B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason Movies

Bargain-budget Screen Guild Productions was in the process of metamorphosing into Lippert Studios when Rimfire was filmed in 1949. This "government vs. gold thieves" affair has all of the virtues of the eager-to-please Lippert production team and none of the shortcomings of the pinchpenny Screen Guild operation. James Millican heads the cast as a special agent tracking down a lost shipment of Army gold. This leads him to a superstition-laden village where the townsfolk are convinced that the ghost of a hanged gambler is wreaking all sorts of havoc. It doesn't take Millican long to get to the bottom of the occult activity-and to locate the gold robbers in the process. With bigger star names, Rimfire might have secured better bookings; still, it did respectable business under the circumstances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Neath The Canadian Skies was one of a quartet of 45-minute "northerns", all produced by Golden Gate Productions and released by Screen Guild. Russell Hayden stars as a stalwart Mountie who poses as a criminal, the better to solve the murder of a prospector. Allegedly based on a story by James Oliver Curwood, the film ends rather abruptly; a second off-length film, North of the Border, ties up some of the loose plot ends of Neath The Canadian Skies, suggesting that these two short films were originally one long one. Confirming this suspicion is the fact that the supporting casts of both films (Inez Cooper, Douglas Fowley, I. Stanford Jolley etc.) were identical. A second pair of 45-minuters starring Russell Hayden, Where the North Begins and Trail of the Mounties, showed up in 1947. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The presumed son of a Navajo Indian chief goes in search of the men who killed his father in this average serial produced by Columbia Pictures. The young man, Black Arrow, allies himself with pretty Adele Jergens in his search for the killers, a couple of evil carpetbaggers. In the 15th and final chapter, appropriately entitled "Black Arrow Triumphs," the young man not only catches the killers, but also, in the usually Hollywood cop-out, discovers that he is not a Navajo at all but the son of the white Indian agent. Observing a cherished serial tradition of elevating a bit-part player to stardom for economy purposes, producer Rudolph C. Flothow cast the completely unknown Robert Scott as Black Arrow. Scott later changed his name to Mark Roberts and starred as reporter Hildy Johnson in the 1949-1950 syndicated television series The Front Page. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

At 49 minutes, Murder on the Waterfront was the shortest-ever Warner Bros. B picture. Alas, brevity is not the soul of wit in this updated remake of 1938's The Invisible Menace. Warren Douglas plays sailor Joe Davis, who while on leave in California gets mixed up with an enemy spy ring. The head Nazi intends to steal a top-secret thermostat. For a while, it looks as though Lt. Commander Holbrook (John Loder) is the villain, but he turns out to be a red herring before the picture is half over. In his efforts to thwart the baddies, Davis is aided and abetted by carnival performer Gloria (Joan Warfield), who wears her skimpy sideshow costume throughout the picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It takes a while for the viewer to catch on, but the 1942 quickie Spy Ship is a remake of the 1934 crime melodrama Fog Over Frisco. The main difference is that the film's principal murder victim, the sister of the heroine, is transformed from a dizzy socialite to an out-and-out villainess. The story is re-set during the months before America's entry into WW2. Famed aviatrix Pamela Mitchell (Irene Manning), a devout and outspoken isolationist, is secretly in the employ of the German government. Her younger sister Sue (Maris Wrixon) worries about the company Pamela keeps, and expresses these concerns to hotshot reporter Ward Prescott (Craig Stevens). When Pamela is killed by her Nazi confreres to keep her from revealing all to the world, Sue finds herself among the suspects. It all comes to an end on the spy ship of the title, where a kidnapped Sue is rescued in the nick of time by Ward and practically every cop in New York. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In hopes of cashing in on the popularity of "Number One Cowboy" Gene Autry, a fly-by-night firm called Times Pictures reissued a shortened version of Autry's 1935 Mascot serial Phantom Empire under the title Men with Steel Faces. It will be remembered that the original plotline of this 12-episode chapter play required Autry to head to the underground city of Murania, where the evil Prime Minister Argo (Wheeler Oakman) plotted to overthrow Queen Tika (Dorothy Christie) and take over the Surface World. In addition, Gene had to take leave of Murania on a daily basis and return to his ranch, lest he jeopardize his radio singing contract! As silly as this was in 1935, it was even more ridiculous in 1940, especially when compared to Autry's slicker Republic singing westerns. Even so, Men with Steel Faces posted a profit, as did practically anything associated with the name of Gene Autry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Too many of Gene Autry's Republic western sacrificed action in favor of music. A notable exception to this syndrome is Blue Montana Skies, directed by a fast-action maestro B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason. The up-to-date plotline finds Autry battling a gang of fur smugglers operating on the Montana-Canada border. When his business partner Steve (Tully Marshall) is murdered by the crooks, cattleman Autry follows the clues to a ranch owned by Dorothy (June Storey). Unbeknownst to the heroine, the murderers, led by Hendricks (Harry Woods), are working as her ranchhands. By the time she finds this out, it looks like she's next in line for extinction-but not if our hero has anything to say about it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this saccharine Klondike adventure, a brave female reporter who has a rapport with wild animals heads north to cover a story. Included in her animal entourage are a pair of bear cubs, a talking rook, and a homeless collie. After she gets lost, a handsome guide shows up to lead her out of the wilderness. It is an arduous journey fraught with many natural dangers, and the travelers nearly die from hunger until another man shows up to save them. When he begins pursuing the reporter, the guide gets jealous and a terrible fight erupts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The trials faced by the US Army when it first attempted to trade horses for tanks provides the basis of this actioner. The tale centers upon the love affair between an Army post commander's daughter and a young tank specialist who is trying to prove that the new technology is better than horses. The old soldiers disagree and a race upon a special course is arranged. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Despite the claim of "an original screenplay by Edward Earl Repp," this entry in Warner Bros.' Dick Foran "singing cowboy" series was a virtual remake of the studio's earlier The Telegraph Trail, whose 1932 screenplay was credited to Kurt Kempler. Prairie Thunder in fact opens with the same montage as its predecessor, and Yakima Canutt and Albert J. Smith play identical characters in both films. Foran and rotund, eternally fatigued Frank Orth replace John Wayne and rotund, eternally fatigued Frank McHugh but that is really the only difference between the films. That, and Foran's lusty renditions of Over the Trail Again, The Prairie is My Home and a few other selections. Foran and Orth are assigned by the army to investigate a series of Indian attacks on the railroad. They quickly discover that the Kiowas have been mislead by unscrupulous trader Smith, who views the coming of the railroad as a threat to his trade monopoly. The Indians capture Foran and heroine Ellen Clancy, but Orth helps the former escape. The cavalry arrives just in time to save the railroad construction site from yet another attack by the Kiowas and Foran personally chases down the villainous Smith. The least expensive entry in the Dick Foran series, Prairie Thunder lifted entire sequences from the earlier John Wayne vehicle, including dialogue scenes between Canutt and Smith and the killing of a telegraph repairman. The film's pieces de resistance, Indian attacks on both a white settlement and the construction site, are lifted almost in toto from a silent Ken Maynard Western with Maynard himself plainly visible in several shots. Foran's blonde leading lady, Ellen Clancy, later signed with Universal and changed her name to Janet Shaw. Paul Panzer, the German-born villain of the 1914 serial The Perils of Pauline, appears unbilled as a medicine man.. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In response to Republic's Gene Autry westerns of the late 1930s, Warner Bros. created its own singing cowboy, Dick Foran, for a brief series of second features. Land Beyond the Law wisely puts the priority on action rather than singing. Foran rides into a lawless territory, champions the cause of the oppressed homesteaders, and does battle with the baddies. The finale is an excellently staged gun battle, handled with virtuosity by B. Reeves Eason, whose second-unit work on Warners' historical spectacles (Charge of the Light Brigade et. al.) had made him a valuable studio commodity. Land Beyond the Law also features Wayne Morris, Warners' next major western star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide