Smith Ballew Movies

The backstory of The Red Badge of Courage involves the toppling of MGM's old Louis B. Mayer regime in favor of Dore Schary and his young Turks. It is also the tale of how an intended epic was ruthlessly whittled down to a lower-berth programmer. Since this story has already been related in detail in Lillian Ross' Picture (not to mention several John Huston biographies), the focus here will be what shows up on screen in Red Badge of Courage. Based on the novel by Stephen Crane, the film stars real-life war hero Audie Murphy as a Civil War soldier who must redeem himself in his own eyes after an act of cowardice. When he finally gets his opportunity, he realizes that he is no less frightened than before; it is simply that he has learned to push on in spite of that fear. A comparative newcomer to films, Murphy acquits himself magnificently in the difficult title role; equally impressive are political cartoonist Bill Mauldin as "The Loud Soldier," John Dierkes as "The Tall Soldier" and Royal Dano as "The Tattered Man." When Red Badge of Courage tested poorly in preview, the studio sliced it down to 69 minutes and added a narrator (James Whitmore) to clarify the more obscure plot passages. Further hurting the film was Bronislaus Kaper's overbaked musical score, which seemed more suited to a gung-ho John Wayne flick than a comparatively intimate tale of personal fortitude. Though the finished product plays like a Reader's Digest adaptation, a few brilliant passages remain, notably the sequence in which a commanding officer ingratiatingly lies to his troops for the sake of morale. Like Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, Red Badge of Courage is a truncated classic -- but a classic, all the same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Quickie producer Sam Katzman gathered together a few leftover costumes, sets and props from past Columbia "A" pictures, and the result was The Mutineers. First Mate Nick Shaw (Jon Hall) stumbles across the murdered body of his captain (Lyle Talbot). The evidence indicates that the culprits are members of a vicious counterfeiting ring. Shaw's situation becomes precarious when it develops that practically every passenger aboard his ship is in cahoots with his gang. Future "Superman" George Reeves turns in an effectively villainous characterization, while Adele Jergens goes through her usual paces as a "bad" girl who may not be as bad as she seems. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yet another comic book hero -- Tex Granger of Calling All Boys fame -- came to the serial screen courtesy of cheapskate producer Sam Katzman. To save a buck, Katzman cast a nonentity named Robert Kellard, who despite former serial exposure in King of the Royal Mounted (1940), Drums of Fu Manchu (1940) and the starring role in Perils of the Royal Mounted (1942) had singularly failed to persuade the small fry of his true hero credentials. But here he was again, this time playing the new owner of the daily newspaper in the small Western community of Three Buttes. The citizenry proves a tough crowd to please, however, what with the local marshal, Blaze Talbot (former singing cowboy Smith Ballew), being in cahoots with a gang of gold thieves headed by a loan shark (I. Stanford Jolley). To battle the forces of evil, Tex dons the ever-popular disguise of masked rider and becomes the avenging "Midnight Rider of the Plains." There is a dog and a young child (Buzz henry), who get in the way of things on occasion, not to mention a damsel-in-distress (Peggy Stewart) and the ever present rustic (big-nosed Britt Wood). Although four hack writers claimed the screenplay to be an original, Tex Granger "borrowed" its story from a 1926 William Boyd vehicle, The Last Frontier, which itself had been copied by RKO's serial department in 1932. Whatever the origins, the results were doleful and not even the usually so tolerable Miss Stewart, on loan from Republic Pictures, could do much with this dud. Leading man Robert Kellard gave up his screen career soon after. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Monogram added several songs and a barn dance to this otherwise standard Johnny Mack Brown hay burner, in which the veteran cowboy star comes to the aid of a beleaguered female rancher. Just "drifting along," Steve Garner (Mack Brown) obtains the job of foreman on a spread belonging to pretty Pat McBride (Lynne Carver). Unbeknownst to Pat, local banker Jack Dailey (Douglas Fowley) not only holds the mortgage on the ranch but is also the man responsible for the death of Pat's father. Aided by old-timer Pawnee Jones (Raymond Hatton), Steve begins an investigation into Dailey's dirty dealings and barely escapes an accusation of rustling. In order to elude the law, Dailey plans to have Steve arrested for murdering one of his henchmen, Lou Woods (Steve Clark), but the scheme backfires and the sheriff (Jack Rockwell) instead apprehends Dailey and his gang. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Gene Autry rescues a young boy from a gang of kidnappers in this delightful musical-Western from Republic Pictures. Having lost their jobs with the rodeo, Gene and sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) are heading west when they discover a young British stowaway, Ronnie Willoughby (Clifford Severn Jr.), who mistakenly assumes that the two cowboys represent his father's large "Rancho San Quentin." Gene, however, doesn't have the heart to tell the boy that San Quentin is no ranch at all, but the state penitentiary. Along the way, the merry little group picks up a couple of pretty hitchhikers, runaway society bride-to-be Joyce Halloway (June Storey) and her kid sister, Patsy (Mary Lee), and they, too, keep mum about "Rancho San Quentin." In fact, Joyce nobly arranges for her own family ranch to be renamed after the prison lest the boy should learn the truth. Wrongly assuming that Gene and company are kidnappers, Ronnie's father, Frederick (Lester Matthews), makes a daring escape from San Quentin but Gene manages to make it appear as if the escapee is returning from a long and arduous cattle drive. The real kidnappers turn up soon enough, of course, and after the inevitable chase, Willoughby's establishes his innocence and Gene agrees to stay on as Joyce's foreman. Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, and girl singer Mary Lee perform no less than seven musical numbers, including the title tune, "The Singing Hills," "Give out With a Song," Headin' for the Wild Open Spaces," and "Wooing of Kitty MacFuty." A television print entitled Keep Rollin' also exists, but without many of the songs and all the Mexican cantina production numbers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location, Hawaiian Buckaroo is certainly the most novel of the Smith Ballew westerns. Pineapple plantation worker Jeff Howard (Ballew) and his pal Mike (Benny Burt) go to work on a cattle ranch run by haughty Paula Harrington (Evelyn Knapp). It doesn't take long for our heroes to figure out that Paula's foreman Riga (Georges Regas) is a crook. Acting quickly, Jeff and Mike prevent Riga and his confederates (Harry Woods and Pat O'Brien -- no, not that Pat O'Brien) from depleting Paula's stock for their own purposes. Ethnic humor is provided by black actor Fred "Snowflake" Toones, while Honolulu cabaret entertainer Princess Luana shows up unbilled. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Professional horsewoman Ann Dvorak is the Racing Lady in this hit-and-miss romantic comedy. The story begins breaking into a trot when millionaire auto tycoon Steven Wendel (Smith Ballew) (later a movie "singing cowboy") purchases a thoroughbred horse and engages the services of Ruth Martin (Dvorak) as a trainer. She begins to fall in love with Steven, but renounces him upon discovering that his "affection" for horses is motivated by his desire for publicity. Harry Carey, no stranger to horseflesh himself, co-stars as Dvorak's crusty father. The Ann Dvorak-Smith Ballew combination in Racing Lady proved unsatisfactory, with Dvorak handily out-acting her stiff-necked co-star throughout the picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Former nightclub crooner Smith Ballew made his singing-cowboy debut in Western Gold. Set during the Civil War, the story finds Union soldier Bill Gibson (Ballew) heading West to prevent valuable Northern gold shipment from being systematically stolen by Confederate spies. Making our hero's job difficult is the fact that his old friend Fred Foster (LeRoy Mason) is in charge of the Rebel raiders. Anguishing over the notion of having to arrest his lifelong chum, Bill is "saved" when Foster is dispatched by a bullet conveniently fired from a stranger's gun. The leading lady in Western Gold is British-born Heather Angel, who looks mighty confused by her unfamiliar frontier surroundings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide