Sherry Tansey Movies
The youngest of the three acting Tansey brothers, Sherry Tansey began his long screen career in 1916, billed in the style of the day as Master Tansey. He was Sheridan Tansey in the classic tearjerker Over the Hill to the Poorhouse (1920), and as an adult, played weakling brothers, henchmen, and members of the posse in countless low-budget oaters under the names James Sheridan and Sherry Tansey. Often working for older brother Robert Emmett Tansey, Sherry's credits lasted well into the sound era, his last known screen appearance coming in 1941. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1942
After several years of mediocre westerns, cowboy star Tom Keene finally managed to find a winning formula in his 1941-42 vehicles for Monogram. Lone Star Law Men stars Keene as a deputy US marshal, sworn to help his boss rout a gang of border outlaws. Our hero elects to go undercover by joining the crooks himself-an old ploy, but one that works beautifully here. For the rest of the film, Keene has quite a time staying on camera with such formidable scene-stealers as comic sidekick Frank Yaconelli and all-around heavy Charles King as competition. Like many Tom Keene oaters of the period, Lone Star Law Men gives over a goodly amount of screen time to moppet Sugar Dawn, whom Monogram was obviously grooming for bigger things (which never materialized). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Keene, Frank Yaconelli, (more)
- 1942
Monogram's Tom Keene western series continued its winning streak with 1942's Western Mail. As was customary, Keene is a good guy posing as a bad guy to get the goods on the other bad guys. While operating undercover, Keene befriends Lucky (Fred Kohler Jr.), the gone-astray brother of heroine Julia (Jean Trent). When the chips are down, Lucky proves he's still a right guy by laying down his life for Keene, thereby paving the way for a happy ending for our hero and the lovely Julia. Frank Yaconelli does his usual as Keene's Mexicano comic sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Keene, Frank Yaconelli, (more)
- 1941
Before changing his name to Richard Powers, cowboy hero Tom Keene spent the waning days of his stardom at Monogram, churning out westerns like Riding the Sunset Trail. When ingenue Betty Dawson (Betty Miles) and her kid sister Sugar (Sugar Dawn) are cheated out of their cattle ranch, Tom Sterling (Keene) and his sidekick Mendoza (Frank Yaconelli) vow to get the ranch back for the girls. This requires Sterling to cross six-guns with Pecos Dean (Gene Alcase), a former friend who'd turned bad. The climax is a shootout between our heroes and the minions of chief heavy Jay Lynch (Kenne Duncan). Formerly a bit too overenthusiastic in his screen appearances, Tom Keene turns in a restrained, well-modulated peformance in Riding the Sunset Trail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Keene, Betty Miles, (more)
- 1941
PRC's Outlaws of the Rio Grande stars Tim McCoy in his traditional role of a US marshal. Operating around the Mexican border, McCoy is galvanized into action when his best pal is killed by a gang of counterfeiters. Going undercover, our hero heads after the gang into Mexico, intending to unmask the mysterious leader. Heroine Rita (played by band vocalist Virginia Carpenter) is forced by the crooks to lure McCoy into a trap, but the audience never doubts for a moment that Colonel Tim will prevail. Among the heavies is the inescapable Charles King, here cast not in his traditional role of "Blackie" but as "Trigger". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Virginia Carpenter, (more)
- 1941
In their second Western outing together, PRC's low-budget team of George Houston and Al St. John go in search of a Mexican bandit known as "El Puma." Arriving south of the border disguised as peons, "The Lone Rider," a.k.a. Tom Cameron, and his sidekick Fuzzy learn that Torres (Thornton Edwards), the local mayor, refuses his son Francisco (Howard Masters to court cantina dancer Rosalie (Roquell Verria), whom he considers low-class. Grabbing a chance to get out of a jam, "El Puma," who is really a Gringo named Jarvis (Charles King), frames Tom in the kidnapping of Francisco. But Tom manages to escape before he can be arrested and persuades Rosalie to pretend to be in love with Jarvis. The latter's hideout is then infiltrated by Tom and Fuzzy disguised as gun salesmen and the entire gang is apprehended. Relieved at this happy outcome, Mayor Torres allows Francisco to marry Rosalia. The south-of-the-border setting of this low-budget "The Lone Rider" series entry permitted George Houston, a former opera bass, to perform such enchilada-flavored songs as "It's a Gay Fiesta" and "I'm Pancho, the Mexican Bandit". Heavyset and a bit awkward-looking, Houston was perhaps not the ideal B-Western hero and was replaced by Robert Livingstone in the final six of the 17 "Lone Rider" entries. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Houston, Roquell Verria, (more)
- 1941
In this western, the good-guy battles his bad-guy double and his band of outlaws to protect a purty gal's ranch. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1941
In this western, a rancher's son rides out for revenge against the rustlers who killed his father. The pursuit stretches between Montana to Arizona and it becomes more difficult because though the son knows the killer's name, he has never seen his face. Fortunately, the killer doesn't know what the son looks like either. Eventually the two come face to face, but neither recognizes the other until the story's end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Keene, Sugar Dawn, (more)
- 1940
After several dismal Westerns, Tex Ritter found a winner in Arizona Frontier, which was filmed in glorious locations near Prescott, Arizona. Ritter played Tex Whitedeer, a white boy reared by the Indian Grey Cloud (real-life native American sports legend Jim Thorpe). Tex's ancestry becomes an issue when as an agent for the government he is charged with deciding where the East and West branches of the railroad shall meet. Joe Lane's (Hal Price) freight company is being raided by what appears to be Indians, but Tex suspects the criminals to be white men in disguise. He is soon falsely accused by a rival army lieutenant (John Merton) of leading the marauders himself. Further investigation, however, discloses that the raiders are indeed a gang of white villains headed by Graham (Tristram Coffin), who is ultimately caught by Ritter and Grey Cloud's Indian braves. Despite his fame as an athlete, Jim Thorpe was sadly misused by Hollywood who usually saw him only in stereotypical terms. Thorpe's personal friendship with Ritter landed him the role of Grey Cloud in Arizona Frontier and he gave what was perhaps his best performance. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1939
As in his previous two Westerns, Mexicali Kid and Wild Horse Canyon (both 1938), Jack Randall goes in search of his brother's killer in this low-budget series entry from Monogram. All three films were penned by line producer Robert Emmett Tansey, but the economy in both thought and deed was alarming even for a threadbare outfit such as Monogram. Randall played the title role in Trigger Smith, a former lawman whose brother, the Marshal of Piru, is killed during a bank heist. Trigger and his sidekick, Lopez (rotund Frank Yaconelli), obtain jobs as hands at a ranch belonging to Jean (Joyce Bryant) and her brothers, Buck (juvenile trick roper Bobby Clark) and Bud (Dennis Moore). The latter proves to be in cahoots with the bank robbers, but is killed in the climactic melee. Moore must have been able to portray this character in his sleep; it was identical to the one he had played in the previous Randall entry, Wild Horse Canyon, even down to heroically taking a bullet meant for Jack. The last scene of the film was lifted almost intact from Randall's debut Western, Riders of the Dawn (1937). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Yaconelli, Joyce Bryant, (more)
After having terrorized singing cowboy Tex Ritter in 19 consecutive Westerns, veteran Bad Guy Charles King found himself relegated to that of a minor henchman in The Man from Texas. The chief villain this time was the now forgotten Vic Demourelle, Jr., who played Jeff Hall, a nasty rancher plotting to take over his neighbor's spread. Said neighbor, Speed Dennison (Kenne Duncan), hires Ritter to help protect the property from Hall's hired gunslingers. One of them, the Shooting Kid (Charles B. Wood), is a friend of Ritter's and is being blackmailed by Hall. Unless he can get his cattle to the railroad station in time, Speed will forfeit his ranch, but Hall refuses him passage through his land. Aided by Sheriff Happy Martin (Hal Price), Tex and Speed nevertheless manage to get the cattle through Hall's illegal barbed wire fencing but in the ensuing shootout, the Kid is mortally wounded after taking a bullet meant for Tex. After the villainous Hall has been apprehended, Ritter reveals himself to be an agent for the railroad and that Hall was trying to steal the Dennison spread hoping to sell it to the company for a profit. Filmed on the Monogram ranch in Newhall, California, The Man from texas was even cheaper than Ritter's previous efforts and the former radio crooner only got to sing two songs: Prairie Lights and Men Who Wear the Stars, both composed by Frank Harford. On a more positive note, this was the first Ritter Western sans the so-called comedy relief by Snub Pollard and/or Horace Murphy ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tex Ritter, Hal Price, (more)
- 1939
Amazingly, this Jack Randall series Western from Monogram was almost a remake of Randall's previous effort, Mexicali Kid. Both films were written by the series' line producer, Robert Emmett Tansey, and both starred Randall as a cowboy searching for his brother's killer. As in Mexicali Kid, Randall seeks refuge at a Western ranch where he reveals the foreman (Warner Richmond in this instance) to be the head of a gang of rustlers. Richmond, who is in cahoots with the rancher's son (Dennis Moore), naturally proves to be the same villain who killed Jack's brother. Jack sets a trap for the gang and Moore turns heroic just in time to be mortally wounded by his boss. Rotund Frank Yaconelli played Randall's sidekick and pert ingénue Dorothy Short (of Reefer Madness fame) provided feminine appeal as Moore's innocent sister. Launched by Monogram as a singing cowboy in 1937, Randall's vocal abilities were soundly trashed by the critics and his later films were devoid of musical interludes. By 1939, the series was running on empty and Randall's follow-up to Mexicali Kid and Wild Horse Canyon, Trigger Smith (1939), trotted out the revenge story for an astonishing third time in a row, a record even for Monogram and Robert Emmett Tansey. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Short, Frank Yaconelli, (more)
- 1939
Not exactly famous for its innovative story lines, Monogram's Jack Randall Westerns were mostly written by genre hack Robert Emmett Tansey. After employing the old wheeze about a cowboy searching for his brother's killer in no less than three consecutive entries (Mexicali Kid, Wild Horse Canyon, and Trigger Smith), Tansey blithely trotted out the one about the cowboy impersonating an outlaw in order to infiltrate a gang of crooks. Randall, as Jack Clark, and his sidekick, Lopez (Frank Yaconelli), come to the aid of Don Careta (Julian Rivero) and his daughter, Wanda (Edna Duran), whose hidden silver mine has become the object of desire for a gang lead by Careta's evil brother, Manuel (Octavio Giraud), the even more unscrupulous Carga (Stanley Blystone), and Manuel's mistress, Nicki (Carmen Bailey). Impersonating a notorious gunman, Jack gains the trust of Carga but his real identity is always in danger of being revealed by Piute (James Sheridan, aka Sherry Tansey), Carga's henchman. Everyone is soon searching for a secret map to the mine but in the end Jack and Lopez emerge victorious. The villains carted off to jail, Jack proposes to Wanda. The brother of supervising producer/screenwriter Robert Emmett Tansey, Sherry Tansey played bit parts in most of the Randall oaters but obtained a featured role this time around. A general purpose supporting actor, Tansey enjoyed a long, 125-Western screen career that lasted from the silent era through the early '40s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Yaconelli
- 1939
Robert Emmett Tansey, production supervisor and head writer on Monogram's Jack Randall Westerns, had the gall this time around to outright plagiarize John Ford's newly released Stagecoach (1939). Like John Wayne in Ford's masterpiece, Jack Randall found himself boarding a stagecoach after having his horse shot out from under him. The coach is already occupied by Mary, a saloon belle (Jean Joyce, aka Claire Rochelle), a whiskey salesman (George Cleveland), and Duke (Dennis Moore), an outlaw. By the time Jack and the passengers arrive in town, Tansey mercifully stops imitating Ford long enough to craft a none too spectacular story of Randall attempting to persuade Miss Joyce from working for Polini (Tristram Coffin, sporting the worst "foreign" accent this side of Buck Jones), whom he suspects of heading a counterfeiting ring. As it turns out, both Mary and the whiskey salesman are undercover agents and the greedy Polini is turned over to a gang of Indians, one of whom he once murdered. No one apparently complained about Tansey plagiarizing John Ford (not to mention screenwriter Dudley Nichols) and Overland Mail was dismissed as just another low-budget Western released on the lower half of double bills. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vince Barnett, Jean Joyce, (more)
- 1939
At the end of his long association with Hal Roach, comedian Stan Laurel produced three singing Westerns featuring operatic baritone Fred Scott. The second of the three, Knight of the Plains featured such songs as Paradise Valley (the film's working title), by Lew Porter and Harry Tobias, and When We Heard the Music Play Home Sweet Home, by Porter and L. Wolfe Gilbert, as well as the expected comedy routines of the redoubtable Al St. John. In between the songs and comedy, Scott portrayed rancher Fred "Melody" Brent, whose neighbors, the Rands, are in trouble with a gang of land grabbers out to acquire an old Spanish grant. After the usual sagebrush derring-do and a bit of romance with lovely Gale Rand (Marion Weldon, Scott and his sidekick Fuzzy (St. John) can deliver the bad Guys to Sheriff Steve Clark, happy with the knowledge that they have prevented a range war. Scott was to make thirteen singing Westerns for various low-budget producers, all of them released by Spectrum Pictures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Scott, Marion Weldon, (more)
- 1939
Radio crooner Tex Fletcher was given a one-time-only chance at western stardom in Grand National's Six-Gun Rhythm. The plot offers a bit of novelty value, with Fletcher starting out as an eastern-seaboard football player who heads westward when his rancher father is murdered. Heroine Joan Barclay's brother has been accused from the crime, but our hero exposes the genuine miscreant during a climactic fist-fight in a raging sandstorm (a standout sequence). The star plays his guitar left-handed, so there's little chance of his being confused with Autry or Rogers. All in all, Six-Gun Rhythm isn't bad, but all plans for a Tex Fletcher series were scotched when Grand National went out of business in late 1939. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tex Fletcher, Joan Barclay, (more)
- 1939
A "special" by Monogram standards, Lure of the Wasteland was lensed in a not inexpensive process called Telco-color. Grant Withers takes a break from his duties in the "Mister Wong" series to play Smitty, a US marshal assigned to track down $250,000 in stolen bonds. To gain the confidence of the outlaws, Smitty pulls the old ploy of posing as a crook and joining the gang. Despite his mental agility in plotting and planning large-scale robberies, outlaw leader Butch (LeRoy Mason) is unable to see through Smitty's guise until it's too late for him. Former silent comedy star Snub Pollard, fresh from a comic-sidekick stint in Grand National's Tex Ritter series, plays a relatively straight role as a reformed crook who acts as Smitty's go-between. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grant Withers, Karl Hackett, (more)
- 1939
A Bar-20 cattle drive ends in rustling in this fine Hopalong Cassidy Western from producer Harry Sherman. Windy (George "Gabby" Hayes) makes the mistake of accusing the buyer, Lazy-J owner Tom Hamilton (Frederick Burton), of the theft, but Lucky (Russell Hayden) suspects the foreman Dave Talbot (Stanley Ridges). Hamilton is murdered, however, and Talbot has the perfect alibi: He was playing cards at the Mirage Bar where Hoppy (William Boyd) had gotten himself a job under the guise of being the noted gambler Bill Thompson. With Talbot not able to be in two places at the same time, the marshal (Jack Rockwell) has no choice but to arrest Lucky for murder. Silver on the Sage was Hopalong Cassidy series entry number 25. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Featuring the husband-and-wife team of Jack Randall and Louise Stanley, this lukewarm Monogram Western eschewed the musical interludes that had been a Randall trademark thus far. Randall (the lesser known brother of B-Western star Robert Livingston) plays Jack Lane, a drifter who comes to the aid of an Eastern girl, Nola Day (Stanley). The girl travels West to meet her new guardian, Uncle Moose Walters (Henry Rocquemore), but Uncle Moose has been murdered by saloon owner Bill Larsen (John Merton) and it is Larsen posing as Moose who greets the young lady upon arrival. Jack senses that "Uncle Moose" may not be all he claims but Nola is blissfully unaware of Larsen's deception and becomes furious over the newcomer's interference. The evil Larsen is caught red-handed, of course, and Lola discovers that she has fallen in love with Jack. Al St. John, in between his Westerns with Fred Scott and Bob Steele, did his usual shtick as Randall's sidekick. Gunsmoke Trail was directed by Sam Newfield, one of the busiest -- and most careless -- B-Western directors of all time. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Randall, Louise Stanley, (more)
- 1938
West of Rainbow's End was one of two Tim McCoy westerns directed by Monogram Pictures workhorse Alan James. Returning to the screen after a tour with the Ringling Bros. circus, McCoy is cast as a former railroad detective who emerges from retirement to solve a series of suspicious accidents. The villains hope to sabotage the railroad so that they can engineer a big-time land swindle. For our hero, it's personal: the bad guys were responsible for the murder of his foster father. Kathleen Elliot, who spent most of her brief film career in westerns, co-stars as Tim's waitress sweetheart Joan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Walter McGrail, (more)
In this western, a good-guy must halt a battle between cattle ranchers and settlers. An outlaw exploits the feud by working on both sides and then buying up all of the land for peanuts as the two factions murder each other. The hero soon figures out the outlaw's scheme and brings him to justice via a showdown. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Steele, Marion Weldon, (more)
- 1938
In Early Arizona was western star Bill Elliot's first effort for Columbia Pictures. Not yet "Wild Bill" Elliot (as he would later be billed), the actor is cast as Whit Gordon, who rides into Tombstone Arizona to help keep the peace. Elliot is appointed sheriff, making him the particular target of every fast gun in the territory. Though clearly based on the career of Wyatt Earp film is careful not to violate the copyright on Earp's life story, which then was held by 20th Century-Fox. In fact, contrary to previous published reports, the name "Wyatt Earp" is not mentioned at all in In Early Arizona; only the designation of Tombstone itself was in the public domain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Gulliver, Harry Woods, (more)
- 1938
Although Monogram claimed that Jack Randall received an average of over 1,000 fan letters a week, the studio was quietly losing interest in the star's Westerns. Despite fine location filming at Lone Pine, CA, Man's Country was saddled with indifferent direction by veteran hack Robert F. Hill and a less than inspiring story by Poverty Row regular Robert Emmett Tansey. Silent screen villain Walter Long played twin brothers, one a rancher and the other a bandit. The good Long is unaware that there is oil on his land, a fact the bad Long uses to his own advantage. Enter ranger Jack Hale (Randall) who saves the good Long from being kidnapped by his evil brother and foils the plans to take over the property. Marjorie Reynolds, destined to star opposite Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in Paramount's Holiday Inn (1942), appeared as good Long's lovely daughter, and moon-faced Ralph Peters supplied a bit of stale comedy relief. Man's Country was the first Randall Western under the aegis of Scott R. Dunlap, whose budgets were even leaner than those of the series' previous producer, Maurice Conn. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Peters, Marjorie Reynolds, (more)
- 1938
The first Tex Ritter Western from Monogram Pictures, Starlight Over Texas contained the singing cowboy's trademark mix of furious fist-fight, ornery Charles King, and a slew of musical numbers. Unfortunately, Monogram also inherited Ritter's main weaknesses: idiotic sidekicks (Horace Murphy and Snub Pollard), slipshod direction (by Al Herman), meandering plots, and the aforementioned slew of musical numbers. At least Starlight Over Texas featured an eye-catching fiesta in addition to Ritter's warbling of such tunes as Pickens by A.J. Brier and Starlight Over Texas by Harry Tobias and Al Von Tilzer. Ritter played Tex Newman, a United States Marshal assigned to look into a series of Indian raids on the border to Mexico. As it turns out, the raids are committed by a gang of outlaws only masquerading as Indians. The leader of the gang, Kildare (Karl Hackett), murders a marshal and assumes his identity. Tex. of course, does not fall for the masquerade for long and the inevitable chase across the border ends with the capture of Kildare. Executive producer Edward F. Findley moved his entire "Boots and Saddles" operation from the floundering Grand National to Monogram without missing a beat. Along for the ride, in addition to sidekicks Murphy and Pollard and director Herman, were music director Frank Sanucci, assistant director Bobby Ray, cinematographer Francis Corby and film editor Frederick Bain. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tex Ritter, Carmen La Roux, (more)
- 1938
Filmed on location at Kernville, CA, this B-Western from Poverty Row company Monogram starred Jack Randall as Jack Dinton, the son of a murdered marshal. Jack is given his father's guns to wear by Ranger Chief Holmes (Lloyd Ingraham) and sallies forth to catch a gang of stage robbers. Discovering the bandit's lair, Jack gains entrance by pretending to be an outlaw himself. Once on the inside, he makes the acquaintance of Professor Angel (Barlowe Borland), an ex-convict assigned by the gang to melt down the stolen gold for easier transportation. The professor is convinced to join forces with law and order and accompanied by Jack's African-American sidekick, Pinky (Raymond Turner), they set a trap for the leader of the gang, Chance Moore (Charles King). Randall's leading lady in this and four other Monogram oaters, Louise Stanley, became his partner in real life as well. Although the Randall series had been conceived as an entry in the singing cowboy sweepstakes, the star's operatic voice did not find favor with the audience and Gun Packer was released sans the usual warbling. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Stanley
- 1938
Rolling Caravans was one of four Columbia B-westerns designed to make a star out of utility actor Jack Luden. Harry Woods, a fixture of the Luden series, fills the villain role, while Eleanor Stewart is the heroine once more. The story concerns the efforts of a homesteader named Breezy (Luden) to ward off the bad guys, who've determined that there's gold on his property. By the time the heavies have discovered that Breezy's "treasure" consists primarily of topsoil, the hero has settled accounts with his fists and deposited his enemies in the local calaboose. At one point, Jack Luden indulges in a bit of ventriloquism, suggesting that perhaps he would have been better off as a comedy sidekick rather than a leading man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Luden, Eleanor Stewart, (more)
