Reed Howes Movies

All cruel jokes aside, actor Sonny Tufts did on occasion deliver something resembling a good screen performance. In the Columbia B-plus western The Untamed Breed, Tufts plays a Texas rancher hoping to improve his breed of cattle. The play is to purchase an expensive Brahma bull and allow the animal to commiserate with Tufts' bovine stock. Unfortunately the bull is not agreeable to this setup; it goes on a rampage, killing off much of the cattle on neighboring ranches. Untamed Breed wavers between some well staged dramatic sequences and the usual all-stops-out gunplay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

MGM's Till the Clouds Roll By is the musicalized, and highly fictionalized, life story of beloved composer Jerome Kern, who gave his blessing to the production shortly before his death in 1946. As played by a gray-templed Robert Walker, Kern is a likeable but none too exciting sort who expresses his emotions through his music. Constructed in the form of an extended flashback, the story proper begins at the turn of the century, as Kern tries to peddle his ditties to disinterested Broadway producers. His efforts to interest impresario Charles Frohman (Harry Hayden) go nowhere because Frohman is convinced that the only good music comes from Europe. Obligingly, Kern moves to London, where he meets and falls in love with his future wife Eva (Dorothy Patrick). On the verge of securing work with Frohman, Kern's hopes are dashed when the producer goes down with the Lusitania in 1915. Fortunately, Kern has developed such powerful U.S. contacts as Victor Herbert (Paul Maxey) and Oscar Hammerstein (Paul Langton), enabling him to find success as the composer of several "intimate" musicals for New York's Princess Theater. The film ends where it begins, with Kern's triumph as composer of the Broadway blockbuster Show Boat. Van Heflin weaves in and out of the proceedings as the obligatory best friend/severest critic, a musical arranger named Jim Hessler (purportedly based on longtime Kern associate Paul Sadler). No one in 1946 really cared about the dramatic passages of Till the Clouds Roll By; the film's biggest drawing card was its lineup of all-star MGM talent, performing Kern's most famous numbers. Judy Garland (as Marilyn Miller) sings "Look for the Silver Lining"; Dinah Shore performs "The Last Time I Saw Paris" before a back-projected "Gay Paree"; Kathryn Grayson does a Rita Hayworth imitation with "Long Ago and Far Away"; Virginia O'Brien deadpans "A Fine Romance"; Tony Martin warbles "All the Things You Are"; June Allyson and Ray McDonald team up for the title number; and Frank Sinatra, incongruously dressed in white tuxedo, runs through "Ol' Man River." In addition, other musical contributions are made by Van Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Cyd Charisse, Gower Champion, and Lucille Bremer (cast as Van Heflin's daughter). The film's high point comes at the very beginning with a Reader's Digest edition of Show Boat, featuring Lena Horne, as Julie (the role she was born to play, but never did again on screen), delivering a powerhouse rendition of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." Since lapsing into public domain in 1974, Till the Clouds Roll By has, along with Royal Wedding, become the most readily accessible of all MGM musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Stork Club, the famed New York nightspot immortalized by columnist Walter Winchell (in return for special favors from its owners), is the setting for this typically brash Betty Hutton musical. Hutton plays a young hat check girl who rescues an elderly tramp (Barry Fitzgerald) from drowning. The old bum turns out to be a millionaire, and expresses his gratitude by setting up Hutton in luxury--asking for nothing in return. Hutton's boyfriend Don DeFore suspects hanky panky, but all is forgiven during the obligatory floor show. There are rumors that the Stork Club itself financed The Stork Club as a feature-length commercial. Whatever the case, ownership of the film was cloudy enough to allow it to slip into the public domain in 1982, which explains why Stork Club seems to be running 24 hours a day on cable TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A "Texas Rangers" series entry from PRC, this low budget western features Dave "Tex" O'Brien as a stranger in town introducing himself as the notorious bandit Spade Norton. Crooked saloon owner Red Hayden (I. Stanford Jolley) believes him at first but then the real Spade (Jack Ingram) turns up and all hell breaks loose. Guy Wilkerson and James Newill plays O'Brien's ranger colleagues, the latter performing Speed Hansen's "Someone Is Waiting", "Forget Me Not" and "When the Western Sun Is Sinking". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In a rather desperate attempt to duplicate the success of Republic Pictures' Three Mesqueteers B-Western series, Monogram producer Robert Emmett Tansey hired tired veterans Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson to constitute the "Trail Blazers." Maynard and Gibson (playing themselves) are former lawmen hired to look into the disappearance of horses purchased by Commissioner Brent (I. Stanford Jolley) of the Southwestern Railroad Company. The seller of the herd, Betty Wallace (stunt rider Betty Miles), is unaware that her foreman, Tip (Glenn Strange), is also in the employ of Mel Carson (Ian Keith), a crooked saloon owner with interests in a stagecoach line whose existence is threatened by the railroad. Despite their expanding waistlines, Maynard and Gibson manage to catch the crooks and return the stolen horses, well assisted by young, law-spouting Sheriff Bob Tyler (Bob Baker). The latter, a former Universal star, was added to the cast to provide the necessary romantic sub-plot but the cantankerous Maynard disliked him so much that he was gone by the second instalment of the "Trail Blazers," The Law Rides Again. Maynard himself ended his long starring career after the sixth entry, Arizona Whirlwind (1944), replaced in the final two films by Chief Thundercloud. The initial two "Trail Blazers" films were helmed by Alvin J. Neitz (under the pseudonym of Alan James), and proved the final directorial work of this genre-specialist whose career dated back to the silent era. After the demise of the series, Hoot Gibson and new sidekick Bob Steele filmed another three Westerns for Monogram, often mistakenly referred to as "Trail Blazers" entries. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this western, a pair of ranchers tire of being oppressed by the excessive taxation an avaricious crook in possession of a bogus Spanish land grant and so set off to help their neighbors by emulating the rakish Robin Hood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this western, the Three Mesquiteers team up with a Texas Ranger to round up the outlaws who forced the ranger's younger brother into becoming a criminal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This late entry in Republic's long-running "Three Mesquiteers" series stars Bob Steele, Tom Tyler and Jimmy Dodd as, respectively, Tucson Smith, Stony Brooke and Lullaby Johnson. This time out, the Mesquiteers try to help young Tim Clay (John James), who's been framed for murder by villains who want to gain possession of Clay's ranch property. While Tim sits helplessly in jail, the bad guys move in, forcing the neighboring ranchers to pay exorbitant prices for Clay's water supply. As usual, the Mesquiteers don't stage a counteroffensive until they've got enough legal evidence to do so, but when they do swing into action, watch out! Not the best of the "Three Mesquiteers" epics, Santa Fe Scouts is also far from the worst. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Rough Riders--Buck Jones, Raymond Hatton and Rex Bell--endeavor to provide a wagon train safe passage through Indian country. With Jones heading the caravan and Bell and Hatton working undercover, the threesome discover that the "savages" planning to attack the settlers are actually renegade whites. The criminals' target is the shipment of railroad supplies being carried in one of the wagons. Normally, the third "Rough Rider" would have been played by Colonel Tim McCoy, but when McCoy was called to active duty in World War II, he was hastily replaced by old-time western star Rex Bell. Dawn on the Great Divide was the last film for Buck Jones, who was killed in the infamous Coconut Grove fire shortly before the film was released. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a frontier detective disguised as an entertainer performs for the leader of an outlaw gang. At the same time, he learns the whereabouts of the outlaws' hideout. Unfortunately, his true identity is revealed and he must escape if he is to bring the gang to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Not to be confused with his later Home in Wyomin', Gene Autry's Sunset in Wyoming is essentially a musical with western interludes. This time, Autry champions the cause of a group of ranchers who are being victimized by the apparent megalomania of lumber baron George Cleveland. Upon palavering with Cleveland, Autry discovers that the lumberman himself is not to blame for the despoiling of the territory: the real villain is Easterner Robert Kent, who is presently engaged to Cleveland's daughter Maris Wrixon. Forced to enter the rarefied world of High Society, Autry settles Kent's hash and ultimately claims Ms. Wrixon for himself. The best scene finds comical sidekick Smiley Burnette duded up as a butler, which is far more enjoyable than the climactic flood scenes, most of which were obviously culled from previously Republic productions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide