Blackie Whiteford Movies

A bookish Easterner (Hoot Gibson) is shipped off to a Western ranch for toughening up. Once on the ranch, he falls for a tough dame (Eugenia Gilbert) who is falsely accused of murdering her father's enemy. To the strains of "Courtin' Calamity," the former dude shows what he is really made of by capturing the real killer. This commonplace Western was Hoot Gibson's final part in a talkie. Carl Laemmle, the founder of Gibson's studio, Universal, and a great fan of Westerns, was running scared and didn't think outdoor pictures could do well with dialogue. Consequently, he canned all of his cowboy stars shortly after the release of Courtin' Wildcats, and Gibson's career never truly recovered. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

An early Bob Steele sound oater from low-budget company Tiffany, Nevada Buckaroo featured the bantam-weight star as the Nevada Kid, a stage robber arrested when he attempts to steal a kiss from Joan (Dorothy Dix), one of his victims. Nevada's sidekick, Cherokee (George "Gabby" Hayes), steals a petition to have Rattlesnake Gulch elected county seat and alters the document into a request for Nevada's pardon. Believing the document to be real, Nevada decides to go straight, offering to prove himself by guarding the stagecoach. Naturally, the stage is then robbed by Nevada's old gang and the driver killed. Only Joan believes in Nevada's innocence and helps him escape. Tracking down the gang, Nevada returns the stolen money to the express company and is proclaimed a hero. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Two-reel comedy favorites Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made their feature-film debut (excluding their guest appearances in Hollywood Revue of 1929 and Rogue Song) in the prison comedy Pardon Us. A spoof of MGM's The Big House, the story begins when erstwhile bootleggers Laurel and Hardy sell a bottle of beer to a Prohibition agent. Shipped off to the pen, our heroes are escorted to the cell occupied by "The Tiger" (Walter Long), the toughest con in the joint. The Tiger immediately becomes the boys' best friend when he mistakes Laurel's loose-tooth "buzz" as an act of defiance! Swept up in one of The Tiger's escape attempts, Laurel and Hardy disguise themselves in blackface and lose themselves among the cotton-pickers in the Deep South, but Stan's buzzing tooth gives the game away when the warden's (Wilfred Lucas) car breaks down near the cotton fields. Carted back to jail, Stan and Ollie become heroes when they inadvertently foul up The Tiger's next prison break. Pardon Us was previewed in late 1930 in a 70-minute version titled The Rap, which included several sequences (including an elaborate prison fire) which never made it to the final, 56-minute release version. More recently, the film has been reissued to TV in the 65-minute print prepared for Great Britain; the "new" footage includes a handful of previously discarded gag punchlines and several outtakes. In its 56-minute state, Pardon Us is not bad for a first feature-length attempt, even though the best Laurel & Hardy features were still to come. Highlights include an "Our Gang"-style schoolroom routine with perennial Laurel & Hardy foil James Finlayson as the teacher (incidentally, June Marlowe, who played Miss Crabtree in the real Our Gang comedies, shows up as the warden's daughter), a pleasant song-and-dance number in blackface, and a hilarious dentist-office routine "borrowed" from the team's 1928 silent comedy Leave 'Em Laughing. Pardon Us was simultaneously filmed in several foreign languages -- one of which, the Spanish-language De Bote en Bote, has popped up from time to time on American cable television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like many "Big Four" westerns of the early talkie era, The Cyclone Kid spotlights a popular cowboy star of the silent era, in this instance diminutive Buzz Barton. The youthful hero undergoes all manner of perils for the sake of his sweet sister, played by Caryl Lincoln. Francis X. Bushman Jr., son of the celebrated matinee idol, plays the young ranch hand in love with Barton's sis. The dialogue is poor throughout but fortunately kept at a minimum by director J.P. McGowan. Cyclone Kid truly comes to life whenever Buzz Barton hops on his horse and rides hell-fer-leather to the rescue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tim McCoy is falsely accused of killing his own father in this typical low-budget oater directed by the generally efficient but unexciting D. Ross Lederman. Framed in the killing of his own father, Tim Benton (McCoy) escapes from prison along with brutish Red Larkin (Matthew Betz). The fugitives head for the former Benton mine now operated by the villainous John Sebastian (Ethan Laidlaw), where Tim plans to rob the payroll. En route, they are discovered by Bob Dinsmore (William A. Howell), the new marshal of Silver City, who is killed by Red. Tim, who believes the marshal to be merely knocked unconscious, decides to impersonate him in order to get the goods of the two men, Stevens and Ainsley, who framed him on behalf of Sebastian. Accepted by the townspeople in general and the sheriff's daughter Alice (Gulliver) in particular, Tim's scheme is endangered by the arrival of both Stevens (Bob Perry) and Ainsley (Dick Dickinson). After quickly arresting the two henchmen, Tim tells Red that he no longer wishes to go through with the planned payroll robbery. Red, in anger, frames his former partner for Dinsmore's murder. In the ensuing shootout, Red is mortally wounded, but manages to clear Tim's name before he expires. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Cowboy star Bill Cody trades his Stetson and chaps for the red uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Mason of the Mounted. Our hero heads below the border to the U.S. to bring in an elusive murderer. His quarry turns out to be the mastermind behind a busy gang of horse rustlers, all of whom are well armed. Be that as it may, the Mountie manages to decimate the other members of the gang and haul the head villain back to Canada. Andy Shuford, a young "Our Gang" alumnus who'd been successfully teamed with Bill Cody on several previous occasion, is back on hand in Mason of the Mounted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the last of four low-budget Westerns for the ill-named Big 4 Film Corp., Bob Custer plays Bud Bryson, a young cowboy mistaken for a cattle thief and branded. He escapes the law with the help of Slim Grant (Nelson McDowell), and both obtain jobs on a ranch belonging to John Walker (Frank Ball) and his daughter Ellen (Betty Mack). After Ellen is courted by legitimate rustler Bill Morse (Robert Walker), Walker objects to the assignation and Morris has him arrested on a trumped-up charge. Bud determines to clear both himself and Walker, but when Ellen learns that he is wanted for rustling, she rejects him. Happily, Slim proves to be an undercover agent for the cattlemen's association and together with Bud manages to trap the real rustler. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

As he had so many times before, Hoot Gibson pretended to be a dimwit in this low-budget Western, his penultimate for penny-pinching producer M.H. Hoffman. Naturally, Gibson, as Ace Cooper, only pretends to be cowardly and stupid in order to investigate the mysterious killing of Dad Mason (Gordon De Main) in a hotel room. He does that disguised as "the Dude Bandit," quickly determining that Dad was murdered by greedy cattle baron Al Burton (Hooper Atchley). But how? Burton was observed by several witnesses as the fatal shot rang out. Aligning himself with old friend Skeeter (Gibson regular Roy "Skeeter Bill" Robbins) and the dead man's pretty daughter, Betty (Gloria Shea), Ace learns how Burton was able to establish an alibi for the murder. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Cowboy star Rex Bell revives a favorite plot device of silent westerner William S. Hart in Crashin' Broadway. Bell temporarily leaves the Wide Open Spaces to conduct business in New York City. He runs afoul of gangsters, who prove no match forBell. Doris Hill is the leading lady whom Bell charms during his visit to the Big Apple. Crashin' Broadway was one of Rex Bell's last starring vehicles; soon afterward, he entered politics, eventually becoming lieutenant governor of Nevada. And as a bonus, he married Hollywood's "It" girl Clara Bow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A good idea never really gets off the ground in this circus melodrama/western starring Bob Steele. The bantamweight cowboy plays Kit Denton, whose father, Charles (George Hayes), the owner of a traveling circus, is forced to admit that he is unwanted in the western town of Big Ben. As Charles explains, he has been on the run for 18 years after being falsely accused of a murder he didn't commit. To elude the law in general and Big Ben politico Chris McDonald (John Elliott) in particular, Charles must wear his clown makeup at all times. McDonald, however, takes umbrage to any circus visiting his town, especially since his wife, Martha (Vane Calvert), ran off to join one 18 years earlier. Is Kit actually Martha's son and will the Flying Dantons get through their act without interference from McDonald and his lackeys? Like most of Bob Steele's early talkie western melodramas, The Gallant Fool was directed by his real-life father, Robert North Bradbury. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In a slight change of pace, low-budget Western star Bob Steele plays a cowboy-turned-race car driver in this otherwise typical Paul Malvern production directed by the star's father Robert North Bradbury. Steele's happy-go-lucky Speed Brent gets involved with escaped prisoner Killer Joe (Ernie Adams), who hires him to drive him to the Mexican border. Knocked unconscious by one of Joe's henchmen, Speed recovers to find Judge Stafford (John Elliott) seriously wounded and the victim of theft. Along with the judge's bearded foreman Chuck Wiggins (George "Gabby" Hayes), Speed vows to track down the gang and later hooks up with Sonia (Marion Byron), a government agent masquerading as a saloon girl. Killer Joe, meanwhile, attempts to escape by car, but is chased down by Speed, who forces him over a cliff to his death. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Tom Tyler and Wally Wales, both refugees from the silent range, starred in this very low-budget oater from Poverty Row company Monarch. Tyler played an innocent victim of circumstances and Wales was the law-fighting postal inspector who mistakes him for a notorious outlaw known only as The Hawk. The real villain, however, is none other than Butch Cassidy, here depicted by an actor as far removed from Paul Newman as possible: Charles "Slim" Whitaker. Alice Dahl, another refugee from the silent era, played the heroine, the daughter of the sheriff (Lafe McKee). Carlotta Monti, W.C. Fields' longtime companion, was a fiery senorita named Lolita. Tyler starred in four Monarch Westerns in-between contracts with Monogram and Reliable. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

An above-average cast makes up for the lack of production values in this, the second of 32 Bob Steele Westerns produced by A.W. Hackel for the States' Rights market. Steele is Rod Kent, a rancher falling in love with his neighbor, Margie Orkin (Lucile Browne), whom he rescues from an irate bull. Margie, however, is soon in a different kind of danger altogether when her father's evil half-brother, Bill (George Hayes), suddenly appears on the property with blackmail on his mind. When Rod intervenes, his father (Charles K. French) is shot by one of Bill's nasty sons, Holt (James Flavin). Bill's attempt to pin the blame on his half-brother, Joe (William Farnum), fails. Assisted by Margie's kid brother, Budd (Mickey Rentschler), and his faithful pooch, Pardner, Rod rounds up the villains, who are hog-tied and delivered to the Sheriff (Jack Rockwell). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide