Charles "Slim" Whitaker Movies

Like many of Tom Keene's Crescent Productions vehicles, Raw Timber is less of a western and more of a straight adventure film. Keene plays Corbin, a fearless forest ranger assigned to Tall Timber country. It is his job to make certain that the various lumber firms operating in his district do not completely strip the region of its trees. Naturally, a few of the lumberjacks refuse to play fair, obliging Corbin to settle some differences with his fist. Romance enters the picture in the form of pretty Dale (Peggy Keys), the imperiled half-owner of one of the lumber companies. Throughout most of Raw Timber, Tom Keene dispenses with his traditional cowboy garb in favor of the checkered jackets and fur caps of the North Woods. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Acting upon the belief that he accidentally murdered his best pal, a gunman swears never to draw his weapon again. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Filmed in rapid succession over an 18-month period, the 19 Tom Tyler westerns for Reliable Productions tend to look alike at times. Riding On is typical Tyler, with our hero returning home to find his father embroiled in a deadly frontier feud over water rights. A "Romeo and Juliet" angle is established when Tom Roarke (Tyler) falls in love with Gloria O'Neill (Geraine Greer), the daughter of his father's bitter enemy. Not surprisingly, the range war is being fomented by a third party who hopes to move in and pick up the pieces when the Roarkes and the O'Neills kill each other off. The haste with which Riding On was slapped together is indicated in the gunfight scenes, with poorly aimed bullets picking off their targets with astonishing accuracy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inheriting the props, costumes and much of the stock footage from Columbia's previous Ken Maynard series, Bob Allen rides tall in the saddle in Rio Grande Ranger. The villains are a band of outlaws who manage to elude the authorities by high-tailing it across the border to Mexico. Sheriff Bob takes on the baddies by posing as an outlaw and joining the gang. His ruse almost works, but he's forced to blow his cover to save the life of heroine Sandra (Iris Meredith). Will this be one picture in which the guys in the black hats come out on top? In all, Bob Allen appeared in six westerns for Columbia, each incorporating the word "Ranger" in the title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cheapie king Sam Katzman was both producer and director of the Tom Tyler western The Lost Ranch. "Our Tom" essays his customary role of Tom Wade, troubleshooter for the Cattlemen's Protective Association. When cattle rancher Carroll (Lafe McKee) is captured by outlaws, Carroll's daugther Rita (Jeanne Martel) inaugurates a search. At first convinced that Wade himself is one of the villains, Rita finally wises up and allows him to join the search-and, of course, to rout the villains in the final footage. Billed third in Lost Ranch is former Mack Sennett leading lady Marjorie Beebe, essaying yet another wisecracking comedy role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Despite the claim of "an original screenplay by Edward Earl Repp," this entry in Warner Bros.' Dick Foran "singing cowboy" series was a virtual remake of the studio's earlier The Telegraph Trail, whose 1932 screenplay was credited to Kurt Kempler. Prairie Thunder in fact opens with the same montage as its predecessor, and Yakima Canutt and Albert J. Smith play identical characters in both films. Foran and rotund, eternally fatigued Frank Orth replace John Wayne and rotund, eternally fatigued Frank McHugh but that is really the only difference between the films. That, and Foran's lusty renditions of Over the Trail Again, The Prairie is My Home and a few other selections. Foran and Orth are assigned by the army to investigate a series of Indian attacks on the railroad. They quickly discover that the Kiowas have been mislead by unscrupulous trader Smith, who views the coming of the railroad as a threat to his trade monopoly. The Indians capture Foran and heroine Ellen Clancy, but Orth helps the former escape. The cavalry arrives just in time to save the railroad construction site from yet another attack by the Kiowas and Foran personally chases down the villainous Smith. The least expensive entry in the Dick Foran series, Prairie Thunder lifted entire sequences from the earlier John Wayne vehicle, including dialogue scenes between Canutt and Smith and the killing of a telegraph repairman. The film's pieces de resistance, Indian attacks on both a white settlement and the construction site, are lifted almost in toto from a silent Ken Maynard Western with Maynard himself plainly visible in several shots. Foran's blonde leading lady, Ellen Clancy, later signed with Universal and changed her name to Janet Shaw. Paul Panzer, the German-born villain of the 1914 serial The Perils of Pauline, appears unbilled as a medicine man.. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Each of Bob Allen's six westerns for Columbia had the words "Ranger" or "Range" in the title, and Law of the Ranger was no exception. It all begins when despotic frontier fuhrer Nash (John Merton) doesn't like what newspaper editor Polk (Lafe McKee) has been writing about him. He arranges Polk's death, which action attracts the attention of Texas Ranger Bob (Allen). Our hero rides into town to thwart Nash and make the range safe for homesteaders, accomplishing his task in less than one hour's screen time. Considering the newspaper background in Law of the Range, it's worth noting that leading-lady Elaine Shepherd later became a real-life journalist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Allen isn't particularly "reckless" in this rather pedestrian Western, which had the gall to cast the non-actor in dual roles. When Jim Allen (Allen number one) is lynched, his identical twin brother Bob (Allen number two), a Texas Ranger, takes his place in an attempt to flush out the man responsible. He proves to be one Barlowe (Harry Woods), a cattle baron who has hired a gang of ruffians to intimidate the local sheepherders. But when one of the gang members, Mort (Jack Rockwell), escapes from the law, the game is up and Bob's real identity is revealed. Attempting to warn her beau, pretty Mildred Newton (Louise Small) is abducted along with the late Jim Allen's young son, Jimmy (Buddy Cox). The latter, however, manages to free himself and while Bob hunts down the evil Barlowe. The sheep men, lead by Mildred's brother, Chet (Jack Perrin), bring the rest of the gang to justice. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Tom Tyler ground out 19 starring westerns for Reliable Pictures in the mid-1930s, of which Santa Fe Bound is neither the best nor worst. "Our Tom" (as he was known in the trade papers) comes to the aid of heroine Molly Bates (Jeanne Martel), who is in danger of losing her ranch to the villains. Since the chief heavy is played by Richard Cramer, possessor of one of the meanest faces in the movies, it's obvious that Tyler really has his work cut out for him this time. In addition, our hero has been entrusted with a great deal of money by Bate's banker father, a fact that leads the girl to assume that Tyler has stolen the cash. This turns out to be a blessing in disguise when Tyler, posing as an outlaw, infiltrates Cramer's criminal gang. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clearly made several years before its 1938 New York release, The Silver Trail serves as an adequate vehicle for canine star Rin Tin Tin Jr. Essentially a western, the film's "human" stars include such sagebrush favorites as Rex Lease, Slim Whittaker and Tom London. The story is set in motion by a gang of greedy claim jumpers, operating in silver-mining territory. Somewhere around reel 5, all of the characters the audience cares about are in dire jeopardy, prompting Rinty Junior to gallop to the rescue. Put charitably, the dog has all of the film's best lines. ~ Hal Erickson, 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 penultimate western for small-scale Diversion Pictures, Hoot Gibson enjoyed the company of no less than two pretty leading ladies: June Gale, his current off-screen girlfriend, and Ruth Mix, the daughter of legendary cowboy hero Tom Mix. Gibson played a U. S. Marshal going undercover as the notorious bandit "The Morning Glory Kid" in order to infiltrate a gang of rustlers headed by nasty Mort Ringer (Stanley Blystone). Both Misses Gale and Mix get in his way on occasion and Gibson's true identity is revealed with nearly calamitous results. But when all seems lost, Miss Mix manages to alert the sheriff's posse, a happy turn of events that allows the aging hero to continue romancing Miss Gale. The latter never became the third Mrs. Gibson as has been reported elsewhere but instead married eccentric pianist Oscar Levant. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide