Last night we watched "Marshal of Reno"(1944) our first Bill Elliott Western and the second of 23 films in the Red Ryder series, based on a cowboy hero from a comic strip. You will remember Bill Elliott as Detective Doyle from "Sudden Danger" a couple nights ago and reviewed in the last blog. Here, he plays the gunslinger Red Ryder, a self-proclaimed "peaceable man" who nevertheless takes out any bad guys who make trouble in the town of Blue Springs, where he lives with his Aunt, known as "The Duchess" (Alice Fleming). His sidekick is an Indian boy named "Little Beaver" (Bobby Blake). As the movie opens, two young greenhorns, Western aficionados from Vermont, are hanging out at Corriganville talking about becoming cowhands. It's been their dream to come west, but things start to go bad when Charles King and a henchman ride up and rob them of their horses. King and his pal have just robbed the stage and killed its driver. By switching horses with the greenhorns, they end up becoming the suspects.
A posse is sent out by the saloon owner in the town of Rockland, a slicker named "Faro Carson" (LeRoy Mason) who's in league with the editor of the local paper (Herbert Rawlinson). Better add newspapermen to the list of western criminals! These two are conspiring to have Rockland take over the county seat from Blue Springs, where a crime wave has terrorized the citizens. Red Ryder suspects that a gang from Rockland is committing all the crimes in Blue Springs, just so it will lose the county seat. He and Little Beaver, along with Gabby Hayes, ride in to do something about it.
Meanwhile, the posse formed by Faro Carson, who is leading the crime wave gang, captures the two greenhorns, one of whom - "Lee" (Blake Edwards) is murdered by a henchman. When Lee's partner "Danny" (Jay Kirby) learns he is being framed for the stage robbery and killing by Charles King, he hides out in the hills of Chatsworth Park and swears revenge. Here's an odd bit of data for you: how many movies have a cast that includes Blake Edwards (as an actor), Robert Blake (as a small child, he's 11 but looks 6), and Charles King, all in one movie? At any rate, Red Ryder goes undercover after demonstrating his skills in a saloon shootout and is hired by Carson to become the leader of the next stage heist. But Carson's top henchman doesn't trust Red, who is posing under an assumed name, and Red has another problem because Danny, the greenhorn from Vermont who's being framed for murder, is hell bent on clearing his name. When he finds out that Red has "joined" the Rockland gang, he doesn't know Red is working undercover and starts taking potshots at him from the hillside. Finally, he's outed as Red Ryder and escapes hanging only by the skin of his teeth when Gabby, The Duchess and Little Beaver all come to his rescue. Then he saves Danny, too.
Bill Elliott is great in the lead role, meaning we've got a brand new cowboy hero and a ton of Red Ryder films that he appears in. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Marshal of Reno". The picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night, Tim McCoy was back, in "Lightning Carson Rides Again"(1938), and again McCoy, as federal agent Lightning Bill Carson, is going undercover as a Mexican Bandito, his specialty guise. As the movie opens, a gang led by Ted Adams is hiding in the rocks at Chatsworth Park, waiting to ambush and rob Carson's nephew "Paul Smith" (Bob Terry), who is carrying the deposits from his bank. Paul is travelling by car (this is another Hybrid Western), and he escapes but his driver is killed. Paul drops the bag of money, and his gun, in his haste to get away, and not only do Adams and his men steal the cash, but they plant the gun to make it look like Paul killed the driver and ran off with the bag of cash himself. Talk about dastardly frame ups! But then this is Ted Adams, the Snidely Whiplash of Western movies, so what'd you expect? He goes back to town and testifies that he and the boys "happened to be riding by" and "saw Smith shoot his driver". The sheriff sends a posse out looking for Paul Smith, who sends a telegram to his sister "Sally"(Joan Barclay): "Dear Sis, I'm in hiding until this is mess is cleared up".
Enter Lightning Bill, posing as Jose Fernandez. Now, Ted Adams and his thugs know that Paul Smith is Lightning Bill's nephew, and because of that, none of Ted's henchmen want anything to to with confronting him. He's well known as the Fastest Gun in the West. The situation changes though, when Lightning - as Jose - shows up at the local saloon. He infiltrates the gang by way of a card game, and after he shows his skills (Tim McCoy always has a card-sharp scene), he also gets in a few quick punchouts with some bar rowdies after one of them gives an old timer a hotfoot.
But the effect is that Ted Adams is impressed. He thinks Jose is a bad news bandito, and want to make him part of the gang. "We could use a guy like him", he tells his boys. Henchman "Jim" (Red Howes) is not so sure: "There's something about him I don't trust." Jim has seen Jose go into the bank and ask for the serial numbers on the stolen money. "Why would he wanna know that?" Jim also sees Jose talking to Paul's sister Sally. "Then she pretended she didn't know him", he says to boss man Adams.
Ted Adams shrugs all this off. "He says he can change the money for us in Mexico". They need to launder the cash because it's hot; remember the serial numbers from the bank. Adams trusts Jose to exchange it in Mexico. "I'll be back in two days" Jose tells him. But henchman Jim goes snooping around at the Smith house when no one is home. He finds a tube of Lightning Bill's face makeup, that he uses to transform himself into Jose. When Jim rides back to tell Ted Adams and the henchmen (who are waiting for the cash transfer from Mexico), all heck breaks loose in a three-way shootout between McCoy, Adams' gang, and the Sheriff who doesn't know Jose is one of the good guys. The production values are minimal on this Sam Newfield-directed cheapie, but Joan Barclay is one of our favorite Western Sweethearts and you can't go wrong when Tim McCoy goes Bandito. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Lightning Carson Rides Again". The picture is soft but not bad. ////
That's all for tonight. I'm still listening to "Siegfried" by Wagner (like most of his operas, it's four hours long), and I'm almost done with the Black Sabbath book by Mick Wall. It's something of a horror story, truth be told. I didn't follow Black Sabbath after Ozzy left in 1978 (although I did buy the first two albums with Dio), and I haven't followed Ozzy since he fired Jake E. Lee, but my goodness, the full story of that band - much as I love them and the classic material - is nothing short of degenerate. Good Lordy Moses, as my Dad would say.
I hope your week is off to a good start, and I send you Tons of Love as always!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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