Lynton Brent Movies

In this episode of the "Billy the Kid" series of westerns, outlaw Billy (Buster Crabbe) is mistakenly appointed Sage Valley's new sheriff. He likes the job and works hard to maintain order. Unfortunately his crooked twin brother, who runs a casino and is in hiding after a murder, wants to keep the town a haven for crooks. To do this, he masquerades as Billy and starts causing trouble. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Riders of the West is another entry in Monogram's repetitious but profitable "Rough Riders" series. Back in the saddle again are Buck Jones as Buck Roberts, Tim McCoy as Tim McCall, and Raymond Hatton as Sandy Hopkins. The three heroes take on a gang of cattle rustlers, using their standard method of operation: Buck, Tim and Sandy ride into a small town separately, pretending to be strangers to one another until the time is ripe to join forces. Character names like "Ma Turner" and "Duke Mason" should tip the audience off as to who the good and bad guys are. Making her second "Rough Riders" appearance is the lovely Christine McIntyre, still two years away from her tenure with the Three Stooges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fools of Desire is a tacky but entertaining "exploitationer", originally filmed in 1938 or thereabouts as It's All in Your Mind. In his only starring film role, Byron Foulger plays milquetoast Wilbur Crane, driven from his home and hearth by his battleaxe wife Martha (Betty Roadman). Desperate to prove his manhood, Wilbur has a one-night affair with brassy blonde Dorothy (Constance Bergen). Alas, our hero has fallen victim to a shakedown scheme, cooked up by Dorothy and her sleazy blackmailer boyfriend Danny (Lynton Brent). Considered pretty racy stuff back in 1941, Fools of Desire is about as sexy as a pair of gym shoes when seen today; its sole redeeming factor is the virtuoso performance of Byron Foulger, one of Hollywood's most reliable character actors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tex Ritter's thirty-second music Western for producer Edward F. Finney -- the last twenty released by Monogram -- The Pioneers was also Ritter's perhaps most unusual. "Suggested" by James Fenimore Cooper's 1853 The Leatherstocking Tales, the Western featured both Ritter and sidekick Slim Andrews wearing buckskin jackets, the latter even completing his ensemble with a homey coonskin cap. Ritter and Andrews played trail guides saving a wagon train from an Indian attack, much to the dismay of land owner J.W. Carson (Karl Hackett). Carson, along with henchmen Wilson (George Chesebro) and Jingo (Lynton Brent), had orchestrated the raid in the first place in an attempt to scare settlers away from a valuable parcel of land. Tex, meanwhile, is falsely accused of murdering one of the settler's, Ames (Del Lawrence), whose daughter, Suzannah (Wanda McKay), Carson has been courting. Ritter narrowly escapes a lynching party to hook up with his pal Red Foley. Together with Slim and Doye O'Dell (of radio fame), they manage to save Suzannah from a fate worse and death and the settlers in general from Carson's evil machinations. Making their screen debuts, country and western performers Red Foley and Doye O'Dell "played" themselves, a rather odd choice for what was ostensibly a Fenimore Cooper adaptation. Ritter, who had just married his former co-star Dorothy Fay, left Finney in favor of a more steady paycheck from Columbia Pictures. The Pioneers, alas, was the former radio performer's final solo starring vehicle. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

While listening to a recording of "Penny Serenade," Julie Gardiner Adams (Irene Dunne) begins reflecting on her past. She recalls her near-impulsive marriage to newspaper reporter Roger Adams (Cary Grant), which begins on a deliriously happy note but turns out to be fraught with tragedy. While honeymooning in Japan, Julie and Roger are trapped in the 1923 earthquake, which results in her miscarriage and subsequent incapability to bear children. Upon their return to America, Roger becomes editor of a small-town newspaper, just scraping by financially. Despite their depleted resources, Julie and Roger want desperately to adopt a child. It seems hopeless until kindly adoption agency head Miss Oliver (Beulah Bondi) helps smooth their path. Alas, their happiness is once more short-lived: their new daughter, Trina (Eva Lee Kuney), succumbs to a sudden illness at the age of six. Reduced to hopelessness, Julie and Roger decide to dissolve their marriage, but Miss Oliver once more comes to the rescue. Sentimental in the extreme, Penny Serenade is also enormously effective, balancing moments of heartbreaking pathos with uproarious laughter. Only director George Stevens could have handled a scene with a copiously weeping Cary Grant without inducing discomfort or embarrassment in the audience. Since lapsing into the public domain in 1968 (though released by Columbia, the film was owned by Stevens' production firm), Penny Serenade has become almost as ubiquitous a cable-TV presence as It's a Wonderful Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this entertaining western, Roy Rogers rides to the rescue of ranchers threatened by a drought. With his rousing songs, he rallies the reluctant fellows together to donate a large sum of money to build a new reservoir. Things go well until a gambler gets involved and winds up stealing the $182,000 fund. This angers Rogers who rides out after him and brings him to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though he doesn't speak his first line of dialogue until the film's final ten minutes, Peter Lorre spiritually dominates the fascinating RKO melodrama Stranger on the Third Floor. The plotline is carried by John McGuire, playing Ward, a newspaper reporter whose courtroom testimony sends the hapless Briggs (Elisha Cook Jr). to the death house. Ward is certain that he saw Briggs leaving the scene of a murder, but as the days pass, he is tortured by guilt and doubt -- especially during the film's surrealistic knockout of a nightmare sequence. When another murder is committed, Ward finds himself as much a victim of circumstantial evidence as the unfortunate Briggs. The reporter's girlfriend (Margaret Tallichet) tries to clear Ward....and that's when she first makes the acquaintance of Lorre, who is heard ordering a pound of raw meat! Stranger on the Third Floor was a "film noir" long prior to the genesis of that cinematic movement. Long ignored or trivialized by film historians, this 7-reel quickie has in recent years graduated to classic status. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The inventive magician Professor Mordini (Lynton Brent) hires Buster Keaton and his wife (Elsie Ames) as caretakers for his contraption-filled home. He warns them to make sure that his disgruntled former assistant doesn't get in and steal his ideas while he's away. After being scared silly by numerous spooky goings on (including an inebriated penguin on roller skates!), the Keatons are confronted by Mordini's ex-assistant (Bruce Bennett) as well as by a spiritualist (Dorothy Appleby) and her husband (Don Beddoe). The assistant uses the house's creepy resources to send both married couples running for the hills in terror. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

Eduardo Cianelli (his first name changed to "Edward" on this occasion) is the not-so-mysterious title character in the 15-chapter Republic serial The Mysterious Dr. Satan. A criminal genius, Dr. Satan has developed a "killer robot" to do his bidding. In order to perfect his invention, he must get his hands on a secret remote-control device invented by kindly Professor Thomas Scott (C. Montague Shaw). His efforts along this line-including the period abduction of Scott's pretty daughter Lois (Ella Neal)-are constantly stymied by the Copperhead, a masked do-gooder who in reality is handsome hero Bob Wayne (Robert Wilcox). Jam-packed with fast action and dizzying plot twists, The Mysterious Dr. Satan was one of the best and most often-revived Republic serials of the early 1940s. A feature-length abridgement, Dr. Satan's Robot, was prepared for televison in 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nothing But Pleasure was hardly any pleasure at all. The third of Buster Keaton's ten two-reel comedies for Columbia went absolutely nowhere fast despite a good set-up. Keaton and wife (Dorothy Appleby) combine a car-buying spree in Detroit with what they assume will be a pleasant drive home. Naturally, the trip turns into a nightmare. Veteran Keaton collaborator Clyde Bruckman borrowed pieces of business from his distant past, including W.C. Fields' The Man in the Flying Trapeze and Keaton's own Spite Marriage (1929). From the latter Bruckman lifted a famous gag where Buster carries a drunken woman to bed. Hysterically funny back in 1929, perhaps, less so ten years and a long struggle with alcoholism later. Former B-Western star Addison Randall (aka Jack Randall) and future MGM lead Robert Sterling appeared in bit parts. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this typical Columbia two-reel comedy, the Three Stooges play dog groomers whose chief client, Symona Boniface's pooch Garçon, has been kidnapped by thieves masquerading as reporters. Never without resolve, the Stooges try to pass off a mutt as Garçon but Symona is no fool. They then enlist the help of a team of bloodhounds who leads them straight to the kidnappers' hideout -- where Garçon is caring for "his" litter. Written by Thea Goodman, Searle Kramer, and the tireless Elwood Ullman, this Stooges comedy was the second to be directed by the team's producer, Jules White. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The last of RKO's Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers vehicles, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is also the least typical. At their best playing carefree characters in gossamer-thin musical comedy plotlines, Fred and Ginger seem slightly ill at ease cast as the real-life dancing team of Vernon and Irene Castle. The stripped-to-essentials storyline boils down to novice dancer Irene (Rogers) convincing vaudeville comic Vernon (Astaire) to give up slapstick in favor of "classy" ballroom dancing. With the help of agent Edna May Oliver, the Castles hit their peak of fame and fortune in the immediate pre-World War I years. When Vernon is called to arms, Irene stays behind in the US, making patriotic movie serials to aid the war effort. Vernon is killed in a training accident, leaving a tearful Irene to carry on alone. To soften the shock of Astaire's on-screen death (it still packs a jolt when seen today), RKO inserted a closing "dream" dancing sequence, with a spectral Vernon and Irene waltzing off into the heavens. The film's production was hampered by the on-set presence of the real Irene Castle, whose insistence upon accuracy at all costs drove everyone to distraction--especially Ginger Rogers, who felt as though she was being treated like a marionette rather than an actress. In one respect, Mrs. Castle had good reason to be so autocratic. Walter, the "severest critic servant" character played by Walter Brennan, was in reality a black man. RKO was nervous about depicting a strong, equal-footing friendship between the white Castles and their black retainer, so a Caucasian actor was hired for the role. Mrs. Castle was understandably incensed by this alteration, and for the rest of her days chastised RKO for its cowardice. As it turned out, it probably wouldn't have mattered if Walter had been black, white, Chicano or Siamese; The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle was a financial bust, losing $50,000 at the box office. Perhaps as a result, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers would not team up again for another ten years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed after the star and his producer already had signed a new deal with rival company Monogram, this Grand National Tex Ritter Western slashed the usual parsimonious budget even further by recycling the entire final reel of Ritter's previous Sing, Cowboy, Sing. Filmed back-to-back with Utah Trail, Ritter's final Grand National Western, Rollin' Plains once again burdened the star with perhaps the worst comic sidekicks available at the time, Horace Murphy and Snub Pollard, the latter still sporting the paint-on mustache he had used since the silent days at Keystone. The three played rangers coming to the assistance of Gospel Moody (silent screen star Hobart Bosworth), a cattle rancher in trouble with an ornery sheepman, Trigger Gargan (Charles King). Soon, Gospel is accused of killing old Hank Tomlin (Horace B. Carpenter), an act actually committed by his half-brother Cain (Ernie S. Adams). With Tex's help, Moody stages his own "death," only to come back as a "ghost." Accompanied by a group calling themselves The Beverly Hill Billies, Ritter performed Rollin' Plains by Whitcup, Samuels and Powell, Me, My Pal and My Pony by Frank Harford, and Rock of Ages by Augustus Montague Toplady and Thomas Hastings. Hank Worden, a friend of Ritter's from his days on Broadway, appeared in a bit part, still billed under his real name, Heber Snow. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide