LeRoy Mason Movies

Despite its title and the fact that it was made by Universal Studios, 1942's The Silver Bullet has nothing to do with werewolves. This is a western, starring Johnny Mack Brown as the hero and Fuzzy Knight as his comical sidekick. Brown seeks to avenge the death of his father, who was shot in the back by an unknown assailant. The only clue Brown has to go by is that his dad was killed by a silver bullet. And, no, the Lone Ranger didn't do it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It Happened in Flatbush is a likable baseball comedy inspired by the 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers' pennant win. Lloyd Nolan portrays an ace ballplayer who was disgraced while still in college and is only able to secure work as a team manager. He takes charge of an unnamed Brooklyn team and whips in into a World Series contender. The players resent Nolan's drill-sergeant tactics, and when Nolan falls in love with the pretty owner of the team (Carole Landis), the players use this as an excuse to circulate a petition demanding Nolan's ouster. The manager pays no attention to the petition and leads his team to a league pennant, finding time along the way to help out a trouble-prone young ballplayer (George Holmes) on the verge of throwing away his career. Bolstered by film clips of actual Dodgers games (including one in which an anxious fan jumps out of the stands and attacks the umpire), It Happened in Flatbush is an enjoyable second-feature effort. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

20th Century-Fox's The Man Who Wouldn't Die is based on No Coffin for the Corpse, a "Merlini the Great" mystery penned by Clayton Rawson. Alas, magician-sleuth Merlini has been reduced to an expository bit role, and the property has been converted into a "Michael Shayne" series entry. In the first scene, three men-industrialist Dudley Wolff (Paul Harvey), Wolff's secretary Dunning (Robert Emmet Keane) and research scientist Dr. Haggard (Henry Wilcoxon)-are shown disposing of a corpse in the dead of night. Shortly afterward, Wolff's daughter Catherine (Marjorie Weaver) shows up unexpectedly, with news of her recent marriage. Wolff and his confreres manage to keep their body-burying activities a secret from Catherine, but later that night her bedroom is invaded by a gun-wielding stranger-who happens to be the "body" buried in Scene One! Deducing that something is amiss, Catherine summons her old friend, detective Michael Shayne (Lloyd Nolan), to come to the Wolff mansion to investigate. So that Mike can move about without arousing suspicion, Catherine pretends that he's her new husband-which, of course, inevitably leads to chaos and confusion when the real hubby (Richard Derr) shows up. Before this happens, however, another murder takes place, apparently committed by that very active corpse, and it is this plus several randomly placed clues which prompts Mike to consult his magician pal Radini for advice. The suspect list includes Wolff's young wife Anne (Helene Reynolds) and Phillips the butler (Billy Bevan), while the "official" authorities are represented by bucolic Chief Meek (Olin Howlin) and dour coroner Larsen (Jeff Corey). More interesting for its supporting cast than its story, The Man Who Wouldn't Die is one of the lesser Michael Shayne mysteries, with Shayne seeming to be arbitrarily inserted in the proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this exciting western, a cowboy hero and his partner are en route to meet the hero's brother when they are waylaid by the new town marshal (a bad guy in disguise). The brother (the rightful marshal) has mysteriously vanished and when the evil lawman threatens them they high-tail it to the hills, feigning fright. They later begin investigating and discover that the hero's brother has been abducted by the villain and his gang, who have been stealing from the local gold miners. Guns blaze and fists fly as the good guy saves his brother and defeats his foes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Don "Red" Barry, Republic's answer to Jimmy Cagney, stars in The Apache Kid. Barry plays Pete Dawson, a pugnacious cowboy who dons a mask and becomes a stagecoach robber. It's all in a good cause, however: Dawson is stealing from the town boss (Leroy Mason) who has ripped off a group of miners. Heroine Lynn Merrick is the daughter of the local judge, so naturally she misunderstands Barry's motives, at least until fadeout time. Writer/director George Sherman managed to squeeze all of The Apache Kid into a zippy 56 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tim Holt plays a rancher named Drummond who runs up against a gang of crooked frontier land agents. When Drummond complains about land-office hanky panky, he's promptly framed for murder. Escaping the law, our hero exposes the real villains with the help of his saddle pals Smokey (Ray Whitley) and Whopper (Emmett Lynn). As proof that the cowboy-hero mantle at RKO Radio had definitely been passed from George O'Brien to Tim Holt, the latter inherits O'Brien's perennial leading lady Virginia Vale in Robbers on the Range. The musical portion of the program includes the stirring ballad "The Railroad's Coming to Town" (PS: It does). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ubiquitous 20th Century-Fox contractee Lynn Bari is the heroine of The Perfect Snob. Carefully raised by her social-climbing mother Martha (Charlotte Greenwood) to seek out a millionaire husband, debutante Chris Mason (Bari) throws herself at wealthy Freddie Browning (Alan Mowbray) during a Hawaiian vacation. But Chris secretly intends to follow the advise of her doctor father (Charles Ruggles) and marry for love rather than money. In this spirit, she pledges her troth to the handsome but apparently impoverished Mike Lord (Cornel Wilde). Much to everyone's surprise and delight, Mike turns out to be the owner of a thriving sugar plantation! Still several years removed from film stardom, Anthony Quinn goes through the "other man"paces generally reserved for Ralph Bellamy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As conceived, Monogram's On the Spot was meant to be purely a Frankie Darro vehicle, with black comedian Mantan Moreland as comedy relief. As filmed, however, On the Spot offered Darro and Moreland as costars, contributing equally to the film's plotline and entertainment value. The story shifts into gear when a mysterious stranger shows up in the small-town drugstore manned by soda jerk Frankie (Darro), then promptly expires after leaving an important message with Frankie and his assistant Jefferson (Moreland). Gangster Smiling Bill (Leroy Mason) shows up soon afterward, demanding that Frankie and Jefferson turn over the message-only to be knocked off himself by a mysterious assailant. Doing a bit of detective work on their own, our heroes discover that the double murder was linked with a recent bank heist, masteminded by?.well, best not to give away the surprisie ending. Former "Our Gang" star Mary Kornman provides the love interest, but the largest female role, that of a big-city insurance investigator, is essayed by Maxine Leslie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Donald Barry, not yet Donald "Red" Barry, heads the cast of the Republic western Ghost Valley Raiders. A federal marshal, Barry is assigned to put an end to the activities of a stagecoach-robbery gang. That's why he spends most of the film pretending to be an outlaw himself. Stunt specialist Yakima Canutt plays a secondary villain, and also doubles for Barry in the dicier action scenes. Ghost Valley Raiders goes through its familiar paces with the speed of summer lightning. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This "Three Mesquiteers" western entry stars Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke, Raymond Hatton as Rusty Joslin and Duncan Renaldo as Rico Rinaldo. Livingston also does double duty as the villain of the piece, a desperado known as The Laredo Kid. Working undercover for the Texas Rangers, Stony Brooke poses as the recently deceased Laredo Kid to get the goods on the latter's gang. The film's action highlight is a leap from a runaway stagecoach over a perilous cliff and into a raging stream-a bit of derring-do that popped up as stock footage in many a future Republic western. Handling the leading-lady duties is Rosella Towne, formerly with Warner Bros. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Ranger and the Lady stars Roy Rogers and Jacqueline Wells (aka Julie Bishop) in the title roles. Captain Colt (Rogers) of the Texas Rangers finds himself at odds with territorial administrator Kinkaid (Henry Brandon), left in charge of the Lone Star Territory while President Sam Houston is in Washington on important business. Kinkaid immediately begins acting like a sagebrush dictator, levying huge taxes on his fellow Texans and using an army of strong-arm thugs to enforce his restrictive new laws. Though loyal to Houston, Captain Colt eventually realizes that Kinkaid is hardly the right man for the job, leading to a noisy and violent denoument. Unlike the standard simpering western ingenues, heroine Jane (Wells), owner of a trading-service, fights side by side with Colt against the despotic Kinkaid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Seldom was the identity of a "mystery" villain so obvious than in the 15-chapter Columbia serial Overland With Kit Carson. Bill Elliot plays the title character, who teams with cavalry lieutenant Brent (Richard Fiske) to rid the West of the mysterious megalomaniac known only as "Pegleg." While on the job, Carson falls in love with Spanish aristocrat Carmelita (Iris Meredith), who like the rest of the cast is heading Westward by wagon train. As the expedition moves ever forward, the elusive Pegleg does his best to sabotage the wagons and kill off anyone who tumbles to his true identity. He needn't have gone to all that trouble: it won't be hard for the viewer to guess who the villain really is once the cast list of Overland with Kit Carson is flashed upon the screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Controversy over ancient Spanish land grants takes center stage in this exciting George O'Brien Western from RKO. Presented with an obviously phony survey, Don Aliso del Campo (Lucio Villegas) resists rancher John Courtney's (LeRoy Mason) demands that he vacate the ancestral range. Knocked unconscious in the ensuing struggle, Aliso recovers to learn that he has become the prime suspect in Courtney's murder. Smelling a rat, trouble shooter Wade Benton (O'Brien) cons dim-witted henchman Rance Potter (Glenn Strange) into revealing that Dan Wallace (William Royle), the Courtney foreman, killed his employer in order to marry the dead man's sister (Mary Field) and take over the property. With Don Aliso in hiding, Benton goes in search of evidence that will convict Wallace and his gang of thugs for the murder of Courtney. The Fighting Gringo was filmed at Chatsworth, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide