Frank Hotaling Movies

Based on an actual Civil War mission, Colonel Marlowe (John Wayne) and Major Kendall (William Holden) are ordered by General Grant to take three regiments 300 miles into enemy territory. They must destroy the railroad line between Newton Station and Vicksburg in hopes of choking off supplies to the South. Marlowe encounters a Southern belle loyal to the enemy, and keeps her in sight throughout the journey so she can't warn the Confederates. Kendall, a Northern surgeon, and the crusty Marlowe have their differences along the way. Action, romance and gory battlefield surgery accompany the army as the mission is completed. John Ford directed this film based on a novel by Harold Sinclair. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The painfully true story of welterweight boxing champion Barney Ross is detailed in Monkey on My Back. Cameron Mitchell stars as Ross, whose meteoric ring career is interrupted when he joins the Marines at the outset of WWII. A highly decorated hero, Ross contracts malaria oversees and is given morphine to assuage the pain. By the time he returns to the states, Ross is a confirmed drug addict. Before he can rise to the top again, he must hit rock bottom and his descent into the hell of narcotics dependency is graphically illustrated (so much so that the film was almost denied a Production Code seal). Though a cured Barney Ross served as technical advisor for Monkey on My Back, he ended up suing the producers for defamation of character -- and lost. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cornpone comedienne Judy Canova tackles a science-fiction theme in Carolina Cannonball, her last starring vehicle for Republic Pictures. This time, Canova and her grandpa Andy Clyde comprise the entire population of the ghost town of Roaring Gulch. They put food on the table by operating the Carolina Cannonball, a trolley service to the nearest city. Early one morning, an atomic-powered missile crashes just outside of Judy's house. She appropriates the missile's engine and attaches it to the Cannonball, considerably improving the trolley's speed capacity. Before long the pair are up to their necks in federal agents and enemy spies. Before the obligatory slapstick-chase finale, Judy Canova is permitted to sing a song or two. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Atomic Kid strives mightily to wring laughs from the otherwise humorless topic of atomic radiation. Mickey Rooney (who also produced the film) and Robert Strauss play a couple of brainless prospectors who stumble upon a A-bomb testing site. Led to believe that the area is rich with uranium, Strauss goes off to stake a claim, while Rooney relaxes in a "test" house. Before long, a bomb is dropped, a mushroom cloud sprouts in the desert. . .and Rooney emerges from the rubble unharmed. Later on, however, our hero discovers that he's so full of radiation that he glows in the dark, which makes him both dangerous and world-famous. The plot then veers into Cold War territory as Rooney routs a nest of Soviet spies, led by Robert Emmet Keane. The leading lady of the proceedings is Elaine Davis, Mickey Rooney's then-wife (her marital status, transitory though it may have been, was emphasized in the film's opening credits) Believe it or not, this monumentally unfunny comedy was based on a story by Blake Edwards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director John Ford, notoriously difficult to please, regarded The Sun Shines Bright as his favorite film. Laurence Stalllings' screenplay is based on several short stories by Kentucky humorist Irvin S. Cobb, some of which had previously been cinematized in Ford's 1934 Will Rogers vehicle Judge Priest. Charles Winninger stars as Judge William Pittman Priest, whose down-home, common-sense approach to his job has endeared himself to most of the residents of his small Kentucky home town, while alienating many of the "better" people. Up for election, Judge Priest is challenged by a Yankee upstart who has most of the influential citizens in his pocket. Almost deliberately courting defeat, the doggedly honest Priest champions several unpopular causes. In the film's most memorable scene, the Judge arranges a fancy funeral procession for an impoverished town prostitute. The film retains much of the charm of its predecessor Judge Priest; unfortunately (at least by P.C. standards), The Sun Shines Bright also retains the most questionable aspect of the earlier film: the stereotyped routines of African-American comedian Stepin Fetchit. One hardly knows how to react to the sequence in which the supplicative Fetchit tries to hush up a defiant young black man who is in danger of being lynched (Ford plays this scene for laughs!) While Fetchit's participation will hardly endear the film to modern audiences, it is unfair to write off the rest of The Sun Shines Bright, which otherwise fully lives up to director Ford's affectionate assessment. Long available only in its 90 minute release version, the film has in recent years been restored to the 100-minute "director's cut." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rex Allen, the last of Republic's singing cowboys, stars in Red River Shore. This time, it's up to Allen to prevent a major oil scam. The potential suckers have been enticed into the deal on the reputation of a recently deceased local hero. The problem here is to rout the crooks without dragging the dead man's name through the mud. Fortunately, providence, and the screenwriters, take a hand in things. Though Rex Allen usually gets the girl -- in this case, Lyn Thomas -- the romantic angle this time is handled by young swain Bill Phipps. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Returning to the Ireland of his birth, director John Ford fashions a irresistable valentine to the "Auld Sod" in The Quiet Man. Irish-American boxer John Wayne, recovering from the trauma of having accidentally killed a man in the ring, arrives in the Irish village where he was born. Hoping to bury his past and settle down to a life of tranquility, Wayne has purchased the home of his birth from wealthy local widow Mildred Natwick, a transaction that has incurred the wrath of pugnacious squire Victor McLaglen, who coveted the property for himself. By and by, Wayne falls in love with McLaglen's beautiful, high-spirited sister Maureen O'Hara. Her insistence that Wayne conduct his courtship in a proper Irish manner-with puckish matchmaker Barry Fitzgerald along for the ride as "chaperone"--is but one obstacle to their future happiness: the other is McLaglen, who spitefully refuses to give his consent to his sister's marriage, or to honor the tradition of paying a dowry to Wayne. Wayne could care less about dowries, but the tradition-bound Maureen refuses to consummate her marriage until McLaglen pays up. Under any other circumstances, Wayne would have punched out the bullying McLaglen long ago, but ever since his tragedy in the ring he has been reluctant to fight. Local priest Ward Bond conspires with several locals to trick McLaglen into paying his due. They intimate that widow Natwick, for whom McLaglen carries a torch, will marry the old brute if he'll give his consent to the marriage and fork over the dowry. But McLaglen finds he's been tricked and the situation remains at a standoff, with the frustrated Wayne locked out of his wife's bedroom. When Maureen accuses him of being a coward and walks out on him, our hero can stand no more. He marches Maureen to McLaglen's home, indicating that he plans to whale the tar out of both brother and sister. As a huge and appreciative crowd gathers the cornered McLaglen truculently tosses the money in Wayne's direction. Big John hands the bills to Maureen, just as she knew he would, and she ceremoniously destroys the money, just as he knew je would. Having proven their love for each other, there is nothing left for Wayne and Maureen to do but head home and perform their nuptual duties. But first there's the matter of giving McLaglen the thrashing he deserves....and it is this spectacular donnybrook, which covers several acres of land and at least two "pit stops" so that the combatants can quench their thirst, which convinces Natwick that the defeated McLaglen is truly worthy of her love (her logic is on a par with everyone else's in the film!) Though it tends to perpetuate the myth that all true Irishmen live only to fight, drink and make love, The Quiet Man is grand and glorious fun, enacted with gusto by a largely Hibernian cast and directed with loving care by a master of his craft. Written by Frank Nugent and graced with a lilting musical score by Victor Young, the film won Oscars for Archie Stout's Technicolor photography and for John Ford's direction-a real coup for "poverty row" Republic Pictures. If you haven't already luxuriated in this wonderful film, be sure to catch in on the tube next St. Patrick's Day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his second and last Western for Republic Pictures, former bandleader Vaughn Monroe plays a marshal returning to Tombstone with a wanted gun-runner (Victor Jory) when he stumbles upon a woman (Joan Leslie) and a couple of children, apparently the only survivors of an Indian raid on a wagon train. The woman's cowardly husband, a telegrapher (Harry Morgan), had managed to escape and is now helping the gun-runner's siblings (Ian MacDonald and Lee MacGregor) to both free their brother and attack a valuable shipment of silver. When Monroe comes gunning for the bandits, he learns that the supposedly dead husband of the woman he has grown to love is still alive. There is a final shootout and the marshal comes face-to-face with his rival, now a murderer. Learning that her husband is to be tried in Prescott, Leslie loyally leaves to be with him despite the fact that she has fallen in love with Monroe. But, as Monroe's young daughter (Diana Christian) predicts, "she'll be back." In between the action, Monroe finds time to perform "Hound Dog," "Bay at the Moon," "A Man's Best Friend is His Horse," and the ballad "The Man Don't Live Who Can't Die Alone." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this western, a US marshal tries to stop a nefarious gang of thieves from harassing the local sheriff and from stealing shipments of gold ore by putting their leader into the jail. The ringleader turns out to be a female newspaper publisher who has been creating all the problems to make sure her brother will be elected sheriff. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Stock footage abound in this otherwise average Rex Allen musical Western from Republic Pictures. When crooked ranch foreman Link Felton (Roy Barcroft) diverts the "Comanche Limited" into an old mineshaft, causing the engine to explode, everyone believes that ranch owner Carlos Alvarez (Nestor Paiva) is among the dead and buried travelers, everyone including Lita, the old man's granddaughter (Estelita Rodriguez), whose Eastern fiancée Rodney Brewster (Douglas Evans) is a greedy tyrant. Although his main goal is to recover a shipment of gold from the buried train, Felton has no compelling reasons not to assist Brewster in rustling a herd of cattle brought in by former Alvarez cowboys Rex Allen and Slim Pickens. But unbeknownst to Felton and Brewster, old man Alvarez is still very much alive. Rex Allen and an aggregation calling itself the Republic Rhythm Riders perform "I'll Sing a Love Song Again," by Jack Elliott and Aaron Gonzales, and Allen's own "Hide Away Your Troubles" and "The Railroad Corral." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Rex Allen, his horse Koko, and his sidekick Slim Pickens play themselves in Old Oklahoma Plains. Set in the 1920s, the film finds Allen trying to convince local ranchers to allow the army room for their tank maneuvers. Rabble-rouser Roy Barcroft, certain that the tank will make horses obsolete, organizes mob resistance against the military. At first glance, the film's finale -- a race between tanks and mounted cavalry -- seems like a novelty. At closer glance, however, most of the climactic sequence consists of stock footage lifted from the 1938 Republic production Army Girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Allan "Rocky" Lane takes on a crooked landowner in Republic's Rough Riders of Durango. The villain intends to drive several ranchers into bankruptcy so he can snatch up their property at dirt-cheap prices. The ranchers fight back by scraping up $40,000 to clear all their debts. When the money is stolen, Lane is called in to retrieve the cash and collar the crooks. As was customary in the Allan "Rocky" Lane vehicles, Lane's horse Black Jack is afforded second billing in Rough Riders of Durango, while nominal leading lady Aline Towne is billed fourth. Even farther down the cast list is future Dukes of Hazzard co-star Denver Pyle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide