Betty Miles Movies

Replacing James Newell, country and western crooner Tex Ritter joins Dave "Tex" O'Brien and Guy Wilkerson in the last eight of PRC's "Texas Rangers" western series. In his initial effort, Ritter, as Sheriff Tex Haines, is again confronted with Bart Kern (I. Stanford Jolley) and his gang of cutthroats who once before terrorized the community of Red Rock and are now back for a second helping. Despite joining forces with Texas Rangers Dave Wyatt (O'Brien) and Panhandle Perkins (Wilkerson), Tex comes up short against Kern's trigger-happy gangsters. But when a henchman (Charles King) kills the town's mayor, Frank Merritt (Harry Harvey), in cold blood, Mrs. Merritt (Betty Miles) and telegraph owner Jane Deering (Patti McCarty) demand to be sworn in as Texas' first female rangers. To boost the morale of this inexperienced but ultimately victorious group of frontier lawmen and women, Tex sings his own and Robert McGimsey's "Please Remember Me" as well as Tim Spencer's "He's Gone Up the Trail" and "Ride, Ranger, Ride". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The fifth of Monogram's eight "Trail Blazers" Western, Westward Bound was set during the time of Montana gaining statehood. Property values are about to skyrocket and nasty banker Roger Caldwell (Harry Woods) conspire with tax collector Henry Wagner (Karl Hackett) to drive the local ranchers off their land. Enter the "Trail Blazers," Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson and Bob Steele, called in by rancher Jasper Tuttle (Hal Price) to investigate. Maynard infiltrates the gang and is elected marshal of Big Horn. Working from the inside, so to speak, he learns that the brain behind Caldwell and Wagner's scheme is Albert Lane (Weldon Heyburn), secretary to the Territorial Commission of Montana. Although severely outnumbered, the aging "Trail Blazers" manage to defeat the conspirators with a great deal of cunning and a couple of sticks of dynamite. The increasingly cantankerous Maynard reportedly took umbrage to Steele's participation and demanded his ouster. However, it was Maynard himself who was forced to leave -- after the sixth entry, Sonora Stagecoach (1944) -- to be replaced in the final two "Trail Blazers" Westerns by Chief Thundercloud. ~ 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

Tex Ritter's penultimate Western for Monogram -- and his second-to-last as a solo star -- Ridin' the Cherokee Trail featured no less than 13 musical numbers, several composed by Ritter and his sidekick Arkansas Slim Andrews. Surrounding all this warbling, screenwriter Edmond Kelso and director Spencer Gordon Bennet crafted a fine little story of a couple of Texas Rangers crossing into the lawless Cherokee Strip despite the fact that they lack jurisdiction. The area is terrorized by a gang of outlaws lead by Bradley Craven (Forrest Taylor, who consistently prevents the citizenry to hold an election to join the Union. Tex and Slim join the forces of rancher Wyatt (Fred Burns and his daughter Ruth (Betty Miles) and after several skirmishes -- during which Tex briefly goes undercover as an outlaw -- Craven and his gang are defeated. In gratitude, the citizenry elects Tex to hoist the first Union flag. In the music numbers, Ritter and Andrews were accompanied by The Tennessee Ramblers, a hayseed singing group popular with rural audiences. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this western, a rancher's son rides out for revenge against the rustlers who killed his father. The pursuit stretches between Montana to Arizona and it becomes more difficult because though the son knows the killer's name, he has never seen his face. Fortunately, the killer doesn't know what the son looks like either. Eventually the two come face to face, but neither recognizes the other until the story's end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this western, the good-guy battles his bad-guy double and his band of outlaws to protect a purty gal's ranch. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide