Duncan Renaldo Movies
After being raised in several parts of Europe Duncan Renaldo arrived in the U.S. in the early '20s, having secured his passage as a stoker on a Brazilian coal ship (other sources say it was a Rumanian freighter that caught fire in Baltimore and left its crew stranded). He failed at his attempt to be a portrait painter, then tried to become a producer of short films; soon, however, he took up acting, signing with MGM in 1928. He played Latin lovers in late talkies and early silents. In 1932 he spent almost a year in prison on illegal entry charges filed by immigration authorities; he was later pardoned by President Roosevelt. After his release, he continued playing leads and supporting roles in minor films and serials. In the early '40s he was chosen as one of the Three Mesquiteers in a series of popular western films; within a few years he was starring in his own western series as The Cisco Kid, the role for which he is best known. He played the Cisco Kid in a popular TV series in the '50s, rarely appearing on the big-screen after 1950. ~ All Movie Guide- 1940
Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" western series hopscotched all over the calendar, with some entries taking place in the present, others in the far-distant past. As indicated by its title, Covered Wagon Days is a period piece, with heroes Stony Brooke (Robert Livingston), Rusty Joslin (Raymond Hatton) and Rico Rinaldo (Duncan Renaldo) riding into a silver mining camp. The villains keep busy by smuggling the valuable ore across the border, and to add insult to injury have framed Rico's brother Carlos (Paul Marion) on a murder charge. This time it takes only 56 minutes for the Mesquiteers to rout the villains and allow justice to triumph. As always, Covered Wagon Days is enhanced by excellent production values, thoroughly transcending the film's pinchpenny budget. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Raymond Hatton, (more)
- 1940
The three Mesquiteers ride the long trail home following the Spanish-American war in this western. En route, they have many exciting adventures. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1940
A fast-paced, enjoyable entry in the long-running Three Mesqueteers Western series, Heroes of the Saddle featured the three cowboy pals promising to look after Peggy Bell (Patsy Lee Parsons), the little daughter of mortally wounded rodeo champ Montana (Kermit Maynard). Legal technicalities, however, halt the adoption proceeding and Stony (Robert Livingston), Rusty (Raymond Hatton), and Rico (Duncan Renaldo) can only watch as the little girl is placed in the county orphanage. On a visit, the Mesqueteers discover that Peggy has been injured and Melloney the superintendent (sour-faced Byron Foulger) claims that the institution cannot pay for the necessary treatment. Stony wins the amount in a boxing match against "Killer" McCulley (Jack Roper), only to learn that Melloney is threatening the child to keep quiet about something. The "something" is the fact that Melloney and county supervisor Crone (William Royle) are not only mistreating the children in their care but cooking the books as well. Aided by a pretty nurse, Ruth Miller (Loretta Weaver of the Weaver hillbilly act), the Mesqueeters "kidnap" Peggy and the other kids and bring them to their spacious ranch. There is a final shootout before the three heroes can round up the gang and celebrate the election of a new county supervisor, nurse Ruth. A comic highlight of this Western has Duncan Renaldo pretending to be a department store dummy in order to fool drunken watchman Al Taylor. Heroes of the Saddle was one of the final films of ace villain William Royle, who later that year would appear in perhaps his best-remembered role as Sir Neyland Smith in the serial Drums of Fu Manchu (1940). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1940
When an evil land grabbers forces settlers out of their homes, the courageous Three Mesquiteers ride up to stop him. Rootin' tootin' western action ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Raymond Hatton, (more)
Gene Autry rescues a young boy from a gang of kidnappers in this delightful musical-Western from Republic Pictures. Having lost their jobs with the rodeo, Gene and sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) are heading west when they discover a young British stowaway, Ronnie Willoughby (Clifford Severn Jr.), who mistakenly assumes that the two cowboys represent his father's large "Rancho San Quentin." Gene, however, doesn't have the heart to tell the boy that San Quentin is no ranch at all, but the state penitentiary. Along the way, the merry little group picks up a couple of pretty hitchhikers, runaway society bride-to-be Joyce Halloway (June Storey) and her kid sister, Patsy (Mary Lee), and they, too, keep mum about "Rancho San Quentin." In fact, Joyce nobly arranges for her own family ranch to be renamed after the prison lest the boy should learn the truth. Wrongly assuming that Gene and company are kidnappers, Ronnie's father, Frederick (Lester Matthews), makes a daring escape from San Quentin but Gene manages to make it appear as if the escapee is returning from a long and arduous cattle drive. The real kidnappers turn up soon enough, of course, and after the inevitable chase, Willoughby's establishes his innocence and Gene agrees to stay on as Joyce's foreman. Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, and girl singer Mary Lee perform no less than seven musical numbers, including the title tune, "The Singing Hills," "Give out With a Song," Headin' for the Wild Open Spaces," and "Wooing of Kitty MacFuty." A television print entitled Keep Rollin' also exists, but without many of the songs and all the Mexican cantina production numbers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, (more)
- 1940
In this melodramatic historical drama, the lives of Mexico's Maximilian and Carlotta are chronicled. The story follows their brief reign as figureheads for Napoleon III. The two doomed rulers were terribly naive and had no idea that they were universally despised by the native population. Upon her return to Europe, Carlotta goes mad with grief when she realizes that her beleaguered husband, trapped by a rebel uprising in Mexico City, will receive no aid from their backers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lionel Atwill, Conrad Nagel, (more)
- 1940
This "Three Mesquiteers" western entry stars Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke, Raymond Hatton as Rusty Joslin and Duncan Renaldo as Rico Rinaldo. Livingston also does double duty as the villain of the piece, a desperado known as The Laredo Kid. Working undercover for the Texas Rangers, Stony Brooke poses as the recently deceased Laredo Kid to get the goods on the latter's gang. The film's action highlight is a leap from a runaway stagecoach over a perilous cliff and into a raging stream-a bit of derring-do that popped up as stock footage in many a future Republic western. Handling the leading-lady duties is Rosella Towne, formerly with Warner Bros. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Raymond Hatton, (more)
- 1939
In this episode of the Three Mesquiteers series of westerns the trio must help two rival sides involved in a range war settle their differences. The story is set in 1906, and the rivals are homesteaders trying to take advantage of Roosevelt's Reclamation Act and the landowners who oppose the act and want to see the Act repealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Raymond Hatton, (more)
- 1939
Hot on the heels of Frontier Pony Express came the equally exciting Roy Rogers vehicle Rough Riders' Roundup. In the first film, Rogers was an express rider during the Civil War era; in the second, he's a veteran of the Spanish American war (ubiquitous fellow, isn't he?) With several of his fellow Rough Riders, Rogers joins the Texas border patrol, where he almost immediately clashes with a villain named Arizona (William Pawley). While maintaining a respectable facade, Arizona and his minions rob the stagecoaches and express offices, divesting the local prospectors of their hard-earned gold. With the help of grizzled old sidekick Rusty (Raymond Hatton)-not to mention the rest of the Rough Riders-Rogers crushes Arizona's operation once and for all. The film boasts two leading ladies: Rogers' usual vis-a-vis Mary Hart, and former silent star Dorothy Sebastian, here making a comeback attempt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers, Mary Hart, (more)
South of the Border, a western directered by George Sherman, features two United States government agents (Gene Autry) and (Smiley Burnette) and their trip to Mexico, where they hope to stop German agents from forming a revolution. This propagandist musical feature was released approximately two years before World War II, and marked the beginning of a successful career for Autry. Also included in South of the Border are actors Michael Carr, Sheila Darcy, William Farnum, and Reed Howes. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, (more)
- 1939
This second Republic-serial adaptation of the popular radio series The Lone Ranger abandons the "mystery" angle of the first (1938's The Lone Ranger) in favor of a straightforward action tale. Robert Livingston stars as Bill Andrews, alias the "Masked Rider of the Plains," while Chief Thundercloud is his faithful Indian companion Tonto. When cattle baron Craig Dolan (J. Farrell McDonald) is suspected of conducting a campaign of terror to rid the territory of settlers, Andrews investigates. Upon discovering that the real villain of the piece is Dolan's scheming nephew Bart, Andrews adopts his Lone Ranger guise, and together with Tonto and their mutual Mexican friend Juan Vasquez (Duncan Renaldo) they lay the groundwork for Bart's ultimate defeat. Many of Alberto Colombo's musical themes were incorporating into the Lone Ranger radio program, achieving a kind of immortality in the process. The heroine is played by Jinx Falken, later famous as TV personality Jinx Falkenberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Chief Thundercloud, (more)
- 1939
The old David Belasco theatrical warhorse Zaza, which starred Mrs. Leslie Carter way back in 1899, had already been filmed by Pauline Frederick in 1915 and by Gloria Swanson in 1923 when this Claudette Colbert version hit the screens in early 1939. Doing her own singing and dancing, Colbert plays the title character, a saucy fin de siecle Parisian cabaret performer who falls in love with wealthy rogue Dufresne (Herbert Marshall). Quitting show biz to be with Dufresne for all time, Zaza is taken aback to discover that he's already married. Sorrowfully she returns to the stage, singing a farewell to Dufresne before an audience that seems to include everyone in Paris. Bert Lahr steals the show as Zaza's zany but golden-hearted music-hall partner; in fact he's a lot livelier than the near-comatose Herbert Marshall, who seems preoccupied with more important matters throughout the film. Screenwriter Zoe Akins did her best to make the "naughty" Belasco original conform to the stringent censorship standards of 1939. Still, the Hays Office found plenty with which to nitpick: Commenting on Zaza's angry exclamation "Pig! Pig! Pig! Pig! Pig!", the Hays folks demanded "Delete two 'Pigs'." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1939
When both John Wayne and Ray "Crash" Corrigan defected from Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" series, the studio hastily replaced them with Robert Livingston (whom Wayne had originally replaced) and future "Cisco Kid" Duncan Renaldo. In Kansas Terrors, Stoney (Livingston) and his saddle pal Rusty (Raymond Hatton) take a job delivering horses to a flyspeck Caribbean island. Here they join forces with Rico (Renaldo) to topple the regime of a despotic commandante (George Douglas). Despite the fact that Rico was introduced as a horse thief, he becomes fast friends with Stoney and Rusty, and by film's end has agreed to return with them to the US, so that there'll be three Mesquiteers once more. After two years' worth of the Livingston-Renaldo-Hatton team, Republic would come up with yet another winning combination, consisting of Livingston, Bob Steele and Rufe Davis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Raymond Hatton, (more)
- 1938
Mexican actress Movita, Franchot Tone's vis-a-vis in Mutiny on the Bounty (and, much later, Mrs. Marlon Brando) stars in the Monogram western Rose of the Rio Grande The story, based on a novel by Johnston (Zorro) McCulley, concerns a group of aristocratic vigilantes, who go about trying to restore their prominence in Mexico by killing anyone who stands in their way. The cast is full of Hollywood Hispanics, including Don Alvarado, Antonio Moreno, Gino Corrado (the villain), Martin Garralaga and Duncan Renaldo (who incidentally was born in Rumania!) Several profane outtakes of Rose of the Rio Grande exist: in one of the funniest, leading man John Carroll, unable to untie the ropes that bind Movita to a chair, begins grumbling "What did the guy do with these...God...damn...." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Movita, John Carroll, (more)
- 1938
Dorothy Lamour and Ray Milland, a popular Paramount screen team specializing in south-sea extravaganzas, don "civilized" garb (at least briefly) for Tropic Holiday. Lamour plays a Mexican senorita, while Milland is a visiting American screenwriter. Since we know where this is going, our attention is deflected every so often by comedy relief Bob "Bazooka" Burns and Martha Raye, who are frankly more watchable than the leads. Also on hand is Mexican musical star Tito Guizar, who was still packing 'em in for his concert tours of the 1980s. Tropic Holiday contrives to remove most of Dorothy Lamour's clothing before the fade-out, just so we remember who's top billed around here. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Martha Raye, (more)
- 1938
The visual wizardry in this period action picture about Alaskan fishermen won a special honorary Oscar in the years before special effects got its own category. Henry Fonda stars as Jim Kimmerlee, a salmon fisherman in Alaska who has become at odds with a childhood friend, Tyler Dawson (George Raft). While Jim attempts to make an honest living, Tyler, whose frustrated dreams of buying his own schooner don't look to be realized anytime soon, has signed on with a Russian crew that steals the catch from others' nets. While the rivalry between the two one-time pals heats up, Jim begins romancing Dian Turlan (Louise Platt), the daughter of a local newspaperman and renowned tippler, Windy Turlon (John Barrymore). Spawn of the North (1938) was remade as Alaska Seas (1954). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Henry Fonda, (more)
- 1938
In this drama, a Mexican woman attempts to live a peaceful life in California. Unfortunately, land-grabbers kill her father and begin harassing her. Desperate, she sends an impassioned plea for help to Washington, and a special aide is sent to mediate. He and the woman fall in love, and the aide does such a good job that he is elected to be the state's first governor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Keene, Duncan Renaldo, (more)
Actually it's the great-grandson of legendary 19th century do-gooder Zorro who rides in this 12-chapter Republic serial. Villainous modern-day tycoon Marsden (Noah Beery) supervises the activities of a western outlaw gang from the plush confines of his Manhattan skyscraper. It is Marsden's hope to grab control of a new California-to-Yucatan railroad, and there isn't any low to which he will not stoop to get what he wants; he even deploys a modernistic machine gun and an art-deco twin-prop fighter plane. Recalling the heroic exploits of Zorro, a group of beleaguered Californians send for the masked hero's great-grandkid James Vega (John Carroll), only to find out that he's an airheaded playboy, more interested in his golf score than saving humanity. But like his famous ancestor, Vega rises to the occasion, adopting the mask, cape and whip of Zorro to settle Marsden's hash for good. Outside of its usual quota of thrills and spills, Zorro Rides Again is one of the few serials that can boast a theme song ("Zorro rides again -- riding along, singing a song" etc.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Carroll, Helen Christian, (more)
- 1937
Carefully measuring the success of Republic's Clyde Beatty serial Darkest Africa, Columbia top-billed wild animal hunter Frank "Bring 'Em Back Alive" Buck in the 15-chapter Jungle Menace. The story takes place in the mythical Asian province of Seemang, where rubber planter Edward Elliot (John St. Polis) owns a huge and profitable plantation. When one of Elliot's shipments is hijacked by river pirates, his daughter Dorothy (Charlotte Henry) and her planter friend Tom Banning (William Bakewell) narrowly escape with their lives. Things get worse when Elliot himself is shot by an unknown assailant, at which point soldier-of-fortune Frank Hardy (Buck) takes a hand in matters. For the rest of the serial, Hardy tries to ascertain the identity of the mysterious villain who wishes to drive Elliot off his property, while poor Dorothy is subjected to one jungle peril after another. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Buck, Reginald Denny, (more)
- 1937
Two Minutes to Play is a cheap but energetic Sam Katzman-produced vehicle for Olympic champion Herman Brix. The star plays Martin Granville, an over-aged but undeniably muscular college football hero. Martin finds himself in competition with Jack Gaines (Eddie Nugent) for the affections of cute coed Pat Meredith (Jeanne Martel). In this way, Martin and Jack are emulating their respective fathers, who'd been bitter rivals ever since their own college days. As expected, the story, and its attendant conflicts, are resolved in the climactic Big Game. Herman Brix did rather better for himself when he moved to Columbia and changed his screen name to Bruce Bennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Nugent, Jeanne Martel, (more)
- 1937
Roaring Speedboats is the TV title for the inexpensive 1937 indie Mile a Minute Love. William Bakewell stars as an inventor who develops a high-powered boat engine. Bakewell, of course, created this wonder machine to benefit mankind-and, incidentally, to win an upcoming motorboat race. But a group of crooks don't see things his way, thus they sabotage his invention. Peeking through the miles of speedboat stock footage are such reliable actors as Duncan Renaldo, Vivien Oakland and Wilfred Lucas. PS: Future "Cisco Kid" Renaldo also penned the original story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
