Reed Howes Movies
One of several male models to achieve some success in action films of the '20s, Hermon Reed Howes was forever saddled with the tag "Arrow Collar Man," despite the fact that he had been only one of several future luminaries to have posed for famed artist J.C. Leyenecker's memorable Arrow ads. (Future screen actors Fredric March and Brian Donlevy also did yeoman duty for the company.)A graduate of the University of Utah and the Harvard Graduate School, Howes had served two and a half years in the navy prior to entering onto the stage. He became a leading man for the likes of Peggy Wood and Billie Burke, and entered films in 1923, courtesy of low-budget producer Ben Wilson, who cast the handsome newcomer as the lead in a series of breathless melodramas released by Rayart. Howes reached a silent screen pinnacle of sorts as Clara Bow's leading man in Rough House Rosie (1927), but his starring days were over with the advent of sound. There was nothing inherently wrong with Howes voice, but it didn't do anything for him either. His acting before the microphone seemed too stiff. He was still as handsome as ever, but his good looks were often hidden behind a scruffy beard or mustache. The veteran actor then drifted into supporting roles in B-Westerns and serials, his appearances sometimes devoid of dialogue, and more often than not, he was unbilled. Howes did his fair share of television in the '50s as well, but ill health forced him to retire after playing a police inspector in Edward D. Wood Jr.'s The Sinister Urge, filmed in July of 1960 and a guest spot on television's Mr. Ed. He died of cancer at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1932
This "gimmick" murder mystery begins during a crucial college football game. Wally Clark (Johnny Mack Brown), the team's star player, is killed just before making the winning touchdown, as the titular 70,000 witnesses look on. Wally's teammate Buck Buchanan (Phillips Holmes), the younger brother of gambler Slip Buchanan (Lew Cody), had previously refused to drug Wally at Slip's bequest. Even so, when Wally drops dead, the leading suspect is poor Buck. It's up to bibulous reporter Johnny Moran (Charles Ruggles) and Wally's sister Dorothy Clark (Dorothy Jordan) to save Buck before local detective Dan McKenna (David Landau) railroads the boy into the electric chair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phillips Holmes, Dorothy Jordan, (more)
Up until its surisingly mundane finale, A Lawless Street is one of the best of the Randolph Scott westerns of the 1950s. Scott plays famed marshal Calem Ware, whose strenous activities on behalf of law and order have exacted a toll on his personal life. Keeping the peace in the town of Medicine Bend, Ware hopes to someday be reconciled with his ex-wife Tally Dickinson (Angela Lansbury), now a touring musical comedy star. Just as Tally arrives in Medicine Bend, Ware is forced to deal with big-time criminals Thorne (Warner Anderson) and Clark (John Emery), not to mention their hired gun Baskam (Michael Pate). Will he do his duty and rid the town of his outlaw element, or will he hang up his guns as Tally wants him to? One of the highlights of A Lawless Street is a lively saloon-hall number performed by Angela Lansbury, who is quite a dish in her revealing stage wardrobe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Angela Lansbury, (more)
- 1928
Danny Eagan (Reed Howes) is on trial for his life, charged with the murder of a prominent gangster leader. Danny refuses to defend himself, knowing that it would mean jeopardizing the reputation of his sweetheart Mary Norfleet (Josephine Dunn). Making matters even dicier is the fact that Mary is the daughter of the prosecuting attorney (Lee Shumway). Finally, the girl comes forth to deliver the vital evidence that she was with Danny on the night of murder, and together, hero and heroine uncover the identity of the real killer. Mary Carr, perennial movie mother of the silent era, plays Danny's ma. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes, Mary Carr, (more)
- 1937
Puritan Pictures seldom turned out a film that looked most expensive than it really was. The studio's Million to One appears to have been made on a budget of eight dollars and a box lunch, but that doesn't lessen its entertainment value one bit. Herman Brix (later known as Bruce Bennett) stars as Johnny Kent, a hot-shot Olympic athlete who lets success go to his head. After a dizzying cycle of wine, women and song, Johnny is no good to anyone, least of all himself. He wises up in time to qualify for a decathlon competition with his arch-rival Hale (Reed Howes). Oldtimers Monte Blue and Kenneth Harlan play key supporting roles, while the ingenue is a pretty but antiseptic newcomer named Joan Burfield. By the time Million to One made it to New York (nearly three years after it was made), Ms. Burfield was billing herself as Joan Fontaine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herman Brix, Joan Fontaine, (more)
- 1942
When the order of the Western frontier is threatened by bandits, cowboys are the only measure of justice in the area. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1931
The title character is played by Dorothy Revier in this lower-case melodrama. She plays a gossip columnist whose brother, a prizefighter, is murdered. To uncover the killer, Revier (whose photograph has evidently never been published by her newspaper) goes undercover, posing as a hard-boiled nightclub hoofer. The single new aspect of this predictable effort is finding Dorothy Revier, normally cast as a scheming Other Woman, playing the heroine for a change. Anybody's Blonde was produced by a poverty-row studio bearing the name of Artclass. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Revier, Reed Howes, (more)
- 1959
Feeble in the action department, this drama directed by Thor Brooks fizzles before the arsonist gets his due. John (Steve Brodie) is the leader of an arson squad and he does not realize that it is one of his men who is setting the disastrous fires around town. The duplicitous and secretly criminal member of the squad is a part of an arson ring that preys on the victims of the fires they set in order to get them to divvy up the insurance money. To assure cooperation, the arsonists use either blackmail or intimidation. In-between fires, John is intent on tracking down the arsonists. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Brodie, Lyn Thomas, (more)
Gene Autry battles a crooked mine owner in this his signature western from Republic Pictures. Years earlier, Gene promised to take watch over his employer's son Tom (Edward Norris), a young hothead who enjoys the so-called finer things in life. Tom has to be corralled out of the wicked city after finally inheriting the old homestead but life in the supposedly pastoral Arizona hamlet of Solitude proves less than idyllic when greedy copper miner E.G. Blaine (Arthur Loft) begins poisoning the water supply. Not patient enough to let law abiding Gene handle things, Tom takes matters into his own hands and is promptly slapped with a murder charge. Since the local authorities are controlled by Blaine, Gene has Judge Bent (Edmund Elson secure a change of venue for the upcoming trial but the enemy may have an ace up his sleeve. When not shooting it out with Blaine and his henchmen, Gene, Smiley Burnette, leading lady Jacqueline Wells and girl singer Mary Lee perform "Good Old-Fashioned Hoedown", "Swingin' Sam, the Cowboy Man", "When the Cactus is in Bloom", "I'm an Old Cowhand", "Where the River Meets the Range", "I'm in the Jailhouse Now", "You Are My Sunshine", "Ninety-Nine Bullfrogs" and Ray Whitley's title tune. Back in the Saddle has been restored to its original length by the Westerns Channel and Gene Autry Entertainment. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, (more)
- 1925
Reed Howes, the original Arrow Collar man (or so his publicity claimed), stars in The Bashful Buccaneer. Howes plays a writer of rip-roaring sea adventures who (naturally) has never been on the bounding main in his life. To glean first-hand information, he hires out a boat owned by heroine Dorothy Dwan and heads out on a treasure hunt. He proves he's got what it takes when the crew stages a mutiny. Featured in the cast was "Gunboat" Smith, a popular boxer of the era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes, Dorothy Dwan, (more)
- 1925
This mystery was based on a novel written by 20 popular authors, each of whom contributed a chapter. The point of each chapter was to put the characters in such a tight predicament that the next writer would have to be exceptionally clever to get them out of it. As can be imagined, the film that resulted from the book was fast-paced and had almost constant action. Connemara Moore (Marie Prevost) has two suitors, one who likes bobbed hair and the other who doesn't. Both have proposed and she promises to reveal which one she has accepted by either bobbing her hair or not bobbing. In reality, she can't decide between them, so she accepts a ride with a stranger, David Lacy (Kenneth Harlan, at the time Prevost's real-life husband). The ride leads her to all sorts of adventures involving bootleggers, a fight on a private yacht, an attack by hijackers, and other tense situations. Connemara is rescued by Lacy, who turns out to be a government agent, and when she shows up with only half her hair bobbed, it's an indication that she has chosen him as her husband-to-be. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Prevost, Kenneth Harlan, (more)
- 1943
Another low-budget entry in PRC's interminable Texas Ranger series, Border Buckaroos is perhaps the only B-Western to misprint its own name in the titles, which read "Border Buckaroo." (Supporting actor Ethan Laidlaw's name became "Laidlow," and so on.) The rangers -- Tex (Dave "Tex" O'Brien), Jim (James Newill), and Panhandle (Guy Wilkerson) -- are this time en route to Boulder City to investigate the murder of rancher Dan Clark when they happen upon Trigger Farley (Reed Howes), a gunslinger hired by Cole Melford (Jack Ingram), the chief suspects in Clark's murder. Tex assumes Trigger's identity and Jim impersonates Tom Bancroft (Kenne Duncan), the heir to Clark's estate. After a bit of confusion concerning Ellen Clark (Christine McIntyre), the other Clark heir, the rangers get their murderer and the two heirs discover that the ranch contains a secret mine. The blond McIntyre, fondly remembered for her work opposite the Three Stooges, always refused to discuss the Stooges but would happily answer questions about her participation in Westerns like Border Buckaroos. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dave "Tex" O'Brien, Guy Wilkerson, (more)
- 1944
In this western, a gang of evil cattle rustlers wreaks havoc upon a community of ranchers. Three Texas Rangers come to the rescue and find out the ring leader works as a local ranch foreman. The bad guys do not escape the trusty Rangers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1923
This low-budget action-thriller marked the film debut of "Arrow Collar man" (or, rather, the most famous of several Arrow Collar men) Reed Howes. Millionaire Jeremy Ellsworth (Joseph Blake) is getting on in years, and he wants to provide for his grown grandson, John (Howes), and little granddaughter, Beatrice (Rita Rogan) in his will. His scheming secretary has other plans, however, and has a friend of his pose as John, who is working in a lumber camp and can't be located. Old Ellsworth discovers that the young man he believes is his grandson is an impostor, and dies of the shock. Word finally reaches John that someone is pretending to be him in his grandfather's house, so he leaves the camp. Thugs overpower him, once he arrives home, and they kidnap Beatrice. John tracks down the kidnappers with the help of an airplane and rescues his little sister. The crooked secretary and his associates are brought to justice. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Blake, Henry Sedley, (more)
- 1943
Carson City Cyclone stars Don "Red" Barry as a frontier lawyer with the deceptively mild-mannered monicker of Gilbert Phalen. After an argument with his judge/banker father (Noah Beery), Gilbert finds himself the Number One suspect when his dad is murdered. Endeavoring to prove his innocence and bring the guilty party to justice, Gilbert is forced to assume the guise of a fearsome outlaw. An awful lot happens in the course of the film's 57 minutes, and most of it happens to the hero. Featured in the cast are such reliable Republic-western heavies as Roy Barcroft and Bud Osborne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don "Red" Barry, Lynn Merrick, (more)
- 1934
This racist horror film from director Marshall Neilan was inspired by "Chloe -- Song of the Swamp," a minor hit for Eva Taylor. Silent film star Olive Borden is Chloe, a woman of mixed parentage who lives in the swamps with an elderly black voodoo practitioner named Mandy (Georgette Harvey), who hates whites because her husband was lynched. Romance is present in the form of Jim, who wrestles an alligator to rescue Chloe, and her true love Wade (Reed Howes), who works at the local turpentine factory. All the black characters despise white people, and even Mandy turns against the mulatto girl she raised, trying to cut her heart out in a voodoo ritual. As in many such efforts, "whiteness" wins out in the end. This is a sad spectacle to behold today, but was par for the course in 1934. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olive Borden, Georgette Harvey, (more)
- 1930
Clancy (Charles Murray) is a pugnacious Irish-American plumber in partnership with parsimonious Scotsman Andy MacIntosh (Lucien Littlefield). Though tight with a dollar himself, Clancy accidentally begins playing the stock market, and before he knows what's happening he's become a millionaire. His efforts to entertain the cream of high society are both disastrous and hilarious, and by the time he's lost all his money in the Wall Street crash, Clancy is more than happy to team up with MacIntosh again. The obligatory romantic subplot is handled as unobtrusively as possible by Miriam Seeger and Edward Nugent. Clancy in Wall Street represented little more than an extension of Charlie Murray's standard Hibernian characterizations in the "Cohens and Kellys" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucien Littlefield, Aggie Herring, (more)
- 1929
Come Across was based on The Stolen Lady, a short story by William Dudley Pelley. Debutante Lina Basquette, believing that handsome Reed Howes is a crook, is irresistibly attracted to the handsome rogue. Actually, Howes is no criminal but merely a playwright who is frequenting underworld hangouts to gather research for his next play. Both hero and heroine get plenty of first-hand experience in the ways of the Mob when they fall into the clutches of the film's villains. Flora Finch, who two decades earlier had co-starred with John Bunny in a series of popular domestic comedies, plays a minor role in Come Across. The film was released as a silent, save for a six-minute dialogue sequence at the conclusion of the story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lina Basquette, Reed Howes, (more)
- 1935
Treasury agent Dave Elliot (Donald Cook) dedicates himself to smashing a crime syndicate, especially after his best friend is killed by the mob. This requires Elliot to go undercover, posing as a criminal. He gains the confidence of sadistic mob gunman Lefty (J. Carroll Naish), and it's nip-and-tuck from then on until the identity of the mysterious Mister Big is revealed. Evalyn Knapp is excellent as glib-tongued mob bookkeeper Maxine, and Warren Hymer is equally good as a stupid numbers runner. Confidential can be seen as a Mascot Pictures pocket version of Warner Bros.' Special Agent, which in turn was inspired by the tax-evasion downfall of Al Capone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Cook, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1940
Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" western series hopscotched all over the calendar, with some entries taking place in the present, others in the far-distant past. As indicated by its title, Covered Wagon Days is a period piece, with heroes Stony Brooke (Robert Livingston), Rusty Joslin (Raymond Hatton) and Rico Rinaldo (Duncan Renaldo) riding into a silver mining camp. The villains keep busy by smuggling the valuable ore across the border, and to add insult to injury have framed Rico's brother Carlos (Paul Marion) on a murder charge. This time it takes only 56 minutes for the Mesquiteers to rout the villains and allow justice to triumph. As always, Covered Wagon Days is enhanced by excellent production values, thoroughly transcending the film's pinchpenny budget. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Raymond Hatton, (more)
- 1925
Produced on the cheap by Harry J. Brown, this silent car-racing drama starred former male model Reed Howes and Ruth Dwyer as lovers whose feuding fathers (J.P. McGowan and Henry A. Barrows), former business partners, are both dead set against the union. When the girl's father discovers that his rival's enterprising son has built his own race car and plans to enter the big race, the jealous manufacturer indulges in a bit of sabotage. But despite numerous perils, Howes manages not only to win the race but also reunite the partners. Crack O'Dawn was photographed by Lee Garmes, an ace cinematographer and lighting expert who would win an Academy Award for Shanghai Express seven years later. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes, J.P. McGowan, (more)
- 1936
Produced by poverty row organization Stage and Screen, this less-than-faithful serialized version of the historical battle seems to have rounded up every B-Western player not otherwise engaged at the time. That fact added to a couple of impressive sets drew favorable reviews for the serial's initial chapters, but the overall verdict proved negative. A secret arrow and the secret key to a hidden stash of gold is lost during one of several skirmishes brought about by Young Wolf (Chief Thundercloud). The arrow is recovered by Major Trent (Josef Swickard) and his daughter Barbara (Nancy Caswell) who, unaware of its secret purpose, become the target of various nefarious villains, including Blade (Reed Howes), a renegade Indian. Scout Kid Cardigan (Rex Lease) and General George Armstrong Custer (Frank McGlynn, Jr.) attempt to prevent an all-out war over the arrow, but their endeavors only lead to the infamous Last Stand. A tragic event in American history is thus once again reduced to a mere fight for mammon. A great many well-known B-Western players parade in and out of the serial briefly portraying various historical figures, including Helen Gibson as Calamity Jane, Ruth Mix (Tom's daughter) as Elizabeth Custer, Ted Adams as Buffalo Bill Cody, Howling Wolf as Sitting Bull, Allen Greer as Wild Bill Hickock and High Eagle as Chief Crazy Horse. Stage and Screen and associate producer George M. Merrick announced ambitious plans to film four additional serials, but the company was dissolved in late 1936, yet another victim of the Great Depression and an inability to secure distribution. Custer's Last Stand was also released in a 90-minute feature version. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1925
Handsome action star Reed Howes, the former "Arrow Collar Man," starred in this low-budget silent melodrama as an adventuresome Yankee who saves the duly elected president of a South American republic from being overthrown by his unscrupulous secretary. Having fallen in love with Rosita Gonzales (Carmelita Geraghty), the daughter of the president of Costa Blanca, Ted Clayton accidentally overhears El Diablo (Jack Mower) discussing a scheme to illegally take control of the government. Braving a series of perils, Ted manages to get an audience with the president (Eric Mayne) and later helps defend the palace from El Diablo and his gang of cutthroats. Produced by Harry Joe Brown for small-scale Rayart Pictures, Cyclone Cavalier was a fast-paced yarn with more than a passing resemblance to the average low-budget B-Western. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carmelita Geraghty, Wilfred Lucas, (more)
- 1924
Richard Armstrong (Reed Howe) has invented a carburetor that will enable his car to win a road race. Until that happens, however, he's working on a skyscraper being built by Robert Steele (Frank Beal). Armstrong falls for Steele's daughter, Doris (Alma Bennett), but her father won't hear of the match. His choice is Reynard Trask (William Bailey), who is posing as a broker, but is really an underworld leader. Steele finally tells Armstrong that if he comes up with five thousand dollars in 30 days, he will consider a match with Doris. Since that's the amount of the prize money for the race, Armstrong sees some hope. Just as he's about to end the race in first place, he gets sidetracked saving a child. Trask, meanwhile, convinces Doris that Armstrong is untrue and she agrees to marry him. Armstrong is able to unearth Trask's nefarious doings and rescues Doris at the altar. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Historically, one of the members of the infamous Dalton Brothers outlaw gang, Emmet Dalton, did escape with his life after that fateful 1892 shootout in Coffeyville, Kansas. He lived to a ripe old age, touring the country and lecturing on the evils of dishonesty. In the 1960 low-budgeter The Dalton That Got Away, Emmet is played by future Mannix star Michael Connors. As depicted herein, Emmet's post-bandit activities are heaps more exciting than we've been led to believe. The preponderance of Latino names in the cast and crew of The Dalton That Got Away lead us to conclude that the film was not lensed in Kansas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1926
Reed Howes, the original Arrow Collar man, stars in the action-packed Danger Quest. Set amongst the African diamond mines, the story concerns a fearless young mining engineer named Bob Rollins (Reed Howes) who must contend not only with the natural dangers surrounding him, but also such human antagonists as all-around villain Otto Shugars (Fred Kohler Sr.) J.P. McGowan, later a prolific "B"-western director, was seen as seedy gambler Colonel Spiffy, while Ethel Shannon, one of the busiest if not most famous starlets of the silent screen, is the heroine Nan Colby. Also in the cast as tribal chieftain Umhattan is veteran black actor George Reed, who was normally seen as a Southern minister. Some of Reed Howes' stunting in Danger Quest is not to be believed, especially when he rides his horse between two pursuing riders then pushes both men out of their saddles! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes, Ethel Shannon, (more)
