Nate Gatzert Movies
American screenwriter Nate Gatzert came to motion pictures when they learned to talk in 1929. The entire Gatzert output consists of westerns and adventure films. While at Columbia in the late 1930s, he wrote for such sagebrush stars as Bob Allen, Jack Luden and Buzz Barton.Though he retired in 1939, Nate Gatzert has been credited for the 1956 feature Savage Fury--which, on closer examination, turns out to be a cutdown version of the 1935 serial Call of the Savage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1933
Curley Fletcher's famous lament "The Strawberry Roan became Ken Maynard's favorite Western and went a long way to popularize the Singing Cowboy trend. Ranch owner Big Jim Edwards (James Marcus) promises a job to anyone who can round up the Strawberry Roan, a wild stallion that has been rustling his mares. A neighbor, Colonel Brownlee (William Desmond), sweetens the pot by actually promising his cattle ranch to whomever can ride the dangerous animal. Ken Masters (Maynard) takes up both challenges but is defeated every step of the way by nasty foreman Bart Hawkins (Harold Goodwin), who is jealous of the newcomer's rapport with Big Jim's pretty daughter, Alice (Ruth Hall). The rustlings continue and Alice almost perishes in a stampede but Ken ultimately proves that Bart has been forcing the roan into committing the crimes. Filmed at scenic Lone Pine, CA, The Strawberry Roan was renamed Flying Fury in the UK. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Yaconelli, James Marcus, (more)
- 1933
In this musical western, everybody sings, even the outlaws. The story follows a government agent who goes undercover as a musical ventriloquist named Fiddlin' to find an ruthless outlaw and his gang. The gang comes to Fiddlin's town, commits a robbery and leaves the ventriloquist to shoulder the blame. He is jailed, escapes, catches the gang, and saves the kidnapped heroine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard, Gloria Shea, (more)
- 1933
Not one of Universal's proudest moments, this 12 chapter serial, set in what they used to refer to as "Darkest Africa," starred Noah Beery, Jr. as the son of a medical doctor adopted by a band of simians. Beery, Jr., however, is no Tarzan, merely Jan of the Jungle, the hero of a book by Otis Adelbert Kline, an acknowledged rival of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Jan's mother is killed by the villain, and his father, the discoverer of a treatment for infantile paralysis, has lost his memory. Happily, the apes take care of Jan while his father blithely returns to America. Years later, a greedy colleague of his father's (Walter Miller) returns to find that the boy, now a young man, still possesses the key to his father's discovery. A fine hero of silent serials, often teamed with Allene Ray, Walter Miller made an equally effective menace in the talkie era (when given the chance, which he wasn't in Call of the Savage). The best reason to view this serial today is for the many silent screen stars dutifully speaking the lacklustre lines forced upon them. The long list of has-beens appearing in Call of the Savage included Bryant Washburn, Grace Cunard, King Baggot, William Desmond, Wally Wales, and Buddy Roosevelt. An edited version of the serial was released the same year under the title Savage Fury. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
