Bob Steele Movies

Billy the Kid is played by Bob Steele in this PRC sagebrusher, while his "fighting pals" are Al "Fuzzy" St. John and Carleton Young. Billy and his buddies arrive in the town of Paradise, which fails to live up to its name. The villain is a local banker (Edward Peil Sr.), who of course is also the secret mastermind behind all criminal activities. Billy sizes up the situation and settles matters with a combination of fists and shootin' irons. Before emerging on screen as Billy the Kid's Fighting Pals, the film was briefly titled Billy the Kid Trails West, then Trigger Pals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A fine, action-packed entry in Republic Pictures' long-running "Three Mesqueteers" Western series, West of Cimarron featured the constellation of Bob Steele as Tucson Smith, Tom Tyler as Stony Brooke, and Rufe Davis as Lullaby Joslin. The scene is Texas right after the Civil War and former medical doctor Ken Morgan (James Bush) is leading a gang of "bushwackers" against the unfair taxation policies of the occupying Union army lead by Colonel Conway (Guy Usher). But Conway is unaware that his civilian attaché Bentley (Hugh Prosser) and nasty Captain Hawkes (Roy Barcroft) are in fact squeezing money from the populace in general and tavern owner Morgan (Budd Buster), Ken's father, in particular. When Ken's younger brother (Mickey Rentschler) is shot in the back by one of Hawkes' men, Tucson, Lullaby, and Stony come to the rescue, despite the fact that the latter fought with the Union Army in the recent war. Learning the truth from the Mesqueteers, an outraged Colonel Conway demands an investigation. Hawkes, however, has the colonel killed by his own orderly (Cactus Mack), who manages to frame Ken. When Stony and Tucson interfere, they are imprisoned by Bentley, who has taken over command. But by using a great deal of cunning, Lullaby and his sidekick Rastus (Cordell Hickman) get word to Major Briggs (Stanley Blystone) -- the inspector general -- and the renegade army officers are wiped out in a final shootout. Unusual for a B-Western, West of Cimarron got in trouble with the Production Code Administration, which demanded that some of the killings be eliminated and that the writers more clearly portray Hawkes and his men as renegades and not representatives of the Union army. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

PRC's "Billy the Kid" series had two different stars over a six-year period. Bob Steele plays the title role in 1941's Billy the Kid in Santa Fe. Framed on a murder charge, Billy heads to guess what New Mexico town. Here he teams with the brother of the murder victim to extract a confession from the real killer. This 66-minute sagebrusher was the sixth of PRC's "Billy the Kid" entries; in late 1941, Bob Steele would be succeeded in the starring role by Buster Crabbe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yet another fast-paced western featuring the "Three Mesqueteers," pulp writer William Colt McDonald's trio of sagebrush heroes, Lone Star Raiders finds Stony Brooke (Robert Livingston), Tucson Smith (Bob Steele) and Lullaby Joslin (Rufe Davis) defending elderly rancher "Granny" Phelps (Sarah Padden) from greedy neighbor Henry Martin (George Douglas). Engaging in a bit of sabotage, the latter is hoping that "Granny" will lose a potentially valuable contract to supply horses for the cavalry. Wise to Martin's evil machinations, the Mesqueteers, aided by ranch foreman Cameron (John Elliott) and his daughter Linda (June Johnson), prevent the poisoning of the water trough. But our heroes soon find themselves falsely accused of killing Cameron and are thus prevented from participating in the Big Race that may determine "Granny's" future. The old lady, however, manages to break the trio out of jail in the nick of time and Cameron's real killer, Mason henchman Dixon (John Merton), is apprehended. Stony wins the race and "Granny" is rescued from financial ruin. Helmed by George Sherman, one of the best directors in the business, Lone Star Raiders moves at a typically fast clip and is constantly entertaining despite an overabundance of stock footage from earlier, more luxurious "Three Mesqueteers" entries. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

There are three key characters in Anatole Litvak's filmization of Aben Kandel's novel City for Conquest, as opposed to the six or more in the book -- but the real star, to a large extent, is New York City and its entire population. For purposes of the movie, however, the dramatic arc is linked to James Cagney, as honest, unpretentious truck driver Danny Kenny, whose life is involved with two other people -- his kid brother, Ed (Arthur Kennedy), a gifted musician trying to survive in the rough-and-tumble world of New York's Lower East Side, and Peggy Nash (Ann Sheridan), the neighborhood girl from the Lower East Side whom he's loved, one way or another, since he was a kid. Danny is happy doing what he does, driving a truck, but when Ed's scholarship is cut in half, he reluctantly takes an offer of a boxing match to raise the cash he needs, going into the ring under the fighting name "Young Samson." At about the same time, Peggy -- who loves to dance -- has her head turned by Murray Burns (Anthony Quinn), an ambitious but sleazy aspiring professional dancer. Eventually Peggy goes into partnership with Murray and is ultimately driven by her own ambition to leave Danny after she accepts his marriage proposal. By now, he's getting up in the boxing world, and in his bitterness over losing Peggy he accepts a bout for the world's welterweight championship. He's not overmatched as a boxer, but the money involved in this fight is just too big for it to be honest, and Danny is left all but blinded when his opponent's handlers slip resin dust onto his gloves. Danny is left seemingly a shell of a man, though he's content with his lot in life as far as it goes. He doesn't want any special attention or favors from anyone; the only thing he would like, though he's too proud to admit it, would be for Peggy to come back. But by now her dancing career with Murray has fallen apart, and she's too tortured by guilt, over the sequence of events she helped start, to come near Danny. It falls to Ed, who has never given up composing, to express the inexpressibles that each of these characters feels through his music. His first major classical work is a symphony ostensibly about New York City, which he conducts in its premiere at Carnegie Hall; but it's also about Danny and his life, and his dreams. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

An above-average entry in Republic Pictures' long-running "Three Mesqueteers" series, The Trail Blazers is something as unusual as a Christmas western that includes comic sidekick Rufe Davis' rendition of "Jingle Bells". The Mesqueteers -- who in addition to Davis' Lullaby Joslin also numbered Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke and Bob Steele as "Tucson" Smith -- come to the aid of Jim Chapman (Carroll Nye), an engineer assigned to build a telegraph for the army. But a group of powerful local businessmen, headed by crooked newspaper publisher Jeff Bradley (Weldon Heyburn), do their utmost to sabotage the project. Yet despite the inevitable setbacks, the Mesqueteers, aided by Army Major Kelton (Tom Chatterton) and his daughter Marcia (Pauline Moore), make sure that the life-saving telegraph is erected on time. In an effort to duplicate the success of the "Three Mesqueteers" films, small-scale Monogram begun their own trio series in 1943, confusingly entitled "The Trail Blazers," a moniker the studio most likely "stole" from this western. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This 1939 film version of John Steinbeck's classic novel was a surprising choice for comedy producer Hal Roach; in fact, Roach had no intention of filming the property until forced to do so as a result of a lawsuit brought by director Lewis Milestone. Burgess Meredith stars as itinerant farm worker George, who travels in with his cousin and best friend Lennie (Lon Chaney, Jr.). George dreams of saving enough money for a farm of his own, a dream shared by the retarded giant Lennie, who merely wants to "tend the rabbits." Unfortunately, George has never been able to stay at a job very long, thanks to the trouble often caused by Lennie's feeble-mindedness. Still, George is fiercely loyal to Lennie and would never think of deserting him. Hired by rancher Oscar O'Shea, George and Lennie run afoul of the boss' belligerent son Curley (Bob Steele); his bored wife Mae (Betty Field) starts flirting with poor Lennie, who, not knowing his own strength, accidentally strangles the girl, leading to even more tragic consequences. Despite being endlessly parodied in Warner Bros. and MGM cartoons ("Which way did he, go George? Which way did he go?") Of Mice and Men retains its raw dramatic power. On its initial release, however, it proved a bit too powerful for many filmgoers, and it lost money. The highly acclaimed American composer Aaron Copland wrote the musical score. The 1981 TV remake of Of Mice and Men starring Robert Blake and Randy Quaid, was a virtual scene-for-scene remake of the 1939 version. The 1993 theatrical remake, starring Gary Sinise (who also directed) and John Malkovich, is perhaps closer to the source than its predecessors, but only time will tell if it attains the classic status of the Lewis Milestone version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of eight Bob Steele Westerns from Gower Gulch producer Harry S. Webb's Metropolitan Pictures Corp., Feud of the Range had been filmed as The Kanab Kid in Kanab, UT, in the fall of 1938. An ignominious beginning of an justly infamous series, the Western starred the diminutive Steele as a cowboy returning to the old homestead along with his pal, Happy (Budd Buster). They arrive in the middle of a range war that ultimately separates father and son. But as Bob quickly learns, the troubles are caused by greedy Clyde Barton (Jack Ingram), who is hoping to drive the local ranchers off their valuable land. A rough hewn affair that depended too much on stock footage, Feud of the Range was further handicapped by the amateurish performance of its nominal leading lady, former child actress Gertrude Messinger, who, for most of the duration, had eyes only for villain Jack Ingram. The series proved the nadir for the veteran Steele, who next starred for yet another Poverty Row company, the much derided PRC. Coming from Metropolitan, however, even PRC was actually a step up. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In all aspects a mediocre B-Western, Smoky Trails once again trotted out the old story of a young man pretending to join a gang of outlaws in order to find the villain that killed his father. Bob Steele had played the role many times before but usually under better conditions. Smoky Trails was the second of eight Steele Westerns produced by Gower Gulch company Metropolitan Pictures Corp., which was actually Harry S. Webb and Bernard B. Ray's old Reliable Pictures under a new moniker. Jean Carmen, a 1934 WAMPAS Baby Star who had starred as Julia Thayer in the serial The Painted Stallion, played Steele's leading lady, veteran comic Jimmy Aubrey supplied a bit of low-brow humor and Carleton Young essayed the killer. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In his sixth and final Western release of 1939, diminutive Bob Steele played a cowboy, who, searching for his father's killer, is mistaken for a notorious outlaw in a corrupt border town. Directed by producer Harry S. Webb's younger brother Ira, El Diablo Rides featured the usual Metropolitan Pictures stock company of villains, including Carleton Young, Ted Adams, and Robert Walker. The barely released Western, however, was a far cry from Bob Steele's main effort of 1939, the role of Curly in Lewis Milestone's perhaps definitive version of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide