Kit Guard Movies

In his sixth and final Western release of 1939, diminutive Bob Steele played a cowboy, who, searching for his father's killer, is mistaken for a notorious outlaw in a corrupt border town. Directed by producer Harry S. Webb's younger brother Ira, El Diablo Rides featured the usual Metropolitan Pictures stock company of villains, including Carleton Young, Ted Adams, and Robert Walker. The barely released Western, however, was a far cry from Bob Steele's main effort of 1939, the role of Curly in Lewis Milestone's perhaps definitive version of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Following up his movie portrayal of Wild Bill Hickok, Bill Elliot stars as famed trailblazer John "Frontier" Freeman in Columbia's Frontiers of '49. The film takes place in 19th century California, where a crooked real estate firm is merrily selling off Spanish land grants in exchange for exorbitant tax levies. The US government sends Freeman to investigate this activity, accompanied by grizzled frontier scout Kit Carson (Hal Taliaferro). When not tangling with chief heavy Howard Brunon (the inescapable Charles King), Freeman romances aristocratic Spanish senorita Dolores de Cervantes (Luana de Alcaniz). Rather ambitious for a B picture, Frontiers of '49 could use a little less talk and a lot more action. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This film is one of acclaimed director Fritz Lang's less noted achievements, a mixture of romance, comedy, drama, and satire. It includes three songs by the famed Kurt Weill, including "The Right Guy for Me." George Raft plays Joe Dennis, an ex-convict working in a department store. The store's boss, Mr. Morris (Harry Carey), likes to hire ex-cons. Joe falls in love with Helen (Sylvia Sidney), who hides the fact that she is on parole until after they marry. Since parolees can't wed, the marriage is illegal. Distraught, Joe organizes a gang to rob Morris' store. Helen intervenes and tries to convince the gang members that the potential take isn't worth the risk of returning to prison. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the long-running series of westerns, the Three Mesquiteers transform their ranch into a prison farm to provide a model for prison reform. They are opposed by a local contractor who wants to build a standard prison. He and his colleagues endeavor to destroy the ranch, but they are thwarted by the daring trio. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play You Can't Take It With You was transformed into a paean to populism by director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. This is the story of the zany Sycamore household, presided over by Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore), a former businessman who has turned his back on commerce to enjoy life. At the Sycamores', everyone does just what he or she pleases. Penny Sycamore (Spring Byington), Grandpa's daughter, has become a novelist because someone delivered a typewriter to her home by mistake. Penny's husband makes firecrackers in his basement with the help of Mr. DePinna (Halliwell Hobbes), an iceman who showed up at the Sycamore doorstep one day and never left. Their daughter, Essie (Ann Miller), imagines that she's a prima ballerina, even though her dour teacher, Boris (Mischa Auer), assesses her work with, "Confidentially, it steenks!" Essie's husband, Ed (Dub Taylor), who'd rather play a xylophone than work, spends his free time selling Essie's candy, wrapping each package in paper from a used printing press that dispenses anarchistic slogans. The one normal member of the household is Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur), in love with wealthy Tony Kirby (James Stewart).

Naturally, when the stuffy, aristocratic Kirbys come to the Sycamores' for dinner, the event is a disaster, capped with the arrest of everyone in the household. Hart and Kaufman's third act found the previously judgmental Kirby softening his attitude toward the freewheeling Sycamore clan, admitting that he's never had so much fun in his life. Screenwriter Riskin altered the focus of the play by throwing out the third act and concentrating upon Tony Kirby's father, Kirby Sr., who as played by Edward Arnold is transformed from a stock stuffed shirt into a ruthless, grasping tycoon, eager to buy up every house on the Sycamores' block to make room for a munitions plant. The film thus became the story of Kirby's regeneration at the hands of the carefree Sycamores. Enough of the play's screwball elements are retained to compensate for Riskin's speechifying and plot distortions (though the softening of one of the play's vital ingredients, Grandpa's refusal to pay his income tax, borders on the sacrilegious). You Can't Take It With You earned several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Capra's third Oscar). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Directed by the veteran J.P. McGowan, Where the West Begins was the fourth of 22 Westerns -- some with music -- starring Jack Randall (aka Addison Randall), the lesser-known brother of Robert Livingston. This time around, Randall played Jack Manning, a ranch foreman, who, when not battling a greedy neighbor (Dick Alexander), warbles such tunes as "Sleep, Little Cowboy, Sleep" and "I'm in Prairie Heaven," both by Connie Lee, and "Born to the Range" by Johnny Lange and Fred Stryker. Ranch owner Lynne Reed (Luana Walters) is more interested in pursuing an acting career than paying attention to her property, which unbeknownst to her contains a large deposit of sulfur. Assisted by his sidekick, Buzz (Fuzzy Knight), Jack not only saves the ranch from the evil neighbor, but wins the love and affection of Lynne, who abandons all hope of stardom in favor of marriage. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Frontier Scout was one of a handful of western vehicles for opera star George Houston, who adapted surprisingly well to his sagebrush surrounding. Singing nary a note during the film's 60 minutes, Houston is cast as Wild Bill Hickok, flowing hair and all. After nearly single-handedly winning the Civil War, Hickok takes on a gang of cattle rustlers, headed by crooked ranch foreman Bennett (Guy Chase). Our hero handles matters so well that he wins the hand of pretty Mary (Beth Marion), sister of ranch owner Steve (Dave O'Brien). Had he not decided to return to the stage, George Houston might have enjoyed a substantial film career. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Released by Monogram in 1937, Shadows of the Orient was actually produced independently several years earlier by Larry Darmour. Arrested in a raid on a Chinese gambling joint, judge's daughter Viola Avery (Esther Ralston) is rescued from disgrace by King Moss (Sidney Blackmer), owner of the establishment. In return, Moss expects Viola to string along with him romantically, and to help him with his busy alien-smuggling racket. But stalwart immigration inspector Baxter (Regis Toomey), himself in love with Viola, puts an end to Moss' activities for good. The fact that Shadows of the Orient was three to four years old when it came off the shelf was obvious in its tatty production values and antiquated costumes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's the wild and woolly waterfront world of San Francisco in the late 1800s in this rambling tale of an outrageous nightclub owner (Edward G. Robinson) and his efforts at wooing lovely Mary Rutledge (Miriam Hopkins), a lovely Eastern lass left to her own devices in the rowdy port city. The innocent babe loses that innocence when she becomes a kept lady, running the roulette wheel in Robinson's nightclub. The plot matures when Mary falls in love with an honest and upright gold miner. When the lovers are discovered during a fateful tryst, they flee the evil Robinson, hoping to escape as stowaways aboard a departing ship. Robinson is magnificent in this ruffian role. This action-filled adventure is suitable for the whole family. ~ All Movie Guide

Set up essentially to produce cheap westerns, low-budget Puritan Pictures occasionally ground out a contemporary actioner like Rip Roaring Riley. Lloyd Hughes stars as Riley, a two-fisted G-Man who is dispatched to faraway Diamond Island. Riley's mission is to capture the sinister Major Grey (Grant Withers) who is busily manufacturing poison-gas bombs. Our hero must also rescue the inventor of the noxious gas, Professor Baker (John Cowell), and Baker's shapely daughter Ann (Marion Burns). Former silent comedians Eddie Gribbon and Kit Guard provide laughs as a pair of two-bit thugs who spend the bulk of the film outsmarting themselves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Promoted as a follow-up to Frank Capra's 1933 hit Lady for a Day, Lady by Choice resembles the earlier film only in its choice of leading lady. May Robson plays a drunken derelict who'd once been quite a heartbreaker. Her self-respect is restored when she is asked to pose as fan-dancer Carole Lombard's mother. Lombard is part of the deal only to gain publicity for herself, but Robson takes her assignment seriously, ordering Lombard to give up her tacky profession and use her talents for something more dignified. At first against her will, Lombard starts taking formal acting and singing lessons and begins gaining a reputation as a serious artist. Wealthy Roger Pryor, a family friend of Robson's, falls in love with Lombard, but she breaks off the relationship so that Pryor won't be disinherited. Robson takes a hand in things, forcing Pryor and Lombard together in a delightfully devious fashion. Lady By Choice proved that Columbia Pictures (and scriptwriter Jo Swerling) could turn out a perfectly respectable Frank Capra film without Frank Capra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Harold Lloyd plays Ezekial Cobb, a missionary's son who has spent his entire life in China. Cobb is sent to his father's home church in California, where it is hoped he will find a wife. A true babe in the woods, Cobb is befriended by politician Jake Mayo (George Barbier). Mayo is a cog in a crooked political machine whose bosses plan to set up a "reform" candidate for mayor, so that they can continue their underhanded activities unmolested. The candidate drops dead, so Mayo sets up the innocent Cobb as the mayor-to-be--a "cat's paw" to deflect attention from the system's corruption. But once elected, Cobb takes his duties quite seriously and begins to clean up the town. The machine frames Cobb with planted evidence of wrongdoing, destroying the lad's political career. Undaunted, Cobb remembers the story of an ancient Chinese leader, who, similarly disgraced, took the law in his own hands and executed all known criminals in his last days of power. Cobb orders that every crook in town be rounded up and brought to a dark cellar. He insists that they confess their crimes or face instant death--and backs up his words by "beheading" two of the crooks on the spot! Actually, these executions are cleverly designed magical illusions, and no one is really killed; but the terrified criminals are so hoodwinked by Cobb's apparent cold-bloodedness that they literally climb over one another to confess. Cobb is exonerated, and honesty is restored to his administration. While not Harold Lloyd's best feature film, The Cat's Paw is definitely his most unorthodox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide