Alden Chase Movies

Nelson Leigh assumes the role of Jesus Christ in this drama that depicts such historical events as the Sermon on the Mount and the Last Supper while portraying the period in which Christ roamed the countryside preaching the gospel. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Opera singer-turned-cowboy hero George Houston stars in PRC's Lone Rider in Ghost Town. Houston is cast as Tom Cameron, who in the guise of the Lone Rider comes to the rescue of a group of gold prospectors. The villains are a band of big-city racketeers who've brought their strong-arm tactics to the Great Frontier, jumping the prospectors' claims and killing off all opposition. The climax takes place in a supposed ghost town which serves as the gangsters' hideout. Al "Fuzzy" St. John, PRC's house comic sidekick, is on hand for a few snickers, chuckles and guffaws. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In their second Western outing together, PRC's low-budget team of George Houston and Al St. John go in search of a Mexican bandit known as "El Puma." Arriving south of the border disguised as peons, "The Lone Rider," a.k.a. Tom Cameron, and his sidekick Fuzzy learn that Torres (Thornton Edwards), the local mayor, refuses his son Francisco (Howard Masters to court cantina dancer Rosalie (Roquell Verria), whom he considers low-class. Grabbing a chance to get out of a jam, "El Puma," who is really a Gringo named Jarvis (Charles King), frames Tom in the kidnapping of Francisco. But Tom manages to escape before he can be arrested and persuades Rosalie to pretend to be in love with Jarvis. The latter's hideout is then infiltrated by Tom and Fuzzy disguised as gun salesmen and the entire gang is apprehended. Relieved at this happy outcome, Mayor Torres allows Francisco to marry Rosalia. The south-of-the-border setting of this low-budget "The Lone Rider" series entry permitted George Houston, a former opera bass, to perform such enchilada-flavored songs as "It's a Gay Fiesta" and "I'm Pancho, the Mexican Bandit". Heavyset and a bit awkward-looking, Houston was perhaps not the ideal B-Western hero and was replaced by Robert Livingstone in the final six of the 17 "Lone Rider" entries. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Tim McCoy once again played Department of Justice agent "Lightning Bill" Carson in Code of the Cactus, and once again he infiltrates the outlaws by masquerading as a foreigner, this time a Mexican named Miguel. A gang of very modern rustlers using high-powered trucks and machine guns is terrorizing the local ranchers. Disguised as Miguel, Lightning Bill quickly learns that the rustlers are lead by Blackton (Forrest Taylor), a nasty meatpacking contractor, and with assistance from usual sidekick Magpie (Ben Corbett) and a new acquaintance, range detective Bob Swane (Dave "Tex" O-Brien), he manages to penetrate Blackton's barricade of piled-up trucks. McCoy made eight Westerns for low-budget producer Katzman's Victory Pictures before signing with newcomer PRC. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this western, Roy Rogers plays a cowboy-congressman from a dustbowl state who travels to Washington, DC to lobby for badly needed water rights which he wants to make public and free. Roy is assisted by his sidekick and other friends. There, they show their peers a documentary that graphically depicts the decimation caused by the massive drought. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on Clarence E. Mulford's Mesquite Jenkins, Tumbleweed from 1932, Heart of the West addresses the issue of fences on the hitherto free range. Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and Johnny Nelson (James Ellison) have been hired to head a cattle drive by Trumbull (Sidney Blackmer), but then learn that their would-be employer is waging a war against young rancher Jim Jordan (Charles Martin). The latter is erecting fences on his part of the range in order to keep his cattle pure. At first, Hoppy is less than willing to accept Jim's offer of a job, but he agrees once it becomes clear that Trumbull has been using Jim's Black Valley as a safe conduit for cattle rustlings. Heart of the West, which came complete with a title song by Sam Coslow and Victor Young, was partially filmed along California's Kern River. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Produced by low-budget company Supreme Pictures (which weren't), this middling B-western was saved somewhat by its personable star, the strapping former footballer Johnny Mack Brown. Mack plays Dan Doran, the rogue of the title, who rescues a pretty missionary, Tess (Phyllis Hume), from the ubiquitous runaway team. In town, Doran not only leaves the welfare of the girl to Stella, the saloon hostess (Lois January), but admits to having earlier robbed the stage. Sent up the river for 20 years, Dan makes the acquaintance of Jim Mitchell (George Ball), a fellow inmate, and the two make their escape together. Returning to the scene of the crime, Dan joins Jim's gang of stage robbers. The town's natty-looking banker, Lige Branscomb (Alden Chase aka Stephen Chase) is observed courting Tess, who now owns the Golden Nugget coffee shop. Dan, who is in reality an undercover G-man, has Stella rescue Tess from marrying the villainous Branscomb who, of course, is the secret leader of the gang of stage robbers. Leaving Tess to her coffee shop, Dan proposes to Stella, who accepts. Although already beginning to exhibit the middle-age spread that would mar his later appearances, Johnny Mack Brown once again proves that he was a better actor than most of his B- western rivals. The same cannot be said for Phyllis Hume, who plays the missionary girl with only one expression, bewilderment, and whose only film this seems to have been. Max Davidson, an old-fashioned "Dutch-style" comic who had been in films before Charles Chaplin and almost everyone else, appears briefly and for no apparent reason in order to perform a bit of timeworn shtick as a Jewish salesman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Cowboy Millionaire is one of the last and best of George O'Brien's western vehicles at the Fox Studios. O'Brien is in charge of a dude ranch, where his newest customer is wealthy English girl Evelyn Bostock. They fall in and out of love, and soon Bostock is heading back to the British Isles. O'Brien follows her, setting British society on its ear with his no-holds-barred behavior. Cowboy Millionaire was produced by Sol Lesser, who when he wasn't busy financing westerns could be found recording the cinematic exploits of boy soprano Bobby Breen and grown-up jungle man Tarzan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed at the Columbia ranch in ten days in September of 1934, this Tim McCoy Western did not enjoy a wide release until October of 1936, at which time the star had left Columbia in favor of small-time Puritan Pictures. McCoy played cowboy Tim Hamlin who arrives in a town plagued by a gang of cattle rustlers. Obtaining a job at the Ortega Ranch, Tim comes to the aid of the owner, Don Rafael (Carlos De Valdez), who cannot meet his payments to villainous saloon keeper Bonner (Hooper Atchley) because his cattle are being stolen. When Don Rafael is wounded in yet another raid, Tim, whose horse is found sweaty from a hard ride, is suspected of the attack and forced to flee a group of vengeful vigilantes. Bonner's chief lieutenant, Ed Walton (Alden Chase), is willing to help the Ortegas if only Dolores Ortega (Sheila Manners) agrees to marry him. Arrested by Town Marshal Willoughby (Joe Sawyer), Tim manages to escape and force Bonner to confess. Willoughby arrives to arrest the villains and Tim is free to romance lovely Dolores. The Prescott Kid was one of nine McCoy Westerns directed by David Selman, a former assistant director. The film was in all likelihood kept out of wide release in 1934 because Columbia was busy promoting McCoy in a series of (unsuccessful) non-Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide