Wally Vernon Movies

This lavishly produced, big-budget comedy (it cost $20 million in 1964 dollars) stars Shirley MacLaine as Louisa, a widow who is worth $200 million dollars. However, she's convinced that her fortune is cursed, and she wants to give all her money to the IRS. As she explains her sad tale to her psychiatrist, Dr. Stephanson (Robert Cummings), it seems that when Louisa was young she had the choice of marrying rich playboy Leonard Crawley (Dean Martin) or poor but decent Edgar Hopper (Dick Van Dyke). She chose Edgar, but soon he became obsessed with providing a fine home and fortune for her; he got rich but worked himself to death in the process. Despondent, Louisa flies to Paris, where she strikes up a romance with expatriate artist Larry Flint (Paul Newman). When Larry invents a machine that creates paintings based on sounds, he becomes wealthy and famous -- and dies. Louisa returns to America, where she figures to break her streak by marrying Rod (Robert Mitchum), a business tycoon who already has lots of money. He resolves to take life easier and becomes a farmer, only to die in a strange accident with a bull. Louisa is drowning her sorrows one night at a sleazy night spot when she falls for second rate entertainer Jerry (Gene Kelly). They marry, and a now-wealthy Jerry develops a relaxed, carefree quality to his act that makes him a huge star, which leads to his being crushed by a mob of his biggest fans. What a Way to Go! boasted a screenplay by Betty Comdon and Adolph Green that featured many amusing film parodies and a score by Nelson Riddle; it also marked the final screen appearance of comic actress Margaret Dumont, best remembered as Groucho Marx's straight woman in several films. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Fury at Gunsight Pass is a brief, to-the-point "budget" western, well cast and excitingly staged. David Brian stars as bank robber Whitey Turner, whose outlaw gang takes over a small town. Beating gang leader Dirk Hogan (Neville Brand) to the punch by robbing the town bank ahead of schedule, Turner winds up empty-handed when crooked undertaker Boggs (Percy Helton) swipes the loot. Boggs is killed, whereupon his widow (Katherine Warren) gathers together the money and makes plans to skip town while the Law pursues Turner and Hogan. This is one of those stories in which no one emerges smelling like a rose; the suspense lies not in who will "get it", but how long will it be before someone halfway honest appears on screen. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bloodhounds of Broadway was one of many Damon Runyon adaptations filmed in the wake of the 1950 Broadway hit Guys and Dolls. Manhattan bookie Scott Brady skips town to avoid a crime investigation. He meets hillbilly Mitzi Gaynor and vows to get the talented young miss into show business. Thanks to her positive influence, the bookie agrees to face the investigating committee, but changes his mind and plans to skip the country. The broken-hearted Gaynor is gratified when Brady changes his mind again, confesses his crimes (none of them homicidal) and serves a year in jail. When he returns to civilian life, Gaynor is headlining at a posh nightclub, whose employees are all former crooks and gangsters--including Charles Bronson as a waiter! Bloodhound of Broadway was remade (sort of) under the same title in 1989, this time as a PBS American Playhouse special (subsequently given theatrical release) starring Matt Dillon and Madonna. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

From Lippert Studios, the same company responsible for I Shot Jesse James, comes I Shot Billy the Kid. Those who know their western history will recall that Billy the kid was gunned down by his friendly enemy Pat Garrett. This time around, Garrett is played by Robert Lowery, while the larger part of Billy is essayed by Don Barry (a bit too old for the part, though physically perfect). The film recounts Garrett and Billy's volatile relationship, and the events leading up to their final, fatal confrontation. Brooklynese supporting actor Sid Melton seems a bit out of place as the film's nominal comedy relief. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Written and produced by its star, Donald Barry, Train to Tombstone was a low-budget version of the classic Stagecoach (1939). Once again a group of passengers fight among themselves as their mode of transportation -- a train en route from Albuquerque, NM, to Tombstone, AZ, this time -- is attacked by warring Indians. Author Barry was rather more fanciful than his predecessor, Dudley Nichols, however, and in addition to the inevitable saloon girl (Nan Leslie), the train also carries other characters: a pretty paraplegic (Barbara Stanley), whose illness may be psychological in nature; her indomitable aunt (Minna Phillips); a handsome doctor (Tom Neal); a comic relief women's undergarment salesman (Wally Vernon); a jittery conductor (Edward Cassidy); a marshal (Claude Stroud) guarding a shipment of gold; and, of course, Barry himself in the John Wayne role of the wanted but goodhearted outlaw. In due course, the train is attacked by what appears to be Indians, but what in reality is a gang of outlaws determined to get their greedy hands on the loot. Neither the marshal nor Barry are what they appear to be, the latter actually an undercover agent assigned to protect the shipment. The beautiful paraplegic is on her way to meet the fiancé she has never even seen and who, it is revealed, is in cahoots with the gang. Does the trauma of witnessing the boy killed right before her eyes cure the girl? Why, of course it does. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Don Barry stars as Texas Ranger Bob Standish, sworn to avenge his brother's death in Border Rangers. To achieve his goal, Standish goes undercover, joining the bandit gang. In this guise, he hopes to trap outlaw Mugo (Robert Lowery), his brother's murderer, unawares. Most Lippert Studio productions include Sid Melton as comedy relief. But Melton must have been out of town, since the comic sequences in Border Rangers are handled by veteran vaudevillian Wally Vernon. As an added fillip, child actor Paul Jordan provides a few heart-tugging moments. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lippert's Square Dance Jubilee was aimed squarely at the rural movie market. Don Barry and Wally Vernon play a pair of talent scouts, searching for authentic country-western performers to appear on Spade Cooley's TV show. Somehow, the duo finds time to rescue a lovely young rancher (Mary Beth Hughes) from cattle rustlers. The plot is serviceable but hardly necessary: the sole "raison d'etre" for Square Dance Jubilee was its parade of C&W talent. In addition to Spade Cooley, the musical roster includes Cowboy Copas, Ray Vaughan, Claude Casey, Johnny Downs, The Broome Brothers, Smiley and Kitty, the Elder Lovelies and the Tumbleweed Tumblers. Yee-hah! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Joe Palooka, Ham Fisher's famed comic-strip fighter, risks his life to clear the name of his manager in this series entry. In this episode, Palooka is blinded during a fight. Although surgery restores his vision, the doctors strongly caution him not to fight again for at least a year. Meanwhile Knobby Walsh, his manager, begins managing another heavyweight fighter who gets himself mixed up with gamblers. To save his manager's good name, Palooka disregards the doctors' advice and reenters the ring. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

An honest football player single-handedly takes on a professional gambler and the crooked publisher of a sports magazine to bust up their game-fixing scheme. Unfortunately, his efforts get him killed. This crime drama chronicles the efforts of a different player and an earnest D.A. to bring the killers to justice. Matters are not helped by the fact that the attorney is publisher's stepson. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The first of Republic Pictures' Allan Lane Westerns, Silver City Kid was assembled for Don "Red" Barry, whom the studio had decided to groom for "A" pictures. Unfortunately, Lane did not only inherit Barry's plot but also his sidekicks Wally Vernon and Twinkle Watts, the latter Republic's rather belated answer to Shirley Temple. Jack Adams (Lane) and his friend Wildcat Higgins (Vernon) come to the aid of a buddy, whose land is about to be usurped by unscrupulous banker William Stoner (Frank Jaquet) and corrupt attorney Sam Ballard (Harry Woods). Unfortunately, the beleaguered rancher, Steve Clayton (Lane Chandler), is murdered by one of Ballard's henchmen (Glenn Strange), leaving behind a sister, Ruth (Peggy Stewart), and a young daughter, Twinkle (Watts). According to Ruth, Stoner and Ballard are after a rare vein of molypdenum running through the Clayton property and will stop at nothing to get their greedy hands on the land. But they have counted without Jack, whose six-guns settle the matter once and for all. Although saddled with the presence of Vernon, whose Brooklyn accent hardly suggested the wild and woolly West, not to mention the insufferable Miss Watts, Silver City Kid proved Lane to be a handsome and stalwart cowboy hero of the old style. Also of benefit to the film was the presence of Peggy Stewart, perhaps the era's most competent Western heroine. Although Miss Stewart disliked working with the egotistical Lane, she would be forced to appear opposite him in four additional Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Western star Don "Red" Barry essays a dual role in Republic's Outlaws of Santa Fe. Actually, the two "characters" are one: Barry plays a reformed bank robber named Bob Hackett, who starts life anew as Bob Conroy. This he does to track down the no-good, dirty skunk who murdered his father. Meanwhile, a rash of bank holdups occur, leading the Law to assume that Hackett/Conroy is up to his old tricks. Wally Vernon supplies the usual comedy relief, while precocious child actress Twinkle Watts is as annoying as she'd been in earlier Barry westerns. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In his second starring Western, Republic's newest cowboy hero Allan Lane went up against Roy Barcroft, the studio's master villain. Lane plays Chick Weaver, a Treasury Department agent whose stagecoach is stopped at gunpoint by Dan (Bud Geary), a hired gun searching for a man named Redmond. As Chick learns in town, Dan is employed by saloon owner Black Jack Barstow (LeRoy Mason). The latter is in cahoots with yet another passenger from the stage, J. Rodney Stevens (Barcroft), head of the U.S. Silver Foundation, which Stevens admits to Barstow is a bogus operation to cheat the local miners out of their strikes, a plan that may be ruined by the mysterious Mr. Redmond. Redmond, of course, proves to be none other than Chick the treasury agent, who has been tracking Stevens all along. Working with another undercover agent, Throckmorton "Other Hand" Snodgrass (Wally Vernon), and local journalist Jessie Wade (Peggy Stewart), Chick gets the goods on both Stevens and Barstow, who are harshly dealt with in the final shootout. A good script and no-nonsense direction by Lesley Selander was almost sabotaged by sidekick Wally Vernon, whose New York accent was out of place in a B-Western, and the precocious Twinkle Watts -- Republic's less than successful answer to Shirley Temple and Jane Withers. Her presence in this and other Westerns was vehemently opposed by their target audience, the small fry. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

This musical comedy stars radio star Al Pearce has a double role playing himself and Elmer Blurt, the leader of a small-town band that struggles toward stardom in the big city. Their journey begins when Elmer decides to eject their female singer because she isn't really right. Unfortunately, her angry father is their sponsor and when he finds out, he withdraws all support. Fortunately, an aspiring singer learns of the band's plight and decides to pay for them to hit the Big Apple, but only on the condition that she become the new singer. Thanks to a successful radio performance, the band gets a lucrative gig at a major nightclub. Songs include "Straighten Up and Fly Right," "Don't Be Afraid to Tell Your Mother," "Hitch Old Dobbin to the Shag Again" and "Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi