Border Outlaws (1950)

Member Rating:

Produced at Agoura, CA, and directed by silent film action star Richard Talmadge, this minor Western starred bandleader and early television personality Spade Cooley. Actually, Cooley had very little to do in the film other than offer name recognition to a cumbersome Western tale of a special agent (Bill Edwards) unravelling a series of rustlings on and around Cooley's dude ranch. The rustlers, as it turns out, are in league with a smuggler known only as the Phantom Raider. The contraband in question was originally slated to be dope, but vehement objections from the Breen office, the Hollywood watchdog, caused it to be changed to diamonds. At one point in the film, the Cooley ranch hands are seen practicing acrobatic feats under the leadership of director Richard Talmadge, a veteran stuntman. The act was billed as "The Six Metzetti Boys," an obvious reference to Talmadge's real name, Sylvester Metzetti. Popularly known as "The King of Western Swing," Spade Cooley created less than admirable headlines in 1961 when he was convicted of beating his estranged wife to death. He died of a heart attack in 1969 while on a leave from Vacaville prison to perform in a benefit concert. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi