PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Western Wednesday 17

Here's another batch of Westerns from the Cowboys And Bandits 50 Movie Pack. Disc 11 has 5 movies crammed onto one disc. Luckily they are all short.

Last Of The Warrens 1936 The movie opens with a montage of WWI footage before cutting to Bob Steele in the hospital. He returns home to find people thought he was dead and his father's ranch has been foreclosed. No one had received his letters. The local greedy crooked business man, who also runs the post office, has eyes on Bob's gal. He has some henchmen try to kidnap Bob to stop him getting to see his gal.

The crooked business man has a grudge against Bob's father and he's mad that Bob's gal knows Bob's alive. He shoots Bob's dad and leaves him for dead. The wounded dad has a plan to get his ranch back by tricking the baddie to confess to cattle rustling in front of witnesses by pretending to be a ghost. Bob and the others go along with the plan. You can find out if it works by watching the movie in the link in the title. A good watchable Western with plenty of rootin' and tootin'. I learned something new today. The habit of dropping a letter at the end of a word is called elision. You'd have thought I would have known that by now, what with me dropping my g's all the time. The movie was directed by Robert N Bradbury, he directed 125 movies, mostly Westerns, in a career that started in 1919 and ended in 1941. He also wrote a lot of the works he directed.

 

Roll On Texas Moon 1946 Roy Rogers, Dale Even and Gabby Hayes star is this cattlemen vs sheepherders Western. Roy comes to town to stop the trouble and finds romance with Dale.

I'd seen it before and blogged about it last December. Worth a look for the Rogers fan.

Code Of The Cactus 1939 Here's another movie directed by Sam Newfield. He directed well over 200 films including the cult favorite The Terror Of Tiny Town. Tim McCoy plays Lightning Bill Carson in one of the 10 movies with the character. He comes to help some friends with cattle rustling. The rustlers use trucks to steal the cattle. About average but I'm not much of a Tim McCoy fan as I am a fan of some of the other Western stars.

Tombstone Canyon 1932 Ken Maynard and his horse Tarzan star in this world wide picture. The company logo is a pretty lady holding a couple of globes. They spin to reveal the name of the company.

Pretty goofy, huh. Still they make up for it with a nice vista so introduce Ken. The movie is filmed at Red Rock Canyon State Park in Canti California. Must be nice there.

Ken comes to town to find a man who can tell him about his past. He doesn't remember anything but he's disappointed to find the man dead in his cabin. There's a baddie and for some reason he's gunnin' for Ken. The Phantom in the title is a crazed man with a mad lust for revenge. That's him on the bluff.

Ken has a heap of trouble along the way to his past. You can find out what happens if you click the link in the title and watch the movie. Worth a look.

West Of Cimarron 1941 Here's another Bob Steele picture. Bob and his pals The Mesquiteers are in Texas after the Civil War and plenty of people are still fighting. Plenty of gun shootin' and horse ridin' in this one. 

A good batch of oaters on this disc.

Western Wednesday 16

Disc 10 from the Cowboys And Bandits 50 Movie Pack yielded up 4 more films today and I hadn't seen any of them before.

Thunder Over Texas 1934 Here's another film directed by Edgar G Ulmer. He directed 56 films between 1930 and 1964. A 1958 TV production called Swiss Family Robinson: Lost In The Jungle wasn't released until it showed up on the DVD of The Masked Pirate in 2000. TMP was the last film for Will Rogers Jr. Guinn "Big Boy" Williams started in the film business in 1919 and his second film was a Will Rogers Jr film. It was Rogers that gave Guinn the nick name Big Boy. Guinn continued acting until he died in 1962 at the age of 63.

Big Boy takes a little girl into his home after her father dies in a car accident fleeing from a bank robbery. She survived the crash in the car's rumble seat. The little girl is played by Helen Westcott and she's pretty cute and chatty. The local banker is the real crook, he directs his gang, including the crooked sheriff, to force the locals out of their homes. Big Boy will soon punch some sense into that guy. There's a pretty gal that has some feelings for the big galoot. It was a fun enough picture.

The Feud Maker 1938 Bob Steele stars in this film directed by Sam Newfield. It has a story by Harry F Olmsted and a screenplay by George H Plympton. Bob had a bit of a shady past. He used to run with a bad guy named Lassiter but he quite when Lassiter's methods got to be too rough. He comes to town to see his Uncle but finds he's been killed because of the feud between the cowmen and the nesters. He finds Lassiter there and behind the feud. You know who's going out toes first don't you. I usually like Bob in his films but this one is a bit less than average.

Westward Bound 1930 Jay Wilsey gets credited as Buffalo Bill Jr in the film. It was his stage name for the first 11 years of his career. He started in pictures in 1924 and made about 100 films. He died in 1961 at age 65. Buffalo plays an young and rich Easterner who gets into a fight at a nightclub. His rich father sends him off to the west to straighten himself up. When Buffalo and his chauffeur get to Montana they are mistaken for rustlers.

There's the usual Western activity including a bit of romance with Alene Ray. It's a bit better than the first two. I'd recommend it over the others on the disc.

The Dude Bandit 1932 This one could hardly keep my attention and I normally like Hoot Gibson. It's a pretty poor looking film with noise issues. That doesn't help. Mill Creek doesn't waste any time or money on restoring films to their former glory. They couldn't, not at the prices they are charging for their films, so I don't expect it. I wish it wasn't the case but sometimes that's the only copy of the film available.

That's 10 done, 11 and 12 to come. Should be too long before I can get to some other Westerns.

Western Wednesday 15

Four more movies from the Cowboys And Bandits 50 Movie Pack from Mill Creek Entertainment. This is the group from disc 9.

Wolves Of The Range 1943 Bob Livingstone is the Lone Rider and Al "Fuzzy" St John is his sidekick. It's a typical sort of story, some greedy bastard is forcing a man off his land. Bob and Fuzzy lend a hand to the banker's daughter when he's killed by some of the baddies henchmen. There's a bit more humor with Fuzzy leaping about and gibbering like an old fool. Fuzzy has a scene with fortune teller. Bob gets robbed of the money to save the bank and he winds up with movie amnesia. Of course a knock on the noggin will fix that and the baddie will get his in the end. This movie is directed by Sam Newfield who also directed several other Lone Rider films as well as these "Classics", The Terror Of Tiny Town, Queen Of Burlesque, The Monster Maker and The Mad Monster. Sam has 276 directing credits on the IMDb, a lot of them were shorts, he directed plenty between 1926 and 1932.

Boothill Brigade 1937 Johnny Mac Brown in another film directed by Sam Newfield. Johnny is a guy who tries to solve problems with his mind, rather than his fists, and there's a good bit of yakkin' and not much fighting. It was about average.

The Fighting Renegade 1939 Yet another Sam Newfield film, this time with Tim McCoy in the lead. The head of an archaeological expedition to Mexico is murdered. Tim is Lightnin' Bill Carson, he used to be a Federal Agent, right now he's in disguise as El Puma. He's a bit Speedy Gonzales but it's a long time ago and people did shit like that. It's about average too.

Trouble Busters 1933 Jack Hoxie is Tex Blaine. He helps a pretty young lady and her father keep her land when swindlers learn there's oil under it. There's some fighting and horse riding and all the usual stuff you;d expect of a Western of the time. About average.

Western Wednesday 14

Four more movies from the Cowboys And Bandits 50 Movie Pack. Mostly the movies are from the 1930s and 1940s but the first movie on the disc is from 1953.

Son Of The Renegade 1953 Some say that Ed Wood secretly wrote the script to this movie. The script credit on the film goes to John Carpenter, who also played the main character Red River Johnny under the name Johnny Carpenter. The script thing might be true, the film is kind of like something that Ed might write, but I doubt it. It's got all the typical Western fare, riding, gun shooting, bad guys and good guys, a bit of romance. Red River comes back to the his home town. His father had been an outlaw and besides that baggage to deal with there's also a gang robbing people in his name. He has to clear that up and reclaim the family ranch. It ends out with a huge shoot out in the town.

It scores a 6.6 on the IMDb but when you look at the 123 votes you can see that 63 of them are a 10. How's that happen? It's definitely not a 10 by jingo. I wouldn't give it more than a 4 because of the script but I liked a couple of the characters and managed to get through to the end.

Ghost Town Law 1942 The Rough Riders: Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton, have their hands full chasing after a gang of outlaws hold up in a mine near a ghost town. Typical stuff, about average.

The Trail Of The Silver Spurs 1941 The Range Busters: Ray "Crash" Corrigan, John "Dusty" King and Max "Alibi" Terhune, are after some guys who robbed the Denver Mint. The baddies have holed up in a desert ghost town. Lot of ghost towns in the old west. I'd seen a couple of films with The Range Busters and enjoyed them both. I liked the guys and their banter. They make an average movie a bit more entertaining.

Code Of The Fearless 1939 A Ranger called Fred is suspected to be in a gang. When his boss calls him out Fred quits the service. It's all a trick so Fred can join the gang and arrest them. There's more singing in this movie than all the others. Fred busts into song once in a while. It's a good solid 5 for me and I enjoyed it.

Western Wednesday 13

Four Western films today. All are from the Cowboys And Bandits 50 Movie DVD set. This is disc 7 of 12. Mill Creek Entertainment has a lot of these sets and they can be had cheap.

Terror Of The Plains 1934 Tom Tyler is the son of a man accused of murder. Tom, and his best pal, return home to find the real killer. The gang responsible is holed up in a ghost town. A young woman is held there and the leader of the group is planning to marry her. She's not any too much interested. It was about average with the usual Western antics going on.

Wild Horse 1931 Hoot Gibson and his pal capture a wild stallion for a $1000 reward. The partner is killed, and the horse stolen, while Hoot is off chasing their horses. Hoot returns to their shack just as the sheriff shows up in what I thought was a nice shot. Hoot, framed in in the door, stares down at "the best pal I ever had" while the sheriff rides slowly down the hill in the background we can see over Hoot's shoulder. He arrests Hoot for murder. On the way to jail the Sheriff is shot, Hoot takes him to town and then runs off to catch the real bad guy. There's the usual cowboy stuff going on with the added bonus of two horses fighting in a big knock down battle. It was quite something. Stepin Fetchit plays a ranch hand that is really hard to understand. The IMDb says that Hoot says this movie was his favorite and the Wild Horse in the title is from Hoot's ranch.

The Cowboy And The Bandit 1935 Rex Lease takes a job on a ranch and fights the local baddies with the help of a bank robber. I didn't think I had seen any films with Rex Lease in them before but I have. He's in 3 of the Ma and Pa Kettle films and a couple of Abbott and Costello film. I know I've seen those. Good story.

North Of Arizona 1935 Jack Perrin helps an Indian tribe against some crooked ranch hands and their boss. It's not quite up to the level of the other films on the disc but still watchable. I didn't recognize Jack Perrin but I see from the IMDb that he was in a lot of 1950s and 1960s TV shows playing an uncredited background character.

Western Wednesday 12

Here's another batch of Westerns from Cowboys And Bandits 50 Movie Pack. Most of these movies are about average and this disc isn't any different. Three of the four titles are available on YouTube to watch. Some of the movies are filmed at Vasquez Rocks. It's been appearing in movies since 1935. Keep an eye out for it.

Western Mail is a 1942 movie with Tom Keene and Glenn Strange. Tom plays an undercover deputy and Glenn plays the local sheriff. The local banker is a crook and he's behind the train robberies. Tom has a Mexican sidekick named Lopez, played by Frank Yaconelli, who has a monkey. Tom infiltrates the local gang but someone lets it slip he's a cop. Luckily for Tom and Lopez that monkey was there. It was watchable but average. Robert Emmett Tansey wrote the screenplay under the name Robert Emmett and directed it under Robert Tansey. He wrote over 80 films and directed over 50, most of which were Westerns.

The IMDb Trivia page for the movie has this interesting note on it's being broadcast on TV, during World War II. This film received its earliest documented telecast Monday 14 August 1944 on New York City's pioneer television station WNBT (Channel 1). In Los Angeles, it was first seen Monday 7 February 1949 on KTTV (Channel 11).

Death Valley is a 1946 gold mining movie that's more melodrama than shoot 'em up. It was written by Doris Schroeder and directed by Lew Landers. Doris was a prolific writer who started in the movie business in 1913 and continued until 1951. In the 1950s and 1960s she wrote many novels for Whitman publishing. I have read several of her books and enjoyed them. Lew Landers had a bit shorter career, it started in 1934 and ended in 1962 when he died at age 61. Still he too was pretty prolific, directing about 140 movies and over 200 TV episodes.

Nat Pendelton meets up with some gold miners in Death Valley. Sterling Holloway is part of that group. Things get dicey as Nat gets more interested in their gold. He gets gold fever and starts to kill for the precious metal. Things turn out OK in the end and Nat pays for his crimes in a rather nice cinematic way. This movie also has a monkey. What's up with that? The movie posters say the movie was in color but the copy in the set was only B&W.

Romance On The Range is a 1942 Roy Rogers film with Gabby Hayes as his sidekick. It was directed by Joseph Kane and written by J Berton Cheney. J Berton wrote over 65 movies in the 30s and 40s and over 50 episodes of TV in the 50s. Kane started directing in 1934 and he's got over 120 movies listed on the IMDb along with nearly 50 TV shows. Most of their work was in the Western genre.

Roy is foreman on a ranch where Gabby works. The owner is a rich woman who lives in New York. Someone is raiding the traps and taking the fur wrapped critters. The baddies have killed a pal of Roy's and he's out for justice. The owner comes to investigate on her own but she pretends to be someone else. There's more action in this movie than the last and the story is pretty entertaining.

The Crooked Trail is a 1936 movie with Johnny Mack Brown as a gold miner. It's written by George H Plymton and directed by S Roy Luby. S Roy directed over 100 movies and a fair number of TV shows. George has over 300 credits on the IMDb. His career started in 1912 and ended when he died in 1972.

Johnny comes across a couple of men fighting over water in the desert. He gets one fellow home and gives John Merton a place to stay to recover. What he didn't know is Merton is a crook and murderer. Johnny gives Merton a partnership in his mine but Merton soon reverts to his criminal ways. Johnny marries and Merton gets mad when she tells Johnny that Merton is no good. Things go sour and Merton winds up on the run from Johnny. We know who's going to get out of that one alive, don't we. It was fairly entertaining but only about average.

Western Wednesday 11

I had forgotten how much fun They Call Me Trinity was. I originally saw it as a teen in the early 70s and I saw it again in the mid 80s when VHS was all the rage. It's a 1970 Italian Spaghetti Western of the comedic variety. Enzo Barboni wrote the story, the screenplay, and directed. It was after the peak of the Italian Western and the audiences were dwindling. They Call Me Trinity did well and so did the sequel. More comedy Westerns followed. Some critics and fans aren't so kind to the comedy Spaghetti Western but I like their light hearted nature. They aren't so different from American comedy Westerns.

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill are a pair of brothers who haven't seen each other in a number of years. Bud has been a robber and rustler while Terence isn't quite so criminal. Terence has a super fast draw. Bud has escaped from jail and taken a job as the sheriff while he waits for his gang to arrive. Terence arrives and Bud takes him on as deputy. They make friends with the Mormon's in the valley, especially the pretty daughters. Bud and Terence find out that a Mexican gang is bothering the Mormons. They kick the Mexican's around and find out that the men are stooges for the local baddie. They soon kick that guy's ass too.

At it's core it's the basic Western plot, rich guy fucking over the poor farmer's to get their land, but the Italian production gives the movie a different take on the genre. One that I like. They film in Spain and Italy and it looks enough like the American West that it works fine for me. The props, costumes and sets are all done well. The acting is fine, most of the time, and Terence is a likeable guy. Bud plays the grumpy annoyed guy very ably.

Trinity Is Still My Name is the 1971 sequel and it's not quite as funny. There's plenty of yelling and running about and some fights. It's the same writer-director on this one. I got a few laughs out of it. I'd watch these over again some day and recommend them to anyone who likes a fun movie.