Fuzzy Knight Movies

The visual wizardry in this period action picture about Alaskan fishermen won a special honorary Oscar in the years before special effects got its own category. Henry Fonda stars as Jim Kimmerlee, a salmon fisherman in Alaska who has become at odds with a childhood friend, Tyler Dawson (George Raft). While Jim attempts to make an honest living, Tyler, whose frustrated dreams of buying his own schooner don't look to be realized anytime soon, has signed on with a Russian crew that steals the catch from others' nets. While the rivalry between the two one-time pals heats up, Jim begins romancing Dian Turlan (Louise Platt), the daughter of a local newspaperman and renowned tippler, Windy Turlon (John Barrymore). Spawn of the North (1938) was remade as Alaska Seas (1954). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Universal's newest singing cowboy Bob Baker heads the cast of Border Wolves. The film starts off like gangbusters, with an outlaw attack on a covered wagon (largely culled from Universal's stock-footage vault). Falsely accused of masterminding the attack, young Rusty Reynolds (Baker) vows to track down the genuine culprit. So predominant is the film's musical angle that, at one point, even the bad guys lift their voices in a campfire song! Like many of Bob Baker's westerns, Border Wolves was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, who had a happy knack of bringing artistry and nuance to the cliched proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Perennial chorus girl Toby Wing earns a rare chance to play a leading role in this horseracing melodrama which cast her as a debutante, of all things. When Less Winters (James Melton) fails to persuade Jimmy Shay (Herman Brix) to sell his prize-winning racehorse Lightning Lad, wealthy stable owner Marion Braddock does her level best to sabotage Jimmy in the 100,000-dollar San Lucas Race. But when she learns that Less is in cahoots with a gang of crooked gamblers, and that Jimmy is the boy who once saved her life, Marion decides to switch sides. By masquerading as a vagabond, the plucky girl not only helps Jimmy win the Big Race but also earns his love. Filmed on-location at the Lazy A Ranch near Los Angeles and at the Pomona Race Track, Silks and Saddles was a remake of a 1929 potboiler of the same title. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Given the talent involved, The Joy of Living should have been far better than it is. Irene Dunne plays Maggie, a popular musical-comedy star saddled with a possessive, spendthrift family. Maggie would like to leave the house once in a while and experience "real life," but her parents (Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee), worried that they'll lose their meal ticket, refuse to allow her to do so. The Prince Charming who rescues Maggie from her folks is ship-owner Dan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) As a bonus, the footloose and fancy-free Dan teaches the repressed Maggie that "it's fun to be foolish." Apparently director Tay Garnett couldn't keep the production under control, and the cost ballooned to a then-staggering $1.1 million, resulting in a huge loss for RKO Radio. Some of the film's brighter moments are provided by Lucille Ball, Billy Gilbert, Jean Dixon and Franklin Pangborn, who like Dunne and Fairbanks all deserved funnier material than this. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this depressing drama, even though she is an adult, the eldest daughter of a hillbilly clan headed by a brutal patriarch still must endure his vicious beatings. Finally her mother and other friends counsel her to leave the hills. She does and ends up in New York where she enrolls in nursing classes. While studying, she also meets the dashing young attorney who helped convict her father of a shooting several months before. After graduating, she returns home to assist a doctor in a free clinic. Unfortunately, her father will not let her back into the family home, which causes her no pain at all. When the ruthless father begins attempting to sell off her younger sister as a child bride, the nurse comes to her aide. A fight ensues between father and daughter culminating in the father's accidental death. Her beau defends her in court, but she is sentenced to 25 years in prison anyway. Unfortunately, the locals are angered by the killing and decide to get their own revenge and lynch her. Fortunately, the lawyer saves her and bundles her on a plane and gets her away from there. This film is adapted from a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this western, a singing outlaw and a US marshal kill each other in a fight. Their demise is witnessed by an opportunistic fellow who assumes the dead lawman's identity. He soon finds himself in over his head when he tries to stop cattle rustlers and gain the love of a rancher's daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One is immediately aware that The Plainsman is a Cecil B. DeMille production in the opening scene, wherein President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.), on the verge of signing crucial legislation which will determine the future of the American West, is dragged away from his Cabinet by a scolding Mrs. Lincoln (Leila McIntyre), who informs her husband that he'll be late for the theater! The story proper picks up in the years just following the Civil War, as crooked arms dealer John Lattimer (Charles Bickford) schemes to sell a huge shipment of repeating rifles to the Indians. Constantly thwarting Lattimer's schemes is lawman Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper), who soon forms a strong alliance with Indian scout Buffalo Bill Cody (James Ellison). Rambunctious Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur) is crazy about Wild Bill, but he refuses to have anything to do with her, contemptuously wiping his mouth whenever he kisses her. He prefers the company of winsome Louisa (Dorothy Burgess), but gallantly steps aside when Louisa marries Buffalo Bill. Upon learning that a band of Indians armed with Lattimer's rifles have attacked a military garrison, Wild Bill tells General Custer (John Miljan), who in turn sends Buffalo Bill to the garrison with a consignment of weapons. Wild Bill then tries to arrange a peace conference with Indian chief Yellow Hand (Paul Harvey), but is sidetracked when he sees Calamity Jane being captured by two Indian braves. Riding to her rescue, Wild Bill is himself captured and tortured in the hope that he'll reveal the whereabouts of Buffalo Bill and his weapons. He refuses to talk, but Calamity, horrified at the agony endured by Wild Bill, tells all. Her breach of confidence leads indirectly to Custer's death at the Little Big Horn (not seen, but described by a young Indian played by DeMille's then son-in-law Anthony Quinn), whereupon Wild Bill disgustedly breaks off all communication with her. Hoping to make up for her past sins, Calamity warns Wild Bill that Lattimer has come to town a-gunning for him. Wild Bill makes short work of Lattimer, only to be shot in the back by the villain's snivelling confederate Jack McCall (Porter Hall). As he breathes his last, Wild Bill forgives Calamity for revealing the whereabouts of the ammunition; with tears in her eyes, Calamity plants a kiss on Wild Bill's lips that he'll never wipe off. As can be seen, accuracy is not the strong suit of The Plainsman; DeMille, like Buffalo Bill before him, was more interested in putting on a helluva good show than offering a dry history lesson. Unfortunately, the film often promises more than it can deliver, thanks to DeMille's insistence upon filming more of his big scenes indoors and relying far too heavily on grainy process screens. Still, the DeMille version of The Plainsman is infinitely more entertaining than the 1966 remake with Don Murray and Abby Dalton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the better Pinky Tomlin vehicles for low-budget Ambassador films, With Love and Kisses casts the bespectacled crooner as Arkansas farm boy "Spec" Higgins. An acknowledged genius at composing hit tunes, Higgins works under a handicap: he can only write his ditties in the company of his pet cow Minnie. Unwilling to head to the big city, our hero is forced to do so when radio crooner Don Gray (Kane Richmond) claims authorship of one of Higgin's best songs. The irresistibly cute Toby Wing (then Tomlin's off-screen sweetie) is delightful as female vocalist Barbara Holbrook, while inimitable movie drunk Arthur Housman essays one of his largest screen roles as an imbibing radio sponsor with a very selective memory (shades of the inebriated millionaire in Chaplin's City Lights). Among the screenwriters for With Love and Kisses was a young Morey Amsterdam. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this bargain-basement actioner, a determined young woman tries to prove that her incarcerated brother is innocent. She must hurry, for he has a fatal date with the electric chair. Desperate, she enlists the aide of a shady character and a kindly district attorney. Most of the action scenes were cut from minor serials. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, a woman runs a boardinghouse for washed up thespians. She puts them on their best behavior when her daughter comes for a surprise visit. It seems her daughter had no idea what her mother did for a living. When an aspiring writer asks for the daughter's hand, conflict ensues. Musical numbers include: "Love Is the Thing," "I Was Taken by Storm," "Let's Be Frivolous," and "Martinique." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a G-man goes on vacation and ends up pursing a crook disguised as an honest lawyer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Written by John P. McCarthy (who also directed), Robert Emmett Tansey, and, rather incongruously, former real-life outlaw Al Jennings, this musical Western marked the screen debut of Tex Ritter, a former Broadway and radio crooner. Ritter played Tex (of course), a lawman going undercover as a bandit in order to infiltrate a gang of claim jumpers. As it turns out, the leader of the gang, Evans (Ted Adams), is using the ranch of Don Esteban del Valle (Martin Garralaga) and his daughter, Dolores (Joan Woodbury), as his headquarters, dragging the innocent rancher into a scheme to take over the local mines by any means possible, including murder. In between his detective work, Ritter finds time to sing such song as "Out on the Lone Prairie," "My Sweet Chiquita," and "You Are Reality," the latter composed by leading lady Joan Woodbury, the wife of actor Henry Wilcoxon. Ritter was discovered for films by Edward F. Finney, the former promotional director for Republic Pictures, who released the Ritter series through newcomer Grand National. Despite the crowd-pleasing presence of comic sidekick Fuzzy Knight and Ritter's horse, White Flash, Song of the Gringo proved an inauspicious opener. According to Ritter himself, Finney had his star outfitted with a hideous-looking toupee; and director John P. McCarthy, a holdover from the silent era, proved an unwise choice as well. Both hairpiece and McCarthy were gone by the second instalment, Headin' for the Rio Grande (1936), replaced by Ritter's natural receeding hairline and Robert North Bradbury, yet another veteran but at least one with an eye for pacing. Ritter, who achieved perhaps his lasting fame singing "Do Not Forsake Me" over the main titles to Fred Zinneman's High Noon (1952), was the father of 1970s television star John Ritter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A radio-controlled bomb accurate within 200 miles is the cause of much mayhem in this low-budget science fiction-thriller based on a story by pulp writer Peter B. Kyne. A hayseed prizefighter, Lefty (Fuzzy Knight), and his manager, Red (Syd Saylor), are hired by Dr. Marston (Forrest Taylor) to bodyguard the device but both are knocked unconscious and the secret blueprints are stolen when a tear gas bomb explodes in the laboratory. Assigned to investigate both the blast and the theft, Secret Service Agent Ted Kelly (Lloyd Hughes) discovers that Dr. Walsh (John Elliott), the uncle of Marston's pretty secretary (Sheila Manners), was the real inventor of the bomb, Marston having stolen the formula by using his hypnotic powers. Pretending to fall under Marston's spell, Kelly solves the case and the world is once again safe from Marston and his minions. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide