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: Cowboy Cavalier (1948)
Bad guys set their sights on a stage line owned by a supposed widow, Mary Croft (Claire Whitney), whose husband, Patrick Collins (Steve Clark), is actually in prison. The crooks are helped by an inside man, Lance Regan (Douglas Evans), who met Mary and Patrick’s daughter, Pat Croft (Jan Bryant), on a stage and who …
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Monogram Monday: Partners of the Sunset (1948)
Singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely, aided by his comic sidekick, Dub “Cannonball” Taylor, unravels a crafty plot that could have come straight out of a film noir from the same year. In this outing in Wakely’s Monogram series, a wealthy older ranch owner brings home a lovely young bride as well as her “brother.” When his …
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Monogram Monday: Trailing Double Trouble (1940)
An early entry in the 24-picture Range Busters series, Trailing Double Trouble has the three amigos — Crash, Dusty, and Alibi (Ray “Crash” Corrigan, John “Dusty” King, and Max “Alibi” Terhune) — dealing themselves in when a man in a buckboard is attacked by a gang. Though the man dies, he leaves behind his baby, …
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Weekly Reader — March 5 – 11, 2023
I finished four books during this week, as well as two pulp magazine issues. Books Wednesday’s Wrath, by Don Pendleton. Mack Bolan reaches the third day in his final week-long sweep against the resurgence of the Mafia, but this time he is diverted from his planned target to tackle something much bigger in scope, with …
Ride ‘Em Cowgirl (1939)
The last of Dorothy Page’s starring westerns for Grand National may be the best of the lot, as she seems more active throughout, making a daring escape at gunpoint and directly confronting the head crook, for example. Vince Barnett returns as comic relief, this time with a female counterpart. Milton Frome is rather lackluster as …
Weekly Reader — February 12 – 18
I finished three books during this week, as well as one pulp magazine issue. Books Scarlet Riders: Pulp Fiction Tales of the Mounties, ed. by Don Hutchison — as an anthology, the usual mixed bag, with some stories straightforward adventure (e.g., “Red Snows,” by Harold F. Cruikshank, and “Doom Ice,” by Dan O’Rourke) and some …
Headin’ for the Rio Grande (1936)
Tex (Tex Ritter) and his pal Chili (Syd Saylor) drift down toward the Rio Grande country, apparently cowboys with no particular aim, though Tex has a reason for the trip — to visit and help out his brother (Forrest Taylor), a local lawman facing criticism for failing to put a stop to a cattle herd …
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Monogram Monday: Below the Border (1942)
Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and Raymond Hatton, old hands at movie-making whose audience appeal dated back to the silents, made an appealing western trio for Monogram as the Rough Riders. In this series entry, U.S. Marshals Buck Roberts (Jones), Tim McCall (McCoy), and Sandy Hopkins (Hatton) investigate a gang that has murdered a local sheriff …
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Lawless Valley (1938)
Former silent film star George O’Brien made the transition to sound chiefly performing in westerns, and he appeared in a well-regarded string of westerns at RKO at the end of the 1930s. Lawless Valley was one of these: an efficient little B picture with a helping of humor. The plot is based on a story …