Lee Shumway Movies

Don "Red" Barry is unjustly accused of being a Missouri Outlaw. The real bad guys are a gang of crooks who've been conning the local merchants and farmers out of their hard-earned dollars. Barry decides to use his bad reputation to his advantage by infiltrating the criminal gang. Our Hero may be small, but he's wiry, as the villains discover to their painful chagrin. Watch for former cowboy star Kermit Maynard, brother of Ken, in a character bit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Music, gangster melodrama, and snappy newspaper comedy is blended into the usual Western shenanigans in this unusual Gene Autry vehicle filmed on-location at the Russell Ranch near Agoura Hills, CA. Autry, as always, plays himself, a singing star, with Smiley Burnette and Joe Strauch Jr. as sidekicks Frog and Tadpole Millhouse. The trio is visiting Pop Harrison's (Forrest Taylor) Wyoming dude ranch, where Pop's wastrel son, Tex (James Seay), is in trouble with the law. Tex is involved with one Mr. Crowley (George Gordon), who really a gangster named Luigi. Recognized by newspaper reporters Clem (Fay McKenzie) and Hack (Chick Chandler), Crowley and his men indulges in a bit of skullduggery and are the obvious suspects when Pop Harrison is shot. But as Gene discovers, the gangsters are merely red herrings, the real culprit being a person much closer to home. In between detective work and romancing the girl reporter, Autry finds time enough to warble six songs, including Irving Berlin's then very topical "Any Bonds Today?," the official anthem of U.S. Defense Bond campaign. Despite good performances by Fay McKenzie, the daughter of veteran B-Western personality Robert McKenzie, and the always welcome Chick Chandler, Home in Wyomin' was not wholly appreciated by Autry's legion of fans who wanted their star straight up. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Republic's ongoing professional association with the celebrated "Ice-Capades" skating show yielded a number of flashy but forgettable musicals, including 1942's Ice-Capades Revue. Though a plot is hardly necessary, the story concerns New England farm gal Ann (Ellen Drew), whose already-mounting debts are escalated when she inherits a near-bankrupt ice show. Her efforts to revivify this operation are regularly thwarted by a conniving promoter named Duke Baldwin (Harold Huber), who has already tied up all the best arenas for his own skating spectacular. But Baldwin's second-in-command Jeff (Richard Denning) falls in love with Ann and vows to see to it that her show will be staged, come heck or high water. Jerry Colonna goes through his customary zaniness as an eccentric would-be backer who turns out to be a phony, while Barbara Jo Allen again trots out her dizzy "Vera Vague" characterization. Foremost among the skating acts in Ice-Capades Revue is Vera Hruba Ralston, who'd later be elevated to leading-lady status at Republic by her ardent admirer (and future husband), studio president Herbert J. Yates. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Before his promotion to "A" pictures, Don "Red" Barry was perhaps the feistiest of Republic's cowboy-star stable. In Arizona Terrors, Barry poses as an outlaw, the better to cross six-guns with evil land baron Reed Hadley. Barry's true identity, and the purpose of his mission, is known only to President William McKinley--and when McKinley is slain, our hero is a candidate for the noose. The official cast list of Arizona Terrors doesn't indicate who plays McKinley, but we can tell you that Barry's leading lady is Lynn Merrick. She plays one of several homesteaders being victimized by the smooth-talking Hadley, thus she is demonstrably grateful when Barry comes to the rescue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the eerier chillers of its period -- and one of the best ever to come out of Paramount -- Stuart Heisler's Among the Living is a strange and compelling mix of social drama, horror film, and suspense thriller. The story opens with the funeral of Maxim Raden, the patriarch who was pretty much responsible for building up the town that bears the family name, and which has been dominated for decades by the now-idle mill that he owned. Present at the funeral is Dr. Ben Saunders (Harry Carey Sr.), Raden's oldest friend, and the surviving Raden son John (Albert Dekker), who has been away for most of the last 25 years and recently married Elaine (Frances Farmer), a beautiful young woman from New York. John was one of a pair of twin boys; the other, Paul, died in an accident a quarter century ago, just after John was sent away to school. But Saunders and Maxim Raden had a secret between them -- that Paul Raden didn't die, but went dangerously insane, and has kept been alive all of this time, in a hidden room in the decaying Raden mansion, tended to by the doctor and the faithful family servant Pompey (Ernest Whitman). Paul was a victim of abuse by his overbearing father, and suffered brain damage from a beating he received while trying to protect his mother. He has never stopped "hearing" his father's threats or his mother's weeping, and they leave him prone to violent, potentially murderous outbursts of rage. Worse still, the death of his father has agitated him into a state where he is able to escape the mansion. Once freed and relieved of his quarter century of isolation, Paul is at once confused by and delighted with the company of people; he heads to the town and rents a room at a seedy boarding house, where he immediately attracts the attention of the landlady's frisky (and avaricious) daughter Millie (Susan Hayward) with his large bankroll, free-spending habits, and lost-puppy-dog demeanor. Meanwhile, the doctor reveals the truth about Paul to John, who wants to notify the authorities that his brother is loose and potentially dangerous -- but the doctor won't hear of it, fearing that news of the insane son will tarnish the Raden name and the reputation of the clinic that Maxim founded and funded on the doctor's behalf, in return for his covering up the son's existence.
The stakes get raised higher when the coroner reveals that a death the doctor tried to cover up was, in fact, a murder, and then a young woman is found strangled. While John is torn between sympathy for his brother, who never got the help or care he needed, and his feeling of responsibility to the town, the doctor tries to continue the cover-up by posting a 5,000-dollar reward for the capture of the killer. This sets off an orgy of assaults and destruction as the work-starved townspeople, led by Millie's ex-boyfriend Bill Oakley (Gordon Jones), begin rounding up anyone who looks even the least bit suspicious or out of place, trying to get the reward. Millie's greed is also brought to the fore and she persuades her new boyfriend, Paul, to go with her to the one place no one has searched yet -- the Raden mansion. Paul's veneer of calm unravels as he finds himself back in the location of his imprisonment, and in the course of the fight and the chase that ensues, John is caught and accused, by Millie and all of the other witnesses to Paul's outbursts, as the killer. Now it looks like a lynching is in the offing as hundreds of angry, drunken, greedy townspeople gather together to mete out justice -- and John must make them believe that he has a twin who is responsible for the murders. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The dangers of the dread venereal disease syphilis are depicted in this earnest drama from the 1940s. The story centers upon an intrepid health commissioner who is out to get rid of the tawdry hookers responsible for spreading the disease. He is assisted by a reporter. In a different subplot a young philanderer contracts the disease and gives it to his pregnant wife. Later a rotten doctor claims that he is cured, but it is not so and the young man returns, picks a fight, and accidentally kills the doctor. Later the young fellow is persuaded into giving his reasons for the killing; he does, and his name is cleared. At the same time, the reporter and health commissioner have fallen in love, and the town council finally gives the go ahead for the commissioner to clean up the streets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Produced and directed by George Sherman, Death Valley Outlaws starred James Cagney-lookalike Donald Barry as Johnny Edwards, a cowboy saving lovely Carolyn Johnson (Lynn Merrick) from a gang of vigilante raiders. When his friend, Bill Weston (Michael Owen), becomes the next target of the vigilante gang, Jim promises the dying boy to avenge him. He does so by infiltrating the gang disguised as an outlaw, learning along the way that the leader is bank president Charles Gifford (Karl Hackett). The latter's right-hand man, Jeff Edwards (Milburn Stone), is Johnny's long-lost brother, but the undercover cowboy can only watch as Jeff is mortally wounded by his boss. Enraged, Johnny rushes to the bank where Gifford and the crooked sheriff (Rex Lease) are in the midst of robbing the store, so to speak. Alerted by local veterinarian Doc Blake (Robert McKenzie) and his African-American servant, Snowflake (Fred Toones), the angry citizenry help Johnny round up the gang. A former producer/director/actor from the silent era, rotund and jovial Robert McKenzie was given several good opportunities to shine in the Red Barry series, which was otherwise without a continuing comic sidekick. Less appealing were several appearances by Toones, who in Death Valley Outlaws was treated more or less in the same vein as Barry's horse, Cyclone, and dog Duke. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Stars-on-the-downslide Wallace Ford and Marian Marsh briefly rallied in the above-average Monogram melodrama Murder by Invitation. Ford is cast as usual as a wisecracking reporter, this time christened Bob White. Our hero is one of several acquaintances and relatives invited to an old dark house to attend the reading of a will. At the stroke of midnight, one of the guests is murdered?and then another. The most obvious suspect is Aunt Cassie (Sarah Padden), the slightly daft owner of the mansion, but Bob suspects that she's being framed, and with the help of heroine Nora O'Brien (Marsh) he sets about to prove it. Some of the film's best moments are suppled by beetle-browed Herb Vigran, a busy supporting actor whose best professional days were still to come.Murder by Invitation closes with one of those "It's only a movie, folks" gags indigenous to the Monogram product of the 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this low-budget thriller (which developed something of a cult following among film buffs in the '60s and '70s), Peter Lorre plays Janos Szabo, an immigrant from Hungary who is a skilled craftsman. After he's caught in a fire, his face is horribly scarred; his terrifying appearance makes it impossible for him to get a job. With nowhere else to turn, Janos begins working for the criminal underworld, where he eventually raises enough money to purchase an expensive mask whose expressionless features are only a slight improvement over his distorted visage, but at least allow him to go out in public. However, Janos begins having second thoughts about his life of crime, especially after he falls in love with Helen (Evelyn Keyes), a kind-hearted blind woman. Director Robert Florey supposedly shot this film and Meet Boston Blackie in a mere 24 days. Florey and Lorre would team up again for another offbeat film buff favorite, The Beast with Five Fingers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Rodeo champ Gene Autry inherits half interest in both a ranch and a mine that provides steady employment for the surrounding rancheros. Unfortunately, the other half goes to Easterner Barbara Erwin (Carol Hughes), who is only interested in monetary remuneration. To convince Gene to buy her share, Barbara enters into an unholy alliance with unscrupulous attorneys Arnold (Ivan Miller) and Fry (Sam Flint), who, without their client's consent, hire a gang of thugs headed by Tommick (John Merton). When a ranchero (Elias Gamboa) is mortally wounded in the ensuing gun battle, Barbara sees the error of her way and switches sides. When not fighting for the rights of the common man, Gene Autry and sidekick Smiley Burnette perform "Under Fiesta Stars", "Purple Sage in the Twilight", "When You're Smiling" and "The Man in the Flying Trapeze". Under Fiesta Stars has been restored to its original length of 62 minutes by Gene Autry Entertainment. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The paying customers got two Donald Barrys for the price of one in this typically well-mounted Republic Western directed with his customary vim and vigor by George Sherman. A petty criminal, The Sundown Kid (Barry number one), is persuaded by a gang of rustlers to change places with his lookalike brother, Bruce McKinnon, the town sheriff. Assuming his "sheriff's duties," the Kid, aka Jim McKinnon, gets in trouble with his girlfriend, Nita (Lupita Tovar), who jealously watches him courting Bruce's fiancée Ruth Morton (Lynn Merrick). Jim pacifies the seething Nita by telling her the truth, but when a minister turns up to marry "Bruce" and Ruth, she angrily betrays him. In the ensuing melee, Jim is mortally wounded, but manages to reconcile with his estranged brother before expiring. A fine actor in the James Cagney mold, Donald Barry (nicknamed "Red" for obvious reasons) convincingly portrayed the disparate brothers. In what was to become one of the longest partnerships in B-Western history, blond Lynn Merrick (formerly Marilyn Merrick) went on to do 15 additional Westerns opposite Barry. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A tough, bitter fugitive's travels lead him to a grungy rundown oil town. There the transient is taken in by an oil-rigger who gives him a job working a well. They must work double-quick for the well's lease is due to expire. Unfortunately, they become so focused on striking oil quickly, they forget about safety and several men are hurt. Meanwhile the kindly crew boss and the fugitive vie for the affections of a life-hardened woman until tragedy strikes the supervisor. Suddenly the fugitive must take on the responsibility of reaching the oil. In so doing, he makes some important decisions about taking responsibility for his actions as well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This domestic comedy is the final episode of the 17-film "Jones Family" series. The story begins as restless Father decides to leave the simplicity of small-town life for the sophistication and excitement of the city, so he sells the family drugstore and moves his family to the Big Apple. Soon they find themselves surrounded by con men, and sleazy women trying to steal everything they own. Mayhem ensues until they decide they've had enough and hightail it for the safety of home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide