Frank Ball Movies

A wagon train sequence and a stampede of buffaloes -- both courtesy of stock footage -- remain the most interesting features of this otherwise stagy early talkie Western from low-budget entrepreneur John Freuler's Monarch Productions. Tom Tyler stars as Tennessee Matthews, a renowned buffalo hunter, who, although in love with settler Virginia Hawkins (Betty Mack), chooses the solitude of his mountains over guiding her wagon train safely through Indian country. Tennessee changes his mind when the new trail guide, O'Hara (Al Bridge), seems to be purposefully leading the train right into an Indian ambush. As it turns out, O'Hara, who is courting a reluctant Virginia, has been robbing several wagon trains with the assistance of the Indians in general and Lola (Mildred Rogers), a fiery squaw, in particular. The latter, who mistakenly believes Virginia to be encouraging O'Hara's company, has her rival kidnapped during the Indian raid, but the white girl is saved by Tennessee, who not only heads off a buffalo stampede, but arrives in the nick of time with the cavalry. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In the last of four low-budget Westerns for the ill-named Big 4 Film Corp., Bob Custer plays Bud Bryson, a young cowboy mistaken for a cattle thief and branded. He escapes the law with the help of Slim Grant (Nelson McDowell), and both obtain jobs on a ranch belonging to John Walker (Frank Ball) and his daughter Ellen (Betty Mack). After Ellen is courted by legitimate rustler Bill Morse (Robert Walker), Walker objects to the assignation and Morris has him arrested on a trumped-up charge. Bud determines to clear both himself and Walker, but when Ellen learns that he is wanted for rustling, she rejects him. Happily, Slim proves to be an undercover agent for the cattlemen's association and together with Bud manages to trap the real rustler. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

B-Western perennial Bob Steele made attempts at diversifying in 1933 by playing a circus acrobat in The Gallant Fool and a would-be boxer in The Fighting Champ, although, truth be told, never veering too far from the range in either. In The Fighting Champ, Steele plays Brick Loring, an itinerant cowboy who shows some promise as a prize-fighter. Crooked fight promoter Nifty Harmon (George Chesebro) attempts to bribe both Brick and his opponent Jock Malone (Charles King) to throw the match and although Brick only pretends to be interested, his backer, rancher Fred Mullins (Frank Ball), publicly accuses him of cheating. Mullins daughter Jean (Arletta Duncan), meanwhile, believes the young cowboy to be innocent and sets a trap for both Harmon and Malone. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this romantic western, a daring masked outlaw steals the gold from a crooked mining company and uses the loot to pay the honest investors it cheated. When a lovely woman sees the hero unmasked, he kidnaps her to protect his identity. At first the damsel is enraged. But as she is the daughter of one of those the mining company cheated, she soon decides to help the hero with his mission. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A young John Wayne is charged with building a road into the title valley in this routine Western from Monogram. The building project, however, is constantly interrupted by LeRoy Mason and his gang who wants the valley in general and its rich mines in particular free from outside interference. Wayne, who is aided in his quest by grizzled old mail carrier George Hayes (who had yet to earn his famous nickname of "Gabby"), manages not only to build the road but also capture the nasty Mason, a rival for the affections of bleach blonde postmistress Lucile Browne, and his cohort, paroled convict Buffalo Bill Jr. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

John Wayne goes up against a nasty vice lord in this, his second Western under the new Republic Pictures banner. Hired against his father's wishes to lead a wagon train, John Dawson (Wayne) at first battles then befriends the outlaw Kit (Al Bridge) and his gang, whom he supplies with food. The friendship comes in handy back in Frontier, OK, where Ace Holmes (Warner P. Richmond) has been terrorizing the citizenry in general and John's father, Milt (Sam Flint), in particular. When the latter is killed, John takes on the responsibility of sheriff, deputizes Kit and his men, and together they clean up the town. Filmed at Lone Pine, CA, and using plenty of stock footage from Ken Maynard's silent era The Red Raiders (1927), The New Frontier was directed by editor Carl Pierson. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

John Wayne's easy-going charm truly began to manifest itself in this, one of his later "Lone Star" Westerns for Monogram. Falsely accused of killing the paymaster (Henry Hall) of the Rattlesnake Gulch rodeo, John Scott (Wayne) and his girl-chasing partner Kansas Charlie (Eddy Chandler) trail the real killer, Pete (Al Ferguson), and his unwilling underling Jim (Paul Fix) to Poker City. Jim wants to go straight, but Pete blackmails him into robbing the stagecoach. John and Kansas, who are known in town as Jones and the Reverend Smith, are once again accused of the crime, but Jim helps them escape from jail. When the young bandit refuses to commit bank robbery, Pete shoots him in cold blood. The villain is caught by John and Kansas, whom Jim has cleared of all crimes on his deathbed. Besides one of Wayne's better early performances, The Desert Trail -- whose title bears no close scrutiny -- also benefitted from the presence of Frank Capra-regular Eddy Chandler, a rotund comic actor whose sparring here with Wayne is first-rate all the way. Paul Fix is equally good as the outlaw with a conscience and Mary Kornman, of Our Gang fame, is tolerable as the obligatory heroine. The Desert Trail was directed with easy assurance by the veteran Lewis D. Collins, who for some reason billed himself "Cullin Lewis." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Johnny Mack Brown goes in search of a treasure map tattooed on the chest of a man who once betrayed his father in this average western from low-budget Supreme Pictures. Bruce Reynolds happens on the scene just as his quarry, Grandpa Jenkins (George Hayes), is being attacked by one of his former partners. To preserve his secret, the dying Jenkins allows the sheriff (Jack Rockwell) to arrest Bruce for murder. Our hero, however, makes a daring escape and hightails it to the Valley of the Lawless where he easily persuades gang leader Garlow (Frank Hagney) that he, too, is a desperado. Accepted into the gang, Bruce is awarded the nickname of "Tiger" but the arrival of Grandpa Jenkins' heirs, son Amos (Frank Ball) and grandchildren Joan (Joyce Compton) and Billy (Bobby Nelson), almost blows his cover. Things go from bad to worse, especially when the sheriff's lovesick son, Cliff Graves (Denny Meadows), accuses Bruce of killing Amos for the map to the treasure, a despicable act actually committed by one of Garlow's men. The outlaws are eventually defeated but in the mistaken belief that Joan is in love with Cliff, Bruce lets himself be arrested for the murder of Amos. Joan, however, learns the truth and declares the vindicated Bruce her love. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Western favorite Bob Steele stars as Sundown Saunders, so named because of his remarkable ability to win at poker just at the moment when the sun goes down. Winning 640 acres of land in a pony race, Saunders leaves cards and chips behind to take charge of his property. He doesn't yet know that his is the finest grazing land in the territory -- but the villainous Taggart (Ed Cassidy) does know, and he does everything in his power to drive Saunders off the land. Even worse, Taggart is a backshooter, and Saunders had just turned his back! Sundown Saunders is an oddity in the Bob Steele canon, in that the hero's father isn't murdered. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Veteran silent screen star William Farnum earns one of his more prominent talking picture roles in this otherwise standard Bob Steele Western from Supreme Pictures. Farnum plays Sheriff Bill Mason who, after being forced to shoot outlaw Ben Brokaw (Frank Ball), promises the dying man to look after his young daughter Mary (Reetsy Adams) and never to tell the girl the truth about her father's occupation. Disgusted with himself for having had to actually kill someone, Mason resigns from his sheriff's job and becomes a stage driver. Years later, Steve Brent (Earl Dwire), a former accomplice of Brokaw's, blackmails Bill into helping him rob the stagecoach. Enter Ray Burton (Steele), the young ranger who is in love with the now grownup Mary (Joan Barclay), and Brent's days in the sun are numbered. As usual, this Bob Steele Western was directed by the star's real-life father, Robert North Bradbury. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Produced by low-budget company Supreme Pictures (which weren't), this middling B-western was saved somewhat by its personable star, the strapping former footballer Johnny Mack Brown. Mack plays Dan Doran, the rogue of the title, who rescues a pretty missionary, Tess (Phyllis Hume), from the ubiquitous runaway team. In town, Doran not only leaves the welfare of the girl to Stella, the saloon hostess (Lois January), but admits to having earlier robbed the stage. Sent up the river for 20 years, Dan makes the acquaintance of Jim Mitchell (George Ball), a fellow inmate, and the two make their escape together. Returning to the scene of the crime, Dan joins Jim's gang of stage robbers. The town's natty-looking banker, Lige Branscomb (Alden Chase aka Stephen Chase) is observed courting Tess, who now owns the Golden Nugget coffee shop. Dan, who is in reality an undercover G-man, has Stella rescue Tess from marrying the villainous Branscomb who, of course, is the secret leader of the gang of stage robbers. Leaving Tess to her coffee shop, Dan proposes to Stella, who accepts. Although already beginning to exhibit the middle-age spread that would mar his later appearances, Johnny Mack Brown once again proves that he was a better actor than most of his B- western rivals. The same cannot be said for Phyllis Hume, who plays the missionary girl with only one expression, bewilderment, and whose only film this seems to have been. Max Davidson, an old-fashioned "Dutch-style" comic who had been in films before Charles Chaplin and almost everyone else, appears briefly and for no apparent reason in order to perform a bit of timeworn shtick as a Jewish salesman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Bar Z Bad Men is a slick 1930s oater showcasing Johnny Mack Brown. Per the title, Brown signs on as ranchhand at the Bar Z. The spread is plagued by rustlers, and this plot peg builds to a well-staged cattle- stampede climax. Leading lady Lois January, whose acting ability was several steps above most western ingenues, provides spirited support for Brown. Bar Z Bad Men was produced independently by A. W. Hackel's Spectrum Productions, then released by Republic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1937 Bob Steele western Ridin' the Lone Trail was released by the legendary Republic Studios, but it was filmed independently, its production values on a par with Steele's previous poverty-stricken efforts at lesser studios. At one point, the silence of the lone frontier is broken by the sound of an airplane motor. In between the anachronisms is a story involving a stagecoach line plagued by robberies. "Battling Bob" (as he was known in the trade papers) is hired to ride shotgun and to expose the bandits behind the holdups. Ridin' the Lone Trail was one of several Bob Steele westerns produced by the pinchpenny A.W. Hackel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide