Martin Garralaga Movies

In this western, an eastern football star inherits the cattle ranch that paid his way through college. Unfortunately, he discovers that much of the fortune has been squandered by an avaricious cattle baron attempting to build an empire of his own. He is stopped by the masked outlaw, El Coyote, who is actually Don Bob in disguise. He and the footballer join forces to defeat the greedy cattle baron. More trouble ensues after the football player falls in love with the villain's daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this western-style musical, a rakish gaucho rides off across the Argentine pampas to Buenos Aires in search of his stolen horse. Once there, he soon engages in hot pursuit of a lovely singing señorita. Soon he discovers that her manager just may be the thief he has been looking for. Keep a sharp eye out for a young Rita Cansino (later known as Rita Hayworth) in an early performance as a dance hall girl. Songs include: "Zamba" (Arthur Wynter-Smith), The Gaucho" (Buddy De Sylva, Walter Samuels), "Querida Mia" (Paul Francis Webster, Lew Pollack), "Love Song of the Pampas," "Veredita," and "Je t'Adore" (Miguel de Zarraga, Cyril J. Mockridge). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When David O. Selznick produced the film version of the 1000-plus page novel Gone with the Wind, he declared he could not make a film running any less than 222 minutes. When Warner Bros. adapted the even longer Hervey Allen best-seller Anthony Adverse, the studio managed to pack everything--except the most censorable passages, which had made Allen's novel a best-seller in the first place--into 139 minutes. Surprisingly, the film version of Anthony Adverse moves rather smoothly, though it is nowhere near as involving (or as much fun) as Gone with the Wind. Fredric March stars as Anthony Adverse, the illegitimate offspring of Anita Louise, the wife of Spanish nobleman Claude Rains. When Adverse comes of age, he inherits the prosperous business run by his kindly foster father Edmund Gwenn, which he abandons for an aimless trip around the world after his heart is broken by childhood sweetheart Olivia De Havilland. Sinking deeper into the morass of alcohol and degeneracy in the West Indies, Adverse is regenerated when he is reunited with De Havilland, now the mistress of Napoleon Bonaparte. Suddenly enervated, Adverse battles the efforts of Claude Rains and Gwenn's duplicitous former assistant Gale Sondergaard to take over Gwenn's business. Along the way, he learns that Gwenn was actually his grandfather and that De Havilland has born him a son (Scotty Beckett). Instead of dying, as he does in the novel, Anthony Adverse takes his son to America to start life anew. Whew! Though no award winner itself, Anthony Adverse enabled Gale Sondergaard to win the first-ever "best supporting actress" Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Written by John P. McCarthy (who also directed), Robert Emmett Tansey, and, rather incongruously, former real-life outlaw Al Jennings, this musical Western marked the screen debut of Tex Ritter, a former Broadway and radio crooner. Ritter played Tex (of course), a lawman going undercover as a bandit in order to infiltrate a gang of claim jumpers. As it turns out, the leader of the gang, Evans (Ted Adams), is using the ranch of Don Esteban del Valle (Martin Garralaga) and his daughter, Dolores (Joan Woodbury), as his headquarters, dragging the innocent rancher into a scheme to take over the local mines by any means possible, including murder. In between his detective work, Ritter finds time to sing such song as "Out on the Lone Prairie," "My Sweet Chiquita," and "You Are Reality," the latter composed by leading lady Joan Woodbury, the wife of actor Henry Wilcoxon. Ritter was discovered for films by Edward F. Finney, the former promotional director for Republic Pictures, who released the Ritter series through newcomer Grand National. Despite the crowd-pleasing presence of comic sidekick Fuzzy Knight and Ritter's horse, White Flash, Song of the Gringo proved an inauspicious opener. According to Ritter himself, Finney had his star outfitted with a hideous-looking toupee; and director John P. McCarthy, a holdover from the silent era, proved an unwise choice as well. Both hairpiece and McCarthy were gone by the second instalment, Headin' for the Rio Grande (1936), replaced by Ritter's natural receeding hairline and Robert North Bradbury, yet another veteran but at least one with an eye for pacing. Ritter, who achieved perhaps his lasting fame singing "Do Not Forsake Me" over the main titles to Fred Zinneman's High Noon (1952), was the father of 1970s television star John Ritter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Of the many film versions of Alfred Lord Tennyson's narrative poem, 1936's Charge of the Light Brigade has the least relationship to the facts concerning the famous 19th century British military blunder in the Crimea. Reflecting the popularity of 1935's Lives of A Bengal Lancer, the film uses the climactic charge as the culmination of events which begin in British India. Errol Flynn and Patric Knowles are cast as cavalry officers who are also brothers; both love Olivia De Havilland, but it is Knowles who wins out (this should tip us off that the rest of the film is pure fantasy). Indian potentate C. Henry Gordon, angered that the British government has cut off his subsidy, stages a revolt against the English settlements. Ordered on maneuvers, Flynn is unable to bring rescue troops to the besieged fort commanded by De Havilland's father. Gordon supervises the slaughter of every man, woman and child at the fort, then leaves India in the company of his Russian advisors. Flynn and his fellow Light Brigade lancers are then transferred to the Crimea--where, as luck would have it, Gordon is now ensconced with the Russians. Thirsting for revenge, Flynn falsifies an official order so that he and the Light Brigade can battle Gordon and his allies at Balaclava (thus are Britons Lord Cardigan and Lord Ragan, the actual instigators of the doomed charge, exonerated). As passages from the Tennyson poem are superimposed on the action, Flynn leads a suicidal charge against the Russians; he manages to kill the treacherous Gordon before being slain himself. Its dozens of historical inaccuracies aside, The Charge of the Light Brigade is rousing entertainment. Animal lovers be warned, however: several horses were killed during the climactic charge, a fact that compelled Hollywood (under the auspices of the ASPCA) to install safer and more stringent standards concerning the treatment of animals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This average Tex Ritter music Western provided the former radio and Broadway performer with not one but two comedy sidekicks: Horace Murphy) and Snub Pollard. According to a few dour critics, Ritter would have been much better off without. The three played Arizona Rangers who rescue a pretty stagecoach passenger, Louise Rogers (Louise Stanley), from a gang of outlaws. Learning that rustlers are terrorizing the border populace, Tex and his cohorts align themselves with Captain Mendoza (Martin Garralaga) of the Mexican Rurales. But when Doc (Murphy) and Pee Wee (Pollard) are falsely accused of stealing and thrown in jail, Tex pretends to desert the rangers. He is quickly befriended by Jeffries (Earl Dwire), the head of the rustlers, and grabs the opportunity to combat the gang from the inside. Louise Rogers, pretending to be a saloon singer, is actually a secret agent and together they bring the rustlers to justice. Ritter took time out to warble his own title-tune as well as Arizona Rangers and, with Miss Stanley, Home on the Range. Riders of the Rockies was one in a series of Ritter Westerns produced independently by Edward F. Finney for release by Grand National. In fact, the low-budget but lucrative Ritter vehicles would finance the latter company's $900,000 Something to Sing About (1937), a James Cagney musical fiasco quickly dubbed "Something to Cy About." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this detective adventure, a young woman is accused of stealing a valuable necklace from her boss and takes off for Spain just before the Civil War. She is trailed by a detective form Scotland Yard. He finds her and soon falls in love and the two try to flee on a British ship. The story does not reveal whether the girl was innocent or not. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Mexican actress Movita, Franchot Tone's vis-a-vis in Mutiny on the Bounty (and, much later, Mrs. Marlon Brando) stars in the Monogram western Rose of the Rio Grande The story, based on a novel by Johnston (Zorro) McCulley, concerns a group of aristocratic vigilantes, who go about trying to restore their prominence in Mexico by killing anyone who stands in their way. The cast is full of Hollywood Hispanics, including Don Alvarado, Antonio Moreno, Gino Corrado (the villain), Martin Garralaga and Duncan Renaldo (who incidentally was born in Rumania!) Several profane outtakes of Rose of the Rio Grande exist: in one of the funniest, leading man John Carroll, unable to untie the ropes that bind Movita to a chair, begins grumbling "What did the guy do with these...God...damn...." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Singing cowboy Bob Baker starred in this average music western as a cavalry officer assigned to investigate the murders of several Pony Express riders. Going undercover as Pony Express riders themselves, Captain Bob Bradley and his sidekick Andy Sharpe (Don Barclay) arrive at the Ricardo Ranchero to purchase horses for the Express. Don Ricardo's neighbor Don Diego (Julian Rivero) is killed after filing a grant with the United States Land Office in Placita, and Bob begins to suspect a connection between the Pony Express killings and the Spanish land grants. Don Ricardo (Martin Garralaga) is the next obvious victim and, sure enough, shortly after the dignified rancher files his claim, the rider assigned to deliver it to Placerita is found murdered. Realizing that Don Ricardo is in danger from a gang of outlaws plotting to take over all the valley's ranches, Bob forms a posse with the surviving riders and arrives at the Ricardo ranchero just in time to save the don and his pretty daughter, Loreta (Cecilia Callejo) from the marauding thieves. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Juarez was originally designed to concentrate almost exclusively on the tragedy of Hapsburg Emperor Maximillian, whose attempts to establish a puppet government in Mexico on behalf of Napoleon III ended in disaster and death. But when Paul Muni decided that he wanted to play Zapotec-Indian-turned-Mexican President Benito Pablo Juarez, the film's emphasis perceptibly shifted -- and Bette Davis, cast as Empress Carlotta, was shunted to second billing rather than first. Muni's makeup and costuming convincingly transforms him into Juarez incarnate. But unlike his other historical impersonations (Pasteur, Zola), Muni's Juarez is a one-note characterization: stoic, uncompromising, and v-e-e-r-y slow of speech. Far more exciting dramatically is Bette Davis as Empress Carlotta, whose highly stylized descent into madness is a tour de force both for the actress and for director William Dieterle. Claude Rains and Gale Sondergaard, as Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie, in essence repeat their diabolical characterizations from Anthony Adverse (1936), while John Garfield is singularly miscast as Pofirio Diaz. The best performance is delivered by Brian Aherne, whose kindly, honorable Emperor Maximillian is less a despot than a misguided political pawn. When Aherne, about to be executed at Juarez' orders, requests that his favorite Mexican song "La Paloma" be played as he is led before the firing squad, audience sympathies are 100% in Maximilian's corner--which was not quite what the filmmakers intended. Based largely on Bertita Harding's book The Phantom Crown (the film's original title), Juarez takes every available opportunity to parallel its title character's fight against foreign intervention with the then-current European situation. To protect their investment in Juarez Warner Bros. purchased outright a like-vintage Mexican film on the same subject, The Mad Empress, suppressing the latter film's release in the United States. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Code of the Secret Service was the second of Warner Bros. "Brass Bancroft" series, starring Ronald Reagan as troubleshooting federal operative Bancroft. This time, Brass and his wisecracking partner Gabby (Eddie Foy Jr., brother of producer Bryan Foy) take on a particularly vicious gang of counterfeiters. Our heroes end up in Mexico, where they undergo a series of wild and wooly adventures the like of which were seldom seen outside of the Republic serials. According to Reagan, he was obliged to do his own stunts in the film because the budget couldn't afford a double; it certainly looks that way. Entertaining in its own dizzy fashion. Code of the Secret Service is proof positive that Reagan could carry a film with the right material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

South-of-the-border singing sensation Tito Guizar stars in Cuando Canta la Ley. Guizar is cast as Mexican secret-service agent Alberto Gallindo, dedicated to tracking down the murderer of a fellow agent. With the aid of his erstwhile sidekick Adobe (Martin Garralaga), Alberto follows the trail of evidence to the hacienda owned by pretty Maria Luisa Pineda (Tana). In the tradition of Hollywood's Gene Autry, our hero gets to sing a lot and romance his lady fair before hunkering down to the detection business at hand. Cuando Canta La Ley was distributed in Mexico and in North American Spanish-speaking communities by Paramount Pictures, for whom Tito Guizar had appeared in The Big Broadcast of 1938. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Retired frontier postal inspector Dan Clark (George O'Brien) is summoned back to active duty when the stagecoach line owned by heroine Crinnie (Virginia Vale) is targetted by outlaws. The perpetrator of this outrage is Crinnie's own uncle (Carl Stockdale), in cahoots with her principal rival Dude Elliot (Roy Barcroft). Travelling incognito, Clark takes a job as stagecoach driver in hopes of bringing the criminals out in the open. Stage to Chino represented the directorial debut of Edward Killy, one of the most prolific members of RKO Radio's assistant-director staff. At the time of its release, much was made of the fact that the film featured several former silent-film luminaries in the supporting cast, including Elmo "Tarzan" Lincoln, Billy Franey and Bruce Mitchell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide