Lafe [Lafayette] McKee Movies
White-haired Lafe McKee (real name, Lafayette McKee) was seemingly born old, dignified, and kind. Already playing old codgers by the mid-1910s, McKee delivered one of the funniest and most improbable moments in B-Western history, when, disguised as a bedraggled señorita, he sprang Ken Maynard from prison in Range Law (1931). "The Grand Old Man of Westerns," as film historian William K. Everson called him, retired in the early '40s after more than three decades of yeoman work opposite every cowboy hero on the Hollywood range, from Franklyn Farnum to Gary Cooper. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1935
Boss Cowboy was released by Superior Pictures-a misleading corporate name if ever there was one. Buddy Roosevelt plays a ranch foreman who has his hands full with a gang of rustlers. Roosevelt manages to get off a good shot at one of the rustlers, who drops dead on the spot. In truth, the rustler's killer was his disgruntled ex-partner, who has evil plans of his own. Boss Cowboy was directed by Victor Adamson, the father of notorious exploitation-flick-maven Al Adamson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Star Reb Russell was an all-American football player who tried to make it as a movie cowboy. There were three things standing in his way -- he couldn't act, he couldn't ride, and, even worse, he signed up with ultra-low-budget producer Willis Kent. After a series of westerns that went from bad, to worse, to atrocious, Russell faded from the scene. In this opus, he plays The Cheyenne Kid, who steps in when a group of cattlemen try to drive a sheepherder and his family off their own land. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Louis Weiss (of Poverty Row's Weiss Bros.) produced this commonplace B-Western starring one of the lesser names of the genre, Rex Lease. Falsely accused of horse-thieving and saved in the nick of time from a lynching party by decent gang leader Scarface (Dick Alexander), cowboy Bill (Lease) hightails it to the Texas Panhandle, where he obtains the job of foreman on the Barton ranch. The spread is about to be taken over by vicious Larkin (George Chesebro), who claims to have won it in a poker game with the late, lamented Pa Barton. With the help of Larkin's erstwhile girlfriend, saloon hostess Alice (Janet Morgan), Bill gets the goods on the villain, thus saving the ranch for Ma Barton (Adabelle Driver) (whose fine cooking is much discussed) and spirited young Bobby Barton (Bobby Nelson). Released by Poverty Row company Stage and Screen, The Cowboy and the Bandit was a reunion of sorts for several once-popular silent screen performers, including former cowboy heroes William Desmond, Bill Patton, Franklyn Farnum, Art Mix, and Wally Wales. Another survivor of silent films, leading lady Blanche Mehaffey, was so distressed at the downward turn her career was taking that she insisted on using a pseudonym, the aforementioned Janet Morgan. No one was fooled, however, and Mehaffey's career quickly came to an end. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Based on William Colt MacDonald's Law of the Forty-Fives, this ultra low-budget Beacon Western stars Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Al St. John as Tucson Smith and Stony Martin, a couple of drifters coming to the defense of elder rancher Hayden (Lafe McKee). Like their neighbors, the rancher and his pretty daughter, Jean (Molly O'Day), have been terrorized by a gang of land grabbers. Tucson and Stony quickly become suspicious of Hayden's attorney, Gordon Rentell (Ted Adams), who seems to know a great deal about the mysterious disappearance of British businessman Sir Henry Sheffield. When the latter (Broderick O'Farrell) is found imprisoned in Rentell's basement, the truth is revealed. Having learned that there is oil in the area, Rentell and his men have been systematically buying up land from their own victims. When the sheriff (Fred Burns) arrives to take Rentell and his men to jail, Tucson reveals that he has become a vigilante after his own father had been murdered. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Molly O'Day, (more)
- 1935
Rock bottom western film-making on all fronts, The Hawk starred Yancey Lane as Jay Price, a young man who learns from his dying mother that his estranged father, Jim King, has been searching for him for twenty years. Every year on Jay's birthday, a certified letter from Jim had remained unclaimed at the post office, Mrs. Price having been too proud to let her son in on her dark secret. Determined to be reunited with the father he never knew, Jay demands this year's letter from the post master. When he cannot prove his identity, Jay's claim is denied and he instead grabs the letter at gunpoint. King (Lafe McKee), meanwhile, is having problems with rustlers who, unbeknownst to Jim, are hired by ranch foreman Jeff Murdock (Rollo Dix). The latter accuses a phantom figure known as "The Hawk" for the crimes and the arrival of Jay confuses matters even further. Despite being wanted for jail theft, Jay gains the confidence of all and sundry and can finally reveal himself as Jim's long-lost son. While Jay and Betty (Betty Jordan), Jim's foster-daughter, embrace, Jeff Murdock, alias "The Hawk," is taken to jail by Sheriff Palmer (Henry Hall). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1935
In this Western, neighboring sheep farmers engage in a long-standing feud over that results in tragedy. The problem began when someone began stealing their livestock. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Charlotte Wynters, (more)
One of several poverty-row films which vanished from sight during the 1935-36 movie season, Beacon Productions did its best to stay afloat as long as possible with such potboilers as What Price Crime? Future cowboy hero Charles Starrett is cast as G-Man Allan Grey, hot on the trail of a gang of firearms smugglers. Going undercover, Grey poses as an aspiring prizefighter in order to gain the confidence of gang leader Douglas Worthington (Noel Madison). The plot becomes as thick as pea soup when our hero falls in love with Worthington's sister Sondra (played by Virginia Cherrill, previously the blind flower girl in Chaplin's City Lights). Despite its urban setting, much of What Price Crime was economically filmed out-of-doors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Starrett, Noel Madison, (more)
- 1935
The second of 18 Tom Tyler westerns produced by small-time company Reliable, this film starred the former silent screen cowboy as Tom Saunders, a young cowpoke who obtains a job on the Bar-L Guest and Dude Ranch. A series of cattle rustlings have forced ranch owner Dan Brooks (Lafe McKee) into accepting paying guests, and Tom is assigned to catch the leader of the gang. He proves to be Winthrop, the ranch foreman (Philo McCullough), who Tom -- after a great deal of shootin' and ridin' -- is able to bring to justice. Blonde Ruth Hiatt, a former Hal Roach Studio comedienne, co-starred as McKee's willful niece. Directed by producer Harry S. Webb (under the pseudonym "Henri Samuels"), Ridin' Thru is the kind of cheap B-western where a character listed in the credits under one name is addressed throughout the film by another. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1935
More a whodunit than a straight Western, this Tim McCoy series entry from Columbia featured a cowboy returning to his homestead to find his brother, the sheriff, killed and the family of his girl somehow involved. Dissatisfied with the investigation by newly appointed Sheriff Ludlow (Jack Clifford), Tim O'Neil (McCoy) discovers that Jed Harmon (Frank Sheridan), the father of Myra (Billie Seward), Tim's sweetheart, is being blackmailed by Kramer (Edward Earle). Ludlow, who is in cahoots with Kramer, arrests Jed but Tim helps the old man escape. Confessing in writing to an old crime, Jed is left alone when Tim is called out on an errand. Kramer enters the room and shoots Jed, making it look like a suicide. But Tim later demonstrates how Kramer could have left the body in a room bolted from the inside. There is a final confrontation between Tim and Kramer, which leaves the villain dead and Tim with a final resolution to avenge his brother's murder. As it turns out, Jed is still alive and proven innocent in the old charge of murder to which he earlier confessed. Tim McCoy's handsome sidekick in this and two subsequent Westerns, Robert Allen, would later star in his own B-Western series for Columbia. The Revenge Rider was remade by Columbia in 1938 as Riders of the Black River, a vehicle for McCoy's successor at the studio, Charles Starrett. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy
- 1935
Harry Carey's western series for bottom-of-the-barrel Ajax Pictures were definitely a mixed bag, but some were pretty good, and Last of the Clintons was even better. Carey is cast in the William S. Hart mold as frontier detective Trigger Carson. With stoic determination, Carson takes on a gang of cattle rustlers headed by the monstrous Luke Todd (Earl Dwire). An interesting subplot involves the kidnapping of heroine Edith Elkins (Betty Mack), who manages to reform her abductor (Del Carson) before any harm can be done. Only in its haphazard story construction and occasionally fuzzy photography does Last of the Clintons betray its poverty-row origins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Carey, Betty Mack, (more)
- 1935
"Queen of Camp" might be a more appropriate title for this unintentionally hilarious low-budget serial. It is the story of two childhood friends who are separated when the little girl Joan is taken away in a hot air balloon and dropped in darkest Africa where the natives hail her as the great White Goddess and make her ruler of their people. Meanwhile, her pal David spends his life looking for her. He eventually finds her, but maybe he wishes he hadn't because wherever she goes, trouble is sure to follow. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1935
The redoubtable Victor Adamson (aka Denver Dixon) got together a few hundred bucks, assigned the screenplay chores to his wife, Delores Booth, and persuaded old friend Buffalo Bill, Jr. to both star in and direct this embarrasingly inept oater, which was then dumped on an unsuspecting public by the ill-named Superior Talking Pictures. Bill (aka Jay Wilsey) had just helmed his first film, Trails of Adventure, and he apparently felt that there was no other way to go but up. He was wrong. Dedicated to "the riders of the U.S. Border Patrol," Riding Speed stars Buffalo Bill, Jr. as Steve Finney, a member of the patrol assigned to track down a gang of outlaws smuggling Chinese immigrants across from Mexico. Incognito, he obtains a job as ranch hand on John Vale's (Lafe McKee) spread and discovers that the foreman, Bill Dirky (Bud Osborne), is the head of the smugglers. With the assistance of Old Man Vale's annoyingly spunky daughter, Gypsy (Jolie Benet), Steve manages to bring the entire gang to justice in less than 50 minutes of screen time. Buffalo Bill, Jr.'s direction was typically lackluster and not noticeably different from the usual Victor Adamson product. In fact, how much he really directed is open to argument. Like Adamson himself, Bill apparently filmed everything in one take only. At one point in the film a crew member is clearly visible in the frame and in no particular hurry to get out. Not much in the story (credited to Ella May Cook) makes much sense and continuity seems to have been an unknown concept. Mrs. Adamson, screenwriter Delores Booth, briefly appears as a harlot, and Adamson himself, billed as Denver Dixon, plays one of the bandits. A former silent screen cowboy hero, Buffalo Bill, Jr. hit rock bottom with this film and billed himself Jay Wilsey thereafter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Although billed fourth, Veteran silent screen actor Franklyn Farnum is the real star of this ultra low-budget Western from the poorly named Superior Talking Pictures. Escaping from jail, Jim Bullard (Farnum) avenges himself on the thieving Raskobb clan by placing an ace of spade on every member he can kill. Enter the newly appointed deputy sheriff, Dave Danford (Rex Lease), who quickly finds himself in the crossfire between the warring Bullards and Raskobbs. The Ghost Rider and a subsequent Superior release, Cyclone of the Saddle (1935), were tagged as "Rough Rider" Westerns. Rex Lease and teenage rider Bobby Nelson co-starred in both. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Though filmed on a tight budget, Universal's Trail Drive has the size and scope of a silent western epic, proof positive of the production acumen of star Ken Maynard. The story concerns (what else) a cattle drive, with Maynard cast as head drover. The villains will stop at nothing to prevent our hero from completing his task, and this includes strapping Maynard to the door of cabin directly in the path of a cattle stampede. He manages to escape this peril in a manner that can conservatively be described as unbelievable. The script for Trail Drive is credited to director Alan James, but one suspects that much of it was improvised by Maynard, whose penchant for bizarre ad-libs was unmatched in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard, Cecilia Parker, (more)
- 1935
Released in the wake of the spooky The Big Calibre (1935), this Bob Steele Western featured the spectacle of a villain skinned alive as punishment for attempted rape. Scripted by director Robert North Bradbury (Steele's real-life father), Western Justice presented Steele as Ace, an apparent drifter coming to the aid of Rufe (Perry Murdock), who has been falsely accused of robbery. Searching for clues that will clear Rufe, Ace finds himself playing poker in a deserted cabin with Pancho Lopez (Julian Rivero, whose daughter died after being attacked by Clem Slade, the real robber, and the sheriff (Lafe McKee). The three of them agree to prospect together at Red Ford, AZ, where they find the community in the midst of a water dispute with nasty businessman John Brent (Jack Cowell). The latter's chief henchman proves to be none other than the wanted Clem Slade (Arthur Loft). Recognizing his daughter's betrayer, Pancho kills him in the gang's mountain hideout by skinning him alive. Ace, who reveals himself to be a lawman, captures Brent in an ambush and restores the town's water supply by dynamiting the mountain. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Steele, Renee Borden, (more)
- 1935
The second of Kermit Maynard's "Mountie" actioners for Ambassador Pictures, Northern Frontier was a major improvement on the first (The Fighting Trooper), which in itself wasn't such a bad picture either. On behalf of the Feds, Royal Mountie McKenzie (Maynard) joins a gang of counterfeiters. The story becomes a bit hard to believe at this point, since McKenzie is so clean-cut and heroic that it's a wonder the villains aren't tipped off to his true identity from the get-go. Magnificently photographed in Northern California, Northern Frontier was ostensibly based on a story by James Oliver Curwood (whose name was automatically attached to practically every Mountie movie ever made!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kermit Maynard, Eleanor Hunt, (more)
- 1935
In early 1930s, Monogram pictures held a virtual monopoly on the bucolic novels of Gene Stratton Porter. When Monogram absorbed by the new Republic Pictures in 1935, several Porter properties were included in the merger, among them the 1875 best-seller Keeper of the Bees. In one of her largest screen roles, Emma Dunn plays backwoods faith-healer Aunt Margot. In addition to her duties as county bookkeeper, the old woman is in charge of her daughter Molly (Betty Furness) and niece Scout (Edith Fellows), who loyally protect one another when trouble arises. The story proper gets under way when disillusioned artist Jamie (Neil Hamilton) has his will to live restored by the lovely Molly and her colorful family. Keeper of the Bees was remade virtually intact in 1947. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Neil Hamilton, Betty Furness, (more)
More of a whodunit than a straight Western, this Guinn "Big Boy" Williams vehicle from low-budget Beacon Pictures at least attempted something a bit different. Having just revised his will under the watchful eyes of lawyer Hartecker (William Gould), rancher John Duncan (Charles K. French turns down a proposal from neighbor Tap Smiley (Lafe McKee) to combine their properties. When Duncan's dog dies after eating pudding meant for his master, the old man suffers a heart attack. He has barely recovered from the shock when a masked intruder enters to finish him off with a bullet to the heart. John's son and heir, Tom (Williams), arrives to take control of the ranch and to search for his father's killer. The investigation leads directly to a gang of outlaws led by...? Well, that is the question, but Tom's detective methods ultimately reveal the identity of the masked intruder, a revelation than comes as something of a shock to the little community. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Constance Bergen, (more)
- 1935
A young John Wayne is charged with building a road into the title valley in this routine Western from Monogram. The building project, however, is constantly interrupted by LeRoy Mason and his gang who wants the valley in general and its rich mines in particular free from outside interference. Wayne, who is aided in his quest by grizzled old mail carrier George Hayes (who had yet to earn his famous nickname of "Gabby"), manages not only to build the road but also capture the nasty Mason, a rival for the affections of bleach blonde postmistress Lucile Browne, and his cohort, paroled convict Buffalo Bill Jr. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, LeRoy Mason, (more)
- 1935
Released in the wake of the bizarre Big Calibre (1935), this below-average Bob Steele Western directed by his father Robert North Bradbury stayed mainly on the straight and narrow. Thrown out of the family mining business by his stern father (Lafe McKee), ne'er-do-well Bob Bannister (Steele) jumps a freight train heading West. Forced at gun-point to change clothes with Apache Joe (Bill Patton), a fleeing criminal, Bob discovers that Apache is the member of a gang holding Bannister employee Jake Gibbons (Barney Furey) hostage in a cave. The mastermind behind the scheme is Bannister foreman Kincaid (Jack Cowell), who hires boxing promoter Spike Grogan (Kit Guard) as a bodyguard, unaware that Grogan is Bob's pal. When Kincaid kidnaps Theresa Mendoza (Renee Borden), Bob and Grogan take matters into their own hands and chase them down. The villain gets his just dessert and Bob is restored to his father's good graces. Kid Courageous was filmed simultaneous with the previous Steele effort, the aforementioned Western Justice and was the sixth of thirty-two Steele Westerns produced by A.W. Hackel's Supreme Pictures Corp. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Unlike most low-budget B-Westerns, several of Hoot Gibson's vehicles from Diversion Pictures were based on a literary source, in this case a pulp fiction novel by Colonel George B. Rodney. Helmed by former Our Gang director Robert McGowan, Frontier Justice presented Gibson as Brent Halston, a carefree cowboy whose father (Joseph W. Girard), a cattle rancher, has been committed to an insane asylum by a certain Dr. Close (Lloyd Ingraham). But as Brent discovers, the good doctor is operating as an agent for unscrupulous sheep owner Gilbert Ware (Dick Cramer), a megalomaniac who wants to drive the cattle ranchers off their lands. When Brent tries to interfere, Ware's even more unscrupulous partner John Wilton (Roger Williams) has him framed in the killing of a sheep farmer (Silver Tip Baker). About to be lynched by the vengeful sheep owners, Brent makes his escape, taking Ware hostage. Naturally, everything is neatly settled in the end when Wilton is exposed as the real murderer. Photographed by the veteran Paul Ivano, who had functioned as cinematographer on such silents as The Four Men of the Apocalypse (1921) and the notorious but handsomely mounted Queen Kelly) (1929), Frontier Justice was certainly better-looking than most inexpensive genre films, a fact that boded well for the remainder of Gibson's six Westerns for Diversion Pictures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson, Jane Barnes, (more)
- 1935
- NR
John Wayne's easy-going charm truly began to manifest itself in this, one of his later "Lone Star" Westerns for Monogram. Falsely accused of killing the paymaster (Henry Hall) of the Rattlesnake Gulch rodeo, John Scott (Wayne) and his girl-chasing partner Kansas Charlie (Eddy Chandler) trail the real killer, Pete (Al Ferguson), and his unwilling underling Jim (Paul Fix) to Poker City. Jim wants to go straight, but Pete blackmails him into robbing the stagecoach. John and Kansas, who are known in town as Jones and the Reverend Smith, are once again accused of the crime, but Jim helps them escape from jail. When the young bandit refuses to commit bank robbery, Pete shoots him in cold blood. The villain is caught by John and Kansas, whom Jim has cleared of all crimes on his deathbed. Besides one of Wayne's better early performances, The Desert Trail -- whose title bears no close scrutiny -- also benefitted from the presence of Frank Capra-regular Eddy Chandler, a rotund comic actor whose sparring here with Wayne is first-rate all the way. Paul Fix is equally good as the outlaw with a conscience and Mary Kornman, of Our Gang fame, is tolerable as the obligatory heroine. The Desert Trail was directed with easy assurance by the veteran Lewis D. Collins, who for some reason billed himself "Cullin Lewis." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Mary Kornman, (more)
