Ken Maynard in "Trailin' Trouble", and "Trigger Fingers" starring Tim McCoy and Harley Wood

Last night we saw Ken Maynard again, in a dual role in "Trailin' Trouble"(1937). His main character is "Friendly Fields", a gunslinger who lives with his Ma. Now that's an original take on the stereotype! Friendly isn't your typical gunman. Mom wants him to stop fighting and get himself a job. Her pal the Sheriff (Fred Burns) suggests he try the Bar-X Ranch, run by "Patty Blair" (Lona Andre). Patty's a no nonsense dame, but very young and inexperienced (she took over the ranch from her Dad). She tells Friendly she could use a foreman, but to qualify for the job, he's gotta prove himself by bringing back the cattle that have been rustled. To do so, he'll have to confront "Tom Crocker" (Roger Williams), a fellow rancher and head of the gang who are trying to force Patty off her land. The issue is water rights. Crocker figures if he steals all her cattle, Patty will have no reason to stay, and he figures again that since she's a woman, there is nothing she can do about it.

That's true, until Friendly Fields shows up. He walks into Crocker's ranch house, wearing a two-gun belt, and "politely suggests" (cause his Mom doesn't want him fighting) that Crocker give back the cattle he stole from Patty's ranch. Crocker says he already sold them, and that it was a case of mistaken cattle identity anyhow: "The brands got mixed up," he says, but what he means is that he was trying to re-brand them. Friendly knows this, and "politely" asks Crocker for three and a half gees to pay for the 70-odd head of cattle.

He brings the cash back to Patty at the Bar-X, who is impressed and hires him as her foreman. But at the beginning of the movie, while he was riding across the range, Friendly was robbed of his hat by a killer named "Blackie Burke" (also played by Ken Maynard). Because we're doing the old Dual Role Routine, when Patty's neighbor "Mrs. Dunn" (Grace Wood) finds a wanted poster in town with Blackie's picture on it, she naturally assumes it's Friendly, hiding under an alias. She comes over to the Bar-X to tell Patty the news, and by now, Tom Crocker and his gang think Friendly is really Blackie, too, so they are also scared of him because he's supposed to have killed "one man for every year of his age". Friendly tries 'splainin to Patty that he's Friendly, not Blackie, and we can't tell if she buys his explanation or not because there's a jump cut to the two of them riding to Crocker's ranch, and when they get there, he's still Blackie to Crocker. It's only later, after a stooge arrives, that Friendly's ruse is revealed. The stooge knows Blackie personally, and he's certain that Friendly's an impostor.

By now, two things happen. Ma shows up at Crocker's ranch. She's been looking for Friendly, and when she sees him fighting again (for by now, a punchout has ensued) she's furious. She's about to drag Friendly away by his earlobe, back to the family home, when the real Blackie Burke arrives, and the stooge henchman tells him that some wimp named Friendly has been impersonating him.

But as we know, Friendly is no wimp. Crocker has already found that out, and Blackie will discover the same. Amazingly, though Maynard's horse Tarzan is seen throughout the film, there are no heroic rescue scenes for him. I hope he got a new agent after this film, but it still gets Two Big Thumbs Up. Filmed entirely at Chatsworth Park, it's highly recommended and the picture is very good. As a bonus, there are two musical numbers by an unnamed group, one on which Ken Maynard plays fiddle and sings. Betcha didn't know he could do that. ////

The previous night, Tim McCoy was back in "Trigger Fingers"(1939), in which he gets to do his own comic relief. Betcha didn't know he could do that. He plays "Lighting Bill Carson", a Federal Secret Service agent, sent to Arizona to stop a gang of cattle rustlers who use trucks to steal their quarry. Local ranchers are complaining, and when "Dad Bolton" and his sweet daughter "Jessie" (Harley Wood) get robbed by bandits on the trail, everyone in town has had enough. Jessie's boyfriend (Bud McTaggart) is the local deputy, but he's just a kid and Dad thinks he's ineffective, so Dad calls the Feds and they send out Lightning Bill, along with a female agent named "Margaret" (Joyce Bryant), and "Magpie" (Ben Corbett), a gruff s.o.b who calls Margaret "Maggie" just to get her goat and keep a running gag through the movie. The trio pose as a band of wandering gypsies so the rustlers won't see them coming.

This is where McCoy gets to show his comic chops, complete with Gypsy accent, clothing and Twirly Moustachio. Add to that the famous McCoy eyeballs and some Silent film makeup, and you have a character tailor made for yuks that would not be PC nowdays but are hilarious nevertheless. Of course, Tim is always a card sharp in any guise, so a part of the deception is for the agents to pass through the ranch lands, offering "card readings" to suspected rustlers, in which McCoy performs a standard card trick in order to james garner the finger prints off the card deck. He has modern CSI skills, as far as dusting fingerprints in the field, but it takes him a while to nail the leader of the gang, whose prints have already been lifted from a  a saddle at the beginning of the movie. His name is "Bert Lee" (Carleton Young), and he's attempting to rustle all the cattle in the Valley, using the efficient method of trucking. There's a five gee reward out for his arrest, but as usual, he's got Dad and Jessie Bolton bamboozled into thinking he's a good guy. He gets the townsfolk riled up to blame the rustling and robberies on the Gypsies. The agents are vastly outnumbered as a hanging posse is formed.

In looking at the credits on IMDB, it was interesting to read that Harley Wood, who plays Jessie and is only 26 here, went on to become a songwriter. In 1967 she wrote the famous Christian anthem "Let There Be Peace On Earth (And Let It Begin With Me), which I have sung in choir on numerous occasions. Amazing! You never know where our 60 minute Westerns will lead you. She's also great in this movie, which gets Two Big Thumbs Up and is a must-see for Tim McCoy's Gypsy impersonation. The picture is very good.

That's all I know for tonight. I'm listening to "Gotterdammerung" by Wagner, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. I also listened to "Free Hand" and "Power and the Glory" by Gentle Giant. I'm almost done reading Paul McCartney's "The Lyrics, which I highly recommend. I hope your week is off to a good start and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Buster Crabbe as Billy the Kid in "Law and Order", and "Moontide" starring Jean Gabin and Ida Lupino

Last night we watched "Law and Order"(1942) another in the series of Billy the Kid Westerns starring Buster Crabbe. As the movie opens, Billy and his sidekicks "Fuzzy" (Al St. John) and "Jeff" (Dave O'Brien) are being chased by a U.S. Cavalry Troop. As usual, they're suspected of every crime in the area, and when they're caught and taken back to the Army fort (after Fuzzy tries faking his death to avoid arrest), the boys discover that the lieutenant at headquarters is a dead ringer for Billy. They could be twins, in fact, because it's the old Dual Role Routine with Buster playing both parts. This works to their advantage when Billy gets the better of his guard and runs back to the lieutenant's office, where he forces the LT to change clothes with him, then ties him up and escapes with Jeff and Fuzzy. Billy figures he did no wrong since they shouldn't have been arrested in the first place.

While resting on the way back to their hideout, Billy finds a letter in the LT's uniform, from his aunt, "Mary Todd" (Sarah Padden), inviting the lieutenant to her wedding. Billy figures he'd better attend in the LTs place (since they're lookalikes), otherwise, someone might wonder why the LT didn't show up, and get suspicious. But when Billy, Jeff and Fuzzy go to visit Aunt Mary, they discover a plot by Charles King to carry out a false marriage to someone other than her fiance. You see, Aunt Mary is blind. She doesn't know what her fiance looks like, so King, who's the justice of the peace in town (huge lol!), and is also a crook (big surprise) is gonna marry his pal to Aunt Mary, so they can get her money. Mary is the richest woman in town.

King starts to suspect that Billy - posing as the lieutenant - isn't who he says he is. King figures he's an impostor and sends his henchman "Turtle" (John Merton) out to kill him. This leads to some true hilarity as Turtle and some other thugs try and fail, three times, to kill Billy because by now, the real LT has gotten loose and has ridden into town to re-arrest Billy, and Turtle and his boys keep shooting the wrong guy. In addition to Charles King, you also get Ted Adams in this film, as a good guy! Yep, he's the Sheriff, and an honest one at that. How the heck did that happen? Billy's problem is that he has to keep the real LT from arresting him while trying to stop the marriage of the fake fiance to Aunt Mary. A solution presents itself when the boys find another letter from Mary, this time to her niece. They use it to trap the faker, who doesn't know Aunt Mary has a niece. This one is a super-cheapie from PRC, so there's no saloon and no town exteriors, though there is an entrance mock-up to the fort, but on the other hand you've got Buster, Al St. John  and Dave O'Brien, the best trio since The Rough Riders, and you also have Charles King and Ted Adams in the same movie, both with prime roles, so casting-wise, it's an embarrassment of riches. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Law and Order" (no "Billy the Kid" in the title this time). Filmed at Walker Ranch, the picture is good but soft. ////

The previous night, we saw an interesting if offbeat Noir that focused on a relationship rather than a crime. In "Moontide"(1942), the great French actor Jean Gabin ("Pepe le Moko", "Touches Pas au Grisbi", "Grand Illusion") stars as "Bobo", an itinerant seaman ashore in a California coastal town. His friend "Tiny" (Thomas Mitchell) is looking for him in a seedy bar. Tiny is desperate to find Bobo because he relies on him for money and leadership. Tiny is a mooch and a psychological weakling, but his size and crude bearing makes him a formidable adversary when crossed. He leaves the bar still in search of Bobo, who shows up a little while later with his dog (a boxer), and proceeds to pretty much empty the joint of booze. He drinks so much that the bartender asks him to stop. After that, he hits on a dame and gets in a fight with her boyfriend. Tiny finally comes back and finds him, and they leave to go bar hopping. This sequence is a montage, showing Bobo dancing, fighting and drinking until he blacks out, which is depicted by "room spinning" photography.

Bobo wakes up on a bait sale barge in the wharf, not knowing how he got there until two Chinese fisherman pull up in their boat and explain that they met him the night before and gave him a place to stay. They offer him a job as a bait salesman in exchange for a dollar a day and a bottle of sake and he accepts, telling another friend "Nutsy" (Claude Rains) that it's a good enough life for him, a place to live and easy work. Tiny comes by and asks Bobo to go with him to San Francisco. He wants status and the high life, on Bobo's back of course. Bobo tells Tiny "no, I've got all I need right here, a dollar a day and a bottle". Then Tiny pulls out a blackmail (donald) trump card: "Hey Bobo, do you know there was a murder here at the wharf last night? Yeah, some old guy named Pop Kelly. He got strangled, and I know you don't remember what happened last night, but I do. I was with you, and I'd like to keep my mouth shut, but I'd also like it if we went to San Francisco if you get my drift." He's insinuating that Bobo strangled Pop Kelly in a drunken rage. The possibility of this is shown in the spinning room blackout scene, but its only that - a possibility. We know Bobo is a brawler, but is he a killer too?

He avoids Tiny after that, and the next time we see him, he's hanging out with Nutsy on the beach. It's late at night, and suddenly they see a fully clothed woman walking into the ocean. The implication is obvious; she's going to drown herself, and Bobo runs into the water to save her. Thus begins the main theme of the movie, Bobo's chance for love and redemption. The woman in the water is "Anna" (Ida Lupino), a waitress at a local cafe. We never find out why she wanted to kill herself, but once she's rescued by Bobo, he becomes her salvation. She comes back to life and cleans his filthy bait barge. They even buy drapes and do some interior decorating, once they decide its their Forever Home.

In the daytime, a doctor (Jerome Cowan) comes by on his boat, which needs repair. Bobo knows engines, and makes a new friend in the process. He tells the Doc, and Nutsy too, that he's thinking about marrying Anna.They think its great that Bobo is settling down, but when Tiny gets word of it back at the bar, he redoubles his blackmail threat, by suggesting again to Bobo that he ditch Anna and move to San Francisco with him. When that doesn't work, he shows up drunk at the bait barge when Bobo isn't there, and attacks Anna. This leads to the final confrontation between Bobo and Tiny over the blackmail. That's all I'm going to tell you about the plot, but it's quite a story and while it isn't a crime film, per se (as noted), the naturalistic acting, especially by Jean Gabin, give the film not only a sense of realism but the feeling that you're watching an actual melodrama play out in front of you. The way Gabin and Lupino speak to each other is like conversation rather than dialogue. The black and white photography is appropriately at the darker end of the grey scale, and the settings appear to be on sound stages. The movie has the feel of a play, with exaggerated supporting players ala Orson Welles. It's great stuff stylistically, and in plot, but the main draw is the acting.

Two Big Thumbs Up for "Moontide". Watch it for something a little different. It's highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp. //// 

That's all for the moment. I'm listening to "The Good Earth" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Bob Steele in "Wild Horse Valley", and "West of Nevada" starring Rex Bell and Al St. John

Last night, we watched Bob Steele in "Wild Horse Valley"(1940). There's trouble at the Kimball Ranch in Placerita. A break in the fence has caused several horses to run loose. "Dad Kimball" (Lafe McKee) blames it on the provocation of a wild stallion named The Pirate. He has his foreman "Baker" (Ted Adams) order the ranch hands to repair the fence, but the fact that Ted Adams is the foreman should raise your antenna right away. Dad has lost 200 horses so far, and will be out of bidness soon, if he can't get rid of The Pirate. Then Bob Steele and his pal "Shag" (Jimmy Aubrey) happen by. Bob is looking for his horse, which has been stolen by an unknown party. Bob hears about Pirate from Dad and his sweet daughter "Ann" (Phyllis Adair), and when he goes looking for the wild horse, he sees that it is, in fact, his stolen horse. Dad doesn't believe him at first, and offers a reward of one thousand semolians for the killing of Pirate. Bob is certain that Pirate is his horse, and isn't responsible for the break in the fence, or the missing horses. He asks Dad for one chance to capture Pirate, and......

Now wait just a cotton pickin' minute! We've heard all this before! You might remember a Tom Tyler movie from about a month ago called "Coyote Trails", in which a horse called The Phantom was accused of the very same thing. I'm tellin' ya it's the same script, substituting Bob Steele for Tom Tyler. At any rate, this version was good too. Lafe McKee plays Dad the Horse Rancher in both movies. If I had to choose, I'll take the Tom Tyler version, but watch this one too. Two Big Thumbs Up.

Okey dokie, sorry to cut you off at the pass, but we more-or-less reviewed that movie the last time. We had no such problem the previous night, which saw us back with Rex Bell in "West of Nevada"(1936). Rex and his sidekick Al St. John are ridin' though the Alabammy Hills, with Rex kidding Al about his latest foiled romance, when Al's stomach starts grumblin' (a St. John trademark). Shots ring out, interrupting the hunger pangs, and the two cowpokes ride out of the rocks to the trail and see a runaway wagon blazing full tilt, being chased by a gang of bandits. On the wagon are two men, a taxidermist named "Haldain" (Steve Clark) and his Indian helper "Bald Eagle" (Dick Botiller), who's been shot. Rex and Al dispatch the gunmen with some quick trigger work of their own, and Rex uses his knife to extract the bullet from Bald Eagle's chest. Then they all ride back to town for more treatment, where Haldain's daughter "Helen" (Joan Barclay) is a nurse. Haldain doesn't trust doctors or anyone else, and Rex starts to think he's hiding something when he and Al help carry in his cargo of stuffed animals, which weigh a ton.

After helping Haldain, and while Bald Eagle is recovering, Rex rides into town to see if any mail has come for him, as he's expecting a letter from his Dad. "Steve Cutting" (Forrest Taylor), who runs the bank as well as post office, says "no, we haven't got anything for you", but then he double checks when he sees Rex doesn't believe him. "Oh yes, now I remember, we do have one letter in your name." When Rex takes the letter back to Mr. Haldain's house, he sees that its been previously steamed open. The letter, indeed from his Dad, references a shipment of gold that will benefit the local Indians. It's left unstated what this has to do with Rex and Al, but we'll find out soon enough. Meanwhile, banker Steve Cutting calls one of his henchmen into his office. "Find out what that guy is up to" he says of Rex. The henchman says "I can do better than that, I can kill him", but Cutting says "not yet, not until we find out where the Indians' gold is." His bank is about to go under because he's stolen and spent all the money of his depositors; he needs that gold from the Indians, and is going to try to steal it, even though it's on their land and he'll be risking his neck. As noted, Mr. Haldain doesn't trust anyone, and when Cutting - doing his best Snidely Whiplash impersonation - tells daughter Helen that Rex is a crook out to steal the gold himself, she believes him. Rex is still curious why the stuffed animals were so heavy, and he sneaks into Haldain's workshop to discover that the specimens are stuffed with gold nuggets.

After that, he catches up with Helen and convinces her that he's not a gold thief, but by this time, Steve Cutting and his men have lured Bald Eagle into a trap, and are gonna force him to tell where the gold is. We weren't overly impressed with Rex Bell the first time we saw him, but he's really good in this one. Al St. John is his usual comic self and is also used for what romance there is, after he falls in love with "Rose Gilbury" (Georgia O'Dell), the ranch cook. They make for a goofy couple, but Al is continually being called upon by Rex for help with the bad guys, and he has a running gag about "being interrupted", ahem, in his "lovemaking" as he puts it, and it's funny (not risque) but they use it too many times. The location photography at Lone Pine is beautiful, with snow capped mountains as a backdrop for the Alabammy Hills. Two Big Thumbs Up for "West of Nevada" as Rex Bell joins our company of Top Cowboys. We're gonna need him, too, as I'm finding it harder to locate films we haven't seen by our Big Three of Johnny Mack Brown, Tom Tyler and Tim McCoy. Ditto for Harry Carey and Ken Maynard, both of whom we haven't seen in a few weeks because I've been unable to dig up new films. I'll keep looking, though, as we've gotta have our Westerns, as much a staple of life as air, water and tortilla chips.

That's the whole shebang for this go-round. I'm listening to another album I've never heard before, the first one by The Strawbs, if you can believe that. I say "if you can believe it" because I'm a huge (pronounced yoooge) Strawbs fan, and have all the cds from their classic period, or I thought I did, until I discovered that "Dragonfly" was not their first album as I thought. At any rate, entitled simply "Strawbs", it's quite good, and full of the folky material that marks their early work. It almost sounds like a Dave Cousins solo record, as he wrote all the songs and the instrumentation is mostly acoustic guitar and voice. 

I hope you have a nice holiday weekend and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  

Bob Steele and Charles King in "Last of the Warrens" and "West of Rainbow's End" starring Tim McCoy

Last night we had Bob Steele going up against Charles King in "Last of the Warrens"(1936). Bob is a fighter pilot returning from WW1, and in the opening scene we see him shot down over Santa Clarita, a town in northern France. His family and friends think he's dead. He's been sending them letters every week to let them know he's okay, but has received no replies. He asks his nurse at the army hospital why this is, but she can't explain it. When he returns home, everyone is surprised to see him, none more than his Dad, who is overjoyed. Dad's lost the mortgage on the family ranch, but the seemingly big-hearted Charles King (wearing a suit and tie and clean cut!) has been kind enough to keep him on as foreman. King owns the general store in town, and as we know, general store owners are high on the list of Western criminals. But King couldn't be a bad guy this time, could he? Oh, he's bought the mortgage on Dad's ranch, but that doesn't mean he's been rustling Dad's cattle so that Dad won't be able to make his payments, does it? You've gotta be joshin' me! What's that you're saying? King also has a secret grudge? I can hardly believe it. He's the last member of his family as well, and their rivalry with the Warrens dates back a generation. King believes they put his family's ranch out of business and has been seeking revenge ever since.

But what King wants most of all is Bob's girl "Mary Burns" (Margaret Marquis). When Bob was assumed dead, King courted Mary, and there's a scene early on where he's trying to sweet talk her into marriage. She's a clerk at King's store, and he soft pedals his proposal, hat in hand like a true gentleman, his hair clean, cut short and slicked back, with his nice suit on. This is as close to King's look from his silent film days as you're ever gonna see, ditto his acting range, which is more subtle than you might imagine. But no matter how much he tries to persuade her, Mary isn't buying. She tells him, "I'm grateful for the job, and for keeping Dad as your foreman, but I don't love you". What is she, nuts? How can she not love Charles King? He even tries the old "you'll grow to love me over time" routine, but she doesn't want it, because she's still pining for Bob Steele. When he arrives back in town after being thought dead, King is incensed. He immediately sends two honchos out to kill Bob, but they fail, so he sets a trap for Bob's Dad and shoots him himself. Then he wraps Dad's body in a sheet and quick-buries it under a pile of leaves in Placerita Canyon.

But Dad isn't as dead as King thought. He frees himself and walks back to the ranch, where the local doc and his old pal "Grizzly" (Horace Murphy) nurse him back to health. By this time, Bob is onto King and swears to take him down if he can prove King is the guy who shot Dad. King gets scared (omg! who wrote that into the script?) and hires a new gunman, a big old scary lookin' galoot named "Slip Gerns" (Blackie Whitford), who's been hanging out at the town saloon. To show King he's getting his money's worth, the big guy produces a wanted poster that shows his picture and a reward offer: "Wanted for Murder, Dead or Alive". King is impressed and hires Gerns on the spot, with instructions for him to kill Bob Steele. "Consider it done," Gerns says, but just when he's getting ready to do it, a huge twist occurs. I can't tell you what it is, but you'll like it, and you'll love this movie, which gives us a different side of Charles King in his biggest role yet. We're becoming big fans of Bob Steele too, just for his overall Bob Steele-ness. I like that they don't portray him as a lawman, which wouldn't work because of his stature and youthful look, but as a scrappy good guy instead. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Last of the Warrens". The picture is worn but sharp.  

The previous night, we watched Tim McCoy in "West of Rainbow's End (1938). Tim plays a retired railroad marshal (his characters are always named Tim) who is called in to investigate, after a senior marshal named "Lighting Ed" (Frank LaRue), is killed while trying to solve the murder of a train engineer. Lightning Ed was beloved in town, so Tim stops in at Sally's Donut Shop to inquire about him. Sally's becomes the centerpiece of the film, as Tim learns a lot about the gang that runs the town, headed up by the land office manager "George Reynolds" (Walter McGrail) and his henchmen, who conduct train and mail robberies, and are trying to force Sally's Ma and Pa off their ranch so they can sell the land to the railroad. The henchmen in this movie look like real-life sociopaths; they don't have the "Charles King factor" of affable evilness, but man are they lowdown, shoot-em-in-the-back types. Reynolds their boss is a crumb bum who never does his own dirty work, and of course, the saloon owner (Reed Howes) is in on the deal.

When McCoy shows up, one honcho is chosen by the boss to take him out, but the guy gets his hat handed to him again and again. You'd think Reynolds would choose someone else, but no, he keeps sending this one guy. He looks like a real life Western badman, but of course he's no match for McCoy, who always unwraps a stick of gum before getting ready to draw. This is one of his contemporary Westerns. Sally (Kathleen Eliot) wears 1930s dresses, and as mentioned a lot of the film takes place in her cafe, where the donuts are always fresh. Tim likes the apple pie, and when Sally runs out of it, she invites him home (Mom makes all the pies), and of course that starts the romance, such as it is. Tim McCoy generally doesn't do the romantic front (too stoic), but Kathleen Eliot (who plays Sally) must've been the producer's daughter because she gets maximum screen time and she's an actress with only three credits. She's good though, and it makes for a nice angle to have a donut shop as the unofficial headquarters for a Western. Two Big Thumbs Up for "West of Rainbow's End".

That's basically all I know. I listened to a album by an obscure band called "Home", featuring Laurie Wisefield from the Mark II lineup of Wishbone Ash, which is how I came to discover it. I was watching a 1976 Ash concert from Rockpalast on Youtube and was very impressed with Wisefield's playing (his Strat tone is incredible), and I discovered he was originally from this other band, which also featured Cliff Williams who went on to play bass for AC/DC. The album is called "The Alchemist" by Home, and while it isn't perhaps a classic, as such, it does have a nice, consistent light-prog sound that is very appealing in the vein of, say, Barclay James Harvest or even Kansas. Give it a listen if you shall. I'm also continuing to watch "Captain Marvel" with Tom Tyler. By chapter 5, The Scorpion has lured Marvel into Bronson Cave, where he's promised to reveal his identity behind the mask. But it's all a trap, and when Marvel gets inside, The Scorpion and his henchmen use the metallic scorpion device to turn the inside of the cave into molten rock, which is filling the cave and will kill Captain Marvel if he can't get out. We know that he can withstand just about anything, but he may have met his match this time. Or not.

I hope you are having a good week despite the awful news and the general state of America and the World, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Chester Morris in "Alias Boston Blackie", and Tom Tyler as the original Captain Marvel

Sunday night means Boston Blackie, and we had a blast with Chester Morris and company in "Alias Boston Blackie"(1942), in which BB plans a Christmas show for the convicts at his former prison. As the movie opens, he and "Runt" (George E. Stone) are decorating a tree. Runt tells Blackie that the last thing he wants to do is go back to the joint, even for a visit. "I'd rather be cracking a safe". Blackie says "no more of that, it's time to give something back." This is Altruistic Blackie (rarely seen), but he does have an ulterior motive because a gal he's sweet on has a brother locked up for a crime he didn't commit, and if Blackie can get get him a new trial, it might lead to something with the sister. Blackie hopes to talk to the guy during the Christmas show, to get evidence on the crook who framed him. Runt and Sis (Adele Mara) accompany him on the bus trip to the prison (driven by a young Lloyd Bridges), and so do Inspector Faraday and Sgt. Matthews. Faraday is in the Christmas spirit, and has even promised to help Blackie with his show. When they arrive, the warden checks them in and the guards make a head count as each guest and performer enters the lockup. There's a clown who's set to perform, but Blackie's prisoner, whose name is "Joe Trilby" (Larry Parks) lures him to his room. Trilby is a prison trusty who doesn't have to sleep in his cell. When he gets the clown in his room, he pulls a gun and switches clothes. He puts the clown's makeup on, does the clown's performance, and when the show is over, he passes through the exit with the rest of the group and gets on the bus driven by Lloyd Bridges.

His sister knows the clown is Joe, and Blackie soon figures it out. He tries talking Joe into going back to the prison to give himself up. Joe says no, because he's been waiting two long years to get revenge on the guys who framed him - they conned him into a ride in his car and he wound up as the getaway driver on a stickup job. Now he's gonna kill both of those guys. Blackie's gonna try and stop him, but to do so he's gotta find out who the crooks are. Then a dead body turns up in Blackie's hotel room. He figures that it's one of the bad guys, that Joe killed him, and after he and Runt hide the body under a couch (which makes for much hijinx), he urges Joe to leave town or turn himself in. But Joe swears he didn't kill the guy: "I was gonna, but someone beat me to it". At a loss, Blackie goes to visit his pawn shop pal "Jumbo Madigan" (Cy Kendall), who has a reputation for knowing the criminal lowdown. Blackie brings a cabbie's badge he found by the body, and Jumbo mentions a cab driver named "Steve Caveroni" (Paul Fix), who operates downtown. Blackie sets up a scheme to trap Steve, using Joe's sister as bait. 

This is a more serious Blackie than we've seen in other installations, thus it's shorter on comedy and closer to a standard crime film. However, you do get the Body-Under-The-Couch routine, and plenty of action. This may be the fastest Blackie yet. It moves at lightning speed, and Lloyd Corrigan bookends the picture as  the affable but distracted "Arthur Manleder", Blackie's old pal from New York. This time Arthur has a dislocated jaw that must be repeatedly slapped back into place. Two Big Thumbs Up, of course. The picture is razor sharp. On a final note, as "Inspector Faraday", Richard Lane predates Harvey Korman in "Blazing Saddles" by referencing his chance for an Academy Award nomination. Classic and highly recommended. ////

The previous night we began our first movie serial, of the type that were popular in the first half of the 20th century and were screened in weekly chapters, with cliffhanger endings to keep audiences coming back for more. Would you believe "Captain Marvel"(1941) was a movie attraction long before the present day Marvel Comics phenomenon? Yes indeed. I didn't know it myself until I did some research on Tom Tyler's career, and found out that, in addition to making Westerns, he was most well known for playing Captain Marvel in the chapter serial of the same name in 1941. This was years before Superman appeared in movies or on TV. I knew we had to see it, and tonight we watched the first two chapters in a razor sharp print that looks like it's straight off a dvd. The first chapter begins in Siam in Chatsworth Park. An expedition led by two British archaeologists is set to break into The Tomb of the Scorpion. They are warned, first by their guide "Tal Chotali" (John Davidson), then by the warlord "Rahman Bar" (Reed Hadley) that breaking into the tomb will unlock the Curse of The Scorpion. Being veddy Brrittish, they don't believe in superstition (fools!) and when they do indeed break into the tomb, they discover that the scorpion in question is a metallic device with five lenses that, when properly aligned and focused, can be used to transform base metals into gold, or as a devastating weapon. Being veddy Brritish, they want the device for themselves and for science (can't leave it for the savages), but also, Rahman Bar is no saint, so you can't blame it all on the Britishers. A young archaeology student named "Billy Batson" (Frank Coughlan Jr.) is visited by Shazam, a wise genie who tells Billy to invoke his name whenever he's in danger. Afterward, whenever Billy says "Shazam!", he turns into Tom Tyler in tights and a cape. Then he kicks major league bootation.

The special effects are fantastic, ditto the use of models and miniatures. I'm only into the first two chapters, but so far, after the British team removes the lenses from the scorpion, the warlord fights back by having his henchmen kill the one of the professors and an assistant. This leaves Billy Batson responsible for protecting the rest of the crew, including their Gal Friday "Betty Wallace" (Louise Currie), by saying Shazam!  and turning into Captain Marvel. As Marvel, Tom Tyler basically kicks the living you know what out of the bad guys, but at the end of Chapter Two, they've knocked him out and put him on a conveyor belt, headed for a guillotine! Man, this is great stuff! I'll keep you posted on developments in future chapters.  

I'm also watching music videos by The Association and We Five, and I've just begun listening to Richard Wagner's "Lohengrin" (tra-meNN-duss!). A note on Wagner operas: for best results, choose the ones conducted by Herbert von Karajan. That's all I know for this evening. I hope your week is off to a good start and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Tom Tyler in "Terror of the Plains", and "Forbidden Trails" starring Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton (The Rough Riders)

Last night, we were back with Tom Tyler in "Terror of the Plains"(1934). Tom's Dad (Ralph Lewis) is being framed for murder, so he quits his job as a ranch hand to help Dad out. His sidekick "Banty" (Frank Rice) quits too, because wherever Tom goes, Banty goes (and Banty owes him; Tom has helped get him out of several unwanted marriages). Tom visits Dad in jail and learns who framed him, a cutthroat named "Butcher Wells" (William Gould), who is now the leader of a gang hiding out in Beale's Cut. Tom and Banty ride out there with a plan for Tom to infiltrate the gang by pretending to be an outlaw. Identifying himself as Tom Smith, he tells Butcher that he's just killed a lawman. This establishes his undercover credentials, until a henchman named "Nevada" (Slim Whittaker) decides he doesn't trust Tom, and an overlong punchout ensues. I'll say right off the bat that the two fight scenes in this film went on for longer than any I've seen in a 60 minute Western, and while I wasn't tempted to turn it off, because it's a Tom Tyler movie ('nuff said), the length of them (one was over three minutes) really detracted from the plot up to that point. I'm guessing that the director needed to fill time for lack of story, but I mean, c'mon already. These were over the top. Anyhow, after Tom wins the fight, Butcher - now going by the alias of Kirk Cramer - makes him his #1 henchman, much to the chagrin of Nevada. But Cramer tells Tom : "we share everything in this outfit, except our women. That means keep your hands off Bess, she's mine." "Bess" (Roberta Gale) is a young gal who got caught in the middle of a stage holdup and has been held hostage by Cramer ever since. We've already seen Cramer's attempt to force Bess to marry him, with the help of a pastor who is also being held by the gang. Bess tries to escape wearing boy's clothing, and when Tom is caught helping her, Cramer accuses him of trying to steal his woman. This leads to the three minute fist fight previously mentioned. Most of Tom Tyler's movies are very inventive, mixing in comedy and criminal subplots that add dimension, so again, the script must've been wanting, because while punchouts are part and parcel of 60 minute Westerns, when they go on too long it can have the effect of wearing the viewer out.

Luckily, once the second one ends, we still have 30 minutes to go, with no more fights but plenty of action. Cramer tries setting up another stage robbery, but Tom and Banty foil it by knocking out Nevada and switching hats with him, so it looks like Nevada is shooting at the stage from the weeds. This frightens the team of horses before the robbery can be completed. They run off, pulling the stagecoach with them, and because Cramer thinks Nevada screwed up the robbery, this leads him to hold a kangaroo court at the gang's hideout in a nearby ghost town. The honchos have to vote on who they think is responsible for the screw-up, but before the court is over, a lookout brings in Banty, who's been hiding in the brush since the robbery. Banty is forced to name his accomplice, but Tom pulls a gun hidden in his boot and makes Cramer ride back to town to face justice for framing his father. It's the final half of the movie that leads me to give it Two Big Thumbs Up, and there are some great scenes of a riderless horse, running full tilt, leading the chase as Tom brings Cramer back while fending off his pursuers.

At the end, the parson marries Tom and Bess, his Dad is there to witness, and all's well that ends well. Two Bigs, as noted, but they'd have done better with a full script and some better bad guys. Charles King was definitely needed in this picture, and a saloon owner or land office crook would've helped as well. Still, any time you've got Tom Tyler, you automatically have Two Big Thumbs. That's how good he was. The picture this time is pretty soft, but still watchable. //// 

The previous night, you couldn't ask for more as The Rough Riders rode again, in "Forbidden Trails"(1941, released on Christmas Day, less than three weeks after Pearl Harbor). The movie opens in a prison, where Charles King and his buddy are about to be paroled. Charles King in prison pajamas is a hoot! He vows to head back to Arizona to kill "Buck Roberts" (Buck Jones), the Marshal who put them in jail. His cellmate agrees: "If we don't get him, he's just gonna put us back here again." When they get to Buck's hometown, they find him visiting young "Jim Cramer" (Dave O'Brien), who he helped get a reduced sentence for a misguided holdup attempt. Jim has a wife and young children and is trying to go straight. He has a job as a stage driver for a mining company, delivering gold ore. Marshal Buck likes him, and watched over his wife and kids while he was in jail. Charles King and his pal decide to use Jim to get close to Marshal Buck so they can kill him, but by this time, another Rough Rider has arrived in town. Tim McCoy is posing as a cardsharp again, dressed in a black duster and tall black hat. He signs on with the saloon owner to "deal in favor of the house". The owner is heading up a scheme to rob the mining company, which McCoy plans to prevent by infiltration. Charles King comes into the saloon, sits down for a game of Faro, and McCoy takes him for all his money. King wants to shoot him, but learns the hard way that you never challenge McCoy to a draw. So, after King slinks away, the saloon owner takes pity on him and shoots him a ten spot. This placates King, and when the owner finds out he and his buddy are ex-cons, he hires them to help with the upcoming gold heist.

Meanwhile, the third Rough Rider, "Sandy Hopkins" aka Killer (Raymond Hatton), is running a hotel down in Texas. He's about to be married to a woman twice his size, and he's thinking it's a big mistake. At the altar, he gets a note saying that he's needed by Buck and McCoy, and that's all the excuse he needs to get out of the marriage. He runs from the church, rides away as fast as he can, and the next time we see him, he's in disguise as a stage driver with the mining company, taking over for Jim Cramer. In his new persona, Sandy is now an "ex-con" who also hates Marshal Buck, which establishes his undercover criminal credentials. All three Riders are now set to infiltrate the gold robbery scheme, but their plan gets screwed up when Charles King finds out that Tim McCoy is a U.S. Marshal. As previously noted, we absolutely love the Rough Riders series, you can't do better in all of 60 minute Western-dom, so Two Big Thumbs Up for "Forbidden Trails". The picture is slightly damaged but sharp. //// 

I'm listening to "Die Meistersinger" by Richard Wagner (over a four night period because it's four hours long), and I want to know where you can buy classical composer T-shirts. Anyone know? I'm talking about rock band style t-shirts but with classical composers on them. I also want a Charles King t-shirt. That's all I know for tonight. I hope you're enjoying your weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Buster Crabbe in "Billy the Kid's Smoking Guns", and some Disney animated classics

Last night we watched Buster Crabbe and pals in "Billy the Kid's Smoking Guns"(1942). As usual, Billy, "Fuzzy" (Al St. John) and "Jeff" (Dave O'Brien) are laying low outside of town, wondering why the Sheriff blames them for every crime. Then Fuzzy's stomach starts grumbling - he's always complaining about being hungry - and, as per the formula, the three head out in search of some vittles. En route, they come across a little boy named "Dickie Howard" (Joel Newfield, director Sam's kid) who holds them at gunpoint. "Stick 'em up!", he orders. Someone has shot his Pa, and Dickie thinks Billy and company are there to hurt him. Billy talks him down, Dickie is only about six years old, and they take his Pa back to town, where the Sheriff accuses them of shooting him. Billy tells the Sheriff to ask Dickie, who says "it wasn't them, Mr. Sheriff." They take Dickie's Pa to the local doctor (Milton Kibbee), and Billy thinks he'll be okay. But the doc is running a foreclosure ring. He gives Pa a coup de grace shot to kill him. Then the Sheriff (Ted Adams) rides back to the man's ranch to tell his wife (Joan Barclay) that she should move away. He offers her 200 dollars and the cancellation of her debt at the general store in exchange for her ranch.

That's the scam being run by the doctor, the Sheriff, the saloon owner, and a goon named "Roberts" (Slim Whittaker). They've found out that the Army plans to buy all the land in the valley to turn it into a cavalry post. The ranchers don't know this, so instead of getting fair market value from the Army (and probably extra money for being displaced), they're getting eviction notices from a group called The Association, headed up by the doctor, who owns the general store. He grossly overcharges the ranchers for goods, and his honchos prevent supplies from being brought into town by any other means. The doctor also has liens on all the rancher's properties. Having seen umpteen plots like this, you've gotta wonder if these scenarios were actually playing out in real life in the Old West, when there was no law and order and saloon owners or doctors could prey upon the citizens, so long as they had henchmen to carry out their evil propositions.

Henchmen are the crucial element. And, you need a Crooked Sheriff, which you have in Ted Adams.

Back to the plot: Billy finds out that the doc and the Sheriff are behind the scheme. In a subplot, Fuzzy tries opening his own general store to compete with The Association, but it's all he can do to get the sign up over his storefront. Al St. John as usual provides Keaton-ish comic relief. The punchouts go on too long in this flick, and there is no romance, despite having the beautiful Joan Barclay on board. Billy finds a huge supply of poison in a locked closet in the doctor's office, which the doc is using to shoot the ranchers up with, if they don't die from being shot by the saloon owner's ambush squad. Fuzzy has found a long range rifle and ammo left behind by an Army patrol, which allows Billy and the boys to pick off the henchman from a distance, greatly changing the odds in their favor. All ends well, of course. 

In the world of 60  minute Western bad guys, it must be noted that Ted Adams is right there at the top, along with Charles King and Harry Woods. They are the counterparts to our top three cowboys, and Adams always plays a deceptive conniver, a Snidely Whiplash or blustering authoritarian. He never gets in a punchout when a dirty trick will work just as well. But in this movie, he tries to take advantage of a widow and her small boy (Joan Barclay and Dickie, who has some great comic scenes with Fuzzy), and Buster Crabbe won't stand for it. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Billy the Kid's Smoking Guns". The picture is close to razor sharp. ////

Our Youtube movie schedule got messed up by the screening of "Blazing Saddles" the other night, and since I included it as a footnote in the previous blog, I don't have a second movie to review for this one. The situation will be rectified in the next blog, but for now, to hold you over, I'll mention some films I've watched during the past few weeks, inspired by last year's trips to Disneyland. I'm talking about the original Disney animated classics, beginning with "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"(1937). Including that film, I also watched "Pinocchio", "Peter Pan", "Alice in Wonderland", "Sleeping Beauty", "Cinderella" and "The Sword in the Stone." (Couldn't do "Bambi" for obvious reasons, sorry). What got me interested were the rides in Fantasyland, my favorite part of the park. I started wondering, "what's the full story behind 'Peter Pan?' ", and since I've never read the book, I decided to get the Disney movie to fill me in. Watching it, I realised I'd seen it as a child, and the same turned out to be true for all the films, but the thing is, if you haven't seen the Disney classics in a while, by all means revisit them. Not only is the animation in each film a thing of unsurpassed beauty (especially in "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty"), but the stories and characters, and the voices of the characters and the music, all have a special magic that only Disney can provide. For me, and perhaps for you, too, the whole Disney mystique is an enormous part of my life, and in addition to finally going back to Disneyland last year after a ten year absence (which will never happen again, I assure you), watching these movies was an equally joyous and restorative thing. Uncle Walt knew the special pockets in the heart and in the imagination where the magic is stored and resonates. That's why, to me, he was the greatest creative genius of the 20th century.

Every Disney classic I mentioned gets our highest rating of Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, and each represents the absolute best in filmmaking and in art. Watch them at your earliest convenience. ////

That's all I know for the moment. I'm listening to "Wishbone 4" by Wishbone Ash, and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)   

Bob Steele in "Brand of the Outlaws" and "Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood" w/Chester Morris (plus two bonus movies)

Last night, a good one from Bob Steele called "Brand of the Outlaws"(1936). As Bob is riding through Placerita Canyon, a shot rings out. Coming to the victim's aid, he sees its the local Sheriff (Ed Cassidy). He's been ambushed by Charles King and his cadre of cattle rustlers. After tying off the Sheriff's wound (it's just a shoulder shot so don't worry), Bob helps him back to town and then leaves, hoping to find a job. Back in Placerita, he runs into Charles King, who warns him to be on the lookout for cattle rustlers in the area. "They'll shoot ya, kid." King knows whereof he speaks, of course, and is setting Bob up, because when he tries to rides away, a hard-nose deputy shows up and accuses him of being the guy who shot the Sheriff (cue Eric Clapton). The deputy (Jack Rockwell) brands Steele with a red hot iron and tells him to leave town or else. "Next time you'll eat lead".

But Bob doesn't leave. Instead, he rides back to town to tell the Sheriff, who fires the deputy. "That kid was the man who saved my life, you idiot!"

While Bob is talking to the Sheriff, Charles King steals his horse. King is a family man this time around (lol!), with a wife and pretty stepdaughter to support. Since he can't find a job, rustling is the only way he can make money, but being Charles King, something tells us he'd be doing it anyway. Bob tracks his missing horse to King's abode, and a punchout ensues, with King's wife and stepdaughter within earshot. The fired deputy happens on the scene, because he's in cahoots with King in the rustling scheme, and he takes advantage of the King/Steele fight, to shoot King when Steele leaves. That way, King's wife and stepdaugheter - who heard the fight from the house - will think it was Bob Steele who killed him. That will get Steele out of the way, and remove King in the bargain. Poor Charles King! He's a relatively sympathetic figure in this film.

The real bad guy is Jack Rockwell, the former deputy. He finagles a job with the stagecoach office, so he'll be delivering the rancher's payroll. Then he arranges for his rustling gang to set up a robbery outside Walker Ranch, but Bob Steele foils it by robbing the stage beforehand. It's the old Tom Tyler trick of preempting a robbery by robbing the target first, then taking the money back to it's rightful owner. The fired deputy is pure evil in this flick, he tries to kidnap Charles King's stepdaughter after his stage robbery plan is foiled. He wants to "force marry" the stepdaughter, who hates him, and he's framed Bob Steele for Charles King's murder. so the stepdaughter - as much as she hates the deputy - holds Steele at gunpoint because she thinks he murdered her stepdad (King). This allows the deputy to get away, until Bob, the Sheriff, and the stage driver track him down. It's top notch stuff, directed by Robert Bradbury, Bob Steele's dad (Bob's real name was Robert Bradbury Jr.) Two Big Thumbs Up for "Brand of the Outlaws", the picture is very good. ////

The previous night, we went with Chester Morris in "Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood"(1942). Blackie and Runt (George E. Stone) are preparing for a Florida vacation when they get a telegram from Blackie's old friend "Arthur Manleder" (Lloyd Corrigan), who's in a jam over a stolen diamond. Manleder owes some crooks 60 gees because he lost the diamond before delivery. He asks Blackie to go to his apartment and get the sixty thousand out of his safe, but his apartment is in Hollywood, so there goes the Florida vacation. Blackie doesn't want Inspector Faraday getting wind of his activity, so he and Runt board the plane under assumed names and in disguise. Blackie is using his trademark Distinguished Professor look, while Runt is dressed in short pants and a child's hat. He's supposed to be Blackie's newphew "Junior". To make Runt's getup look more convincing, Blackie buys him some toys in the airport lobby, including an ant farm that will create hijinx, when Faraday and Sgt. Matthews stow away on the flight with the help of a stewardess (Shirley Patterson). Blackie releases the ants in the baggage compartment where Faraday and Matthews are hiding, which makes for an ants-in-your-pants guffaw scenario that gets a lot of mileage even after the plane lands.

Once Blackie and Runt get to Hollywood, they have to get inside Arthur Manleder's apartment. Knowing that the manager will never let them in, they sneak in, and when they take the 60 grand out of the safe, Faraday finally has a reason to arrest them. But by now, they've already given the money to Manleder, who's infatuated with the gal (Constance Worth) who stole the diamond from him in the first place.

This installment is all about the slapstick, which is running in high gear this time, in a shell game to find out who's got the sixty grand. Of course, Inspector Faraday thinks it's Blackie (and for once, Sgt. Matthews sides with Blackie because he's tired of being called a dunce by Faraday, even though he is a dunce). Blackie devises a Dummy-out-the-Windum set-up, to make it look like he murdalized the Runt for chiseling him out of the money. Look for a very young Forrest Tucker in a hoodlum role. This is not major league Blackie, because the locations are mostly nondescript hotel rooms and elevators. The "Hollywood" in the title is misleading, because there is no location shooting. The production values are cheap for a Boston Blackie film, but Morris and Stone give their all as usual, and the jokes are in full supply, going by so fast that you'll miss a few dozen. Therefore Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is razor sharp. ////

There are two bonus movies tonight because Grimsley took me to see a Retro Night screening of "Blazing Saddles" at the Granada Theater as a belated birthday present. It's funny, because we just used some Saddles quotes as cliches in recent blog reviews, and having seen it for perhaps the 20th time tonight, I must say that not only does it hold up, but it does so in spades at an astoundingly high level. After the movie, I said to Grim, "you know, that entire script is part of the lexicon". I mean, think about it : how many lines from that movie have become part of our everyday language (or at least my everyday language)? How many times have you asked someone "what in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin' on here"? Or how many times, when asked a question (any question) have you answered "got something to do with where choo-choo go."? We've all made the observation "Mongo only pawn in game of life", or suggested the need for "a shitload of dimes." Those a just a few quotations, and I'll bet there are at least one hundred if not more, because the entire film is one big joke, one after another. There's never been a movie like it, and of course it could never get made today because we live in PC, humorless times. So it was refreshing to see the theater showing it, without disclaimers or anything cut out. To me, "Blazing Saddles" is by far the funniest movie ever made. No need to review it because you've no doubt seen it a dozen or more times yourself, but there you have it : "Send wire, main office, tell them I said ow".

The other bonus movie is "Romeo & Juliet"(1968) which I picked up on a whim from the Libe. It made a big splash when it was released, because of the young stars, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, and because the director Franco Zeffirelli was hot at the time. Also, there was brief nudity (chaste by today's standards), but all of these factors got the movie a ton of press, and it was nominated for several Academy Awards. It also spawned a hit single, "A Time For Us", which was played on AM radio in 1968, and the theme music became iconic of the late '60s as the decades passed. This was my first time seeing it, and in a word (since this is a long blog) my review is "TRA-MeNN-Duss!", which must be said in the voice of Big Dorky Dan from College Records while pounding a fist on the table. It's one of the best Shakespeare adaptations I've ever seen, the photography is outstanding, and the two young leads are incredible, especially Olivia Hussey, whose career should've taken off after this film but for some reason did not. She did become a scream queen in horror flicks, but she deserved a lot better. Anyway, "Romeo and Juliet" gets our highest rating, Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, it's without a doubt one of the greatest films ever made. See it! ////

That's all for tonight. I'm listening to "Friends" by The Beach Boys, and I send you Tons of Love as always!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

(don't forget to send wire, main office......)      

George Raft in "Loan Shark", and "Idaho Kid" starring Rex Bell

Last night, for something different we watched a crime film with George Raft called "Loan Shark"(1952). The setting is unusual: several employees at a tire factory have been beaten up for failing to make their payments to a loan shark (Paul Stewart) who works out of a bar across the street. The factory owner is at a loss about how to stop it. The shark gets the employees indebted to him through an illegal gambling den run in the back of the same bar. When they lose at cards, he offers them loans to tide them over, at outregis interest rates. Finally, the factory owner calls in The Professor, who works as a shift boss on the tire assembly line. The Professor doesn't wanna name names, but he's aware of the gambling and that some of his guys are in trouble with the loan shark. A union rep named Mr. Howell is present at the meeting, and is worried that one of the workers will eventually be killed. The Professor promises to keep an eye on the situation and forward anything he finds out.

Meanwhile, George Raft has just been paroled from prison (typical Raft). He wants to go straight and visits his sister (Helen Westcott), who's boyfriend happens to work at the tire plant. She says he can get George a job there. He accepts, and soon is working on the tire line. Raft is then approached by the factory owner (Charles Merideth), who asks him to work undercover to try to find out who is heading up the loan shark operation. He asks Raft because he knows of his prison background and figures he's tough enough to handle it. Raft doesn't want to at first, because he's trying to go straight. He wants no association with crime, but when his sister's boyfriend is murdalized in a tire machine (for failing to make a payment), he changes his mind and accepts the job. The Professor is suspected of the murder. Raft wants to bust him right there, but the factory owner wants to nail the top dog. Meanwhile, Raft has already met and wooed the owner's secretary (Dorothy Hart). Her brother "Paul" (Henry Slate) also works on the assembly line, and doesn't trust Raft, because he's 25 years older than Dorothy, but she falls in love with him and there's not much Paul can do about it because it's in the script.

But because Raft has accepted the owner's proposal to infiltrate the loan gang, he has to pretend to be a criminal mastermind, which - being George Raft - he's good at. As an aside, his great newphew Bob Raft used to hang out at the Wilson's house in 1986 when we jammed there. He was a friend of Sean's, and he went with Grim, Mr. D, Sean and I to see Celtic Frost at Fender's in Long Beach in 1986. Back to the movie, as he rises in the loan shark hierarchy, Raft gets an idea to swindle housewives by having the sharks take over the home laundry delivery business. This gets him in good with the bossman "Vince Phillips" (John Hoyt), and Raft starts demanding a percentage of the cut. It's the old "rise up the ladder and challenge the boss for power" trope (I hate that word), but it's pure Raft, and because he's working undercover, he's getting closer to who the real boss is. It's not Hoyt, who has a penthouse pad complete with smoking jacket and blonde hot pants bimbo who blasts jazz on the record player.  By now, Dorothy Hart, her brother Paul and Raft's sister won't talk to Raft. They think he's loan shark scum, gone back to his criminal ways. He can't tell them that he's working undercover, and to test his loyalty, Vince Phillips forces him to beat up Paul, to make an example out of those who make trouble for the gang. Raft finally gets the goods on Phillips by tallying the numbers in his books, which don't add up and are therefore evidence for the cops. After Paul Stewart tries and fails to stop him, he goes to Phillip's penthouse and forces him to take him to the real boss, a silent partner who, in a huge surprise twist, is someone you'd never suspect. They shoot it out inside of the Phantom of the Opera theater at Universal Studios for a doggone cool finale.

It's great stuff, if a little too long at 79 minutes. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Loan Shark", especially for using an actual tire factory for the main location. The legendary Joseph Biroc is the photographer, so the whole thing looks fantastic, and in an interesting detail, 2/7ths of the Gilligan's Island cast is presaged by 11 years. "Loan Shark" is highly recommended! ////

The previous night we found another new cowboy, Rex Bell, whose name I've seen kicking around for a while. In "Idaho Kid"(1936), he's the estranged son of rancher "Clint Hollister" (Earl Dwire), who gave him up as a child to be cared for by another rancher named "John Endicott" (Lafe Mckee) after his wife died. Bell ran away from Endicott when he was a lad, and now as an adult he's back in town, hoping to reunite with his biological Dad, Mr. Hollister. But Dad and rancher Endicott are now involved in a range war, with Dad trying to fence Endicott's cattle away from the water hole. As the movie opens, Bell sees a young kid trying to pull off a stage holdup. The kid only manages to rob one passenger (Charles King) of 7 dollars and 38 cents. When King gets back to town, he claims the amount to be 307.38, but the sheriff doesn't believe him. King figures it was worth a try to inflate the figure, but when he sees Bell and the kid in the local restaurant eating dinner, he says "let's let bygones be bygones" because he's the foreman at Clint Hollister's ranch and they need men to help put up the fence. Bell and the kid (David Sharpe) are also offered jobs at John Endicott's ranch, but Bell tells the kid he's been hoping for a job at the Hollister spread. He doesn't say why, but in an expository scene with Endicott's family and the old Town Geezer, we find out that Bell was raised by Endicott and his wife, but he's really Clint Hollister's son.

Now that he's returned as an adult (and a gunslinger) he wants to reunite with his birth dad. And he and the kid get jobs at Dad's ranch. But when Bell sees how crooked his Dad is, and how he's trying to screw John Endicott out of water, he turns against Dad, who ends up firing him. The range war escalates, as Endicott's cattle have no water to drink. Bell and the kid are now working for Endicott, and Charles King sets up an ambush to kill them. He brings a henchman along with him, and he actually says "let's cut them off at the pass". Had he said "head them off at the pass", then I'd have invoked Mel Brooks and Headly Lamarr, but this is another movie that you know Brooks must've seen. At any rate, Charles King makes a big mistake by cutting Rex Bell off at the pass, because Bell shoots him and his henchman dead. Now Clint Hollister, Rex's Dad, is really cheesed off. He challenges Rex to a showdown. Dad actually says "this town isn't big enough for both you and me". If he'd said "this town ain't big enough for both of us", I'd be invoking the Mael Brothers, but at any rate, when John Endicott finds out that Hollister has challenged Rex to a duel, he feels bad that Rex is fighting his battles for him. He rides over to Hollister's and challenges him to a replacement duel in place of Rex Bell. So as it plays out, it's two old guys, two classic B-Western actors - Earl Dwire and Lafe McKee - shooting it out in one of the most classic endings of any 60 minuter that you are ever gonna see.

Lafe actually tells Dwire, "leave town one half hour before sundown". If he'd cut it shorter and just said "leave town by sundown" I don't know who I'd be invoking, but it would be another perfect Western cliche.

The script is well developed this time, though Rex Bell is a little stiff and California Jock looking, compared to the greats we've become fans of. He's still very good, so don't get me wrong, but he's no Tim McCoy or Tom Tyler or Johnny Mack Brown in the acting department.

But - and did you know this about Rex Bell? : he was married to Clara Bow, the It Girl, for over 30 years. So it turns out, by association at least, that he was something of Hollywood royalty. He also became the Lieutenant Governor of Nevada in later life, and was a close friend of Clark Gable and Ronald Reagan. This means that Bell was a bigger deal than I thought, which is probably why his name was kicking around in my head. And, he's a good cowboy when all is said and done. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Idaho Kid", with Clauda Schilling as Bell's beautiful sister. The picture is very good. ////

That's all for tonight. I'm listening to "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys and "Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble" by Uriah Heep. I hope you had a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.

P.S. (added at 10:23 pm) : did you see the Red Moon Eclipse tonight? I just saw it on my walk. The Moon looked like a big marble, like you could grab it right out of the sky. And have you seen the recent NASA photo of the "entryway" on Mars? It's a mindblower! Wow and good grief, Charlie Brown. 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)     

Johnny Mack Brown in "Pony Post", and "Rio Rattler" starring Tom Tyler

Last night, we had Johnny Mack Brown in "Pony Post"(1940), a story of the Pony Express. As he's riding through Chatsworth Park, Johnny sees an Express rider being chased down by Indians. He rides after them and shoots several dead, but by the time they turn tail, they've wounded the Express rider. JMB carries him back to town on his horse and takes him to a doctor, but he dies. The manager of the Pony Express office wants to give Johnny the job, but he doesn't want it. "Too dangerous," he says. The manager's beautiful daughter (Dorothy Short) tries to persuade him, but that doesn't work either. There's too many robbers and Indians on the trail. The manager promises to make it safer. "I'll fire that operator over at Ruby Valley. He's always drunk, anyway. And, and I'll hire you a sideman".

With these provisions, Johnny accepts the job and heads over to Ruby Valley, where he meets "Shorty" (Fuzzy Knight), who works as a saddler for "Atkins" (Stanley Blystone), the Express operator who's about to be fired. Fuzzy gets a lot of screen time in comic relief, and when he learns that Johnny is gonna be the new outpost manager, he decides that he wants to become a rider, too, despite his total ineptitude with horses. Atkins, besides being a drunk, also has a side business going with the Richards brothers, "Claude" and "Mack" (Ray Teal, Jack Rockwell). They tip off the Indians whenever a Pony Express rider is coming through Chatsworth, then split the spoils with them after the Indians chase and rob the guy. Atkins doesn't wanna lose this lucrative part of his job, so he has Claude kill the district manager. Then he tells Johnny Mack, "he can't fire me now, and you don't have a job." Instead, Johnny heads over to the horse ranch of "Norma Reeves" (Nell O'Day). Norma has a stake in stopping the robberies also, as she supplies the horses used by the Pony Express, and has lost several in the Indian attacks. She tells Johnny she's going to ride through Indian country herself to identify the killers, but Johnny stops her. "Do you have any idea what they'll do to you if they catch you?" The implication is grim, but she's determined to ride out there anyway. Johnny finally relents, but only if she agrees to let him ride along.

Much time is spent with Fuzzy Knight as he "trains" (or attempts to train) to become a Pony Expressman. Charles King has a small, non-criminal role as a well-dressed gambler who has a little fun with Fuzzy at the bar. This was likely a walk-on for King, and we see him in a friendly, relaxed mood, wearing a brand new suit - amazing! There are two songs by our favorite Western band, the Jimmy Wakely Trio. Given all the screen time for Fuzzy (who we love), there's not as much action as you'd like, and therefore not as much Johnny Mack Brown, but still, he's The King, so Two Big Thumbs for "Pony Post". Johnny wears all black in this flick, a different look for him, more like Harry Carey. The picture is very good. ////

The night before, we watched Tom Tyler in "Rio Rattler"(1935). "Tom Denton" (Tyler) and his pal "Soapy" (Eddie Gribbon) ride into town, preparing to start new jobs. As they hitch up their horses, Tom tells Soapy to stay away from the bar. "We need you sober so we don't get fired". But Soapy is jonesin', so he sneaks away for a shot, and the next thing you know, the barkeep has ripped him off. Soapy says "I gave you a twenty dollar gold piece, where's my change"? The keep says, "You gave me two bits!" Of course, he's lying. A punchout ensues, involving the barkeep and all his hoodlum friends, and when Tom comes to Soapy's rescue, he discovers an ally in the fracas, a Ranger friend named "Bob Adams" (Tom London). The barkeep and his honchos vow payback, and when Tom, Bob and Soapy ride off, they are ambushed by a hired gun named "The Rattler" (Slim Whittaker). Ranger Bob is shot, and as he is dying he gives Tom his badge and I.D. card. "You can impersonate me and arrest those guys." Tom also has to inform Bob's sister "Mary" (Marion Schilling) of his death. He can't bring himself to do it, so he plays along when she asks how Bob is doing. "He's okay," Tom says. "We just crossed paths on the trail" Finally, when she finds her brother's wallet and ID on Tom, she wonders why he lied, and accuses him of murdering Bob to assume his identity. Tom swears he didn't kill Bob (which is true), and to prove it to Mary, he tells her of Bob's plan. "He wanted me to take his name, to clean up corruption in this town."

The criminal activity in town is controlled by bank owner "Mason" (William Gould). He's used to having things his way, and tells the townsfolk that Tom is a wanted criminal. Now, Tom has to run to keep from being lynched, and at the same time The Rattler is hunting him down. The Rattler ends up shooting Soapy, which leads Mary to have sympathy for him and Tom, and to distrust Mason. Because she's the sister of a Ranger, her opinion carries weight. Soon, Mason's bank is going under from withdrawals, and the Richards brothers shoot it out with Tom Denton. Music is provided as comic relief by The Smith Brothers, and it must be said they're no Jimmy Wakely Trio. In one scene, Tom Tyler even tells them how horrible they are, haha. 

Two Big Thumbs Up for "Rio Rattler". The picture is soft but watchable. ////

That's all for this evening. As I write, I imagine the Paul McCartney concert is just about ending. If you went, here or in another city, I hope you had a blast. I saw Paul in 2019 at Dodger Stadium, and it was one of the greatest concerts I've ever been to. Right now, I am listening to Supersister's "A Girl Named You". I wish you a great weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Ken Maynard and Charles King in "Alias the Bad Man", and "Aces and Eights" starring Tim McCoy

Last night we were back with Ken Maynard, as "Ranger Ken Neville", in "Alias the Bad Man" (1931). While taking part in a rodeo, Ranger Ken gets a letter from his Dad (Lafe McKee), a cattle rancher. Dad is asking for Ken's help in foiling a cattle rustling scheme. He and "Rancher Warner" (Robert Homans) have been fooled into thinking that each has been rustling the other's cattle. The two men have been at one another's throats, but now Neville has figured out that a man named "Rance Collins" (Frank Mayo) has been playing them against each another, and that Collins is the real rustler.

Ranger Ken heads for town, but by the time he gets there, both Dad and Mr. Warner are dead. it appears they shot each other in a confrontation at Warner's house. That's what Warner's daughter Mary thinks, and when Ken gets there, she voices her hate for old Mr, Neville. Given her feelings, Ken decides against identifying himself as Neville's son, so he just says "I'm with the Rangers" and asks her for info on how she found the bodies. "Did anyone know you father was going to meet with Mr. Neville"? Mary says, "Yes, Rance Collins knew". The audience already knows that Collins shot both men. He was hiding in Warner's parlor, and pulled the old Pistol from the Closet trick. Collins is the local saloon owner who's behind all the cattle rustling in town (and we're gonna have to elevate saloon owner in the Villain Rankings), but he's made a point of befriending Mary Warner (Virginia Brown Faire), to portray himself as a sympathetic figure. He even showed up right after Mary found the bodies, in the old "Climb Out the Windum After You Shoot 'Em, Then Return" trick, to feign shock. "Oh Mary, who would do such a thing?" But now, Ranger Ken is onto him, and when Ken shows up at the saloon, he infiltrates Collins's gang, because he needs evidence. In Dad's letter, he said that no one has ever been able to convict Collins because he's so good at covering his tracks.

Ken introduces himself as an outlaw, and proves it by shooting "dead" a supposed Ranger played by his stuttering sidekick "Repeater" (Irving Bacon). But the whole thing's a farce; he doesn't really kill Repeater, but Rance Collins thinks he did, so he hires Ken as a honcho on his rustling team.

But then, Ken meets Collins' henchman "Black". Black isn't so easily fooled by Ken's act, because he's Charles King, King and his hoodlums have just been in a punchout with Ken and Repeater, in which the duo had the advantage, because Tarzan, Ken's trick horse, knocked out the lights with his snout before the fight started, so only Ken and Repeater knew who they were hitting. Charles King wound up with a black eye, and he next time he sees Ken, as a supposed outlaw, he recognizes him and tells Rance Collins, who sets up an ambush plan on the next cattle rustling job. But Tarzan comes to Ken's rescue again, by leading the bad guys into a barn and locking them in. He is one amazing horse. This is yet another very early Charles King movie, he's as thin as you're gonna see him, and he has an uncanny quality, where he's always one step ahead of getting caught. He has a criminal's intuition, and is always more savvy than the boss man. But the way he plays it, with his eyes and physicality, is what makes Charles King such a great actor. You'd swear he was a real Western bad guy, a conniver who always seems to have something he's hiding, and is convinced he'll get away with it. That's Charles King in a nutshell, and it would be nice if his career was examined by Hollywood historians. To us, he's one of the greatest motion picture stars ever, as are many of the Western actors we've followed. Westerns, more than any other genre, established the movie business and made it what it is. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Alias the Bad Man". The picture is damaged but good. //// 

The previous night, we had Tim McCoy, without guns this time, as a card sharp in "Aces and Eights"(1936). He goes from town to town with his sidekick "Lucky" (Jimmy Aubrey), cleaning out marks in high stakes poker games. He likes to expose chiselers, and in Rough Gulch, California, he exposes a guy (John Merton) who ends up challenging him. Tim doesn't wear a six-shooter in this role, but he's known to have the strongest hands of any man alive and can tear a deck of cards into quarters. Merton sees him do this, then gets scared and runs off. Later, at Walker Ranch, he's approached by another player in the card game, a young Mexican man by the name of "Jose Hernandez" (Rex Lease). Jose wants his money back, because he knows Merton is a cheater. When Merton tells him to get lost, Jose draws his gun and fires. Merton falls dead, but it wasn't Jose who killed him. We saw the old "Derringer Appearing From the Tree Trunk" trick. Whoever was holding it is the guy who killed John Merton. But because the Marshal finds Tim's torn up cards on the scene, he assumes Tim did it, even though he knows Tim doesn't carry a gun.

On the trail at Walker Ranch, Jose Hernandez - thinking it was he who killed Merton - runs into Tim McCoy, who's seen the wanted posters for himself, and tells Tim to hide out at the Rancho of Don Julio Hernandez. "He will not refuse you". Jose knows this because he is the Don's estranged son.

At the rancho, Senor Hernandez does accommodate Tim, though has his own problem, because "Ace Morgan" (Wheeler Oakman), the owner of the local casino, is about to foreclose on his property. Morgan uses stacked decks to clean out his customers. Tim challenges Ace to a single hand of poker, using a clean deck. "Your casino or Don Hernandez' ranch". Ace loses, and agrees to pay up, but then frames Tim for the murder of John Merton at the beginning of the movie. To repay Tim for saving his rancho, Don Hernandez asks the local Mexican police chief to re-investigate the crime scene. I didn't fully understand that angle, unless the time period is supposed to be pre-1848, when California still belonged to Mexico, but again, in these short Westerns, sometimes a plot point is explained in a single line of dialogue. Maybe the Mexican Captain is merely a friend of Don Hernandez, but at any rate, he proves Tim's innocence. In addition to Ace Morgan, there are two other mustachioed Snidely Whiplash characters. We could've used a Charles King, though, because the film is a little short on action. It is a nice departure for McCoy, however, who has the best acting eyes of any of our movie cowboys. I've only recently noticed this, but McCoy rarely uses the puchout scenes that all the other cowboy stars use. That's because his authoritarian presence is usually enough to deter the bad guys, and if it isn't, his lighting fast draw does the trick. This time, its all in the cards.

Two Big Thumbs Up for "Aces and Eights". The picture is very good. ////

That's all for this evening. I'm listening to a Youtube compilation of The Wilde Flowers, the band that gave birth to the Canterbury scene. They formed in the mid-60s, and featured Kevin Ayers, Hugh Hopper and his brother Brian, Richard Sinclair, and at different points also Pye Hastings, Dave Sinclair, Mike Ratledge and Robert Wyatt, among others. The Wilde Flowers eventually split into two groups that became legends: Soft Machine and Caravan. The music is somewhat haphazard, bluesy and poppy by turns, and it doesn't really give any hints of what's to come from these musicians, but it's interesting in a historical context. I also listened to a live "best of" from Uriah Heep (search "Classic Heep, Live from the Byron Era"), and have become a huge fan of Gary Thain's bass playing. The guy was an unsung monster. Check out the vid and listen to the power in his basslines. He should be ranked with the best of 'em in my opinion.

Listening also to recordings by the pianist Clara Haskil. She was one of my Dad's favorites, and her Scarlatti sonatas are sublime. I hope your week is going well, and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

A Non-Western Weekend: "The Witching Hour" and "One Mysterious Night" (Boston Blackie)

It was a non-Western weekend this time around, beginning with last night's film, "The Witching Hour"(1934) and I must preface it by saying wow, what a find! I stumbled on it by chance, after searching Youtube for old black and white mysteries. "Jack Brookfield" (John Halliday), a wealthy and refined gentleman, runs a casino out of the parlor in his mansion. Young "Clay Thorne" (Tom Brown) is there every night, and as the movie opens we see Mr. Brookfield's servant asking Clay to bet a dollar for him, as Clay is having a run of luck. The servant rubs his lucky rabbit's foot, and it pays off as Clay wins big at the dice table. Luck is then dispensed with as we get to know Mr. Brookfield, whose psychic powers allow him to preempt a police raid on his establishment. He clears out the gamblers before the cops arrive, and when his best friend asks him how he knew they were coming, he says he can't explain it. The friend then asks him is he's ever heard of the phenomenon of thought transfer, or esp as we now call it. Mr. Brookfield says he's never heard of it, but he's glad it worked to help him trick the cops. 

As for Clay Thorne, Brookfield knows he's is not really there for the gambling. Clay's in love with Brookfield's daughter "Nancy" (Judith Allen) and wants to marry her, but when Clay goes to ask Mr. Brookfield for her hand, he becomes terrified of Brookfield's cat's eye ring. It seems an irrational fear, so Brookfield hypnotises Clay by thought transfer, to lose his fear of cat's eye rings, and when Clay comes to, the fear is gone. But in the interim, another suitor has come to the house to demand a meeting with Nancy. He wants to marry her, too.  Mr. Brookfield doesn't like this chap and has his servant throw him out of the house. He threatens to kill the guy if he ever comes back.

The next thing we know, Nancy Brookfield comes to her Dad in tears, saying that Clay has just been arrested in the murder of the other suitor. Clay says he can't remember what happened, or even how he got to the man's house. Mr. Brookfield surmises that Clay was influenced by hypnotic suggestion, because while he was hypnotised, he overheard Brookfield threaten to kill the other man (for reference, think of Gilligan turning into Mary Ann when the Professor hypnotises her.) As for Clay Thorne, he's charged with murder, and no lawyer will take his case, because they think his excuse is a lot of hooey. But finally, Mr. Brookfield, who likes Clay and wants him to marry Nancy, convinces his friend "Martin Prentice" (Guy Standing), a retired judge, to take the case. Judge Prentice won't do it at first, but agrees after being visited by the ghost of his late paramour, who happens to be Clay's grandmother. When the case goes to trial, the prosecutor mocks the hypnosis theory. The jury foreman is Fred Mertz, so you can imagine what he thinks of it. But Judge Prentice, acting as Clay's lawyer, has an ace up his sleeve to prove Clay's innocence and that's all I can tell you about the plot, but man, it's a humdinger.

If you are know the story of September 1989, or are a student of the RFK assassination, you are going to love this movie. The way in which thought transfer is presented is right on the money, as is the power of hypnosis to make people forget their actions (or things that have happened to them). The movie originated with a play in 1901, when the Spirituist movement was popular in America. But it predicts everything that happened with RFK, except in that case it was deliberately done to Sirhan by an evil person named Louis Jolyon West. This is a must see film, one of those weird little gems like "Portrait of Jennie" or "The Enchanted Cottage" that you come across once in a while. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "The Witching Hour". The picture is very good. ////

The previous night, Chester Morris returned as Boston Blackie in "One Mysterious Night"(1944). When the priceless Blue Star of the Nile diamond is stolen from a ladies-club exhibition, "Inspector Faraday" (Richard Lane) suspects an inside job, but he names Blackie as the suspect so the newspapers will print the headline. The only way Faraday can get Blackie to contact him is by accusing him of a crime he didn't commit. When Blackie shows up at headquarters, with sidekick "Runt" (George E. Stone) in tow, Faraday deputizes him to help solve the crime. The first thing Blackie does is visit the exhibition, in disguise as an elderly geologist (yeah, I know; what's with all the geologists lately?). He talks to the gallery's assistant manager, and suspects him of being in on the job. A hotshot female reporter (Janice Carter), recognizes Blackie under the wig and outs him. Now the manager is worried about being busted, and enlists his sister (Dorothy Malone) to help hide the diamond, which he stole on behalf of some hoodlums. Blackie ends up stealing the diamond from the manager, who's shot dead when the crooks come back to claim it. One weird aspect of the script is that, after he dies, he's never mentioned again, and the Dorothy Malone character disappears.

When the diamond goes missing, Inspector Faraday is in hot wattah with the Chief, for hiring Blackie in the first place, because rule #1 is: whenever a diamond is involved, suspect #1 is always Blackie. In this case, the crooks know he stole it, and they want it back, but he only stole it to lead them to his pal "Jumbo Madigan" (Joseph Crehan), who owns a pawn shop. Jumbo is gonna tell the crooks that the diamond is a fake, which will enable Blackie to escape with the real one.

The jokes fly fast and loose in this installment of the series, and while the slapstick doesn't match our last Blackie outing ("A Close Call For Boston Blackie"), there is a great scene where Blackie and Runt are tied upside down to a bedframe and have to right themselves. Chester Morris would be a huge comedy star in the SNL tradition if he were alive today. There's also a great scene in that regard about a women's rooming house, where no men are allowed to enter. It's really weird how Dorothy Malone is listed 29th in the IMDB credits (and uncredited in the film itself) when she's the fourth or fifth major character in the movie. A small disappointment is that the doofus Sgt. Matthews character is played by someone other than Frank Sully this time. The actor in this movie was okay, but Sully, for me, is the one-and-only Sgt. Matthews, a dumbbell extraordinaire. The director was Tarantino favorite Budd Boetticher, making his debut. The bottom line, as always, is that Boston Blackie rules. They could've made a hundred of these flicks and we'd never get tired of watching 'em. Two Big Thumbs Up for "One Mysterious Night". The picture is close to razor sharp. ////

That's all for tonight. I hope your week is off to a good start. I'm listening to Egg "The Polite Force" and I send you Tons of Love as always!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Sunset Carson in "Call of the Rockies", and "Billy the Kid's Round Up" starring Buster Crabbe

Last night we had another new find: Sunset Carson, who starred in "Call of the Rockies"(1944). I discovered Carson after Googling the plaque at Garden of the Gods in the Santa Susana Pass. It lists some of the cowboys who filmed movies at the Iverson Ranch. Many of our favorites are on the plaque (amazingly, Tom Tyler isn't on there), and Sunset Carson is one of the first names listed. I'd never heard of him, he was a late comer to B-Westerns, but I looked him up and saw that he made some popular flicks for Republic Pictures in the mid-to late 40s.  He's young like Bob Steele (24 and looks it) but unlike Bob he's very tall, 6'6". The interesting thing is that he isn't the star here. Smiley Burnette is. Smiley usually played a sidekick (we saw him in all those Tim Holt westerns), and this time he's nominally a sidekick to Sunset, but Smiley gets most of the screen time, maybe because it was Sunset's first movie.

Anyway, Harry Woods is great in a co-starring, semi-comic role as the evil owner of a mine equipment store. If Charles King is the King of Henchmen, then Woods is certainly the Bossman of all the Western Bad Guys who ever lived. He's always the kingpin behind the scenes, getting the Charles Kings of the world to do his dirty work. Here, he's trying to take over the mines of the local geologist, who's put his blood, sweat and tears into establishing his business.

Woods is in cahoots with the town doctor (we'll have to add doctors to the list of Western villains!), and has the doc poison the drinking water of the miners, so that their deaths will be blamed on the "stupidity" of the geologist. At the beginning of the movie, his girlfriend steals Sunset's horse, and he robs Smiley of their mining eqipment and stagecoach, which is why they have to report to Harry Woods in the first place. Smiley, wearing a fake beard and accent, impersonates a French mining engineer, who testifies in favor of the geologist's plan to drain the mines of water, which will eliminate the drowning danger for the miners. He's eventually outed by Harry Woods' henchmen, but by that time all hell is breaking loose underground. A dynamite charge has blasted a hole in the shaft, and the mine is collapsing. According to IMDB, the Sunset Carson films were built around non-stop action, and this movie is a good indication of that. It's not a good indicator of Sunset's prowess as a top cowboy, however, because he doesn't get to do very much. He is likable, though, and Smiley and Harry Woods are great in the leads. Therefore, Two Big Thumbs Up for "Call of the Rockies", and we'll look for more from Sunset Carson. The picture is very good. ////

The previous night, we went with Buster Crabbe in "Billy the Kid's Round-Up", which it's worth noting was released on December 12, 1941. I wonder how many people went to the movies that Friday night, just days after America entered World War Two? Sheriff Slim Whitaker serves notice to saloon owner Glenn Strange (of Frankenstein fame) that he's tired of the hoodlums hangin' out at Strange's bar. "I'm gonna clean up this town", he tells big Glenn, "and run you out of business". But Strange has a plan to get rid of Slim as Sheriff. He has Slim's deputy Charles King run against Slim in the upcoming election. King is in Strange's back pocket. But the local newspaper editor is railing against Strange and his saloon and clientele, and it looks like any Strange-backed candidate will lose. Then suddenly, the Gun-Through-The-Windum trick is deployed, and Sheriff Slim is shot dead. Deputy Charles King becomes Sheriff by default, and there is no election after that. This makes two movies in a row where King becomes Sheriff! I notice a pattern developing.

Meanwhile, out in the boonies, Billy the Kid (Crabbe) is joshing with his pals "Fuzzy" (Al St. John) and "Jeff" (Carleton Young). Their downtime ends when they get a hand delivered message that Sheriff Slim needs them for protection. Billy has the reputation of an outlaw, but he's really an iconoclast who goes his own way. He is the fastest gun in the West (and was said to be in real life), and he killed people, but "none who didn't deserve it". In this movie series (of which 14 Crabbe/Kid films were made), he's portrayed as an outlaw hero. He isn't a thief but he doesn't fit in to society. However, Sheriff Slim is his friend, so when Slim calls for his help, Billy tells Fuzzy and Jeff, "we've gotta go".

But when they get to town, they find that Slim has been shot dead. They ask around about what has happened, and Glenn Strange the saloon owner tells Billy to mind his own bidness. Buster Crabbe is so great in this role, because he nails the self-assurance of Billy the Kid. Billy just laughs at Strange, a towering man, and says, "I'm not so good at minding my business when it comes to getting shot in the back."

Billy ends up protecting the newspaper editor, who is pushing for a fair election. Al St. John ends up running for Sheriff against Charles King, and Al wins, despite Glenn Strange's attempt to buy all the votes. As noted in an earlier blog, Al St. John is a legend who was genius at comic relief. He started in Silent film with Fatty Arbuckle. Despite the presence of the beautiful Joan Barclay, there is no romantic angle. It's all about Buster and his boys against Strange and Charles King, but with that line-up you can hardly go wrong. We've seen the first two of the Billy the Kid movies starring Buster Crabbe, and it's as good a series as The Rough Riders, so don't miss it. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Billy the Kid's Round Up". The picture is also very good. ////

That's all I know for the moment. I'm listening to National Health. I really wanna see Paul McCartney next Friday, but I don't know if I can brave Sofi Stadium (traffic, parking costs, etc.) Ahh, well. I hope you are enjoying your weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always!

Two Classics : Bob Steele and Charles King in "Young Blood", and "Deep in the Heart of Texas" starring Johnny Mack Brown

Last night was without a doubt one of the all-timers as far as 60 minute Westerns are concerned. As promised, we gave Bob Steele another shot and he and the filmmakers delivered big time in "Young Blood"(1932). Lookin' like a kid again, Bob's even called The Kid in this movie. He's a stage robber, the leader of a gang of four, and as the movie opens, he's divvying up the loot from the gang's latest heist. He reprimands the other three bandits over a bag of jewelry. "You boys know I don't cotton to stealing from ladies!" He plans to give it back, and the honchos aren't pleased. They're older, bigger and grizzlier than The Kid, but he's the fastest gun as usual, so there's nothing they can do about it. Meanwhile, down on Main Street in town,  a dozen of the local citizens are waiting in anticipation for the stage. They're standing in front of the opera house because the beautiful and exotic "Countess Lola Montaine" (Naomi Judge) is due at any minute. She's a European diva who's set for a run of shows (though we never get to see her perform), but when she arrives, the crowd is disappointed after she confronts the Sheriff. "I am disgusted to be in America! Eet eez nothing but robbers and thieves!" She's complaining about being robbed of her jewels, which is what we saw The Kid reproaching his men for at the beginning. The Countess berates the Sheriff for doing nothing about it, and......is it who I think it is?...could it be?.......oh my goodness it is, and can you even believe it? The Sheriff is Charles King!

Let that sink in for a minute before we continue. (the sheriff is charles king......)

I have to take an aside to say that, at this point, having seen Charles King in around 35 movies (less than a tenth of his output), I have to conclude that he's the greatest movie star of all-time, as far as representation of Hollywood is concerned. Here's what it comes down to: name me a movie that would not benefit from the presence of Charles King. I mean any movie. "2001?" Yes, it's incredible as-is. But put Charles King in there, and it would be even greater, no question. "The Exorcist?" "Andrei Rublev?" Same deal. Any movie with Charles King is better than any movie without him. So that settles that, case closed.

I mean, he's the freaking Sheriff here. And, he's thinner than you've ever seen him, clean shaven (except for a trim moustache). He's even wearing clean clothes! And he, of all people, gets to romance the Countess, who has a lot more than opera on her mind. But then, when she goes into the Pony Express office to mail a letter, she takes one look at sweet "Gail Winters" (Helen Foster) behind the counter, and decides she likes Gail even more than Charles King. She asks Gail to come over to the hotel for a visit (if you get my meaning), and this is some serious pre-Code innuendo that is barely couched. You're watching, going "holy smokes! This movie was made 90 years ago"! Gail is excited to get an invitation from the Countess, but then the manager of the Pony Express, who's been overhearing the conversation with his eyes about to pop from his head, comes over and says, "I wouldn't visit her if I were you. You know how the town ladies gossip." And there is a town lady who's straight out of Blazing Saddles! I swear, Mel Brooks must've seen this movie.

Well anyhow, The Kid enters the office right as Gail is talking about "visiting" the Countess. He doesn't like it, because he's had his eye on Gail too, and now he has female competition. He repeats what the manager told her, that the town ladies will gossip. "You don't want that kind of reputation," he says. And Gail stands up to him! This is one of the most frank pre-Code scenes we've ever seen. She tells The Kid, "who are you to decide who I should see?" Finally, he has to use another tack, by convincing Gail that its not the same-sex relationship that's the problem, but that the Countess is a user. "She'll hang you out to dry and move on." Wow! All that and Charles King, too.

By now, King, as the Sheriff, is getting a lot of grief from both the townsfolk and the other gang members (of which he is one), each of whom want him to do something about the other side. But of course, because he's Charles King, he's only looking out for himself. He tries a half-measure, to get the gang and the citizens off his back, by jailing The Kid when he demands the Countess's jewels from King at gunpoint. 

King finally tries to force himself on the Countess after he finds out she's been romancing The Kid. To defend herself, she picks up a letter opener and.....I can't tell you what happens.

But she has a sweet little monkey as a sidekick, who provides a plot twist that will seal King's fate. Bob Steele learns the hard way that crime doesn't pay, but he's all smiles all the way through, and lookin' as junior high school as ever.

Besides being racy, this is the ultimate Charles King movie so far, and if he doesn't get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, then we are going to personally go down there and install one ourselves.

"Young Blood" takes pre-Code boldness to a level not before seen, and has Bob Steele playing a bad guy who wants to be a good guy and Charles King as a bad guy pretending to be a good guy. There are so many plot twists that I can't even remember them all. There's Blazing Saddles moments throughout, and old biddies at the opera house. This movie is a classic and it gets our highest rating of Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. Yes indeed, it's no joke. It's still a 60 minute Western so don't go looking for art, but with the ingredients already mentioned, you'd be a fool to miss out. "Young Blood" is a must-see, and the picture is very good. ////

The previous night, we watched Johnny Mack Brown in a historical Western entitled "Deep in the Heart of Texas"(1942), the story of the Lone Star State's effort to rejoin the Union after the Civil War. The Federal Gubment has agreed to let Texas rejoin if the wealthiest landowners, who've been holding out for an independent Republic, will sign oaths of alligience to the U.S. Many of the smaller ranchers are in favor of this; their cause is championed by a newspaperman who editorializes against "Colonel Malloy" (William Farnum), the self-appointed "governor" of the land barons. Malloy wants the editor hanged, but a local cowboy named "Jim Mallory" (JMB) comes to his rescue, with his sidekick "Happy" (Fuzzy Knight). Malloy's henchmen arrest Jim and Happy, and say "you'll have to face sentencing by the Governor." Jim says "go ahead and take us", and when they arrive at Malloy's mansion on the backlot of Universal Studios, he says "hi, Dad". Malloy is Jim Mallory's father.

Jim tries to tell his Dad that the right thing is to get Texas back in the union, but Malloy says no. "I've built this Republic with my own two hands. We don't want the federal government telling us what we can do." But Jim has seen the negative side of his father's actions. The ranchers union is suppressed and heavily taxed. Their only voice is the newspaper editor, but now Malloy wants him dead. Malloy is grateful to have his son back in his life (he thought he was killed in the Civil War), and he appoints Jim as head of "National Affairs", sort of a Second-In-Command. The appointment angers "Sam Franklin" (Roy Brent), the honcho who built up the Republic with him. Franklin threatens to force Malloy out. To appease him, Malloy has his henchmen destroy the editor's printing press. Now Jim is definitely sided against his Dad, but also trying to free him from the influence of Franklin and the landholders.

Ample time is spent with Fuzzy Knight, and a character named "Sgt. Idaho" (the great Harry Woods in a comic role), who works for Malloy as an enforcer and wears an F-Troop uniform. Idaho is big and dumb, and he loves to hear love songs. Once he finds out Fuzzy can sing, he won't stop badgering him to do so. He even pays off Fuzzy's bar debt of fifty clams, so that Fuzzy will have to sing for him till doomsday. Tex Ritter has a supporting role as the agent who fights for the ranchers. He gets a lot of screentime, and opposes Johnny Mack at first, when Johnny is supporting his Dad. But eventually, they join forces to stop Sam Franklin, who is trying to dethrone Mr. Malloy and keep Texas from re-joining the union. It's a patriotic film at a time the country needed it most, in 1942, and at the end, when Malloy is in crisis, he asks Johnny Mack to recite with him the Pledge of Allegiance. Tim Holt's sister Jennifer has a role as the daughter of the newspaper editor, and you also get a bit part from Budd Buster. Tex Ritter sings the title song, with help from The Jimmy Wakely Trio. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Deep in the Heart of Texas". As usual, Johnny Mack Brown gives you a well-developed story. This is one of the later Westerns he made for Universal, so production values are better than usual, and the picture is very good. Highly recommended! Watch both movies for a great double-bill. ////

That's all I know for tonight. I'm listening to Caravan's "If I Could Do It Again", and I'm super excited that the new King's X will finally see the light of day on September 2nd, three and a half years after it was recorded, and 14 years since their last album. It came out when George W. Bush was President! I hope your week is going well, and I send you Tons of Love, as always!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)