B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason Movies

Athletic star William Fairbanks stars in this cheaply made Columbia drama. Jim Davis (Fairbanks) likes having a good time, and his extravagance is a strain on his father (Tom Ricketts). To discourage him, the elder Davis claims to be bankrupt, which means that Jim has to fend for himself. When Jim sees a man on the street insulting pretty Mary Corbett (Phyllis Haver), he angrily pummels him. It turns out the man was Battling Wilson (Leon Beauman), who is the state boxing champ. With Mary's encouragement, Jim decides to challenge Wilson in the ring. Before the fight, however, Jim is doped, and as a result, Wilson easily knocks him out. Jim still gets his revenge when he trails the boxer to his dressing room and beats him to a pulp. Jim's heroics win Mary's love, and he and his father are eventually reconciled. ~ Janiss Garza, 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

In their first serial effort, newcomers Republic Pictures went with the tried and true: beloved animal trainer Clyde Beatty, who had earlier headlined the Mascot serial The Lost Jungle (1934). It is really Beatty, playing himself, who meets and saves Baru (Manuel King), "The Son of the Jungle," and his sister, Valerie, Goddess of Joba (Elaine Shepard). The latter is held captive by an evil High Priest (Lucien Prival), who has aligned himself with a couple of nasty white traders and a force of winged bat-men. In the 15th and final chapter, "The Prophecy of Gorn," the jungle city of Joba -- High Priest, evil traders, ferocious bat-men and all -- is swallowed up by a gigantic stock footage earthquake. Nat Levine, who had merged his serial empire, Mascot Pictures, into the new Republic, produced with his usual keen sense of economy, and the serial was co-directed by the veteran B. Reeves Eason and former film editor Joseph Kane. Darkest Africa was also released in an edited feature version, Batmen of Africa, and re-issued in 1949 under the new rather cumbersome title King of the Jungleland. The proud owner of a gorilla suit that would see jungle-film duty well into the television era, Ray "Crash" Corrigan appeared both in and out of his suit in this serial, billed, rather modestly, as "Ray Benard." Corrigan was to star in Republic's second serial, Undersea Kingdom (1936). Manuel King, Beatty's young and rather pudgy sidekick, was actually somewhat of a rival who billed himself, probably with some accuracy, as "The World's Youngest Wild Animal Trainer." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The advertising tag "four years in the making" is usually so much press-agent puffery. In the case of the 1926 silent version of Ben Hur, it was the unvarnished truth--and the filmmakers had the scars to prove it. The story behind the film is now part of Hollywood folklore: the cast and production crew changes (star George Walsh summarily dumped in favor of Roman Novarro, director Charles J. Brabin replaced by Fred Niblo, writer-supervisor June Mathis-who'd spearheaded the project in the first place-abruptly fired); the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on the troublesome location shooting in Italy--money that was lost when most of the footage proved unusable; the extra expenditure of refilming in Hollywood; and the huge chunk of the film's profits eaten up by the 50% royalty deal set up with theatrical producers Klaw and Erlanger, who controlled the rights to General Lew Wallace's novel. The end result reflected the turbulent production conditions: Ben Hur is an extraordinarily uneven experience, with moments of cinematic brilliance and pulse-pounding thrills alternating with long stretches of stagey boredom. The film follows the original Wallace story to the letter: Judah Ben-Hur (Novarro), a wealthy Jew living under the reign of the Caesars, is betrayed by his best friend, ambitious Roman centurion Messala (Francis X. Bushman). Ben-Hur's family is sent to prison, while he himself is condemned to the galleys. During a violent sea battle, Ben-Hur saves the life of galleon commander Quintus Arrius (Frank Currier). The grateful commander adopts Ben-Hur as his son and bankrolls his desire to become a champion charioteer. Thirsting for revenge, Ben-Hur agrees to race against his old nemesis Messala. The latter is fatally injured during the race; with his dying breath, Messala reveals that Ben-Hur's family, previously reported dead, are actually alive--but living as lepers. The story is subtitled A Tale of the Christ because, at various junctures in his life, Ben-Hur has been touched by the hand of Jesus. Ben-Hur must totally embrace Christ's edict of love and forgiveness before he can be reunited with his family. As Jesus is crucified in Jerusalem, Ben-Hur's mother (Claire McDowell) and sister (Kathleen Key), having also embraced the Christian philosophy, are miraculously cured of their leprosy. Most of these plot elements, together with the romance between Ben-Hur and the lovely Esther (May McAvoy), reappeared in the 1959 remake of Ben-Hur--which, fortunately, did not include the ridiculous subplot involving the alluring Iras (Carmel Myers), who attempts to seduce Ben-Hur just before the big race. The film's highlights--the sea battle, the now-legendary chariot race--were produced on a far grander scale than in the 1959 version; unfortunately, both highlights took place in the first half of the picture, leaving the viewers with a rather dreary, drawn out denouement (the remake wisely placed the sea battle in part one, and the race in part two). The Technicolor Nativity sequences were condemned in 1926 as being in poor taste, but when seen today are beautifully handled and restful on the eye (oddly, no one complained about the nude female revellers during a later Technicolor pageant scene!) Ben Hur cost $4 million and grossed $9 million on its first release. The aforementioned royalty arrangement left MGM with only a $1 million take. ~ 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

Not the best of Tim McCoy's 16 Westerns for Columbia (1931-1932), Cornered, directed by action specialist B. Reeves Eason, was also far from the worst, with plenty of fast riding and shooting to please the small fry. McCoy played Sheriff Tim Laramie whose best friend, Moody Pearson (Niles Welch), is accused of killing the father of his girlfriend, Jane Herrick (Shirley Grey). Tim staunchly proclaims his friend innocent until proven guilty but when Moody escapes, the townsfolk fire him. Tim and Moody join a gang of outlaws headed by Red Slaven (Noah Beery), whom the latter believes killed old man Herrick. When cornered, Slavens freely admits to the murder, but then orders his men to kill Tim. The ranchers, aroused earlier by Tim, arrive in the nick of time and, having cleared his name, Moody begins preparations to marry Jane. As always, this McCoy-Columbia Western was cast with seasoned veterans such as the always hissable Beery and Walter Long. Raymond Hatton played McCoy's comic sidekick and Walter Brennan and silent Western star Edmund Cobb appeared in unbilled bits as a court clerk and ranch hand, respectively. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Who better to direct Warner Bros.' Daredevil Drivers than B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason, the fast-action specialist who staged the chariot race sequence in 1925's Ben-Hur? Dick Purcell stars as suspended racecar driver Bill Foster who lands a job with a disreputable bus company. This puts him on the outs with his girlfriend Jerry Neeley (Beverly Roberts), the owner of a rival (and honest) bus firm. Bill gets back into Jerry's good graces when he exposes the criminal element running the company for which he works. As proof that everything's "relative" in Hollywood, Daredevil Drivers features Gloria Blondell, the sister of Warners contractee Joan Blondell, in a supporting role, while Charley Foy, the brother of the studio's B-movie unit supervisor Bryan Foy, provides comic relief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A 15 chapter Columbia serial, The Desert Hawk employed camels instead of horses and bedouins rather than cowboys, but remained a "Western" at heart. Gilbert Roland played Kasim, the honorable Caliph of Abad who is kidnapped by his evil identical twin, Hasson (also Roland). Kasim manages to get away from his captors and returns to the capital, where his brother now rules in his name. To regain the throne, the frustrated former Caliph assumes the identity of The Desert Hawk, finding an ally along the way in Hasson's bride-to-be, Princess Azala (Mona Maris) . Well-known serial villain Frank Lackteen, who hailed from Lebanon in the Middle East, played Faud, one of Hasson's henchmen. A rare visitor to the serial genre, Gilbert Roland had assumed the dual role of Kasim and Hasson when the serial's original leading man, Western star James Ellison, suffered an accident while filming episode one, "The Twin Brothers." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In spite of sharing the same last name, William Fairbanks and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. were not related. William, however, was sort of a low-rent version of Douglas -- he starred in bargain basement thrillers where he got to show off his talent for stunts. This one comes out of Columbia, at the time, a Poverty Row studio. Dick Covington (William Fairbanks) is a society athlete who is quick with his fists. His fiancée, Jean Manley (Pauline Garon), hates his fighting and convinces him to stop. But then his rival tricks him into accepting an offer to fight Murdering Mooney (Frank Hagney) at a charity show. At first Jean is chagrined, but when the rival insults her, she is anxious for Covington to beat his opponent. It turns out that the fight is fixed, and Covington is kidnapped and taken far out into the country. Somehow he manages to make an escape in his guard's car, then hitch a ride from an aviator, and then swim a lake. Finally, he gets to the fight and he still has enough energy to knock out Mooney. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In his second starring Western, lower-echelon cowboy Bob Custer portrayed a ranger who mistakenly believes pretty Marguerite Clayton to be in cahoots with a nasty gang of bank robbers. Miss Clayton is innocent of the charge, of course, but she does have an identical twin. A veteran Western heroine, Marguerite Clayton had starred opposite almost every Hollywood cowboy imaginable, including the very first, "Bronco" Billy Anderson. Clayton finally hung up her spurs in 1927. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Based on Peter B. Kyne's Tidy Toreador, this fairly outrageous Western romp featured Universal's lackadaisical cowboy Hoot Gibson as Billy Halen, foreman of "Pop" Tully's (Otis Harlan) Peaceful Valley Ranch. Suffering a bad case of poison ivy, Billy finds not only relief but an improved appearance in mud collected from a nearby marsh. Jasper Thornby (Frank Beal) hears of the miracle mud, which also promises to improve the appearance of the wearer, and attempts to buy Tully's ranch. The old man declines, and Jasper instead purchases the mortgage, ordering Pop to pay or get out. A plan by Thornby's secretary (Edward Coxen) to kidnap Billy fails, and the cowpoke-turned-entrepreneur instead sells his patent medicine to a rival druggist, thus earning enough money to save Pop Tully's ranch. Appearing as the villain's innocent ward is Sally Rand, the future "fan dancer." A WAMPAS Baby Star of 1927, Rand had enjoyed little success in films when she discovered her lucrative second career during the 1932 Chicago World's Fair. The rest, as they say, is show business history. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide