Joseph Levering Movies

The Tex Ritter Monogram Westerns had a change of directors with Riders of the Frontier, Spencer Gordon Bennet having replaced Al Herman. But that was really the only difference between this entry and the previous seven. Ritter impersonated a notorious outlaw in order to infiltrate the gang that is slowly poisoning Sarah, the owner of the Rancho Grande (Marin Sais). The situation becomes a bit tricky when the real outlaw (Roy Barcroft) suddenly appears, but Tex and the the marshal manage to bring the guilty parties to justice and rescue poor Sarah within the allotted six reels. The music interludes were kept to a minimum this time, Ritter warbling only Rose of My Dreams and Ridin' Down to Town, both by house composer Frank Harford. Jean Joyce added a bit of romantic interest as Sarah's nurse, with Hal Taliaferro (formerly Wally Wales joining Jack Rutherford and the always watchable Roy Barcroft on the opposing side. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this western, a U.S. marshal impersonates an outlaw and rides to Texas to find the looters who have been raiding supply shipments. He finds them and infiltrates their gang. He soon finds out that the desperadoes have commandeered a ranch and are holding the rancher and his family prisoner while they await the next shipment. Trouble erupts, but justice prevails as the marshal captures the badguys and frees the frightened family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Columbia Pictures' year-long effort to turn utility actor Jack Luden into a western star sputtered onward with Stagecoach Days. Luden is okay in the lead, but the story, about a deadly rivalry between two stage lines, is an exercise in tedium. Things pick up tremendously during the final reel, with the good guys pitted against the bad guys in a thrill-packed stagecoach race. Hal Taliaferro and Harry Woods, both regulars in the Luden series, go through their usual villainous paces, while Eleanore Stewart is the heroine. After the Jack Luden series ran its course, Columbia managed to find a more than suitable replacement in the person of "Wild Bill" Elliot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rolling Caravans was one of four Columbia B-westerns designed to make a star out of utility actor Jack Luden. Harry Woods, a fixture of the Luden series, fills the villain role, while Eleanor Stewart is the heroine once more. The story concerns the efforts of a homesteader named Breezy (Luden) to ward off the bad guys, who've determined that there's gold on his property. By the time the heavies have discovered that Breezy's "treasure" consists primarily of topsoil, the hero has settled accounts with his fists and deposited his enemies in the local calaboose. At one point, Jack Luden indulges in a bit of ventriloquism, suggesting that perhaps he would have been better off as a comedy sidekick rather than a leading man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One thing was always certain in Columbia's Jack Luden westerns: the supporting cast would include Hal Taliaferro, or Harry Woods, or both. In Pioneer Trail, Taliaferro is fifth-billed as "Smokey", a non-villainous role for a change. The film's chief heavy is Slim Whittaker, playing the leader of an outlaw gang which has been preying on cattle drives. Captured by Whittaker, hero Luden is offered his freedom in exchange for leading a particularly valuable herd of cattle into the rustlers' hands. Luden turns down the offer, and with the help of "wonder dog" Tuffy he escapes to warn the cattlemen of Whittaker's impending attack. The film ends with a spectacular cattle stampede which looks as though it was lifted from an earlier film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A courageous Texas Ranger leaves his job to mediate a violent, long-standing dispute between his family and that of his sweetheart. When, his investigations reveal that there is a third party of troublemakers involved, he gallops off to stop them and restore the peace. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Sporting Chance is a prime example of how once-prominent silent screen personalities ended up grasping at straws on Poverty Row. The story is built around a championship steeplechase, on which the futures of jockey Terry Nolan (Buster Collier), his sweetheart Mary Bascombe (Claudia Dell) and his romantic rival Phillip Lawrence Jr. (James Hall) are hinged. Reportedly, this film represented the first time that a steeplechase was specially staged for the cameras, though this fact took second place in the ads to the film's theme song, Old Playmates, which is sung twice too often by Claudia Dell. Only former "Our Gang" member Eugene Jackson, cast as a stablehand, seems comfortable around his equestrian co-stars. Sporting Chance was written by King Baggott, who in better times had been an important actor/director/producer but who was largely limited to bit parts in the talkie era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Assigned by the police commissioner to catch a notorious gangster, a young police captain discovers that his adversary is a former friend in this low-budget crime drama from Syndicate Film Exchanges. The gangster, Joe Velet (Robert Gleckler), is arrested for possession of a firearm and is revealed to be Phil Terry, a former sergeant with the Riffs in North Africa and the best friend of Police Captain Bill Houston (John Holland). Velet/Terry admits to having become a hoodlum because crime, as he puts it, "pays more than cigarette money." About to be extradited back east to stand trial for several killings, Velet is rescued by a couple of his henchmen masquerading as law officers. At liberty, he challenges Bill to a final confrontation at the Silver Slipper Club, which the gangsters are about to raid. Rival hoodlum Taroni (Paul Panzer), whose girlfriend (Mae Busch) is a police informer, is killed in the melee, but Velet manages to escape once again. In order to get even with Bill, the gang boss kidnaps his adversary's girlfriend, the police commissioner's daughter, Alice (Catherine Dale Owen), and the distraught commissioner (Edmund Breese) orders Bill off the case. Happily, our hero discovers Velet's hideout and Alice is rescued during the ensuing shootout. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The victim of a childhood accident is framed for embezzlement by a man seeking revenge 20 years after the incident occurred. John Powers (Brandon Tynan) takes the blame for his brother Jamie (Gardner James) when Fred Whitney (John Hopkins) makes the false charges stick in a court of law. John agrees to be sentenced to prison to keep his invalid brother out of jail in this depressing drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Mary Ellen Grey (Barbara Bedford) is the secretary to toy-manufacturer Daniel Kenyon (William P. Carleton). After Mary Ellen turns down a marriage proposal from Daniel and instead marries fellow-worker David Winthrop (Walter Miller), David is fired and Mary Ellen leaves her position three weeks later. David unsuccessfully looks for another job and spends most of his time trying to develop a toy tiger that will pounce. The couple has a child, but after several years Mary Ellen grows restless and leaves home to return to work at the company. Unfortunately, Daniel still lusts after Mary Ellen, and one night when she returns to the office by herself -- though David has secretly followed her -- Daniel makes a brutish advance on her. In self-defense, Mary Ellen pulls a gun from her handbag and fires at Daniel. At the same time, another shot is fired by David, and when the smoke clears, neither Mary Ellen nor David know which of them has fired the fatal shot. Both believe they are guilty of murder until -- the night watchman admits to shooting the boss for dishonoring his daughter. The couple is reunited and tries to reconcile their differences in this routine, tear-jerking drama. Effie Shannon, Mariam Swayne, and Julia Swayne Gordon appear along with Robert Edeson and Raymond Hatton. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In one of her sporadic screen appearances, stage actress Belle Bennett starred in this inspirational melodramas as Truth Eldridge, a young woman in love with her cousin (Walter Ringham). The latter, an atheist scientist who believes all religion to be bogus superstition, is too self centered to pay her any attention -- until, that is, she is brutally murdered by one of his rivals (Denton Vane). According to the trade-paper Moving Picture World, Truth then "returns in spirit form and frequently appears in the man's vision, finally convincing him that there is a God." Although she had appeared in films intermittently since 1914, Belle Bennett failed to make much of an impact until 1925, when she became the very symbol of self-sacrificing motherhood as Stella Dallas. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Sis (Marian Swayne) is an orphan who doesn't win any friends at the local Sunday school benefit because she's a poor farm girl and the rest of the kids are townies. But Sis has ambitions to be a stage actress so she runs away to the big city. She works as a drudge in a vaudeville boarding house, where she meets an actor, Jim (Hugh Thompson). She helps him rehearse, and as a result learns the leading woman's role word for word. The rest can pretty much be guessed -- the leading woman can't go on, and since the cast is apparently lacking in understudies, Sis gets to go on in her place. She's a sensation and winds up with Jim, who turns out to be the son of an old inmate of the orphanage. This type of storyline was as tired in 1917 as it is now. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Polly (Marian Swayne) is a little country girl who is perfectly happy living on the farm and being courted by farmhand Davy (Bradley Parker). Her father (Frank Andrews), too, is content. But her mother Sarah (Gladys Fairbanks) has social ambitions, and when her husband makes a discovery that earns him a great sum of money, she insists that the family move to the city. But the naive country folk aren't in town for more than a few days before they are swindled by con artists. Before they left the farm, however, Polly's father gave her a strip of land, and Davy has recently discovered that it contains coal. Polly saves her family from being ruined, and they all go back home, where she and Davy get married. This was a very poor quality programmer. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide