Victoria Vinton Movies

Truly made to order, The Singing Buckaroo starred former San Francisco Opera baritone Fred Scott in his second of thirteen singing Westerns for poverty row company Spectrum. In between warbling Johnny Lange and Fred Stryker's Cobweb 'Round My Saddle, Frankly Speaking and I'm a Wild Westerner, ranch owner Scott saves pretty Victoria Winton from a couple of pursuers attempting to steal the $25,000 she carries in her purse. Sam Gifford (Roger Williams), the owner of a corporation, turns up and claims Miss Winton stole the money from him. In reality, the girl and her father (William Faversham) where attempting to hide the money from the unscrupulous Gifford, intending to hand it over to the company's stockholders. With the assistance of an Indian friend (Augie Gomez), Scott not only delivers the stolen money to the rightful owners but saves Miss Winton's father from a gang of kidnappers along the way. As in the previous Scott-Spectrum Western, the comedy relief was provided by double-talk expert Cliff Nazarro. Nazarro left the series after The Singing Buckaroo, to be replaced with Al St. John (for seven entries) and Harry Harvey. A rare visitor to B-Westerns, supporting actor William Faversham had been a major star of the Victorian stage, ~ 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

At the time of its release, Polo Joe was critically lambasted as the worst Joe E. Brown starrer to date. Compared to his later non-Warners efforts, however, it's not so bad: the biggest criticism that can be levelled against it is that it's virtually indistinguishable from Brown's other 1930s vehicles. The plot and comedy of the film can be summed up in a single sentence: Joe Bolton (Brown) is terrified of horses, but joins a polo team to impress his sweetheart Mary (Carol Hughes). The climax borrows a page from Brown's 1935 baseball flick Alibi Ike, with the villains holding Joe prisoner so that he can't ride in a polo championship. As always, Brown does all his own stunts in Polo Joe, a fact that is more impressive than amusing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

James Cagney manages to retain his pre-Code cockiness within post-Code limitations in the likeable St. Louis Kid. Cagney and Allen Jenkins, Eddie Kennedy, and Buck Willetts play long-distance truck drivers who get entangled in a battle between a crooked trucking firm and striking milk farmers (a plot thread based on actual events). When one of the dairymen is killed by a hired goon, Eddie is accused of the crime. He breaks out of jail to track down the real killer then has to rescue his girlfriend Ann (Patricia Ellis), who's been kidnapped by henchmen of the truck company. It takes a bit of clever brainwork between Eddie and Buck, but our hero manages to flummox the bad guys and rescue the girl. James Cagney's sheer star power is such that the audience is willing to forgive the fact that, in the early passages of the film, his character is nothing more or less than a "scab." St. Louis Kid is the picture in which Cagney, tired of playing characters who settle differences with their fists, hit upon the novel idea of incapacitating his screen rivals by butting his forehead against theirs, knocking them cold without laying a hand on them! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi