Raphael Bennett Movies

Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton return to the screen as saddle pals Nevada and Sandy in Monogram's Pals of the Border. In this one, our heroes are US marshals, hot on the trail of cattle rustlers. To rout out the thieves, Nevada poses as a crook, while Sandy pretends to be hard of hearing. The criminals, it seems, have more than cattle on their minds: they've been trading their stolen goods for priceless jewels. As was customary, Johnny Mack Brown avoided any and all romantic entanglements in Raiders of the Border, allowing supporting actors Craig Woods and Ellen Hall to handle the smooching and hand-holding. The film was adapted from a short story by Johnston McCulley, of "Zorro" fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a ranch foreman and the bosses son go to a saloon to slake their thirst and find themselves in the midst of a battle started by the feisty saloon owner's wicked ex-husband who loots the safe in the ensuing scuffle. The woman is then ruined and when she is offered passage on a wagon train, she accepts the offer. The rancher's wounded son also becomes a passenger who is protected by the brave hero. The ex-husband also joins the travelers as no one knows that he started the trouble. He brings with him a wagon load of illegal arms to sell to renegade Indians. He soon insights trouble by killing a wagon master and a friendly Indian. He then finds himself killed by the protective ranch foreman during a shoot out. The hero must the make peace with the angry Indian chief whose son was killed. Unfortunately, the chief takes him captive. Fortunately he is rescued by the rancher's son. They then go back to save the by now beleagured wagon train. In the end, it is the Seventh Cavalry that saves the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

It's "The Three Mesquiteers" again, this time played by Bob Steele (as Tucson Smith), Tom Tyler (as Stony Brooke) and Rufe Davis (as Lullaby Joslin). It all begins when young bank robber Gaucho (played by ex-Mesquiteer Duncan Renaldo) is mortally wounded during a holdup. As the lad lays dying, he requests that the Mesquiteers deliver $5000 in stolen funds to his mother (Rosina Galli). Our heroes balk at first, until they realize that the old lady is in danger of losing her ranch to villainous bank president Tyndal (William Ruhl). Critics in 1941 disapproved of showing the Mesquiteers playing fast and loose with the Law, but audiences were far less critical. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a handful of non-formula westerns, Charles Starrett returned to the mixture as before in Thundering Frontier. Starrett plays Jim Fillmore, kind to old ladies, small animals and heroine Norma Belknap (Iris Meredith). In contrast, the villains are kind to no one, least of all struggling building contractor Square Deal Scottie (Alex Callam), whose projects are continually targetted for demolition and his payroll is forever being stolen at gunpoint. A good 25 percent of the film's running time is given over to Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers, whose C&W croonings are pleasant but a bit much. One of the film's few surprises is that Starrett's perennial screen sparring partner Dick Curtis isn't one of the bad guys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An enjoyably silly Gene Autry romp, this music Western had an early ecological message: Horse-power instead of tractors. Or at least tractors manufactured by greedy Thornton Farming Equipment. Having lost his horse-trading business to Thornton (Ivan Miller), Autry signs with Helen Valkis' local Grainville radio station. But unbeknownst to the singer, the program is sponsored by none other than Thornton, and when the farmers cannot live up to the greedy manufacturer's finance plan, they blame Autry. In typical Autry style, Autry not only bests Thornton on the business front, but also receives more attention at the local fair than the Thornton-sponsored Big City entertainment. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Most everyone knows that The Lone Ranger, "masked rider of the plains", was in fact a former Texas Ranger named Reid, who vowed to fight for justice after his older brother was killed. The 1938 Republic serial version of The Lone Ranger muddies the "true identity" waters by offering us five heroes, any one of whom might be the Ranger. The five leading men are picked off one by one by outlaw leader Stanley Andrews, until only the genuine Ranger is left. There's nothing like process of elimination to solve a mystery; this process takes 15 full episodes. The Lone Ranger candidates are played by Lee Powell, Lane Chandler, Herman Brix (aka Bruce Bennett), Hal Taliaferro (aka Wally Wales) and George Letz (aka George Montgomery). Tonto, the masked man's faithful Indian companion, is played by Chief Thundercloud. Unavailable for many years due to copyright tangles, The Lone Ranger finally resurfaced in the 1970s in a duped, foreign-language version; some episodes carried Spanish subtitles, while others were dubbed in Spanish with English captions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Returning to his home spread in the Red River border area between Texas and Oklahoma, Tal Holladay (Dick Foran) is falsely accused of murdering a young family friend (Carlyle Moore, Jr.) in this frequently entertaining Western directed, incongruously, by dance director Bobby Connolly. Imprisoned, Holladay later makes his escape while breaking Karen Ordley's (Anne Nagel) wild stallion. Forming a vigilante of fellow (innocent) prisoners, Holladay quickly learns that his own father was murdered in an attempt to prevent the building of a dam and that Karen's foster-brother Hub Ordley (Willard Parker) is the brain behind the scheme. In an attempt to plead his case to the visiting Secretary of the Interior (Walter Young), Tal is once again arrested by Sheriff Gorman (Raphael Bennett) and is nearly lynched. He is saved in the nick of time by the vigilantes, and with the help of newly elected U.S. Marshal Chris Madden (Granville Owens), he manages to disarm the evil Hub Ordley and save his ancestral ranch. Rather violent for a B-Western, The Devil's Saddle Legion incorporated three songs -- "When Moonlight Is Riding the Range," "My Texas Home," and "God's Country" -- all performed by leading man Foran, a pleasant baritone. Warner Bros.' answer to Gene Autry, Foran looked good on a horse but was rather obviously doubled in several fight sequences. Although surrounded by the studio's sumptuous production values (sumptuous for a B-Western), the former Academy Award nominee (The Petrified Forest, 1936) was perhaps a bit too "operatic" for B-Western stardom, and his 1936-1937 Warner Bros. series was never a threat to the supremacy of Autry, Rogers, et al. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide