Edward Peil Sr. Movies

Rancher Charles Bickford comes to believe that drifter Alan Ladd is his long-lost son. In truth, Ladd is a crook, in league with Brian Keith to con Bickford out of his fortune. Intending to go through with the scheme, Ladd has second thoughts when Bickford and his "mother" Selena Royle shower him with the familial affection that he has lacked all his life. Making Ladd even more uncomfortable is the presence of his "sister" Mona Freeman, whom he has grown to love in a manner that might be misconstrued were he really related to her. Fed up with his masquerade, Ladd confesses the hoax and sets about to find Bickford's real son-who turns out to be the foster son of bandit Keith! This psychological western plays much better than it reads. For reasons unknown, a clip of Branded showed up in the 1977 Burt Reynolds vehicle Hustle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Randolph Scott western Colt .45 was retitled for TV so as not to be confused with the TV series of the same name. The new title, Thundercloud, misleads the audience into expecting a Native American epic. Actually the film involves a gun salesman (Randolph Scott) whose sample case of Colt 45's is stolen by an outlaw (Zachary Scott--no relation to Randolph). Accused of being a member of the outlaw gang when they start using the Colts in their holdups, the salesman is obliged to track down the crooks. Thundercloud, or Colt .45, represented the last film of supporting actor Alan Hale Sr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an embittered widow, a former concert singer, can't help but blame Lassie for her son's death. Needing help with her chores, she hires an orphan from the local home. At first she remains aloof towards the charming lad who quickly bonds with the collie dog, but as time passes she can't help but develop feelings for the boy. Later Lassie redeems herself when she saves the boy from a terrible fire in the orphanage. After that, the widow suddenly realizes that she does indeed love the boy and adopts him and puts Lassie back in her good graces. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Jeanette MacDonald made her first screen appearance in five years in the MGM confection Three Daring Daughters. Looking at least ten years younger than her 48 years, MacDonald is cast as glamorous magazine editor Louise Raton Morgan. Long divorced Louise returns from a Cuban vacation with a handsome new husband in tow: None other than famed pianist Jose Iturbi, engagingly playing "himself". Louise's three daughters Tess (Jane Powell), Alix (Mary Elinor Donahue, the future "Princess" on TV's Father Knows Best) and Ilka (Ann E. Todd) are appalled by their mother's choice of husbands. Refusing to accept Iturbi as their stepdad, the girls contrive to unite Louise with Robert-whether they like it or not. Before the Three Daring Daughters come to their senses, there's opportunity aplenty from musical solos by stars Jeanette MacDonald, Jane Powell and Jose Iturbi, with an additional solo from harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler (just before he was blacklisted from Hollywood and forced to scare up film work in England). Incidentally, the actress playing the flirtatious Mrs. Smith is Moyna McGill, the real-life mother of Angela Lansbury. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Dorothy Fields-Sigmund Romberg Broadway musical Up in Central Park has been retooled as a vehicle for a pleasantly plump Deanna Durbin. Set in New York in the 1870s, the film casts Durbin as hoydenish Irish immigrant Rosie Moore, who becomes the romantic bone of contention between muckraking newspaper reporter John Matthews (Dick Haymes) and corrupt but charming political boss Tweed (Vincent Price, considerably handsomer and slimmer than the real Tweed). With Rosie's help, John manages to expose Tweed's Tammany Hall shenanigans. Though only two songs have been retained from the original Broadway production, both Durbin and Haymes are afforded several opportunities to sing. Featured in the cast as Durbin's father is Albert Sharpe, who'd just completed a run in the smash New York musical Finian's Rainbow and who later played the title role in Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959). Best scene: The Currier & Ives ballet, one of the few holdovers from the stage version of Up in Central Park. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Garfield, in the best performance of his career, portrays Joe Morse, an ambitious attorney who has long since abandoned his scruples in favor of monetary reward. Morse now represents the interests of crime boss Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts), who plans to take over the numbers racket in New York. Morse has devised a way of doing this legally and above-board, with no violence: Tucker's people will bring about the collapse of the illegal numbers racket in the city, using a race track-betting scam that will bankrupt the small-time underworld numbers banks; an investigation will ensue, along with a call for a legal numbers operation in the form of a lottery, which Tucker will control through Morse's machinations. The whole plan hinges on Morse's estranged brother, Leo (Thomas Gomez), a small-time numbers banker who is to be shielded from the collapse, and who will serve as the "legitimate" front for Tucker. Leo is the flaw in the plan, however, because not only can't he stand the sight of Joe, but he is also too honest to participate in the plan -- he doesn't want his employees, all decent people just looking to earn a living, forced into the employ of real gangsters. Joe orchestrates a series of police raids that force Leo into his corner, and Joe's plan seems to be working out, but then the whole enterprise is threatened when a rival mob, run by Tucker's former Prohibition-era partner, Fico (Paul Fix), starts pressuring Leo, trying to get to Joe and Tucker. Fico and his men aren't any different from Tucker's mob, except that they're prepared to start shooting sooner to get what they want. Tucker decides to hang tough and expects everyone, including Leo, to do the same, even when Fico starts sending thugs around to frighten everyone. Soon Joe is beset by problems on three fronts -- he wants his brother out of Tucker's combination and safe; he is trying to romance Leo's bookkeeper (Beatrice Pearson), who is too nice a girl for who he is; and his own well-being is threatened by both Fico and Tucker, and a state investigator who has already tapped the phone of Joe's otherwise respectable partner. All of these threads are pulled together in the final section of the film, which is as violent and disturbing, yet poetic and graceful a resolution as any crime film of the 1940s ever delivered. Force of Evil was star-crossed almost from the start, as many of the people involved, including star John Garfield and director Abraham Polonsky (a writer making his debut behind the camera, with help from assistant director Don Weis in doing the camera set-ups and blocking), were suspect at the time for their leftist political views. Indeed, the company that made Force of Evil, Enterprise Productions, was also in trouble for the leftist leanings of its films in the midst of the Red Scare, and went out of business just as the movie was finished -- dropped by United Artists and picked up by MGM, of all studios, Force of Evil made it into theaters during Christmas week of 1948, not the ideal schedule for something as grim (albeit great) as this film was. As it turned out, it was Polonsky's last chance to direct for more than 20 years, and Garfield's last completely successful film. And a movie that should have been a triumph for all concerned ended up a cult favorite. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Dissatisfied with his postwar Republic westerns (not to mention his comparatively low salary), Gene Autry switched his base of operations to Columbia in 1947, where he wore two hats as both star and producer. Autry's first Columbia effort, The Last Round-Up, is a vast improvement over the Republics that preceded it. The story finds Autry arranging for an impoverished Indian tribe to move from their desolate reservation to a more fertile and attractive location. Understandably, the Indians doubt Autry's motives, having been previously burned by such usurping crooks as Mr. Mason (Ralph Morgan) and his son Matt (Mark Daniels). Once Autry has convinced the Indians that he's on their side, he must contend with the Masons' murderous minions. In the course of events, Gene Autry sings five songs, several of them directed to pert leading lady Jean Heather. Featured among the Indian characters is little Bobby Blake, a recent graduate of Republic's "Red Ryder" series. Some of the action highlights in The Last Round-Up were lifted from the 1940 Columbia "A" western Arizona. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Promoted from Republic B westerns to "A" productions, William "Wild Bill" Elliot found himself in the sort of roles previously essayed by John Wayne, Richard Dix and Errol Flynn. In the Republic "special" Wyoming, Elliot plays Charles Alderson, a wealthy Wyoming Territory ranch owner who takes an adversarial position against the congressional Homestead Act of the late 19th century. Alderson's grown daughter Karen (Vera Ralston, whose foreign accent is "explained" by the fact that she's been educated in Europe!) tries to dissuade her father from his ruinous path, but it is only through the villainy of crooked landgrabber Duke Lassiter (Albert Dekker) that Alderson realizes he's been all wrong about the incoming homesteaders. Only in a Republic picture would a film's supporting cast include both Maria Ouspenskaya and Gabby Hayes! This Wyoming, incidentally, is not a remake of the 1940 Columbia film of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of Republic Pictures' Allan Lane Westerns, Silver City Kid was assembled for Don "Red" Barry, whom the studio had decided to groom for "A" pictures. Unfortunately, Lane did not only inherit Barry's plot but also his sidekicks Wally Vernon and Twinkle Watts, the latter Republic's rather belated answer to Shirley Temple. Jack Adams (Lane) and his friend Wildcat Higgins (Vernon) come to the aid of a buddy, whose land is about to be usurped by unscrupulous banker William Stoner (Frank Jaquet) and corrupt attorney Sam Ballard (Harry Woods). Unfortunately, the beleaguered rancher, Steve Clayton (Lane Chandler), is murdered by one of Ballard's henchmen (Glenn Strange), leaving behind a sister, Ruth (Peggy Stewart), and a young daughter, Twinkle (Watts). According to Ruth, Stoner and Ballard are after a rare vein of molypdenum running through the Clayton property and will stop at nothing to get their greedy hands on the land. But they have counted without Jack, whose six-guns settle the matter once and for all. Although saddled with the presence of Vernon, whose Brooklyn accent hardly suggested the wild and woolly West, not to mention the insufferable Miss Watts, Silver City Kid proved Lane to be a handsome and stalwart cowboy hero of the old style. Also of benefit to the film was the presence of Peggy Stewart, perhaps the era's most competent Western heroine. Although Miss Stewart disliked working with the egotistical Lane, she would be forced to appear opposite him in four additional Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This 91-minute Republic "special" stars Michael O'Shea as Matt Braddock, an aggressive Henry Kaiser-like shipbuilder operating in 1880s California Though his business innovations are brilliant, Braddock's pugnacious attitude loses him the support of the locals when he plans to build a big new shipyard in a small coastal community. Eventually he perseveres, bringing the story to a rousing conclusion. Along the way, however, there's a bit too much emphasis on the hot-and-cold romance between Braddock and the lovely Diana Kennedy (Anne Shirley). Tommy Bond, the former Butch in the "Our Gang" comedies, registers well in a sympathetic supporting role (Bond later noted that this was one of his favorite films). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, Billy the Kid has been wrongfully arrested for robbing a train. In order to prove his innocence, the Kid breaks out of the pokey and hits the dusty trail to search for the real robbers. Along the way, he discovers an outlaw band impersonating upstanding ranchers. They are the real thieves, and naturally, the Kid brings them to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Perhaps Hollywood's greatest success du scandal of the 1940s, this odd psychological Western became a box office hit largely thanks to the costuming of leading lady Jane Russell (or, more accurately, its relative absence). Billy the Kid (Jack Buetel) and Doc Holliday (Walter Huston) are close friends until lawman Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell) attempts to ambush Billy and put him behind bars. Doc brings Billy to his ranch to hide out, but when Billy meets Doc's mistress Rio (Russell), he's instantly attracted to the buxom beauty. An intense chemistry quickly grows between them, despite the fact that Billy murdered Rio's brother. Billy and Rio secretly marry, but their love runs hot and cold, and soon Billy, Doc, and Rio are fighting among themselves as they're chased through the desert by Garrett and his posse. Director Howard Hawks and screenwriter Ben Hecht both worked on The Outlaw, but they went uncredited after disputes with the legendarily difficult financier (and sometimes producer/director) Howard Hughes, whose battles with the censors resulted in the film spending three years on the shelf before finally gaining wide release in a cut version in 1946. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide