Eddy Waller Movies

This Roy Rogers musical western gets off to a grim start when rancher Jerry Johnson (Jerome Cowan) is murdered by resort-hotel operator Lucky Miller (John Carradine). It's all part of Lucky's scheme to take financial advantage of a railroad right-of-way construction project. Conspiring with the villain is Johnson's mail-order bride Mary Hardigan (Phyllis Brooks)-or is she? No matter: the main plot complication concerns the efforts by Miller to frame Roy Rogers, Johnson's ranch foreman, for the murder. Somehow, Roy, Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers find time for several songs, while ace stuntman Yakima Canutt gets to perform one of his more famous feats. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Manhattan working girl Jean Arthur bids goodbye to her three erstwhile suitors (Grant Withers, Hans Conried and Grady Sutton) to take a bus tour of the west. En route, she meets handsome rodeo-star John Wayne, whose bucking bronco hurls him directly into her lap. Stranded in a tank town with Wayne and his sidekick Charles Winninger, Arthur is introduced to the sort of frontier activities not covered by the tour books: gambling, boozing and brawling. Not surprisingly, Arthur wants to hightail it back to the East, but by now Wayne has fallen in love with her. Lady Takes a Chance was produced for RKO by Jean Arthur's then-husband, Frank Ross. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like several other Harry Sherman Productions of the 1942-43 season, The Kansan was originally slated for a Paramount release, then redirected to United Artists. Richard Dix and Jane Wyatt, stars of the previous Sherman effort Buckskin Frontier, are reunited herein as western lawman John Bonniwell and rancher's daughter Eleanor Sager. After chasing the James Gang out of town, Bonniwell is appointed marshal by local bigwig Steve Barat (Albert Dekker). It turns out, however, that Barat is a crook with delusions of grandeur, hoping to use Bonniwell as a glorified henchman in his rise to power. Meanwhile, an unorthodox romantic triangle develops between Bonniwell, Eleanor as Barat's brother Jeff (Victor Jory). A powerhouse cast makes this modestly-budgeted western seem more expensive than it really was. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Here's yet another comedy about the wartime servant shortage, with traces of The Man Who Came to Dinner thrown into the mixture. When his cook is forced to stay behind in England, Rudyard Morley (Charles Coburn), a noted author who bears more than a passing resemblance to George Bernard Shaw, searches for a new cook in rural Massachussetts. With rogueish ruthlessness, Morley "steals" the chef of socialite Lucille Scott (Isobel Elsom), who exacts a nastily amusing revenge. All of this complicates the romance between Morley's daughter Pamela (Marguerite Chapman) and Scott's aviator son Mike (Bill Carter). Despite the star power and charisma of Charles Coburn, some of the film's biggest laughs are delivered by lowly supporting players Ed Gargan, Mary Wickes and Almira Sessions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sundown Jim was the second of two 20th Century-Fox westerns starring football champ John Kimbrough. The story takes place in mountain country, providing a wintry backdrop for the standard western plot devices. Kimbrough is cast as US marshal Sundown Jim Majors, whose main purpose in life is to bring a deadly frontier feud to a peaceful end. This requires him to clean out the local criminal element, which he does with grim-visaged determination. Clocking in at a mere 53 minutes, Sundown Jim is as professionally assembled as its predecessor, Lone Star Ranger, but Fox's effort to make a film star out of John Kimbrough was foredoomed by his utter lack of acting ability. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

More than one aficionado of Universal's horror films has cited Night Monster as the weakest of the batch. Part of the complaint lies in the fact that, despite their first and second billing, Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill are utterly wasted, with Atwill getting bumped off in the first reel! The nonsensical farrago of a plotline concerns a mysterious night stalker who has been killing off the doctors attending wealthy, crippled Kurt Ingstom (Ralph Morgan). With both of his legs amputated, Ingstom couldn't possibly be the murderer himself-or could he? The explanation to the mystery is as silly as the rest of the picture, but at least Night Monster boasts a rousing climax, one which suggests that no one lives happily ever after. ~ Hal Erickson, 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 title neatly gives away the ending in RKO Radio's Scattergood Survives a Murder. Guy Kibbee once again stars as storekeeper Scattergood Baines, the sage of the small town of Coldriver. The story gets under way when two reclusive spinsters die under mysterious circumstances. Inasmuch the as the eccentric old ladies have left their fortune to their pet cats, Scattergood suspects that foul play was involved, with the victims' sinister housekeeper (Eily Malyon) high on the suspect list. Aiding and abetting our hero in his easygoing investigation are local newspaper editor John Archer and hotshot gal reporter Margaret Hayes (Archer, incidentally, was the father of present-day leading lady Anne Archer). Scattergood Survives a Murder was the latest in a series of B-pictures inspired by the long-running radio saga Scattergood Baines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Wayne stars in this hard-driving oater which was co-written by character actor Paul Fix. Wayne plays Rocklin, a chauvinistic cowboy who arrives at the KC Ranch in Santa Inez to apply for a job as a foreman. But when he finds that the owner has died and that the ranch is now being run by two women -- Clara Cardell (Audrey Long) and her aunt Miss Martin (Elizabeth Risdon) -- he hardheadedly refuses to work for the women. But later on, Clara comes looking for Rocklin, asking his help in obtaining a letter from the town's corrupt judge Garvey (Ward Bond) that proves that Clara is old enough to be the legal owner of the ranch. Rocklin arrives in Garvey's office just after Garvey has burned the letter. The two tangle, with Rocklin sending Garvey crashing through his door. After the fight, Rocklin meets Arly Harolday (Ella Raines), another female ranch owner. Rocklin's views on women enrage Arly so much that she gets her stepfather (Donald Douglas) to hire him to work on her ranch, just so she can fire him. But in spite of Rocklin's primitive attitudes, Arly falls in love with him. Meanwhile, things are heating up as Garvey and other corrupt officials try to get control of the KC ranch. In order to get rid of Rocklin, a murder rap is pinned on him, forcing him to leave town. Hiding out at the KC ranch, he learns that he is the nephew of the ranch's dead owner and the rightful heir. Arly arrives to help Rocklin and to tell him that the murder Rocklin is accused of committing was actually committed by Arly's stepfather, who is working with Garvey and Miss Martin to get the deed to the ranch. With all that information under his cowboy hat, Rocklin cocks his gun and goes out to face the bad guys for a final showdown. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Bill Elliot took time out from his "Wild Bill Hickok" westerns series to essay the title role in Son of Davy Crockett. During the Reconstruction era, Davy Jr. (Elliot) is hired by President Grant (Harrison Greene) to convince the residents of a small territory on the Texas border to align themselves with the United States. Opposing this move is local outlaw leader King Canfield (Kenneth MacDonald), who wants nothing to interfere with his dictatorial hold over the territory. For a while, it looks as though young Crockett has cast his lot with Canfield, but his true loyalties are revealed at a crucial plot juncture. Despite its potential, Son of Davy Crockett falls short due to his overabundance of dialogue and its paucity of action. ~ 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

The cast and crew of Paramount's "Hopalong Cassidy" Westerns returned once again to Lone Pine's famous Alabama Hills for this above-average entry in the long-running series. Ma Woods (Sarah Padden) is about to lose her ranch due to the machinations of the not so neighborly George Davidson (Stanley Andrews), who refuses access to the only water in the vicinity. But unbeknownst to both Ma and the always law-abiding Davidson someone else is stoking the fires of the feud for his own greedy reasons. But who? Robbed en route to Ma Woods' Colorado ranch, Hoppy (William Boyd), Lucky Jenkins (Russell Hayden) and California Carlson (Andy Clyde) manage to settle matters between Davidson and Mrs. Woods but the money to buy the Ma's cattle seems to have vanished. According to some sources In Old Colorado was co-written by co-star Russell Hayden. The Western marked the debut under that moniker of leading lady Margaret Hayes, who had previously been billed Dana Dale. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this drama two children return from their separate boarding schools to a nasty surprise. The father of one is romantically involved with the other's aunt. The two immediately try to destroy the love affair. They all get involved with chasing some thieves and end up in jail. There the judge marries the lovers and the children are finally able to accept it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide