Recently released convicts attempt to kill the marshal (Buck Jones) who sent them to prison, so his pals, fellow marshals Tim McCall (Tim McCoy) and Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton), go undercover to thwart the bad guys’ plans. The easy performances of the likable leads make this another entertaining entry in Monogram’s Rough Riders series. Recommended.
Monogram Monday: Trail of the Yukon (1949)
In the first of ten movies pairing Kirby Grant and the dog actor Chinook as a Mountie and his canine assistant, the duo are pursuing bank robbers when a battle involving a split in the gang ends with one crook dead and Grant’s character (here named Bob McDonald, though for most of the series he …
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Monogram Monday: Port of Missing Girls (1938)
A woman (Judith Allen) who has witnessed a murder stows away aboard a freighter, but she is discovered by the first mate (Milburn Stone). The gruff captain (Harry Carey) warms to the fugitive despite his initial misgivings, and the two ship’s officers look for ways to help her out of her predicament. Mildly recommended.
Monogram Monday: Call of the Klondike (1950)
Mountie Rod Webb (Kirby Grant) and his dog Chinook investigate a series of unexplained disappearances. They are aided by Nancy Craig (Anne Gwynne), the daughter of one of the victims. The Mountie’s suspicions soon turn toward the only productive gold mine in the area, and the film thus involves some underground sequences as well as …
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Monogram Monday: Voodoo Man (1944)
Young women traveling alone are disappearing along an isolated stretch of road, but the authorities have been unable to discover what has happened to them. The viewer soon learns, however, that a sinister gas station owner (George Zucco) has something to do with it. The plotters’ plans meet with difficulties, however, after a motorist (Tod …
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Monogram Monday: The Mystery Man
Brash but able reporter Larry Doyle (Robert Armstrong) is out of a job and nearly out of money, too. He nevertheless comes to the aid of another unfortunate, Anne Ogilvie (Maxine Doyle), and together they contrive to get lodging and food. Complications and opportunities arise when they become embroiled in a bank robbery and murder. …
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Monogram Monday: Frontier Feud (1945)
U.S. Marshals Nevada Jack McKenzie (Johnny Mack Brown) and Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton) investigate a range war, a not-uncommon plot for a B western. As is usual for the series, both men operate undercover, and largely independently, until opportunity arises for them to cooperate more explicitly. This time around, Nevada claims to be the brother …
Monogram Monday: Dark Alibi (1946)
An ex-con who has been convicted of murder and bank robbery has just nine days left before his execution, but fortunately for him, Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) volunteers to help prove his innocence before time runs out. The man had been convicted largely based on the fact that his fingerprints were found at the scene …
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Monogram Monday: The Shadow Returns (1946)
Kane Richmond stars as Lamont Cranston in the first entry in a short Monogram series about the Shadow, with Barbara Read co-starring as Margo Lane (here explicitly Cranston’s fiancée,). A moderately interesting situation — jewels smuggled inside a casket and fatal falls — is squandered by weak writing. Fans of magazine and radio show alike …
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Monogram Monday: The Shanghai Cobra (1945)
Charlie Chan investigates when bank employees are inexplicably murdered by cobra venom, and the sleuth (Sidney Toler) suspects a connection to a pre-war case that involved the same means. Adding interest to the setting is a “jukebox” which allows the patron to place a request to a live disc jockey — and this device forms …
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