Norman Houston Movies

Director Leslie Selander pulls out all the stops in this the last of RKO's Tim Holt Westerns. A wounded parolee, Carver (Walter Reed), hires stagecoach operators Tim and Chito (Richard Martin) to drive him to Mexico. En route, they encounter Emily (Joan Dixon), the local schoolmarm, who recognizes Carver as the man who embezzled 100,000 dollars from her father, a banker who chose suicide rather than face disgrace. But there are plenty others aware of Carver's secret, including his unscrupulous lawyer, Bronson (John Dehner); his greedy girlfriend, Roxie (Dorothy Patrick); and Roxie's newest beau, Dave Warwick (Clayton Moore). Soon everyone is holed up in a deserted roadhouse -- whose owner, Burley (Michael Mark), has mysteriously disappeared. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Tim Holt and Richard Martin ride again in the RKO budget western Target. The story is nothing new: Tim (Holt) and Chito (Martin) take on a band of criminals who've been flummoxing local ranchers out of their land. The film's novelty value is the presence of a lady marshal, played by Linda Douglas. In typical 1950s fashion, of course, Douglas isn't quite as effective at keeping the peace as her two male co-stars. The supporting cast of Target is comprised of the usual western regulars, including Walter Reed, Lane Bradford and Riley Hill; also appearing in a sizeable role is John Hamilton, best-known as Perry White on TV's Superman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tim Holt and Richard Martin, RKO's resident western good guys, are back in Dynamite Pass. Usually cast as cowpunchers, Holt and Martin are construction workers Ross and Chito this time out. Someone is trying to prevent honest road builder Dan (Regis Toomey) from completing his job, and that someone is his unscrupulous rival Thurber (John Dehner), the owner of a profitable toll road. Had Thurber waited a few years, he could have found a job on the Pennsylvania turnpike. As it stands, however, Ross and Chito must stop Thurber before he destroys the road project permanently. Dynamite Pass is distinguished by better-than-usual performances from all concerned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Westerner Tim Holt and his sidekick Richard Martin are hired to act as border guards on the Rio Grande. This being a modern western (more or less), Holt is obliged to keep insurrectionists from smuggling machine guns into Mexico. The villainy this time around is in the grubby but formidable hands of Douglas Fowley and Tom Tyler; Cleo Moore, voluptuous leading lady of many a Hugo Haas "B" melodrama, is also around to rouse Holt's interest south of the border. A very modest western, Rio Grande Patrol has had its virtues blown all out of proportion by devotees of "cult" director Lesley Selander. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Texas Rangers Tim Holt and Richard Martin are dispatched to halt a gang of masked outlaws terrorizing the frontier. Infiltrating the gang, Holt and Martin learn that the raiders are operating altruistically, robbing from the rich to give to the poor. The real villain, it seems, is the local banker (Frank Wilcox), who is mortgaging the local ranchers out of existence. Holt convinces masked-raider leader Marjorie Lord that it's best to let the law take his course, then rides out to bring the banker to task for his misdeeds. Masked Raiders moves along with the smooth expertise audiences of 1949 had come to expect from RKO's Tim Holt western series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

RKO's resident cowboy stars Tim Holt and Richard "Chito" Martin were back in 1949's Riders of the Range. Hired on as ranch hands, Kansas (Holt) and Chito come to the aid of ranch owner Dusty (Jacqueline White), whose brother (Robert Clarke) has been led astray by a crooked gambler (Reed Hadley). As had happened in so many previous RKO oaters, Our Heroes are accused of murder, but manage to break jail in time to collar the real culprit. No, the "mystery" villain isn't the gambler, since he was the murder victim (without giving away the ending, here's a clue: keep an eye on that former cowboy hero who in this film heads the supporting cast). Riders of the Range was the first Tim Holt vehicle to lose money for RKO, an indication of the audience erosion caused by that upstart TV medium. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tim Holt stars in Gun Smugglers, stretching his range by playing a character named Tim Holt. Our Hero, once again teamed with wisecracking Chico Rafferty (Richard Martin), is working on behalf of the government. His quarry: A gang of mercenary criminals who steal weapons from the US Army, then sell their contraband to sinister Enemy Agents (most of whom wear baggy suits and drink vodka). There's a surprise in store for Holt when he puts his trust in a small boy (Gary Gray), who turns out to be a member of the gang! Tim Holt's leading lady in Gun Smugglers is the up and coming Martha Hyer, in her sixth film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed at majestic Lone Pine, CA, this fine B-Western features Tim Holt and sidekick Richard Martin helping an elderly miner, Jason Robards Sr., with an obstinate wagon-wheel. But the two friends become instant suspects when the miner is found murdered for the map to his claim. Although she is attracted to Tim, even the dead man's pretty niece (Nan Leslie) believes in his guilt. But by using a bit of subterfuge, Holt and Martin break out of jail and are soon able to unmask the real culprits. It should come as no surprise that Holt and leading lady Nan Leslie look comfortable together; Guns of Hate was the third of six Westerns they would make together. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this western, a troubled, battle-weary youth must somehow put his life together after he is discharged from Roosevelt's Rough Riders. His father wants him to take over the family ranch, but the son is still too haunted by war's horrors to care. Instead he begins wandering aimlessly until he gets involved with a battered wife. He takes care of her abuser and eventually falls in love with her. It is her love that finally helps him heal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The third of western hero James Warren's trio of RKO Radio vehicles, Code of the West was like its predecessors based on a story by Zane Grey. Warren plays Bob Wade, a settler on the Arizona Strip, circa 1880. Representing his fellow settlers, Wade stands up to gambling boss Carter (Raymond Burr), who knows that the railroad intends to extend through Arizona and plans to drive the homesteaders out of the territory. Likewise defying the crooked Carter is Wade's Mexican-Irish sidekick, Chito Rafferty (John Laurentz). Code of the West was previously filmed in 1925 and 1934 (the latter version, titled Home on the Range, starred Randolph Scott). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Zane Grey's 1922 novel To the Last Man, filmed previously by Paramount in 1923 and 1934, this fine RKO Western marked the return to his home lot of Tim Holt after a stint in the Army Air Corps. Returning to his Arizona homestead, Marvin Hayden (Holt) lands in the middle of the age-old feud between the Haydens and the Jorths, both families accusing the other of murder. The feud, however, has been engineered by someone else entirely and when the dust settles, Marvin announces his engagement to Ellen Jorth (Martha Hyer). Although both were ostensibly based on Zane Grey novels, Thunder Mountain bears no resemblance to the 1935 George O'Brien oater of the same title. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

With Tim Holt still in military service and Robert Mitchum promoted to "A" pictures, RKO Radio attempted to create a new B-western star in the form of James Warren, who starred in three sagebrushers over a three-year period. Warren's second RKO effort was Sunset Pass, a remake of an oft-filmed Zane Grey story. The star is cast as Rocky, a railway express officer assigned to break up a train-robbery gang operating on the Arizona border. John Laurenz plays Rocky's Spanish-Irish sidekick Chito Rafferty, a role later assigned to Richard Martin in the Tim Holt series. One of the film's two heroines is played by Jane Greer, who unlike James Warren was destined for bigger things at RKO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filling in for RKO's Western ace Tim Holt, who was fighting the war in Europe, a young Robert Mitchum starred in this fine version of Zane Grey's 1937 story of a wild and woolly West. Ordered by his doctor to get some exercise, Chicago meatpacking king Col. Lamberth (Thurston Hall) reluctantly travels west to his Texas hacienda accompanied by his headstrong daughter Rill (Barbara Hale) and her Parisian maid Suzanne (Rita Corday). En route, they witness the killing of a stagecoach driver (Bill Williams), a crime blamed on Pecos Smith (Robert Mitchum), but actually committed by a gang headed by Brad Sawtelle (Harry Woods). Rill, who decides to masquerade as a boy after being accosted by a couple of ruffians, convinces her father to hire Pecos and his Irish-Mexican sidekick Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin). Naturally, Pecos discovers Rill's true gender after a few dicey moments and they fall in love. But the threat from Sawtelle and his gang is ever present and soon the Lamberth hacienda is engaged in an all-out war. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide