Guy Usher Movies

In this western, a rancher is ambushed, killed, and robbed, but for some reason the killers through his money pouch in the bushes without opening it. Later a woman happens upon the cash and finds herself a prime suspect in the killing. Fortunately, a survey engineer proves her innocence, and they begin looking for the real villains. Action and romance ensue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Charles Starrett rides again as the Durango Kid. This time Durango investigates the murder of a town marshal, in which an innocent man has been implicated. In the course of his investigation, Durango becomes the target of the murderers himself. He plays his cards close to his vest and traps the culprits. Bad Men of the Hills was released in Great Britain as Wrongly Accused, deftly disguising the fact that it was a "Yankee" western. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With its slight resemblance to Destry Rides Again (1939) -- probably not entirely coincidental -- this rousing Western from Republic Pictures remains a joy throughout. John Wayne plays Tom Craig, a mild-mannered druggist from Boston who opens a shop in wild and woolly Sacramento shortly before the Gold Rush. The town is "owned" by the Dawson brothers, Britt (Albert Dekker) and Joe (Dick Purcell), who poison Craig's tonic when saloon hostess Lacey Miller (Binnie Barnes) takes too much of an interest in the handsome newcomer. Town drunk Whitey (Emmett Lynn) has one drink too many, and all of Sacramento is soon in a lynching mood. The news of "gold in them thar hills" saves the druggist in the nick of time, but his business is destroyed. While everyone is heading for the gold fields, Craig prepares to leave town with snobbish debutante Ellen Sanford (Helen Parrish), whom he intends to marry. News of typhoid fever among the prospectors changes his mind, however, and the man once referred to as "a human hitchin' post instead of a two-legged man," risks his own life to save the suffering populace. The Dawson brothers, meanwhile, plan to hijack the medical supplies and sell them to the highest bidder, but when Britt Dawson learns that Lacey is helping the sick and may be stricken with the disease herself, he has a change of heart and eventually confesses to spiking Craig's medicine. Cast against type for most of the film, John Wayne fails to make his amiable druggist entirely believable but remains simply John Wayne throughout -- which is as it should be. Binnie Barnes is rowdy and fun whether leading a chorus of "California Joe" by Johnny Marvin and Fred Rose, or jealously interrupting a tête-à-tête between Wayne and 19-year-old Helen Parrish. Usually cast as glacial "other women" in Hollywood films, the British-born Barnes had actually begun her professional career touring Europe and South Africa with bucolic American headliner Tex McLeod, which was as good a preparation as any to play In Old California's saloon belle. Patsy Kelly, who shoots down her laundry with a Winchester, and Edgar Kennedy, as Wayne's tooth-ache plagued sidekick, add to the general fun. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Marlene Dietrich was supposed to have starred in Universal's Sin Town, but the script was not to her liking. Dietrich was replaced by Constance Bennett in the role of a glamorous suspect in a small-town murder. Broderick Crawford and Leo Carrillo costar as a couple of con men who must solve the killing of a newspaper publisher lest they be convicted of the crime. At 75 minutes, the film moves too quickly to pause for such niceties as motivation and logic, but few in the audiences of 1942 complained. Sin Town's three-person writing staff included Richard Brooks, later the director of such "A" pictures as Elmer Gantry and In Cold Blood (though he never did write for Marlene Dietrich). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of director Frank Capra's independent productions (in partnership with Robert Riskin), Meet John Doe begins with the end of reporter Ann Mitchell's (Barbara Stanwyck) job. Fired as part of a downsizing move, she ends her last column with an imaginary letter written by "John Doe." Angered at the ill treatment of America's little people, the fabricated Doe announces that he's going to jump off City Hall on Christmas Eve. When the phony letter goes to press, it causes a public sensation. Seeking to secure her job, Mitchell talks her managing editor (James Gleason) into playing up the John Doe letter for all it's worth; but to ward off accusations from rival papers that the letter was bogus, they decide to hire someone to pose as John Doe: a ballplayer-turned-hobo (Gary Cooper), who'll do anything for three squares and a place to sleep. "John Doe" and his traveling companion The Colonel (Walter Brennan) are ensconced in a luxury hotel while Mitchell continues churning out chunks of John Doe philosophy. When newspaper publisher D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold), a fascistic type with presidential aspirations, decides to use Doe as his ticket to the White House, he puts Doe on the radio to deliver inspirational speeches to the masses -- ghost-written by Mitchell, who, it is implied, has become the publisher's mistress. The central message of the Doe speeches is "Love Thy Neighbor," though, conceived in cynicism, the speeches strike so responsive a chord with the public that John Doe clubs pop up all over the country. Believing he is working for the good of America, Cooper agrees to front the National John Doe Movement -- until he discovers that Norton plans to exploit Doe in order to create a third political party and impose a virtual dictatorship on the country. The last of Capra's "social statement" films, Meet John Doe posted a profit, although Capra and Riskin were forced to dissolve their corporation due to excessive taxes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gene Autry gets help from teenage singer Mary Lee and fetching tap dancer Carol Adams in this tuneful Republic songfest restored in 2001 by Gene Autry Entertainment. Autry and sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette can only watch as gangsters Ralf Harolde and Anthony Warde rob the local bank. The trail leads to Ferris Taylor's riverboat where Gene goes undercover as a country & western singer. On the inside, so to speak, our heroic troubadour quickly learns that the father (Byron Foulger) of girl singer Mary Lee had a hand in the robbery but how will he be able to recover the loot and punish the guilty without causing the naive little Mary undue trauma? When not chasing modern-day gangsters, Autry, Mary Lee, Carol Davis and Smiley Burnette perform no less than eight lively music numbers including the title song and the Academy Award nominated "Be Honest With Me". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Great Train Robbery is not a remake of the 1903 landmark film of the same name; if it had been, it wouldn't have run any longer than eight minutes. This 1941 production isn't even a western, but instead a modern-day melodrama starring Bob Steele as a railroad detective. Steele takes it upon himself to halt the activities of his crooked brother (Milburn Stone), who apparently has stolen an entire gold train, passengers and all. The criminal's modus operandi (a rather cold-blooded one, involving mass murder) was later reworked into two Republic westerns, the first starring Bill Elliot and the second featuring Rex Allen. Claire Carleton is on hand in Great Train Robbery to play a nightclub singer who requires rescuing by two-fisted Steele. ~ 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

In this drama an eager-beaver reporter loses his job when he prints a false story about a society girl. The unemployed reporter, anxious to redeem himself, then gets involves in a gangster backed smuggling operation. Meanwhile the wronged socialite falls in love with him. Unfortunately, he will not marry her because she is to wealthy. But when the gangsters kidnap her, he comes to her rescue and eventually becomes her husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The unlikely combination of John Wayne and Joan Blondell adds a bit of vinegar and spice to the so-so costume drama Lady for a Night. Blondell is cast as Jenny Blake, owner of the Memphis Belle-not a WW2 bomber, but a gambling ship moored just outside New Orleans. Jenny's partner and erstwhile suitor is local political boss Jack Morgan (Wayne). She loves Morgan, but decides to marry for money and prestige, and to that end weds "black sheep" socialite Alan Alderson (Ray Middleton). Her new in-laws are infuriated by this marriage of convenience, and do everything they can to ruin Jenny in the eyes of society. When Alderson dies suddenly, his vengeful mother Julia (Blanche Yurka) accuses Jenny of poisoning her husband. Throughout the subsequent trial and scandal, Morgan stands loyally by Jenny's side, convincing her at long last that he's been the "right man" for her all along. Hattie Noel, who two years earlier lost the role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind to Hattie McDaniel, essays a neat Mammy-like characterization as Jenny's all-knowing maidservant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In one of his best early Westerns, Tim Holt avenges the accidental shooting of his father by robbing the Cedar Fork bank, who owes him 20,000 dollars. With his uncle Red Haggerty (Morris Ankrum) and old friend, Whopper (Lee White), in tow, Tim then plans to take on the bank in Remington. The Haggerty gang, however, arrives just in time to see the bank getting robbed by a gang controlled by saloon owner Joel Nebitt (Roy Barcroft) and Tim and Whopper instead join the sheriff's posse. The grateful citizenry elects Tim marshal and with the help of Red, the youngster manages to clean up the lawless town. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In his final "Mr. Wong" mystery, Boris Karloff solves the case of who killed shipping magnate Cyrus P. Wentworth (Melvin Lang). Wentworth's flagship "The Wentworth Castle" had tragically caught on fire with a tremendous loss of life. Near suicidal, the shipping tycoon is helped into the next world by persons unknown but dunderhead police captain Bill Street (Grant Withers) points the finger at Dick Fleming (William Stelling), the son of a rival tycoon and in love with Wentworth's daughter Cynthia (Catherine Craig). Promising to eat his hat if young Fleming isn't the killer, Street can only watch as enterprising cub reporter Bobby Logan (Marjorie Reynolds) assigns Mr. Wong (Karloff) to solve the case. Which the eminent Oriental sleuth does to the point where Bobby can gleefully add salt to Street's less than edible headgear. The burning of the fictional "Wentworth Castle" was actual footage from the infamous 1934"Morro Castle" fire, a tragedy that took the lives of 137 passengers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide