George O'Brien

John Ford's last western film, Cheyenne Autumn was allegedly produced to compensate for the hundreds of Native Americans who had bitten the dust in Ford's earlier films (that was the director's story, anyway). Set in 1887, the film recounts the defiant migration of 300 Cheyennes from their reservation in Oklahoma territory to their original home in Wyoming. They have done this at the behest of chiefs Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland), peaceful souls who have been driven to desperate measures because the US government has ignored their pleas for food and shelter. Since the Cheyennes' trek is in defiance of their treaty, Captain Thomas Archer (Richard Widmark), who agrees with the Indians in principle, reluctantly leads his troops in pursuit of the tribe. While there was never any intention to shed blood, the white press finds it politically expedient to distort the Cheyennes' action into a declaration of war. Thanks to the cruelties of such chauvinistic whites as Captain Oscar Wessels (Karl Malden), the Cheyennes are forced to defend themselves--and whenever Indians take arms against whites in the 1880s, it's usually misrepresented as a massacre. Only the intervention of US secretary of the interior Carl Schurz (Edward G. Robinson) prevents the hostilities from erupting into wholesale bloodshed. Based on a novel by Mari Sandoz, Cheyenne Autumn is a cinematic elegy--not only for the beleaguered Cheyennes, but for John Ford's fifty years in pictures. It is weakest when arbitrarily throwing in a wearisome romance between Richard Widmark and pacifistic schoolmarm Carroll Baker, who out of sympathy for the Indians has joined them in their 1500-mile westward journey. When the Warner Bros. people decided that the film ran too long, they chopped out the wholly unnecessary but very funny episode involving a poker-obsessed Wyatt Earp (James Stewart). Contrary to popular belief, this episode was included in the earliest non-roadshow prints of Cheyenne Autumn; the scene was excised only when the film went into its second and third runs in 1966 (it has since been restored). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy", She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is the only one of the three to be lensed in Technicolor. In an Oscar-calibre performance, 42-year old John Wayne plays sixtyish Cavalry Captain Nathan Brittles. In his last days before his compulsory retirement, Brittles must face the possibility of a full-scale attack from the Arapahos, fomented by the recent defeat of Custer and by double-dealing Indian agents. After a series of minor victories and major frustrations, Brittles decides to ride into the Arapaho camp, there to smoke a pipe of peace with his old friend, Chief Pony That Walks (Chief John Big Tree). Before he leaves, he is presented with his retirement present by his troops: a pocket watch, with the inscription "Lest We Forget"(Wayne's playing of this scene, barely holding back tears as he adjusts his spectacles to read the inscription, is one of his finest moments on film). Brittles is able to forestall an Indian attack, just in time for his official retirement. The film really ends here, but there are two more potential climaxes before the words THE END dissolve into view. The patchiness of the Frank Nugent/Lawrence Stallings screenplay (attributal to the fact that it is adapted from two different short stories) prevents She Wore a Yellow Ribbon from reaching the same lofty heights as the Ford/Wayne collaborations Fort Apache (1947) and Rio Grande (1949). The gratuitous offscreen narration of Irving Pichel is also rather distracting. Even so, Wayne's flawless performance, coupled with the supporting contributions of Ford's stock company (John Agar, Harry Carey Jr., Victor McLaglen et al) and the Academy Award-winning photography by Winston C. Hoch, automatically elevates She Wore a Yellow Ribbon to classic status. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Warner Bros. musical My Wild Irish Rose purports to tell the life story of popular 19th century balladeer Chauncey Olcott-or at least, the version set down by Olcott's daughter Rita. Starting his career in minstrel shows, Olcott (Dennis Morgan) is given his first break by stage luminary Lillian Russell (Andrea King), who casts him as her Broadway leading man. Though their relationship is platonic so far as Russell is concerned, the newspapers have a field day concocting an imaginary romance, driving a wedge between Olcott and his hometown sweetheart Rose Donovan (Arlene Dahl). No matter what his personal problems, Olcott rises to heretofore unimagined show-biz heights with his sentimental Irish ballads, including "A Little Bit of Heaven", "Mother Macree" and, of course, the title tune. I Love Lucy fans will be amused by the casting of a generously toupeed William Frawley as famed Irish tenor William Scanlan, who after his voice fails him generously passes the torch of celebrity to Olcott. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

George O'Brien's first 1940 western release, Legion of the Lawless uses its frontier trappings for a plea against vigilante justice-specifically, lynching. A group of masked night riders terrorize the homesteaders in the 19th century village of Iveston, all the while insisting that they're merely bringing law and order to the territory. Lawyer O'Brien thinks otherwise, and soon he's championing the cause of the beleaguered villagers. After exposing the criminal conspiracy in charge of the vigilantes, O'Brien throws the rascals out in a hale of gunfire. The film's highlight is a fistfight between hero O'Brien and secondary villain Monte Montague, which lasts a full two minutes! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cattle rancher George O'Brien, thinking that he's emptying his six shooters in the direction of rustlers, apparently kills one of his own ranchhands. To make amends, O'Brien joins up with the dead man's father in trying to corral the crooks. Turns out that O'Brien is innocent of the accidental killing, proof of which comes none too soon to patch up the relationship between George and the late ranchhand's sister (Virginia Vale). Bullet Code was one of the last of George O'Brien's budget westerns for RKO. He would soon gracefully hand over his holsters to new RKO cowboy Tim Holt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a real estate agent takes everything from a bank and then frames the banker for the crime. The evil agent then becomes the receiver for the institution and begins trying to foreclose on numerous ranchers. His nefarious plans are thwarted by a cowboy hero who brings justice to the crook, reinstates the real banker, and falls in love with his daughter as well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Originally designed for exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair, Land of Liberty is a 137-minute compendium of filmclips from past American historical epics. The project was sponsored by the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc. and supervised by Cecil B. DeMille, who also edited the film with the assistance of his crack Paramount production staff. The narration was written by old DeMille hands Jeannie MacPherson and Jesse Lasky Jr. and spoken by a talented team of uncredited announcers (one of whom sounded suspiciously like old C. B. himself). Clips from such Hollywood productions as America (1924), Abraham Lincoln (1930), Alexander Hamilton (1931), Show Boat (1936), Man of Conquest (1939) and DeMille's own The Plainsman (1936), The Buccaneer (1938) and Union Pacific (1939) are woven together into a chronological continuity, tracing American history from the Revolutionary War to the "present," which is largely represented by newsreel footage of President Roosevelt, the TVA project, and other current personalities and events. In later years, Land of Liberty was redistributed on the classroom circuit, with new footage added from historical dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In keeping with its up-to-date title, the 1939 George O'Brien western Racketeers of the Range is set in "contemporary" Arizona. The villains are a band of brigands who've infiltrated the meat-packing industry. Cattle rancher O'Brien certainly has his hands full in this one, attempting to find out who's responsible for the wholesale rustling of his stock and contending with modern gangster methods. The climax is an incredible but somehow believable chase involving a horse and a high-speed train, with O'Brien leaping from his mount and landing on the hurtling locomotive with nary a hair out of place. Even more enjoyable is an early scene in which our stalwart hero is seen dancing the jitterbug with heroine Marjorie Reynolds. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The old west collides with the new in this fine remake of RKO's 1932 Come On, Danger!. Or, rather, veteran RKO star George O'Brien is at odds with his eventual successor at the studio, Tim Holt -- at least part of the way. They play Texas Rangers assigned to bring in suspected murderess Judith Alvarez (Rita Hayworth). But young Holt, who gets himself fired for an altercation in the local cantina, defies his older colleague and instead joins Judith's band of renegades. O'Brien is sympathetic to Judith's claim that local political boss Ben Sanderson (William Royle) is usurping the local ranches by means of phony taxes, but maintains that the girl must make her argument in court. In the end, the greedy Sanderson shows his true face and Judith and her vigilantes are found innocent of all charges. In between the action -- which is fast and plentiful -- resident RKO balladeer Ray Whitley yodels "Move Slow, Little Doggie" by Willia Phelps, and Cecilia Callejo, as Holt's love interest, performs a Mexican dance. Borrowed from Columbia Pictures, a ravishing Rita Hayworth is not the usual placid prairie flower but takes an active part in all the ridin' and shootin'. After all, as her character explains, "I wouldn't have my men do anything I wouldn't do." Renegade Ranger was filmed a third time by RKO in 1943, under its original title, Come On, Danger!, and starring Tim Holt, now a full-fledged B-Western star. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Virile George O'Brien straddles the "western" and "crime-flick" genres in RKO Radio's Border G-Men. The plot gets under way when the FBI learns that ammunition and men are being smuggled out of the US and into Mexico in violation of the neutrality act. Federal agent O'Brien is dispatched to Texas to investigate, promptly falling in love with pretty Laraine Johnson (later billed as Laraine Day), whose brother is unwittingly mixed up with the smugglers. Villains John Miljan and Rita LaRoy, in the employ of an unnamed foreign power, use every dirty trick at their disposal to continue their nefarious activities, but O'Brien proves a bit too fast and a great deal too smart for them. Several trade papers applauded RKO Radio's marketing strategy with Border G-Man, which enabled the studio to promote the film as either a straightford western or an espionage adventure, depending upon the demands of the exhibitors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a federal martial is jumped and robbed while en route to Gunsight. He immediately follows the bandit, a gunfighter named Raven, to a poisoned watering hole. The outlaw, not knowing the water is tainted, drinks it and dies just as the lawman comes up. The marshal retrieves his stolen stuff and a valuable letter, that links the dead villain to an outlaw ring in town. Armed with this letter, the marshal impersonates the outlaw and is then able to round-up Gunsight's high-ranking crooks. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Movie cowboy Jeffrey Carson (George O'Brien) tries hard to live up to his image in this "backstage western." On location in Wyoming for a picture, Carson -- travelling incognito -- finds himself in the middle of a real-life range war, stirred up by eastern racketeers. When the advice of his screenwriter "Great" Gadsby Holmes (Joe Caits) fails him, our hero tackles the villains on his own, performing far more gallantly than ever he did on screen. As a reward, Carson wins the hand of pretty ranch owner Joyce Butler (Cecilia Parker), with the begrudging blessing of Joyce's Aunt Violet (Maude Eburne). Hollywood Cowboy was produced independently by George A. Hirliman, the same man previously responsible for O'Brien's more serious actioner Daniel Boone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide