Russell Simpson Movies

In his first Western for 1932, Buck Jones went mostly for laughs playing a former Texas ranger inheriting an Arizona ranch together with an uppity girl (Lina Basquette). The will stipulates that neither may sell without the other's consent but Lina is inclined to take an offer from smooth-talking Easterner Alan Roscoe. Jones, however, refuses to sell and the stage is set for a battle of the sexes. But there is silver in them there hills, which the Easterner has known all along. Tired of waiting for a mutual decision, Roscoe and his chief henchman, Wallace MacDonald, kidnap the girl but she is saved in the nick of time by Jones. Have the former combatants fallen in love along the way? Why, of course they have. Lina Basquette married the third of her nine husbands on the set of this film and Jones threw her a party that by all accounts was more entertaining than the film itself. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

In this newspaper drama, a cub reporter is puzzled when he is consistently scooped out of big crime stories by a rival. His nose for news tells him something is amiss, so he and his gal begin investigating. When he witnesses a bank-robbery that was reported before it happened, he figures out that the rival publisher and his ace reporter are part of a major crime ring. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Incendiary Blonde is a highly entertaining if historically suspect biopic of "Queen of the Nightclubs" Texas Guinan. As played (or overplayed) by Betty Hutton, Guinan is a hoydenish Texas gal whose showbiz career gets under way when she joins a Wild West show in 1909. A favorite with male patrons because of her salty vocabulary and what-the-hell attitude, Guinan rises to fame as a Broadway musical-comedy star and movie actress, only to crash-land after an unhappy marriage to her manager Tim Callahan (Bill Goodwin). Taking advantage of Prohibition, Guinan opens the first of several nightclubs, fending off the Feds while welcome her customers with an insouciant "Hello, sucker!" Naturally, Betty Hutton is given several opportunities to sing and dance, which she does with her usual unbridled enthusiasm. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Director Victor Fleming's final film features Ingrid Bergman as a vivid and luminous Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French peasant girl who led the French in battle against the invading English, becoming a national hero. When she was captured, tortured, and ultimately executed by the English, she was made a Catholic saint. Bergman's Joan is a strong and spiritual figure who proves her devotion to the Dauphin (Jose Ferrer), later to become the King of France. Joan is compelling as she wins an alliance with the Governor of Vaucouleurs and the courtiers at Chinon, leads her army in the Battle of Orleans, is betrayed by the Burgundians, and edicts that "our strength is in our faith." ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

An early screen version of the oft-filmed tale of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Law and Order was adapted by young screenwriter John Huston from W. R. Burnett's novel, which alters the names of the principals but few of the facts. The film opens with a montage of the settling of the West, concluding with the observation that lawless behavior soon followed in many settlements. Walter Huston plays Frame Johnson, a steely-eyed gambler whose three companions, Brant, Luther (Frame's brother), and Deadwood, form a team of sorts, wandering from town to town in search of a good poker game. Johnson's reputation as "the man that cleaned up Kansas, the killingest peace officer that ever lived" precedes him when he arrives in Tombstone, a town controlled by the Northrup brothers and their crooked sheriff, Fin Elder. A committee of lawful citizens, led by a judge, try to hire Johnson to clean up the town, but he's reluctant to pin on the badge again. Inevitably, he does, and there's a showdown that leaves a corral full of corpses. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

A prison melodrama with a heart, Life's Mockery starred Betty Compson as Kit Miller, the daughter of notorious gangster Wolf Miller (Russell Simpson). Fleeing the law, Kit is knocked unconscious and brought to a prison whose warden, John Fullerton (Alec B. Francis, believes that criminals may be completely reformed under the proper environment. Suffering from amnesia, the girl is led to believe that the faint memories from her past are merely part of a feverish nightmare. The warden's son Wade (Theodore von Eltz) falls in love with the girl, but their idyll and her reformation are soon threatened by the re-emergence of Wolf Miller. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

20th Century-Fox hoped to make a film star out of Texas A&M football hero John Kimbrough, and to that end placed the gridiron hero in a brace of compact westerns. The first of these was Zane Grey's The Lone Star Ranger, previously filmed by Fox in 1931 with George O'Brien in the lead. Kimbrough plays Texas Ranger Buck Dunne, assigned to round up a gang of bank robbers. The leader of the gang turns out to be the "respectable" Judge Longstreth (Jonathan Hale), making life difficult for Dunne inasmuch as he's in love with Longstreth's niece Barbara (Sheila Ryan). Despite the herculean efforts of director John Tinling, John Kimbrough was consititutionally incapable of delivering a convincing performance in either Lone Star Ranger or its immediate followup Sundown Jim. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair was Number Four in Universal's immensely successful "B"-picture series. It is giving away nothing to reveal that Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride once more assume the title roles. The plot is motivated by Ma's desire to send daughter Rosie (Lori Nelson) to college. To that end, she intends to win a big cash prize at the upcoming county fair. Meanwhile, Pa uses his half of the winnings (which no one, as yet, has really won!) to purchase a race horse. When Mafails to win the money, the Kettles are forced to rely on the horse to save the day during a sweepstakes race. Towards the end of Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair, a close-up of the racing statistics sheet is shown, revealing that one of the owners is "Quinn Martin"--a cute inside joke, inasmuch as Mr. Martin was a prolific scriptwriter and a friend of Ma and Pa Kettle producer Leonard Goldstein. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The all-purpose title Man Hunt was trotted out for this 1936 Warner Bros. "B". Aging country newspaper editor Chic Sale is laughed off by the rest of his community for his tall tales. When an escaped Public Enemy (Ricardo Cortez) shows up in the vicinity, Sale decides to prove his worth by tracking down the criminal himself. The G-Men on the case tell Sale to mind his own business, but it is the old codger who collars Cortez and drags him in. No one made gangster pictures as well as Warner Bros., so even a low-priority item like Man Hunt has its moments. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Despite its ebullient title and the presence of lightweight dancing star Dan Dailey, Meet Me at the Fair has a lot more meat on its bones than most musicals of the early 1950s. Dailey plays an early-1900s medicine show huckster who finds himself the reluctant guardian of orphanage escapee Chet Allen. As he grows fond of the boy, Dailey becomes determined to thwart the corrupt system that allows substandard orphan asylums to operate while political hacks get rich on government funding. Dailey wins the confidence (and love) of orphan committee member Diana Lynn, who helps to foil the machinations of crooked district attorney Hugh O'Brien. The darker aspects of Meet Me at the Fair are lightened by director Douglas Sirk's marvelous recreations of backstage life at the turn of the century. The film is also a special treat for fans of Scatman Crothers, who is never less than terrific as Dan Dailey's sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After a burst of creativity in 1933 and 1934, independent Majestic Pictures had settled into the usual "B"-picture rut by 1935. One of the last Majestic efforts was Motive for Revenge, starring Donald Cook as hapless bank teller Barry Webster. Plagued by a domineering mother-in-law (Doris Lloyd), Webster impulsively steals bank funds so that he may properly support his wife Muriel (Irene Hervey). It isn't long before the Law catches up with Webster, and soon he's doing hard time in prison. Holding his mother-in-law responsible for his present sorry state, our anti-hero plots a terrible revenge -- but is he too nice a guy to go through with it? Most of the prison scenes in Motive for Revenge were culled from stock footage, which only served to emphasize the overall cheapness of the whole enterprise. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Frank Capra's classic comedy-drama established James Stewart as a lead actor in one of his finest (and most archetypal) roles. The film opens as a succession of reporters shout into telephones announcing the death of Senator Samuel Foley. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), the state's senior senator, puts in a call to Governor Hubert "Happy" Hopper (Guy Kibbee) reporting the news. Hopper then calls powerful media magnate Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who controls the state -- along with the lawmakers. Taylor orders Hopper to appoint an interim senator to fill out Foley's term; Taylor has proposed a pork barrel bill to finance an unneeded dam at Willet Creek, so he warns Hopper he wants a senator who "can't ask any questions or talk out of turn." After having a number of his appointees rejected, at the suggestion of his children Hopper nominates local hero Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), leader of the state's Boy Rangers group. Smith is an innocent, wide-eyed idealist who quotes Jefferson and Lincoln and idolizes Paine, who had known his crusading editor father. In Washington, after a humiliating introduction to the press corps, Smith threatens to resign, but Paine encourages him to stay and work on a bill for a national boy's camp. With the help of his cynical secretary Clarissa Sanders (Jean Arthur), Smith prepares to introduce his boy's camp bill to the Senate. But when he proposes to build the camp on the Willets Creek site, Taylor and Paine force him to drop the measure. Smith discovers Taylor and Paine want the Willets Creek site for graft and he attempts to expose them, but Paine deflects Smith's charges by accusing Smith of stealing money from the boy rangers. Defeated, Smith is ready to depart Washington, but Saunders, whose patriotic zeal has been renewed by Smith, exhorts him to stay and fight. Smith returns to the Senate chamber and, while Taylor musters the media forces in his state to destroy him, Smith engages in a climactic filibuster to speak his piece: "I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not gonna leave this body until I do get them said." ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Not even Joe E. Brown's most fervent fans have much to say about his appearance in the 1929 part-talkie My Lady's Past -- mainly because the film seems to have long since disappeared. In her first talking role, Belle Bennett (who previously co-starred with Brown in Molly and Me) plays another of her "damaged goods" roles, this time as small-town matron Mamie Reynolds. Engaged to Mamie for ten years, novelist Sam Young (Brown) is finally about to pop the question when he learns of his sweetheart's checkered past. After a drunken soliloquy of eight minutes' duration, Sam decides to forgive and forget, but not before settling accounts with the film's villain, narrow-minded John Parker (Russell Simpson). Joe E. Brown would be better served by his later vehicles for Warner Bros. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi