Sherry Tansey Movies

This Horatio Alger-type drama stars John Striker. Titus Burke (Walter Lewis) is a thief, and the sheriff gathers up a posse to capture him. Burke's wife Martha (Mary Alden) convinces their son Angus (Joseph Drew) that their lives are in danger and, as a result of his fear, Angus shoots the sheriff dead. The mother is also killed in the fray. Although he's only a boy, and an orphan, Angus is tried for murder. He is found not guilty and a kind-hearted man gets him a job on the local newspaper. The small-minded townsfolk don't want him around, however, and he is sent away. Twelve years later he returns (played by Striker) and takes over the paper. In spite of opposition, he proves his worth and helps to save the town from a group of swindlers. Now firmly established in the town that once shunned him, he is able to settle down with his childhood sweetheart Lydia (Margaret Courtot). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Produced by Gower Gulch company Action Pictures, this minor silent Western starred Buddy Roosevelt as a ranch foreman who rescues lovely Helen Calhoun (Elsa Benham) from a runaway carriage and her wastrel brother Ted (Sherry Tansey aka James Sheridan) from both the devil hop and a crooked gambler (Richard R. Neill). Usually a supporting character, mustachioed Hank Bell was awarded co-star billing this time around as a tough deputy sheriff helping Roosevelt catch the villain. Nothing out of the ordinary, Code of the Cow Country was directed with economy in mind by Oscar Apfel. A veteran stock company actor from Cleveland, Apfel earlier co-wrote and co-directed (with Cecil B. DeMille) The Squaw Man (1914), the first feature film to be produced entirely in Hollywood. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

If you can accept blonde, blue-eyed Marion Davies disguising herself in blackface, chances are you'll swallow the rest of Operator 13. Davies plays a Belle Boyd-like actress who agrees to become a Northern spy during the Civil War. She assumes the identity of an octoroon servant and heads into Southern territory. Marion meets dashing Confederate captain Gary Cooper, and instantly falls in love with him. Later, she assumes the disguise of a Southern belle to prevent Cooper from recruiting Southern sympathizers in the north. This time Cooper falls for Davies, which makes it hard for her to carry out her mission. After several more reels of espionage and romantic interludes, including a gently kinky sequence in which Cooper and Davies are handcuffed together, the lovers part company, promising to meet again when the war is over. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on William Colt MacDonald's Law of the Forty-Fives, this ultra low-budget Beacon Western stars Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Al St. John as Tucson Smith and Stony Martin, a couple of drifters coming to the defense of elder rancher Hayden (Lafe McKee). Like their neighbors, the rancher and his pretty daughter, Jean (Molly O'Day), have been terrorized by a gang of land grabbers. Tucson and Stony quickly become suspicious of Hayden's attorney, Gordon Rentell (Ted Adams), who seems to know a great deal about the mysterious disappearance of British businessman Sir Henry Sheffield. When the latter (Broderick O'Farrell) is found imprisoned in Rentell's basement, the truth is revealed. Having learned that there is oil in the area, Rentell and his men have been systematically buying up land from their own victims. When the sheriff (Fred Burns) arrives to take Rentell and his men to jail, Tucson reveals that he has become a vigilante after his own father had been murdered. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this adventurous North-western set in the Canadian wilderness, a courageous Mountie risks it all to bring in the crooks who killed his partner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In his second Western for Poverty Row producer A.W. Hackel, former football star Johnny Mack Brown goes in search of both his long-lost father and foster-sister. Mistakenly believing that they murdered his young son Johnny, John Wellington (William Farnum) kills three ruffians and becomes a wanted man. Young Johnny (Barry Downing), who had survived the attack, is instead raised by rich Sir George Thorne (Lloyd Ingraham). The latter's old-fashioned ideas causes him to lose both his son-in-law, Gentry Winters (Frank Ball), and young granddaughter, Gale. In his search for the missing girl, Johnny ( now Mack Brown) learns that Winters has been killed by Trent (Earl Dwire), an outlaw whose advances Gale (Beth Marion) had spurned. Aiding Johnny in his quest to capture Trent is one Rand who, it turns out, is none other than the missing John Wellington. Although initially opposed to Johnny's courting of Gale, Wellington/Rand changes his mind in due time and heroically takes a bullet meant for his son. After finishing off the murderous Trent in a final confrontation, Johnny can begin to plan a more peaceful future with Gale. According to contemporary reports, Between Men was filmed in six days at Lone Pine, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Bottom-of-the-barrel Western filmmaking on all fronts -- save perhaps hero Tom Tyler's usual competent performance and a restrained sidekick turn by Al St. John -- Pinto Rustlers was directed by Reliable producer Harry S. Webb under the pseudonym of Henri Samuels. Tyler plays Tom Evans, a young cowboy seeking to avenge the murder of his father by a notorious gang of rustlers. Badgering police inspector William Gould into deputizing him, Evans goes undercover as Tom Dawson, a wanted outlaw, and is quickly invited to join the rustlers. The gang is headed by Nick Furnicky (George Walsh), a bandit sporting an indeterminate accent, but the film's real villain is Bud Walton (Earl Dwire), the crooked head of the local cattlemen's association, who has his brother (Murdock MacQuarrie) kidnapped in an attempt to prevent the disclosure of his own dirty deeds. Badly directed, atrociously acted by a cast of veterans that should have known better, and featuring some of the weakest fight scenes in B-Western history, Pinto Rustlers only comes to life at the very end when the gang leader quite literally has the rug pulled from under him. Sadly, this meandering Western marked a rather less than glorious ending to the career of George Walsh, the brother of director Raoul Walsh and a major Fox star in the 1920s. Walsh, who had always traded on physique rather than acting capabilities, had become quite heavy by 1936 and could only find employment in Gower Gulch. Following Pinto Rustlers and Rio Grande Romance (which, despite the title, was a crook melodrama), even those offers dried up. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In his second "Range Rider" music Western for poverty row newcomer Grand National, Tex Ritter played Tex Saunders, the troubadour brother of the sheriff (Forrest Taylor) of Rio Grande, Texas. When Tex and sidekick Chilo (Syd Saylor) on behalf of Laurie Hart (Eleanor Stewart) begin to look into what appears to be a gangster-style protection racket, saloon-owner Ike Travis (Warner Richmond) has the troubadour framed for killing bandit Red Dugan (James Mason). An angry populace demand an arrest and Tex is saved in the nick of time from being lynched. Outriding the posse, Tex manages the round up the racketeers, including the real killer.Headin' for the Rio Grande was filmed for around $8000 at Hollywood's Talisman studios and at the Monogram ranch near Placerita,, California. Ritter, who was under a personal contract to producer Edward Finney and not Grand National, earned a flat fee of $2000 for each of his Westerns. Reportedly, Ritter convinced Grand National to hire silent clown Snub Pollard for a small supporting role, having admired Pollard's silent slapstick comedies as a child in East Texas. Pollard would return in later films as Ritter's comic sidekick. In his first of 25 appearances opposite Ritter, veteran Bad Guy Charles King played one of the villain's henchmen. "I must have killed old Charlie King at least twenty times," Ritter would later reminisce. "Usually behind the same rock." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Whistling Bullets was one of better Kermit Maynard westerns from the Ambassador Pictures "B"-mill. Based on a story by James Oliver Curwood, the story finds Texas Ranger Larry Graham (Maynard) hot on the trail of an outlaw and his gang. To gain the villains' confidence, Larry poses as an escaped criminal, deliberately gets sent to prison, and befriends the outlaw, hoping that the fellow will lead him to a cache of stolen money. John English, later a mainstay of the Republic "B"-western product., directs, while Harlene Wood co-stars as the heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though A.W. Hackel's Supreme Pictures went belly-up in 1936, he continued grinding out his popular Bob Steele westerns, shifting distribution to up-and-coming Republic. Steele plays Dan, the headstrong young son of a notorious outlaw. Dan is forced not only to live down his dad's reputation, but also his own, since it's been rumored that he has strayed to the wrong side of the law from time to time. He manages to prove that he's a good guy after all, but in a surprise development he doesn't win the film's official heroine Molly (Lois January), who has jilted him for another. Fortunately, second lead Betty (Joan Barclay) is there to pick up the pieces. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, brand new rancher Bob Steele, a former gunslinger in search of a more peaceful life, finds his quiet shattered when he finds himself caught between two feuding neighbors. Matters become more complex when he falls in love with one of their daughters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Produced by Greek-born Gower Gulch "tycoon" Anthony J. Xydias, this film was a remake, with plenty of stock footage, of Xydias' silent With Davy Crockett at the Fall of the Alamo (1926). In the new version, however, Crockett (played by a far-too-young Lane Chandler) is almost a bit part, the film concentrating instead on newlyweds Almerian and Anne Dickinson (Bruce Warren and Ruth Findley), heroic Texans based on real-life Alamo victims Almeron and Suzanna Dickinson. The siege of the Alamo by General Santa Anna (Julian Rivero) is mainly depicted via poorly-inserted stock footage from Xydias' silent version, but all the famous elements are there: Travis' (Rex Lease) line in the sand, Bowie (Roger Williams) crossing that line despite his illness and the death of all three mythical American heroes. The sole survivor is Anne Dickinson (a true flight of fancy), who is present when Sam Houston (Edward Peil, Sr.) utters the famous line, "Remember the Alamo!" Consisting of numerous gaffes (the defenders of the Alamo perform a rendition of The Yellow Rose of Texas, written years later, to mention but one example) and enacted on laughably cheap sets, Heroes of the Alamo was dismissed by an overwhelmingly hostile press. Xydias, who had come out of retirement for this, and a proposed series of historical Westerns, never produced another film. Heroes of the Alamo was later shortened to about half of its 80 minutes running time and sold as an educational short subject under the title Remember the Alamo. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Paroled-to Die was one of Bob Steele's best starring westerns for producer A. W. Hackel. Wasting precious little time with plot or dialogue, the film gets down to business with a two-fisted opening action sequence. Thereafter, the thrills never let up, as hero Doug Redfern (Steele) tries to clear himself of a murder rap, orchestrated by crooked politico Harvey Meline (Karl Hackett). Offering aid and comfort to our hero are government agent Lucky Gosden (Horace Murphy) and heroine Joan Blackman (Kathleen Elliot). Originally slated for released through Hackel's own Spectrum pictures, Paroled-to Die was eventually distributed by Republic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide