Terry Frost Movies
A tough-looking character actor in Grade-Z Westerns of the 1940s, Terry Frost's screen career was highly affected by a role he didn't get to play. In 1945, Frost, who had been portraying henchmen in Westerns since 1941, was signed to star the title role in Dillinger, a low-budget but highly publicized melodrama depicting the exploits of real life gangster and Public Enemy Number One, John Dillinger. The proposed screenplay, however, came in for intense scrutiny by the Production Code censors and when the cameras finally rolled, the part had been re-cast with newcomer Lawrence Tierney, who thus embarked on a long and profitable career portraying public enemies. Frost, in contrast, returned to the realm of low-budget oaters, laboring rather anonymously in countless Western melodramas for also-ran studios Monogram and PRC. He was even busier on television in the 1950s, appearing in seemingly every Western series ever produced, from The Gene Autry Show to Gunsmoke to Rawhide. In his later years, the erstwhile vaudevillian and coffee shop owner became a popular guest speaker at various B-Western conventions, where he would reminisce about everyone from Johnny Mack Brown to Whip Wilson. His death was attributed to a heart attack. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1962
In this routine western set in 1864 in Montana, U.S. Marshal Jim McDowell (James Philbrook) is trying to safely get a treasure-trove of gold bullion out East, where it will help the Union cause in the Civil War. Standing in his way are first a band of Native Americans and then some crafty outlaws headed by double-dealing sheriff Henry Plummer (Marshal Reed). Since the sheriff has insider information, he and his band of bad guys have a special hot line to what happens next. Meanwhile, Marshal McDowell is aided and abetted by his wife Rose (Nancy Kovack), a woman who married him for her own particular reasons. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Philbrook, Nancy Kovack, (more)
- 1961
Justice of the West consists of rhree episodes of the TV series The Lone Ranger, cobbled together into an ersatz feature. Clayton Moore plays the Masked Rider of the Plains, while Jay Silverheels is his faithful Indian companion Tonto. In the first episode, our heroes find a cache stolen gold. In the second, they save Indian school from bigots. In the third, they "show the way" for an embittered blind man. All three episodes are in color, and all are lifted from The Lone Ranger's final (1955-56) season. Incidentally, director Oscar Rudolph was the father of Robert Altman associate Alan Rudolph. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Bret (James Garner) is hired by pretty Connie Coleman to protect her ranch's cattle drive to Abilene. While our hero has his hands full with Indians and such, poor Connie sells her herd for several thousand dollars--in counterfeit money. None too pleased that all his work is for naught, Bret sets about to catch the counterfeiter and make him fork over some genuine greenbacks. And yes, that timid, somewhat chubby youngster playing Connie's brother is indeed a 23-year-old Robert Redford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Rory Calhoun is Utah Blaine in this pinch-penny Sam Katzman-produced western. Adapted from a novel by Louis L'Amour, the story concerns the efforts of gunslinger Blaine to save a group of ranchers from an outlaw gang. When one the ranchers is killed, Utah finds himself half-owner of a valuable spread, placing him directly in the line of fire along with his attractive "business partner" Angie Kinyon (Susan Cummings). Ray Teal is all snarls as the outlaw leader, while former boxer Max Baer Sr. does a brief turn as a slow-witted hooligan. Like most Sam Katzman efforts, Utah Blaine turned a tidy profit for Katzman's home base of Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Cummings, Angela Stevens, (more)
- 1957
This Sam Katzman-produced sci-fier was originally released on a double bill with Katzman's Giant Claw. The plot is motivated by a newly discovered element called E-112, which festers at the Earth's core. Rising to the surface in the form of liquefied stone, E-112 becomes extremely dangerous when it is mixed with nitrogen. Before long, the entire world is threatened with the explosive power of the volatile element. To save Mankind from being blown to smithereens, seismologist David Conway (William Leslie) tries to neutralize E-112 with a combination of volcanic gases and silver iodide. Despite all the scientific doublespeak, The Night the World Exploded is doggedly nonintellecutal in its execution and appeal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathryn Grant, William Leslie, (more)
- 1957
In Virginia City, Bret (James Garner) makes the acquaintance of Alex Jennings (played by future "Colonel Klink" Werner Klemperer, a slightly addled mining engineer. Agreeing to help Alex in his mission to improve the working conditions for local miners, Bret finds himself in a whole heap of trouble--much of it brought about by a man who is supposed to be dead. Among the guest players is the delightful Ruta Lee, who here as elsewhere wields a mighty mean six-shooter when the occasion demands. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
A gang of crooks set up a nonexistent small town in order to collect exorbitant traffic fines and hijack valuable truck shipments. Inevitably, "Daily Planet" reporter Jimmy (Jack Larson) and Lois (Noel Neill) are railroaded into the phony town's "jail" by an equally phony judge (Richard Elliot)--and when Clark (George Reeves) and Henderson (Robert Shayne) investigate the reporters' disappearance, they too are locked up and targeted for extermination. How will Clark be able to transform himself into Superman while trapped in a jail cell with virtually everyone he knows? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
The second-to-last American serial ever made, this film series very uneasily combined two popular genres: The Northwest Mounted Police melodrama and Science Fiction. The mix of Medicine Men and airplane dog fights were too ridiculous even for the small fry who, by the '50s, had become the sole audience for this sort of fare. Dennis Moore played an undercover deputy marshal posing as an outlaw in order to infiltrate a gang headed by the nefarious Kenneth MacDonald, a self-styled "Gun Emperor of the Northwest," whose stirring up of the Indians proves a diversion from his smuggling activities. A dark-haired, tight-lipped also-ran cowboy star of the late '40s, Dennis Moore earned the dubious distinction of starring in the two last action serials made in America: Perils of the Wilderness and Blazing the Overland Trail, both low budget affairs heavily padded with stock footage from the genre's glory days in the '30s and '40s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1956
In this entry in the Bowery Boys series, one of the members suddenly finds that he can predict winning numbers after he suffers an electrical shock. He and the boys take this special talent and use it on a TV game show. They win a trip to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, his winning streak attracts the interest of local gangsters who trick the clairvoyant lad into believing he killed a man. They use this to blackmail him into forking over his winnings. The gang comes to his aid. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1955
The Feds investigate a counterfeit ring operating out of a traveling circus in this 12-part Republic crime serial. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- 1955
A long-awaited sequel to Columbia Pictures' popular The Phantom (1943), this film was produced by legendary Hollywood cheapskate Sam Katzman. Katzman refused to pay the owners of the character, King Features, their royalty demands, thus the name change to "Captain Africa." The 1943 Phantom still appeared in this latter-day serial, however, via a vast amount of stock footage. One could actually argue that Tom Tyler, who had starred as the original "Phantom," also starred in the sequel and not John Hart, credited with the role of "Captain Africa." Hart did not resemble Tyler at all but that was of little consequence to Katzman, a producer who never met a corner he wouldn't cut. Captain Africa comes to the aid of an Arabian potentate (Paul Marion) whose prime minister has been kidnapped. There is a beautiful princess (June Howard), a young sidekick (Rick Vallin), a dastardly villain (Bud Osborne), and a great deal of ferocious wildlife fauna, much of which is rather more indigenous to Asia than Africa, where the action ostensibly takes place. In many ways, the carelessness of chapterplays like Adventures of Captain Africa only hastened the demise of the action serial. John Hart is perhaps best known for replacing Clayton Moore for one season as television's The Lone Ranger. Appearing as the kidnapped Prime Minister in Adventures of Captain Africa is Michael Fox, the veteran character actor whose long-time membership of Screen Actors Guild forced the later leading man of the same name to add the middle initial "J" to his billing. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1955
The Spoilers is the fourth and (very likely) last film version of Rex Beach's rugged Alaskan adventure yarn. Set during the Gold Rush of '98, the film stars Jeff Chandler as mine owner Roy Glennister, cheated out of his claim by gold commissioner Alex McNamara (Rory Calhoun). Though Glennister protests, the crooked McNamara has the law on his side. Saloonkeeper Cherry Malotte (Ann Baxter) constantly shifts her allegiance between Glennister and McNamara, though eventually she chooses the "right" side. Like all previous versions of The Spoilers, this one ends with a knock-down, drag-out fight between Glennister and McNamara--not as realistic, perhaps, as the famous bout between William Farnum and Tom Santschi in the original 1914 adaptation of The Spoilers, but a heck of a lot more exciting. Raymond Walburn makes his final film appearance as town inebriate Mr. Skinner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Baxter, Jeff Chandler, (more)
- 1955
The "one desire" of ex-gamblers Rock Hudson and Anne Baxter is to escape their shady former lives and settle down to respectability. Rock and Baxter move to a small town, with Hudson's younger brother (Barry Curtis) and an orphaned girl (Natalie Wood) in tow. Julie Adams, daughter of the town banker, set her sights on Hudson and tries to win him away from Baxter. Adams dies in a convenient-to-the-plotline fire, but everybody else lives happily ever after. Conrad Richter's novel Tracey Cromwell was the base for this 1890s soap opera, produced by Ross Hunter with a veneer of class that the material itself lacks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Baxter, Rock Hudson, (more)
- 1954
Stunt man Hugh Hooker starred in the title role of this late Grade-Z Western, written and directed by the redoubtable Robert Emmett Tansey. When crooked lawyer Monte Blue attempts to take over the ranch belonging to Pamela Blake and her elderly father, James Kirkwood, the Texas Kid and his sidekick (John Laurenz) come to their rescue. That is about all there is to this ramshackle affair, which, in reality, was composed of a couple of unsold television pilots. Silent stars Blue and Kirkwood were nearing the end of their long careers, while the supporting cast consisted of such relative newcomers as Terry Frost, John Compton, and Tansey regular Johnny Carpenter. Very little data exists on this film. Though completed in 1951 (just prior to Tansey's death), the picture's absolutely wretched quality reputedly caused it to go unreleased for three years. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Monte Blue, Pamela Blake, (more)
- 1954
Yet another serial from penny-pinching producer Sam Katzman, the fifteen chapter Gunfighters of the Northwest suffered from the usual Katzman shortcomings, including grainy stock-footage and slapdash writing. As an added economy measure, not a single scene was filmed indoors! Jock Mahoney plays Northwest Mounted Police Constable O'Mahoney, assigned to track down a mysterious villain known only as The Leader. Trying to locate a secret gold mine, The Leader pits the Indians against the Mounties, whom he blames for creating trouble. All in all, Gunfighters of the Northwest did nothing to re-establish the serial genre as a viable alternative to cheap television Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Randolph Scott is tall in the saddle once more in the Scott-Brown production Ten Wanted Men. The star is cast as John Stewart, who attempts to establish law and order on his vast Arizona spread without resorting to violence. Less peacefully inclined is Stewart's chief rival Wick Campbell (Richard Boone), who believes that might is right. To this end, Campbell recruits the services of hired gun Frank Scavo (Leo Gordon) and eight other pluguglies to drive all competition out of the territory. Jocelyn Brando costars as the woman in Stewart's life, while Donna Martell plays Campbell's much-abused mistress. Also registering well is Skip Homeier as Stewart's resentful nephew, who'd rather be anywhere else but Arizona. Ten Wanted Men might have been better had Budd Boetticher handled the direction instead of the competent but pedestrian H. Bruce Humberstone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Jocelyn Brando, (more)
Randolph Scott makes his 3-D debut in the stereoscopic western Stranger Wore a Gun. This time, Scott plays Jeff Travis, a former spy for Quantrill's Raiders. When he heads to Arizona to start life anew, Travis finds that his reputation has preceded him: crooked Jules Mourret (George Macready) hires him to monitor a series of gold shipments, in preparation for a major robbery. Eventually, Travis falls in love with Shelby Conroy (Joan Weldon), daughter of freight-line operator Jason Conroy (Pierre Watkin), and decides to turn honest. That won't be easy: in addition to the surly Mourret, Travis must deal with such formidable movie heavies as Alfonso Bedoya, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. Also on hand is Claire Trevor, in a soft-pedalled variation of her role in John Ford's Stagecoach. Stranger Wore a Gun was directed by Andre DeToth, whose previous foray into 3D had been the box-office smash House of Wax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, (more)
- 1953
Diner owner Tony (Tito Vuolo) keeps a pair of protection racketeers (Terry Frost, Paul Burke) from bothering him by claiming (falsely) to be close friends with Superman (George Reeves). Unfortunately, Tony gets in over his head when he records an incriminating conversation between himself and the crooks, and he is forced to solicit the aid of reporter Clark Kent--little imagining that Clark and Superman are one and the same. The climax of this episode is a slapstick pie fight, in which no one is spared a custard massage. Actress Ruth Kilmonis, appearing herein as a jitterbugging teenager, would later be billed as Ruta Lee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1953
Winning of the West was Gene Autry's first western vehicle for 1953. It was also one of Autry's better offerings, with the star cast as a territorial ranger with an uncharacteristically nasty streak. When a local newspaper publisher is slain by an outlaw gang, Gene hesitates to pull his gun because he recognizes his own brother (Richard Crane) as one of the outlaws. As a result, he is relieved of his duties and forced to fend for himself. After a series of hair-raising adventures, Autry is compelled to face his brother in a showdown. Somehow, a happy ending arises from all this, though it wouldn't be fair to tell how. Gene Autry is supported by his usual cohorts Smiley Burnette and Gail Davis; he also offers four musical numbers, of which "Find Me My Trusty .45" is the best. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, (more)
- 1952
In this "Wild Bill Elliot" western, Elliot and two other lawmen (Myron Healey and Robert Bray) are assigned to take three outlaws to prison. Along the way, they agree to escort Phyllis Coates and her grandmother Florence Lake through Indian territory. Everyone's safety is threatened when one of the deputies (Healey) casts his lot with the criminals. Maverick was the first of three serendipitous collaborations between star Elliot and director Thomas Carr. Incidentally, Carr had just finished directing leading lady Phyllis Coates in several episodes of the Superman TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Myron Healey, (more)
- 1952
Kansas Territory is one of Bill Elliot's latter-day Allied Artists westerns--meaning that even the non-western fan is in for a treat (albeit a violent one). Elliot's brother is killed, which naturally prompts him to seek revenge. On his bloody quest for the guilty party, Elliot learns many facts of his brother's life that he'd rather not know. By the time he confronts the killer, Elliot has a pretty clear picture of how rotten his brother truly was, and how his death was not altogether unjustified. Elliot must also come face to face with the fact that he has become just as brutal as the man he's after. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Wild Bill" Elliott, House Peters, Jr., (more)
- 1952
The Waco depicted in this film is a wide-open Texas frontier town, in desperate need of a strong authority figure to clean out the criminal element. The man needed is the man found: Matt Boone, played by Wild Bill Elliot. Though himself a fugitive from justice (he killed a man in self-defense), Boone takes his responsibilities as sheriff very seriously. Flying in the face of standard "good badman" movie cliches, Boone is often as brutal and ruthless as the desperadoes he comes up against. Waco was one more feather in the cap of cowboy star Bill Elliot, who appeared in some of the toughest -- and best -- medium-budget westerns of the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Wild Bill" Elliott, I. Stanford Jolley, (more)
- 1952
Cowboy star Whip Wilson keeps whipping along in Monogram's Night Raiders. This time, Wilson and saddle pal Tom Farrell are federal marshals, assigned to stop the activities of a nocturnal terrorist group. These so-called Night Raiders lay waste to local ranches, but curiously never steal anything. The trail of clues leads to a motivation (fixing an upcoming election) and, inevitably, a Least Likely Suspect who turns out to be the brains of the organization. Fuzzy Knight supplies laughs, while Terry Frost and Marshall Reed provide menace. Whip Wilson's Night Raiders co-star Tom Farrell was the son of actress Glenda Farrell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whip Wilson, Tommy Farrell, (more)
- 1952
Johnny Mack Brown was nearing the end of his starring career when he appeared in the Monogram oater Dead Man's Trail. Brown and his youthful sidekick Jimmy Ellison come to the aid of imperiled Barbara Allen. At this point, Johnny was too long in tooth and thick around the middle to qualify as a romantic lead, hence the presence of Ellison. But when it came to fast action, Brown always delivered the goods. Featured among the second villains in Dead Man's Trail is stuntman supreme Dale Van Sickel (he's the fellow who drove the truck in Steven Spielberg's TV-movie classic Duel). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
