Frank Ellis Movies
Snake-eyed, mustachioed character actor Frank Ellis seldom rose above the "member of the posse" status in "B" westerns. Once in a while, he was allowed to say things like "Now here's my plan" and "Let's get outta here," but generally he stood by waiting for the Big Boss (usually someone like Harry Woods or Wheeler Oakman) to do his thinking for him. Ellis reportedly began making films around 1920; he remained in the business at least until the 1954 Allan Dwan-directed western Silver Lode. Frank Ellis has been erroneously credited with several policeman roles in the films of Laurel and Hardy, due to his resemblance to another bit player named Charles McMurphy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1920
Universal's top serial queen, Grace Cunard was all set to start this sequel to the popular Elmo the Mighty (1919) when felled by illness. The beneficiary of Miss Cunard's misfortune was former comedienne Louise Lorraine, who thus embarked on a lucrative stint in serials that would garner her a faithful following through the 1920s. The male star, of course, was the screen's first Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln, whose popularity as the Jungle King had earned him title billing. Playing the Stranger, a young adventurer, Elmo is shanghaied by Checko the Crimp (V.L. Barnes) and forced to work in a Northwoods lumber camp. Capitalist Robert Stillwell (William Chapman), meanwhile, has in his possession the proof of a murder actually committed by his own attorney (Roy Watson), who will stop at nothing to prevent disclosure. Stillwell's daughter, Edith (Lorraine), is kidnapped and it is up to Elmo to not only free the damsel in distress but quell a mutiny onboard a vessel bound for a secret gold mine. Needless to say, everything is worked out by the 18th and final chapter, "The Fateful Letter." Elmo the Fearless was produced by the Stern brothers, Abe and Julius, relatives of Universal founder Carl Laemmle, and directed by J.P. McGowan, an old hand at this sort of thing. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1923
Producer-director-star Leo Maloney spared every expense in putting together this very minor western offering about a Texas Ranger (Maloney) tracking down a young man (Chet Ryan) accused of murder. The youngster's father, (Milton Brown), an ex-officer in the Confederate Army, runs the town of King City Judge Roy Bean-style and is all set to hang his own son when the ranger arrives with the real killer. The old man repents and allows the ranger to wed his daughter (Josephine Hill). Maloney shared directorial duties this time with Bob Williamson, offering plenty of footage to a clever pooch, Beans, who played the murdered man's faithful companion. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Maloney, Horace B. Carpenter, (more)
- 1925
In one of his better efforts, silent screen cowboy Bill Cody plays Larry O'Donnell, the "Sheriff" of the title, who comes between the Wolf Pack gang and a train loaded with valuable platinum. Sheriff O'Donnell gets conked on the head for his efforts, awakening after a while with the obligatory: "Who am I?" Jeff Bains (Frank Ellis), the leader of the Wolf Pack gang, conveniently accuses O'Donnell of being the brains behind the robbery, convincing the entire town of their sheriff's guilt. But O'Donnell has the proof of Bains' complicity and with the assistance of the pretty and resourceful post mistress (Hazel Holt), manages to capture the gang and unmask the real gang leader. If nothing else, this minor Western entry provided a rare leading role for the grim-looking Frank Ellis, a grim-looking bit part player who usually played unnamed henchmen. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Cody, Frank Ellis, (more)
- 1926
Despite being a less than inspiring actor at his best, Buddy Roosevelt was asked to play identical twins -- one good, the other bad -- in this otherwise average silent Western directed by Richard Thorpe. The good Roosevelt is falsely accused of being his own twin brother, a notorious bandit smuggling Chinese over the border from Mexico. Considering Roosevelt's lack of acting acumen, his Trigger twins proved slightly more identical than screenwriter Betty Burbridge had counted on. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buddy Roosevelt, Nita Cavalier, (more)
- 1926
Returning to the old homestead, shell-shocked war veteran Wally Marsh (Wally Wales) is tricked into breaking the law by an unscrupulous villain (William Dunn) in this action-packed silent western written by the prolific Betty Burbridge from a story by genre specialist L.V. Jefferson. Penny-pinching Poverty Row entrepreneur Lester F. Scott, Jr. produced scores of minor oaters like this, all of them geared toward small-town movie theaters where also-ran western heroes such as Wales, Buffalo Bill, Jr. and Buddy Roosevelt were heartily applauded by especially the small fry. If nothing else, an audience could always count on action and picturesque locations in a western produced by Scott's Action Pictures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1926
Mistaken for a missing heir, cowboy Wally Wales becomes the focal point in a bitter range feud. This well-made little silent western was produced at Fallbrook, California by genre specialist Lester F. Scott, Jr., whose Action Pictures supplied rural theaters with a seemingly endless string of economical westerns starring the likes of Wales, Buddy Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill, Jr. Scott's first western star, Wales was in reality Floyd T. Alperson of Sheridan, Wyoming, a former stage driver. The name "Wally Wales" was chosen by Scott in honor of the Prince of Wales, the British heir apparent. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Produced by Gower Gulch company Action Pictures, this minor silent Western starred Buddy Roosevelt as a ranch foreman who rescues lovely Helen Calhoun (Elsa Benham) from a runaway carriage and her wastrel brother Ted (Sherry Tansey aka James Sheridan) from both the devil hop and a crooked gambler (Richard R. Neill). Usually a supporting character, mustachioed Hank Bell was awarded co-star billing this time around as a tough deputy sheriff helping Roosevelt catch the villain. Nothing out of the ordinary, Code of the Cow Country was directed with economy in mind by Oscar Apfel. A veteran stock company actor from Cleveland, Apfel earlier co-wrote and co-directed (with Cecil B. DeMille) The Squaw Man (1914), the first feature film to be produced entirely in Hollywood. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buddy Roosevelt, Hank Bell, (more)
- 1928
This is arguably Laurel and Hardy's best two-reel silent (the other contender for first place is Big Business). The boys play sailors on furlough. They have rented a Model T Ford for the day and meet a pair of pretty girls (Thelma Hill and Ruby Blaine). After an altercation with a gum machine and an irate shopkeeper (Charlie Hall), the foursome go on a drive and find themselves in a traffic jam. They drive past the long line of cars to discover the cause for the delay -- a driver who has run out of fuel on one side, and road workers on the other. Since they can't go forward, Ollie and Stan back up, running into another driver (Edgar Kennedy). They exchange angry bumps and the driver hits the next car back and breaks a headlight. Now the fun really begins -- the rest of the film is what Stan Laurel referred to as "reciprocal destruction." The fight that ensues goes all down the line, and very methodically, each car in the traffic jam is mutilated. Stan and Ollie, of course, are doing the most damage, pulling up fenders, removing tires, etc. Finally a cop comes and as the boys' girlfriends beat a hasty retreat, he puts a halt to the proceedings. All the drivers point at the sailors as the initial cause of the trouble, so the cop motions them to wait while the others leave. As the long row of sorry looking vehicles limp past, Stan and Ollie have a hard time remaining serious. When a truck runs over the cop's motorcycle, the boys take the opportunity to quickly drive off. The policeman orders everybody to "follow them sailors!" They do, even when they enter a railway tunnel. But an oncoming train puts the pursuers in reverse, while Stan and Ollie come out on the other side of the tunnel, their Model T squashed like a pancake on its edge. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1928
The once-popular, now-forgotten western star Bob Custer heads the cast of Law of the Mounted. Custer dons the red coat of the Northwest Mounted Police in this location-filmed outing. He gets his man when he foils a gang of fur smugglers. The ringleader is played by the film's director, J.P. McGowan, who comports himself like a road-company Erich Von Stroheim. Fragments of Law of the Mounted later showed up on the early-1960s syndicated TV filler Billy Bang Bang. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Winters, Frank Ellis, (more)
- 1929
A bookish Easterner (Hoot Gibson) is shipped off to a Western ranch for toughening up. Once on the ranch, he falls for a tough dame (Eugenia Gilbert) who is falsely accused of murdering her father's enemy. To the strains of "Courtin' Calamity," the former dude shows what he is really made of by capturing the real killer. This commonplace Western was Hoot Gibson's final part in a talkie. Carl Laemmle, the founder of Gibson's studio, Universal, and a great fan of Westerns, was running scared and didn't think outdoor pictures could do well with dialogue. Consequently, he canned all of his cowboy stars shortly after the release of Courtin' Wildcats, and Gibson's career never truly recovered. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson, Eugenia Gilbert, (more)
- 1930
Veteran stunt-man Yakima Canutt not only played Buffalo Bill, Jr.'s nemesis in this obscure western from small-scale West Coast Studios, but was also credited with the original story. Not that the story was all that original: Buffalo played Buck Allen, whose girlfriend Betty (Joan Jaccard) doesn't know that he is the Cheyenne Kid. Gorman (Canutt), an outlaw, does know and attempts to capture Buck for the $5,000 reward. Wounded by Gorman, Buck surrenders to Marshal Utah Kane (Jack Mower) and together they prove that Gorman and his henchman Duke (Frank Ellis) were behind the crimes mistakenly attributed to Buck. Like four other Buffalo Bill, Jr. vehicles, Cheyenne Kid was filmed in 1930 but not released until August of 1931. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buffalo Bill, Jr., Yakima Canutt, (more)
- 1930
The second in a series of Buck Jones westerns produced by Sol Lesser for Columbia release, Shadow Ranch is the story of a cowboy who comes to the rescue of an embattled female rancher (Marguerite de la Motte). She is being driven off her land by opportunistic saloon owner Albert J. Smith, but the heroic Buck manages to beat the villain into submission. Filmed at the Tiffany-California studios, a rental facility, Shadow Ranch was popular enough for the story to be trotted out again less than a year later as Sunset Trail starring Ken Maynard. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1930
One of Hollywood's few women producers, Flora E. Douglas, produced this minor western starring former silent screen cowboy Wally Wales as a war veteran accused of being a notorious outlaw upon his return from the front. Managing to escape the law, Wales tracks down the real outlaw who, to nobody's great surprise, turns out to be veteran bad guy Lew Meehan. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Brown Faire, Jack Perrin, (more)
- 1930
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
- Starring:
- Wally Wales, Buzz Barton, (more)
- 1931
Every so often, western star Buck Jones got it in his head that he could play a Mexican, and never mind that his accent wouldn't have convinced a prairie dog. In The Avenger, Jones plays a man determined to track down the three men who lynched his brother. As "The Black Shadow," our hero robs the rich, gives to the poor, and romances heroine Dorothy Revier. By film's end, he has not only accomplished his various goals, but has earned a full pardon. As for Jones's overall performance, "B"-western historian Don Miller summed it up beautifully when he wrote "When Buck had to passionately proclaim Mi Amore, as he did to Dorothy Revier in The Avenger, the jig was up." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Dorothy Revier, (more)
- 1931
Buck Jones is supported by a very young John Wayne in this fine Western from his early years at Columbia Pictures. They play stepbrothers involved in a feud between the Turners and the Waltons. Clint Turner (Wayne) is forbidden to visit Judy Walton (Susan Fleming) by her father, John (Edward J. LeSaint). He does so anyway and is conveniently blamed for old man Walton's murder. Forced to arrest his stepbrother, Sheriff Buck Gordon (Jones) decides to investigate the real reason for the feud. After being shot and wounded by a mysterious figure, Buck discovers that a cattle rustler, Vandall (Harry Woods), is stirring up the bad blood between the families for his own nefarious purposes. When Vandall is proven guilty of Walton's murder, the feud comes to a peaceful end and Clint and Judy are reunited. While Wayne disliked working with Tim McCoy, another Columbia Western star, he came to admire the amiable Jones, a friendship that lasted until Jones' death. Range Feud was unofficially remade by Jones as The Red Rider (1934), a 15-chapter Universal serial featuring Grant Withers as the stepbrother falsely accused of murder. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, John Wayne, (more)
In his third Western for low-budget company Tiffany, Ken Maynard plays Ken Neville, a cowboy returning to the old homestead to find his father (Lafe McKee) and a fellow rancher (Robert Homans) killed. The dead neighbor's daughter, Mary Warner (Virginia Brown Faire), blames Ken, whom she believes to be the leader of a gang of rustlers. Overhearing a plot by Rance Collins (Frank Mayo) to rustle Mary's steers, Ken pretends to be looking to join the gang. Unfortunately, Ken's sidekick "Repeater" Simpson (Irving Bacon) unwittingly gives away his real identity and Rance has him locked up in a cabin. Aided by his wonder horse Tarzan, who breaks through a window, Ken makes his escape and is later able to round up the entire gang. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard, Virginia Brown Faire, (more)
- 1931
In this western adventure set in the Sonora Desert upon the border between Mexico and the US, a marshal is summoned to stop renegade Indians from attacking hapless settlers. He is aided by a Mexican bar maid and soon discovers that the "redskins" are really whites in disguise. To stop them, the marshal hires real Native Americans, tired of taking the blame for the massacres. A battle ensues, but eventually the criminals get their due and the marshal finds love with the villainous ringleader's lovely, innocent daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1932
Tom Tyler is Singlehanded Sanders in this economical Monogram oater. Tyler plays a small-town blacksmith, whose reckless younger brother casts his lot with a crooked politician. When brother dear steals $5000 from heroine Margaret Morris, Tyler gallantly confesses to the deed. He eventually clears himself by rallying his fellow frontiersmen to form a united front against the villains (guess he's not so "single-handed" after all). Singlehanded Sanders was directed by Charles A. Post, previously the production manager for the Tom Tyler unit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Tyler, Robert Manning, (more)
- 1932
In this western, an outlaw gang leader leaves his bad-guy bunch after they have a heated dispute about giving an injured gang member a take from their latest bank robbery. Later the renegade outlaw becomes a sheriff. He is then ambushed by his former gang. An exciting chase and a shoot-out ensues until the villains are vanquished. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Ingraham, Harry Woods, (more)
- 1932
As he had so many times before, Hoot Gibson pretended to be a dimwit in this low-budget Western, his penultimate for penny-pinching producer M.H. Hoffman. Naturally, Gibson, as Ace Cooper, only pretends to be cowardly and stupid in order to investigate the mysterious killing of Dad Mason (Gordon De Main) in a hotel room. He does that disguised as "the Dude Bandit," quickly determining that Dad was murdered by greedy cattle baron Al Burton (Hooper Atchley). But how? Burton was observed by several witnesses as the fatal shot rang out. Aligning himself with old friend Skeeter (Gibson regular Roy "Skeeter Bill" Robbins) and the dead man's pretty daughter, Betty (Gloria Shea), Ace learns how Burton was able to establish an alibi for the murder. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson, Gloria Shea, (more)
- 1932
In this western, a cowboy and his sidekick save a woman and her ranch from greedy badguys. The trouble really begins when the varmints kill the sidekick. Gunplay ensues until the villains are vanquished. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard, Ruth Hiatt, (more)
- 1932
Future Academy Award-winner Hattie McDaniel briefly brightened the proceedings in this, one of her two B-Western appearances in 1932. (The other was George O'Brien's The Golden West.) The rotund African-American comedienne portrays a cook on a ranch belonging to banker Tom Kirk (Lafe McKee). Also working on the premises is Jimmy Duncan (Hoot Gibson), an unruly young man who has promised his Uncle George (George Hayes) he will behave (or else...!). Treacherous bank teller Holt Narbrough (Wheeler Oakman), who not only desires Kirk's ranch, but also his pretty daughter, Laura (Helen Foster), attempts to rid himself of an irritating rival by constantly picking fights with Jimmy. The latter, however, is steadfast in his resolve and soon becomes the laughing stock among the ranch hands. In the end, Jimmy earns both Laura's love and Uncle George's respect by foiling a bank robbery. The Boiling Point was one in a series of cheap Westerns Hoot Gibson made for low-budget company Allied Pictures from 1931 to 1933. Gibson, whose generosity was legendary, found employment for old friends such as Roy "Skeeter Bill" Robbins and Fred Gilman in all of his Allied films, including The Boiling Point. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson, Helen Foster, (more)
Cowboy star Ken Maynard trots out one of his favorite plot devices in Whistlin' Dan. Once again, Maynard poses as a crook in order to infiltrate an outlaw gang. It's all for the purpose of getting even with the men responsible for his partner's murder. The most surprising aspect of the film is its leading lady, exotic dancer Joyzelle Joyner, best remembered for her performance as a leering lesbian in DeMille's Sign of the Cross. Director Phil Rosen, presumably following Ken Maynard's instructions, invests Whistlin' Dan with an abundance of offbeat camera angles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard
Thrifty Warner Bros. remade their old silent Ken Maynard Westerns as starring vehicles for John Wayne, dressing young Wayne up to match the stock footage of Maynard in action. The Big Stampede used plenty of footage from its 1927 predecessor, The Land Beyond the Law, and the inserts, filmed at a completely different location, are rather obvious. Wayne plays John Steele, a deputy sheriff sent by Governor Wallace (Berton Churchill) to protect settlers arriving in New Mexico Territory. Cattle baron Sam Crew (Noah Beery) and his henchman Arizona (Paul Hurst) aim to stop the settlers while Sonora Joe (Luis Alberni) and his Vaqueros arrive from Mexico to rob them. When old settler Cal Brett is murdered by Arizona, Steele deputizes Sonora and his men, and together they bring the killer to justice. The settlers, meanwhile, drive their herd to the nearby fort, and Crew decides to create a stampede. Steele saves Brett's niece Ginger (Mae Madison) from being killed by the stampeding cattle, but the nasty Crew is trampled to death, a victim of his own greed. A better-than-average B-Western, The Big Stampede benefits from colorful performances by Beery, Hurst, Alberni and Wayne's horse Duke. Freckled Sherwood Bailey, formerly Spuds in the Our Gang series, provides a few moments of comedy as Ginger's slingshot-crazy kid brother, and Madison, usually a tough dame in Warner's gangster dramas, makes an adequate love interest. Veteran Bad Guy Tom Bay, in his final film before being killed in a bar-room brawl in October of 1933, appears unbilled as an army messenger. Not the studio to let a good plot and usable stock footage go to waste, Warner Bros. filmed Marion Jackson's story a third time in 1937, as Land Beyond the Law, starring Dick Foran. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Noah Beery, Sr., (more)
