served as dialogue director. (He'd have been wise to leave it off future resumes.) Dexter (whose screen claim to fame is resembling Valentino and starring in the silent star's life story) is Billy the Kid who hangs up his six guns in an attempt to start a new life. Things go well until his friend, the local preacher (Buddy Rogers), is shot down by Robert Lowery's gang (Bob Steele, Al Jardine). Lowery doesn't want his "empire" annexed to Texas by popular vote which Rogers is pushing for. Also in the cast - producer Bob Gilbert as a cavalry officer, Jean Parker as Rogers' wife, Dick Reeves as Pat Garrett, Kenne Duncan as a newspaper man, Bob Duncan as a gunman, Sonny Tufts as outlaw Jack Slade. So inept even Bob Steele's name is misspelled 'Steel' in the credits. A waste of Technicolor.

 VALLEY OF WANTED MEN (1935 Conn)
Framed for a bank robbery he didn't commit, Roy (LeRoy) Mason and two other prisoners (Russell Hopton, Paul Fix) escape the penitentiary and head for Pleasant Valley where the robbery happened. Mason believes he was framed by Walter Miller, who is now engaged to Mason's old girlfriend, Drue Leyton. To clear himself, he must find where Miller hid the money before Forest Ranger Grant Withers catches up with him or before Hopton and Fix reach Miller before he does. Mason is helped by his old pal Frankie Darro, Leyton's kid brother. Not a true "western", but has all the same northwoods elements the Kermit Maynard Mountie films, among others, have. Low point comes when an unknown girl singer forces us to suffer through her "song".

 SANTA FE PASSAGE (1955 Republic)
Accused of betraying a wagon train to Apache Indians led by George Keymas, John Payne is unable to find another job as wagon train scout. Enter Rod Cameron who gives him another chance, hiring Payne and pal Slim Pickens to guide a large cargo of guns and munitions bound for the Mexican Army in Santa Fe through Keymas' hostile territory. The cargo is co-owned by gorgeous Faith Domergue who Cameron believes will marry him once they reach their destination. Naturally, Indian-hating Payne also falls for her, unaware she is a half-breed. When Payne learns of her heritage he must face his prejudices as well as rival Cameron. Also involved are whip-wielding, treacherous wagon boss Leo Gordon and Domergue's Indian servant Irene Tedrow (in a standout pivotal role). The interesting themes and stunt filled Trucolor action sequences are expertly handled by director Bill Witney. Payne's performance is stoic as usual - and yes, he does remove his shirt in one scene to show off his hairy chest. He does it in darn near every film he's in. I suppose it must have been in his contract.

 LEFT HANDED LAW (1937 Universal)
Wells Fargo agent Buck Jones comes to the aid of rancher Frank LaRue and his daughter Noel Francis who are being plagued by rustlers and stage robbers Matty Fain, George Regas, Robert Frazer, Frank Lackteen and Lee Shumway. Naturally, Buck falls for Francis, a pretty, above average B-western heroine. It's a clever, tough script from Frances Guihan, but as usual with Guihan's scripts, confusing at times. Her script goes off track here when Buck masquerades as a Mexican whom Regas shoud easily recognize, but doesn't. Not at all believable. Directed by Les Selander with little care for logic or continuity.

 OKLAHOMA FRONTIER (1939 Universal)
Johnny Mack Brown's second outing at Universal. U.S. Marshal Brown and his pal Fuzzy Knight head for the opening of the 1893 Oklahoma land rush where Brown encounters childhood friends Bob Baker and sister Anne Gwynne, agreeing to help them stake a claim. Brown draws a map and gives it to Baker who is killed for it by landsharks James Blaine and Bob Kortman. Brown is blamed for the murder and sentenced to hang on the day of the landrush. Even Anne Gwynne believes Brown guilty. Thankfully, Fuzzy breaks Brown out of jail, they reach the claim first and prove Blaine and Kortman guilty. Brown plays the spoons while the musical Texas Rangers sing. Fuzzy sings (awfully) "My Cincinnati, Ohio" and Baker contributes "In Old Oklahoma". One of the Texas Rangers' songs, "Git Along Little Pony", had been heard in Brown's serial WILD WEST DAYS ('37). Fuzzy Knight's character is listed in the credits as Windy Day, but the only time Johnny Mack or anyone else calls him by name onscreen he's addressed as Frosty! Historian Mike Nevins postulates, "Remember, it was in 1939 George Hayes left the Hopalong Cassidy series. Producer Harry Sherman, claiming he owned the name Windy, threatened to sue if Hayes used the monicker elsewhere. My guess is Universal's cautious lawyers told director Ford Beebe to change Fuzzy's handle pronto but forgot to get the screen credits changed correspondingly."

 COLT COMRADES (1943 United Artists)
The central theme of this Hopalong Cassidy western is economic exploitation by a ruthless capitalist. As Francis Nevins points out in his "Films of Hopalong Cassidy", the script is by devout Marxist Michael Wilson who also espoused his Communistic theories in Hoppy's BORDER PATROL earlier in the year. Deputy Marshals Hopalong Cassidy, Jay Kirby and Andy Clyde pursue outlaw Robert Mitchum who seeks refuge in a town virtually ruled with an iron hand by Victor Jory and his right hand gun-lord Douglas Fowley. Fowley shoots down Mitchum before he can reveal he was employed by Jory to steal U.S. mail pouches. Hoppy and his pals decide to invest in the water-strapped community by buying into the Box W ranch owned by George Reeves and his sister Lois Sherman. After Clyde is bamboozled by local swindler Earle Hodgins into believing there is oil on the Box W, they oddly, and luckily, strike water instead. Seeing his schemes to obtain the valley ranches in jeopardy, now that there's another source of water other than his, Jory begins to play even rougher, trying to frame Hoppy as a cattle rustler. There's a terrific gunfight and rescue windup, typical of director Les Selander who was, by now, an old hand on the Hoppys.

 COVERED WAGON RAID (1950 Republic)
Insurance investigator Allan 'Rocky' Lane foils a scheme by portly saloon/hotel/gambling joint proprietor Alex Gerry and his dog-heavy henchman Dick Curtis to drive out honest citizens trying to settle on land provided by a wealthy late ranch owner. Rocky teams up with ranch foreman Eddy Waller to defeat the gang as well as straighten out the gambling habits of Byron Barr, the late rancher's son. The token girl, fond of Barr, is Lyn Thomas. Popular B-western heavy Pierce Lyden has a better than usual, and central to the plot, role. As always in the Lane pictures, the script is a well developed taut story full of suspense, detection and action. Seldom a wasted frame. Script here is from M. Coates Webster who penned several of Lane's stories. Lane always carried off his acting in a serious, tough, businesslike manner, letting the audience know the bad guys were in for real trouble when they crossed 'Rocky'.

 PRAIRIE GUNSMOKE (1942 Columbia)
When Bill Elliott's uncle is murdered for his property which contains valuable ore deposits, Wild Bill comes gunning for his killer, landgrabber Tris Coffin and his range rats (Joe McGuinn, Frosty Royce - in the best role of his usually bit player career, Francis Walker, Art Mix). At first at odds with rancher Tex Ritter (a neighbor of Elliott's uncle) and rancher Hal Price and his daughter Virginia Carroll when they believe Elliott is one of Tris' gunslingers, in the end they're all united in bringing the badmen to justice. Action packed with fight after fight making this one of the best Elliott/Ritter team ups. More screen time is given over to Ritter than usual. Clumsy-footed stumblebum Frank Mitchell is their love-him-or-leave-him sidekick. Most prefer to leave him.

 TRAIL GUIDE (1952 RKO)
Tim Holt's best westerns were behind him and RKO's tightening of budgets are beginning to show in TRAIL GUIDE, the 4th from the end of Holt's series. With stock footage from John Ford's WAGONMASTER, Tim and Chito (Richard Martin) lead a wagon train to Silver Springs where homesteaders led by Kenneth MacDonald get a cool welcome from cattle ranchers Linda Douglas and her brother, Robert Sherwood. Sherwood knows there's oil on the land and aims to keep the nesters out by seeking the help of crooked saloon owner Frank Wilcox and his dog-heavy, John Pickard. (Tim has a good saloon brawl with Pickard.) As in OVERLAND TELEGRAPH before this entry, Tim is no longer riding his palomino Lightning, but rather a nondescript sorrel. Toothless old veteran Tom London has a cute running gag with his "trained" vaudeville mutt who won't jump through the hoop. Okay buildup but a very weak ending and capture of Wilcox.

 TWO GUN MAN (1931 Tiffany)
Gunman Ken Maynard saves Lucille Powers from being shot during an argument between her father (Murdock MacQuarrie) and cattle company owner Tom London who is using hired guns (led by Jim Corey) and a spy on the MacQuarrie ranch (Charlie King) to run small ranchers off the free range. London plans to move over 40,000 head of cattle onto the grasslands. Ken and his saddlepal/two-gun mentor, Lafe McKee, side with the small ranchers in the battle against London. In the finale, under a hail of gunsmoke, we learn why Ken truly is a "two gun man", but along the way there's just too much palaver about what it is to be a "two gun man" (gunfighter). Certainly not one of Maynard's best.

 WAR OF THE RANGE (1933 Freuler/Monarch)
Following the demise of his ultra low budget Big 4 in '32, producer John R. Freuler quickly formed Freuler Film Associates with an ambitious film program, including 6 Tom Tyler westerns, which the star sandwiched in between his stays at Monogram and Reliable. WAR OF THE RANGE is probably the best of his Freuler/Monarchs, which isn't saying much. The four films were not even on a par with his Monogram, Reliable or Victory pictures. Burton King, held over from Big 4, produced, so you know the Freuler Tylers were cheapo westerns. Opposing his stubborn father (silent star Charles K. French) who has put up a fence on his land to block the trail to the north range from nesters, Tom finds himself ostracized when he sides with a newly settled nester family, Caryl Lincoln, her kid brother Wesley Giraud and her father (William Malan). Unknown to him, French is having his cattle rustled by his own foreman, smarmy, smiling Ted Adams, and neighboring rancher Lane Chandler. Through a legal loophole, the new nesters lay legal claim to a section of French's land with access to the coveted pass. The rotten Chandler and Adams try to snooker the nesters into helping them. They also try to frame Tyler for robbery of his Dad's safe. Tom's pal is oldtimer Billy Franey who keeps repeating "not so good." Funny once, twice or three times - but not endlessly! Story by Oliver Drake, quickly directed by J. P. McGowan.

 RIDDLE RANCH (1935 Beaumont)
David Worth was a minor player who'd been hovering around Hollywood since 1931 in various dramas (DESIRABLE, ALIAS MARY DOW, DIAMOND JIM, etc.). This was his only western and he comes across as a poor man's Dennis Moore. After several films in 1936 he was never heard from again. Actually, top-billed here is Black King, "the horse with the human brain." Unfortunately, he wasn't smart enough to stay out of this dud, produced on a shoestring by Mitchell Leicher for his Beaumont Pictures which arrived on the independent scene in August of '35 and evaporated after five films by January '36 (four with Conway Tearle and RIDDLE RANCH with Worth). Sleazy Mexican bandido (Julian Rivero) tries to obtain Black King, owned by gruff rancher Richard Cramer, by hook or crook. A race is arranged with Worth (in love with Cramer's platinum blonde daughter, June Marlowe) riding Black King. The race is fixed with Worth accused of double-crossing - and later, even murder. Directed by Charles Hutchinson, a former silent serial daredevil star.

 BUZZY RIDES THE RANGE (1940 Arthur Ziehm Prod.)
A U and B production - unexciting, uneventful, uninteresting, boring, bland and blah. Ranch lady Claire Rochelle (wearing what looks to be the same striped blouse she wore in Bob Steele's PAL FROM TEXAS in '39), her kid brother, Buzzy Henry, and comic ranch foreman George Morrell are being hit hard by rustlers, as are other valley ranchers. Citizens Committee head George Eldredge sends for a state investigator (Dave O'Brien) who arrives incognito posing as a desert prospector. Getting a job on Rochelle's ranch, O'Brien and Buzzy discover Eldredge and his henchman Frank Marlowe are the rustlers. There's some bad western music midway by an unknown cowboy band along with some painful "comedy" bits from old vaudevillian Phil Arnold who turned up a few years later just as painful as Zerbo on Russell Hayden's COWBOY G-MEN TVer. The inappropriate canned classical music during the final "action" sequence doesn't help matters either. The word "odiferous" is used several times in the picture - and it applies. Reissued in 1948 by Elkay/Astor as WESTERN TERROR.

 APACHE RIFLES (1964 20TH Century Fox)
Rather lackluster Audie Murphy remake (from uncredited exec. producer Edward Small) of INDIAN UPRISING ('51) with George Montgomery - which was a better film. Even though handled here by veteran action-director William Witney, the fight scenes seem sparse and abbreviated, as if cramped by budget. Indian hating Murphy changes his racist mind when he falls in love with half-breed missionary Linda Lawson. Michael Dante is the Indian son of Chief Victorio (Joseph A. Vitale). Dante found his greatest fame as WINTERHAWK in Charles B. Pierce's now cult-classic '76 film. Note that Eugene Iglesias is once again Trooper Ramirez, the same role he played in INDIAN UPRISING. Hugh Sanders is in this one also - but Charles Watts takes over the rabble-rousing, murderous storekeeper role Sanders essayed in the original. Lensed in color at Red Rock Canyon and the Bronson Cave area.

 JOHNNY RENO (1966 Paramount)
Another of producer A. C. Lyles' B-westerns dressed up in A-western clothes, but it's more difficult to sit through than most of his pictures. Dana Andrews stars as a U.S. Marshal trying to protect Tom Drake from a mob who wants to lynch him for the murder of an Indian boy, a crime he didn't actually commit. Andrews was a good actor, but never quite at home in westerns, and here he looks worn and tired. The script is overly wordy, trite and contrived at 83 minutes, with only about 50 minutes worth of real material. There's a good fist fight sequence, but it's staged by two very obvious stuntmen doubling Andrews and Lyle Bettger. Director R. G. Springsteen's action footage at the conclusion is dark, muddled and not up to par. Main heavy Lyle Bettger, as mayoral town boss, is the only actor who seems to be trying. The rest of Lyle's as-always name cast seems to simply be going through the motions. An uncomely Jane Russell is Andrews' ex-girlfriend now running the local saloon. Rancher John Agar, storekeeper Robert Lowery, bartender Reg Parton, businessman Richard Arlen (totally wasted as nothing more than an extra), are all following Bettger's lynch-law lead. Fat and whisky soaked Lon Chaney Jr. as the town sheriff barely leaves his office. Rodd Redwing is an Indian Chief. Stuntman Dale Van Sickel is Drake's bushwhacker brother, killed early on. An atrocious, inappropriate themesong is sung by Jerry Wallace.

 CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH (1946 Republic)
Ranks with the best of the Bill Elliott Red Ryder westerns, even if the title is misleading. It's not about a gold rush and California isn't even mentioned! A lot of the credit must go to screen writer Bob Williams who also wrote another top-notch Ryder, LONE TEXAS RANGER. Williams' plots are always elaborate, fast moving and a cut above the norm. When the stage lines of Russell Simpson and daughter Peggy Stewart are robbed and plundered, Simpson's friend The Duchess (Alice Fleming) sends for her two-fisted nephew, Red Ryder (Bill Elliott) and Little Beaver (Bobby Blake) to get to the bottom of the outlawry. The head of the bandits, postmaster Joel Friedkin, gets ahold of the letter The Duchess has sent Red and hires the Idaho Kid (Wen Wright) to ambush Red and take his place. Things don't go according to Friedkin's plan and, for a while, confusion runs rampant as to who's who. Friedkin's right-hand man is another of Republic's semi-comic badmen, an incessantly harmonica playing Dick Curtis ... quite a departure for him from his stolid Columbia parts. Kenne Duncan is Wright's outlaw brother. Monte Hale, having been groomed for stardom by Republic for a year, has a one-line bit. In his next picture, HOME ON THE RANGE, he starred. Blake, as Beaver, has far more to do than usual, at one point craftily rescuing Red when he's captured by Sheriff Tom London believing him to be the Idaho Kid. Blake also has some of his most clever comic bits mimicking Simpson who incessantly uses the phrase "Ding dang it all!" Well, ding dang it all, this is one of the best Red Ryders!

 SHOTGUN PASS (1931 Columbia)
Interesting to note Tim McCoy wears no gun at all in this offbeat western in which two roughneck brother wild horse herders (Monty Vandergrift, Joe Marba) feel Tim is taking away from their business by rounding up wild horses. Besides attempting to ambush Tim, the nefarious brothers manage to get Dick Stewart (brother of Tim's girl Virginia Lee Corbin) drunk so they can persuade him to sign a lease agreement with them which would not allow Tim to round up herds on that land. The saloon brawl with Tim (and his two pals, Frank Rice and Ben Corbett) against the brothers is a bit different and quite inventive on the part of director J. P. McGowan and cameraman Ben Kline. Later, you'll be amazed at the slightly ludicrous way Tim proves who tried to ambush him - Marba left an impression of his gunbelt in the soft clay bank when he leaned over it to shoot at McCoy. There's one I've never heard before - or since. Just as well.

 RIDER FROM TUCSON (1950 RKO)
Rodeo rider Tim Holt and his Mexican/Irish sidekick Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin) go to the aid of old friend Bill Phipps whose hidden gold strike is the target of claim jumpers headed up by tough, heartless dance hall floozy Veda Ann Borg, her spineless husband Robert Shayne and hired gunmen Douglas Fowley and Stuart Randall. To complicate matters, Phipps' fiancée, Elaine Riley (Martin's real life wife in the only film they made together), is arriving by stage. The bandits plan to hold Elaine hostage in order to force Phipps to disclose the location of his mine. Stuart Randall became a regular on TV's LARAMIE as Sheriff Mort Corey ('60-'63).

 LAWLESS EIGHTIES (1957 Ventura/Republic)
There were only seven men who had basically started as B-western leads and graduated, all with varying degrees of success, to starring in A westerns or at least B+ productions: John Wayne, Randolph Scott, William Elliott, George Montgomery, Robert Mitchum, Rod Cameron and Buster Crabbe. Crabbe certainly had the least success, but LAWLESS EIGHTIES is one of his slightly upscale productions, certainly a few steps above his PRC series. Swimming champion Crabbe was about 49 when he made this western, and he looks terrific. Gunfighter Crabbe and circuit riding preacher John Smith join forces to stop white men from starting an Indian war by blaming their homesteader raids on Chief Anthony Caruso's Indians. Devious Indian agent Ted DeCorsia wants to drive out the settlers and grab the land for himself and his gun-rannies: John Doucette (never slimier), Tom Monroe, Bob Swan and Carol Henry. Homesteaders include Frank Ferguson and his wife, former '30s B-western leading lady Shelia Bromley, their daughter (and Crabbe's love interest), Marilyn Saris, and rancher Harry Lauter. The cavalry is commanded by Capt. Walter Reed.

 TRAIL'S END (1949 Monogram)
Better than average Johnny Mack Brown with a good J. Benton Cheney script and fast-paced Lambert Hillyer direction that incorporates two good jawbuster brawls. There's bad blood between gruff rancher George Chesebro and ex-con Keith Richards, boyfriend of Chesebro's daughter, cute Kay Morley. Crooked lawyer Douglas Evans and his gun buzzards (Myron Healey, treacherous double-crossing Zon Murray, Boyd Stockman, Eddie Majors, Carol Henry) want Chesebro's ranch for themselves, gunning down Chesebro on the trail and planning to throw blame on Richards. Peddler Max 'Alibi' Terhune throws a monkey wrench in their plans when he witnesses the murder. It takes wits and action for Chesebro foreman Johnny Mack Brown to rescue Terhune from the killer's trap and expose Evans' plot.

 KANSAS RAIDERS (1950 Universal-International)
In his third Technicolor western Audie Murphy again played a real-life wild west badman - Jesse James. The film purported to be an account of Jesse's career as a member of the notorious guerilla gang led by Colonel Quantrill (Brian Donlevy) in post Civil War Kansas, tracing his recruitment, hero-worship of Quantrill, romance with a female member of the gang (Marguerite Chapman), and ultimate disillusionment after the infamous massacre in Lawrence, KS, but abounds with historical inaccuracies. The action-packed, often quite bloody film which moves smartly from one action sequence to the next, is well served by Donlevy's authoritative presence as Quantrill and the personable playing of its group of attractive young "heroes": Tony Curtis as Kit Dalton, Richard Long as Frank James, James Best as Cole Younger, Dewey Martin as Jim Younger. Murphy, still ill-at-ease especially with longer sequences of dialogue, particularly in his romantic moments with Marguerite Chapman, manages to acquit himself with his usual crisp confidence in the action scenes. Audie had an advantage over other Hollywood portrayals of Jesse in that he looked the right age, since the outlaw was only 16 when he reportedly rode with Quantrill. Scott Brady is convincing in a display of sadistic viciousness as Quantrill's lieutenant, "Bloody Bill" Anderson. Old-time western star Richard Arlen adds a touch of quiet competence as a cavalry officer whose torture by Brady leads to the inevitable showdown between Jesse and Anderson. Later, Arlen repays the debt by allowing Jesse and his friends time to surrender Quantrill. Director Ray Enright, who died in 1965, was on familiar ground with the film as he'd already directed a film about the Younger Brothers (BAD MEN OF MISSOURI) in '41, and had a reasonable list of western credits with stars like Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea and Errol Flynn. Inevitably, KANSAS RAIDERS is a whitewash job on Jesse and his companions.

 PIONEERS OF THE WEST (1940 Republic)
Following an Indian raid in which their guide (Hal Taliaferro) is killed, the 3 Mesquiteers (Robert Livingston, Raymond Hatton, Duncan Renaldo) lead a group of pioneers, headed up by George Cleveland and daughter Beatrice Roberts, west to "new land promised them by Roberts' beau, Lane Chandler, who is in reality a swindler in league with crooked judge Noah Beery Sr. and Sheriff Joe McGuinn. Together, they've sold the settlers worthless-for-farming rock-strewn land. But then, when the baddies learn the railroad will come through the settlers' land, improving its worth immensely, they do everything they can to drive the settlers back off the property. Fortunately, the Mesquiteers intervene and restore law and order. If you want action, this one's got it from start to finish, including two Livingston masked-rider sequences. Leading lady Beatrice Roberts, a former model and Ziegfeld Follies dancer, had a 15 years film career, due primarily to her "close association" with MGM honcho Louis B. Mayer. He was able to secure for her substantial work (and often good billing for nothing roles). She's best remembered as Queen Azura in the Universal serial FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS. Les Orlebeck made his directorial debut with PIONEERS having previously been a film editor for Mascot and Republic. He went on to direct a total of 8 Mesquiteers pictures, but nothing else. Instead he continued to be one of Republic's busiest film cutters on through 1948. Much stock footage is used early on in PIONEERS, including, once again, the Wind River Indians from Tim McCoy's silent WAR PAINT ('26).

 SON OF THE RENEGADE (1952 Jack Schwarz/United Artists)
The last vestiges of the independent B-western in the early '50s - Johnny Carpenter, Sunset Carson, Spade Cooley, Lash LaRue, Ken Curtis - seemed to revert back to the no-budget beginnings in the '30s with Lane Chandler, Buffalo Bill Jr., Bill Cody, Bob Custer, Rex Lease and the like. And Carpenter led the parade, always in there pitching - he just never had the budgets or was script-wise enough to pull off a coherent western. Only the constant action gives this group of loosely connected scenes deemed "a movie" any value at all. Johnny, in a dual role (as is practically everyone else in the film), is the son of outlaw Red River Johnny. He only wants to reclaim his father's ranch but outlaw Bill Ward is blaming stage robberies on Johnny's return to the Valley. Reg Browne "directed" and tied Carpenter's mish-mash of ideas together by hiring a voice over narrator to tell the audience what was happening with the wild inconsistencies in the story. Watch for Charlie King and other "badmen" in the abundance of stock PRC footage. Filmed at Jack Ingram's ranch with Jack in a lead badman role. Forget the cast billing - hardly anyone plays who they are listed as portraying with all of Carpenter's "regulars" and "buddies" often using their real names: Bill Coontz, Valley Keene, Roy Canada, Bill Chaney, etc. Other than his best, BADMAN'S GOLD, watching one of Carpenter's westerns holds a sort of sick fascination, like passing by a bloody car wreck. Incidentally, badman Bill Ward was the stuntman-owner of the Lone Ranger's horse, Silver.

 RANGER COURAGE (1936 Columbia)
Second in the short-lived Bob Allen "Ranger" series independently produced by Larry Darmour for distribution through Columbia. When a wagon train of settlers led by wagon boss William Gould is attacked by white men disguised as Indians, peewee Buzzy Henry rides to the Ranger camp for help. Ranger Bob and the boys drive off the renegades led by Walter Miller. Suspecting Miller and his boys (Bob Kortman, Harry Strang), Bob pretends to resign from the service and joins up with rustics Horace Murphy and George Morrell to catch the badmen. Along the way, Bob falls in love with Buzzy's big sister, pretty Martha Tibbetts. Buffalo Bill Jr. is unbilled as Bob's Ranger lieutenant. Routine stuff with an ending that makes you feel something was left out. Suddenly it's over. "That's it?"

 MONEY, WOMEN AND GUNS (1958 Universal)
Title of this tame affair promises far more than it delivers. Noted frontier detective Jock Mahoney takes on the search for four heirs to the fortune of old prospector Harry Tyler who has been murdered by three gunmen. Along the way Mahoney meets and falls in love with Kim Hunter, mother of one of the heirs, youngster Tim Hovey. The quality cast is rounded out by Gene Evans, James Gleason, Lon Chaney Jr., Tom Drake, Don Megowan, Phil Terry, Ian MacDonald, William Campbell, Richard Devon, Steve Darrell, Tom London and Judy Meredith. However, due to the episodic nature of Montgomery Pittman's screenplay, none of them is given enough screen time to make much of an impression. In Technicolor and Cinemascope. Title song, "Lonely Is the Hunter", nicely sung by Jimmy Wakely.

 BRAND OF THE DEVIL (1944 PRC)
The Texas Rangers ride into trouble with plenty of hot lead to break up the Devil's Brand gang of rustlers (oily saloon owner I. Stanford Jolley, half-witted Charlie King, Reed Howes, Kermit Maynard). The gang leaves an insignia of a devil's pitchfork when they pull a robbery. Having tracked the gang to Jolley's Gold Ace Saloon, after a brawl, the Rangers leave the very same calling card for the gang to let them know they are closing in on them. The gang is currently rustling cattle from pretty Ellen Hall's ranch with a little underhanded help from her supposedly trusty foreman, Budd Buster. The gang will stop at nothing, even to accusing Hall of rustling herself. Jim Newill belts out a nice rendition of "When the Work's All Done this Fall" ... possibly prophetic, as Newill left the series with this entry after a 14 film run to be replaced by Tex Ritter.

 OLD FRONTIER (1950 Republic)
Monte Hale's next to last B-western holds up in quality ... Republic never dropped the bar too low on either their Allan 'Rocky' Lane or Monte Hale series, even though they were in the waning days of the B-westerns. Newly appointed town marshal Hale and his helper Paul 'Skipper' Hurst (whose jargon is all nautical related) go after bank robbers Lane Bradford and Denver Pyle. After Pyle is wounded and captured, outlaw boss and Philadelphia lawyer Tris Coffin dispatches his right-hand man, William Haade (in another of scripter Bob Williams well conceived comic-badman as a hypochondriac named Pills), to kill Pyle and lay the blame on doctor Bill Henry. They also try to lay the blame for the murder of Judge Victor Killian or Henry, but Monte clears him and brings Coffin, Haade and Bradford to blazing gun justice. Monte sings a few bars of "A-Roving" and leading lady Claudia Barrett is simply window dressing, but nice window dressing.

 RANGE DEFENDERS (1937 Republic)
When Tommy Carr, Stony Brooke's kid brother, is framed on a murder charge of killing leading lady Eleanor Stewart's sheepman father, the 3 Mesquiteers (Bob Livingston as Stony, Ray Corrigan as Tucson and Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin) hide Carr out and head for town where they find lawyer Harry Woods trying to stir up a cattlemen Vs. sheepmen war so as to drive the cattlemen out of business. His gang includes wimpy Sheriff Earle Hodgins and gunhawks John Merton and Yakima Canutt. Joseph Poland's screenplay is a bit muddled at times but there's plenty of action to overcome the story shortcomings, with Corrigan's Tucson given a bit more to do then usual. Boo Boo: the wanted poster on Stony Brooke's brother reads "George Brook", leaving the "e" off the end of his name. Note the large billboards advertising two other 1937 Republic B's, GUNS IN THE DARK with Johnny Mack Brown and GUN LORDS OF STIRRUP BASIN with Bob Steele. Not satisfied with acting, Tommy Carr became one of Republic's top directors after WWII.

 THE BLAZING TRAIL (1949 Columbia)
Durango Kid version of a Charlie Chan murder mystery with a weak no-action ending reduces this BLAZING TRAIL to a weak "flicker path" in Charles Starrett's western star career. Filled with a profuse amount of voice-over exposition by Starrett (and Marjorie Stapp), Durango ferrets out friend of the family Trevor Bardette and lawyer Fred Sears as the killers of Old Mike (Robert Malcolm) who is murdered for his mine. Also with Smiley Burnette as owner/editor/circulation director of the local newspaper; Jock Mahoney as a slick gambler; John Cason as Mahoney's gunman; Marjorie Stapp as the girlfriend of Malcolm's brother, Steve Pendleton, and Steve Darrell as Malcolm and Pendleton's other brother. Convoluted screenplay from Barry Shipman. Songs by Hank Penny and Slim Duncan.

 THE GOLDEN STALLION (1949 Republic)
A smuggling ring is using a herd of wild horses to sneak contraband diamonds across the Mexican border. One of the horses, a palomino mare, wears a special horseshoe in which the diamonds are hidden. When Roy Rogers, Pat Brady and the Riders of the Purple Sage arrive at Dale Evans' ranch to capture wild horses for sale to a cattle company, the trained mare is among them. One of the smugglers (William Tannen) comes to retrieve the diamonds from the mare but she bolts, killing the crook and escaping. Sheriff Frank Fenton believes Trigger responsible, demanding he be destroyed. To prevent this, Roy confesses to the killing, saving Trigger, but insuring his own imprisonment on a manslaughter charge. While Roy is in jail, the smugglers (Douglas Evans, Greg McClure [a real life former pugilist]) buy Trigger at auction and train him to smuggle diamonds in place of the escaped mare. Time passes and the mare foals Trigger Jr. from a union she and Trigger had earlier. The colt is raised by Roy's friends until Roy is released from prison at which time he uses Trigger Jr. to help run down the smugglers. In Trucolor with all the ingredients to make it one of Roy's most offbeat and superior B-westerns, reaching near A-status.

 RAWHIDE ROMANCE (1934 Superior)
As usual, there is little link to real filmmaking in this Victor Adamson $1.98 western. The first half tries desperately to instill comedic touches but fails miserably. At one point, star Buffalo Bill Jr. even sings a bit, although he's not supposed to be good at it. And he isn't. Sidekick-cook Si Jenks also has a whirl at serenading leading lady Genee Boutell (who in real life became Mrs. Buffalo Bill Jr.). The silly plot has woman-hating Bill falling in love with man hating Boutell at the dude ranch where Bill is foreman. Alternate plotline has Boris Bullock's gang robbing the rich dude ranch visitors. It's the amateurish playacting and if-you-can-see-it-print-it directorial attitude that defeats nearly all of Adamson's westerns. Thank God for cameraman Brydon Baker whose photography is always the only asset to an Adamson production.

 BOSS OF LONELY VALLEY (1937 Universal)
When you see the name Frances Guihan as screenwriter on the credits, you know you're in for another "unusual" Buck Jones western. Her heavily plotted story is lazily developed and lacks cohesion. Ray Taylor's direction doesn't help matters. Villain Walter Miller claims pretty Muriel Evans' late father had deeded him his ranch before his demise. Buck joins forces with undercover government investigator Harvey Clark (masquerading as a tramp) to ferret out forger Matty Fain who is working for Miller. There's also some mystery about a preacher's death, a tunnel under the church and, oh yes, counterfeiting is mentioned once. Some unnamed cowboy singer appears midway - no doubt a concession to the onslaught of singing cowboy westerns riding the range. Kernville locations are terrific.

 SINISTER JOURNEY (1948 United Artists)
With its roots deep in film noir, Hopalong Cassidy and his pals (Andy Clyde, Rand Brooks) try to overcome a meandering, actionless Doris Schroeder storyline that actually plays better when edited down to 27 minutes as one of Hoppy's TV episodes. Hot-headed ex-con John Kellogg, married to railroad owner Stanley Andrews' daughter, Elaine Riley, is being railroaded (pun intended) for all the "accidents" Andrews is experiencing. The real culprits are Andrews' male secretary Don Haggerty and his pal Harry Strang, framing Kellogg to serve their own nefarious plans. Director George Archainbaud makes fine use of the trains at Lone Pine and paces the story well, but the lifeless plot with Hoppy solving the mystery at the end with no gunplay, relegates this "journey" to a "sinister" dead end. Onetime silent comic and later Tex Ritter sidekick, Snub Pollard, can be glimpsed in an unbilled bit role.

 LAW OF THE RIO GRANDE (1931 Syndicate)
Caught in a lawman's ambush, when wanted outlaw Nelson McDowell is shot he instructs a member of his gang, Harry Todd, to take Bob Custer, whom he's raised like a son, away and have him lead a straight life. In order to convince Custer to leave, Todd has to lie that McDowell has been killed. When Custer and Todd make a stop at a saloon they encounter former gang member Ed Cobb attempting to trick Betty Mack into marrying him. Custer rescues Betty and, as a reward, her father (Carlton King) gives him an honest job on his ranch. Then Cobb threatens to expose Bob as a former outlaw unless Bob helps him rustle King's cattle. Suddenly, McDowell arrives and Bob learns he is not dead. Together, they team up to bring Cobb to justice. Solid story betrayed by Custer's utter lack of enthusiasm and acting ability. Betty Burbridge and Bennett Cohen's screenplay was remade with Charles Starrett as TWO GUN LAW in '37. Some of the character names were even the same when Norman Sheldon abducted Burbridge and Cohen's story.

 SON OF BELLE STARR (1953 Allied Artists)
"In the late 1880s Belle Starr, the notorious woman outlaw of the American West and her husband, A Cherokee Indian, died as they had lived - violently. But, from their unholy union a son had been born. His heritage was a defiant, turbulent nature; the stigma of a born criminal, and the contempt of his fellow men." Keith Larsen is The Kid, son of Belle Starr, recruited by crooked Sheriff Myron Healey (and his two deputies, Lane Bradford and Paul McGuire) to help in a robbery. They plan to double-cross Keith, making him appear to the town as the lone outlaw. But their plan backfires as Larsen turns the tables on them in an attempt to find out who their big boss is, the one who set him up the year before. Is it newspaper editor Regis Toomey (whose daughter, Peggie Castle, Larsen has fallen for), Toomey's son Robert Keys or mine manager James Seay? Larsen gets his man but his reputation gets him in the end also. Cinecolor helps but Frank MacDonald's direction is a bit heavy handed in its melodramatics at times. Of course, MacDonald has had better material to work with.

 TORNADO RANGE (1948 PRC)
Nothing special but constant movement and action when U.S. Land Office agents Eddie Dean and Roscoe (Soapy) Ates investigate cattlemen of Tornado Range (George Chesebro and foreman Marshall Reed) who want to stem the influx of homesteaders (settlers Steve Clark and son Brad Slaven) whom they believe will destroy their land. The real fly in the ointment is crooked politician Terry Frost (and his gunmen Lane Bradford and cold blooded killer Russell Arms). Eddie sings two forgettables. Russell Arms went on to huge success as a singer himself on TV's YOUR HIT PARADE in the '50s.

 THE TALL T (1957 Columbia)
A taut, suspenseful, engaging Randolph Scott western, magnificently scripted by Burt Kennedy from novelist Elmore Leonard's THE CAPTIVES. Kennedy's always excellent understated scripting was never better. He was a master of what was not spoken, but understood. His naturalistic dialogue is sheer western poetry. Director Budd Boetticher takes time early in the film to fully develop Scott's laid-back character of a small rancher hoping to get a seed-bull to mate with his stock. Also introduced is likeable Arthur Hunnicutt, stage driver and long time friend of Scott's, as well as a way station owner and his young son for whom Scott cares and to whom he offers to bring back candy from town. Building on this, the viewer is shocked and deeply saddened when the lives of these three characters we care about, like and respect so much are viciously wasted by three killers (Richard Boone, Henry Silva, Skip Homeier) as they nab the stage payroll. The trio ends up taking stage passenger Maureen O'Sullivan prisoner while they let her contemptible husband John Hubbard return to town for ransom money. Here again, Kennedy and Boetticher develop Hubbard's character into such a louse that we are almost delightfully joyous when Boone eventually has him gunned down. Hichcockian in nature, a common man in a situation over his head and how he resolves it, Kennedy's sparse, tightly-wound script is richly full of subtle nuances and relationships between various characters. So rich, that even after several viewings you'll always take away something new and profound. "Some things a man can't ride around" may be one of the most insightful, thought-provoking lines ever written for a western - and Scott delivers it masterfully. Also beautifully written in Burt Kennedy's skillfully sparse way of understatement is Scott's final line to a hysterical O'Sullivan, "Come on now, it's gonna be a nice day." So memorable is this simple line, I'm sure, like me, you'll find yourself repeating it to someone on one of those "bad" days.

 IN EARLY ARIZONA (1938 Columbia)
Bill Elliott's first is an action-packed Saturday matinee western but so historically distorted as to be ludicrous, lumping together a thinly veiled Tombstone saga with Arizona statehood and women's voting rights. Tombstone was a rowdy frontier town in the early 1880s while Arizona didn't achieve statehood til 1912 and women gained the right to vote in 1920. Talk about scrambling history! Story here has Tombstone Marshal Jack Ingram unable to enforce the law because Sheriff Slim Whitaker and Judge Bud Osborne are in league with outlaw Harry Woods, all bossed secretly by respected businessman Ed Cassidy (unbeknownst to his pretty daughter Dorothy Gulliver). Ingram sends for Bill Elliott and his pals Charlie King and Art Davis to bring gun law to Tombstone. Thrown into the mix is a thinly disguised Doc Holliday, Lester Dorr as Dock. It's a rousing good start to Elliott's Larry Darmour produced Columbia-released westerns, but historically, fergetaboutit!

 GAY RANCHERO (1948 Republic)
In this slim story, Sheriff Roy Rogers is after gangsters George Meeker, LeRoy Mason and Keith Richards who are working with Robert Rose, an employee at Jane Frazee's airport. Shrewdly, they are sabotaging the planes to grab off gold shipments. Attempting to legally gain control of the distressed airline during an auction, the crooks are outbid by spoiled, rich Mexican girl Estelita Rodriguez. For more South of the Border appeal, Republic tossed in bullfighter/singer Tito Guizar who has a few comic moments with Frazee's bumbling airport employee, Andy Devine. Sloan Nibley's screenplay borrows elements from Bob Steele's TEXAS BUDDIES ('32) and the 3 Mesquiteers' OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS ('38).

 THE LAW RIDES (1936 Supreme)
Bob Steele is engaged to pretty Harley Wood whose brother Norman Nielsen just struck gold. But then he is shot and killed by claim-jumper Charlie King. Steele, in trying to help Wood locate the mine, attempts to deceive King into believing he too is after Nielsen's mine and that they should work together. King and his gang (Barney Furey, Blackie Whiteford, Tex Palmer) get wise to Bob and his pal Buck Connors. The gang chains them together and leaves them in the desert to die. After freeing themselves, it's an exciting, long trackdown in the desert with all concerned parties in a showdown at the mine (actually the natural bridge on the Walker Ranch property). All excitingly and sensibly put together by Bob's real dad, director Robert N. Bradbury.

 NORTHWEST TERRITORY (1952 Monogram)
Old prospector Sam Flint has a map detailing where thieves John Crawford and Duke York believe gold is hidden. Flint is supposed to meet Canadian Mountie Kirby Grant at an outpost where Grant will turn Flint's recently orphaned grandson (Pat Mitchell) over to him. But the prospector is killed just before Grant arrives. Grant disguises himself as a rookie prospector, and with the support of trading post operator Gloria Saunders, hopes the killers will expose themselves. Is the big boss outpost factor Warren Douglas or miners Tris Coffin or Don Harvey? Grant's white snow dog, Chinook, is even more vicious than usual ... at one point he's about to be executed for killing a man. York is the stuntman who did most of the fight scenes with Chinook in the series, and one of the few men who could handle the German Shepard. York has his biggest acting role in the series in NORTHWEST TERRITORY.

 TOP GUN (1955 Fame/United Artists)
Top gunman Sterling Hayden returns to his former home town to warn them John Dehner's vicious raiders are coming to loot the town. The town council wants nothing to do with the gunman and imprisons him on false charges. In the town are Hayden's old girlfriend Karin Booth, Sheriff James Millican, storekeeper Hugh Sanders, hotel owner Regis Toomey, saloon owner Denver Pyle, a very young Rod Taylor who is anxious to make a name for himself by gunning Hayden, and William Bishop who, while Hayden was away, cheated and murdered Hayden's mother. Certainly inspired by the success of HIGH NOON. As usual, Hayden is better than the material. This is the best version of Steve Fisher's story which was remade twice - in '60 as NOOSE FOR A GUNMAN with Jim Davis and in '64 as QUICK GUN with Audie Murphy. The old Jack Ingram Ranch on Mulholland Drive is used as the townsite here and it features some of the best shots ever of the oft used location ranch owned by the B-western badman from 1944-1956 at which time he sold it to Four Star TV Productions.

 CALL OF THE ROCKIES (1944 Republic)
Gene Autry was in the service. The John Paul Revere series had flopped. So Republic decided to try a new tack by top-billing comic Smiley Burnette over their new leading man, Oklahoma/Texas rodeo cowboy Michael Harrison whom Republic prexy Herbert J. Yates promptly christened Sonny "Sunset" Carson. (The Sonny was dismissed after this first film.) Noting Sunset's size and ability (and probably his lack of acting experience), director Les Selander planned "action, action and more action" for the films. Smiley received top billing over the fledgling star in the first four films, a first in B-western history. Republic originally intended to do eight with 'Frog' in the "lead", but the fan mail for Sunset was so overwhelming Republic decided to let Sunset go on his own. What transpired between Yates and Burnette's ego at this time is unknown, but after 10 years at the studio, Smiley was gone. Off the screen altogether in '45, he re-emerged with Charles Starrett at Columbia in '46. Carson went on to make eleven "solo" westerns at Republic in '45 and '46 then, due to excessive boozing, self-destructed. The "what-if" questions surrounding Sunset's brief career at Republic are among the most oft asked among B-western aficionados. With a sidekick technically in the lead, Republic began another gimmick with CALL OF THE ROCKIES in which the kids in the theatre audience were asked to participate in the on-screen action. In this one, as a "badman" chases Sunset and Frog at the end of the picture, Smiley turns to the audience and asks them all to go "Bang", apparently "shooting" the outlaw off his horse. Plotwise, after a humorous introduction to Sunset in which Smiley believes Sunset's horse is talking to him, the pair try to aid hardrock miners (pre-Superman Kirk Alyn and his fiancée Ellen Hall) obtain a government franchise to improve the safety of the water-leaky mine shafts. Outwardly, loud and brash lawyer Harry Woods and doctor Frank Jacquet seem to be helping the miners finance their project but secretly send their gunslicks (Tom London, Frank McCarroll, Bud Geary, Bob Kortman) to sabotage progress. Note that Sunset uses a whip to disarm one badman, predating both Lash LaRue and Whip Wilson by several years. Also Sunset uses a reverse draw double-holster rig in his four with Smiley, reverting to a standard single forward draw rig for the remainder of his westerns.

 SILVER CITY BONANZA (1951 Republic)
By his 5th film, Rex Allen now seems completely at ease in front of the camera with his character. Rex and pal Buddy Ebsen's best friend, blind Harry Lauter, is killed after he uncovers the location of the Lost Spanish Silver Lode. Lauter's seeing eye dog, Duke, helps Rex and Buddy follow the dead man's trail which leads to the ranch of Mary Ellen Kay (soon smitten with Rex) where outlaws Bill Kennedy and Gregg Barton are secretly using diving equipment to recover the treasure from the bottom of a lake on her property. It's an unusual but effective plot with some thrilling underwater sequences where Rex battles with the heavies. Rex actually had to swim in icy water at Big Bear Lake in California. This was young Mary Ellen Kay's first of six co-starrers with Rex. Rex sings three songs (plus the "Arizona Cowboy" theme) but the musical highlight is a delightful dance sequence with Buddy Ebsen and his real life daughter Alix (playing Mary Ellen's kid sister) which harkens back to routines Ebsen performed with Shirley Temple. Watch for the "theatre scene" in which two Allan 'Rocky' Lane one-sheets are displayed - VIGILANTE HIDEOUT and CODE OF THE SILVER SAGE.

 SADDLE ACES (1935 Resolute)
Only four of the six announced "trio" westerns starring Rex Bell/Buzz Barton/Ruth Mix were made before the series - and Resolute itself - came to a quick abbreviated halt. SADDLE ACES is the final film of the four, very poorly slapped together by director Harry Fraser with a sub-par soundtrack. Fraser directed and wrote all four pictures, often using his Harry Crist pseudonym. Bell and Barton are on a train bound for prison, unjustly framed for something or other. They escape and take refuge with Stanley Blystone's rustlers who have discovered Ruth Mix's late father never registered his land. Blystone is after the deed, trading off Ruth to Mexican bandido El Conejo (Earl Dwire) in the process. After much milling around, Rex and Buzz set things right. Like other independents, Resolute arrived in the mid-'30s with an ambitious slate of pictures, including a serial, SKY FIGHTERS, that failed to materialize. Within a year Resolute was history and Bell signed with Colony. Ruth Mix made a couple of serials before leaving the screen and onetime silent kid star Buzz Barton dropped down to supporting parts, often totally unbilled.

 STAGECOACH EXPRESS (1942 Republic)
Arthur V. Jones reworked his STAGE TO CHINO script ('40 RKO) for STAGECOACH EXPRESS. Oddly, story credit goes here to Doris Schroeder, but was credited originally to Norton S. Parker at RKO. Whatever - it's the exact same plot. Saloon owner Guy Kingsford and his gunslingers (Tommy Coats, Eddie Dean, Ethan Laidlaw, Charles King) plan to ruin stageline owner Lynn Merrick's business and grab off the franchise for themselves. Merrick's manager, Emmett Lynn (in a straight role for a change) is double-crossing her, gaining inside info as the secret boss of the gang. Merrick's saving grace is Don Barry and his grizzled pal Al St. John along with, after a bit of a dust-up, gambler Robert Kent (replacing burly William Haade from the O'Brien pic). If I had to choose, I'd go quickly with STAGE TO CHINO.

 GUNS IN THE DARK (1937 Supreme/Republic)
Johnny Mack Brown mistakenly believes he killed his best friend during a darkened saloon gunfight, thereafter hanging up his hardware for good. Riding into a new town, he becomes embroiled in a range war between the Tin Cup ranch outfit (Dick Curtis, Jim Corey, Sherry Tansey, Slim Whitaker) and the men riding with spunky Claire Rochelle of the Sundown Ranch and her foreman, Steve Clark. Claire wants to build a dam to provide free water for local ranchers even though it will flood Tim Cup graze. Although the law is on her side, she is bitterly opposed by the powerful Curtis. Matters become complicated when Mexican Cantina owner Ted Adams shows up and sides with Curtis. Coincidentally, Adams is the actual one who killed Brown's pal (Julian Madison) and framed Johnny for the shooting. Syd Saylor stutters his way through as Brown's friend, at one point making an "inside joke" about the 3 Mesquiteers, the trio he had originally been part of before Republic replaced him with Max Terhune in the second entry a year earlier. Boo Boo: Johnny's shirt gets quite dirty during a street fight but is clean as a whistle when the brawl is over.

 WHEN THE REDSKINS RODE (1951 Columbia)
Talkative, skimpy budget Sam Katzman production all about trying to convince Delaware Indian Prince Jon Hall (unbelievable in the role) and his father, boring Pedro de Cordoba, to fight on the side of George Washington (James Seay) and the English in the French and Indian War. French spies Mary Castle (acting like she'd rather be elsewhere - as we would) and John Dehner try to trick Hall out of helping the English. Battle footage is mostly borrowed from MGM's NORTHWEST PASSAGE. Writer Robert E. Kent leaves lots of latitude for Indian platitudes: "Where others must walk, crickets can fly", "The shoe should have been on the other foot", "Sleep with your ears open my friends", etc. Incidentally, making heroes out of the Delaware Indians is fine, but why then give the film a derogatory title?

 GALLOPING DYNAMITE (1937 Ambassador)
Director Harry Fraser's finest western. As writer Mike Nevins wrote in WESTERN CLIPPINGS #61, "Considering the routine stuff Fraser had been grinding out since the dawn of talkies, this film is a small miracle, with excellent visuals, an off-trail plot (Kermit Maynard avenges his murdered kid brother, ace stuntman Dave Sharpe, by tricking the killers into killing each other), wild action, powerful background music and neat twists on old scenes including the funniest jailbreak I've ever seen in a western." Sharpe's killers that Maynard brings to justice are John Merton, Stanley Blystone and cowardly John Ward, with strong arm tactics carried out by Francis Walker. Apparently, producer Maurice Conn sang in the film as the fourth member of a barbershop quartet after one of the vocalists could not be located. Also - Kermit plunks a git-fiddle! The "girl" of the piece is Ariane Allen, known as "America's Most Photographed Girl", making her screen debut in GALLOPING DYNAMITE. It was also her film exit. The pretty blonde married NEW YORKER magazine founder Harold Ross in 1940, although the marriage did not endure. Some of screenwriters Sherman L. Lowe and Charles R. Condon's plot ideas were revisited in Joseph O'Donnell's script for THE LONE RIDER FIGHTS BACK ('41).

 FRISCO TORNADO (1950 Republic)
What the word Frisco in the title refers to is anybody's guess. Marshal Allan 'Rocky' Lane is not said to hail from San Francisco, and the plot is set in the town of Bold Bluff. Put-upon by outlaws, stage and freight line operator Nugget Clark (Eddy Waller) sends for help in the form of Marshal 'Rocky' Lane. The culprit in the woodpile is respected citizen Stephen Chase wielding the old protection racket under the honest appearing auspices of insurance. Rocky almost gets tripped up by young lawyer Ross Ford innocently working for Chase who has Ford believing Rocky to be an outlaw posing as a Marshal. Ford is in love with ingénue Martha Hyer, Waller's office employee. Chase's gunmen are Lane Bradford and Mauritz Hugo. Watch for B-vets Rex Lease, George Chesebro, Ed Cobb, Frank Ellis, Hal Price and Ted Adams in small roles, as well as up and coming Judd Holdren whom Republic soon starred as "Rocketman" in their serials ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE ('52) and the film/TV series, COMMANDO CODY, SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE.

 TRIGGER TOM (1935 Reliable)
Bit unusual, based on a Lariat magazine story, but still nothing special. Trigger Tom Tyler and pal Al St. John head for the Blue Mountains to purchase cattle, unaware the area is a refuge for notorious outlaws run with an iron hand by William Gould. Rancher John Elliott and his niece Bernadene Hayes want to sell their stock to Tyler but are warned not to do so by the blackmailing Gould. Directed by reliable Harry S. Webb under his Henri Samuels pseudonym. For a western with this title, there certainly needed to be more display of two-gun, quick-draw action.

 MAN FROM UTAH (1934 Lone Star)
The low point of the John Wayne Lone Star series, packed with some 10-12 minutes of rodeo stock footage. Marshal George Hayes enlists the aid of out-of-work John Wayne to catch a gang of rodeo crooks (Edward Peil Sr., Yakima Canutt, Anita Campillo). Bill Bradbury, the son of director Robert North Bradbury, does the actual singing for John Wayne on the oft repeated "Desert Breeze" which Bob Steele warbled in WESTERN JUSTICE ('35) and Wayne "sang" in RIDERS OF DESTINY ('33). I figure director Bradbury penned the song and used it wherever he could. The story was remade in 1944 as UTAH KID with Bob Steele and Hoot Gibson.

 WYOMING ROUNDUP (1952 Monogram) After stopping a gunfight in the saloon, Whip Wilson and sidekick Tommy Farrell are appointed by the town council as the law in a small town where a group of supposedly upright citizens are hiring gun-buzzards to stir up a feud between two families in hopes of taking over both ranches for themselves. The apparently "good" citizens are saloon owner House Peters Jr., barkeep Lyle Talbot and Stanley Price. Their hired gun is Bob Wilke - who elevated his status as an actor this same year in Gary Cooper's HIGH NOON. The put-upon honest ranchers who are being forced to distrust and suspect one another of rustling are I. Stanford Jolley and his son Richard Emory and Henry Rowland and his daughter Phyllis Coates. Wilson oddly goes whipless in his last of 22 B-starrers for Monogram between 1949-1952. Tommy Farrell used to joke, "They sold the whip to finance the picture." After Andy Clyde, Fuzzy Knight and Rand Brooks, Tommy Farrell (son of noted Warner Bros. actress Glenda Farrell) was Whip's last saddle pal. This finale is not Whip's best, but not his worst either, due in part to noted director Thomas Carr.

 APACHE WAR SMOKE (1952 MGM)
The Apache's want renegade Gilbert Roland who has secluded himself in the stage stop desert fortress of his estranged son (Robert Horton) where he plans to steal a gold shipment. Turns out the man the Indians really want is outlaw Myron Healey, who has also sought refuge there. Others in the fortress are Horton's real-life wife, blonde Barbara Ruick (in love with Horton); Horton's old girlfriend Patricia Tiernan; stage official Gene Lockhart; stage driver Henry Morgan; shotgun guard Emmett Lynn; Indian boy Bobby Blake; widow lady Glenda Farrell and Mexican caretaker Argentina Brunetti. Everyone talks incessantly to everyone else. By the time the Indian attack finally comes, it's too late to save this dreary talkfest that never reaches the level of suspense it should have. Gilbert Roland effectively revives his Cisco Kid character in this set-bound script based on an Ernest Haycox story. Cowboy cancer alert, Horton smokes as well as Roland.

 TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD (1950 Republic)
A Christmas classic! Required B-western viewing each December. Republic director Bill Witney turned out an almost Disney-like fantasy, full of fun, heart and humanity, scripted by Gerald Geraghty, that incorporates Republic's "guest star" gimmick. The whole idea is ludicrous (but loads of fun), Christmas tree rustlers (Clifton Young, Lane Bradford, James Magill, Ken Terrill) trying to stop old-time silent movie star Jack Holt from bringing his Christmas trees to market at a low cost while big business tycoon Emory Parnell tries to sabotage him. Penny Edwards was never better (or prettier) as Parnell's daughter, the smart, sophisticated city girl, who is softened and finally won over to the ways of the West by the goodness of Roy Rogers, Jack Holt and their friends, including comic Gordon Jones and his little sis Carol Nugent along with Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage. The finale is a corker. When Roy, as head of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, can't find any drivers for Holt's Christmas tree wagons, youngster Nugent calls on all of Jack's old movie buddies - Allan 'Rocky' Lane, Monte Hale, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, Tom Tyler, Kermit Maynard, Tom Keene, William Farnum and, in a special showcase, new Republic singing cowboy star Rex Allen. This is where a delightful in-joke occurs with the appearance of long-time screen heavy George Chesebro. At first shunned by the good guys, they all welcome him when he declares he wants to help out. The exciting climax comes as they all race the wagons laden with Christmas trees across a high bridge set afire by Young and his gang. Real serial-like stuff Bill Witney must have loved. Music is Christmas oriented with "Everyday is Christmas In the West". Watch for Roy's daughter Cheryl as an autograph seeker during the skeet shooting scenes. Roy's last for 1950 is also his last in Trucolor, and truthfully, his last truly great B-western - in 1951 his pictures reverted to black and white with tighter budgets, slowly weakening casts and, by Christmas 1951 with the release of PALS OF THE GOLDEN WEST, Roy's long reign on the silver screen was over.

 ALBUQUERQUE (1948 Paramount)
Should have been called "Albuturkey". Having waited over 50 years to see this long-lost Randolph Scott western, one wishes it might have remained misplaced. Randolph Scott only agreed to do this film for producers Bill Pine and Bill Thomas if he was able to choose the director. He selected Ray Enright, who certainly had done well by Scott on THE SPOILERS ('42), GUNG HO ('43) and TRAIL STREET ('47) - and did far better later on with CORONER CREEK ('48), not to mention other big budget westerns such as BAD MEN OF MISSOURI ('41), MEN OF TEXAS ('42), SOUTH OF ST. LOUIS ('49), KANSAS RAIDERS ('50) etc. But Enright apparently wasn't happy at all working for Pine-Thomas and really sloughed this one off. Enright wasn't pleased with the casting of Russell Hayden as the brother of Catherine Craig. And Barbara Britton wasn't happy with her billing and less-than-equal role to lesser-billed Catherine Craig. It was ill-will and dissatisfaction all around, and it shows on screen. The fights are weak, the picture is filled with obvious rear screen projection, characters are poorly developed and the final gunfight is simply half-assed. The story has Scott coming to Albuquerque to take a job with his not-seen-for-years uncle George Cleveland, then learning Cleveland is scheming to eliminate all competition and take over the entire Southwest with his freighting business. Cleveland is in league with weak-willed sheriff Bernie Nedell and brutish henchman Lon Chaney Jr. Scott quickly turns on his uncle and befriends smaller freight line owners Catherine Craig, her brother Russ Hayden, and wagon driver George 'Gabby' Hayes. After a boring half-film, Cleveland enlists the devious aid of Barbara Britton to spy on Scott. Then, using her information, Cleveland attempts to sabotage his rival business. Truly, the biggest disappointment among Randolph Scott westerns.

 STRANGER FROM TEXAS (1939 Columbia)
A strong plot heads up this recently re-discovered Charles Starrett B-western. Fences cut and livestock disappearing, rancher Al Bridge suspects neighbor Edward Le Saint. Fearing bloodshed, perennial B-western sheriff Jack Rockwell sends for aid. The marshal's office assigns Le Saint's son, Charles Starrett, who arrives undercover just as his Dad is murdered by Bridge's foreman Dick Curtis who is in secret partnership with Le Saint's foreman Ed Cobb as they rustle cattle belonging to their employers. Curtis and Cobb then throw the blame for Le Saint's death on his son, Richard Fiske. After a series of double-up crosses, Starrett and his boys (Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers) help Fiske's sister, Lorna Gray (later Adrian Booth), clear her brother and round-up the real killer-rustlers. This is a remake of Starrett's second Columbia outing, THE MYSTERIOUS AVENGER. Screenplay is credited to Paul Franklin from a Ford Beebe story. There is no credit given to western pulp writer Peter B. Kyne from whose story Beebe drew the original MYSTERIOUS AVENGER in '36.

 THE LONE RANGER (1956 Warner Bros.)
Thrilling in every respect. Terrific action sequences, fully developed characters, bigger production values, 86 minute running time, gorgeous Warnercolor, with location scenes magnificently filmed in Kanab, Utah, Bronson Cave and at Iverson's ranch plus a sweeping music score from David Buttolph make this the ultimate Lone Ranger adventure. Perfectly directed by Stuart Heisler (1894-1979) who began his career in 1913 as a propman and later helmed AMONG THE LIVING, ALONG CAME JONES, GLASS KEY, TULSA, DALLAS, and others. The opening verbally recounts the origin of the Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore) as he and Tonto (Jay Silverheels) fight to prevent a savage war from breaking out between white men and angry Indians who resent the intrusion of white rancher Lyle Bettger onto their sacred lands as Bettger and his gunnies (Bob Wilke, Zon Murray, Mickey Simpson) search for a silver mine. Subplot has Bettger trying to raise his daughter, Beverly Washburn, as a tomboy against her mother's wishes (Bonita Granville, in real life, wife of Lone Ranger copyright owner Jack Wrather). Terrific supporting cast - Michael Ansara as a rebellious young Indian chieftain, Charles Meredith as the Governor, Lane Chandler as an angry townsman, John Pickard as the sheriff, William Schallert as the Governor's aide, and Lee Roberts as an Indian agent.

 LONE RANGER AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1958 U.A.)
Two years after the very successful and superbly made THE LONE RANGER ('56 WB), on the 25th anniversary of the character, Jack Wrather decided to make another full length Lone Ranger feature, however, this one, although in color, was far more pedestrian, more in the vein of the last season 1957 TV episodes. Truth be told, as new episodes of the series ended and went into reruns, Wrather probably thought it important to keep the masked man visible and thus a viable property. When three Indians are killed on the desert by hooded bandits (Douglas Kennedy, Bill Henry, Lane Bradford), the Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore) and Tonto (Jay Silverheels) enter the picture to solve the mysterious deaths, eventually discovering each Indian was wearing a medallion at the time of his death. Further investigation reveals the original medallion, cut into five pieces, forms a puzzle-map that leads to one of Cibola's Seven Cities of Gold. The Lone Ranger must find the two Indians wearing the remaining medallions before wealthy heiress Noreen Nash, who is actually the boss of the Hooded Raiders, does. One of the medallion-wearers turns out to be Dr. Norman Frederic, truly Indian, but posing as a white doctor in order to save enough money to build a hospital for his Indian brothers. As scripted by Robert Schaefer and Eric Freiwald and directed routinely by Lesley Selander, this 80 minute Lone Ranger adventure just doesn't have the build up, supporting characters or action that the '56 film had.

 MYSTERY MAN (1944 U.A.)
Forget the plot, this one's just for the action which never lets up from the opening montage of outlaw raids til the final showdown in the Alabam rocks of Lone Pine, California. Director George Archainbaud created a simple episodic series of battles between Hopalong Cassidy and his pals (Jimmy Rogers, Andy Clyde) and mysterious outlaw leader Don Costello and his inexhaustible gang led by Francis McDonald and Pierce Lyden. Hoppy and the boys are simply trying to get their cattle to market. Costello poses as Hoppy, conning Sheriff Forrest Taylor into believing him to the point of putting Hoppy and the boys in jail for being outlaws. Fortunately, the sheriff's daughter (Eleanor Stewart) knows Jimmy and releases the Bar 20 gang in time to trap Costello's gang in a box canyon. Watch for Bob Baker in a non-speaking role as one of Hoppy's cowhands and singer Ozie Waters as another. Waters was later featured in several Charles Starrett Durango Kids.

 RENEGADE RANGER (1938 RKO)
Crooked tax collector and big rancher William Royle and his hirelings (Tom London, Monte Montague, Bob Kortman, James Mason) cover up their greedy land-grab by stealing Rita Hayworth's land and making her a fugitive in a trumped up murder charge. Forming a renegade band to strike back at Royle, the gun-toting Hayworth is outlawed by the Texas Rangers who send George O'Brien into the valley to bring her to justice. Another young Ranger, Tim Holt, has had a disagreement with O'Brien and left the Rangers to join Hayworth's band. When O'Brien tires to infiltrate her organization, he is exposed by Holt. The story idea was developed by Forrest Sheldon for Buck Jones' TEXAS RANGER at Columbia in '31, then was "appropriated" by Bennett Cohen for Tom Keene's COME ON DANGER in '32 at RKO. Oliver Drake reworked the plot here for RENEGADE RANGER, then Norton S. Parker had a go at it with Tim Holt's also titled COME ON DANGER at RKO in '41. RKO borrowed Rita Hayworth from Columbia for this picture. Onetime silent star Neal Hart has a nice role as the sheriff.

 TRAIL TO VENGEANCE (1937 Supreme)
Johnny Mack Brown steps into the middle of a range war when he discovers pretty Iris Meredith's father murdered on the trail. In trying to help Meredith and her foreman Earle Hodgins ward off the land grabbing tactics of sneering casino owner Warner Richmond and his gunnies (Karl Hackett - the actual killer of Meredith's dad, Frank Ellis, Lew Meehan, Dick Curtis, Jim Corey), we learn Brown is there searching for the killer of his brother who was a friend of Meredith's father. Nothing unconventional in E. B. Mann, George Plympton and Fred Myton's script or in Sam Newfield's direction, but it's a solid story well told with a good cast that moves along at a speedy clip.

 CALL OF THE ROCKIES (1931 Syndicate)
Syndicate acquired this Road Show Production made at the tail end of the silent era which was never released and, in an apparent attempt to fool the public, tacked on a very poor 6 minute talking prologue and added music (and a love song at one point) to the silent portion. It's a cheapo version of the "wagon train" epic ala BIG TRAIL, BLAZING ARROWS, etc. Even with buffalo stampedes, river crossings and Indian raids, this obscure item remains nothing more than a curio. Star Ben Lyon had once been a "name" in silents. He later became a 20th Century Fox talent scout and is credited with discovering and naming Marilyn Monroe. Lyon's leading lady Marie Prevost had also seen better days earlier in the '20s in such pictures as GETTING GERTIE'S GARTER ('27).

 SOUTHWEST PASSAGE (1954 U.A.)
Adventurer Rod Cameron on a map-making expedition of the desert Southwest is also promoting camels as ideal beasts of burden for the dry, arid land. Posing as a doctor for the group, outlaw John Ireland and his girl Joanne Dru become part of the trek in an attempt to avoid a posse that is after him for robbing a bank. Cameron's mean muleskinner John Dehner gets wise to Ireland's true identity and the fact he has $20,000. When Dehner threatens to expose Ireland unless he splits with him, it's Ireland's love for Dru, attacking Indians, and the search for water that quickly place his priorities in a different light. Cameron may receive top billing, but the picture belongs all the way to Ireland. The idea of camels in the desert is a good one but wasted here by former Durango Kid B-director Ray Nazarro who turns this Edward Small production into pretty standard B-fare. Originally lensed in 3-D and color, existing prints seem to be in 2-D b/w.

 BREED OF THE WEST (1930 Big 4)
Nice early-sound work from director Alvin J. Neitz (aka Alan James). This is probably the best of seven early talkies Wally Wales starred in at Big 4, under several production set-ups. I say probably the best, because two of them are not available for viewing today. Rancher Lafe McKee stands behind his foreman, Robert Walker, until he discovers Walker and his boys (Ed Cobb, Bud Osborne and cook George Gerwin) are rustling from he and his daughter, Virginia Browne Faire. Ranch hands Wally Wales and Shorty (Bobby Dunn) expose Walker's plot while Wales romances Virginia. Subplot has young Buzz Barton seeking his long lost father who turns out to be - you guessed it - McKee. The fisticuffs employed here are much more realistic than most early sound flail-about type fights.

 BIG CALIBRE (1935 Supreme) If you appreciate offbeat westerns with a weird bent that still have plenty of action, BIG CALIBRE is for you. Written by star Bob Steele's real-life buddy, Perry Murdock, a lanky, curley-haired actor/singer/set decorator/screenwriter, Murdock also appears, uncredited (?) in the dual-role (more or less) of crooked chemist Zenz and ugly-as-sin assayer/killer Gadski. A recurring theme in Steele's pictures directed by his father, Robert North Bradbury - as is this one - is Bob's search for his father's killer. The killer here, Zenz (Murdock), is a mad chemist who uses a corrosive gas to kill Bob's Dad (Frank Brownlee) and rob him of cattle money. The murder sets Bob and ranch foreman pal Bill Quinn off on a year long, in-vain, search for Zenz, all the while prospecting for a living. Meanwhile, that year later, across the desert, pretty Peggy Campbell's father (John Elliott) is robbed and shot by Murdock, now disguised as the hideously deformed chemist Gadski who, in cahoots with devious lawyer Forrest Taylor, is attempting to snatch control of Elliott's ranch for mortgage money as the sneaky pair knows there are vast and valuable marble deposits on the ranch. En route to have some ore samples assayed, Bob is mistakenly arrested in the disappearance of Peggy's pop. Eventually, Steele clears himself and chases Murdock across the desert for a thrilling finale in which Murdock's car and Steele hang precariously over the edge of a cliff as Murdock prepares once again to use his acidic gas capsules. The only dead spot in the picture comes midway at a dance with Cy (Si) Jenks performing a silly soft-shoe and some other tomfoolery.

 OATH OF VENGEANCE (1944 PRC)
There's no oath and no vengeance!?! Just another very routine Buster Crabbe PRC. Al 'Fuzzy' St. John, disgusted with his life as a cowhand, hangs up his spurs and buys a general store. Naturally, it's smack-dab in the middle of long-simmering animosities between cattle ranchers like Mady Lawrence (and foreman Kermit Maynard) and settlers like Karl Hackett. Trouble between them is actually being stirred up by money lender Jack Ingram and his gun-varmints Charlie King, John Cason and Frank McCarroll. There's more "comedy" than usual (Fuzzy gets involved with postmistress Marin Sais) while the whole picture has a feel of being a bit hastily slapped together by producer Sig Neufeld and director Sam Newfield.

 THE TEXICAN (1966 Columbia)
Hands down - Audie Murphy's worst western. Filmed in Spain, Audie and an embarrassingly overweight and amateurish Broderick Crawford are the only non-Europeans in the cast. Writer/producer John Champion dusted off his own PANHANDLE ('48) with Rod Cameron, but this remake is lacking any of the class of the original. Audie is a fugitive (framed years earlier by Crawford) now living peacefully in Mexico who must return to Texas to find the murderer of his newspaper editor brother (Victor Vilanova) and subdue the self-styled boss of the town - Broderick Crawford (and his gun-hand, noted Italio-oater badman Aldo Sambrell - oddly referred to both as Gil and Rio. Co-directed by B-western veteran Les Selander and Euro "artsy" filmmaker Jose Luis Espinosa, giving the film a jumbled look.

 CHISUM (1970 Warner Bros.)
It may have a huge budget, run 110 minutes, but with its furious fistfights, rip-snorting shootouts and thunderous cattle stampede, when its all boiled down, CHISUM is an old fashioned free-for-all of a western, certainly the best from John Wayne's "later" period of the '70s. As John Chisum, Wayne is a legend of the old west, a man who settled New Mexico territory with raw nerve. Now 25 years later, John Chisum owns a cattle empire as far as he can see - but wealthy, greedy Eastern businessman-come-west Forrest Tucker is trying to take it all away from him any way he can. On Tucker's side are wealthy storeowner Ed Faulkner, Sheriff Bruce Cabot and his deputies Robert Donner and John Mitchum, even the territorial governor Alan Baxter. Siding with Wayne are fellow rancher, Englishman Patric Knowles, lawyer Andrew Prine, buffalo hunter Glenn Corbett (as Pat Garrett) and, of course, Wayne's friend and foreman Ben Johnson. The spark that triggers the range war is Billy the Kid (Geoffrey Deuel) whom the kindly Knowles takes under his wing. When Knowles is murdered by Tucker's men, The Kid becomes an avenging angel of death. Tucker escalates the violence by bringing in sadistic gunman Christopher George to track down Billy. Expertly directed by Andrew V. McLaglen from a screenplay by Andrew J. Fenady, CHISUM is rich in powerful, colorful supporting performances, particularly from Johnson, George and Knowles. But holding it all together is Wayne as Chisum. We know he built an empire because we all saw him do it in movie after movie. CHISUM keeps Duke's magic working in grand form.

 LAST TRAIL (1933 FOX)
The screwball comedy elements prevalent in films of the '30s are stressed over western action - the little of which there is all comes in the last few minutes. Also the comedy situations with El Brendel and George O'Brien's gangster friend Matt McHugh are far too broad. Worst of all, and embarrassingly unfunny, is a drunk scene between Brendel and McHugh. Slim plot has J. Carroll Naish and his big city gangsters operating their protective association racket from the ranch of O'Brien's late uncle. When George returns, the gangsters unknowingly recruit him to impersonate his uncle's long-lost nephew - himself! O'Brien then falls for Claire Trevor, supposedly Naish's "moll" but actually an undercover policewoman.

 RIDING THE CALIFORNIA TRAIL (1947 Monogram)
Eschewing style over substance, the Cisco Kid (Gilbert Roland) and Baby (Frank Yaconelli), by impersonation, quick thinking and an exciting sword duel at the end, manage to rescue lovely and wealthy heiress Inez Cooper from her suitor Ted Hecht who is in cahoots with the Angel of San Lorenzo's uncle (Martin Garralaga) to swindle her out of her inheritance. Along the way, Roland stops to romance saloon dancer Teala Loring, performs his usual barroom tequila with salt and lemon ritual and escapes from yet another angry, jilted senorita. Cowboy cancer alert: Cisco smokes.

 OKLAHOMA JIM (1931 Monogram)
Either smiling, likeable gambler Bill Cody or frowning, devious saloon owner William Desmond tricked young Indian Princess Natoma into a "false marriage" then deserted her, forcing her to commit suicide. Before the Indians, led by Iron Eyes Cody, go on the warpath in revenge, Indian agent John Elliott and Cavalry Captain Franklyn Farnum attempt to discover which of the two (as if we didn't know) is guilty. There's also a subplot about white boy Andy Shuford raised by the Indians becoming the ward of Cody and the girl he becomes sweet on, Marion Burns who has come west to inherit her half of the saloon owned by her uncle, Desmond's former partner. The slippery Desmond tries to buy her off cheap and cheat prospective buyer Ed Brady at the same time. The adult theme, with "false marriage" obviously substituted for "rape", cannot save this Harry Fraser written and directed talkfest.