Bob McKenzie Movies

Smoke Tree Range represented another winning collaboration between cowboy hero Buck Jones and his favorite director Lesley Selander. A gang of cattle rustlers is at large, and Lee Cary (Buck Jones) aims to round 'em up and bring 'em in. He also champions the cause of heroine Nan Page (Muriel Evans) by searching for the men responsible for her father's murder. The villain of the piece is a two-bit dictator known as El Capitan (Donald Kirke), actually an American fugitive from justice named Wirt Stoner. If the plot is patchy at times, the action content more than makes up for any continuity gaps. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Clarence E. Mulford's Mesquite Jenkins, Tumbleweed from 1932, Heart of the West addresses the issue of fences on the hitherto free range. Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and Johnny Nelson (James Ellison) have been hired to head a cattle drive by Trumbull (Sidney Blackmer), but then learn that their would-be employer is waging a war against young rancher Jim Jordan (Charles Martin). The latter is erecting fences on his part of the range in order to keep his cattle pure. At first, Hoppy is less than willing to accept Jim's offer of a job, but he agrees once it becomes clear that Trumbull has been using Jim's Black Valley as a safe conduit for cattle rustlings. Heart of the West, which came complete with a title song by Sam Coslow and Victor Young, was partially filmed along California's Kern River. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Robert Allen isn't particularly "reckless" in this rather pedestrian Western, which had the gall to cast the non-actor in dual roles. When Jim Allen (Allen number one) is lynched, his identical twin brother Bob (Allen number two), a Texas Ranger, takes his place in an attempt to flush out the man responsible. He proves to be one Barlowe (Harry Woods), a cattle baron who has hired a gang of ruffians to intimidate the local sheepherders. But when one of the gang members, Mort (Jack Rockwell), escapes from the law, the game is up and Bob's real identity is revealed. Attempting to warn her beau, pretty Mildred Newton (Louise Small) is abducted along with the late Jim Allen's young son, Jimmy (Buddy Cox). The latter, however, manages to free himself and while Bob hunts down the evil Barlowe. The sheep men, lead by Mildred's brother, Chet (Jack Perrin), bring the rest of the gang to justice. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

One of the better Pinky Tomlin vehicles for low-budget Ambassador films, With Love and Kisses casts the bespectacled crooner as Arkansas farm boy "Spec" Higgins. An acknowledged genius at composing hit tunes, Higgins works under a handicap: he can only write his ditties in the company of his pet cow Minnie. Unwilling to head to the big city, our hero is forced to do so when radio crooner Don Gray (Kane Richmond) claims authorship of one of Higgin's best songs. The irresistibly cute Toby Wing (then Tomlin's off-screen sweetie) is delightful as female vocalist Barbara Holbrook, while inimitable movie drunk Arthur Housman essays one of his largest screen roles as an imbibing radio sponsor with a very selective memory (shades of the inebriated millionaire in Chaplin's City Lights). Among the screenwriters for With Love and Kisses was a young Morey Amsterdam. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ken Maynard saves Geneva Mitchell from a runaway coach in the opening of this so-so Columbia western. The victim of a stage hold-up, Geneva is mighty grateful but her banker father (John Ince) is only too willing to believe uncouth Charles "Slim" Whitaker when he fingers Ken as the master-mind behind the latest outrage, a bank heist. Geneva, meanwhile, has recognized nasty Harry Woods) as the real culprit of both stage holdup and bank robbery and promptly gets herself kidnapped. With Ken behind bars, help is a bit slow in coming but the bad guys are corralled in due time and peace is finally restored to the town of Santana. Sidekick Guy Wilkerson takes time out to serenade a winsome Indian maiden -- three times! -- and even Maynard is allowed to warble a campfire tune or two, more's the pity. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In his final Western for low-budget Diversion Pictures, veteran cowboy ace Hoot Gibson plays a pony express rider who discovers that his worst enemy is his own long-lost brother. As a child, Clint Knox (Jerry Tucker), and his mother Martha (Nina Guilbert), escaped a gang of bandits who killed Mr. Knox Steve Clark and abducted Clint's brother Ace (Barry Downing). Eleven years later, the adult Clint (Hoot Gibson), now a pony express rider, is ambushed by Ace (Rex Lease), a road agent who also robs a stage carrying Martha and pretty Mary Chrisman (Marion Shilling). In the ensuing gunfight, Clint's life is saved when his pocket bible stops one of Ace's bullet. But when Ace, now Clint's prisoner, recites an illegible inscription in the book, Clint realizes that he is his brother. At the trial, Clint successfully convinces the jury to acquit Ace because of the young man's harsh upbringing in the hands of his kidnappers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The MGM historical "spectacular" San Francisco was allegedly based on a three-sentence synopsis, submitted verbally to producer B.F. Zeidman by studio troubleshooter Bob Hopkins. The story begins on the Barbary Coast on New Year's Eve, 1906, as rakish but likeable political boss Blackie Norton (Clark Gable) hires demure young singer Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) to perform at his rowdy Paradise gambling house. Local priest Father Mullin (Spencer Tracy), Blackie's best friend, disapproves of the exploitation of the lovely Mary, feeling that she's suited for classier surroundings. Jack Hurley (Jack Holt), Nob Hill socialite and Blackie's political rival, agrees with Father Mullin and offers the girl the opportunity to sing with the San Francisco Opera. Blackie, who's fallen in love with Mary but won't admit it to himself, jealously holds on to her contract, forcing Mary to walk out on him. For the rest of the film, Mary is torn between the "respectable" lifestyle offered her by Hurley and the baser creature comforts provided by Blackie. It looks for a while that Hurley has won out, but fate takes a hand in the form of the devastating San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906 (a special effects tour de force for art directors Arnold Gillespie and his uncredited associate James Basevi). Hurley is killed in the holocaust, while Blackie, desperately searching for Mary in the rubble, at long last finds religion and prays to God for his sweetheart's salvation. At the end, an unidentified bit player shouts defiantly "We'll build a new San Francisco!" -- and by golly, they do! The Hollywood censors were not so much bothered by the sexual subtext of San Francisco or its harrowing earthquake finale as they were by a scene in which Father Mullin is knocked down by an unrepentant Blackie. To "purify" this potentially blasphemous sequence, screenwriter Anita Loos quickly added an earlier scene in which Mullin and Blackie, both dressed in turtleneck sweaters, genially duke it out at an exercise gym, whereupon the priest cold-cocks Blackie with the greatest of ease. By establishing that Mullin could have punched out Blackie, but chooses not to in the controversial later scene, not only allows that scene to pass, but also strengthened the priest's character. San Francisco proved to be one of MGM's biggest hits, remaining in almost constant reissue for the next three decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Western favorite Bob Steele stars as Sundown Saunders, so named because of his remarkable ability to win at poker just at the moment when the sun goes down. Winning 640 acres of land in a pony race, Saunders leaves cards and chips behind to take charge of his property. He doesn't yet know that his is the finest grazing land in the territory -- but the villainous Taggart (Ed Cassidy) does know, and he does everything in his power to drive Saunders off the land. Even worse, Taggart is a backshooter, and Saunders had just turned his back! Sundown Saunders is an oddity in the Bob Steele canon, in that the hero's father isn't murdered. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arguably the best of Hoot Gibson's six Westerns for small-scale producer Walter Futter's Diversion Pictures, Lucky Terror once again presents the veteran star as a carefree drifter falsely accused of murder. This time, the victim is Jim Thornton (George Chesebro), a thief whose pockets are filled with gold. Arrested by the rotund sheriff (Robert Mckenzie), Lucky (Gibson) is defended in court by none other than Charles King, the veteran Bad Guy here playing an alcoholic shyster. King judicial advise to Lucky is to simply flee, which is exactly what our hero does. In the end, Thornton's death is declared an accident and Lucky catches the villains who had been terrorizing Lona Andre's Bonanza gold-mine. Comedy relief is this time provided by veteran silent screen actor Charles Hill Mailes (here billed simply "Charles Hill") as a traveling medicine show proprietor, and Frank Yaconelli as an Italian musician. Like most members of the cast, director Alan James also belonged to the silent era, where he had been billed under his real name, Alvin J. Neitz. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The victim of an express office hold-up, a young boy (Bobby Nelson) is saved by yet another Rin Tin Tin wannabe in this incredibly cheap little action-thriller. Having lost not only his father, but also his pet dog in the express office carnage, Bobby is befriended by prospector Jack Hall (Kane Richmond) and his police dog, Thunderbolt (Lobo). The latter comes to the rescue when Bobby finds himself trapped in a burning cabin with the very same murderous outlaws (Hank Bell and Barney Furey) who killed his father. Thunderbolt was produced by Sherman Krellberg, a Poverty Row veteran best remembered for co-financing the cult classic White Zombie (1934). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Battling Hoofer is the reissue title of the 1936 James Cagney vehicle Something to Sing About. Cagney plays Terry Rooney, a New York bandleader who heads to Hollywood when he is offered a movie contract. The down-to-Earth Rooney resists the "star treatment," an attitude misinterpreted by movie executive Bennett O. Regan (Gene Lockhart) as arrogance. When Terry's first film is a hit, Regan orders everyone involved to keep its success a secret from Terry, lest he develop a swelled head! (We don't believe it either.) The best sequence has Rooney chewing out his Asian houseboy, Ito (Philip Ahn), whereupon he drops his "So solly" pidgin English and begins talking like a Harvard professor! Terry gets to romance newcomer Evelyn Daw, as well as veteran vamp Mona Barrie; he also gets to participate in several lively dance numbers. Something to Sing About was the second of Jimmy Cagney's films for Poverty Row studio Grand National: the production values and snappy script work that he might have enjoyed at Warner Bros. are noticeably lacking, but Cagney is always fun to watch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed simultaneously with the earlier release No Man's Range (1935), this Bob Steele Western featured the diminutive hero as John Clark, a young drifter who comes to the aid of beleaguered U.S. marshal Blyth (Jack Rockwell), who has been shooting it out with a gang of outlaws. Wounded but still alive, Blyth deputizes Clark and assigns him to capture the notorious Kootney Kid gang. The Kid (Earl Dwire) has intercepted a letter proclaiming John the heir to a piece of oil-rich land, and plans to obtain the property himself. John, meanwhile, is arrested for murdering the missing Marshal Blyth but escapes along with sidekick Bootch McCrumb (Buck Connors). The two witness the Kid kill his henchman, Simi (Steve Clark), and with the assistance of the recovered Blyth, they manage to clear John's name and bring the murderer to justice. Directed by the star's father, Robert North Bradbury, this Bob Steele Western was produced by A.W. Hackel for release by Supreme Pictures Corp. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide