Henry Roquemore Movies

Ann Rutherford, who would later rise to fame in the Andy Hardy series at M-G-M and in a number of musical roles, made one of her first screen appearances in this Gene Autry musical western. Teenage runaway Lettie Morgan (Rutherford) stows away with a group of showgirls en route to California after an argument with her aunt. When the stagecoach is attacked near the California border, Capt. Tex Autry (Gene Autry) and his men save the day, but the petulant Lettie complains to his superior officers after Autry scolds the women for traveling through a dangerous area without a proper escort. This, coupled with the actions of rangers-gone-bad Buck LaCrosse (Warner Richmond) and Utah Joe (Alan Sears), leads many to suspect Autry has become a traitor, but when LaCrosse and Utah kidnap Lettie, Autry and his sidekick Frog (Smiley Burnette) are chosen to come to the rescue. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Battle of Greed was one of the best of the Tom Keene western series produced by bargain-basement Crescent Productions. Keene takes a job in a Virginia mining town in the mid-19th century. Here he makes the acquaintance of none other than Mark Twain (James Bush), currently employed as a newspaper editor. Keene joins forces with Twain in battling the town's corrupt element. While it may not be nice to say this, James Bush frankly gives a more convincing performance than nominal star Keene, who has this bad habit of laughing uproariously at the slightest provocation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of several poverty-row films which vanished from sight during the 1935-36 movie season, Beacon Productions did its best to stay afloat as long as possible with such potboilers as What Price Crime? Future cowboy hero Charles Starrett is cast as G-Man Allan Grey, hot on the trail of a gang of firearms smugglers. Going undercover, Grey poses as an aspiring prizefighter in order to gain the confidence of gang leader Douglas Worthington (Noel Madison). The plot becomes as thick as pea soup when our hero falls in love with Worthington's sister Sondra (played by Virginia Cherrill, previously the blind flower girl in Chaplin's City Lights). Despite its urban setting, much of What Price Crime was economically filmed out-of-doors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With a 45-minute running time, or thereabouts, Texas Terror was John Wayne's shortest Lone Star/Monogram Western and far from his best. Believing has accidentally killed his best friend (Frank Ball), the sheriff (Wayne) hands over his badge to George "Gabby" Hayes and retreats to the high country. En route to take over her murdered father's ranch, Beth Matthews (Lucille Browne) is witness to a stage robbery (a typical modern Western, the "stage" in Texas Terror is a Ford T touring car). An unshaven, dirty-looking Wayne comes to her rescue, but she thinks he is part of the gang. Vaguely recognizing his voice but nothing else, Beth later hires the now cleaned-up former sheriff as her new foreman and they quickly fall in love. But during a dance, Joe Dickson (LeRoy Mason), the incognito leader of the stage robbers, informs the girl that Wayne is the man thought to have killed her father. Wayne soon learns of Dickson's own culpability in the killing and summons an entire tribe of Indians to help capture him. The typical Hollywood Indians in this film all speak in broken English, Chief Black Eagle actually saying "Ugh!" on one occasion, an incongruous moment in a Western where the heroine arrives in an automobile. Intentional comedy relief is provided by Fern Emmett, a sort of poor man's Margaret Hamilton, and veteran slapstick comedian Jack Duffy, both of whom engage in a supposedly hilarious milking contest. The climactic chase sequence is rather heavily padded with stock footage from the silent era and Yakima Canutt is spotted quite clearly doubling for Wayne. As always, veteran director Robert North Bradbury has a great eye for composition (the film seems to have been shot on locations in the Sierras), but his handling of actors leaves much to be desired. Tight-lipped LeRoy Mason delivers Texas Terror's only solid performance as the villain. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In his second and last Western for low-budget company First Division, veteran cowboy star Hoot Gibson played Neil Gibson, Jr., a city boy turned rodeo champion much against the wishes of his wealthy father (Oscar Apfel). After a drunken spree in Chicago, Neil and his brother-in-law Bert (Charlie Hill) find themselves on a freight train headed West. They embark in the middle of nowhere and obtain jobs as cowhands on a ranch belonging to pretty Ann Ware (June Gale). When the foreman, Dorgan (Stanley Blystone), is revealed to be in cahoots with a combine that is attempting to take over the ranch, Ann replaces him with Neil. The combine turns out to be headed by Thomas Stark (Warner Richmond), Gibson, Sr.'s crooked partner. In the end, Stark and his gang are ousted from the area by the cowboys and Neil proposes to Ann, who gladly accepts. Leading lady June Gale was Hoot Gibson's girlfriend at the time. She later married music eccentric Oscar Levant. Leaving First Division, Gibson signed with Walter Futter's Diversion Pictures for his final series of solo starring Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The first of MGM's phenomenally profitable Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy musicals, Naughty Marietta takes several beneficial liberties with the libretto of the original Victor Herbert operetta. MacDonald plays an 18th-century French princess who escapes an arranged marriage by posing as a "cake girl," a mail-order bride sent to the New World to marry a colonist. En route, MacDonald and the other brides are captured by pirates, but are rescued by mercenary Eddy and his roistering companions. To avoid marrying some lowly farmer or frontiersman, simon-pure MacDonald intimates that she is a woman with a "history," which makes her attractive to the glitterati of old New Orleans. Only Eddy sees through MacDonald's feigned "naughtiness," and in the end claims her for his own. The most memorable of the Herbert songs retained for the film version of Naughty Marietta was "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life", which remained one of Jeanette MacDonald's signature tunes ever afterward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

William Colt MacDonald's 1934 story based on the Three Mesqueteers characters was brought to the screen the following year by RKO, who billed it "the Barnum and Bailey of Westerns" and seems to have rounded up every Western star not under exclusive contract. The Western, in fact, could boast of no less than 13 former silent screen cowboy heroes: Harry Carey, Hoot Gibson, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, Buzz Barton, Wally Wales (aka Hal Taliaferro), Art Mix (aka George Kesterson), Buffalo Bill Jr. (aka Jay Wilsey), Buddy Roosevelt, Franklyn Farnum, William Desmond, and William Farnum. Carey, Gibson, and Williams played Tucson Smith, Stony Brooke, and Lullaby Joslin, respectively -- the Three Mesqueteers -- who happen upon a stage robbery in progress. They catch the bandit (Ethan Laidlaw) red-handed rifling through the mail and discover that one of the letters is meant for them. Without their knowing, a young friend, the Guadalupe Kid (Steele), has bought a ranch in their names and is awaiting their arrival. The ranch, however, is located in an area controlled by greedy saloon proprietor turned political boss Steve Ogden (Sam Hardy), who takes umbrage to their presence to the point of hiring a professional gunslinger, Sundown Saunders (Tyler). Provoking a confrontation, Sundown challenges Tucson to his trademark sundown showdown. The wily Tucson realizes that Sundown prefers an encounter in the dusk because of failing eyesight and only lightly wounds his opponent. Although a recuperating Sundown turns down Tucson's request to join the fight against Ogden, in the ensuing shootout the gunslinger heroically takes a bullet meant for Tucson. After forcing a confession out of the crooked sheriff (Adrian Morris), the Mesqueteers confront Ogden who is killed in a fight with Tucson. Filmed on locations at Kernville and Newhall, CA, Powdersmoke Range was not the first film version of MacDonald's Mesqueteers. That honor goes to Law of the .45's, a cheap, independently made Western that had starred Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as Tucson and perennial sidekick Al St. John as Stony. (The film omitted the third mesqueteer, Lullaby Joslin, altogether). Despite the success of Powdersmoke Range, RKO failed to follow up with a regular series. Bob Steele would play the character of Sundown Saunders in an independently produced Western of that name in 1936 but the Three Mesqueteers as a group found a regular berth with Republic Pictures, which went on to produce 51 highly successful and influential B-Westerns between 1935 and mid-1943. Through several cast changes both Bob Steele and Tom Tyler would at one point or another play one of the mesqueteers, as would Robert Livingston, Ray "Crash" Corrigan, ventriloquist Max Terhune, John Wayne, Raymond Hatton, Duncan Renaldo, Rufe Davis, Ralph Byrd, and Syd Saylor. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Fearing that her unsavory past will be revealed, a young girl is prepared to kill her erstwhile benefactor in this hectic low-budget thriller directed by former serial star Charles Hutchison. A young child, Jane (Betty Jane Graham), is caught pick-pocketing and custody is awarded to crooked politician Al Murray (Monte Blue). The girl grows into a pretty young woman (Lucile Browne) and despite their now filial relationship Al falls in love with his charge. She loves dashing socialite Bill Coleman (William Bakewell), however, and Al threatens to expose her sordid past. A bump to the head takes care of that tricky situation and the supposedly dead politician is stuffed into a suitcase. A train wreck follows and Bill is forced to make a daring rescue when learning that Al is still very much alive. The revitalized Al is arrested and charged with attacking the innocent Jane. Produced by poverty row company Peerless, this little action thriller was filmed on rented stages at Hollywood's Talisman Studio. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Intrepid low-budget entrepreneur Sol Lesser attempted to recreate the popularity of the silent dog melodramas with this mix of Depression-era mise-en-scene and Grade-Z western tropes. Juvenile runaways Johnnie Diggins (Gene Toler) and Patsy Bolivar (Ruth Sullivan) meet on a freight train bound for Oregon, where the latter has an uncle. Along the way, they are rescued from a couple of lecherous hoboes (one of whom is B-Western perennial Bud Osborne) by another stowaway, Kazan, a handsome German Shepherd, whom they quickly adopt. In the small Oregon community of Wooltown, the trio uncover a scheme by local entrepreneur Dave Brownell to rustle the area's sheep. Brownell, whose own German Shepherd Champo (Prince) is spreading terror in the small community, accuses Kazan of the widespread "sheepicide" and offers a $500 reward for his capture. But aided by Dr. Elliott (Robert Manning), who has fallen in love with Patsy, Johnnie, Patsy and Kazan unmask the real culprit, Champo, whose master is apprehended by Sheriff Henry Dunkinson. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Notorious as the movie that gangster John Dillinger attended on the night he was killed, Manhattan Melodrama has weathered the years as one of MGM's finest examples of pure storytelling. The pageant-like story begins in 1904, when the excursion steamer "General Slocum" blows up and burns in the East River. Two young boys are orphaned by the disaster. They are adopted by a kindly Jewish businessman (Harry Green) who has lost his own children. Years later, when he is killed during a anarchist rally, the boys are separated once more. They grow up to be straight-arrow attorney Jim Wade (William Powell) and big-time gambler Blackie Gallagher (Clark Gable). Though the two men still like and respect one another, they are now on opposite sides of the legal fence. The professional rivalry becomes personal when Jim marries Blackie's ex-mistress Eleanor (Myrna Loy). The typically stellar MGM supporting cast includes Nat Pendleton as Blackie's faithful stooge, Isabel Jewell as his addled girlfriend, Mickey Rooney as the younger Blackie (a marvelous piece of mimicry here), and blonde singer Shirley Ross, here appearing in blackface in a Harlem nightclub sequence, singing a new Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune that would later gain popularity (with different lyrics) as "Blue Moon." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a slight change of pace, low-budget Western star Bob Steele plays a cowboy-turned-race car driver in this otherwise typical Paul Malvern production directed by the star's father Robert North Bradbury. Steele's happy-go-lucky Speed Brent gets involved with escaped prisoner Killer Joe (Ernie Adams), who hires him to drive him to the Mexican border. Knocked unconscious by one of Joe's henchmen, Speed recovers to find Judge Stafford (John Elliott) seriously wounded and the victim of theft. Along with the judge's bearded foreman Chuck Wiggins (George "Gabby" Hayes), Speed vows to track down the gang and later hooks up with Sonia (Marion Byron), a government agent masquerading as a saloon girl. Killer Joe, meanwhile, attempts to escape by car, but is chased down by Speed, who forces him over a cliff to his death. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This cheapie but goodie stars Skeets Gallagher as a young man who doesn't want to be strong-armed into a questionable business deal by his pal Johnny Arthur. Thus, he tells Arthur that he doesn't need any extra money because he's inherited a million bucks. Soon a rumor spreads that Gallegher is worth several million -- and he dare not tell the truth for fear of causing his beloved aunt to suffer a fatal heart attack. Among the many perils facing the newly rich, our hero is forced to fend off the attentions of three predatory females. The familiar faces in the supporting cast include three veterans of the Hal Roach two-reeler mill: Pansy Johnny Arthur, tough guy Walter Long, and Gracie Allen sound-alike Gay Seabrook. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide