George "Gabby" Hayes Movies

Based on Tracks, a 1928 short story by Stephen Payne, this low-budget Western from Diversion Pictures told the ancient story of a carefree drifter falsely accused of murdering a rancher. As he had so many times before, Hoot Gibson played the drifter, Ralph Lewis, of the silent era, was the murder victim, and June Gale, Gibson's girlfriend at the time, played the murdered man's pretty daughter. The real culprit, as Gibson learns, is the victim's adopted son and foreman (Wally Wales), who is in cahoots with an unscrupulous attorney (William Gould). Like Gibson's other five Westerns from Diversion Pictures, Swifty proved a generally well-received 62 minutes of sagebrush entertainment. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

With a 45-minute running time, or thereabouts, Texas Terror was John Wayne's shortest Lone Star/Monogram Western and far from his best. Believing has accidentally killed his best friend (Frank Ball), the sheriff (Wayne) hands over his badge to George "Gabby" Hayes and retreats to the high country. En route to take over her murdered father's ranch, Beth Matthews (Lucille Browne) is witness to a stage robbery (a typical modern Western, the "stage" in Texas Terror is a Ford T touring car). An unshaven, dirty-looking Wayne comes to her rescue, but she thinks he is part of the gang. Vaguely recognizing his voice but nothing else, Beth later hires the now cleaned-up former sheriff as her new foreman and they quickly fall in love. But during a dance, Joe Dickson (LeRoy Mason), the incognito leader of the stage robbers, informs the girl that Wayne is the man thought to have killed her father. Wayne soon learns of Dickson's own culpability in the killing and summons an entire tribe of Indians to help capture him. The typical Hollywood Indians in this film all speak in broken English, Chief Black Eagle actually saying "Ugh!" on one occasion, an incongruous moment in a Western where the heroine arrives in an automobile. Intentional comedy relief is provided by Fern Emmett, a sort of poor man's Margaret Hamilton, and veteran slapstick comedian Jack Duffy, both of whom engage in a supposedly hilarious milking contest. The climactic chase sequence is rather heavily padded with stock footage from the silent era and Yakima Canutt is spotted quite clearly doubling for Wayne. As always, veteran director Robert North Bradbury has a great eye for composition (the film seems to have been shot on locations in the Sierras), but his handling of actors leaves much to be desired. Tight-lipped LeRoy Mason delivers Texas Terror's only solid performance as the villain. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A superior Tim McCoy Western, Justice of the Range featured a range feud between John Mclean (Edward J. LeSaint) and his neighbor, Lafe Brennan (Jack Rutherford), each believing the other to be behind a series of cattle rustlings in Apache Basin. Hired to look into the matter by commission agent Hadley Graves (Guy Usher), range detective Tim Condon (McCoy) discovers that neither is the culprit. But before he can do anything about it, he is framed in the murder of Pegleg Sanderson (George "Gabby" Hayes), a crime actually committed by a couple of Brennan's henchmen. Tim escapes the sheriff and, together with Brennan's estranged brother, Bob (Ward Bond), discovers that the real leader of the rustlers is Graves, who had hired Tim in order to divert attention from himself. About to take over the Mclean ranch, Graves and his henchmen are arrested by Sheriff Burns (Stanley Blystone) and Tim is free to continue his budding romance with lovely Janet Mclean (Billie Seward). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Earl Dwire supplies a deliciously ripe performance as a half-breed outlaw in this early John Wayne Western from Monogram. After killing John's father, Zanti (Dwire) attempts to abduct pretty Ruby (Sheila Terry), but the girl is saved in the nick of time by John. Unfortunately, the bumbling sheriff (Jack Rockwell) not only mistakes John for one of Zanti's outlaws, but also accuses him of killing Ruby's grandfather, Dusty (George Hayes). The latter, however, is still very much alive and John tracks Zanti into the desert where the outlaw perishes after drinking poisoned water. With the boss villain dead, John goes after the entire gang who is eventually trapped in Dusty's mine. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Perhaps the best of Mascot Pictures' feature-film releases, Ladies Crave Excitement is also one of the fastest 69 minutes ever put on film. Norman Foster and Eddie Nugent play Don and Bob, a pair of ace newsreel cameraman for The March of Events, forever keeping one step ahead of their competition. Swept up in the boys' adventures is thrill-seeking heiress Wilma Howell (Evalyn Knapp), who eventually proves to be a valuable member of the team. After a dizzying series of hairbreadth escapes, Don once again scoops his rivals by rounding up a gang of crooks, with the not inconsiderable help of the resourceful Wilma. One interesting aspect of Ladies Crave Excitement is the suggestion that newsreel photographers regularly "stage" events to make things more exciting; in one amusing scene, a storm at sea is re-created on a studio soundstage, as "captain" Christian Rub is doused with bucket after bucket of cold water. Future TV favorites Milburn Stone and Marie Wilson pop up unbilled as a sailor and his date, while perennial Superman villain Herb Vigran appears as a wisecracking photographer. Serving as film editor on Ladies Crave Excitement was director-in-training Joseph H. Lewis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a brief flurry of non-western actioners, George O'Brien returned to the West in Thunder Mountain. Based on a story by Zane Grey, the film casts O'Brien as Kai Emerson, whose claim on a gold strike is met with skepticism by heroine Sydney Blair (Barbara Fritchie). Despite damning evidence to the contrary, the girl remains convinced that the gold's rightful owner is villainous claim-jumper Rand Leavitt (Morgan Wallace). Ultimately, however, Leavitt tips his hand and Emerson is proven right, but not before a knock-down drag-out battle on the edge of a high cliff. Despite its potential, Thunder Mountain is rather skimpy in the action department, but this shortcoming would be corrected in subsequent O'Brien vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

"Old Roses," an elderly small town gardener with a love of the fragrant blossoms becomes friends with two young lovers. Such a true friend is he, that when the young man is accused of murder, he takes the rap for him. Fortunately, in the end, the kindly fellow confesses his ruse and is free to continue growing roses. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Definitely the most expensive-looking of John Wayne's "Lone Star" westerns, The Star Packer casts "the Duke" as U.S. marshal John Travers. Hoping to flush out a mysterious outlaw chieftain known only as "The Shadow," Travers becomes sheriff of a town where several unsolved murders have occurred. Accompanied by his Indian pal Yak (Yakima Canutt), our hero explores a tunnel leading from the sheriff's office to the outlaws' cave hideout. He manages to ascertain the identity of The Shadow, but first he must rescue heroine Anita (Verna Hillie) from the villain's clutches. As much a horror melodrama as a straightforward western, The Star Packer benefits from the casting of Lone Star "regulars" George (Gabby) Hayes and Yakima Canutt in highly uncharacteristic roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Wayne attempts to locate Shirley Jean Rickert's wayward father in this low-budget Western from his days with Monogram. The little girl, a "half-breed," is the heir to a 50,000-dollar Indian oil claim, but she needs the signature of her long-lost father in order to collect. Chris Morrell, Nina's foster father, manages to get the tyke out of town before Sam Black (Yakima Canutt) and his gang can get their grubby hands on her and her inheritance, but other villains learn of the girl's potential windfall, including express office robbers Vic Byrd (Jack Rockwell) and Jim Moore (Jay Wilsey). When Vic finally gets hold of the child, he is shot and killed by one of his own hands, Tom (Earl Dwire), who is revealed to be Nina's real father. With Tom's help, Chris manages to trick the Black gang and is able to storm their hideout. In the ensuing melee, Tom is fatally shot but Byrd manages to escape with Nina. Chris goes after them and there is a final confrontation in a raging river. 'Neath the Arizona Skies was based on Gun Glory, a short story by B.R. Tuttle, which had been filmed in 1933 by maverick producer Victor Adamson as Circle Canyon. This earlier version starred Buddy Roosevelt as Chris and Clarise Woods as the little heiress. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Based on Adam Hull Shirk's moth-eaten 1927 play The Ape, this comedy-mystery-thriller is one of those static, ham-fisted bump-in-the-night whodunits that made Monogram Pictures justly infamous. A group of investors gather at the secluded estate of paralyzed archeologist John Prendergast (Clay Clement), who 20 years previously had escaped a disastrous expedition to Hindustan with a great deal of loot and a somnambulist Hindi mistress-cum-housekeeper (Laya Joy aka Joyzelle).The dreaded Curse of Kali, however, followed Prendergast back to America and is apparently killing off the archeologist's greedy house guests one by one. Tom-Tom drums, incense-burning and shrieks in the night follow, of course, and so do the inevitable dumb police officers headed by Inspector ("I shall not let that ape make a monkey out of me!") Pickens (Irving Bacon). Emil Van Horn skulks about in his gorilla suit (in one scene, the simian has a hard time opening a couple of Monogram's French doors); Chanda, the Hindu woman glowers at ingenue Verna Hillie; Clement does an acceptable imitation of Lionel Atwill, and an American-accented janitor (John Sheehan) proves to be a Scotland Yard inspector in disguise. Nominal leading man Ed Lowry, as a brash insurance salesman, quickly returned to his natural habitat, radio. Shirk's play also served as the basis for Monogram's 1940 Boris Karloff thriller The Ape, although the plot of that film bore little resemblance to The House of Mystery. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

After helping prevent a bank robbery, young drifter John Weston (John Wayne) is assigned by Marshal Higgins (George "Gabby" Hayes to look into a series of suspicious deaths among champion rodeo riders. Weston falls for lovely Marjorie Carter (Polly Ann Young) along the way but she gets jealous when he suddenly shifts his attention to fiery Dolores (Anita Campillo, whose name is misspelled "Compillo" in the onscreen credits). The Mexican charmer, however, is in league with Spike Barton (Edward Peil, Sr.), the brain behind the murders, and Weston's interest is purely business. Like most of John Wayne's "Lone Star" Westerns, The Man from Utah was filmed along California's Kern River. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide