Virginia Carpenter Movies
The old plot device of a western "ghost town" being used as a hideout for criminals is trotted out again in Monogram's Ghost Town Law. This time around, the heroes are The Rough Riders: namely, Buck Roberts (Buck Jones), Tim McCall (Tim McCoy) and Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton). Following their usual modus operandi, the three heroes pretend to be strangers to one another, and also pose as criminals themselves to lull the real villains into a false sense of security. The plot revolves around an old gold mine, jealously guarded by masked, well-armed desperadoes. For the sake of heroine Josie Hall (Virginia Carpenter), the Rough Riders rout the villains and return the mine to its rightful owners. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, (more)
- 1941
It's Wild Bill Elliot as Wild Bill Hickok in the Columbia B-western Lone Star Vigilantes. This time out, Elliot is teamed with singing cowboy Tex Ritter, while comedy relief is provided by diminutive stuntman Frank Mitchell. Returning from Civil War duty, Hickok, Tex Martin (Ritter) and Cannonball (Mitchell) find that their Texas home town is under the rule of Colonel Monroe (Forrest Taylor), a bush-league dictator with his own police force. In true Hitlerian fashion, Monroe extorts huge sums of money from the populace, terrorizing them into silence. Our three heroes set about to put an end to Monroe's regime, with time out for Tex Ritter's musical interludes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tex Ritter, Frank Mitchell, (more)
- 1941
PRC's Outlaws of the Rio Grande stars Tim McCoy in his traditional role of a US marshal. Operating around the Mexican border, McCoy is galvanized into action when his best pal is killed by a gang of counterfeiters. Going undercover, our hero heads after the gang into Mexico, intending to unmask the mysterious leader. Heroine Rita (played by band vocalist Virginia Carpenter) is forced by the crooks to lure McCoy into a trap, but the audience never doubts for a moment that Colonel Tim will prevail. Among the heavies is the inescapable Charles King, here cast not in his traditional role of "Blackie" but as "Trigger". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Virginia Carpenter, (more)
In the last of Monogram's "Mr. Wong" whodunits, Keye Luke takes over from Boris Karloff as the Chinese detective Jimmy Lee Wong, more of an amateur sleuth, really, than his eminent predecessor. The subject for Wong's examination is the poisoning of Dr. Benton (Charles F. Miller), the leader of an expedition to Mongolia and the possessor of a mysterious and seemingly deadly scroll. With Captain Street (Grant Withers) and the dead man's Chinese secretary (Lotus Long alternately aiding and obstructing the investigation, Wong gets to the bottom of things within the expected 68 minutes or so by using himself as a decoy. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keye Luke, Lotus Long, (more)
- 1940
In his final release of 1940, Monogram's answer to Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, played a United States Marshal assigned to investigate a gang that is taking advantage of the prison honor system. Helping unsuspecting prisoners escape, the gang enlists them in bank holdups. As the escapee demands money, a member of the gang shoots him down to claim the reward money. Tex, however, deputizes a couple of inmates and can soon bring the gang to justice. A very minor entry in the Ritter oeuvre, Rollin' Home to Texas featured future Western lead Eddie Dean as a sheriff. Ritter performed seven musical numbers, including Under Texas Stars and Wabash Cannon Ball. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tex Ritter, Cal Shrum, (more)
