Si Jenks Movies

Based on "The King of Cactusville", a 1923 short story by Johnston McCulley, the creator of Zorro, The Outlaw Deputy was the first of ten Tim McCoy Westerns from Poverty Row company Puritan Pictures. When McCoy's friend, Charlie Adams (Si Jenks), is killed by Bill Sanderson, the former cowboy and his gang turn to robbing stage coaches and rustling cattle, but take only what belongs to Sanderson. In the town of Godland, Adams' son, Chuck (George Offerman Jr.), is framed in a payroll robbery by Cash (Bud Osborne), one of Tim's former associates. Tim relieves Cash of the ill-gotten gains and is elected deputy sheriff by a grateful Rutledge (Joseph W. Girard), the payroll boss. Chuck, however, was killed during the robbery by Howger (Hooper Atchley), whose gang has been terrorizing the town. Despite the advice of lovely Joice Rutledge (Nora Lane), Tim is determined to bring Howger to justice. At a church social, Howger, who has learned about Tim's past from Cash, turns the citizenry against the new deputy, who lands in jail. With the help of Joice, Tim makes a daring escape and manages to collect enough evidence to convict Howger for the murder of Chuck. Having outdrawn the villain in a climactic gun duel and now elected permanent sheriff, Tim playfully arrests Joice, sentencing her to a lifetime as his wife. McCoy was paid 4,000 dollars for each of his ten Westerns for Puritan, which were budgeted at between 10,000 and 12,000 dollars each. Above-average for an independent production, The Outlaw Deputy brought in a domestic gross of 80,000 dollars. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

An apparently lost entry in the long-running Bob Steele Western series produced by A.W. Hackel, The Rider of the Law presented the diminutive Steele as an Arizona lawman trailing the Tolliver brothers, a gang of outlaws. Steele catches up with the brothers in Apache City, where they are blackmailing the local bank president. As he has done so many times before, our hero then engages in a bit of subterfuge by pretending to be an Easterner. Thus catching the Tollivers off guard, he manages to discover their mountain hideout and there is a final shootout. Like all of Steele's early Westerns for Hackel's Supreme Pictures, The Rider of the Law was directed by his real-life father, Robert North Bradbury. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Buster Keaton is on the lam from the law in this Educational two-reeler. He attempts to elope with his fiancée (Dorothea Kent), but they escape her parents by driving off in a car that's actually owned by a wanted gangster. When they hear on the radio that the police are looking for them, they dump the car and hide out near a farmhouse. But the farmer's radio also broadcasts the couple's description, so they run away and start hitchhiking, only to be picked up by two policemen. They manage to flee into a railroad yard and hop a train that turns out to be refrigerated. Finally they decide to turn themselves in -- just as they learn that the real crooks have been apprehended. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

Two of America's most distinguished humorists, Oklahoma's Will Rogers and Kentucky's Irvin S. Cobb, costar in Steamboat Round the Bend. Cobb isn't much of an actor, so it is Rogers who carries the comic weight of this fast-paced slice of Americana. Will uncharacteristically sticks to the script for most of the proceedings as the proprietor of a combination travelling waxworks and medicine show. The plot resolution hinges on a climactic steamboat race, in which Rogers' paddlewheeler is fed bit by bit into its own furnace when the fuel supply runs out. Steamboat Round the Bend was released posthumously after Rogers' sudden death, at which point Fox Studios tried unsuccessfully to create a "new" Will Rogers--in the form of his old friend and costar Irvin S. Cobb. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Directed by former screenwriter Ford I. Beebe, this Tim McCoy Western from Columbia co-starred Robert Allen, a handsome studio contractee groomed for Western stardom. Allen played Johnny Kane, an escaped prisoner wrongly convicted of murder. McCoy, as Texas Ranger Tim McDonald, believes in Johnny's innocence and prevents a fellow lawman (Charles "Slim" Whitaker) from killing him. Kicked out of the corps for helping Johnny escape, Tim goes to Mill Valley where he takes over the local newspaper, bequeathed to him by Alexander (Samuel S. Hinds), the slain publisher of "the Ledger." He lands in the middle of a political struggle between two factions, one of whom is headed by Daniel Heston (Guy Usher), a corrupt politician, and the man who killed the publisher. Tim takes up the fight against Heston, who hires gunslinger Garvey (Jack Rockwell) to assassinate him. The former ranger is saved by Johnny, who arrives at the last moment to rope the gun from Garvey's hand. Heston retaliates by revealing Tim to have been dishonorably discharged from the rangers and "the Ledger" is mysteriously fire-bombed. Despite the odds, Tim and Gloria (Billie Seward), Alexander's daughter, manage to print an election day edition by using old wallpaper. A button found at the scene of a crime proves to belong to Heston and both Tim and Johnny are vindicated. Leading lady Billie Seward would appear in a total of five Tim McCoy Westerns, Robert Allen in three. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The seventh of eight terrible Westerns produced by Victor Adamson's comically misnamed Superior Talking Pictures, Rawhide Romance was reportedly filmed for around 2,500 dollars, a ridiculous amount even for the height of the depression. The story concerns a Western dude ranch under siege by a gang of outlaws, one of whom, Jack Evans, masquerades as a ranch hand. The gang is after rich Easterner Lafe McKee, whose daughter is to be betrothed to handsome ranch foreman Buffalo Bill Jr. A misunderstanding occurs and the two lovebirds are found in the same bunk house together -- less than fully clothed. A shotgun wedding is one solution to the moral dilemma and the local circuit rider is called to perform the ceremony. The minister is ambushed by gang leader Boris Bullock, who sees a way to gain access to the wealthy ranch guests. With larceny on his mind, gang leader Boris Bullock impersonates the local minister in order to gain access to a priceless piece of jewelry. The villain's true identity is quickly revealed, happily, and the real circuit rider arrives to perform the ceremony. Several members of this film's cast and crew worked under an alias of some kind, beginning with producer Adamson, who also billed himself Denver Dixon or Art Mix. Hero Buffalo Bill Jr. was increasingly known as Jay Wilsey, while the lead villain, Boris Bullock, had starred as Kit Carson and played supporting roles as William Barrymore. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The distinguished Henry B. Walthall, a major star of the early silent screen, headlined this cheap whodunit that fully capitalized on his remaining box-office pull in the hinterlands. Walthall plays Professor Mysto, a carnival magician warned by his boss, Carr (Lynton Brent), that a group of reformers headed by the police commissioner (Joseph W. Girard) and a teetotalist councilman (Sam Flint) are after him. When the latter is murdered, both Mysto, Carr, and a concessionaire (John Elliot) are among the suspects, the last mentioned admitting ownership of a .45-calibre gun. The concessionaire, however, is released when it becomes clear that the lethal bullet came from a .38-calibre weapon. Newspaperman Jerry Ross (John Harron), who is in love with the commissioner's pretty daughter (Phyllis Barrington), attempts to scoop the competition by unmasking the killer, but is knocked unconscious by a hooded figure. Carr, who is guilty of selling bootleg liquor in his establishment, manages to flee the law but is eventually killed by a jealous employee. None of this leads Jerry closer to the killer, who, it later turns out, has invented a device that equips a .45-calibre gun to fire .38-calibre bullets. In the end, however, the killer is unmasked and Jerry proposes to the police commissioner's daughter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Lon Chaney Jr.-- still billed under his given name of Creighton Chaney -- was afforded one of his earliest leading roles in Monogram's 16 Fathoms Deep. Chaney is cast as Joe, a strapping young sponge fisherman who dreams of owning his own boat. Forced to borrow money from his rival Savanis (Georges Regas) to achieve his goal, Joe finds himself up to his ears in debts and usurious "interest." It's all part of a master plan concocted by Savanis to prevent Joe from marrying their mutual sweetheart Rosie (Sally O'Neil). The story is resolved by a plot device that would later be taboo when the Production Code went into effect. 16 Fathoms Deep was remade in 1948, with Lon Chaney Jr. recast as the villain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If you can accept blonde, blue-eyed Marion Davies disguising herself in blackface, chances are you'll swallow the rest of Operator 13. Davies plays a Belle Boyd-like actress who agrees to become a Northern spy during the Civil War. She assumes the identity of an octoroon servant and heads into Southern territory. Marion meets dashing Confederate captain Gary Cooper, and instantly falls in love with him. Later, she assumes the disguise of a Southern belle to prevent Cooper from recruiting Southern sympathizers in the north. This time Cooper falls for Davies, which makes it hard for her to carry out her mission. After several more reels of espionage and romantic interludes, including a gently kinky sequence in which Cooper and Davies are handcuffed together, the lovers part company, promising to meet again when the war is over. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first of his 16 Westerns for Monogram, John Wayne plays Singin' Sandy Saunders, a drifter who witnesses what he at first believes to be a stage robbery. In reality, the "road agent" is a girl, Fay Denton (Cecilia Parker), and she is "stealing" her own money in order to prevent a phony stage holdup further down the road. As Fay's father, Charlie "Dad" Denton (George Hayes), explains, the culprit behind a rash of pretend stage holdups committed by two bumbling drivers (Al St. John and Heinie Conklin) is James Kincaid (Forrest Taylor), who is also forcing the local farmers off their lands by demanding an outrageous price for his water. When Sandy appears on the horizon, Kincaid engages a notorious gunman, Slip Morgan (Earl Dwire), but Sandy disarms the bandit for good by shooting him through both wrists. Much to Fay's disgust, Kincaid quickly hires the newcomer, now known as "the most notorious outlaw since Billy the Kid," and Saunders suggests that they dynamite Dad Denton's well, the only other available source of water in the area. It is all a ruse, of course, and Sandy soon reveals himself to be a government agent in disguise. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A pet monkey saves the day in this otherwise unusually adult Bob Steele Western. The bantam-weight Steele plays Nick, aka "the Kid," a sort of prairie Robin Hood planning to return some jewels he stole from French performer Lola Montaine (Naomi Judge). Nick's partner-in-crime, Sheriff Jake Sharpe (Charles King), has other ideas, and the two are soon at loggerheads. After killing Lola in order to retrieve a confession he had signed in a moment of weakness, Jack blames the killing on Nick. Lola's pet monkey recovers the signed statement and hands it over to the upstanding deputy sheriff (Hank Bell). Chased by Nick, the fleeing Jake is killed falling from a cliff. Back in Grass Valley, Nick, now a hero, is free to continue romancing pretty postal worker Gail Winters (Helen Foster). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A broad lampoon of celebrity worship, The Half-Naked Truth stars Lee Tracy as a carnival huckster and Lupe Velez as a "kootch" dancer. Reaching for the moon, Tracy passes Lupe off as an exotic foreign princess--and manages to pull the wool over the eyes of all Manhattan. Now "famous for being famous", Lupe is employed for special appearances by Ziegfeldish impresario Frank Morgan. When the fraud is revealed to the world, Tracy returns to the carnival, with Lupe (who's loved him since Reel One) at his side. Half-Naked Truth co-stars Eugene Pallette as Tracy's assistant; the bullfrog-voiced Pallette has a wonderful moment in which he discovers that he's been mistaken for "Princess" Lupe's head eunuch! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide