Oscar Gahan Movies

Directed under the pseudonym "Raymond Samuels" by Harry S. Webb, this cheap Western starred former silent screen cowboy Bob Custer. Custer plays Marshal Bruce Manning, whose fiancee, Ann Morgan (Victoria Vinton), begs him to interfere when her brother Clay (Eddie Phillips), a cattle rancher, is accused of killing a homesteader (Wally Wales). But Manning, who wants to prevent a war between the cattle ranchers and the "nesters," takes Clay into protective custody. Ann's father (Edward Cassidy) shoots Bruce in the shoulder, and Ann herself is abducted by the dead homesteader's mother, Ma Potter (Vane Calvert). Morgan rallies his men to free Ann but mistakenly shoots his own son. Dying, Clay admits to having killed an unarmed man. Mourning their respective sons, Ma Potter and Morgan agree to share the land. Ambush Valley was the first of three very low-budget Custer westerns produced by small-time Reliable Pictures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Bar Z Bad Men is a slick 1930s oater showcasing Johnny Mack Brown. Per the title, Brown signs on as ranchhand at the Bar Z. The spread is plagued by rustlers, and this plot peg builds to a well-staged cattle- stampede climax. Leading lady Lois January, whose acting ability was several steps above most western ingenues, provides spirited support for Brown. Bar Z Bad Men was produced independently by A. W. Hackel's Spectrum Productions, then released by Republic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Star Reb Russell was an all-American football player who tried to make it as a movie cowboy. There were three things standing in his way -- he couldn't act, he couldn't ride, and, even worse, he signed up with ultra-low-budget producer Willis Kent. After a series of westerns that went from bad, to worse, to atrocious, Russell faded from the scene. In this opus, he plays The Cheyenne Kid, who steps in when a group of cattlemen try to drive a sheepherder and his family off their own land. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

Singing cowboy Jack Randall does his usual in Monogram's Danger Valley, Randall's second starring film. When someone discovers gold in them thar hills, several disreputable promoters try to take financial advantage of the ensuing rush. By producing a packet of forged papers, two of these crooks manage not only to fleece the prospectors, but to set up an "outlaw colony" in a rattletrap ghost town. Randall and his pal Lucky (Hal Price) do their best to protect the miners and rout the villains. Though a passable singer, Jack Randall is somewhat stiff as an actor; he was far more natural in a reel of Monogram outtakes, in which he constantly curses himself out after blowing his lines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his fourth starring Western, Universal's singing cowboy Bob Baker comes to the aid of Molly Taylor (Fay Shannon), an Eastern girl about to lose her inherited ghost town because of outstanding property taxes. Gomer (Forrest Taylor), who has discovered oil on the property, kidnaps the girl on her way to the tax collector (Murdock MacQuarrie), but she is rescued in the nick of time by singing Texas Ranger Bob Martin (Baker) and his sidekick, "Cherokee" Walton (Hank Worden). Composer Fleming Allan provided a couple of songs, including "We're Headin' Home" and "That Old Home Trail," but Baker's humdrum vocalizing did not make anyone forget Gene Autry. In contrast to Autry, Baker was easily overshadowed by Universal's well-chosen supporting cast which this time included George Cleveland as a supposedly senile judge, Martin Turner as the heroine's African-American domestic, and the always welcome Hank Worden. The Baker series remained a shaky proposition and by 1939 the star was playing second fiddle to the more robust (and non-singing) Johnny Mack Brown. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Acting upon the belief that he accidentally murdered his best pal, a gunman swears never to draw his weapon again. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Produced by Greek-born Gower Gulch "tycoon" Anthony J. Xydias, this film was a remake, with plenty of stock footage, of Xydias' silent With Davy Crockett at the Fall of the Alamo (1926). In the new version, however, Crockett (played by a far-too-young Lane Chandler) is almost a bit part, the film concentrating instead on newlyweds Almerian and Anne Dickinson (Bruce Warren and Ruth Findley), heroic Texans based on real-life Alamo victims Almeron and Suzanna Dickinson. The siege of the Alamo by General Santa Anna (Julian Rivero) is mainly depicted via poorly-inserted stock footage from Xydias' silent version, but all the famous elements are there: Travis' (Rex Lease) line in the sand, Bowie (Roger Williams) crossing that line despite his illness and the death of all three mythical American heroes. The sole survivor is Anne Dickinson (a true flight of fancy), who is present when Sam Houston (Edward Peil, Sr.) utters the famous line, "Remember the Alamo!" Consisting of numerous gaffes (the defenders of the Alamo perform a rendition of The Yellow Rose of Texas, written years later, to mention but one example) and enacted on laughably cheap sets, Heroes of the Alamo was dismissed by an overwhelmingly hostile press. Xydias, who had come out of retirement for this, and a proposed series of historical Westerns, never produced another film. Heroes of the Alamo was later shortened to about half of its 80 minutes running time and sold as an educational short subject under the title Remember the Alamo. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Ken Maynard saves Geneva Mitchell from a runaway coach in the opening of this so-so Columbia western. The victim of a stage hold-up, Geneva is mighty grateful but her banker father (John Ince) is only too willing to believe uncouth Charles "Slim" Whitaker when he fingers Ken as the master-mind behind the latest outrage, a bank heist. Geneva, meanwhile, has recognized nasty Harry Woods) as the real culprit of both stage holdup and bank robbery and promptly gets herself kidnapped. With Ken behind bars, help is a bit slow in coming but the bad guys are corralled in due time and peace is finally restored to the town of Santana. Sidekick Guy Wilkerson takes time out to serenade a winsome Indian maiden -- three times! -- and even Maynard is allowed to warble a campfire tune or two, more's the pity. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Fred Scott musical westerns were high in audience appeal, but invariably handicapped with syrupy titles like Moonlight on the Range. On this occasion, our hero is suspected of being an outlaw, but the real culprit is his look-alike half-brother (Scott plays both roles). At first hoping to wreak vengeance on his crooked sibling. Scott relents at the end, bringing brother dear in unharmed in hopes of reforming the boy. The film's highlight is a fierce gun battle between hero and villain, with director Sam Newfield doing an excellent job differentiating the two brothers. In the course of events, Fred Scott sings four songs, several of them for the benefit of leading lady Lois January. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed after the star and his producer already had signed a new deal with rival company Monogram, this Grand National Tex Ritter Western slashed the usual parsimonious budget even further by recycling the entire final reel of Ritter's previous Sing, Cowboy, Sing. Filmed back-to-back with Utah Trail, Ritter's final Grand National Western, Rollin' Plains once again burdened the star with perhaps the worst comic sidekicks available at the time, Horace Murphy and Snub Pollard, the latter still sporting the paint-on mustache he had used since the silent days at Keystone. The three played rangers coming to the assistance of Gospel Moody (silent screen star Hobart Bosworth), a cattle rancher in trouble with an ornery sheepman, Trigger Gargan (Charles King). Soon, Gospel is accused of killing old Hank Tomlin (Horace B. Carpenter), an act actually committed by his half-brother Cain (Ernie S. Adams). With Tex's help, Moody stages his own "death," only to come back as a "ghost." Accompanied by a group calling themselves The Beverly Hill Billies, Ritter performed Rollin' Plains by Whitcup, Samuels and Powell, Me, My Pal and My Pony by Frank Harford, and Rock of Ages by Augustus Montague Toplady and Thomas Hastings. Hank Worden, a friend of Ritter's from his days on Broadway, appeared in a bit part, still billed under his real name, Heber Snow. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Singing cowboy Tex Ritter once again battled the ornery Charles King in this average music Western from poverty row company Grand National. The usually so jovial Robert McKenzie joined King this time, playing mean Judge Roy Dean and conspiring to take over the Summer's Freight Line. Passing cowboys Tex Archer (Ritter, who warbles the title-tune and his own Goodbye Old Paint) and Duke Evans (Al St. John) happen upon the dead body of George Summers (Jack C. Smith) and decide to take up the fight against the crooked judge. They are briefly jailed but escape in time to save Madge Summers (Louise Stanley) and bring the villains to justice. A big fan of silent slapstick comics, Ritter constantly badgered his producer, Edward F. Finney, to hire former Keystone Kops and in addition to St. John, Sing Cowboy, Sing also featured Snub Pollard and Chester Conklin. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The first Tex Ritter Western from Monogram Pictures, Starlight Over Texas contained the singing cowboy's trademark mix of furious fist-fight, ornery Charles King, and a slew of musical numbers. Unfortunately, Monogram also inherited Ritter's main weaknesses: idiotic sidekicks (Horace Murphy and Snub Pollard), slipshod direction (by Al Herman), meandering plots, and the aforementioned slew of musical numbers. At least Starlight Over Texas featured an eye-catching fiesta in addition to Ritter's warbling of such tunes as Pickens by A.J. Brier and Starlight Over Texas by Harry Tobias and Al Von Tilzer. Ritter played Tex Newman, a United States Marshal assigned to look into a series of Indian raids on the border to Mexico. As it turns out, the raids are committed by a gang of outlaws only masquerading as Indians. The leader of the gang, Kildare (Karl Hackett), murders a marshal and assumes his identity. Tex. of course, does not fall for the masquerade for long and the inevitable chase across the border ends with the capture of Kildare. Executive producer Edward F. Findley moved his entire "Boots and Saddles" operation from the floundering Grand National to Monogram without missing a beat. Along for the ride, in addition to sidekicks Murphy and Pollard and director Herman, were music director Frank Sanucci, assistant director Bobby Ray, cinematographer Francis Corby and film editor Frederick Bain. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Ken Maynard at least tries to keep his characteristic off-the-wall ad-libs to a minimum in Fugitive Sheriff. Hoping to rid a small western community of its corrupt political machine, Maynard runs for sheriff against the bad guys' candidate and wins the election. Dissatisfied with this, the villains contrive to frame Ken on a murder charge. He breaks out of jail (hence the film's title) and tracks down the genuine culprit, pausing ever so briefly to sing a song or two for the benefit of leading lady Beth Marion. Maynard's singing is definitely an acquired taste, but there's no argument that his riding stunts are astonishing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide