Bob Custer Movies
A former cowboy and rodeo rider, dark-haired Bob Custer signed with independent producer Jesse J. Goldburg in 1924 to star in a series of low-budget Texas Ranger films. Custer's impressive name (an invention of Goldburg's) and the fact that he looked good on a horse gained the new cowboy hero an instant following, at least in smaller venues. Billing himself Raymond Glenn, Custer later attempted to escape B-Westerns, with such melodramas as Temptations of a Shop Girl and Ladies at Ease (both 1927), but away from the sagebrush, his lack of any real acting skills was painfully obvious. Custer became his own producer in the waning days of the silent era, releasing through Film-Booking-Office, but a reported inability to remember written lines sealed his fate at the coming of sound. Despite this seemingly fatal handicap, Custer continued to star for such low-rent companies as Big Four Productions and Reliable Pictures, but he was as wooden as a cigar-store Indian and wisely retired in 1937. Not soon enough, however, for the moviegoing audience to be spared Santa Fe Rides (1937), an especially atrocious Western affair that came complete with badly dubbed musical numbers. The film was so bad it proved Custer's swan song; retired, he later became a building inspector in the coastal cities of El Segundo and Redondo Beach, CA. The former silent screen star suffered a fatal heart attack while out walking his dog. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi- 1937
Released to stony silence in February of 1937, this film was an atrocious musical western starring former silent screen cowboy Bob Custer. Custer played Santa Fe Evans, who -- with the cowboys of the Lazy D. Ranch -- auditions for a country radio show. Santa Fe's herd of cattle had been wiped out in a drought and the rancher plans to refurbish his stock from his prospected radio earnings. When Santa Fe's fiancée, Carol (Eleanor Stewart), learns that her younger brother (David Sharpe) is arrested for cattle theft, she blames Santa Fe. Excited over the rancher's vocal talents, the radio station follows Santa Fe as he sets out to clear Buddy's name. Along with "The Singing Cowboys" (Lloyd Perryman, Curley Hoag, and Rudy Sooter), Santa Fe warbles "Radio Gang Song" and "Travellin' Along", but takes time out to clear Buddy's name and catch the real rustler, Carver (Roger Williams). Hardly in a league with Gene Autry, Roy Rogers et al., Custer never made it as a singing cowboy; in fact, Santa Fe Rides was his final film. Ballyhooed as containing "bronzed sons of the West in a series of pulse-quickening adventures," this little horse opera was released by poverty row company Reliable Pictures Corp. The film was so bad that director Harry S. Webb felt forced to hide behind the pseudonym "Raymond Samuels." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
Starring the supposed offspring of legendary canine Rin-Tin-Tin, this listless Western, "based on a story by James Oliver Curwood" also featured former silent screen cowboy Bob Custer, as laconic and pedestrian a personality as ever. Custer played Ted Saunders an undercover agent attempting to catch the villains who murdered and robbed the owner of a stagecoach line. The only witness to the crime is the dead man's faithful dog, Rannah (Rin-Tin-Tin, Jr., who becomes the next target of the killers. Nearing the end of his career, Custer basically stood back and led the dog do his thing. The two had met before, in the Mascot serial The Law of the Wild (1934) which, despite its miniscule budget, was a near masterpiece in comparison to the dreadful The Vengeance of Rannah. Rinty, Jr. returned the following year opposite Rex Lease in The Silver Trail, the final release of Poverty Row company Reliable Pictures Corp. Both films were directed by "Franklin Shamray" and "Henri Samuels," producers Bernard B. Ray and Harry S. Webb, respectively. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
Directed under the pseudonym "Raymond Samuels" by Harry S. Webb, this cheap Western starred former silent screen cowboy Bob Custer. Custer plays Marshal Bruce Manning, whose fiancee, Ann Morgan (Victoria Vinton), begs him to interfere when her brother Clay (Eddie Phillips), a cattle rancher, is accused of killing a homesteader (Wally Wales). But Manning, who wants to prevent a war between the cattle ranchers and the "nesters," takes Clay into protective custody. Ann's father (Edward Cassidy) shoots Bruce in the shoulder, and Ann herself is abducted by the dead homesteader's mother, Ma Potter (Vane Calvert). Morgan rallies his men to free Ann but mistakenly shoots his own son. Dying, Clay admits to having killed an unarmed man. Mourning their respective sons, Ma Potter and Morgan agree to share the land. Ambush Valley was the first of three very low-budget Custer westerns produced by small-time Reliable Pictures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
A rather mundane effort for the usually fast-paced Mascot Pictures, this 12-chapter action serial featured Rex, billed as a "Wild Stallion," and the redoubtable Rin Tin Tin Jr.. Rinty's offspring was not in his famous father's league and his teaming here with Rex and Bob Custer, a wooden and increasingly stout silent Western star, did not earn him many new admirers. The two animal stars are pals attempting to save their owner, Bob Sheldon (Custer), from a murder rap. Falsely accused of killing Lou Salter (Dick Alexander), rancher Sheldon is arrested by the sheriff (Jack Rockwell). His accuser, Frank Nolan (Richard Cramer), then steals the condemned man's handsome stallion, Rex, whom he expects to ride in the Big Race. With the help of Rinty, lovely Alice Ingram (Lucile Browne) and her sidekick, Henry (Ben Turpin), manage to locate Rex in a barn. In order to raise money for Sheldon's defense, Alice enters the race on Rex and wins. Rinty and Custer both fell on hard times following The Law of the Wild but were briefly resurrected by Poverty Row company Reliable for a rather shoddy B-Western effort entitled The Vengeance of Rannah (1936). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1932
In a last desperate effort to stay afloat in an industry suffering from the Great Depression, John R. Freuler's tattered Big Four Film Corp. hired former silent screen cowboy Bob Custer to headline a series of inexpensive Westerns: Headin' For Trouble, Quick Trigger Lee (both 1931), Mark of the Spur and The Scarlet Brand. In "Spur," the wooden Custer played The Kid, a drifter saving a young lady (Lillian Rich) from the inappropriate attentions of her villainous adopted brother (George Chesebro). Written, produced, directed, acted and photographed by silent screen veterans, Mark of the Spur was hardly of a quality to save any company, least of all the ramshackle, under funded Big Four. Custer, who had been quite popular in rural areas, lingered on until 1937 when he retired to become a building inspector. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1932
In the last of four low-budget Westerns for the ill-named Big 4 Film Corp., Bob Custer plays Bud Bryson, a young cowboy mistaken for a cattle thief and branded. He escapes the law with the help of Slim Grant (Nelson McDowell), and both obtain jobs on a ranch belonging to John Walker (Frank Ball) and his daughter Ellen (Betty Mack). After Ellen is courted by legitimate rustler Bill Morse (Robert Walker), Walker objects to the assignation and Morris has him arrested on a trumped-up charge. Bud determines to clear both himself and Walker, but when Ellen learns that he is wanted for rustling, she rejects him. Happily, Slim proves to be an undercover agent for the cattlemen's association and together with Bud manages to trap the real rustler. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Nelson McDowell, (more)
- 1931
From low-budget (and rather ill-named) Big 4 Film Corp. comes Headin' for Trouble, starring former silent cowboy Bob Custer and juvenile roping champion Andy Shuford. Custer is Cyclone Crosby, a cowboy who bravely interferes when town boss Butch Morgan Robert Walker) tries to force his unwanted attentions on innocent Mary Courtney (Betty Mack). Suspecting Morgan of being the leader of a gang of rustlers, Mary's father (Buck Connors) begs Cyclone to stick around, just in case. After setting a trap for Morgan and his gang, Cyclone is revealed to be a ranger in disguise, much to the delight of Mary and her hero-worshipping kid brother Bobbie (Shuford). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Betty Mack, (more)
- 1931
J.P. McGowan directed this weak Western featuring former silent cowboy Bob Custer as Sgt. Ned Stone, a Canadian Mountie searching for the villain that killed his partner. At first, Stone suspects Tom (Robert "Buddy" Shaw), the brother of Ann (Blanche Mehaffey), who runs the trading post. The latter begs the real murderers, Leclerc (George Regas) and Tim McGuire (Eddie Dunn), to clear her brother's name, but they are mostly inclined to get rid of both brother and sister. In the end, Stone is aided by a mystery man, who turns out to be the chief inspector himself (William Walling) and the true villains are brought to justice. A grateful Ann then accepts Stone's proposal of marriage. A G.A. Durlam production, Riders of the North was released by low-budget company Syndicate Pictures Corp. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Blanche Mehaffey, (more)
- 1931
Produced by cameraman Burton King for ill-named Poverty Row company Big 4 Film Corp., this western starred laconic silent screen cowboy Bob Custer in the title role. Quick Trigger is on his way to help a beleaguered old prospector who, because of bad eyesight, has signed a crooked I.O.U. The nasty Waleses, father and son (Monte Montague and Leander de Cordova), are waiting to ambush him when they are all interrupted by a movie crew filming a Western. Quick Trigger manages to romance the company's leading lady (Caryl Lincoln), while at the same time defeating the nasty Wales gang, who are soon enough carted off to jail. The movie actress turns out to be the old prospector's long-lost niece, and she's more than ready to leave her glamorous life for marriage to a handsome cowboy like Quick Trigger Lee. Offscreen, Caryl Lincoln was married to actor Byron Stevens and thus the sister-in-law of Barbara Stanwyck. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1931
Wolf Hardy (Nelson McDowell), the wounded leader of an outlaw gang, takes great pains to insure that his young protégé, Phil "The Cub" Norris (Bob Custer), will return to the straight and narrow. The hot-headed Norris is almost convinced to join a gang headed by the notorious Blanco Kid (Edmund Cobb), but he is persuaded otherwise by Blanco's bride-to-be, Judy Lanning (Betty Mack). Norris rescues the pretty girl from her brutal boyfriend and is offered a job by her father (Carlton King) in gratitude. Blanco threatens to reveal the former outlaw's past, but a recovered Hardy intervenes. Two former silent screen cowboys -- Custer and Cobb -- came face-to-face in this above-average low-budget oater produced by Harry S. Webb and Flora E. Douglas for release by the redoubtable Syndicate Film Exchange, a forerunner to Poverty Row company Monogram. Nearing the end of his screen career, Custer was a bit long in the tooth to play someone's young protégé. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Betty Mack, Edmund Cobb, (more)
- 1931
Laconic silent screen cowboy Bob Custer starred in this cheap Syndicate Film Exchange early sound Western as a wrangler falsely accused of collaborating with Mexican revolutionists. Joan Prescott (Natalie Kingston) contracts to sell her horses to the Army in general and Captain Hartford (Tom London) in particular. In cahoots with a crooked secret service agent, Hartford plans to steal the horses, blaming wrangler Tom Rankin (Custer), who he accuses of conspiring with Mexican revolutionaries. Recovering the stolen horses, Rankin reveals that he is the real Captain Hartford, and the impostor is shipped off to prison. Both Custer and Bill Cody had seen better days in the silent era and would spend the remainder of their career in very low-budget independent Westerns such as Under Texas Skies. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Natalie Kingston, (more)
- 1931
The ubiquitous Robert North Bradbury directed this low-budget Bob Custer Western, with his trademark "swish-pan" technique very much in evidence. Custer plays Bob Brent, a sheriff's deputy suspecting that his future father-in-law, Dan Farrell (J.P. McGowan), may actually be the notorious "Polka-Dot" bandit. He isn't, of course, a fact that becomes increasingly clear after the arrival of one Buck Brokaw (Edward Hearn) and his female accomplice Roxie (Eve Humes). Slowing the already lethargic pace even further, saloon girl Jane Crowley performs an especially woeful rendition of Paul Dresser's famous "On the Banks of the Wabash." Watch for future Western sidekick Al St. John as a barfly. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Doris Phillips, Edward Hearn, (more)
- 1930
Penny-pinching producer-director J.P. McGowan splurged on canned music and special effects for this otherwise standard Bob Custer Western in which a couple of drifters (Custer and comedian Bobby Dunn) search for a missing millionaire (Henry Roquemore). The rotund capitalist has been kidnapped by nasty a rustler (Tom Bay), but Custer, without too much trouble, manages to return him to the loving arms of his pretty daughter (Vivian Ray). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Bobby Dunn, (more)
- 1930
Producer-director J.P. McGowan's Syndicate Film Exchange, a forerunner of Monogram Productions, Inc., caught action heroes on their way down or up -- mostly down. Covered Wagon Trails, one of the last full-length silent westerns produced, starred the laconic Bob Custer, a screen cowboy whose career was decidedly in the doldrums. The story wasn't exactly fresh either, something about a cowboy battling smugglers -- and heroine Phyllis Bainbridge's weakling brother (Perry Murdock) -- on the Mexican border. This below-average modern-dress oater was far from the sweeping epic the title suggests but did come with a synchronized music score. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Phyllis Bainbridge, (more)
- 1929
Together with the local sheriff, Oklahoma Adams (Bob Custer) rids a ranch of a gang of cattle rustlers. As a reward, he wins the heart of the ranch owner's (John Lowell) lovely daughter (Mary Maberry). Every western cliche under the sun was utilized in this dreary silent western, including -- you guessed it! -- the crooked ranch foreman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Mary Mayberry, (more)
- 1929
This cheap western produced by J.P. McGowan's Syndicate Film Exchange was given an almost too prophetic title. One of the last silent westerns, The Last Roundup told the oft-told tale of a cowboy (Bob Custer) saving a pretty girl (Hazel Mills) from being kidnapped by a gang of cattle rustlers headed by the crooked ranch foreman (Bud Osborne). The only interesting aspect of this film is the hero's name, "Denver Dixon," which of course was the moniker sometimes used by Gower Gulch entrepreneur Victor Adamson. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Hazel Mills, (more)
- 1929
John R. Freuler's highly misnamed Big Productions released this modest oater starring stolid silent screen hero Bob Custer as a cowboy ambushed by a gang of outlaws and later falsely accused of being one himself. Custer ultimately proves his innocence by displaying a tattoo depicting the state of Oklahoma! The film contained a couple of furious slug-fests but the overall effect, according to trade-paper reviews, was that of inertia. A mildly popular also-ran Western star, Custer founded his own production company in 1927. A reputed inability to remember lines sealed his fate in talkies, however, and he retired in the mid-1930s to become a building inspector. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Tom Bay, (more)
- 1929
Veteran director J.P. McGowan's moth-eaten Syndicate Film Exchange, a division of W. Ray Johnston's Rayart Pictures and commonly known as something of a graveyard for former silent western heroes, offered a synchronized soundtrack on Riders of the Rio Grande. Syndicate caught 'em on the way down, mostly cowboy refugees from Film-Booking-Office (FBO). One such was Bob Custer, the star of Riders of the Rio Grande. Custer plays a cowboy posing as an outlaw in order to infiltrate the gang of counterfeiters who has kidnapped leading lady Edna Aslin. The story (by Syndicate's resident scribe Sally Winters) was hardly fresh in 1929 and would see repeated service in the years to come. Organized in 1928, Syndicate was doomed to be swallowed up in 1931 by a new Johnston organization, the often maligned (and sometimes justifiably so) Monogram Pictures, Inc. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer
- 1929
Actor-director-writer J.P. McGowan, of Hazards of Helen fame, produced and directed this very minor silent western in which cowboy star Bob Custer attempts to apprehend the villain who killed his brother. Unfortunately, a crooked border-town sheriff is in his way. Custer, née Raymond Glenn and once his own producer, was about as wooden as a cigar-store Indian, and his career would suffer an almost immediate decline in talkies. He wisely chose to retire after Santa Fe Rides (1937), an especially atrocious "Z"-western that came complete with badly dubbed musical numbers. Custer later became a building inspector in the coastal town of El Segundo, California. The Fighting Terror should not be confused with a 1925 Universal 2-reeler with the same name starring Billy Sullivan. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1928
Prolific poverty-row producer-director-actor J.P. McGowan directed this inexpensive silent western for W. Ray Johnston's Syndicate Film Exchange. Minor western lead Bob Custer stars as a detective hired by the ever present Cattlemen's Association to look into a series of cattle rustlings. The hero accomplishes his goal in the timeworn fashion of infiltrating the gang by going undercover as a bandit. Actor Mack V. Wright, who also played one of the rustlers, wrote the unremarkable screenplay based on an "original" story by Brysis Coleman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Peggy Montgomery, (more)
- 1928
Stoic silent-screen cowboy Bob Custer comes to the aid of a female rancher (Peggy Montgomery), who is about to be cheated by a gang of horse thieves masquerading as an army purchasing detachment in this minor oater written by supporting player Mack V. Wright. An old hand at such nonsense, Australian director J.P. McGowan had begun his American screen career directing his wife Helen Holmes in the seemingly endless railroad serial The Hazards of Helen (1914-1917). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1928
Minor cowboy star Bob Custer finds his newly purchased land overrun by outlaws and claim-grabbers in this minor silent western released by the poverty row company Syndicate. He bravely stands up to the villains and manages to save not only his own property but also that of his neighbor (Lafe McKee), whose daughter (Peggy Montgomery) he covets. Director J.P. McGowan, a veteran of the serial boom in the mid-1910s, plays an unscrupulous lawyer. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peggy Montgomery, Lafe [Lafayette] McKee, (more)
- 1928
The once-popular, now-forgotten western star Bob Custer heads the cast of Law of the Mounted. Custer dons the red coat of the Northwest Mounted Police in this location-filmed outing. He gets his man when he foils a gang of fur smugglers. The ringleader is played by the film's director, J.P. McGowan, who comports himself like a road-company Erich Von Stroheim. Fragments of Law of the Mounted later showed up on the early-1960s syndicated TV filler Billy Bang Bang. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sally Winters, Frank Ellis, (more)
- 1928
Released in December of 1928, this low-budget silent Western catered to small theaters not yet equipped with sound. Dour silent cowboy Bob Custer played the title-role, Texas Tommy Cooper, an outlaw who comes to the aid of Hardacre (H.B. Carpenter), an invalid rancher being victimized by cattle rustler Bud Osborne. Mary Mayberry and Lynn Sanderson played Hardacre's children, and the Western also found employment for Frank Ellis and the director himself, J.P. McGowan. Texas Tommy was produced by J. Charles Davis' El Dorado Productions and released by Syndicate Film Exchange. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Custer
