The "Santa Fe Trail" series (and release dates)
OKLAHOMA OUTLAWS (9/4/43): Mostly footage from 1939's THE OKLAHOMA KID with the primary character names unchanged, with Shayne playing James Cagney's "Ned Kincaid" and Warner Anderson playing Humphrey Bogart's "Whip McCord", etc.
WAGON WHEELS WEST (10/30/43): Footage and story from Dick Foran's 1936 SONG OF THE SADDLE with role names unchanged - Shayne as Foran's Frank Wilson, etc., with about the only new footage being Shayne and Nina Foch in the Dick Foran and Alma Lloyd roles from the original. Charles 'Ming' Middleton is the killer of Shayne's father.
GUN TO GUN (1/8/44): This was the lost/missing Robert Shayne two-reeler. In a quick-look-before-it's-over 20 minutes Robert Shayne vexes the crooked plans of Harry Woods to discredit titles to old Spanish land grants. Tom Tyler is briefly seen as the Sheriff. Possibly the least interesting of Shayne's so-called "Santa Fe Trail" vest pocket westerns.
ROARING GUNS (2/19/44): Most of the footage is from 1938's GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT with Robert Shayne, Virginia Patton and Stephen/Steven Richards (later became Mark Stevens) playing the roles originated by George Brent, Olivia de Havilland and Tim Holt.
TRIAL BY TRIGGER (5/27/44): Footage from VALLEY OF THE GIANTS (1938) with Robert Shayne, Cheryl Walker and Warner Anderson filling the roles originally played by Wayne Morris, Claire Trevor and Charles Bickford. Anderson is stripping the forest of the magnificent redwoods.
LAW OF THE BADLANDS (5/14/45): only 20 minutes long but as well made as Warner Bros. features with more story and action than most B-westerns. Framed and found guilty of the murder of a brother officer, Robert Shayne is commandeered out of the Cavalry. Eight years later, still searching for the renegade (Trevor Bardette) who framed him, Shayne saves a young girl (Angela Greene) from death after the stage they are in is attacked by renegades (Bardette and Norman Willis) posing as Indians. They're found wandering in the desert by Cavalry officer Warren Douglas who, over a 2 year period, falls in love with Greene as she grows to womanhood. Eventually, Shayne finds Bardette on the day of Custer's massacre at the Little Big Horn and, after turning Bardette over to Douglas (and uttering a few surprises), he joins Custer in "victorious defeat". Hang on, it moves rapid fire and includes stock footage from THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON.
FRONTIER DAYS (10/20/45): Technicolor - Robert Shayne and Dorothy Malone in the Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland roles from DODGE CITY (1939). Marshal Robert Shayne meets lady Sheriff Dorothy Malone as she seeks the killer of her father ... the same gang Shayne is after. The only one of these vest-pocket Shayne two-reelers in Technicolor utilizes much footage from DODGE CITY ('39) including the spectacular saloon brawl.
The Dennis Moore short from Warners called WELLS FARGO DAYS (5/1/44) was made by the Cinecolor Company circa 1939 and was originally titled THE MAN FROM TASCOSA and distributed primarily through the Monogram exchanges. To fill out the Shayne series to eight entries, Warners bought it and re-issued it in 1944 as part of their "Santa Fe Trail" series. Therefore, unlike the Shaynes, this Mack V. Wright directed short is all original Cinecolor footage. Includes Louise Stanley as the heroine and Karl Hackett as the crooked gambler. |