Bob McKenzie Movies

Having drunk his way out of most of the major studios and not a few of the minor ones, cowboy star Ken Maynard had trouble finding work in the 1940s. Independent producer Walt Mattox came to the rescue in 1944 when he cast Maynard opposite young singing cowboy Eddie Dean, veteran comedy relief Max Terhune, and general-purpose actor Rocky Cameron in the cheaply assembled Harmony Trail. The plot concerns the efforts by marshal Cameron to locate a gang of bank robbers. He is given plenty of help in the form of Maynard, Dean and Terhune -- indeed, one observer noted that this was one film in which the good guys outnumbered the bad guys. Peddled on the States' Rights market for several years, Harmony Trail resurfaced in 1947, when Astor Pictures shipped out the film as The White Stallion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in two-toned Cinecolor, Romance of the West was the second of PRC's western vehicles for singing cowboy Eddie Dean. Our hero is cast as a government agent, bound and determined to prevent an Indian war. The villains are a gang of outlaws who are fomenting discord between the Indians and the white settlers for their own gain. The plan is to have both sides wipe each other out, so that the crooks can move in and claim the silver-rich land. Emmet Lynn, Dean's comedy relief, would be replaced in later entries by Roscoe Ates, all for the better. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Faced with the challenge of writing a screenplay based on the life of fabulously wealthy, fabulously successful composer Cole Porter, one Hollywood wag came up with a potential story angle: "How does the S.O.B. make his second million dollars?" By the time the Porter biopic Night and Day was released, the three-person scriptwriting team still hadn't come up with a compelling storyline, though the film had the decided advantages of star Cary Grant and all that great Porter music. Roughly covering the years 1912 to 1946, the story begins during Porter's undergraduate days at Yale University, where he participated in amateur theatricals under the tutelage of waspish professor Monty Woolley (who plays himself). Though Porter's inherited wealth could have kept him out of WWI, he insists upon signing up as an ambulance driver. While serving in France, he meets nurse Linda Lee (Alexis Smith), who will later become his wife. Focusing his attentions on Broadway and the London stage in the postwar years, Porter pens an unbroken string of hit songs, including "Just One of Those Things," "You're the Top," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Begin the Beguine," and the title number. The composition of this last-named song is one of the film's giddy highlights, as Porter, inspired by the "drip drip drip" of an outsized rainstorm, runs to the piano and cries "I think I've got it!" The film's dramatic conflict arises when Porter is crippled for life in a polo accident. Refusing to have his legs amputated, he makes an inspiring comeback, even prompting a WWI amputee to remark upon his courage! Corny and unreliable as biography, Night and Day is redeemed by the guest appearances of musical luminaries Mary Martin (doing a spirited if disappointingly demure version of her striptease number "My Heart Belongs to Daddy") and Ginny Simms, the latter cast as an ersatz Ethel Merman named Carole Hill. Jane Wyman, seen as Porter's pre-nuptial sweetheart Gracie Harris, also gets to sing and dance, and quite well indeed. Beset with production problems, not least of which was the ongoing animosity between star Grant and director Michael Curtiz, Night and Day managed to finish filming on schedule, and proved to be an audience favorite -- except for those "in the know" Broadwayites who were bemused over the fact that Cole Porter's well-known homosexuality was necessarily weaned from the screenplay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, the hero fights the bad guys by impersonating the son of a rancher. The outlaws have been making the good landowners pay fake taxes. Not only does the good guy succeed in catching the bad guys, he also catches himself the postmistress. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this patriotic two-reel comedy, the Three Stooges are labeled 4-F by the draft board, aiding the war effort instead by becoming farmers. Operating a run down ostrich ranch, the Stooges manage to catch a group of Japanese escapees. Rustic comedians Bob McKenzie and Emmett Lynn joined the Stooges in one of the team's lesser efforts. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In a rather desperate attempt to duplicate the success of Republic Pictures' Three Mesqueteers B-Western series, Monogram producer Robert Emmett Tansey hired tired veterans Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson to constitute the "Trail Blazers." Maynard and Gibson (playing themselves) are former lawmen hired to look into the disappearance of horses purchased by Commissioner Brent (I. Stanford Jolley) of the Southwestern Railroad Company. The seller of the herd, Betty Wallace (stunt rider Betty Miles), is unaware that her foreman, Tip (Glenn Strange), is also in the employ of Mel Carson (Ian Keith), a crooked saloon owner with interests in a stagecoach line whose existence is threatened by the railroad. Despite their expanding waistlines, Maynard and Gibson manage to catch the crooks and return the stolen horses, well assisted by young, law-spouting Sheriff Bob Tyler (Bob Baker). The latter, a former Universal star, was added to the cast to provide the necessary romantic sub-plot but the cantankerous Maynard disliked him so much that he was gone by the second instalment of the "Trail Blazers," The Law Rides Again. Maynard himself ended his long starring career after the sixth entry, Arizona Whirlwind (1944), replaced in the final two films by Chief Thundercloud. The initial two "Trail Blazers" films were helmed by Alvin J. Neitz (under the pseudonym of Alan James), and proved the final directorial work of this genre-specialist whose career dated back to the silent era. After the demise of the series, Hoot Gibson and new sidekick Bob Steele filmed another three Westerns for Monogram, often mistakenly referred to as "Trail Blazers" entries. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this western, a pair of ranchers tire of being oppressed by the excessive taxation an avaricious crook in possession of a bogus Spanish land grant and so set off to help their neighbors by emulating the rakish Robin Hood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

With a title like Jive Junction, this just has to be a wartime musical. In one of his few top-billed roles, teenaged actor Dickie Moore plays Peter, a student in a hidebound music conservatory. Rebelling against his old-fogey teachers, Peter organizes an all-girl swing band. When his father dies in the war, Peter overcomes his grief in true Mickey Rooney fashion, converting an old barn into "Jive Junction," a convivial gathering place for lonely servicemen. Much of the footage in Jive Junction is given over to newcomer Gerra Young, a pleasant and attractive singer who unfortunately never clicked in films. This standard B musical was directed by-of all people-cult favorite Edgar G. Ulmer! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fourth of five movie versions of the rugged Rex Beach novel of the same name, 1942's The Spoilers stars Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, and Randolph Scott. The plot, involving the cheating of Alaskan gold rush prospectors by a crooked gold commissioner, requires that Scott play a villain, Alexander McNamara. Prospector Roy Glennister (Wayne) is continually persecuted by McNamara, who has the law on his side, until the two decide to settle their dispute man-to-man in a spectacular reel-long fistfight. La Dietrich plays saloon-hall gal Cherry Mallote, who becomes the romantic bone of contention between Glennister and McNamara. William Farnum, who played John Wayne's role in the original 1914 filmization of The Spoilers, plays a key supporting role in this remake; also on hand in a cameo is poet Robert W. Service, of The Shooting of Dan McGrew fame. Listen for a cute inside joke at the beginning of the picture, invoking the name of co-producer Lee Marcus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Citadel of Crime was the original title of the Republic John Wayne vehicle which eventually emerged as A Man Betrayed (TV title: Wheel of Fortune). Never a studio to let anything go to waste, Republic redirected the cognomen Citadel of Crime to one of their minor but entertaining crime melodramas its original title was Ten Nights in Barroom). Don Ryan's well-honed screenplay unfolds the tale of a gang of mobsters trying to take over the various moonshine operations in the hills of West Virginia. To gain the confidence of the local hillbillies, the crooks send out Cal Fullerton (Robert Armstrong), a former moonshiner who's spent several years in "the rackets," as their advance man. The villains' plans are foiled by handsome revenuer Jim Rogers (Frank Albertson), likewise a true son of the Hills. Slickly produced, Citadel of Crime packs plenty of action in its brief 58 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Gene Autry Western, the valley is threatened by a weed capable of poisoning the cattle. When burning the range proves ineffectual, the local banker, Stacy Bromfield (Frank M. Thomas), sends for a government inspector in desperation. The inspector, played by Autry, quickly suggests spraying the area with a chemical. But the head of the cattlemen's organization, George Larrabee (Robert Homans), foolishly ignores the advice and almost suffers unimaginable consequences when his henchman Frenchy (Hugh Prosser) shoots down a crop duster. Autry, Smiley Burnette, and leading lady Fay McKenzie take time out from battling range weed to warble "Be Honest With Me," "I'll Be True While You're Gone," "Ridin' the Range," "Heebie Jeebie Blues," and the title tune. Sierra Sue was restored in 2001 by Gene Autry Entertainment. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

A wedding ceremony is rudely interrupted by a bank robbery next door, the bridegroom is shot and the best man is accused of being the culprit. All this takes place during the first five minutes of Triple Justice, George O'Brien's final western for RKO. Brad Henderson (O'Brien) is innocent, of course, but is forced to clear his good name and reputation by tracking down not only the three real bank robbers but also their secret boss, Deputy Sheriff Harry Woods). Along the way, Brad falls in love with lovely (Virginia Vale), the sister of neophyte outlaw Bud McTaggart), and finds himself the center of attention of three equally charming senoritas, (The Lindemann Sisters, who perform a couple of standard Mexican ballads. Miss Vale) also takes time out for a song, Fred Ross and Ray Whitley's "Lonely Rio. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The once-in-a-lifetime teaming of Mae West and W.C. Fields in My Little Chickadee had the potential for comic greatness: what emerged, though generally entertaining, was, in the words of critic Andrew Sarris, "more funny strange than funny ha-ha." Mae West dominates the film's first reel as Flowerbelle Lee, a self-reliant woman who is abducted by a mysterious masked bandit during a stagecoach holdup. Because she refuses to tell anyone what happened during her nocturnal rendezvous with the bandit, Flowerbelle is invited to leave her prudish hometown and move to Greasewood City. En route by train, Flowerbelle makes the acquaintance of con-artist Cuthbert J. Twillie (W.C. Fields), who carries a suitcase full of what seems to be large-denomination monetary notes. After a lively clash with marauding Indians, Flowerbelle tricks Twillie into a phony marriage; she does this so that she can arrive in Greasewood City with a modicum of respectability, and incidentally to get her hands on Twillie's bankroll. Once she discovers that Twillie's "fortune" consists of nothing but phony oil-well coupons, Flowerbelle refuses to allow Twillie into the bridal chamber (he unwittingly crawls into the marriage bed with a goat, muttering "Darling, have you changed your perfume?") Through a fluke, the cowardly Twillie is appointed sheriff of Greasewood City by town boss Joseph Calleila. The plot is put on hold for two reels while La West does a "schoolroom" routine with a class full of markedly overage students, and while Fields performs a bartender bit wherein he explains how he once knocked down the notorious Chicago Mollie. Jealous over the attentions paid to his "wife" by Calleila and honest newspaper-editor Dick Foran, Twillie decides to gain entry into his wife's boudoir by posing as the still-at-large masked bandit. His ruse is soon discovered by Flowerbelle, but the townsfolk capture Twillie as he makes his escape. They are about to lynch the hapless Twillie when Flowerbelle discovers that Calleia is the genuine masked bandit. She urges Calleia to save Twillie's life by making a surprise appearance at the lynching and by returning the money he's stolen. When all plot lines are ironed out, Flowerbelle and Twillie bid goodbye to one another. Borrowing a device utilized by ZaSu Pitts and Hugh Herbert in 1939's The Lady's From Kentucky, W.C. Fields invites Mae West to "come up and see me sometime," whereupon West appropriates Fields' tagline and calls him "My Little Chickadee." The script for this uneven comedy western was credited to Mae West and W.C. Fields, though in fact West was responsible for most of it. Fields willingly conceded this, noting that West had captured his character better than any other writer he'd ever met. Despite this seeming gallantry, it was no secret that West and Fields disliked each other intensely, a fact that had an injurious effect on their scenes together. My Little Chickadee has assumed legendary status thanks to its stars, and it certainly does deliver the laughs when necessary: still, it is hardly the best-ever vehicle for either Fields or West, two uniquely individual performers who should never have been required to duke it out for the same spotlight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide