Buck Moulton Movies

The paying customers got two Donald Barrys for the price of one in this typically well-mounted Republic Western directed with his customary vim and vigor by George Sherman. A petty criminal, The Sundown Kid (Barry number one), is persuaded by a gang of rustlers to change places with his lookalike brother, Bruce McKinnon, the town sheriff. Assuming his "sheriff's duties," the Kid, aka Jim McKinnon, gets in trouble with his girlfriend, Nita (Lupita Tovar), who jealously watches him courting Bruce's fiancée Ruth Morton (Lynn Merrick). Jim pacifies the seething Nita by telling her the truth, but when a minister turns up to marry "Bruce" and Ruth, she angrily betrays him. In the ensuing melee, Jim is mortally wounded, but manages to reconcile with his estranged brother before expiring. A fine actor in the James Cagney mold, Donald Barry (nicknamed "Red" for obvious reasons) convincingly portrayed the disparate brothers. In what was to become one of the longest partnerships in B-Western history, blond Lynn Merrick (formerly Marilyn Merrick) went on to do 15 additional Westerns opposite Barry. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The town of Vinegaroon, TX, is the home to Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan), who calls himself "The Only Law West of the Pecos." Bean keeps a saloon, where he also conducts trials, using his office to get fat on fines and the seizure of property, and hanging most of those who get in his way, sometimes more than one a day. Cole Hardin (Gary Cooper) is a saddle-tramp brought in on a charge of stealing a horse belonging to Bean's chief stooge, Chickenfoot (Paul Hurst). Hardin's conviction by a jury made up of Bean's hangers-on (with the undertaker, played with low-key comic zeal by Charles Halton, waiting eagerly for the verdict and the hanging) seems certain, despite his contention that he bought the horse from another man, until Hardin recognizes the judge's obsession with the English actress Lily Langtry. Hardin feigns having seen, met, and known Miss Langtry intimately, and he cons the judge into delaying the death sentence until Hardin can send for a lock of the actress' hair that he supposedly has in El Paso -- that's long enough for the real horse thief (Tom Tyler) to show up and get killed.

By the time the dust settles, the judge, for all of his warped sense of justice and corrupt nature, finds himself genuinely liking Hardin as something of a kindred spirit, as bold and daring as he was in his youth, and feeling something like friendship for him. But Bean also tries to shoot Hardin when he decides to cast his lot with the homesteaders, led by Jane-Ellen Mathews (Doris Davenport) and her father, Caliphet (Fred Stone), who have been fighting for survival against Bean and his cattle-rancher allies every step of the way. Hardin tries to appeal to the better nature within the judge, and also saves him from an attempted lynching, but when that fails, and a corn crop is burned and Mr. Mathews killed, he sees no choice but to take action. He gets an arrest warrant sworn out and is deputized by the county sheriff. Taking Bean in his saloon or anywhere in his town (renamed Langtry by the judge, in honor of the actress) is impossible, but then it's announced that Lily Langtry will be appearing in Texas, a long day's ride away from Bean's stronghold. The judge, dressed in his full Civil War regalia and with his men in tow, rides to see the performance while Hardin gets ready to try and arrest him. The kind of climactic shoot-out that follows has been done to death in the decades since, but it was something new and revelatory in a Western in 1940, and still plays beautifully on a dramatic level, capturing in full the complexity of the relationship between these two antagonists. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Veteran silent screen star William Farnum earns one of his more prominent talking picture roles in this otherwise standard Bob Steele Western from Supreme Pictures. Farnum plays Sheriff Bill Mason who, after being forced to shoot outlaw Ben Brokaw (Frank Ball), promises the dying man to look after his young daughter Mary (Reetsy Adams) and never to tell the girl the truth about her father's occupation. Disgusted with himself for having had to actually kill someone, Mason resigns from his sheriff's job and becomes a stage driver. Years later, Steve Brent (Earl Dwire), a former accomplice of Brokaw's, blackmails Bill into helping him rob the stagecoach. Enter Ray Burton (Steele), the young ranger who is in love with the now grownup Mary (Joan Barclay), and Brent's days in the sun are numbered. As usual, this Bob Steele Western was directed by the star's real-life father, Robert North Bradbury. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The 1932 Tom Mix western talkie Texas Bad Man has much in common with the sombre silent efforts by Mix's former rival William S. Hart. Lawman Mix deliberately cultivates a reputation as an outlaw in order to infiltrate a gang of thieves. What sets this one apart from most budget westerns of its period are the believable situations and three-dimensional characterizations. In particular, Willard Robertson as the head villain delivers a performance that under different circumstances might very well have earned him an Oscar nomination. Also worthy of praise is the cinematography, courtesy of longtime Tom Mix associate Daniel Clark. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A popular comedy duo towards the end of the silent era, Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatten once again join forces for this rollicking comedy concerning a pair of nitwits who unwittingly become embroiled in an age old feud between two mountain families. When snake-oil salesmen Pete (Beery) and Gus (Hatten) accidentally stumble directly into the battleground of the warring Hicks and Beagle clans, it appears as if our bumbling heroes may have hocked their last bottle of the elixir. Though Pete continually interrupts Gus in his attempts to perform his latest magic trick, Gus eventually gets his moment in the spotlight to predictably disastrous results. Will the feud finally be resolved by the prospect of an impending marriage between members of the warring clans, or Pete and Gus' lame brained antics simply serve to add more fuel to the fire? ~ All Movie Guide