Cy Feuer Movies

The time-honored "homesteaders vs. cattlemen" plot device is given another go-round in the Republic western The Cyclone Kid. John James plays Dr. Dawson, a young phsyician who tries to rally the local settlers against the despotic cattle barons. Alas, the good doctor finds himself pitted against his own brother Johnny (Don "Red" Barry), who'd sent him through medical school. At first firmly on the side of the cattlemen, Johnny eventually sees the light and joins his brother in defying his former bosses. Lynn Merrick, as much a fixture of the Don "Red" Barry westerns as Barry himself, is the heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The sure-fire combination of Judy Canova and Joe E. Brown paid off in big laughs and excellent box-office returns in the bizarre wartime musical Joan of Ozark. While hunting quail near her home, hillbilly Judy (Canova) catches a carrier pigeon bearing a message for a ring of Nazi spies. She turns the bird over to the FBI and is lauded as a heroine-much to the dismay of Philip Munson (Jerome Cowan), whose posh New York nightclub is a cover for his Fifth Column activities. As luck would have it, theatrical agent Cliff Little (Joe E. Brown) has been sent to the Ozarks to scare up new talent for Munson's club. Little wants to sign Judy for a singing contract, but she'll have none of it until he poses as a G-Man and appoints her an honorary "G-Woman." To keep Judy happy once they're back in New York, Cliff pretends to be a spy while wandering around the nightclub-and thus it is that our hapless hero and heroine stumble upon Munson's nest of Nazis. It's hard to determine which is sillier in Joan of Ozark: Joe E. Brown's imitation of Adolf Hitler or the Keystone Kop-like climactic airplane chase. Also good for a few yocks is the closing musical number, set in "the future"-namely, 1952! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though musical-comedy favorite Jane Frazee was well established at Universal in mid-1942, every so often she'd head to Republic to star in such confections as Moonlight Masquerade. Frazee is cast as Vicki Forester, daughter of oil-company executive Robert Forrester (Jed Prouty). When the girl was born, Forrester entered into an agreement with his partner John Bennett Sr. (Paul Harvey) that Vicki would marry Bennett's son John Jr. (Dennis O'Keefe) upon reaching her 21st birthday. Never having met, Vicki and John imagine the worst about each other, and both try to figure out a way to earn their respective family inheritances without going through with the wedding. It is inevitable, then, that our heroine and hero will assume phony names somewhere along the line, then fall in love without realizing their true identities. Eddie Foy Jr. provides occasional respites from the film's standard mistaken-identity routines with his manic characterization of "Lord Percy Tickleberry". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Republic's The Phantom Plainsman is another in the long-running "Three Mesquiteers" western series. The heroic triumverate are herein portrayed by Bob Steele (as Tucson Smith), Tom Tyler (Stony Brooke) and Rufe Davis (Lullaby Joslin). In keeping with a trend then prevalent in "B" westerns, the Mesquiteers are pitted against a Nazi agent, one Colonel Hartwig (Robert O. Davis, aka Rudolph Anders). Ranch owner Cap Marvin (Charles Miller) is forced by Hartwig to turn his horses over to the Third Reich, lest harm befall Marvin's son, currently held behind bars by the Gestapo. Though jailed themselves on an assault-and-battery charge, the Mesquiteers manage to escape in time to clean Hartwig's clock and make the west safe for Democracy-and more Three Mesquiteers films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With its slight resemblance to Destry Rides Again (1939) -- probably not entirely coincidental -- this rousing Western from Republic Pictures remains a joy throughout. John Wayne plays Tom Craig, a mild-mannered druggist from Boston who opens a shop in wild and woolly Sacramento shortly before the Gold Rush. The town is "owned" by the Dawson brothers, Britt (Albert Dekker) and Joe (Dick Purcell), who poison Craig's tonic when saloon hostess Lacey Miller (Binnie Barnes) takes too much of an interest in the handsome newcomer. Town drunk Whitey (Emmett Lynn) has one drink too many, and all of Sacramento is soon in a lynching mood. The news of "gold in them thar hills" saves the druggist in the nick of time, but his business is destroyed. While everyone is heading for the gold fields, Craig prepares to leave town with snobbish debutante Ellen Sanford (Helen Parrish), whom he intends to marry. News of typhoid fever among the prospectors changes his mind, however, and the man once referred to as "a human hitchin' post instead of a two-legged man," risks his own life to save the suffering populace. The Dawson brothers, meanwhile, plan to hijack the medical supplies and sell them to the highest bidder, but when Britt Dawson learns that Lacey is helping the sick and may be stricken with the disease herself, he has a change of heart and eventually confesses to spiking Craig's medicine. Cast against type for most of the film, John Wayne fails to make his amiable druggist entirely believable but remains simply John Wayne throughout -- which is as it should be. Binnie Barnes is rowdy and fun whether leading a chorus of "California Joe" by Johnny Marvin and Fred Rose, or jealously interrupting a tête-à-tête between Wayne and 19-year-old Helen Parrish. Usually cast as glacial "other women" in Hollywood films, the British-born Barnes had actually begun her professional career touring Europe and South Africa with bucolic American headliner Tex McLeod, which was as good a preparation as any to play In Old California's saloon belle. Patsy Kelly, who shoots down her laundry with a Winchester, and Edgar Kennedy, as Wayne's tooth-ache plagued sidekick, add to the general fun. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the "Weaver Family" series, the town of Farmington is being plagued by a crime wave. The angry citizens are ready to impeach the mayor, June Weaver, and the police chief, Leon Weaver. To end the crime and preserve her career, June feigns corruption and hires a real gangster to get rid of the local mobs. Unfortunately, a bona fide crooked councilman intervenes and makes real mob connections causing an earnest journalist to launch a front page attack. Things look bleak until the police chief rallies to the rescue and arrests all the guilty parties. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Republic's ongoing professional association with the celebrated "Ice-Capades" skating show yielded a number of flashy but forgettable musicals, including 1942's Ice-Capades Revue. Though a plot is hardly necessary, the story concerns New England farm gal Ann (Ellen Drew), whose already-mounting debts are escalated when she inherits a near-bankrupt ice show. Her efforts to revivify this operation are regularly thwarted by a conniving promoter named Duke Baldwin (Harold Huber), who has already tied up all the best arenas for his own skating spectacular. But Baldwin's second-in-command Jeff (Richard Denning) falls in love with Ann and vows to see to it that her show will be staged, come heck or high water. Jerry Colonna goes through his customary zaniness as an eccentric would-be backer who turns out to be a phony, while Barbara Jo Allen again trots out her dizzy "Vera Vague" characterization. Foremost among the skating acts in Ice-Capades Revue is Vera Hruba Ralston, who'd later be elevated to leading-lady status at Republic by her ardent admirer (and future husband), studio president Herbert J. Yates. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though Don "Red" Barry is the star of Jesse James, Jr., he plays a character named Johnny Barrett. The scene is a small western town, lacking telegraph service. Every time the locals try to set up communications with the Outside World, they are thwarted by an outlaw gang. Barry-er, Barrett--comes to the rescue. The supporting cast of Jesse James, Jr. includes several formidable western baddies, among them Bob Kortman, George Cheseboro and Stanley Blystone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The all-purpose title Westward Ho was applied in 1942 to this "Three Mesquiteers" western. This time, the Mesquiteers are Tucson Smith, Stony Brooke and Lullaby Joslin, here played respectively by Bob Steele, Tom Tyler and Rufe Davis. Our heroes converge on a small town to solve a series of mysterious bank robberies. The "mystery" is solved the moment Evelyn Brent shows up on screen as the seemingly respectable bank president. In virtually every one of her western appearances of the 1940s, the talented Ms. Brent was cast as the "secret" criminal mastermind, and this film is no exception. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unable to sign boxer Joe Louis to movie contract, Republic Pictures had to make do with the losers of Louis' heavyweight championship bouts. One of these was Billy Conn, who after being knocked out by Louis in the 13th round awakened to star in the Republic programmer The Pittsburgh Kid. The story finds clean-limned pugilist Conn (playing himself) being managed by pretty Patricia Mallory (Jean Parker). In addition to having a professional interest in Conn's career, Patricia is in love with the big lug. With the help of sports reporter Cliff Halliday (Dick Purcell), Patricia manages to promote Conn into the Big Time, only to nearly lose him to predatory socialite Barbara Ellison (Veda Ann Borg). To improve the box-office potential of The Pittsburgh Kid, Republic cast several boxing-world "guest stars" as themselves, including fighters Henry Armstrong, Freddie Steele and Jack Roper and referee Arthur Donovan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Republic Pictures borrowed William Wright from Paramount but then reduced him to third billing below ace villains J. Edward Bromberg and Osa Massen in this busy espionage melodrama, in which a former Navy lieutenant is assigned to investigate a shipping magnate whose vessels seem to mysteriously end up in the hands of certain foreign powers. The alcoholic lieutenant, Chris Waring (Wright), at first refuses to use his playboy techniques to trap the magnate's wife, Valerie (Massen), but a chance meeting with the handsome lady changes his mind and the race is on. Watch for horror movie icon Dwight Frye as a radio operator. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The beautiful Florida Keys provide the setting of this adventure that tells the tale of a fun-filled fishing trip that becomes a nightmare when the charter boat is wrecked on an isolated island. Unfortunately, there are very few provisions and the group must fend for themselves. They are eventually assisted by a hermit, but before that one of the group goes insane, and another is eaten by an alligator. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this medical melodrama, a young MD finds himself in love with a woman who doesn't love him. She is interested in an older, more sophisticated doctor. After she discovers that the older medic has a sleazy side, she decides to go for the younger doctor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide