Cliff Lyons Movies
A legendary stuntman/stunt coordinator, Cliff Lyons was as handsome as any of the stars he doubled and had indeed starred in his own series of silent Westerns under the name of Tex Lyons. Having begun his professional career performing with minor rodeos, Lyonsdrifted to Hollywood in the early '20s, where he found work as a stuntman in such films as Ben-Hur (1925) and Beau Geste (1927). In between these major releases, the newcomer did yeoman duty for Poverty Row entrepreneur Bud Barsky, who produced eight Westerns in Sequoia National Park starring, alternately, Lyons and Al Hoxie. Lyons would do a second series of eight equally low-budget jobs for producer Morris R. Schlank, filmed at Kernville, CA, and released 1928-1930. This time, he would alternate with another cowboy star, Cheyenne Bill. Commented Lyons: "We would go on location and make two pictures at a time -- one of Cheyenne Bill's and one of mine -- and also play the villain in each other's." Sound put an end to Lyons' starring career and he spent the next four decades or so as a riding double for the likes of Johnny Mack Brown, Buck Jones, Ken Maynard, and even Tom Mix (in the 1935 serial The Miracle Rider). In his later years he became closely associated with good friends John Wayne and John Ford, for whom he also did some second-unit directing. Although not as remembered today as Yakima Canutt, Lyons was a major force in the burgeoning stunt business and many of his innovations are still used by modern practitioners of the craft. He was married from 1938 to 1955 to B-Western heroine Beth Marion, with whom he had two sons. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Obscure silent screen cowboy Dick Hatton both starred in and co-wrote this equally obscure oater produced by Ben Wilson for Arrow release. Pressured into an unwanted marriage, Eastern society girl Marilyn Mills hightails it out West and falls for a rough-hewn cowpoke (Hatton). The jilted suitor (Philip Sleeman) is hot on her trail, however, but a final shootout settles the matter once and for all. Leading lady Mills was a Dutch-born equestrienne whose horse, Beverly, was prominently billed in this film. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Hatton, Marilyn Mills, (more)
- 1926
The familiar silent-screen serial team of Ben Wilson and Neva Gerber starred in this inexpensive western potboiler which Wilson also directed. After saving Gerber from certain death, Wilson not only pays her weakling brother's (Ashton Dearholt) gambling debts but stands nobly by when she takes off with a handsome stranger from New York (Hal Walters). In a welcome change of pace, handsome stunt performer and veteran villain Cliff Lyons played the sheriff this time. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1926
This minor oater was the penultimate silent western starring the strapping Tom Tyler. Produced by poverty-row company Syndicate, the film came complete with a synchronized music score and sound effects but was mainly shown in rural theaters not yet wired for sound. Having fallen in love with the pretty Inez (Sheila LeGay), rustler Dave Brandon (Tyler) decides to lead a law-abiding life. The leader of the rustlers, Slug Slagel (Bud Osborne), abducts both Inez and her pa (Tom Forman) in order to persuade Brandon not to defect. The reformed outlaw, however, has been arrested for his previous crimes but manages to escape to the gang's hidden canyon. With the posse right behind him to pick up fleeing bad guys, the hero saves the girl and her father from the nasty Slagel. Having thus redeemed himself, the former outlaw is placed in the custody of his girlfriend. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Tyler
- 1928
A handsome French trapper must chose between an Indian girl and a pretty white orphan in this Northwoods melodrama produced by poverty row entrepreneur Morris R. Schlank and ostensibly based on popular pulp writer James Oliver Curwood. Mustachioed Walter McGrail played the lovesick trapper, with Neva Gerber as the Indian girl, Lillian Rich as the orphan, and stunt-man Cliff Lyons (who was starring in his own series for Schlank at the time) as the villain, who menaces both girls. The father of director Henry Hathaway, Rhody Hathaway, played a priest. According to the film's press book, "a tribe of Klamath Indians furnished the picturesque backgrounds for the sequences showing the Canadian aboriginals in their natural locale." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Rich, Walter McGrail, (more)
- 1928
The once-popular, now-forgotten western star Bob Custer heads the cast of Law of the Mounted. Custer dons the red coat of the Northwest Mounted Police in this location-filmed outing. He gets his man when he foils a gang of fur smugglers. The ringleader is played by the film's director, J.P. McGowan, who comports himself like a road-company Erich Von Stroheim. Fragments of Law of the Mounted later showed up on the early-1960s syndicated TV filler Billy Bang Bang. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Winters, Frank Ellis, (more)
- 1928
Filmed in some small Southern California hamlet, this extremely low-budget silent Western should have been called "Across the San Fernando Valley" instead of Across the Plains. Handsome Pawnee Bill, Jr. (aka Ted Wells) starred as Jim Blake, an inveterate gambler and rabble-rouser who determines to reform after falling in love with Helen Williams (Ione Reed), the new waitress in White Sage. But Jim is soon forced to kill crooked Joe Stewart (Jack Richardson) in self-defense and Helen gives him the cold shoulder. Joe's equally crooked pal, Walla Walla Slim (Boris Bullock) demands satisfaction and Jim is forced to flee. Along the way, he encounters Helen's mortally wounded sister and baby niece, the victims of a stage hold-up committed by Walla Walla's henchmen. Jim promises the dying woman to bring the baby to Helen, but Walla Walla Slim, who wants Helen for himself, rudely interrupts the touching reunion. Happily, the posse arrives in the nick of time and Jim and Helen can embrace for a happy ending -- the dead sister in the desert apparently already forgotten. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1928
New York playboy Bob Custer gets into trouble with the cops when he drunkenly steals a cabdriver's coat. The judge decides to send Custer out West so he can straighten himself out and learn to be a "real man." Our hero adapts to the wide open spaces as if he'd been born there, matriculating into the finest rider, roper, and shooter in the territory. His redemption is complete when he rescues a rancher's daughter (Mary Mayberry) from kidnappers. Produced and directed by the veteran J.P. McGowan, this extremely low-budget silent Western was released by Syndicate Film Exchange, a forerunner to the more durable Monogram Pictures. Only one 35 mm nitrate print of Manhattan Cowboy is known to exist; happily, this print has been transferred to video for the benefit of Western fans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lafe [Lafayette] McKee, Mary Mayberry, (more)
- 1929
In one of his few surviving Westerns, silent screen cowboy hero Art Acord plays Bill Strong, a U.S. Marshal witnessing Red Hank (Cliff Lyons) and his gang rob the Bear Valley mail truck and take the guard, Jake Grant (Horace B. Carpenter), hostage. Impersonating a foppish Easterner, Strong ("the Arizona Kid") infiltrates the gang, who come to admire his abilities with a gun. The situation gets complicated, however, with the arrival of Mary Grant (Carol Lane, Jake's daughter, whom Strong has rescued from a runaway horse. Red orders Strong to bring Mary to an abandoned shack for a romantic encounter but the Arizona Kid instead enables Jake to escape. While the gang takes up the chase, the Kid arrives at the shack just in time to prevent Hank from molesting Mary. The villain is subdued and his henchmen are eventually picked up by Sheriff Morton (Bill Conant) and his posse. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Art Acord, Cliff Lyons, (more)
- 1929
Diminutive cowboy Bob Steele starred as a cowboy tracking down his father's killer in this modest silent Western produced by J.P. McGowan's penny-pinching (and grossly misnamed) Big Productions Company. The revenge theme was popular in Westerns at the time, especially with Steele who used it several times again. Interestingly enough, some of his films dealing with patricide were directed by his real-life father, Robert N. Bradbury. In this film, Steele's pa is played by producer-director McGowan and the outlaw of the title by Bud Osborne. Screenwriter Sally Winters, meanwhile, did leading lady Edna Aslin no favors by naming the film's heroine "Bertha Bullhead"! ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Steele, Edna Aslin, (more)
- 1929
Produced for what looked like pennies at Cathedral Mountain and Big Bend, Texas, by low-budget entrepreneur J. Charles Davis, West of the Rockies was launched as a silent Art Mix western. Davis, however, also released a sound version, ballyhooing the event as "The best, most magnificent 100% All Talking Western ever made." In fact, the sound version only incorporated a couple of badly dubbed dialogue sequences and some canned music cues and let it go at that. The Art Mix persona had been invented by producer-director Victor Adamson (AKA Denver Dixon) back in the late 1910s in an all-too-obvious attempt to make his audience think they were watching Tom Mix. Anticipating a law suit, Adamson dug up an Arthur Mix in the Los Angeles telephone book and made him an officer of his production company. Adamson himself appeared under the Mix moniker in the earliest years, but production duties soon took up too much of his time and he hired rodeo performer George Kesterson to act the part. They had a falling out in 1925, and Adamson offered the part to one Bob Roberts. Roberts, unfortunately, left after suffering an injury while filming in Topanga Canyon, and Adamson resumed playing Art Mix himself. Kesterson, meanwhile, continued to use the name, despite threats from Adamson, and by the late 1920s there were actually two Art Mixes appearing in films. The Art Mix of this obscure oater was George Kesterson. Actress Inez Gomez was Kesterson's wife. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Art Mix, Fontaine La Rue, (more)
- 1929
Actor-director-writer J.P. McGowan, of Hazards of Helen fame, produced and directed this very minor silent western in which cowboy star Bob Custer attempts to apprehend the villain who killed his brother. Unfortunately, a crooked border-town sheriff is in his way. Custer, née Raymond Glenn and once his own producer, was about as wooden as a cigar-store Indian, and his career would suffer an almost immediate decline in talkies. He wisely chose to retire after Santa Fe Rides (1937), an especially atrocious "Z"-western that came complete with badly dubbed musical numbers. Custer later became a building inspector in the coastal town of El Segundo, California. The Fighting Terror should not be confused with a 1925 Universal 2-reeler with the same name starring Billy Sullivan. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1929
Together with the local sheriff, Oklahoma Adams (Bob Custer) rids a ranch of a gang of cattle rustlers. As a reward, he wins the heart of the ranch owner's (John Lowell) lovely daughter (Mary Maberry). Every western cliche under the sun was utilized in this dreary silent western, including -- you guessed it! -- the crooked ranch foreman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Mary Mayberry, (more)
- 1929
This cheap western produced by J.P. McGowan's Syndicate Film Exchange was given an almost too prophetic title. One of the last silent westerns, The Last Roundup told the oft-told tale of a cowboy (Bob Custer) saving a pretty girl (Hazel Mills) from being kidnapped by a gang of cattle rustlers headed by the crooked ranch foreman (Bud Osborne). The only interesting aspect of this film is the hero's name, "Denver Dixon," which of course was the moniker sometimes used by Gower Gulch entrepreneur Victor Adamson. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Hazel Mills, (more)
- 1929
In one of his few surviving Westerns, silent screen cowboy Art Acord plays Dick Weatherby, a young rancher whose unscrupulous father "Bulldog" is making a fortune buying up the neighboring ranches and selling them to road builders. When Pete (Tom Bay), Dick's cousin, robs the Weatherby safe, Bulldog blames Tom Wayne (Jack Ponder), an especially recalcitrant neighbor, and orders Dick to get rid of the rest of the Wayne family. Instead of ousting her, Dick falls in love with Tom's pretty sister Nesta (Peggy Montgomery) and promises to help her keep the ranch. An angered Pete kidnaps Nesta, but she is saved by Dick. Out of jail on bail, Tom confronts Bulldog, who suddenly sees the error of his ways and has a reconciliation with Dick. Pete makes himself scarce and Dick proposes to Nesta. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Art Acord, Peggy Montgomery, (more)
- 1930
This inexpensively produced early sound Western was diminutive cowboy star Bob Steele's second to last for poverty row company Syndicate Film Exchange. Steele appeared as a young cowboy in love with the sheriff's daughter (Jean Reno). There is a rival, of course, a crooked deputy (Perry Murdock) who is the mastermind behind a daring robbery. Steele foils a scheme to murder the sheriff, unmasks the crooked deputy, returns the stolen money and wins the pretty girl, all in the final reel. Steele left Syndicate following Breezy Bill (1930), but went on to appear in scores of budget Westerns, many directed by his father, Robert North Bradbury. To non-Western fans, he is perhaps best remembered for playing the bully, Curley, in Of Mice and Men (1939) and as the killer, Canino, in The Big Sleep (1946). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Reno, Perry Murdock, (more)
- 1930
Western Honor was one of the last silent Bob Steele westerns for low-budget Syndicate Pictures. The story follows the established pattern, as two-fisted Steele endeavors to defend heroine Ione Reed against the villains. The diminutive hero takes on so many hulking opponents at once that the action is nearly as funny as a Mack Sennett 2-reeler. Indeed, critics in 1930 were of the opinion that the film was deliberately designed as a parody. By the time Western Honor made the rounds in New York, Bob Steele's notably superior talkie westerns had been in circulation for nearly a year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ione Reed, Perry Murdock, (more)
- 1930
John R. Freuler's Big 4 Film Corp. released this early sound western starring stunt-man Yakima Canutt as a cowboy who sells his land to Virginia Browne Faire and her young brother (Buzz Barton). Virginia wants to raise sheep, but a group of beef men violently disagree, and Yak must rescue her from a kidnapping. The main villain is played by Wally Wales (before he changed his name to Hal Taliaferro), a silent western hero who alternated playing good and bad guys for Big 4. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buzz Barton
Disguising himself as a bandit, diminutive cowboy star Bob Steele infiltrates the gang who abducted his father, the sheriff. The second of eight Steele Westerns produced by Trem Carr for Tiffany release, this minor Western included three songs crooned by a star not necessarily known for any great vocal abilities. With non-vocalists like Steele and fellow Tiffany star Ken Maynard constantly warbling by the camp fire, it is a wonder that their Westerns remained the floundering company's only real moneymakers. The singing cowboy vogue had come to an end by 1931 and (thankfully, some say) was not revived until the emergence in the mid-'30s of radio crooner Gene Autry. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Poverty row entrepreneur John R. Freuler's Big Four Corporation released this oater produced by one of Hollywood's few women producers, Flora E. Douglas. Douglas did not deal in filmmaking on the grand scale, to say the least, and Firebrand Jordan played the hinterlands only. Yakima Canutt, while probably the finest stuntman of his era, did not possess a heroic voice and was demoted to character parts in talkies. The hero here was Lane Chandler a strapping young actor who, like Canutt, was really better-suited to playing villains. Chandler plays a cowboy on the trail of a gang of counterfeiters. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lane Chandler, Sheldon Lewis, (more)
- 1930
Producer-director J.P. McGowan's Syndicate Film Exchange, a forerunner of Monogram Productions, Inc., caught action heroes on their way down or up -- mostly down. Covered Wagon Trails, one of the last full-length silent westerns produced, starred the laconic Bob Custer, a screen cowboy whose career was decidedly in the doldrums. The story wasn't exactly fresh either, something about a cowboy battling smugglers -- and heroine Phyllis Bainbridge's weakling brother (Perry Murdock) -- on the Mexican border. This below-average modern-dress oater was far from the sweeping epic the title suggests but did come with a synchronized music score. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Phyllis Bainbridge, (more)
- 1931
Laconic silent screen cowboy Bob Custer starred in this cheap Syndicate Film Exchange early sound Western as a wrangler falsely accused of collaborating with Mexican revolutionists. Joan Prescott (Natalie Kingston) contracts to sell her horses to the Army in general and Captain Hartford (Tom London) in particular. In cahoots with a crooked secret service agent, Hartford plans to steal the horses, blaming wrangler Tom Rankin (Custer), who he accuses of conspiring with Mexican revolutionaries. Recovering the stolen horses, Rankin reveals that he is the real Captain Hartford, and the impostor is shipped off to prison. Both Custer and Bill Cody had seen better days in the silent era and would spend the remainder of their career in very low-budget independent Westerns such as Under Texas Skies. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Natalie Kingston, (more)
- 1931
Red Fork Range stars Wally Wales, who enjoyed a lengthy starring career in "B"-westerns before entering the character-actor ranks under the moniker of Hal Taliaferro. The star plays Wally Hamilton, virtually the only "good guy" in the aptly named community of Hangtown. After winning a stagecoach race, Wally makes short work of a band of marauding Indians, then rescues heroine Ruth Farrel (played by Tom Mix's daughter Ruth) from the clutches of the evil Black Bard (Al Ferguson). Saving the film from wallowing in a morass of cliches is the winning performance by Wally Wales, who invests his stock character with a refreshing sense of humor. Featured in the cast is ace stuntman Cliff Lyons, who undoubtedly had a hand in staging the film's Grade-A action sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wally Wales, Ruth Mix, (more)
Having signed for eight Westerns with poverty row entrepreneur E.W. Hammons, Ken Maynard went on to deliver a series of solid sagebrush entertainment despite non-existing budgets and filming on standing sets at the old, threadbare Tiffany lot on Sunset Boulevard. The opener, Dynamite ranch presented Ken as a cowboy falsely accused of safe-cracking.The robbery was actually committed by villainous foreman Park Owens (Alan Roscoe) but only the rancher's daughter, Doris (Ruth Hall), believes in his innocence. But even she turns against the cowboy when his glove is found on the crime scene. When the assistance of the rancher's accountant (Arthur Hoyt), Ken sets a trap for Owens and manages to clear his own good name. As a sign of changing times in Hollywood, former silent star Jack Perrin appears at the bottom of the cast-list playing one of Owens' henchmen. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard, Ruth Hall, (more)
- 1932
Leathery western hero Harry Carey is once more suspected of being an outlaw in The Night Rider. The title character is a mysterious figure who has been conducting raids on the local ranchers. Naturally, the townsfolk assume that strong, silent stranger Carey is the elusive Night Rider. Instead, Carey turns out to be an undercover law officer, dedicated to bringing the Rider to justice. A pre-"Gabby" George Hayes turns up as the ostensible comedy relief, who, like Carey, isn't all that he seems. Ironically, leading lady Elinor Fair was at one time the wife of William Boyd, who as Hopalong Cassidy teamed up with Gabby Hayes for a series of popular "B"-westerns in the 1930s and 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Carey, George "Gabby" Hayes, (more)
