Evelyn Finley Movies
Actress and horsewoman extraordinaire Evelyn Finely played opposite many popular cowboy stars in the 1940s. Her onscreen love interests included Johnny Mack Brown and Tex Ritter. The Southwestern beauty got her start working as a rider in King Vidor's The Texas Rangers in 1936. In 1955, Finely, billed as Eve Anderson, starred in the serial Perils of the Wilderness. She went on to become a stunt double for such actresses as Elizabeth Taylor and Olivia de Havilland. Finely made her final film Silverado in 1985. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1953
Fernando Lamas and Arlene Dahl were still husband and wife at the time The Diamond Queen was filmed (the result of that union, of course, was little Lorenzo Lamas). Lamas plays Frenchman Jean Tavernier, who in the company of Baron de Cabannes (Gilbert Roland) journeys to India, there to search for a fabulous diamond on behalf of King Louis XIV. They not only find the gem, but also Maya (Arlene Dahl), Queen of Nepal, in the bargain. Now it is up to Tavernier, the Baron and Maya to escape the clutches of the Great Mogul (Sheldon Leonard), the film's all-purpose villain. One suspects that no one took this thing too seriously while it was being made, which only adds to the film's enjoyment. Produced independently, Diamond Queen was distributed by Warner Bros. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Lamas, Arlene Dahl, (more)
- 1948
Sheriff of Medicine Bow is one of the slower-moving Johnny Mack Brown westerns for Monogram. Once, again, Brown is teamed with Raymond Hatton, but something new has been added. Max Terhune plays Hatton's comic foil, travelling under the same character name-"Alibi"-that he used when costarring in Monogram's "Range Busters" series. Terhune's bucolic routines did little to enliven the proceedings, but at least his presence injected some novelty value in the fading Brown series. Two films later, Raymond Hatton had left the fold, and Johnny Mack Brown was reteamed with Max Terhune for an additional three entries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 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, All Movie Guide
- 1945
It's Buster Crabbe times two in this low-budget "Billy Carson" Western from PRC, which once again trots out that anatomical impossibility: identical cousins. The bad cousin, Jim, heads a gang of cattle rustlers that has just killed both the local sheriff and his deputies. The only one left standing is amiable diner owner Fuzzy Q. Jones (Al St. John), who is promptly elected new sheriff. Enter Billy Carson, Jim's right-thinking relative, and the bad guys may as well pack it in, outnumbered as they are by an army of one. In a break from the fighting and shooting, Tex Williams and a hillbilly aggregation perform "It's Over and So Goodbye" by Lew Porter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Evelyn Finley, (more)
- 1944
This PRC "Billy the Kid" western once more teams Buster Crabbe, as Billy Carson, with Al St.John, as perennial sidekick Fuzzy Q. Jones. Motivating the plot is the wholesale slaughter of two families by a gang of outlaws. Twenty years later, Billy and Fuzzy, survivors of the massacre, return to the small town where the instigator of the killings resides. Out of several suspects, our heroes narrow down the culprit by means of a twitching eye-the same device used by Hitchcock in Young and Innocent (1937). Evelyn Finley, who'd been a western ingenue since the 1930s, doesn't look a day older as the film's heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Evelyn Finley, (more)
- 1944
The Sundown Riders was the first in a brief series of "experimental" westerns, designed for the then-burgeoning 16-millimeter home-movie and classroom market. RKO contractee Russell Wade teams with "Hopalong Cassidy" alumni Jay Kirby and Andy Clyde, portraying the "Sundown Riders". Their first mission: to thwart an outlaw gang, thereby making the west safe for progressive education. Filmed in Kodachrome color, Sundown Riders is as professional-looking as possible under the circumstances, thanks to the conviviality of the stars and the surehanded director of veteran Lambert Hillyer. Alas, the 16-millimeter market was not of sufficient size and scope in 1944 to warrant a full years' worth of "Sundown Riders" epics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Russell Wade, Jay Kirby, (more)
- 1944
Supernatural events on the range prompt an investigation by cowboy Brown in this western. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1943
In the tradition of Cowboy Commandos, the Range Busters (Ray Corrigan, Dennis Moore, and Max Terhune) take on Black Market Rustlers in this wartime western. The film's villains busy themselves by stealing cattle, then selling the meat on the black market for ridiculously exorbitant prices. The Cattlemen's Association hire our three heroes to put an end to this. It takes them only 54 minutes to do so, but it's a really tough 54 minutes. Featured in the cast was Evelyn Finley, one of the few western heroines who could really ride a horse-and ride it quite well at that. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Dennis Moore, (more)
This ambitious filmed biography of writer-adventurer Jack London is somewhat compromised by its too-tight budget. Michael O'Shea is well cast as London, whose rugged adventures range from the high seas to the Klondike. London's insatiable wanderlust causes friction in his marriage to the lovely Charmian (Susan Hayward), but she stands nobly by his side in good times and bad (it should be noted that the script is based on Mrs. London's memoirs). In the interests of topicality, the film contrives to have London endeavor to warn America of Japanese military expansion some four decades before Pearl Harbor. It is this story element that makes Jack London a bit difficult to watch today, despite the strong performances of O'Shea, Hayward and a superb supporting cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael O'Shea, Susan Hayward, (more)
- 1943
This diverting cinematic time capsule pits the hard-ridin' Range Busters against a Nazi spy ring. The Busters are played on this occasion by Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Dennis Moore and Max "Alibi" Terhune. The Teutonic villains intend to cripple the war effort by sabotaging local magnesite shipments, but our heroes are a shade too fast for them. Highlights include Johnny Bond's heartfelt performance of that immortal patriotic ballad, "I'll Get the Fuehrer Sure as Shootin'." The most amusing aspect of Cowboy Commandos, at least for western buffs, is the presence of such veteran sagebrush heavies as John Merton and Budd Buster amongst the minions of the Third Reich. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Dennis Moore, (more)
- 1942
The Range Busters do their heroic duty once again as they set out to capture those responsible for a bank robbery and murder of the town marshal's son. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1941
In this western, the bad guy kills a rancher and a Texas ranger so that the location of a copper mine will remain a secret. Another ranger goes undercover to catch the outlaw. The killer hires him. His assignment is to create trouble for the late rancher's daughter who has taken over the land. He cons her into to giving him the deed for the ranch. He takes it to the outlaw, but first he stops to warn the other rangers. The jig is up when the outlaw figures out the ruse and tries to escape. He is quickly captured and justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1940
After several dismal Westerns, Tex Ritter found a winner in Arizona Frontier, which was filmed in glorious locations near Prescott, Arizona. Ritter played Tex Whitedeer, a white boy reared by the Indian Grey Cloud (real-life native American sports legend Jim Thorpe). Tex's ancestry becomes an issue when as an agent for the government he is charged with deciding where the East and West branches of the railroad shall meet. Joe Lane's (Hal Price) freight company is being raided by what appears to be Indians, but Tex suspects the criminals to be white men in disguise. He is soon falsely accused by a rival army lieutenant (John Merton) of leading the marauders himself. Further investigation, however, discloses that the raiders are indeed a gang of white villains headed by Graham (Tristram Coffin), who is ultimately caught by Ritter and Grey Cloud's Indian braves. Despite his fame as an athlete, Jim Thorpe was sadly misused by Hollywood who usually saw him only in stereotypical terms. Thorpe's personal friendship with Ritter landed him the role of Grey Cloud in Arizona Frontier and he gave what was perhaps his best performance. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
