Tim Ryan Movies

The Buster Keaton Story is the sublimely inaccurate life story of immortal film comedian Buster Keaton, played by Donald O'Connor. The film begins with young Buster appearing in his parents' circus acrobatic act (the real Keatons never appeared in a circus, but were vaudevillians instead). After Buster's dad dies (an event that actually occurred when Keaton was in his 30s and already a star), the boy strikes out on his own. He makes it into silent films as a top slapstick comic (this much is accurate), but his private life is complicated by two loves, a "sweet" girl (Ann Blyth) and a wealthy temptress (Rhonda Fleming) (Buster was married three times, but not to either one of the ladies depicted in this film). When talkies come in, Buster is browbeaten by autocratic director Peter Lorre (all of Keaton's talkies were directed by Eddie Sedgwick, one of his best friends) and finds himself unable to handle dialogue (no comment). He turns to drink (true) and destroys himself in Hollywood (partly true). But through the love of good girl Ann Blyth, Buster makes a comeback in vaudeville, and finally decides to get married and settle down for the first time in his life (Buster did tour in vaudeville with wife Eleanor Norris, who was wife number three and whom he met nine years after the advent of talkies). The nicest thing about The Buster Keaton Story was that the amount Paramount paid Keaton for permission to film his "life story" ($50,000) was large enough for Buster to remain financially solvent for the rest of his life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Siege of Red River stars Van Johnson as a Confederate officer, who "appropriates" a shipment of gatling guns from the Northern troops in the waning days of the Civil War. Posing as a medicine show entrepreneur, Johnson smuggles the guns through enemy lines in his wagon. Renegade rebel Richard Boone steals the guns in order to sell them to the Indians. Surrendering himself to Union troops, Johnson sets after Boone with Yankee reinforcements in tow before the Indians can get their hands on the weapons. After Boone is killed, a northern nurse (Joanne Dru) pleads eloquently for the Yanks to be easy on Johnson; he is allowed to escape, but not before promising to marry the nurse at war's end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Considered by many the weakest of Wayne Morris' latter-day B-Westerns, The Marksman features the no longer svelte star as a U. S. Marshall chasing down the gang of rustlers that killed his colleague (I. Stanford Jolley). Masquerading as a harmless prospector, Morris uses a rifle complete with telescopic lens and wins not only the day but also lovely authoress Elena Verdugo. This film was nearly the last hurrah for series B-Western, Wayne Morris and the even less remembered John Carpenter fighting for the dubious honor of being the genre's final hero. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the long running "Bowery Boys" series, one of the boys is bequeathed a farm in Kentucky. The boys go there and find themselves in the middle of a hillbilly feud between the Smiths and the Joneses. The warring clans unite when bank robbers break into the Jones' house and force the hapless family to assist them. The boys begin calling the thieves "Joneses" and this causes the Smiths to come a runnin' with their shot guns and capture them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This "Bowery Boys" entry is an on-target satire of TV wrestling (which, if anything, is even sillier in the 1990s than it was in 1952). Through a freak of nature, Sach Jones (Huntz Hall) develops a cranium so hard that it is impervious to pain. Capitalizing on this phenomenon, Sach's pal Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) enters Sach in a wrestling match, during which his great strength re-manifests itself in his fingers. With each subsequent wrestling bout, Sach's superstrength shifts to another part of his body. When slated to take on real-life wrestler Hombre Montana in the ring, Sach nearly meets his Waterloo until the last moment, when he develops extrahuman strength in his backside. Never believable for a single moment, No Holds Barred is one of the best and funniest of the 48 "Bowery Boys" films. In addition to Hombre Montana, other genuine wrestlers making guest appearances include Henry Kulky, Pat Fraley, Brother Frank Jares and Count John Maximillian. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Believe it or not, those boobish Bowery Boys Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) and Sach Jones (Huntz Hall) are drafted into the Marine Corps (drafted into the Marine Corps?) Because of his father's sterling war record, simple-minded Sach is promoted to sergeant, and has a high old time lording it over his former "chiefie" Slip. Seemingly born under a lucky star, the more Sach screws up during boot camp, the higher he's promoted. Just when this running gag threatens to wear out its welcome, the scriptwriters bring in a gang of crooked gamblers who've been victimizing the Marine trainees, leading to a maelstrom of fisticuffs between the Bowery Boys and the bad boys in the final reel. Extra laughs are supplied in Here Come the Marines by Donald MacBride as Slip and Sach's dough-faced drill sergeant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On a pure storytelling level, Crazy Over Horses is one of the best entries in Monogram's "Bowery Boys" series. This time, Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall) and the gang come into possession of a race horse. Slip is convinced that the horse, which he'd picked up as payment for a debt owed to sweet-shop owner Louie (Bernard Gorcey) by stable owner Flynn (Tim Ryan), is a thoroughbred. For once, he's right: the nag had been left with Flynn by a group of gamblers who'll do anything to get her back, even unto switching horses on the boys. The film leads steadily and logically to an exciting racetrack climax, capped by a final confrontation with the crooks. Comic patsy Huntz Hall is curiously unpleasant and abrasive in Crazy Over Horses, though he reverts to his old bumbling self in an extended sequence wherein he disguises himself as a black stablehand (this scene is usually removed when the film is shown on television). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Monogram's Bringing Up Father series, based on the popular comic strip by George McManus, hit a high point of sorts with 1950's Jiggs and Maggie Out West. Joe Yule Sr. (Mickey Rooney's father) and Rene Riano are perfectly cast as nouveau riche Jiggs and Maggie, who head thataway when Maggie inherits a goldmine. As usual, Maggie spends her time trying to climb the frontier social ladder, while down-to-earth Jiggs is more interested in finding a plate of corned beef and cabbage. Dinty Moore, Jiggs' favorite pubkeeper, is played by Tim Ryan; he is brought into the plot as the owner of a western saloon. The climax finds Jiggs and Maggie facing certain death at the hands of an outlaw named Snake Bite (Jim Bannon), who hopes to claim the mine for his own. Artist George McManus, who started Bringing Up Father way back in the early 1900s, makes a gag appearance as himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arrogant Mike Brannan (Clark Gable) is a famous driver of midget race cars and is the type of man crowds love to hate. He earned his bad-boy image after he is blamed for causing a fatal crash during a race. Wanting to see if all the hoopla is true, tough columnist Regina Forbes (Barbara Stanwyck) tries to interview her, but Mike refuses. Later she watches as he is involved in another deadly crash. Believing he deliberately caused the accident, she rakes him over the coals in her column and this leads to his disbarment from the racing circuit. In order to make ends meet, the disgraced Mike begins driving in a stunt show. Eventually, he earns enough money to allow him to buy a full-sized race car. The film's exciting finale was shot at the Indianapolis Speedway. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Asphalt Jungle is a brilliantly conceived and executed anatomy of a crime -- or, as director John Huston and scripter Ben Maddow put it, "a left-handed form of human endeavor." Recently paroled master criminal Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe), with funding from crooked attorney Emmerich (Louis Calhern), gathers several crooks together in Cincinnati for a Big Caper. Among those involved are Dix (Sterling Hayden), an impoverished hood who sees the upcoming jewel heist as a means to finance his dream of owning a horse farm. Hunch-backed cafe owner (James Whitmore) is hired on to be the driver for the heist; professional safecracker Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso) assembles the tools of his trade; and a bookie (Marc Lawrence) acts as Emmerich's go-between. The robbery is pulled off successfully, but an alert night watchman shoots Ciavelli. Corrupt cop (Barry Kelley), angry that his "patsy" (Lawrence) didn't let him in on the caper, beats the bookie into confessing and fingering the other criminals involved. From this point on, the meticulously planned crime falls apart with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. Way down on the cast list is Marilyn Monroe in her star-making bit as Emmerich's sexy "niece"; whenever The Asphalt Jungle would be reissued, Monroe would figure prominently in the print ads as one of the stars. The Asphalt Jungle was based on a novel by the prolific W.R. Burnett, who also wrote Little Caesar and Saint Johnson (the fictionalized life story of Wyatt Earp). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart) has a problem that he won't admit to: his wife, Claire (Audrey Totter), wants more fun and excitement out of life than the quiet, soft-spoken pharmacist can give her. So she steps out on him regularly, something that Warren refuses to recognize until the day she packs her bags and announces she's moving in with Barney Deager (Lloyd Gough), the flashy, high-living salesman whom she's been seeing on the side. Warren goes to Deager's, to ask her to come back, and gets beaten up by his rival. The worm suddenly turns in his own quiet way of doing things, and Warren decides he's going to get even -- he's going to murder Deager, but to do it and not get caught, he bides his time. He begins building a new identity for himself, changing his appearance (starting with getting rid of his thick glasses in favor of then-newly-invented contact lenses), and establishing his alter ego of "Paul Sothern" at a new address. He then starts making threatening calls to Deager, identifying himself as Sothern, in order to establish a history of enmity between the two. It's all going according to plan -- he will kill Deager and the blame will fall on "Sothern," who, of course, doesn't exist, and will have vanished. But then he meets Mary Chanler (Cyd Charisse), a neighbor at "Sothern"'s apartment building, and the two become attracted to each other. For every step forward that he takes in his plan for murder, he also finds himself with new possibilities in his life, growing out of his relationship with Mary. Finally, the night comes when he breaks into Deager's home and is about to kill him, when it dawns on Warren that he doesn't need to do this....He awakens Deager and tells him what almost happened and that he's leaving, and Deager is welcome to Claire, and leaves. It seems as though he's averted disaster when Claire shows up later that night, pleading for reconciliation and finally, when pressed, telling him that someone has murdered Deager. The man has been shot, and the police, led by lieutenants Bonnabel (Barry Sullivan) and Gonsales (William Conrad), are hunting for Paul Sothern. Now Warren is scared for his life, having done his best to frame himself, and Claire isn't helping by trying to run interference -- he can't tell if she's trying to protect the two of them, implicate Sothern, or protect herself, and he's too scared to say almost anything at all to the detectives. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Stampede is a choice example of the Lesley Selander B-plus westerns of the late 1940s/early 1950s. Rod Cameron and Don Castle star as feuding brothers who own separate cattle ranches. The siblings find themselves on opposite sides of a water-rights battle, in which settlers are being deprived water by a gang of clever criminals. The war turns ugly before the film is over, resulting in the destructive stampede promised by the title. Despite poor reviews from big-city critics, this stacks up favorably against the more costly big-studio westerns of the era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide