Derwin M. Abrahams Movies

Though ready for release in 1951, Whistling Hills ended up as western star Johnny Mack Brown's first entry for 1952. This time, Johnny comes to the aid of sheriff Dave Holland (Jimmy Ellison) when a band of stagecoach robbers plague the countryside. The masked bandits use the "whistling hills," a natural phenomenon, to signal the arrival of each stagecoach. Johnny and Dave spend the bulk of the film trying to figure out the identity of the man behind the holdups (the audience may well be several steps ahead of Our Heroes). Noel Neill, who later gained fame as Lois Lane on TV's Superman, serves as romantic interest for Jimmy Ellison. Johnny Mack Brown would star in five more westerns in 1952 before hanging up his six-guns. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Country western star Jimmie Davis heads the cast of the Monogram musical western Mississippi Rhythm. Teamed with perennial comedy sidekick Lee "Lasses" White, Jimmie (playing himself) rides into a small unincorporated community where the citizens are being victimized by crooked land developers. Our hero saves the day when he encourages the locals to incorporate, elect honest leaders and expunge the villains. Jimmie Davis' real-life political savvy would later serve him well when he became Governor of Louisiana. Mississippi Rhythm contains 12 songs, all written by Davis, including his signature tune "You Are My Sunshine." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yet another comic book hero -- Tex Granger of Calling All Boys fame -- came to the serial screen courtesy of cheapskate producer Sam Katzman. To save a buck, Katzman cast a nonentity named Robert Kellard, who despite former serial exposure in King of the Royal Mounted (1940), Drums of Fu Manchu (1940) and the starring role in Perils of the Royal Mounted (1942) had singularly failed to persuade the small fry of his true hero credentials. But here he was again, this time playing the new owner of the daily newspaper in the small Western community of Three Buttes. The citizenry proves a tough crowd to please, however, what with the local marshal, Blaze Talbot (former singing cowboy Smith Ballew), being in cahoots with a gang of gold thieves headed by a loan shark (I. Stanford Jolley). To battle the forces of evil, Tex dons the ever-popular disguise of masked rider and becomes the avenging "Midnight Rider of the Plains." There is a dog and a young child (Buzz henry), who get in the way of things on occasion, not to mention a damsel-in-distress (Peggy Stewart) and the ever present rustic (big-nosed Britt Wood). Although four hack writers claimed the screenplay to be an original, Tex Granger "borrowed" its story from a 1926 William Boyd vehicle, The Last Frontier, which itself had been copied by RKO's serial department in 1932. Whatever the origins, the results were doleful and not even the usually so tolerable Miss Stewart, on loan from Republic Pictures, could do much with this dud. Leading man Robert Kellard gave up his screen career soon after. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A Texas Ranger is once again falsely accused of murder in this above-average singing-cowboy oater from Monogram. This time, the unfortunate gent is Jimmy Wakely, who, along with his band of ex-Rangers, battle the new corrupt police force that briefly replaced the Texas Rangers corps. Unbeknownst to Commissioner Jed Brant (Steve Clark), the new State Police is actually strong-arming the local ranchers and Jimmy and his former colleagues have become a threat to this lucrative side business. The brain behind the crimes is Brant's second-in-command, Captain Barton (Marshall Reed), who plots with his henchman Hamen (Pierce Lyden) to frame Jimmy in the killing of a couple of ex-Rangers. Even Jimmy's best friends, Vic Sanders (Riley Hill), Brant's nephew, and his fiancée Sheila (Virginia Belmont) begin to suspect their friend of wrong-doings, especially after the commissioner himself is found murdered. Aided by his friend Cannonball (Dub Taylor), however, Jimmy manages to extract a confession from the slimy Hamen and the game is up. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Filmed at the Providencia Ranch (today a cemetery in Burbank, CA), this entry in Columbia's long-running "Durango Kid" Western series features Texas Jim Lewis and his Lone Star Cowboys performing Lewis' own "Hootenanny Annie" and series regular Smiley Burnette singing "Top It," "Law and Order," and "Hill Billy Lil." In between all the music acts, Charles Starrett as Steve Larkin dons his usual guise of the Durango Kid in order to get the goods on the less desirable elements of Red Mound, TX. As local café proprietor Smiley Burnette explains, the white line dividing the town has been painted along main street to separate respectable businessmen such as himself from the lawless gunmen inhabiting the southern section, a dividing line that not even Deputy Marshal Tug Carter (Paul Campbell dares to cross. Despite Burnette's dire warnings, Steve purchases the abandoned Atkins ranch and soon all hell breaks loose. But dressed as his masked alter ego, Steve eventually discovers the true mastermind behind the lawlessness and Tug, now appointed town marshal, erases the white line that once divided the community. In her first of four appearances opposite Starrett, busy Columbia starlet Virginia Hunter played a real estate broker, and future leading men Jock Mahoney (billed as Jacques O'Mahoney) and John Carpenter make early screen appearances as the villain's henchmen. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

With Hank Newman and the Georgia Crackers joining series regular Smiley Burnette, South of the Chisholm Trail was yet another tuneful "Durango Kid" Western from Columbia producer Colbert Clark. As always, strapping Charles Starrett dons his black mask in defense of law and order in general and the well-being of sidekick Burnette in particular. A singing horseshoe salesman, Burnette has been cajoled by Abilene promoter Big Jim Grady (Frank Sully) into wrestling the fearful Bone Crusher (Victor Holbrook); when all hope seems lost, Steve Haley, as Durango, replaces him and scores an easy victory. But Smiley is not out of danger. Soon after, the tubby salesman is falsely accused of robbing a covered wagon, a crime actually committed by a gang of masked outlaws under the leadership of a crooked veterinarian (George Chesebro) and none other than Big Jim himself. Nancy Saunders, in her first of six appearances opposite Starrett, provides a bit of romantic interest, while Burnette and others perform "Frog Went a-Courtin'," "I Got the Sillies," "Down in Abilene," and assorted other hillbilly numbers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Durango Kid is unfairly accused of double-crossing a friend in this above-average entry in Columbia Pictures long-running Western series. Durango, using his civilian name of Steve Bolton, has leased the Whispering Range to Bronc Masters (Robert Scott) so that Bronc can provide the Army with wild mustangs. But in the presence of his girlfriend Ann Bradford (Nancy Saunders) and ranch hand Smiley Burnette), Bronc suddenly turns on Steve and accuses him of having already leased the range to someone else. Investigating under his usual guise of the Durango Kid, Steve discovers that the land indeed seems to have been leased to land developer Spud Henley (Hugh Prosser). This second lease, however, is an obvious forgery, but it takes the combined efforts of both Durango and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior (Sam Flint) to catch the culprits, a gang of claim jumpers. In addition to Smiley Burnette, who performs his own {&"The Thieving Burro") and "Raisin' Rabbits," Prairie Raiders also featured Ozie Walters and his Colorado Rangers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

That dependable sleuth of pulp fiction fame, Nick Carter, apparently had an equally stalwart son. Chick Carter, Boy Detective did his sleuthing on radio before Columbia producer Sam Katzman brought him to the screen in Chick Carter, Detective. The juvenile hero of the radio waves had underwent certain changes in order for grown-up actor Lyle Talbot to portray him. Talbot's Chick Carter, however, remained strangely inactive in his own serial, allowing crusading reporter Rusty Farrell (Douglas V. Fowley) to perform most of the necessary derring-do. As plainly told as the title would suggest, Chick Carter, Detective was more or less a straightforward crime melodrama that eschewed the usual ray guns, invisibility inventions, and other paraphernalia of the genre. Former MGM starlet Pamela Blake did some snooping of her own as a rival detective, and a gangster bearing the unfortunate name of Nick Polio (George Meeker) indulged in a bit of insurance fraud on behalf of Charles King. With only two bona fide cliffhanger endings, Chick Carter, Detective found little favor with the small fry, its target audience. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Produced by Gower Gulch maverick Robert L. Lippert and filmed in not-so-glorious two-strip Cinecolor near Idyllwild, California, this Northwest Mounted melodrama starred the veteran Bob Steele as a rather surly mountie who, against his own better judgment, is persuaded to escort a patronizing Eastern girl (Joan Woodbury through the wilderness to her uncle's logging camp. Constantly bickering with her guide, the girl is carrying $20,000 in her purse, payroll money which is promptly stolen. At the logging camp, Steele runs into trouble with the local sergeant, Means (John Litel), who may not be all he appears to be, a wife-beating saloon-keeper (George Meeker, and sundry other more or less mysterious persons, most of whom were aware of Miss Woodbury's travel plans. Steele, who was nearing the end of his starring career (four Grade-Z Westerns were to come), also headlined Wildfire (1945), another Cinecolor "experiment" for Lippert's Action Pictures. Northwest Trail, however, was all but stolen by Miss Woodbury, whose feisty character made up for Steele's aging inertia. Troubled silent star Madge Bellamy made her final screen appearances as the mistreated wife of the saloon proprietor and real-life circus performer Poodles Hanneford played himself Like so many low-budget mountie melodramas, this one implied a non-existent connection to pulp writer James Oliver Curwood. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A grizzled old prospector literally stumbles over General Santa Ana's missing payroll treasure in this average "Durango Kid" Western from Columbia Pictures. Cimarron Dobbs (Emmett Lynn), who has been grubstaked by Rangers Steve Reynolds (Charles Starrett) and Smiley Burnette, soon finds himself in the clutches of greedy saloon proprietor John Munro (Robert Filmer) and his accomplice, saloon belle Dixie King (Helen Mowery), who will stop at nothing, including depriving the old man of water, to get hold of the treasure. Enter Steve Reynolds' alter ego, the Durango Kid, who not only manages to save Cimarron and find the treasure but also donates the loot to Munro's victims, the local farmers. Smiley Burnette performs his usual pratfalls and sings his own "Swamp Woman Blues", "Don't Be Mad at Me" and "Coyote Chorus", while the congregation known as Hank Newman and the Georgia Crackers takes care of Bob Newman's "Following the Trail". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Columbia Pictures "borrowed" a few pages from Damon Runyon when crafting this entry in the Durango Kid B-Western series. When an elderly desert rat realizes that the granddaughter he has never seen is due to arrive in Long Bend, the downtrodden old sod is too ashamed to admit that the money spent sending her through college came not from a rich gold mine but from panhandling at the saloon owned by Lucky Thorpe (Alan Bridge). The latter sees a welcome chance to whitewash stolen gold and arranges for Grubstake -- now known under his real name of Horace Higginbottom -- to suddenly strike it rich. Enter Texas Ranger Kim Allen (Charles Starrett), who dons the disguise of the Durango Kid to get the goods on Lucky and his corpulent chief henchman Nevada (Charles King). After clearing up a minor misunderstanding with good friend Tex Harding, the Kid is to hunt down the nasty saloon owner and his hired hands. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Charles Starrett, who originated the character of the Durango Kid in the 1940 Heroes of the Range, embarked on a lengthy seven-year Western series with this aptly titled horse opera. Starrett plays Bill Blayden, a newcomer to Silver City, TX, searching for the villain who framed his father years before. En route, Blayden is the victim of a stagecoach holdup along with Paradise Flo (Jean Stevens), who may or may not know more about the holdup than she lets on. In Silver City, Bill sides with Buckskin Liz Armstrong (Betty Roadman) and her drivers (Britt Wood) and Tex Harding) against the town's crooked boss, saloon owner Leland Kirby (John Calvert). The latter is in cahoots with Tom Wagner (Hal Price), who is attempting to take over Buckskin's stage route by illegal means. Donning the disguise of the Durango Kid, Blayden gets the goods on both Kirby and Wagner and, along the way, learns the identity of the man who framed his father. Young sidekick Tex Harding performs "Old Pinto (and His Cowboy Pal)," while a jolly group known as The Jesters takes care of such humorous ditties as "When They Fiddle Out the Polka" and "He Holds the Lantern (While His Mother Cuts the Wood)". Starrett would play the character of the Durango Kid for the remainder of his career -- a total of 63 films. Strangely, he was awarded a new alias in each film. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide