Edmund Cobb Movies

Ostensibly based on the life of World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, whose smiling visage opened each of the 13 chapters, this fanciful serial depicted the travails of a globe trotting airline company. It seems that a villain known only as The Dragon (Arthur Loft) is determined to sabotage the company, who in desperation hires daredevil pilot Ace Drummond (John King) to investigate. By the time of the serial's 13th and final chapter -- "The World Akin" -- Drummond has not only managed to destroy The Dragon but also reunited lovely Peggy Trainor (Jean Rogers) with her long lost father (Montagu Shaw) and discovered a hidden mountain containing a fortune in jade. A former band singer with Ben Bernie, the rather bland John King later became "Dusty" King and enjoyed a minor career in B-Westerns. A legendary serial queen, blonde Jean Rogers gained her lasting reputation that same year when Universal cast her as Dale Arden in Flash Gordon. An edited feature version of Ace Drummond was released later in 1936 as Squadron of Doom. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the "Boston Blackie" series, the suave ex-thief returns to prison to see a Christmas show. There he is impressed by the talent of the inmates. One particularly talented fellow uses his magic act to break out of prison. Now Blackie must find him. Meanwhile the fugitive searches for his look-alike, the man who really committed the crime. Clever Blackie manages to catch them both and then insures that the real crook goes to jail while the innocent man goes free. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Apart from the fact that screenwriter John Francis Natteford named his lead heavy "Cole Porter," this Ken Maynard Western from low-budget producer Tiffany is regulation sagebrush fare. The nasty Mr. Porter (Hooper Atchley) is in the business of buying cattle from the ranchers, only to kill the men afterwards and retrieve the money. One of the intended victims, the Arizonian (Maynard), is found wounded in the desert by Kay Moore (Lina Basquette), who nurses him back to health. But Kay's father (Murdock MacQuarrie) is the next murder victim and the girl suspects the Arizonian, who is forced to flee. He hooks up with Emilio Vasquez (Michael Visaroff), a gregarious Mexican outlaw, and together they successfully trap Porter and his gang. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The opening sequence of this Ken Maynard Western is spectacular: Attempting to save heroine Beth Marion from the ubiquitous runaway horse, the hero makes a death-defying, head-first plunge on horseback into the Kern River far below. The stunt was performed by Maynard's unfairly neglected double, Cliff Lyons, who would marry Marion two years later. As for Maynard himself, the veteran cowboy star didn't do much action-wise in Avenging Waters, spending instead an inordinate amount of time playing his mouth organ and making romantic chit-chat with Marion. The story is the old one about the fencing off of the once free range. Ken and his top hand, Slivers (Wally Wales, aka Hal Taliaferro), are delivering a herd of cattle to rancher Charles Mortimer (John Elliott) when they have a run-in with Marve Slater (Ward Bond). The latter is demanding that Mortimer remove his new fences or else. The "or else" proves to be damming up the river and leaving Mortimer without water for his cattle. Ken takes umbrage to this kind of vigilantism but is overpowered by Slater's henchmen, Hoppy (Tom London) and Jake (Glenn Strange). A rain storm causes the dam to burst and the waters rush toward the shack where Ken is held prisoner. He is saved in the nick of time by his clever palomino, Tarzan, while Slater is left to drown in his own flood. Maynard's legendary ornery temper caused all kinds of delays on this inexpensive Western and the veteran star was getting a bit paunchy to boot. Director Spencer Gordon Bennet was forced to use rear-projection in a scene where Maynard desperately attempts to grab hold of Tarzan, one of the very few instances that this technique was used in a B-Western. The grand finale, the flooding of the valley, was done using a model built to scale and is not bad for this kind of low-budget fare. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Set on the Mexican border in 1850, Bad Men of the Border was the first of seven Universal Westerns starring handsome Kirby Grant, a former singer from Montana who had earlier acted under the name Robert Stanton. The series, Universal's last attempt at competing with Republic Pictures' many streamlined B-Westerns, also featured the bucolic Fuzzy Knight as Grant's sidekick. Grant and Knight are undercover U.S. marshals tracking down a gang of counterfeiters. To their surprise, they are soon assisted by a beautiful Mexican dancehall performer, Dolores Mendoza (Armida), who proves to be an undercover agent as well, in her case for the Mexican rurales headed by Captain Garcia (Francis McDonald). After much riding and shooting, the leaders of the ring -- ex-convict turned cantina owner Bart Breslow (John Eldredge) on the Mexican side and saloon owner Ace Morgan (Edward M. Howard) in Texas -- are captured in their underground hideout. In between the action, Armida found time to perform "And Then I Got Married," by Everett Carter and Milton Rosen, and "I Would Love You," by Jack Brooks and Rosen. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Bells of Coronado was another of Roy Rogers' always-entertaining Republic "specials," blessed with script and production values that would have done any "A" picture proud. Roy plays an undercover insurance investigator who hopes to ascertain the whereabouts of a vein of gold ore--and to solve the murder of the vein's owner. It follows, as night follows day, that the least-likely suspect is the criminal mastermind. Before Roy finds this out, though, he must contend with the villain's principal henchmen, played by former Our Gang kid Clifton Young. Dale Evans, Pat Brady, and Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage all do their usual, which is all anyone could ask. Given second billing, just below Roy and just above Dale, is Trigger, "The Smartest Horse in the Movies." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tall (and a bit heavy) in the saddle, Johnny Mack Brown stars in Blazing Bullets. Too long in tooth to pass a romantic lead, Brown permits his sidekick House Peters Jr. to pitch woo to leading lady Lois Hall. The plot is the same as in Brown's ten previous Monogram westerns; coming into a corruption-ridden town, our hero ambles around innocently, sizing up the situation, then slaps leather. Up until the finale, the film's excitement level is virtually nonexistent. Johnny Mack Brown would close out his Monogram contract the following year with his 66th release for the company. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Too many of Gene Autry's Republic western sacrificed action in favor of music. A notable exception to this syndrome is Blue Montana Skies, directed by a fast-action maestro B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason. The up-to-date plotline finds Autry battling a gang of fur smugglers operating on the Montana-Canada border. When his business partner Steve (Tully Marshall) is murdered by the crooks, cattleman Autry follows the clues to a ranch owned by Dorothy (June Storey). Unbeknownst to the heroine, the murderers, led by Hendricks (Harry Woods), are working as her ranchhands. By the time she finds this out, it looks like she's next in line for extinction-but not if our hero has anything to say about it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

From Big 4 Film Corp., Breed of the West stars former silent cowboy Wally Wales, in his second talkie, as Wally Weldon, a young cowboy who encounters a lost youth searching for his father. Wally takes the boy, Jim Bradley (Buzz Barton), back to the ranch where the kid obtains the job of cook's helper. While performing his duties, Jim learns that his immediate boss (George Gerwing) and Longrope Wheeler (Robert Walker), the ranch foreman, are planning to rob their employer, Colonel Sterner (Lafe McKee). When Wally finds Jim wounded by one of Longrope's henchmen, the Colonel admits to his daughter, Betty (Virginia Brown Faire), that the child is her long-lost brother. There is a second attempt to rob Sterner but Wally forces the cook to confess and the evil Longrope is arrested by the sheriff (Hank Bell). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Burt Lancaster had one of his first starring roles in this hard-hitting prison drama. Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is a cruel, corrupt prison guard who has his own less-than-ethical ways of dealing with inmates, enough so that Joe Collins (Lancaster) -- the toughest inmate in the cell block -- has decided to break out. Collins tries to persuade Gallagher (Charles Bickford), the unofficial leader of the inmates and editor of the prison newspaper, to join him, but Gallagher thinks Collins' plan won't work. However, Collins does have the support of his cellmates, most of whom, like himself, wandered into a life of crime thanks to love and good intentions. Tom Lister (Whit Bissell) was an accountant who altered the books so he could buy his wife a mink coat. Soldier (Howard Duff) fell in love with an Italian girl during World War II and took the rap for her when she murdered her father. Collins pulled a bank job to raise money to pay for an operation that could possibly get his girl out of a wheelchair. And Spencer (John Hoyt) made the mistake of getting involved with a female con artist. After Munsey drives Tom to suicide and prevents Gallagher from obtaining parole, Gallagher joins up with Collins and his men in the escape attempt. Director Jules Dassin would next direct the influential noir drama The Naked City; six years later, he would move to Europe after political blacklisting prevented him from continuing to work in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Smiling Bill Flannigan (William Desmond), a once-renowned prizefighter, escapes West after accidentally killing an opponent in the ring in this muscular Universal western. The ex-boxer obtains the job of ranch cook and gets involved with the ubiquitous war between ranchers and sheep men. Hailing from Scotland and out of a long line of entertainers, brawny Desmond began his 25-year screen career playing the parson opposite stage star Cyril Maude in Peer Gynt (1915). A heavily dramatic beginning for an actor who would later star in robust serials such as Perils of the Yukon (1922), The Riddle Rider and The Vanishing Rider (1928), all for Universal. Desmond's leading lady in The Burning Trail, Mary McIvor, was also his off-screen wife. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The epic struggle for the rights to California became the basis for Days of '49, a 15-chapter serial produced by Ben Wilson's Berwilla Corporation. The chapterplay was re-edited into this 7-reel feature Western starring Neva Gerber as Swiss settler Johan Sutter's highly fictitious but spirited daughter who falls for a handsome trail guide (Edmund Cobb). Historical episodes keep interfering the slam-bang action in this Western, such as when a group of settlers, stranded in a snow storm, poignantly implore Cobb to "try to break through -- and take our last horse, even if it will cut our food supply short!" The group in question was, of course, the ill-fated Donner Party. Constantly reminding the viewer of its serial origins, the film is often quite disjointed. In fact, Neva Gerber's "Sierra Sutter" could have been referring to California in '49, when following an Indian raid she remarked (via a title): "I shall never forget the awfulness of it all." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide