Bob Walker Movies

Alan Burgess' novel The Small Woman was the source for the British/American co-production Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Set in the China of the 1930s, the film stars Ingrid Bergman as real-life missionary Gladys Aylward. Against the advice of practically everyone, Gladys heads into the war-ravaged interior to spread the Christian gospel. She finds a powerful ally in the form of an elderly Mandarin (Robert Donat) who, despite his early efforts to rid himself of the troublesome Gladys, eventually converts to Christianity. Gladys' burgeoning romance with Chinese army officer Lin Nan (Curt Jurgens) is interrupted when she is obliged to guide a group of Chinese children to safety over some of the most treacherous of Northern China's mountain regions. Inn of the Sixth Happiness retains its entertainment value some four decades after its production, even allowing for the preponderance of Occidental actors in Oriental roles. The film also served to breathe new life into the old children's nonsense song "This Old Man" (aka "Knick, Knack, Paddywhack"). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of the timelier Three Mesquiteers westerns, Gunsmoke Ranch was inspired by the Ohio and Mississippi river floodings of 1937. As usual, the Mesquiteers are Stony Brooke (Robert Livingston), Tucson Smith (Ray "Crash" Corrigan) and Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune). After rescuing young Marion (Julia Thayer) from the rising flood waters, our three heroes take on a no-good varmint (Kenneth Harlan) who is capitalizing on the disaster by buying up land dirt cheap. Comedy relief is provided by cornpone vaudevillians Oscar and Elmer, who are about as funny as an eviction notice. Actual newsreel footage of the previous years' floods adds a veneer of credibility to Gunsmoke Ranch. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Filmed at Newhall, CA, with exteriors shot at Universal City, Mascot Pictures' The Vanishing Legion became the little company's signature serial. Producer Nat Levine had managed to sign veteran cowboy star Harry Carey, blonde starlet Edwina Booth, and Olive Fuller Golden, Carey's wife, all of whom had recently just barely survived the travails of filming MGM's Trader Horn (1930) under extremely difficult conditions in what was then termed Darkest Africa. Now they were employed in a typical serial story of young Jimmy Williams (Frankie Darro) and his wild stallion (the famously intemperate Rex, King of the Wild Horses), both searching for the mysterious gang that framed Jimmy's father (Edward Hearn) in a murder scheme. The two get assistance from leathery old Happy Hardigan (Carey), who has discovered a plot by the lawless Vanishing Legion to sabotage Caroline Hall's (Booth) ancestral oil company. Behind the shenanigans is a master criminal, heard but never seen and known only as "The Voice." The identity of the villain is revealed only in the 12th and final chapter, "The Hoofs of Horror." Said identity, which of course shall not be revealed here either, was that of a venerable, old character actor who usually played kindly fathers. Of course, Mascot engaged in a bit of skullduggery themselves by having Boris Karloff as a "voice double." Also released in a re-edited feature version, The Vanishing Legion has become synonymous with Mascot Pictures and is the title of a groundbreaking biography of the little studio by Jon Tuska. Sadly, the serial proved the final film for silent screen cowboy Dick Hatton, who was killed in a car accident later in the year. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Scottie Dean (Edward Pell) and his wife Isobel (Jane Novak) are passengers on board a whaling ship. Dean has a fight with the captain and throws him overboard. He and Isobel escape in a lifeboat and go into hiding at an Eskimo village. Mountie William MacVeigh (House Peters) is assigned the task of tracking Dean down. The Eskimo chief, Bye Bye (Horin Konishi), finds out about MacVeigh and warns the Deans. When the Mountie encounters Isobel, she is traveling back to civilization with her husband in a coffin. Taken with Isobel's beauty, MacVeigh does not investigate too deeply, and as a result, she and her husband evade his grasp. Corporal Bucky Smith (Tom Wilson) also goes after the Deans and MacVeigh arrests Scottie. Once they are away from Smith, he lets him go. Back at the station's cabin, he finds a little girl (Pearlie Norton) who reminds him of Isobel. Dean comes to claim the child, but dies of exhaustion. Isobel, mad from brain fever, drives the Mountie away, claiming that he killed Dean to make her his wife. Later, she is reported to have died. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi