Bud Osborne Movies
One of the most popular, and recognizable, character actors in B-Western history, pudgy, mustachioed Bud Osborne (real name Leonard Miles Osborne) was one of the many Wild West show performers who parlayed their experiences into lengthy screen careers. Especially noted for his handling of runaway stagecoaches and buckboards, Osborne began as a stunt performer with Thomas Ince's King-Bee company around 1912, and by the 1920s he had become one of the busiest supporting players in the business. Rather rakish-looking in his earlier years, the still slender Osborne even attempted to become a Western star in his own right. Produced by the Bud Osborne Feature Film Company and released by low-budget Truart Pictures, The Prairie Mystery (1922) presented Osborne as a romantic leading man opposite B-movie regular Pauline Curley. Few saw this little clunker, however, and Osborne quickly returned to the ranks of supporting cowboys, often portraying despicable villains with names like Satan Saunders, Piute Sam, or Bull McKee. Playing an escaped convict masquerading as a circuit rider in both the 1923 Leo Maloney short Double Cinched and Shootin' Square, a 1924 Jack Perrin feature Western, Osborne even demonstrated an affinity for comedy. The now veteran Bud Osborne continued his screen career into the sound era and became even busier in the 1930s and 1940s. As he grew older and his waistline expanded, Osborne's roles became somewhat smaller and instead of calling the shots himself, as he often had in the silent era, he now answered to the likes of Roy Barcroft and Charles King. But he seems to pop up in every other B-Western and serial released in those years, appearing in more than 65 productions for Republic Pictures alone. By the 1950s, the now elderly Osborne became one of the many veteran performers courted by maverick filmmaker Edward D. Wood Jr., for whom he did Crossroad Avenger: The Adventures of the Tucson Kid (1954), an unsold television pilot, Jailbait (1954), Bride of the Monster (1955), and Night of the Ghouls (1958). When all is said and done, it was a rather dismal finish to a colorful career. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi- 1962
Mexican general Ortega (Gerald Price) hires Paladin (Richard Boone) to help him on a most unusual mission. In search of millions of dollars' worth of missing government bonds, Ortega must arrange a meeting with Count Casares (Jay Novello), the exiled aristocrat suspected of absconding with the loot. Paladin is supposed to handle the diplomatic details of this meeting with a minimum of muss and fuss--but inevitably, pistols are drawn and tempers boil over. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1962
The word "dysfunctional" hardly begins to describe the condition of the murderous Coombs family. Conducting his own "survival encounter", sadistic patriarch Avery Coombs (Kent Smith) has ordered his son Jayce (Richard Rust) to attempt to track down and kill his other son Tully (Buzz Martin). Managing to escape his family's clutches, Tully asks Paladin (Richard Boone) to help him stay alive. But Avery warns Paladin to mind his own business--or risk being hunted and killed himself. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1961
En route to Denver, Bart (Jack Kelly) finds himself sharing a stagecoach with a curious assortment of passengers, including a woman (Suzanne Lloyd) searching for her fiancee, a taciturn gunman (Hampton Fancher) and an overly friendly undertaker (Maurice Manson). Stopping at a way station, the passengers unwittingly fall into the clutches of homicidal outlaw Nero Lyme (Buddy Ebsen) and his equally murderous family. Realizing that everyone is in danger, Bart tries to tip off one of the passengers that the Lymes intend to kill them all; unfortunately, that passenger promptly betrays Bart to Nero Lyme. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1961
Paladin (Richard Boone) is intrigued when his morning mail yields one-half of a $500 bill and a stagecoach ticket to Yuma, Arizona. En route to Yuma, Paladin finds that he has been snared in a death-trap, courtesy of Mexican bandit Solomon (Anthony Caruso). The other stagecoach passengers are held at gunpoint by Solomon's cohorts--and it is up to Paladin to determine who will live and who will die. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1960
Paladin (Richard Boone) gallantly agrees to protect baby-faced Jenny Lake (Ellen Clark) against a man named Wilson (Peter Leeds), whom Jenny claims is an unwanted suitor. In short order, Wilson manages to bushwack Paladin--who promptly returns the favor and follows Jenny to a den of counterfeiters. It turns out that Wilson wasn't a "masher" at all...nor is sweet little Jenny all that she appears to be. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1960
Young Billy Walker (Wesley Lau) is accused of murdering the wife of Marshal Dowd (Claude Akins). Walker's employers, the Cartwrights, hope that Billy will get a fair trial, but it soon becomes obvious that Dowd intends to kill the boy before the case can be heard. Thus it is that Adam and Hoss appoint themselves escorts when Dowd transports Walker to Los Angeles for trial. Others in the cast included Fintan Meyler as Andrea, Ron Hayes as Hurd Cutler, John Wengraf as Dr. Strasser, Bud Osborne as Charlie, and Will Wright as Bailey. Written by Donald S. Sanford, "Desert Justice" was first aired on February 20, 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, (more)
Night of the Ghouls (which was also known as Revenge of the Dead) was Edward D. Wood Jr.'s first attempt at making a horror film without any contribution, either in a true performance or through the presence of archival footage, from Bela Lugosi, who had died three years earlier. The plot, which was as confusing as most of Wood's scripts, seems to make it a sequel to Bride of the Monster and, to a lesser degree, Plan 9 From Outer Space, incorporating events and characters from both, including Paul Marco's portrayal of the ubiquitous Officer Kelton. (Indeed, some Wood scholars have referred to the three movies as a group as "the Kelton trilogy," since he is the only character to turn up essentially the same in all three films.) Duke Moore, who portrayed the detective lieutenant in Plan 9 From Outer Space, is back in this film, and now he seems to be identified as a specialist in bizarre and unusual cases, making him sort of Ed Wood's distant precursor to The X Files' agent Fox Mulder and The Night Stalker's Carl Kolchak. This time there are strange goings-on, including disappearances and ghostly apparitions, at a mysterious house in a remote part of town. It turns out that this is the same house (rebuilt) and the same locale where Bela Lugosi's mad scientist was creating zombies in Bride of the Monster, and that Tor Johnson's Lobo is still there, somewhat the worse for wear. Instead of a mad scientist, however, the man behind the mayhem is a phony mystic named Dr. Acula, played by ex-cowboy actor Kenne Duncan. None of it makes too much sense, as though anyone needs to be told that, knowing that this was an Ed Wood movie, but parts of it are fun in that unique way that Wood's movies can be -- the strange word usages and dialogue patterns, as well as odd characterizations, mismatched shots, and incomprehensible plot elements all weave their eerie spell on the viewer willing to absorb them. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- Starring:
- Criswell, Kenne Duncan, (more)
- 1959
This is the celebrated Maverick spoof of Jack Webb's Dragnet, complete with deadpan narration by protagonist Bret Maverick (James Garner). Travelling by stagecoach to the town of Apocalypse, Bret is in the middle of a blackjack game with a tinhorn gambler (John Vivyan) when the coach is held up an effusively friendly masked bandit, who wears distinctively colorful bandana. Subsequently endeavoring to recover his stolen money, Bret follows the trail of clues to a whiskey-loving cowpoke named Johnny Rain (William Reynolds), who honestly can't remember if he has been robbing stagecoaches while drunk. Dance hall gal Millie Reid (Dolores Donlon) is a key player in the "Just the facts, ma'am" intrigue. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1959
Gary Cooper plays a frontier doctor with a checkered past who works in a rowdy Montana mining camp. Cooper falls in love with Maria Schell, a young Swiss girl whom he has treated for shock after she was the victim of a holdup. He finances Schell's grubstake, which makes her rich. When Schell's unscrupulous partner Karl Malden tries to have his way with the girl, Cooper kills Malden. Sentenced to an immediate hanging, Cooper is saved when Schell offers to give the town her valuable mine. A surprise hit in 1959, The Hanging Tree was based on an award-winning novel by Dorothy M. Johnson. The film not only yielded a hit theme song by Mack David and Jerry Livingston, but also served as the film debut of George C. Scott, who plays Cooper's doctor predecessor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Maria Schell, (more)
- 1958
On the verge of starting a business with Walter Osbourne (John Vivyan) in Mexico, Bart (Jack Kelly) discovers that all his money has been stolen by can-can dancer Karen Gustavson (Anna-Lisa). Tracking the girl down, Bart is not entirely convinced when Karen insists that the grabbed the cash in order to save his life. But when two sinister strangers express an interest in the money as well, Bart begins to believe Karen's story. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1958
In this Western, a rancher must perform a robbery lest the outlaw chief that holds his wounded brother hostage lets him die. The rancher does the job, then escapes to Mexico with his girl. En route, they marry. They soon find a cabin in the middle of Indian country. The Apaches had killed all the occupants, save for one baby. The couple begins raising the child. Soon the posse arrives to take the rancher back. He is charged with a murder that occurred during the heist. Later they realize that he is innocent and they protect him from another Apache attack. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brian Donlevy, Eilene Janssen, (more)
- 1957
Edward Bernds, graduate of Columbia's "Three Stooges" shorts and Allied Artists' "Bowery Boys" epics, expertly guides The Storm Rider through its paces. Scott Brady plays an ex-gunslinger who is hired by a group of ranchers to protect them from covetous land baron Roy Engel. Unbeknownst to the ranchers, Brady is the killer of their former leader. Emotional complications ensue when Brady falls in love with Mala Powers, the widow of the man he killed. The film's ending upholds the uncompromising integrity of the rest of The Storm Rider. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Scott Brady, Mala Powers, (more)
- 1957
Originally titled Man of the West (the name of the Philip Yordan novel on which it was based), Gun Glory was rechristened to avoid confusion with a like-vintage Gary Cooper vehicle of the same title. Stewart Granger plays gunslinger/gambler Tom Early, who tries a bit too late to make amends for past misdeeds. Hoping to regain the respect of his community in general and his teenaged son Young Tom (Steve Rowland) in particular, Early vows to hang up his guns and live a respectable life. This proves well nigh impossible when the community is threatened by the incursions of evil cattle baron Grimsell (James Gregory). Rhonda Fleming costars as Jo, the only person in town who truly cares whether Early lives or dies. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stewart Granger, Rhonda Fleming, (more)
- 1957
One of the least-known of the American-International "B" westerns of the 1950s, Flesh and the Spur offers the spectacle of the inimitable John Agar in a dual role. When his twin brother Mathew is killed, Luke Random goes gunnin' for his brother's murderer. Along the way, he teams up with gunslinger Stacey (Touch Connors, aka Mike Connors), who is also seeking out an old enemy. Five points to anyone who guesses before the fadeout who Mathew Random's killer turns out to be. Written by A-I regular Charles B. Griffith, Flesh and the Spur was originally released on a double bill with Naked Paradise. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Agar, Marla English, (more)
- 1956
The catch-all title Tribute to a Bad Man had been floating around MGM for years (at one point, it was the working title for The Bad and the Beautiful) before it was finally affixed to this big-budget western. Originally intended as a vehicle for Spencer Tracy, the film was recast with James Cagney when Tracy walked out of his MGM contract. Cagney stars as no-nonsense land baron Jeremy Rodock, who plays by his own rules, his own sense of justice and his own code of honor. Young cowhand Steve Miller (Don Dubbins) learns the hard way what it means to incur Rodock's wrath when he falls in love with Jocasta Constantine (Irene Papas), whom Rodock considers his own personal property. Through the example of the even-tempered Miller, however, Rodock rediscovers his own essential humanity. The film's "money scene" takes place when Rodock punishes a group of scraggly horse thieves by forcing them to march barefoot through the sagebrush. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Don Dubbins, (more)
- 1956
- NR
In this western, a pacifistic store owner does all he can to avoid association with his father, a notorious gunfighter. One day he gets drunk and shows off his own considerable skills with a pistol. Unfortunately, this attracts the attention of the man who fancies himself the town's fastest draw and he heads to the store for a little confrontation. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, (more)
- 1956
The second-to-last American serial ever made, this film series very uneasily combined two popular genres: The Northwest Mounted Police melodrama and Science Fiction. The mix of Medicine Men and airplane dog fights were too ridiculous even for the small fry who, by the '50s, had become the sole audience for this sort of fare. Dennis Moore played an undercover deputy marshal posing as an outlaw in order to infiltrate a gang headed by the nefarious Kenneth MacDonald, a self-styled "Gun Emperor of the Northwest," whose stirring up of the Indians proves a diversion from his smuggling activities. A dark-haired, tight-lipped also-ran cowboy star of the late '40s, Dennis Moore earned the dubious distinction of starring in the two last action serials made in America: Perils of the Wilderness and Blazing the Overland Trail, both low budget affairs heavily padded with stock footage from the genre's glory days in the '30s and '40s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
The Solid Gold Cadillac was adapted from the George S. Kaufman-Howard Teichmann Broadway hit of the same. Both the play and film were predicated upon the notion of a humble ten-share stockholder triumphing over a corrupt big-business board of directors, but there was one significant difference. In the stage version, septuagenarian Josephine Hull starred as Laura Partridge, a sweet little old lady who asks several embarrassing questions at a stockholder's meeting. In the film version, Laura's age is lowered by at least four decades to accommodate star Judy Holliday. In both versions, a romance develops between Laura Partridge and Edward L. McKeever, the owner of the corporation she takes on. McKeever (played in the film by Paul Douglas, Holliday's co-star in the Broadway version of Born Yesterday) is an honest man, which is more than can be said for his self-serving board of directors (Fred Clark, John Williams, Ray Collins et. al.) With McKeever's covert help, Laura, who has been given a dummy executive position in the corporation in hopes that she'll shut up, forms a stockholder's association intent upon throwing the rascals out. Though the dialogue in Solid Gold Cadillac is consistently entertaining, the film's best line goes to Judy Holliday: Describing her brief career as an actress in a Shakespearean troupe, she recalls ruefully that "No one's allowed to sit down unless you're a king." George Burns, taking over from the stage version's Fred Allen, provides the wry scene-setting narration. Currently available TV prints of The Solid Gold Cadillac have restored the original Technicolor final shot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Judy Holliday, Paul Douglas, (more)
- 1955
A long-awaited sequel to Columbia Pictures' popular The Phantom (1943), this film was produced by legendary Hollywood cheapskate Sam Katzman. Katzman refused to pay the owners of the character, King Features, their royalty demands, thus the name change to "Captain Africa." The 1943 Phantom still appeared in this latter-day serial, however, via a vast amount of stock footage. One could actually argue that Tom Tyler, who had starred as the original "Phantom," also starred in the sequel and not John Hart, credited with the role of "Captain Africa." Hart did not resemble Tyler at all but that was of little consequence to Katzman, a producer who never met a corner he wouldn't cut. Captain Africa comes to the aid of an Arabian potentate (Paul Marion) whose prime minister has been kidnapped. There is a beautiful princess (June Howard), a young sidekick (Rick Vallin), a dastardly villain (Bud Osborne), and a great deal of ferocious wildlife fauna, much of which is rather more indigenous to Asia than Africa, where the action ostensibly takes place. In many ways, the carelessness of chapterplays like Adventures of Captain Africa only hastened the demise of the action serial. John Hart is perhaps best known for replacing Clayton Moore for one season as television's The Lone Ranger. Appearing as the kidnapped Prime Minister in Adventures of Captain Africa is Michael Fox, the veteran character actor whose long-time membership of Screen Actors Guild forced the later leading man of the same name to add the middle initial "J" to his billing. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
To most outside observers, Bride of the Monster probably seems like a ridiculously inept horror film, and in many ways it is just that. To connoisseurs of the work of director Edward D. Wood Jr., however, it is the biggest budgeted film in his entire output, made with the resources of a normal B-movie (as opposed to his usual totally emaciated finances) and the most easily accessible of his three horror films. Bela Lugosi, in his final complete performance, portrays Dr. Eric Vornoff, a renegade Eastern European scientist with a plan to create a race of atomic supermen, giants charged with radioactivity. The problem is that the hapless hunters and other passersby at Lake Marsh, where he has set up shop with his hulking, mute assistant Lobo (Tor Johnson), whom the pair waylay, keep dying when he straps them in and switches on his atomic ray machine (which is a not-at-all disguised photographic enlarger). A dozen victims later, reporter Janet Lawson (Loretta King) goes out to investigate the disappearances -- attributed to a monster -- and falls into Vornoff's hands, with her police detective fiance Dick Craig (Tony McCoy) hot on her trail, and a devious spy (George Becwar) from Vornoff's former nation also nosing his way around the swamp and the old house. Vornoff dresses Lawson in a wedding gown and plans to irradiate her but Lobo refuses to allow it, straps Vornoff into the machine, and turns him into a radioactive giant (and into stuntman Eddie Parker, totally unconvincing in his doubling for Lugosi). ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, (more)
Jail Bait was the place where Edward D. Wood Jr.'s career as a director entered the mainstream. Having exposed the world of transvestism in Glen or Glenda, he now turned to less ambitious fare in an effort at commercial success. Loosely patterned after the television series Dragnet, Jail Bait tells the story of Don Gregor (Clancey Malone), the spoiled, arrogant son of a successful plastic surgeon (Herbert Rawlinson), who is out for some kicks and excitement and hooks up with Vic Brady (Timothy Farrell), a career criminal. Opening with Don's arrest for illegal possession of a pistol, the film tracks his interaction with a pair of detectives (Lyle Talbot, Steve Reeves); his deceiving of his sister (Dolores Fuller) and his father; the robbery that goes wrong and leads him to murder an ex-cop; and his attempt to go straight, which gets him killed. That action, and Brady's attempt to force Dr. Gregor to alter his face, leads to a bizarre revenge that makes up the final 15 minutes of the movie. Little of this plot is unfolded skillfully -- Wood was already out of his depth in directing actors -- but having access to Howco's finances (meager as they were) and facilities gives Jail Bait a slightly smoother, less emaciated look than most of Wood's later movies. Coupled with the fact that he was trying to do a straight crime film, and the resulting restraint he showed in the writing, Jail Bait can just about "pass" as a normal, albeit very low-budget film, although, as with all of Wood's movies, there is still an unintended laugh every minute or so. And just to show how close to the edge Wood was working even at the outset of his career, in terms of using marginal talent, neophyte performers, and one-time successful actors, Bela Lugosi was not the first leading actor in a Wood movie to die during production -- that distinction went to Herbert Rawlinson, who played Dr. Gregor here. The former silent-era leading man reportedly died the night after he finished shooting his role in Jail Bait. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dolores Fuller, Lyle Talbot, (more)
- 1954
The redoubtable Johnny Carpenter is producer, author and star of the low-budget western Lawless Rider. Exploiting his slight resemblance to Montgomery Clift to the hilt, Carpenter plays a taciturn sheriff who disguises himself as a notorious gunslinger. His mission: to stem a series of violent raids on local cattle ranchers. As always, Carpenter surrounds himself with such rodeo-circuit cronies as trick roper Texas Rose Bascom and such moderately talented relatives as his brother Frank Carpenter. There are also quite a few seasoned cowboy-flick veterans on hand, including director Yakima Canutt, leading lady Noel Neill, and supporting players Douglass Dumbrille, Frankie Darro, Kenne Duncan and Bud Osborne. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Carpenter, Frankie Darro, (more)
- 1954
In this western, a shotgun rider on a stagecoach must clear his reputation after some outlaws accuse him of being a crook. Gunplay ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Wayne Morris, (more)
- 1953
This 1953 tear-jerker is the third film version of the Edna Ferber novel So Big. Stepping into the role previously essayed by Colleen Moore and Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Wyman plays Selina, a girl of wealth who comes to a Dutch community outside Chicago as a schoolteacher. Here Selina falls in love with poor but big-hearted truck farmer Pervus DeJong (Sterling Hayden). When Pervus dies, Selina is left a widow with a small son and little else to her name. Through grit and perseverance, Selina single-handedly raises the boy, who grows up to be architect Dirk DeJong (Steve Forrest). Taking a cue from his self-sacrificing mother, Dirk devotes himself to creativity rather than money-grubbing while pursuing his profession. Meticulously produced, So Big is one of the better "saga" soapers of the 1950s, with Jane Wyman repeating her "aging" process from 1951's The Blue Veil. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden, (more)
- 1952
The self-styled son of Indian chief Geronimo gets himself involved with a gang of nasty whites in this typical low-budget 15 chapter serial, which benefitted from a great deal of footage from the the stock piles at Columbia Pictures. Jim Scott (Clayton Moore) and wagon train boss Tulsa (Bus Osborne) are on to the nefarious schemes of Rance Rankin (Marshall Reed) and Ace Devlin (John Crawford), getting words of warning through to Portico (Rodd Redwing), the Son of Genronimo. With Portico's help, the white renegades are finally destroyed in the serial's concluding chapter, "Peace Treaty." Moore, the future star of the television series The Lone Ranger, was here billed "Clay Moore." Usually cast as a villain, mustachioed Bud Osborne turned in a rare "good guy" performance in this serial. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
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