Robert Livingston Movies

With the departure of John Wayne to more prestigious films, Robert Livingston returned to the role of Stony Brooke in Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" series. In Outlaws of Sonora, Stony and his saddle pals Tucson (Ray Corrigan) and Lullaby (Max Terhune) are hired by a cattleman's association. While transporting his employers' money to the bank, Stony is waylaid by an outlaw who is his exact double (Livingston plays both roles, of course). Keeping our hero under wraps, the villain poses as Stony in hopes of further financial gain. While thus disguised, the false Stony kills a banker, leaving Tucson and Lullaby to wonder if their good pal has gone bad. Eventually everything is straightened out, thanks to the intervention of sharp-witted Dr. Martin (Jack Mulhall). Outlaws of Sonora is one of the best-known "Three Mesquiteers" entries thanks to constant TV exposure and videocassette rentals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arson Gang Busters was a slick little Republic programmer highlighted by several well-staged miniature sequences, courtesy of the talented Lydecker Brothers. Robert Livingston plays a firefighter who feels that the police aren't moving fast enough in tracking down an arson ring. Livingston decides to do a little sleuthing himself, ultimately going undercover and joining the crooks. It turns out that the culprits are insurance underwriters, seeking a quick turnover by creating their own "accidents". The 65-minute Arson Gang Busters was later reissued to television as the 54-minute Arson Racket Squad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In perhaps their most unusual Western adventure, the Three Mesqueteers -- Stony (Bob Livingston), Tucson (Ray Corrigan), and Lullaby (Max Terhune) -- go in search of Professor Marsh (John Van Pelt), an archeologist who vanished while searching for the lost city of Lukachukai. Along for the ride are Marsh's daughter, Betty (Mary Russell); Rutledge (Roger Williams); and an Indian guide, Otah (Yakima Canutt). The expedition heads straight for the Whistling Skull, a huge rock formation in the "nostril" of which the Mesqueteers discover the missing scientist, gaunt but alive among several mummies. Both Rutledge and Otah prove to be less than helpful, however, and at one point Betty and Stony go missing and are feared lost. As Tucson learns, the natives are under the influence of a fanatical white man, but who is he? Oliver Drake and John Rathmell's screenplay was later reworked into a latter-day Charlie Chan thriller The Feathered Serpent (1949), which featured Bob Livingston as the villain. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

An early entry in Republic Pictures' popular "Three Mesqueteers" western series, Wild Horse Rodeo features Robert Livingston who, as Stony Brooke, wants to capture Cyclone, a wild stallion made famous in the magazine illustrations of Alice Harkley (June Martel). Against the wishes of Alice, with whom he is falling in love, and partner Tucson Smith (Ray "Crash" Corrigan), Stony "breaks" the stallion and goes on to win first place at a rodeo operated by nasty Colonel Nye (Walter Miller). The latter wants Cyclone for himself but his attempts at horse rustling are deftly deflected by the third Mesqueteer, Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune), and his dummy Elmer. Cyclone escapes and Stony goes after him. The colonel, meanwhile, stoops to using an airplane to catch both the wayward stallion and Stony but is defeated in a fiery climax by the Mesqueteers, who now agree with Alice to let Cyclone roam free. Helmed by first-time director George Sherman, Wild Horse Rodeo also marked the debut under contract of Roy Rogers. Billed as Dick Weston, Rogers sings Fleming Allan's "Riding High" and "My Madonna of the Trail". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A travelling circus provides the background for this "Three Mesquiteers" western. One of the circus owners is a counterfeiter, who when he's caught with the goods shifts the blame to his partner. Our three heroes Stoney (Robert Livingston), Tucson (Ray "Crash" Corrigan) and Lullaby (Max Terhune), an old friend of the falsely accused partner, combine their skills to spring their pal out of the calaboose. Meanwhile, Stoney pitches woo at heroine Mary (Maxine Doyle) -- who almost manages to march the hapless fellow down the aisle. An average "Mesquiteers" entry, Come On, Cowboy is still superior to practically any other "B" western of the period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Larceny on the Air is a Republic B-plus picture "drawn from today's headlines." In this instance, the news event pounced upon was the mid-1930s Federal crackdown on patent-medicine quacks. Robert Livingston stars as a doctor who takes to the radio airwaves to campaign against cure-all charlatans. Livingston's mission is compromised when he falls in love with Grace Bradley, daughter of the medicine-racket ringleader. Somehow Larceny on the Air found the time to accommodate a musical number, "Sittin' on the Moon" (from the 1936 Republic picture of the same name). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hit the Saddle has enjoyed more latter-day attention than most of Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" western films thanks to the presence of young Rita Hayworth. Billed under her given name of Cansino, Rita plays a seductive saloon thrush who breaks the heart of Mesquiteer Stony Brook (Robert Livingston). Her role in the proceedings is secondary to the main thrust of the plot: Evil cattle rancher J.P. McGowan has been stealing wild horses from government-owned territory. McGowan murders a local sheriff and pins the blame on a wild stallion. The Mesquiteers (Livingston, Ray "Crash" Corrigan and Max Terhune) prove the nag's innocence, but not before McGowan is hoist on his own petard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One Horse Town is the TV title for MGM's 1936 version Small Town Girl (the new title was bestowed to avoid confusion with the 1953 remake). Robert Taylor plays an irresponsible playboy who is arrested in a backwater town for drunken driving. While intoxicated, Taylor proposes to local girl Janet Gaynor. She accepts, knowing full well that he wouldn't have popped the question had he been sober. Gaynor spends the rest of the film trying to reform Taylor and to get him to fall in love with her while he's got all his faculties--no small trick, in that her competition is sophisticated Binnie Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Suzy is the film in which Cary Grant, overcome by the beauty and vivacity of Jean Harlow, sings her a love ballad! This lighthearted moment aside, Suzy, adapted from a novel by Herbert Gorman is a standard-issue love triangle, set against the tapestry of World War I. Harlow plays a London showgirl, married to Irish engineer Franchot Tone. When foreign spy Benita Hume shoots Tone, mistaking him as a threat against her mission, the terrified Harlow flees into the night, certain that she will be accused of her husband's murder. After the war breaks out, Harlow, believing herself a widow, falls in love with handsome aviator Cary Grant. She marries the well-bred but irresponsible young ace, only to discover that Tone has not been killed after all! This being an idealized World War I film, somebody is going to end up sacrificing his/her life on behalf of somebody else, but we're not about to reveal any more. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yet another Zorro imitation, this adventure serial starred Robert Livingston as Don Loring, whose father and brother are killed by the evil General Burr (Fred Kohler). Seeking revenge, Loring dons a black cape and mask, calls himself "The Eagle," and goes about bringing Burr and his men to justice. As a daytime cover, the hero assumes the role of a kind, simple-minded church organist, a disguise that manages to fool Burr and his collaborator, the nasty Russian Count Raspinoff (Robert Warwick), for the serial's 12 installments. Guinn "Big Boy" Williams co-starred as Salvation, the leader of a motley gang of outlaws who assist Loring in his quest, while brunette Kay Hughes added much needed feminine touch to the proceedings. Produced for Republic Pictures by genre specialist Nat Levine, the serial was co-directed by former actor Mack V. Wright and Ray Taylor. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Bold Caballero, Republic Pictures' first color film, was also the first talkie version of the "Zorro" legend (as originally set down by Johnston McCulley in The Curse of Capistrano). Robert Livingston essays the dual role of foppish Spanish-Californian aristocrat Don Diego, who when the necessity arises dons the mask and black cape of righter-of-wrongs Zorro. As usual, the Z-man spends his time defending the California peasantry from the wicked machinations of the corrupt, quasi-fascistic commandante (Sig Rumann), who has murdered the provincial governor and shifted the blame to Zorro. The film contains such marvelous set-pieces as Diego's advice to the leering commandante as to how to romance the fair Isabella (Heather Angel), and a bizarre "drag" scene in which the hero disguises himself as the heroine's duenna. Alas, current prints of The Bold Caballero are available only in black and white. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1932 publication of Charles Nordhoff and James Norton Hall's Mutiny on the Bounty sparked a revival of interest in the titular 1789 ship mutiny, and this 1935 MGM movie version won the Oscar for Best Picture. Clark Gable stars as Fletcher Christian, first mate of the infamous HMS Bounty, skippered by Captain William Bligh (Charles Laughton), the cruelest taskmaster on the Seven Seas. Bligh's villainy knows no bounds: he is even willing to flog a dead man if it will strengthen his hold over the crew. Christian despises Bligh and is sailing on the Bounty under protest. During the journey back to England, Bligh's cruelties become more than Christian can bear; and after the captain indirectly causes the death of the ship's doctor, the crew stages a mutiny, with Christian in charge. Bligh and a handful of officers loyal to him are set adrift in an open boat. Through sheer force of will, he guides the tiny vessel on a 49-day, 4000-mile journey to the Dutch East Indies without losing a man. Historians differ on whether Captain Bligh was truly such a monster or Christian such a paragon of virtue (some believe that the mutiny was largely inspired by Christian's lust for the Tahitian girls). The movie struck gold at the box office, and, in addition to the Best Picture Oscar, Gable, Laughton, and Franchot Tone as one of the Bounty's crew were all nominated for Best Actor (they all lost to Victor McLaglan in The Informer). The film was remade in 1962 and adapted into the "revisionist" 1984 feature The Bounty with Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian and Anthony Hopkins as Captain Bligh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide