Arthur Hunnicutt Movies

A Ticket to Tomahawk has sometimes been described as a musical western satire, but in fact is more "straight" western than anything else--not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. Dan Dailey plays a travelling medicine show entrepreneur who comes to the aid of fast-shootin' Anne Baxter, daughter of a railroad man. Stagecoach line representative Rory Calhoun is doing everything he can to prevent a new train service from winning a Colorado territory franchise. The whole affair boils down to a race between the train and Calhoun's coaches. The film's never-take-a-breath action scenes are played out against some of the most gorgeous Colorado scenery ever captured on Technicolor. A Ticket to Tomahawk has achieved latter-day fame due to the unbilled presence of Marilyn Monroe as one of Dan Dailey's chorus gals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Allan Dwan directed this light-hearted service comedy starring William Bendix (best known from the television series The Life of Riley) and Dennis O'Keefe as a pair of Marines stationed in Australia. As might be expected, the two soldiers fall for the same woman, a pretty Australian named Joyce Stuart (Helen Walker), and comic misadventures ensue. John Loder, James Flavin and Arthur Hunnicutt are among the familiar faces in the cast. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Jim Walker Rory Calhoun is a hero who fights Indians and crooks who plan a series of stagecoach robberies in this routine western. He defends the honor of a woman (Corinne Calvet) wrongly accused of having a bad reputation. Johnny Mack Brown plays the local Sheriff Ben Hall, with Lon Chaney, Jr. as the friendly stagecoach driver Charlie Russell. Watch for DeForest Kelley in a pre-Star Trek role as a crazed gunman. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Although Salty Hubbard (Arthur Hunnicutt) is Sunville's biggest liar, everyone in town believes Salty's claim that stranger Hoss Cartwright is really notorious outlaw Big Jack (Mike Mazurki). To stay alive, Hoss is forced to fake his own death, funeral and all. Meanwhile, the real Big Jack prepares to take full advantage of "Good Tuesday", a local bank holiday. In the episode's comic highlight, Hoss suddenly rises from the dead as the nonplussed Preacher (John Carradine) and the other mourners look on in bug-eyed terror. Others in the cast include Ivor Francis as the Banker and Milton Parsons as (what else?) the Undertaker. First shown on December 7, 1969, "Dead Wrong" was written and directed by Bonanza star Michael Landon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season Five of Bonanza came to a close on May 24, 1964 with the episode titled "Walter and the Outlaws", a sequel to the previous season's "Any Friend of Walter's" (the scripts for both episodes were written by Lois Hire). Arthur Hunnicutt returns as grizzled prospector Obie, who lives in a squalid shack with his pet dog, the redoubtable Walter. Also making return appearances are Steve Brodie, Vic Werber and James Luisi as dimwitted but deadly outlaws Macie, Teague, and Willard, still determined to steal Obie's cache of gold. This time around, the crooked trio kidnap Walter, hoping to make Obie surrender his treasure. The prospector and the Cartwrights concoct an elaborate rescue scheme which goes hilariously awry. The classic scene in which head outlaw Macie is forced to take castor oil has, alas, often been removed from syndicated prints of "Walter and the Outlaws." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This rodeo songfest finds Jackie (Mamie Van Doren) in love with Kelly (Jeff Richards) as they perform on the traveling rodeo circuit. Cool Man (Arthur Hunnicutt) is the likeable rodeo veteran. Jackie carries the torch for Kelly, who plays hard to get. Kelly plans to leave his bronco busting life behind before injuries and age catch up with him. Liz (Carol Ohmart) is a rich divorcee with eyes for Kelly. Van Doren sings five songs, and Tex Williams plays himself singing "Song Of The Rodeo". Johnny Olenn sings the title track and "You Lovable You". ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This musical spoof of Westerns featured Lee Marvin in dual roles that won him a Best Actor Oscar. Jane Fonda stars as the title character, a prim schoolmarm returning to her hometown of Wolf City, Wyoming, after receiving an Eastern education. On the train ride, Cat meets up with a pair of friendly, charming crooks, Clay Boone (Michael Callan) and his uncle, Jed (Dwayne Hickman), the former becoming hopelessly smitten with the naive but tough Cat. Upon arriving home, Cat discovers that her eccentric father, Frankie (John Marley), is being threatened with bodily harm by a development company that desperately wants his land. When Frankie is murdered by ruthless, noseless killer Tim Strawn (Marvin), Cat straps on a pair of six-shooters and persuades Clay, Jed, and her father's loyal Native American hand Jackson Two-Bears (Tom Nardini) to sign on as her posse. In her quest for revenge, Cat also recruits Kid Shelleen (also played by Marvin), a one-time fearsome gunslinger who's now a hopeless alcoholic. Cat Ballou (1965) is interspersed throughout the narrative with appearances by Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole as a pair of balladeers who comment on the action musically in Greek chorus style. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

RKO Radio's second 3D production, Devil's Canyon is a combination western and jail-break picture. The scene is Arizona Territorial Prison, wherein 500 desperate men are incarcerated. The inmates become even more desperate when female outlaw Abby Nixon (Virginia Mayo) is likewise locked up. As the prisoners draw up plans to escape, Abby is attracted to handsome but psychotic ringleader Jessie Gorman (Stephen McNally)--and to U.S. marshal Billy Reynolds (Dale Robertson), who is serving time for manslaughter. The climactic bust-out threatens to get out of hand until the marshal calms things down with a Gatling gun. Available for many years only in washed-out black-and-white prints, the original color version of Devil's Canyon was finally telecast over the American Movie Classics cable service in the late 1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having struck pay dirt with his 1958 western Rio Bravo, Howard Hawks more or less remade the picture twice in the 1960s. The first of these rehashes was El Dorado, with Rio Bravo star John Wayne back for more. Wayne plays a gunfighter who rides into El Dorado to link up with his old pal, sheriff Robert Mitchum ("It's the big one with the big two!" declared the film's advertisements). Wayne has turned down a job with evil land baron Ed Asner, who'd hoped to drive a family off the land that he needed for its water. That family, headed by R.G. Armstrong, is convinced that Wayne is working with Asner; when Armstrong's son Johnny Crawford dies, Wayne is held responsible, earning him a bullet in the spine from Crawford's sister Michele Carey. A year passes: Wayne returns to El Dorado, in the company of his new saddle pal James Caan. They find that Asner is still up to his old tricks, and that Mitchum has descended into alcoholism. Several plot twists and power shifts ensue, leading to the slam-bang climax, with the partially paralyzed Wayne, the newly crippled Mitchum (on crutches), and the concussion-suffering Caan battling together to stave off Asner's minions. The final long-shot, of Wayne and Mitchum limping off together arm-in-arm, is one of the most enduring images in the entire Hawks canon. If they loved it twice they'll love it thrice: in 1969, John Wayne and Howard Hawks teamed up for a third Rio Bravo derivation, Rio Lobo--which, like the first two films, was scripted by Leigh Brackett. Incidentally, that's famed artist Olaf Weighorst (whose paintings appear in the title sequence) in a cameo as the gunsmith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the eighth episode of Walt Disney's ten-part miniseries Elfego Baca, gunslinger-turned-lawyer Baca (Robert Loggia) has secured the legal rights of the Mustangers, a religious sect that has set up a homestead in the middle of cattle country. But though the Mustangers own their property fair and square, the local cattleman still regard the group with suspicion and contempt, putting pressure on local merchants not to sell to any of the sect's members. When Mustanger leader Shadrack O'Reilly (Brian Keith) is refused service at a feed store, he sparks off a huge brawl and ends up in jail -- which, of course, brings Elfego Baca back into the story. Featuring a young James Coburn in a supporting role, "Mustang Man, Mustang Maid" was originally telecast as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a decent Indian agent loses his job and his good name after someone steals the government money he was to deliver to a tribe. Because he cannot bear to see the people starve over the long winter, he begins searching for the robbers. He does so by looking for the unusual coins that had been included in the payroll. After he suffers through a series of conflicts with the outlaws, the hero is rescued by the Indians he has been trying to protect. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In Paul Mazursky's rueful character drama, 57-year-old Art Carney plays Harry, a 70-plus Manhattan widower who loses his tiny apartment to the wrecking ball. Accompanied by his pet, an aged cat named Tonto, Harry sets out on an odyssey to Los Angeles. During his journey, he finds a kindred spirit in a youthful hitchhiker (Melanie Mayron), who eventually finds happiness with Harry's grandson (Joshua Mostel). Harry makes stops at the homes of his grown children (Philip Bruns, Ellen Burstyn, and Larry Hagman), but each visit is more disappointing than the last; he also touches base with an old flame (Geraldine Fitzgerald), who has slipped into senility. By the time he arrives in L.A., Harry has become dispirited by his desultory visits with friends and family, but he eventually realizes that each new day can be a beginning rather than an end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Briefly switching gears in 1942 and 1943, western star Charles Starrett made a handful of "northerns" in which he played a Canadian mountie. In Law of the Northwest, Steve King (Starrett) supervises a road-construction project designed to transport war materials to the Aleutians. Problems arise when a crooked contractor decides that his interests are more important than the war effort. As an extra dramatic fillip, many of the most exciting scenes are staged at night. Featured in the cast of Law of the Northwest are Shirley Patterson, Stanley Brown and Douglas Leavitt, all of whom were performing double duty on Columbia's B-picture and 2-reel-comedy output. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide