Tom London Movies

The first of Tim Holt's 1943 quota of RKO westerns was Fighting Frontier. This time, Holt appears to be cast as a double-dyed villain. Actually, it's all a ruse, cooked up by the Governor to find out the identity of a clever bandit chieftan. It wouldn't be fair to reveal the name of the bad guy, but it's safe enough to report that Ann Summers is the heroine and Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards provides comedy relief. Amidst the shooting and fisticuffs, music fans are treated to two songs, "On the Outlaw Trail" and "The Edwards and the Drews", the latter performed with relish by Cliff Edwards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A would-be Western epic soundly defeated by an almost nonexistent budget, West of Texas was the third of 22 "Texas Rangers" oaters released by Gower Gulch company PRC from 1942-1945 in an attempt to compete with Republic's The Three Mesqueteers and Monogram's "Rough Riders" and "Range Busters." Rangers Tex Wyatt (Dave "Tex" O'Brien) and Jim Steele (James Newill) arrive in Gabe's Crossing, NM, to capture Bent Yeager (Henry Hall), a rancher accused of sabotaging the progress of the railroad. As it turns out, railroad representative Bart Calloway (Robert Barron) and lawyer Conlon (Tom London) have falsified land surveys so it appears that Bent's property is on government land. Happily, the third ranger, Panhandle Perkins (Guy Wilkerson), is working undercover as a member of Calloway's gang and the villains are brought to justice within the allotted 58 minutes. In between chasing the bad guys, O'Brien and Newill warble their own "Whistle a Song," "El Lobo," and "Tired of Rambling." West of Texas was reissued in a 40-minute version by PRC's successor Eagle-Lion in 1947. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Overland Mail Robbery is another entry in Republic's "Wild Bill" Elliot western series. Once again, Elliot's leading lady is Anne Jeffreys, and once again his comical sidekick is Gabby Hayes. The plot finds Wild Bill coming to the aid of namby-pamby Easterner Tom Hartley (played by future "Superman" Kirk Alyn), who has inherited his family's stagecoach line. With Elliot's assistance, Tom proves he's a real he-man by standing up to the outlaw gang terrorizing the countryside. Of interest is the fact that the gang leader is a woman, played by Alice Fleming, who later portrayed "The Duchess" in Republic's "Red Ryder" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

20th Century-Fox hoped to make a film star out of Texas A&M football hero John Kimbrough, and to that end placed the gridiron hero in a brace of compact westerns. The first of these was Zane Grey's The Lone Star Ranger, previously filmed by Fox in 1931 with George O'Brien in the lead. Kimbrough plays Texas Ranger Buck Dunne, assigned to round up a gang of bank robbers. The leader of the gang turns out to be the "respectable" Judge Longstreth (Jonathan Hale), making life difficult for Dunne inasmuch as he's in love with Longstreth's niece Barbara (Sheila Ryan). Despite the herculean efforts of director John Tinling, John Kimbrough was consititutionally incapable of delivering a convincing performance in either Lone Star Ranger or its immediate followup Sundown Jim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The old plot device of a western "ghost town" being used as a hideout for criminals is trotted out again in Monogram's Ghost Town Law. This time around, the heroes are The Rough Riders: namely, Buck Roberts (Buck Jones), Tim McCall (Tim McCoy) and Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton). Following their usual modus operandi, the three heroes pretend to be strangers to one another, and also pose as criminals themselves to lull the real villains into a false sense of security. The plot revolves around an old gold mine, jealously guarded by masked, well-armed desperadoes. For the sake of heroine Josie Hall (Virginia Carpenter), the Rough Riders rout the villains and return the mine to its rightful owners. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Before his promotion to "A" pictures, Don "Red" Barry was perhaps the feistiest of Republic's cowboy-star stable. In Arizona Terrors, Barry poses as an outlaw, the better to cross six-guns with evil land baron Reed Hadley. Barry's true identity, and the purpose of his mission, is known only to President William McKinley--and when McKinley is slain, our hero is a candidate for the noose. The official cast list of Arizona Terrors doesn't indicate who plays McKinley, but we can tell you that Barry's leading lady is Lynn Merrick. She plays one of several homesteaders being victimized by the smooth-talking Hadley, thus she is demonstrably grateful when Barry comes to the rescue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally slated for release through Paramount Pictures but ultimately distributed by United Artists, American Empire is a western "special" from Hopalong Cassidy producer Harry "Pop" Sherman. Set during the Reconstruction period, the film stars Richard Dix and Preston S. Foster as Dan Taylor and Paxton Bryce, two longtime friends seeking their fortune in postwar Texas. With the considerable assistance of Dan's sister and Paxton's wife Abby (Frances Gifford), the two comrades establish a thriving cattle business. Alas, Paxton is seized with the ambition to become a emperor in his own domain, thereby alienating himself from Dan and Abby. Only through a profound personal tragedy does Paxton come back to his senses. Ironically, critics in 1942 suggested that the Mexican accent adopted by supporting player Leo Carrillo was more than a little reminiscent of "The Cisco Kid" -- and this was still several years before Carrillo was established as Pancho in the "Cisco" "B"-film and TV series! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Just before entering the armed services, Gene Autry delivered one of his best Republic westerns, Cowboy Serenade. Many of Autry's previous vehicles had suffered from too much music and not enough action. Happily, Cowboy Serenade struck the happy medium common to Autry's vintage 1930s efforts. There's even time for a mystery angle as Autry tries to ascertain the identity of the head of a crooked gambling ring. Autry's leading lady this time out is Fay McKenzie, in real life the sister-in-law of comedian Billy Gilbert. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Republic Pictures' final 1942 release was the "Three Mesquiteers" western Shadows on the Sage. The better-than-average plot (brainstormed by screenwriter J. Benton Cheney) finds our three heroes battling a crooked banker and an elusive bandit -- who happens to be the exact double of Mesquiteer Tucson Smith (Bob Steele). The other members of the courageous triumvirate are Tom Tyler as Stony Brooke and future Mickey Mouse Club host Jimmy Dodd, here replacing Rufe Davis as Lullaby Joslin. The most memorable supporting players include corpulent Frank Capra-"regular" Harry Holman as the ineffectual sheriff and juvenile performer Freddie Mercer as a would-be lawman. The leading lady is Cheryl Walker, one year away from her bid for stardom as the idealized "Eileen" in Stage Door Canteen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the best serials ever made, Spy Smasher has managed to find favor even among non-serial aficionados. Like his fellow masked avenger, Batman, Spy Smasher possessed no super-human powers but was a mere mortal of flesh and blood. In brief, Spy Smasher, alias Alan Armstrong (Kane Richmond, and his twin brother Jack (also Richmond) pursue a nefarious German agent known only as The Mask (Hans Schumm). Witney and screenwriters Ronald Davidson, Norman S. Hall, Joseph Poland, William Lively and Joseph O'Donnell imbued their hero with a dark uniform very similar to the one he wore in the comics, but added a fancy belt decorated with a large "V" for "Victory" and the morse code symbol for the letter, three dots and a dash. The coup de grace, so to speak, was Mort Glickman's signature score adapted from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Leading man Richmond managed to make his identical twins a little less identical than the usual routine split-screen characterizations and the character of Jack Armstrong, the All-American boy, was actively mourned when killed off in chapter eleven, "Hero's Death," in perhaps the most unique chapter ending in the history of serialdom. Kane Richmond, who had been around Hollywood's action studios since 1930 and had even appeared as a Martian in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938), became a major genre icon on account of his stellar performance as the Spy Smasher. Borrowed from Columbia Pictures, flaxen-haired Howard Hughes discovery Marguerite Chapman proved one of the best purveyor's of serial pulchritude thus far as Jack Armstrong's imperiled fiancee Eve Corby, and Tristram Coffin, later a serial hero himself, was capital as Drake, The Mask's chief henchman who manage to insinuate himself as Jack's friend. The subsequent feature release Spy Smasher Returns constituted not a sequel but an edited-down version of this serial. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Roy Rogers takes on crooked wartime profiteeers in the musical western Ridin' Down the Canyon. Posing as solid citizens, the crooks spend their evening hours stealing horses from local ranchers, then selling the steeds to the government at exorbitant prices. The head of the bad guys runs a dude ranch where Rogers and his pals (The Sons of the Pioneers) are employed. When Rogers figures out what's what, he sets about to bring the rustlers to justice. There's some piquancy in the fact that the character played by juvenile actor Buzzy Henry is named Bobby Blake; within a few years, the real Bobby Blake (who later grew up to become Robert Blake) would be appearing as Little Beaver in Republic's "Red Ryder" western series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wild Geese Calling is one of those 20th Century-Fox star vehicles which used to pop up all the time on TV before the Carsons, Lenos and Lettermans rendered "The Late Late Show" obsolete. Set in Oregon and Alaska at the turn of the century (the last century, that is), the film stars Henry Fonda as John Murdock, a restless young lumberjack. Tired of his job at a Seattle logging camp, he heads to the Yukon in search of gold. Here he marries dance hall girl Sally (Joan Bennett), who turns out to be the sweetheart of his old pal Blackie (Warren William). Throughout the early months of their marriage, he spends less time paying attention to her than he does worrying that she'll run off with her ex-beau. Murdock finally shows he's a right guy when he risks his life braving the elements to deliver a doctor to her bedside when she goes into labor. Russell Simpson, who played Henry Fonda's dad in The Grapes of Wrath, shows up in a typically grizzled role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide