George Morrell Movies
American stage actor George Morrell turned to films in 1921, on the verge of his 49th birthday. Morrell launched his talkie career in 1929 as Reverend McBride in The Virginian, then went on to play innumerable bit parts in both A- and B-Westerns. He showed up in several Gene Autry films, usually playing a surly barfly. George Morrell remained active until in 1947. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Though the hit song "Mule Train" is most closely associated with Frankie Laine, it was Gene Autry who first sang the tune on film, in a picture titled ... what else? .... Mule Train. This time, Autry plays a federal marshal who comes to the aid of a grizzled old prospector who has been framed for murder. The villain, Sam Brady (Robert Livingston), wants to appropriate the prospector's land, and he isn't particular as to how he achieves that goal. Leading lady Sheila Ryan plays a female sheriff who is on Brady's side at first, but who later realigns herself with Autry. Ryan later became the wife of Pat Buttram, who also appears in Mule Train in his usual role as Gene Autry's comical sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Pat Buttram, (more)
- 1949
In one of his better later Westerns, singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely comes to the aid of a reformed outlaw and his wayward son. Wrongfully accused of a shooting, the outlaw, Hank Cardigan (Lee Phelps), is rescued by Jimmy, who manages to obtain a job for his new friend at the local express office. But Cardigan's unruly son, Tom (John James), is determined to repeat his father's mistakes -- until, that is, Jimmy and sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) convince him that crime does not pay. Wakely and an unbilled Ray Whitley perform "I Have Looked the Whole World Over" and Foy Willing's "Rose of Santa Fe." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1948
Two communities fight to become county seat in this Jimmy Wakely music western from Monogram Pictures. When Rainbow's End, one of the two towns in question, experiences a stage holdup, State Commissioner Walton (J.C. Lytton) looks to Yuba Junction where, unbeknownst to him, the local undertaker, Beasley (I. Stanford Jolley), is buying up all the surrounding land by means of terror. At first confused with a notorious, but highly fictitious, outlaw named "The Melody Kid," Jimmy obtains the job of deputy sheriff in Rainbow's End with a mandate to go after both the stage robbers and their secret boss, Beasley. Accompanied by "Fiddlin'" Arthur Smith, Dick Reinhart and Don Weston, Wakely performs his own and Smiley Burnette's "On the Strings of My Lonesome Guitar" and "Oklahoma Blues", Tiny Stokes' "Judy" and the traditional "The Old Chisholm Trail". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1948
Fairly ambitious for Screen Guild Productions, The Prairie is set at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. Hoping to find their destiny in the new territory, the Bush Family heads southward in a covered wagon. Sharing the family's numerous dangers and hardships are Ellen Wade (Lenore Aubert), sole survivor of an Indian attack, and army mapmaker Paul Hover (Alan Baxter). Cousins Abiram (Russ Vincent) and Asa (Jack Mitchum) duke it out over Ellen's affections, but Hover wins the romantic battle. Originally released at 80 minutes in December of 1947, The Prairie had been shorn of 15 minutes by the time it premiered in New York in August 1948; bridging the many continuity gaps was the voiceover narration of Frank Hemingway. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lenore Aubert, Alan Baxter, (more)
- 1947
Johnny Mack Brown races to the rescue in the Monogram western Raiders of the South. But we're a bit ahead of ourselves here: we should explain that Johnny has come to the aid of helpless settlers who've been victimized by a vigilante group. The mysterious masked leader turns out be...but wait, we're gettting ahead of ourselves again. Featured in the cast is former silent screen star Evelyn Brent, and Superman's Perry White, aka John Hamilton. Raiders of the South benefits from the production polish indigenous to producer Scott R. Dunlap and director Lambert Hillyer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1947
- NR
Irving Pichel's They Won't Believe Me is the flashback unfolding of Larry Ballentine's (Robert Young) witness-stand testimony in his trial for the murder of girlfriend Verna Carlson (Susan Hayward). Larry is the first to admit he's a parasitic heel, cheating on his rich wife Gretta (Rita Johnson) first with magazine writer Janice Bell (Jane Greer) and then with Verna. Though aware of Larry's affairs, Gretta cannot manage to leave him; rather, she uses her money to keep him in tow. She foils his attempt to run off with Janice by buying him a partnership in a brokerage firm. When she discovers his plan to flee with Verna, she sells her interest, leaving Larry unemployed and penniless. The lovers run off nonetheless, but Verna is killed when a truck crashes into their car. When the authorities assume the charred victim is his wife, Larry gets a sinister idea. He returns home to kill Gretta, but she is already dead, so all he has to do is hide the body. Unfortunately for him, the police come looking for the missing Verna, who they suspect was blackmailing him. They find Gretta's unrecognizable corpse, think it's Verna's, and arrest Larry. The flashback structure of this suspenseful film noir effectively creates a foreboding tension that mounts to a powerful final scene. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Susan Hayward, (more)
- 1946
Officially released one month before PRC's "Billy the Kid" entry Prairie Badmen, Ghost of Hidden Valley, another "Billy"effort, was issued simultaneously with the later film for its New York debut in July of 1946. The story is the usual, with Billy Carson (Buster Crabbe) and Fuzzy Q. Jones (Al St. John) defended some good guys against some bad guys. This time, a young homesteading couple (Jean Carlin, John Meredith) are menaced by a gang of rustlers. The villains are using the couple's spread to hide their stolen livestock, threatening to kill both husband and wife if they tell the authorities. But Billy and Fuzzy see to it that justice triumphs within the film's allotted 56-minute running time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Jean Carlin, (more)
- 1946
Sidekick Fuzzy Q. Jones (Al St. John) finds himself in deep trouble with the law in this above-average entry in PRC's Billy Carson series starring Larry "Buster" Crabbe. Angered by Fuzzy's refusal to sell him his water rights, nasty Jim McAllister (Steve Terrell) has the grizzled old-timer framed in the killing of one of his henchmen, Slade (George Chesebro). But Slade is still very much alive and Fuzzy's reluctant mail-order bride, Mathilda Boggs (Patricia Knox), grabs a chance to come out ahead by joining McAllister. Fortunately, Fuzzy's friend and partner Billy Carson (Crabbe) is on to the shenanigans and Jones escapes both the hangman and the grasping Miss Boggs. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Patricia Knox, (more)
- 1946
In this western, the leader of an outlaw band tries to take over the reins of a stagecoach line. The outlaw's gal is a singer and saloon keeper who does all she can to assist her man. It looks as if they will succeed in stealing the stage company when a good-guy intervenes. Not only does he save the stage, he also steals the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirby Grant, Fuzzy Knight, (more)
- 1946
In this western, a tuneful saddletramp is appointed sheriff of Rawhide and begins rounding up three troublesome brothers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1945
Though it wasn't the first of the batch, The Stranger from Pecos would have been an excellent starting point for Johnny Mack Brown's Monogram western series. Containing a great deal more excitement than the official first entry (The Ghost Rider), the film casts Brown as Nevada, a US marshal assigned to squelch a crooked land-grab. Unfortunately, the head villain as the corrupt local sheriff in his pocket, which stymies Nevada's efforts during the first 4 reels. But justice prevails during the final 2 reels, as Johnny Mack Brown fans knew it would. The romantic subplot is handled by a pair of pop-culture icons: Kirby Grant, star of TV's Sky King, and Christine McIntyre, leading lady of many a 3 Stooges short. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Mack Brown, Raymond Hatton, (more)
- 1945
An otherwise typically cheesy Billy "the Kid" Carson B-Western series entry from Poverty Row studio PRC, His Brother's Ghost is unusual in having no leading lady. Yes, that's right: no rancher's daughter or schoolmarm for Larry "Buster" Crabbe to romance and embrace at the fade-out and no damsel for the evil Charles King to bring in distress. In what could have been another departure from the norm is the fact that the comic sidekick is killed off early on. That, of course, is merely a plot contrivance to bring on his identical twin brother, who then goes about scaring the living daylights out of the gang that has been terrorizing Wolf Valley. The outlaws are so frightened that their leader, Thorne (King), takes the extreme measure of exhuming the dear departed to prove that he really is completely and irrevocably dead. Al St. John, as Andy Jones and his twin, Jonathan "Fuzzy" Q. Jones, had a field day playing the dual role, and Charles King got to utter such lines as "the only good sharecropper is a dead one." But all in all, His Brother's Ghost is typical PRC: shoddy production values (the bandits' hideout resembles, and probably was, a nice suburban tract house in the San Fernando Valley), occasionally inept direction, murky photography, and a wonderful overall sense of fun. But what happened to the girl? The handsome but somewhat stuffy Crabbe seemed lost without her. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1945
Having briefly abandoned his standard "Nevada Jack McKenzie" characterization in Flame of the West, cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown was back as Nevada Jack in Monogram's The Lost Trail. Vowing to bring in a gang of stagecoach outlaws, Nevada redoubles his efforts when he learns that the owner of the stagecoach line is pretty Jane Burns (Jennifer Holt). Meanwhile, comic-relief Sandy (Raymond Hatton) is appointed sheriff of the town by local bigwig John Corbett (Kenneth McDonald), who hopes to deflect suspicion by turning public opinion against the new lawman. Imagine Corbett's dismay when he discovers that Sandy is actually a federal marshal, and that he's been working undercover with Nevada all along. Reviewers of The Lost Trail noted that, by 1945, former football star Johnny Mack Brown was not so much tall in the saddle as he was wide. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Mack Brown, Raymond Hatton, (more)
- 1945
It's Buster Crabbe times two in this low-budget "Billy Carson" Western from PRC, which once again trots out that anatomical impossibility: identical cousins. The bad cousin, Jim, heads a gang of cattle rustlers that has just killed both the local sheriff and his deputies. The only one left standing is amiable diner owner Fuzzy Q. Jones (Al St. John), who is promptly elected new sheriff. Enter Billy Carson, Jim's right-thinking relative, and the bad guys may as well pack it in, outnumbered as they are by an army of one. In a break from the fighting and shooting, Tex Williams and a hillbilly aggregation perform "It's Over and So Goodbye" by Lew Porter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Evelyn Finley, (more)
- 1945
This campy little drama launched the career of B-girl Yvonne De Carlo. It is set during the Franco-Prussian war and chronicles the exploits of Salome, a beautiful Viennese dancer who falls for an American reporter and for him gets involved in cloak-and-dagger activities involving the Bismarck, before returning to Arizona with him. There, she uses her talent and abundant charms to inspire the lawless residents of his hometown to reform. They in turn, name the town after her. She then goes to San Francisco where she seduces and marries a wealthy Russian who builds her an opera house and gives her the happy life she had always craved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvonne De Carlo, Rod Cameron, (more)
- 1945
An interesting entry in Republic Pictures' long-running "Red Ryder" B-Western series, this film is not about hardy settlers braving the Colorado winters, as the title would suggest. Instead it's a sort of Reform School Western about a couple of wayward Chicago boys (Billy Cummings and Freddie Chapman) taken in by Ryder's indomitable aunt, "The Duchess" (Alice Fleming. The boys escaped their very own "Fagin," Bull Reagan (Roy Barcroft), and were given a second chance on the lady's Western ranch. Unfortunately, Reagan returns to do a bit of cattle rustling, once again luring the boys into becoming his accomplices. The stalwart Ryder (William Elliot and his young Indian sidekick, Little Beaver (Robert Blake), come to their rescue, and the real villain is soon put away. Interestingly, at one point in the film, Ryder and his aunt are (unjustly) accused by the townspeople of exploiting their youthful ranch hands. Buckwheat Thomas of Our Gang fame, plays a character named Smoky. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1945
The penultimate entry in the Texas Rangers lineup, PRC's super-low-budget rival to Republic Pictures' Three Mesqueteers series, Frontier Fugitives once again stars Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien, and Guy Wilkerson. This time, the trio are on to a gang that preys on both traders and Indians. Trailing the main suspect in the killing of Trader Williams (George Morrell), Tex is accused by a fake Indian agent (Jack Ingram) of murdering a brave. The latter, however, proves to be merely another member of the gang in disguise but before he can clear his good name, Tex has to get himself out of jail. When not battling crooked Indian agents and comic opera braves, Ritter performs Al Dexter's "Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry" and "I'll Wait for You, Dear." The Western was filmed on location at Chatsworth, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1944
Supernatural events on the range prompt an investigation by cowboy Brown in this western. ~ All Movie Guide
In this western, the Texas Rangers ride out after "The Whispering Skull" an enigmatic killer who murders his victims in the dead of night. Following the death of a town sheriff, one of the Rangers begins posing as the phantom. This forces the real killer to reveal his identity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Unlike previous "Trail Blazers" entries, each of which starred three veteran western heroes, Marked Trails top-bills only two sagebrush favorites. Hoot Gibson and Bob Steele play a couple of wandering do-gooders who take on a gang of oil swindlers. Adopting a series of bewildering (but hardly impenetrable) disguises, the Ol' Hooter and Battling Bob manage to con the con-ners. But when it becomes absolutely necessary, our heroes rely on their fists to mete out justice. Just another western, Marked Trails is given distinction by the presence of perennial "hard-boiled dame" Veda Ann Borg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson, Bob Steele, (more)
- 1944
William Boyd once again dons the disguise of a fop in this average entry in the long-running "Hopalong Cassidy" western series. The masquerade helps Hoppy and sidekicks California Carlson (Andy Clyde) and Jimmy Rogers get to the bottom of some dirty dealings in the Texas town of Glenby. A vicious gang of night riders has been scaring local ranchers into selling out to J.K. Trimble (Russell Simpson), a supposedly upstanding citizen who has discovered that there is oil in them thar hills. Disguised as Boston lawyer James Corwin, Hoppy at first manages merely to antagonize girl rancher Virginia Curtis (Mady Correll) but then takes her into his confidence. The unexpected arrival of old foe Sam Nolan (Francis McDonald) becomes an even greater threat, however, but aided by the real Corwin (Nelson Leigh) and disgruntled Marshal Rowbottom (Bob McKenzie), Hoppy manages to corner Trimble and his gang after a fiery shootout in the desert. Filmed at Lone Pine, Kernville and Joshua Tree National Forest, Texas Masquerade was penned by Jack Lait, Jr., the screenwriting son of famous muckraking journalist and editor Jack Lait. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andy Clyde, Jimmy Rogers, (more)
- 1944
An above-average entry in the long-running Hopalong Cassidy Western series, the enigmatically titled Mystery Man opens with Hoppy (William Boyd), California Carlson (Andy Clyde), Jimmy Rogers, and the Bar 20 cowboys driving a herd of cattle to the Circle J. Ranch, whose owner, Tom Hanlon (Bob Burns), is to pay cash on delivery. In the town of Holbrook, however, the Bar 20 crew interrupts a bank robbery committed by the notorious Trilling gang whose boss (Don Costello) remains a mystery man. Not even the shrewd Hoppy is able to detect anything wrong with the inquisitive dude, who commends him for foiling the robbery. The dude, alias Trilling, manages to spring his henchmen from jail and then concocts a plan to steal the Bar 20 cattle en route to the Circle J. Despite strong resistance from Hoppy and his friends, Trilling does manage to drive the cattle to the Circle J where he presents himself as Hoppy. The real Hopalong Cassidy, meanwhile, is imprisoned by Sheriff Newhall (Taylor Homes), who accuses him of being Trilling. But the sheriff's daughter, Diane (Eleanor Stewart), who once rescued Jimmy from a would-be killer, knows otherwise and manages to free the Bar 20 cowboys. With the sheriff's posse hot on their trail and Diane acting as a decoy, Hoppy and his men force the Trilling gang into a box canyon and a final shootout. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Hopalong" Boyd, Andy Clyde, (more)
- 1944
Replacing James Newell, country and western crooner Tex Ritter joins Dave "Tex" O'Brien and Guy Wilkerson in the last eight of PRC's "Texas Rangers" western series. In his initial effort, Ritter, as Sheriff Tex Haines, is again confronted with Bart Kern (I. Stanford Jolley) and his gang of cutthroats who once before terrorized the community of Red Rock and are now back for a second helping. Despite joining forces with Texas Rangers Dave Wyatt (O'Brien) and Panhandle Perkins (Wilkerson), Tex comes up short against Kern's trigger-happy gangsters. But when a henchman (Charles King) kills the town's mayor, Frank Merritt (Harry Harvey), in cold blood, Mrs. Merritt (Betty Miles) and telegraph owner Jane Deering (Patti McCarty) demand to be sworn in as Texas' first female rangers. To boost the morale of this inexperienced but ultimately victorious group of frontier lawmen and women, Tex sings his own and Robert McGimsey's "Please Remember Me" as well as Tim Spencer's "He's Gone Up the Trail" and "Ride, Ranger, Ride". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1944
A "Texas Rangers" series entry from PRC, this low budget western features Dave "Tex" O'Brien as a stranger in town introducing himself as the notorious bandit Spade Norton. Crooked saloon owner Red Hayden (I. Stanford Jolley) believes him at first but then the real Spade (Jack Ingram) turns up and all hell breaks loose. Guy Wilkerson and James Newill plays O'Brien's ranger colleagues, the latter performing Speed Hansen's "Someone Is Waiting", "Forget Me Not" and "When the Western Sun Is Sinking". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Newill, Dave "Tex" O'Brien, (more)
