Franklin Farnum Movies

In Early Arizona was western star Bill Elliot's first effort for Columbia Pictures. Not yet "Wild Bill" Elliot (as he would later be billed), the actor is cast as Whit Gordon, who rides into Tombstone Arizona to help keep the peace. Elliot is appointed sheriff, making him the particular target of every fast gun in the territory. Though clearly based on the career of Wyatt Earp film is careful not to violate the copyright on Earp's life story, which then was held by 20th Century-Fox. In fact, contrary to previous published reports, the name "Wyatt Earp" is not mentioned at all in In Early Arizona; only the designation of Tombstone itself was in the public domain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rolling Caravans was one of four Columbia B-westerns designed to make a star out of utility actor Jack Luden. Harry Woods, a fixture of the Luden series, fills the villain role, while Eleanor Stewart is the heroine once more. The story concerns the efforts of a homesteader named Breezy (Luden) to ward off the bad guys, who've determined that there's gold on his property. By the time the heavies have discovered that Breezy's "treasure" consists primarily of topsoil, the hero has settled accounts with his fists and deposited his enemies in the local calaboose. At one point, Jack Luden indulges in a bit of ventriloquism, suggesting that perhaps he would have been better off as a comedy sidekick rather than a leading man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One is immediately aware that The Plainsman is a Cecil B. DeMille production in the opening scene, wherein President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.), on the verge of signing crucial legislation which will determine the future of the American West, is dragged away from his Cabinet by a scolding Mrs. Lincoln (Leila McIntyre), who informs her husband that he'll be late for the theater! The story proper picks up in the years just following the Civil War, as crooked arms dealer John Lattimer (Charles Bickford) schemes to sell a huge shipment of repeating rifles to the Indians. Constantly thwarting Lattimer's schemes is lawman Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper), who soon forms a strong alliance with Indian scout Buffalo Bill Cody (James Ellison). Rambunctious Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur) is crazy about Wild Bill, but he refuses to have anything to do with her, contemptuously wiping his mouth whenever he kisses her. He prefers the company of winsome Louisa (Dorothy Burgess), but gallantly steps aside when Louisa marries Buffalo Bill. Upon learning that a band of Indians armed with Lattimer's rifles have attacked a military garrison, Wild Bill tells General Custer (John Miljan), who in turn sends Buffalo Bill to the garrison with a consignment of weapons. Wild Bill then tries to arrange a peace conference with Indian chief Yellow Hand (Paul Harvey), but is sidetracked when he sees Calamity Jane being captured by two Indian braves. Riding to her rescue, Wild Bill is himself captured and tortured in the hope that he'll reveal the whereabouts of Buffalo Bill and his weapons. He refuses to talk, but Calamity, horrified at the agony endured by Wild Bill, tells all. Her breach of confidence leads indirectly to Custer's death at the Little Big Horn (not seen, but described by a young Indian played by DeMille's then son-in-law Anthony Quinn), whereupon Wild Bill disgustedly breaks off all communication with her. Hoping to make up for her past sins, Calamity warns Wild Bill that Lattimer has come to town a-gunning for him. Wild Bill makes short work of Lattimer, only to be shot in the back by the villain's snivelling confederate Jack McCall (Porter Hall). As he breathes his last, Wild Bill forgives Calamity for revealing the whereabouts of the ammunition; with tears in her eyes, Calamity plants a kiss on Wild Bill's lips that he'll never wipe off. As can be seen, accuracy is not the strong suit of The Plainsman; DeMille, like Buffalo Bill before him, was more interested in putting on a helluva good show than offering a dry history lesson. Unfortunately, the film often promises more than it can deliver, thanks to DeMille's insistence upon filming more of his big scenes indoors and relying far too heavily on grainy process screens. Still, the DeMille version of The Plainsman is infinitely more entertaining than the 1966 remake with Don Murray and Abby Dalton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) rescues a stranded schoolmarm (Muriel Evans) from a lecherous saloon owner (Onslow Stevens) in this the fifth entry in the long-running series which also served to re-introduce George "Gabby" Hayes as cantankerous sidekick Windy Haliday. While Hoppy is busy putting the prim Mary Stevens up at the Bar 20, Johnny Nelson (James Ellison) is wounded in an unsuccessful attempt at preventing saloon owner Pecos Kane's men from holding up the stage. The irate Pecos then frames Johnny for both the robbery and the shooting of the stage driver. About to be arrested by the corrupt sheriff (John St. Polis), the youngster is saved by a tough-talking Hoppy, but the two friends are soon at loggerheads over the pretty schoolmarm, who seems to prefer the more mature Hoppy. The latter, however, manages to turn one of Pecos' men (John Rutherford) and there is the inevitable climactic shootout at the Paradise Saloon. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The second of three serials produced by the Weiss Bros. for low-budget Stage and Screen Productions, The Clutching Hand brought back that eminent detective Craig Kennedy, who had first appeared in Pearl White's The Exploits of Elaine back in 1915. Now played by the veteran Jack Mulhall, another holdover from the early silent era, Kennedy is hired to solve the mysterious disappearance of Dr. Paul Gironda, whose formula for the manufacture of synthetic gold is coveted by a mysterious cloaked villain known only as The Clutching Hand. Along with Dr. Gironda's nubile daughter, Verna (Marion Shilling), and young newspaper reporter Walter Jameson (Rex Lease), Kennedy is aided or opposed in his quest by an impressive array of unemployed former silent screen "names" that include William Farnum, Reed Howes, Mae Busch, Bryant Washburn, Franklyn Farnum, and Snub Pollard, not to mention newcomers like Charles Locher (later known as Jon Hall) and Tom Mix's daughter, Ruth. The best made and most successful of Stage and Screen's three chapterplays (the company had promised six or seven), The Clutching Hand was also released in a 70-minute highly edited feature version. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Louis Weiss (of Poverty Row's Weiss Bros.) produced this commonplace B-Western starring one of the lesser names of the genre, Rex Lease. Falsely accused of horse-thieving and saved in the nick of time from a lynching party by decent gang leader Scarface (Dick Alexander), cowboy Bill (Lease) hightails it to the Texas Panhandle, where he obtains the job of foreman on the Barton ranch. The spread is about to be taken over by vicious Larkin (George Chesebro), who claims to have won it in a poker game with the late, lamented Pa Barton. With the help of Larkin's erstwhile girlfriend, saloon hostess Alice (Janet Morgan), Bill gets the goods on the villain, thus saving the ranch for Ma Barton (Adabelle Driver) (whose fine cooking is much discussed) and spirited young Bobby Barton (Bobby Nelson). Released by Poverty Row company Stage and Screen, The Cowboy and the Bandit was a reunion of sorts for several once-popular silent screen performers, including former cowboy heroes William Desmond, Bill Patton, Franklyn Farnum, Art Mix, and Wally Wales. Another survivor of silent films, leading lady Blanche Mehaffey, was so distressed at the downward turn her career was taking that she insisted on using a pseudonym, the aforementioned Janet Morgan. No one was fooled, however, and Mehaffey's career quickly came to an end. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Produced by Victor Adamson (aka Denver Dixon), directed by Alan James (aka Alvin J. Neitz), and written by Van Johnson (no, not that Van Johnson), this minor -- very minor -- Western-melodrama starred yet another alias, Tom Wynn, the real name, apparently, of stuntman Wally West. Wynn played a young cowboy searching for the villain who swindled his father out of his property. The youngster obtains a job on the Crazy K. Ranch, whose owner (William McCall) is having trouble with a gang of rustlers. To no one's surprise, the leader of the rustlers, "Lynx" Merson (Lew Meehan), is the very same man the redoubtable Wynn is searching for. A veteran purveyor of cheap sagebrush theatrics, Adamson hired several of his best friends -- not to mention his wife Delores Booth -- to act in this barely released film, including silent screen Western heroes Franklyn Farnum and Bill Patton. Adamson himself also appeared -- under yet another pseudonym, Art James -- as did Buster Keaton's brother Harry. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Filmed in two weeks at Red Rock Canyon and Lone Pine, California, Hop-Along Cassidy was the opener of one of the best -- and most fondly remembered -- B-Western series of all time. Former silent screen star William Boyd regained his lost fame playing the prematurely gray, black-clad hero of pulp-writer Clarence E. Mulford's Bar 20 stories, with young Paramount contract player James Ellison as handsome sidekick Johnny Nelson and Charles Middleton (in a surprisingly low-key performance) as Cassidy's old friend, Buck Peters. Bill Cassidy arrives at the Bar-20 ranch in the middle of a range war with the neighboring Meeker spread. Old man Meeker (Robert Warwick) has been driving his cattle onto Bar-20 land for water against Buck's wishes. Cattle begin to disappear from both ranches and a couple of Meeker cowboys are shot. Meeker blames the Bar-20 crew but his daughter Mary (Paula Stone), who is in love with Johnny Nelson, believes in their innocence. Looking out for the headstrong Johnny, Cassidy is shot in the leg, thus acquiring his famous nickname of "Hop-Along." Bar-20 oldtimer Uncle Ben (George "Gabby" Hayes) discovers that cattle from both ranches have their brands altered and the two ranches band together to trap a vicious gang of rustlers lead by Meeker's unscrupulous foreman Pecos Jack Anthony (Kenneth Thomson). In the ensuing war, Uncle Ben is killed by Anthony but "Hop-Along" manages to catch the killer, whom he drives off a cliff to his death. With the Dance of the Furies from Gluck's Orfeo et Euridice underscoring the climactic ride, Hop-Along Cassidy proved a fast-paced, well-acted opener to the series. George "Gabby" Hayes, whose contribution to this success was vital, returned in the next entry, The Eagle's Brood (1935), as as a bartender, finally finding his true place in the "Hopalong Cassidy" oeuvre as Windy, Hopalong's grizzled old windbag of a sidekick, in the third film, Bar 20 Rides Again. Producer Sherman left Paramount in 1942 in favor of United Artists where the "Hopalong" series continued to flourish until 1948. Boyd then bought the rights to the films and re-edited them for television. The 1949-1951 Hopalong Cassidy series was so popular that Boyd filmed 52 new half-hour episodes for the 1952-1954 seasons. Hop-Along Cassidy, the initial "Hopalong" feature, is usually shown today under its re-release title, Hopalong Cassidy Enters. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Unlike most low-budget B-Westerns, several of Hoot Gibson's vehicles from Diversion Pictures were based on a literary source, in this case a pulp fiction novel by Colonel George B. Rodney. Helmed by former Our Gang director Robert McGowan, Frontier Justice presented Gibson as Brent Halston, a carefree cowboy whose father (Joseph W. Girard), a cattle rancher, has been committed to an insane asylum by a certain Dr. Close (Lloyd Ingraham). But as Brent discovers, the good doctor is operating as an agent for unscrupulous sheep owner Gilbert Ware (Dick Cramer), a megalomaniac who wants to drive the cattle ranchers off their lands. When Brent tries to interfere, Ware's even more unscrupulous partner John Wilton (Roger Williams) has him framed in the killing of a sheep farmer (Silver Tip Baker). About to be lynched by the vengeful sheep owners, Brent makes his escape, taking Ware hostage. Naturally, everything is neatly settled in the end when Wilton is exposed as the real murderer. Photographed by the veteran Paul Ivano, who had functioned as cinematographer on such silents as The Four Men of the Apocalypse (1921) and the notorious but handsomely mounted Queen Kelly) (1929), Frontier Justice was certainly better-looking than most inexpensive genre films, a fact that boded well for the remainder of Gibson's six Westerns for Diversion Pictures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The sixth of seven Western "featurettes" produced by William Pizor, The Lone Rider was created to capitalize on Silver King, a horse formerly belonging to '20s cowboy star Fred Thomson. Silver King's "leading man" in this series was Wally Wales, yet another silent screen Western hero, albeit a minor one. The two come to the rescue of prospector Fred Parker and his daughter (Marla Bratton), whose mine is wanted by outlaws Franklyn Farnum, Sherry Tansey, and Barney Beasley. At 27 minutes, The Lone Rider was the longest of the seven Silver King "featurettes." The series was written by Al Lane, himself a former B-Western hero, photographed by Brydon Baker, and edited by Arthur Cohen. It was distributed by Gower Gulch company Imperial as a supplement to low-budget Western features. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

According to legend, B-movie star Blanche Mehaffey valiantly but unsuccessfully attempted to keep her old potboilers out of the reach of the television industry in the early '50s. A viewing of this pedestrian bore of a Western goes along way to explain why. Despite featuring no less than six former silent cowboy stars, Border Guns remains one of the worst oaters ever forced upon an unsuspecting audience. The direction of legendary cheapskate Robert J. Horner was never more stilted and Frank Bender's camera seemed bolted to the floor. Bill Cody, looking haggard and old, starred as an undercover lawman who gets unexpected assistance from a notorious outlaw (Franklyn Farnum) battling a gang of rustlers. An unusually stilted George Chesebro headed bad guys, while old-time serial star William Desmond appeared stoically as the local doctor. Mehaffey played Desmond's daughter but attempted to hide that fact by assuming the alias of Janet Morgan. In addition to Cody, Farnum, Desmond, and Chesebro, silent Western stars Fred Church and Wally Wales also appeared, the latter sporting a handsome mustache in his unbilled turn as the sheriff. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide