Scott R. Dunlap Movies

In this western, a trigger happy sheriff is asked to step down by the townsfolk who want to have a quieter, safer town. He obliges and then travels to Sundown where he and a war buddy team up and drive all the criminals out of the town. When the streets are safe, he then falls in with a saloon girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Neville Brand plays one of his earliest good-guy roles in Return from the Sea. Brand plays a sailor named Maclish, who is a boisterous, love 'em and leave 'em type--until he meets a lonely waitress named Frieda (Jan Sterling). Through her example, Maclish realizes that he too has been lonesome all his life, just waiting for the "right girl" to come along. Falling in love, Maclish and Frieda begin saving up for a little ranch of their own. When Maclish is seriously wounded in battle, however, it looks as though their dreams for happiness and security will be dashed again. . .but the movie isn't over, yet. Return From the Sea was directed by Lesley Selander, who helmed so many films for Allied Artists during this period that he must have slept and taken meals at the studio. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Western aficionados tend to regard Short Grass as the best-ever directorial effort by Lesley Selander. Considerably longer than most Monogram westerns (82 minutes), the film never lags, thanks to the expertise of Selander and a top-rank cast. Rod Cameron plays Steve, a drifter who briefly settles down on a ranch. During a range war, Steve comes to blows with avaricious rancher Hal Fenton (Morris Ankrum). Shortly thereafter, a man is killed and Steve is implicated in the crime. He leaves town in a hurry, returning five years later to clear his name and reclaim his land. He finds that his former girl friend Sharon (Cathy Downs) is married to alcoholic newspaperman John Devore (Tris Coffin), and that Fenton now holds the commuity in an iron grip of fear. Lawman Keown (Johnny Mack Brown) can't administer justice because of the political strings pulled by the villains. With Steve's help, Keown and the rest of the town's honest citizens are finally able to swing into action, leading to a superbly staged climax. Comic actor Raymond Walburn essays a relatively straight role as the town's leading citizen. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this detective story, a private eye must send his fiancee to prison as he truly believes that she was involved in a bank robbery. Unfortunately, she is innocent. Still she serves her time. Upon her release someone frames her for murder. The detective is in quite a quandary until the real criminal is found. The woman finally returns to her beloved private eye. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Monogram added a bit of music to this otherwise standard Johnny Mack Brown oater, courtesy of former star Smith Ballew, who performs Cindy Walker's "The Strawberry Blonde" and Don Swander and June Hershey's "Livin' Western Style" accompanied by Dusty Rhodes and the Sons of the Sage. Mack Brown, meanwhile, plays Dusty Smith, a drifter coming to the aid of Bill Simpson (Riley Hill), a young hothead accused of wounding a town bully (Reed Howes). Along with old-timer Santa Fe Jones (Raymond Hatton), falsely accused of rustling by smooth saloon owner Blackie Evans (Tristram Coffin), Dusty obtains a job as ranch foreman at the Simpson spread, much to the ire of Blackie, who proves to be the real rustler. Young Bill pays his debt to Dusty by springing him from jail after the latter has been falsely jailed for killing one of the gang and together they track down the villainous saloon owner. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

In one of his better Monogram Westerns, Johnny Mack Brown goes up against a crooked saloon owner with more than one murder on his conscience. Steve Corbin (Tristram Coffin) and his gang of cutthroats are terrorizing the townspeople of Rimrock, who in self-defense hire Johnny Macklin (Mack Brown) as new town marshal. Corbin, meanwhile, kills a miner for his claim and threatens the local newspaper editor, Diane Foster (Reno Browne), who happens to be the daughter of Macklin's deputy, Idaho Jim Foster (Raymond Hatton). When a compromised jury returns a not guilty verdict, Macklin has Corbin transferred to the county seat but the villain manages to escape after killing a couple of witnesses. Naturally, the hero quickly hunts him down, restoring peace and tranquility to Rimrock. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Gilbert Roland dominates the action in a colorful performance as the bandit hero the Cisco Kid, this time up against a surprisingly vicious plot by a local doctor to steal land from the local peasants and small ranchers by poisoning them to drive them off, and then reselling the property to absentee European landlords. He finds an unexpected ally in Jeanne DuBois (Ramsay Ames), who starts out as part of the plot but is turned around by Roland's charm and charisma after a few fireworks. The direction is uneven, with William Nigh not quite able to make the flatter parts of the script as entertaining or smooth as they ought to be. Evidently, the producers knew they were in trouble with this downbeat script and took steps to rescue the picture. Seeing the sparks fly in the scenes in the first third of the picture, in which Ames is disguised as a man (which evokes echoes -- albeit very distant -- of Shakespeare's As You Like It) and verbally jousts with Roland, more material was written on the spot for the two of them, depicting a competition that becomes much more heated when her gender is revealed. By her own account, Nigh and Ames were friends, and she was a good sport on this shoot whatever they had her doing, and it's a pity they didn't go further with the rivalry between Roland's and Ames' characters, who might've been the Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones of their era. Roland also wrote some of his own dialogue and poetry for this effort, which seems very hackneyed today, but played just fine for audiences in 1946. (Note: In early TV prints of Beauty And The Bandit, all references to the Cisco Kid and O. Henry in the credits were blacked out, and mentions of the Cisco Kid and "Cisco" in the dialogue awkwardly dubbed over as "Chico" -- one suspects this was because the exclusive TV rights to the Cisco Kid had been sold to another producer for the TV series starring Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo). ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Flame of the West has always attracted more attention than most of Johnny Mack Brown's Monogram westerns, if for no other reason than the offbeat casting of Douglass Dumbrille. Usually seen in villainous roles, Dumbrille herein offers a sincere, effective performance as a scrupulously honest US marshal named Nightlander. When he takes on a gang of crooked gamblers, Nightlander is shot down in cold blood, compelling frontier doctor John Poore (Johnny Mack Brown) to put his Hippocratic oath on the back burner and strap on the shootin' irons. Raymond Hatton contributes his usual grizzled comedy relief in Flame of the West, while Joan Woodbury is interestingly cast as a saloon-hall girl without a heart of gold. Flame of the West works so well on a dramatic level that the musical interludes of Pee Wee King seem downright intrusive. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Singing, dancing, and ice skating are featured in this musical that focuses on ice-skating sensation Belita. The story begins as she travels to a California resort where she has been hired as a replacement for a dance team. The resort is run by a handsome fellow. As a result of the gig, the skater becomes a national star while the resort manager gets fired and becomes a drifter until he ends up in the Army. The Oscar nominated score includes the following songs: "Silver Shadows and Golden Dreams", "Dream of Dreams", "Rio", "In the Days of Beau Brummel", "Lady, Let's Dance", "Happy Hearts", "Ten Million Men and a Girl", and the rhumba standard "Esperanza". ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This Johnny Mack Brown western once more teams its star with leathery Raymond Hatton. The boys are cast as U.S. marshals Nevada and Sandy, assigned to solve a series of frontier murders. The victims are all ranchers, with no apparent connection between the killings. To everyone's surprise but the audience, the mystery villain intends to scoop up all the local land for himself. Christine McIntyre, soon to become the Three Stooges' favorite leading lady, registers well in an unsympathetic role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Johnny Mack Brown heads the cast of Monogram's Outlaws of Stampede Pass. Per the title, the film concerns a western community held in the grip of a gang of desperadoes. Brown and his dusty sidekick Raymond Hatton set about to round up the bad guys. We know what's going to happen, but as always, Johnny brings a sense of freshness and spontaneity to the proceedings. Outlaws of Stampede Pass was adapted from a story by Johnston McCulley, of "Zorro" fame. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though the film's title is The Texas Kid, the film's star Johnny Mack Brown plays a cowboy named Nevada. The titular "kid", played by Marshall Reed, is a former bandit leader who decides to go straight-and gets a bullet in his back for his trouble. Nevada and his sidekick Sandy (Raymond Hatton) take over from the Texas Kid, seeing to it that the stagecoach carrying the payrolls for local ranches aren't molested by the Kid's old gang members. As Monogram pictures go, this one goes rather well, with some well-lensed location shots. The Texas Kid was scripted by Lynton Brent, a general-purpose actor who also plays a small role in the film; Brent is perhaps best known today for his work in Columbia's "Three Stooges" comedies. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

An unusually sentimental endeavor from rough-and-ready Monogram pictures, Road to Happiness stars former 20th Century-Fox leading man John Boles. Recently divorced, Boles tries to make things pleasant for his son Billy Lee (who two years earlier had captivated the critics in The Biscuit Eater). Complications ensue in the form of Boles' ex-wife and a battery of lawyers. Roscoe Karns lightens the proceedings with his patented brashness. Road to Happiness was scripted by Robert D. Andrews, of If I Had a Million fame. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi