Rayford Barnes Movies

Season Four of Maverick concludes with the series' only two-part episode. In Part One, Bart (Jack Kelly) purchases a wagonload of merchandise sight unseen from silver-tongued peddler Luther Cannonbaugh (John Dehner). Bart's plan to sell the merchandise at a nearby Army post hits a snag when he peeks into the wagon and finds a large supply of illegal liquor--as well as a bound and gagged Indian girl named Tawney (Sharon Hugueny). In his efforts to keep himself out of prison and avoid an all-out Indian war, Bart ends up captured by Tawney's tribe. Also held captive is the redoubtable Mr. Cannonbaugh, who thinks he has devised a foolproof scheme to save himself and Bart from being killed...and he's just the fool to prove it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the last days of WWII, "90-day wonder" Lieutenant Katell (Dean Stockwell) takes charge of a battle-weary American squadron somewhere in the Pacific Theater. With the arrogance of inexperience, Katell demands that Sgt. Causarano (Albert Salmi) lead an attack against a group of wounded and dispirited Japanese soldiers -- "They are the enemy! First day of the war or the last day of the war!" But a sudden wrinkle in time causes Lt. Katell -- or should we say "Lt. Yamuri" -- to experience an epiphany. Future Star Trek stalwart Leonard Nimoy plays a small role as a radio operator. Scripted by Rod Serling from an idea by Sam Rolfe (Have Gun, Will Travel, Man from U.N.C.L.E. et al.), "A Quality of Mercy" was Twilight Zone's Yuletide offering for the 1961-62 season, making its first appearance on December 29, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Those familiar only with Johnny Horton's song hit North to Alaska might not be aware that the song came equipped with a movie. John Wayne and Stewart Granger star as a couple of lucky miners in Alaska Territory during the '98 gold rush. Since the Duke is the only man he can trust, Granger sends his pal to Seattle to fetch his fiance. Fabian appears in the cast (playing Granger's brother) primarily to attract teenage filmgoers; he gets to sing, of course, but he's better than usual. The film's centerpiece, an outsized brawl in the muddy streets of Nome, was repeated with several variations in Wayne's subsequent McLintock (1963). North to Alaska was based on a considerably more genteel stage play, Laszlo Fodor's Birthday Gift. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This action film set just after the Civil War tends to stay on the surface of the story instead of diving deeper into character motivation. A group of Union Army soldiers is charged with protecting a box of gold and getting it to its rightful place within the government coffers. As might be expected, their biggest enemies are former Confederate soldiers who have their own ideas about what to do with the gold. Battles and skirmishes succeed each other as the fight for the gold begins, and even some of the Union men start to wonder if the gold would not be better off in their own hands. Dissension splits the ranks as the drama heads towards its conclusion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A routine western with a classic theme, the "lone Texan" of the title is Clint Banister (Willard Parker) who finds trouble at home when he returns after serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. Given his military history, he is hardly welcomed with open arms. In addition to the animosity of his former friends, he has to face an even more difficult issue. His lawless brother Greg (Grant Williams) is the town's sheriff, busy terrorizing the citizens, aided and abetted by his three chief deputies. Clint has no choice but to go against his brother, in spite of their family relationship and the town's attitude toward him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Beaten, robbed and left unconscious, Paladin (Richard Boone) wanders dazedly into the town of Blue Bell. It soon becomes clear that Paladin will not leave the town alive if the Goodfellow family, whose siblings run the place with an iron hand, have anything to say about it. All that stands between Paladin and certain doom are a seemingly sympathetic saloon girl named Susan (Christine White)--and, if he has a chance to use it, his hidden two-shot derringer. This is the episode in which Paladin explains the true meaning of the chess knight embossed upon his calling card. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

En route to the Evans ranch, where he hopes to help Hugh Evans (Malcolm Atterbury) and his daughter Elaine (Nancy Hadley) resolve a bitter land dispute, Paladin (Richard Boone) comes across wealthy young Harleigh Preston (Rayford Barnes), a dissolute alcoholic who has been robbed and abandoned by his previous guide. Intending to help Harleigh pull himself together and find some purpose in life, Paladin suggests that the young man offer a helping hand to the Evans family as well. Not surprisingly, Harleigh and Elaine fall in love--but is he worthy of that love? Much of this episode was filmed only location in the San Bernardino National Forest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A juvenile delinquent in the "holding tank" lets slip that his older brother is planning to rob a loan office. Though Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) do their best to head off the holdup man, the robbery goes off exactly as scheduled. All the detectives can hope for is that the outlaw's limp will slow him down long enough to be arrested. Iconic 1940s "pin-up girl" Mary Beth Hughes has a flashy role as the perpetrator's fed-up wife. This episode was adapted from the Dragnet radio broadcast of June 7, 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stagecoach to Fury was one of several "pocket westerns" released through 20th Century-Fox's Regal Films subsidiary. The titular coach is robbed by Mexican bandits, who hold the passengers prisoner at a relay station. As both captors and captives nervously await the arrival of a gold shipment, the true natures of the passengers are slowly revealed. Realizing that he and his fellow passengers will be killed the moment the bandits get their hands on the gold, the cavalry captain (Forrest Tucker) tries to organize a united front against the villains. Director William Claxton was later a primary director of the TV series Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's the Bowery Boys again, in their 35th feature film. Sach (Huntz Hall) buys a battered oil lamp, which turns out to have belonged to Aladdin some 2000 years earlier. Out pops a genial genie (Eric Blore), who grants every wish of Sach and his pal Slip (Leo Gorcey). Gangsters steal the lamp, but discover that the genie won't grant any wishes unless Slip and Sach tell him to, so the baddies snatch Our Heroes as well. The boys escape by insisting that the genie take them home. He does--to his home, ancient Baghdad. Slip and Sach barely escape the scimitar of the angry Caliph; they return to the Bowery minus the genie but with their heads intact. In typical Bowery Boys fare, this entry is pepped up by the appearance of veteran comic actor Eric Blore in his final screen appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The third of four Wayne Morris B-westerns for Allied Artists, Desperado casts Morris as fugitive gunman Sam Garrett. The early reels are devoted to Tall Cameron (James Lydon) and Ray Novac (Rayford Barnes), who run afoul of the post-Civil War Texas State Police, as represented by sadistic Captain Thornton (Nestor Paiva). Escaping Thornton's wrath, Tall and Ray meet Garrett, who becomes Tall's friend and advisor when Ray proves to be a louse. Seeking revenge, Ray kills Thornton and frames Tall for the crime. Sympathetic sheriff Jim Langley (Dabbs Greer) joins forces with "friendly enemy" Garrett to clear Tall and mete out just desserts to Ray. Beverly Garland costars as a more resourceful heroine than one usually finds in westerns of this nature. Though hamstrung by a low budget, Desperado is an intellingently written, well-paced endeavor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hondo is so "perfect" a John Ford western that many people assume it was directed by John Ford--or at the very least, Andrew McLaglen. Actually the director was suspense expert John Farrow, who worked with the "Duke" only twice in his career (the second film was an oddball war drama, The Sea Chase [55]). In Hondo, John Wayne plays a hard-bitten cavalry scout who is humanized by frontierswoman Geraldine Page and her young son (Lee Aaker, star of TV's Rin Tin Tin). Try as he might, Wayne can't convince Page to move off her land in anticipation of an Apache attack. He leaves her ranch, only to be ambushed by desperado Leo Gordon--who happens to be Page's long-absent husband. Having killed Gordon, Hondo returns to the ranch to protect Page from the Indians, and to rekindle the woman's hesitant love for him. The climactic attack sequence is enhanced by Hondo's 3-D photography, one of the few truly effective utilizations of this much-maligned process. Long unavailable thanks to the labyrinthine legal tangles of the John Wayne estate, Hondo was finally released to videotape in the early 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide