Basil Dickey Movies

A late entry in Monogram's Jimmy Wakely musical Western series, Brand of Fear features a nice performance by Gail Davis, television's Annie Oakley. Davis plays Anne Lamont, whose guardian, Marshal Black Jack Flint (Tom London), hires her as the new schoolteacher of Oreville, AZ. Black Jack, however, is really a reformed outlaw and is being blackmailed by crooked blacksmith Cal Derringer (Marshall Reed). Derringer is in league with outlaw Tom Slade (William H. Ruhl), who plans to rob a shipment of ore. On the side of law and order are trouble-shooter Jimmy Wakely and his sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor). They run down the villains, and with his dying breath, Derringer confesses that Black Jack was innocent of the charges leveled against him 20 years earlier and that he is actually Anne's natural father. In between battling the bad guys, Wakely finds time to sing "There's a Rainbow Over the Range" by Tim Spencer and "Cool Water" by the prolific Bob Nolan. Monogram could have done much worse than this tightly packaged piece of Western hokum, and often did. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Kirk Alyn, erstwhile Superman of the serials, plays government man Dave Worth in the Republic serial Federal Agents Vs. Underworld Inc. Worth is put on the trail of a famous archaeologist who has disappeared. He learns that the far-reaching criminal organization Underworld Inc. wants to get its mitts on the Golden Hands of Kurigal, the key to a huge fortune hidden away in an unknown foreign country. The brains of the bad-guy operation is bad-girl Neela (Carol Forman), a master-or mistress-of disguise. Former Miss America Rosemary LaPlanche portrays Dave Worth's ever-imperiled girl Friday. Federal Agents vs. Underworld Inc managed to sustain audience interest for a full 12 chapters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The popular G-Men of the 1930s made a comeback in this action serial produced by Republic Pictures, starring television's future Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore. The serial, however, was not so much a showcase for the pleasant if lightweight Moore, but rather a welcome opportunity for the studio's most effective villain, the near-legendary Roy Barcroft, to strut his considerable stuff. Barcroft plays a notorious gangster who escapes from prison, and via plastic surgery, assumes the identity of the local police commissioner (also Barcroft), who he has kidnapped. The masquerade is so effective that government agents Moore and Ramsay Ames fail to catch on until the 12th and final chapter, logically entitled "Exposed." The serial was re-edited into a feature version entitled Code 645. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

One of the most entertaining serials to be released by Republic Pictures, this mystery employed yet another inscrutable invention, a counter atomic device known as Cyclotrode X, sought after by yet another cloaked villain, The Crimson Ghost of the title. But just like the well-known criminologist Duncan Richards (Charles Quigley) and his lovely assistant Diana Farnsworth (Linda Stirling), the Saturday Matinee kids had a tough job spotting the person hiding behind the hideous disguise. The studio took no chances this time and ingeniously cast stunt-man Bud Geary to embody the villain while several actors supplied the voice, including I. Stanford Jolley, whose role was minor but who received fourth-billing and was therefore highly suspect. When The Crimson Ghost was unmasked in the 12th and final chapter, he proved to be yet another actor, Joseph Forte, who had enacted a character seemingly above suspicion. Instead of feeling cheated, however, the young target audience subconsciously enjoyed the above-average writing and fine direction by the talented William Witney and Fred C. Brannon, and no one complained. Quigley and Stirling were at the top of their serial game, and to the bemused surprise of more recent viewers, television's Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore, played one of the master villain's henchmen, a cold-hearted gangster. The Crimson Ghost was also released in an edited feature version, retitled Cyclotrode. In 1966, yet another edited version was given the title Cyclotrode X. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The most obvious discrepancies concerning this otherwise well-remembered cliffhanger from genre specialist Republic Pictures are the quite demure-looking leopard outfit worn by the serial's heroine, Linda Stirling, and that Darkest Africa looks suspiciously like the hills of suburban Chatsworth. Apparently, producer William J. O'Connell acquired the leopard costume on the cheap but too late for the title to be changed, and the location never really mattered to Republic's mostly juvenile target audience. Making her serial debut, Stirling's innate athleticism came in handy playing Kay Arnold, an heiress turned Jungle Goddess who helps oil company representative Allan Lane fight off a villainous competitor headed by unscrupulous attorney Fletcher Walton (LeRoy Mason) and his henchman, general store proprietor Tom Daggett (Crane Whitley). The remaining 11 chapters had either Stirling rescuing Lane from one peril after another, or vice versa. Although not quite as independently heroic as serial queens such as Pearl White and Ruth Roland, Linda Stirling came as close as anybody, which of course was Republic's goal all along. Her sex appeal, despite the demure costume, was obvious and although this was not why she had chosen the acting profession, Linda tore into her serial assignments with legendary gusto. Ironically, the native of Long Beach, CA, had begun her career studying with Ben Bard, the widower of Ruth Roland. The serial was re-edited and released in a feature version re-titled Jungle Gold. In 1951, Republic resurrected the entire chapterplay under the title Perils of the Darkest Jungle. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Granite-jawed Jack Holt plays himself-or at least the screen version of "himself"-in the 15-chapter Columbia serial Holt of the Secret Service. To get the goods on a counterfeiting ring, federal agent Holt poses as master criminal Nick Farrel. The villains swallow this ruse hook, line and sinker, making one wonder how they ever had the intellectual capacity to flood the US with funny money. Aided and abetted by fellow agent Kay (Evelyn Brent), who poses as "Mrs. Farrel", Holt endures numerous brushes with death, emerging from all of them with nary a hair out of place nor a crease in his well-tailored business suit. As usual, director James W. Horne injects several moments of zany comedy in the proceedings: at one point, the villains receive a valuable piece of information, whereupon they all shout "Hooray" in unison! A less intentionally amusing aspect of the film is that neither Jack Holt nor Evelyn Brent change their clothes during the serial's 4-hour length, leading one to assume that the other cast members had lost their sense of smell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before the character was appropriated by Buster Crabbe, "Lightning" Bill Carson was played by Tim McCoy in a series of low-budget westerns produced by Sam Katzman. One of the last of these was Straight Shooter, filmed in the late 1930s but unreleased until 1940. This time, Carson (McCoy) goes after a ruthless outlaw gang which has stolen government bonds. Though the odds are against him, Carson gets his man-er, men. Slowly the pace of Straight Shooter to walk is the questionable comedy relief of Ben "Magpie" Corbett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The then-popular government agents, the so-called G-Men, took to the air in this standard 15-chapter serial thriller courtesy of Columbia Pictures. Hal Andrews, known under the colorful alias "The Black Falcon," and his two fellow operatives, Bart Davis (Robert Fiske) and John Cummings (James Craig), track down the villain who killed one of their colleagues. The murderer proves to be the head of a gang of saboteurs who are planning a strike on the country's air defense. Lorna Gray, later known as Adrian Booth, lent a bit of feminine appeal to the otherwise decidedly masculine goings-on. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Tall-in-the-saddle Tim McCoy essays a dual role in the low-budget western Outlaw's Paradise. As luck would have it, government agent Lightnin' Bill Carson (McCoy) is the exact double of outlaw leader Trigger Mallory (also McCoy). While Trigger languishes in jail, Bill takes his place, infiltrating Mallory's gang in hopes of rounding them all up. He even manages to hoodwink Trigger's girl friend Jessie (Joan Barclay), despite the fact that she seems brighter than the rest of his ilk. Things get hairy when Trigger busts out of jail and joins up with his gang, luring Bill towards an "inescapable" death trap. Inescapable, sure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Former silent screen cowboy Tom Tyler and newcomer Lon Chaney, Jr. (still billed, modestly, as Creighton Chaney) square off in this inexpensive oater produced by infamous poverty row regular Sam Katzman. Believed by the sheriff (Charles "Slim" Whitaker) to be the notorious bandit Cheyenne Tommy, Tom Wade (Tyler) is in reality an investigator for the Cattlemen's Protective Association looking into a series of cattle rustlings. Along with his dopey sidekick, Dopey (Jimmy Fox), Wade robs the rustlers of their ill-gotten gains until he is recognized by one of the gang, Girard (Chaney). After a great deal of ridin' and shootin', Tom is assisted in bringing down the gang by lovely Sally Lane (Lucile Browne), another operative working undercover as secretary to the leader of the rustlers (Theodore Lorch). The Katzman stamp of poverty is all over this Victory Pictures production, but it is fun to watch Tyler and Chaney, both of whom would later star as the mummy, Kharis, for Universal in the '40s. Director Robert F. Hill makes his usual Hitchcock-like appearance, this time as a townsman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Produced by Sam Katzman's Victory Pictures, $1,000,000 Racket stars Katzman's biggest "name," ex-Olympic athlete Herman Brix. Our hero falls in with a gang of racketeers, pretending to play along with them until he can notify the authorities. Along the way, Brix falls in love with apple-cheeked Joan Barclay. Featured in the cast are veteran silent leading man Bryant Washburn as the chief heavy, and one-time 2-reel comedy star Jimmy Aubrey as a dopey crook. Herman Brix did rather better for himself in the 1940s when he changed his name to Bruce Bennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Produced back-to-back with Mystery Range (1937), this Tom Tyler Western was the first of Sam Katzman's Victory Pictures productions to be distributed by Monogram. Tyler plays Tom Wade, an agent for the cattlemen's association who bears a striking resemblance to dying outlaw Jack Granger. Tom assumes the dead desperado's identity, aiding Pa Granger (Lafe McKee) in his feud with nasty neighbor Lance Holcomb (Roger Williams) and Holcomb's even nastier mother (Vane Calvert). The bone of contention is a piece of property containing a gold mine. Tom, as Jack, settles the score with the Holcombs, and, revealing his true identity, wins Sheila Granger's love -- a rather kinky denouement considering Tom's close resemblance to the girl's dead brother. Sheila was played by Harlene Wood, who, as Harley Wood, had starred in the notorious exploitation-melodrama Marihuana (1935). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The agent for a cattlemen's association and his partner spot an old enemy in town one day. They discover that he is planning to swindle a young girl out of her land. It seems the railroad is willing to pay $50,000 for the property, but she doesn't know it -- because her uncle is in on the swindle, too. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide