Rick Vallin Movies

In one of his final performances, Oscar-winning character actor Victor McLaglen is cast as Mike O'Hare, the two-fisted engineer overseeing the construction of a new dam. Insisting that the dam will seriously endanger the local water supply, wealthy landowner Henry Ritchie (Herbert Rudley) hires Paladin (Richard Boone) to put a stop to the project. But after a lively fistfight with the indomitable O'Hare, Boone becomes quite fond of the big lug--and begins to suspect that Ritchie's opposition to the dam is not borne of good intentions. This episode was one of several directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, who happened to be Victor McLaglen's son. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When seen today, Bullwhip seems to be a dry run for the 1975 Jack Nicholson-Mary Steenburgen western Goin' South. To save himself from being hanged on a trumped-up murder charge, frontiersman Guy Madison agrees to marry whip-wielding spitfire Rhonda Fleming. Once the ceremony is over, Fleming wants nothing to do with her new husband, but he insists upon insinuating himself in her burgeoning fur-trading business. How long will it be before the heroine succumbs to Madison's rakish charms? When Shakespeare wrote this story, he called it Taming of the Shrew. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Western, a rancher must perform a robbery lest the outlaw chief that holds his wounded brother hostage lets him die. The rancher does the job, then escapes to Mexico with his girl. En route, they marry. They soon find a cabin in the middle of Indian country. The Apaches had killed all the occupants, save for one baby. The couple begins raising the child. Soon the posse arrives to take the rancher back. He is charged with a murder that occurred during the heist. Later they realize that he is innocent and they protect him from another Apache attack. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this western set in the Mexican controlled part of California, a villainous cavalry officer is trying to force the owner of a hacienda to give him his land when a courageous settler comes to the rescue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Jimmy Olsen (Jack Larson) accidentally overhears barber Tony Gambini (Richard Benedict) trying to persuade his old friend, gang boss Rick Sable (Rick Vallin), to go straight and surrender to the authorities. But when Sable decides to also turn state's evidence, his criminal cronies decide to bump him off--and also silence Jimmy in the bargain. Needless to say, Superman (George Reeves) races to the rescue just before the final commercial. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not to be confused with the popular David Zuckor comedy from the late '80s that starred Leslie Nielson, 1956's Naked Gun chronicles the adventures of a bored insurance salesman who spices up his drab life by heading to the Mexican jungle to search for an ancient Aztec treasure and return it to its rightful heir. Unfortunately, the treasure is cursed and creates all kinds of problems for the fellow. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Just before achieving TV stardom as The Sheriff of Cochise, John Bromfield headed the cast of Frontier Gambler. Coleen Gray co-stars as the ruthless boss lady of a frontier town. When Gray disappears, suspicion immediately falls upon her former lover Bromfield. Others who had reasons to see Gray dead include Jim Dallas Davis, Kent Taylor and Veda Ann Borg. Frontier Gambler was stitched together by the reliable (if parsimonious) producer-director team of Sigmund Neufield and Sam Newfield (they were brothers, despite the spelling differences). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A curio dealer named Mr. Willy (Phillips Tead) is enjoying a brisk business selling dozens of souvenir daggers that he claims have been bent out of shape by "man of steel" Superman (George Reeves). Of course, Superman's alter ego Clark Kent knows that the daggers are phony. Why, then, is someone willing to steal every one of the daggers that have been sold in Metropolis? Well, it seems that a con man named Jasper (Arthur Space) is hoping to dupe Superman into using his X-Ray vision to transform two of the worthless daggers into valuable radium! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the best of the High Noon derivations, At Gunpoint is the story of reluctant hero Fred MacMurray. When a band of gunmen invade a small frontier town, storekeeper MacMurray fires off a lucky shot and kills the leader. Hailed as a hero, MacMurray realizes deep down that he's a coward. When the surviving gunmen return to town, thirsting for revenge, the townsfolk expect MacMurray to singlehandedly stand up to the villains. When he asks for help, his neighbors turn their backs on him, ordering him to get out of town to avoid further trouble. Only doctor Walter Brennan and MacMurray's wife Dorothy Malone remain loyal. Facing certain death,MacMurray discovers that he's not as yellow as he thought he was-a revelation that brings about a change in the rest of the town. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Feds investigate a counterfeit ring operating out of a traveling circus in this 12-part Republic crime serial. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A long-awaited sequel to Columbia Pictures' popular The Phantom (1943), this film was produced by legendary Hollywood cheapskate Sam Katzman. Katzman refused to pay the owners of the character, King Features, their royalty demands, thus the name change to "Captain Africa." The 1943 Phantom still appeared in this latter-day serial, however, via a vast amount of stock footage. One could actually argue that Tom Tyler, who had starred as the original "Phantom," also starred in the sequel and not John Hart, credited with the role of "Captain Africa." Hart did not resemble Tyler at all but that was of little consequence to Katzman, a producer who never met a corner he wouldn't cut. Captain Africa comes to the aid of an Arabian potentate (Paul Marion) whose prime minister has been kidnapped. There is a beautiful princess (June Howard), a young sidekick (Rick Vallin), a dastardly villain (Bud Osborne), and a great deal of ferocious wildlife fauna, much of which is rather more indigenous to Asia than Africa, where the action ostensibly takes place. In many ways, the carelessness of chapterplays like Adventures of Captain Africa only hastened the demise of the action serial. John Hart is perhaps best known for replacing Clayton Moore for one season as television's The Lone Ranger. Appearing as the kidnapped Prime Minister in Adventures of Captain Africa is Michael Fox, the veteran character actor whose long-time membership of Screen Actors Guild forced the later leading man of the same name to add the middle initial "J" to his billing. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Columbia Pictures elevated a run-of-the-mill B-western supporting player, Marshall Reed, to the title role in this equally run-of-the-mill western serial released in 15 chapters. Like most serials in the '50s, Riding with Buffalo Bill consisted of quite a bit of budget-stretching stock footage telling a highly fictionalized account of Buffalo Bill Cody aiding a group of ranchers in their defeat of a local crime lord. The serial's assistant director, Leonard Katzman, later produced the long-running television series Gunsmoke and Dallas. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide