LeRoy Mason Movies
The quintessential "Big Boss" heavy in B-Westerns, with or without a mustache, LeRoy Mason entered films in the mid-'20s as Roy Mason, playing mostly juveniles. After the advent of talkies, he was usually on the wrong side of the law, appearing opposite nearly every Western star on the Hollywood prairie, a career that included quite a few action serials as well. By the 1940s, he had become one of the busiest character actors in Hollywood, switching from 20th Century Fox to Republic and back again with seemingly little time to recuperate. In 1943, he signed a "term player" contract with Republic and became busier than ever. The hectic schedule took an awful toll, however, when he suffered a fatal heart attack on the set of the 1947 Monte Hale Western California Firebrand. Mason was married to Rita Carewe, who briefly billed herself Rita Mason, a former actress and the daughter of silent screen director Edwin Carewe. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1926
Movie-serial maven Charles Hutchison handled the directorial responsibilities of the thrill-a-minute Flying High. While taking a joyride with his sweetie Alice Calhoun, daredevil pilot William Fairbanks witnesses the aerial hijacking of a mail plane. He gives chase after the bandits and recovers the stolen money sacks. But that's only the beginning: soon Fairbanks is mixed up with a Mata Hari type (Cecile Callahan) who is in turn involved with a gang of society thieves. The climax finds Fairbanks hopping from one plane to another in mid-air to rescue the heroine from the crooks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Fairbanks, Alice Calhoun, (more)
- 1924
In this, one of his half-dozen potboilers for Poverty Row producer William Steiner, former serial ace Charles Hutchison played Bruce Pomroy, a young bank teller framed in a bond theft scheme actually conceived by supposedly respectable bank president Paul Gilmore (Crauford Kent). Bruce escapes from jail and joins the gang of thieves headed by John Creighton (Otto Lederer). During another robbery attempt, Bruce rescues his girl (Mary Beth Milford) from the villains and reveals himself to be a Department of Justice agent in disguise. Turned Up was written by Frederick Chapin, the father-in-law of director William Wellman. Chapin's son James directed, his second-to-last film before dying from pneumonia at the age of only 25. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Hutchinson, Mary Beth Milford, (more)
