Bill Potter Movies
- 1949
The differences between West of El Dorado and Johnny Mack Brown's previous 1949 vehicles are minimal. Once again, Brown is teamed with Max "Alibi" Terhune, comic ventriloquist extraordinaire. In this outing, Johnny and Alibi try to straighten out a hostile young boy (Teddy Infuhr) whose older brother was a notorious stagecoach bandit. When a gang of thieves try to strong-arm the kid into revealing the whereabouts of the stolen loot, Johnny and Alibi come to the rescue. There's a cursory romantic subplot involving heroine Mary (Reno Browne) and Barstow (Marshall Reed). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Johnny Mack Brown, Max "Alibi" Terhune, (more)
- 1949
Monogram's Johnny Mack Brown western series galloped ever onward in Hidden Danger. This time, Johnny and his saddle pal Banty (Raymond Hatton) come in contact with a cattlemen's protective organization. Ostensibly an honest venture, the association is the front for an extortion racket, headed by a gent named Carson (Myron Healey). The action highlights are complemented by the comic antics of Max Terhune and his dummy Elmer. Aging star Brown relinquishes the romantic responsibilities to Marshall Reed, who spends his screen time wooing heroine Christine Larson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Johnny Mack Brown, Raymond Hatton, (more)
- 1949
Johnny Mack Brown does his usual Johnny Mack Brown thing in the Monogram western Range Justice. Once more teamed with comic sidekick Max Terhune, Brown champions the cause of feisty lady rancher Ma Curtis (Sarah Padden). A gang of crooks led by the scurrilous Stoner (Fred Kohler Jr.) is trying to drive Ma off her land. Going undercover, Brown joins the gang to bore from within. The rest of the story adheres religiously to the formula firmly established in previous Johnny Mack Brown oaters. Legendary stunt man Eddie Parker is seen in a rare speaking role as "Lacey." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Johnny Mack Brown, Max "Alibi" Terhune, (more)
- 1949
In this late entry in Monogram's Jimmy Wakely series of musical Westerns, Wakely and sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) come to the aid of Reno Browne, whose brother, Steven (Riley Hill), is convicted and sentenced to death for killing an enemy of their later father. Wakely and Cannonball, who has enrolled in a detective correspondence course, do a bit of investigating and are soon on the track of the real killer, Carson (Dennis Moore), the leader of a gang smuggling ore from Mexico. Although ostensibly a Jimmy Wakely vehicle, Across the Rio Grande became something of a showcase for supporting actors Riley Hill and Dub Taylor. The latter made much of his mail-order detective schtick, to the point of firing a bullet into a recently acquired "bulletproof" vest. The bullet, alas, was not deflected by the vest but by Cannonball's correspondence-manual. Across the Rio Grande marked the screen debut of radio songstress Polly Bergen, who appeared as a cantina singer under her real name Polly Burgin. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jimmy Wakely, Reno Browne, (more)
- 1949
A late entry in Monogram's Jimmy Wakely musical Western series, Brand of Fear features a nice performance by Gail Davis, television's Annie Oakley. Davis plays Anne Lamont, whose guardian, Marshal Black Jack Flint (Tom London), hires her as the new schoolteacher of Oreville, AZ. Black Jack, however, is really a reformed outlaw and is being blackmailed by crooked blacksmith Cal Derringer (Marshall Reed). Derringer is in league with outlaw Tom Slade (William H. Ruhl), who plans to rob a shipment of ore. On the side of law and order are trouble-shooter Jimmy Wakely and his sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor). They run down the villains, and with his dying breath, Derringer confesses that Black Jack was innocent of the charges leveled against him 20 years earlier and that he is actually Anne's natural father. In between battling the bad guys, Wakely finds time to sing "There's a Rainbow Over the Range" by Tim Spencer and "Cool Water" by the prolific Bob Nolan. Monogram could have done much worse than this tightly packaged piece of Western hokum, and often did. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1949
Johnny Mack Brown's first starring western for 1950 is cut from the same cloth as his 1949 releases. Brown's principal antagonist this time is the town boss (Hugh Prosser), an outlaw who has killed the community's leading citizen. The dead man's grown children (Jane Adams and Riley Hill) want to investigate the killing, but the outlaw puts a stop to this by hiring a dance-hall dame (Constance Worth) to pose as the kids' long-lost mother. Johnny isn't fooled by this subterfuge, nor is his comic sidekick (Max Terhune). Once the plot has been established, Western Renegades adheres strictly to formula -- right down to Johnny Mack Brown's relinquishing the film's romantic-lead responsibilities to the younger, thinner Steve Clark. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Johnny Mack Brown, Max "Alibi" Terhune, (more)
- 1949
Monogram's four-year-old Jimmy Wakely western series began to wind down with Courtin' Trouble. As was customary, Jimmy does more singin' than fightin' or shootin' in this leisurely entry. The plot concerns an ongoing feud between cattlemen and frontier merchants. Adding fuel to the fire is an outlaw gang, masterminded by saloon owner Leonard Penn (the real-life father of actors Sean and Christopher Penn). Virginia Belmont plays a lady attorney who is determined to bring things to a peaceful conclusion, while Dub "Cannonball" Taylor is the all-around comedy relief. Star Wakely manages to squeeze three musical numbers into the film's 56-minute timespan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jimmy Wakely, Virginia Belmont, (more)
- 1948
Three fellows band together to help a woman find her uncle's cache of gold in this western. All they have to help them is a tattered map that her uncle, a prisoner of war, created in camp. Unfortunately two badguys have the map and try to turn the three goodguys against the niece. They do not succeed and justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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