J.P. McGowan Movies

Directed by the veteran J.P. McGowan, Where the West Begins was the fourth of 22 Westerns -- some with music -- starring Jack Randall (aka Addison Randall), the lesser-known brother of Robert Livingston. This time around, Randall played Jack Manning, a ranch foreman, who, when not battling a greedy neighbor (Dick Alexander), warbles such tunes as "Sleep, Little Cowboy, Sleep" and "I'm in Prairie Heaven," both by Connie Lee, and "Born to the Range" by Johnny Lange and Fred Stryker. Ranch owner Lynne Reed (Luana Walters) is more interested in pursuing an acting career than paying attention to her property, which unbeknownst to her contains a large deposit of sulfur. Assisted by his sidekick, Buzz (Fuzzy Knight), Jack not only saves the ranch from the evil neighbor, but wins the love and affection of Lynne, who abandons all hope of stardom in favor of marriage. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Co-directed by former supporting player Mack V. Wright and Sam Nelson, The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok is considered by connoisseurs of the genre the best serial Columbia Pictures ever made. The star, former supporting actor Gordon Elliott (born Nance) changed his first name to Bill for the occasion and emerged a full-fledged star. He later went all the way and became known as William "Wild Bill" Elliott, hero of first-rate Republic Westerns and for years a top sagebrush moneymaker. Robert J. Fiske played Wild Bill's adversary, Morrell, a nasty character who leads his Phantom Raiders in attacks on both the old Chisholm Trail and the encroaching railroad. Wild Bill Hickok is appointed U.S. marshal and assigned to ensure safe passage for both cattle and the railroad. Columbia screenwriters George Rosener, Charles A. Powell, G.A. Durlam, Tom Gibson, and Dallas Fitzgerald made sure that there was something for everyone in this serial, including a shapely heroine (Carole Wayne) to please the adults in the audience and no less than three juvenile actors -- Frankie Darro, Sammy McKim, and Dickie Jones -- for the small fry to root for. Roscoe Ates, he of the bobbing Adam's apple, and veteran slapstick comic Monte Collins provided laughs, and producer Jack Fier rounded up a fine supporting cast that included such veterans as Monte Blue, Kermit Maynard, Chief Thundercloud, George Cheseboro, Edmund Cobb, Hal Taliaferro, Art Mix, Tom London, and Lew Meehan. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Kermit Maynard, the talented brother of cowboy legend Ken Maynard, stars in this low-budget horse opera. The elementary story has Jim Langley (Maynard) and his pal Scrubby (Ralph Peters) mistaken for bandits. Adding to our hero's burden is the fact that his infant nephew has been kidanpped by the genuine miscreants. And as if that weren't enough to worry about, the bad guys abduct herioine Helen Hobart (Beryl Wallace) to take care of the baby. Needless to say, Langley brings the crooks to heel and rescues the girl and the kid before the alotted 6 reels are over. As usual, Kermit Maynard is consistently better than the script, especially during the action highlights. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a cop is ashamed because a fearful moment prevented him from stopping a bank robbery. He feels so bad he turns in his badge. He then joins the bank robbers' gang and brings them to justice. The story was originally titled What Price Vengeance? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Heart of the Rockies launched Republic's second season of popular "Three Mesquiteers" westerns. Returning to the fold are Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke, Ray "Crash" Corrigan as Tucson Smith and Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin. This time our heroes play modern-day cattle ranchers who are falsely accused of killing bears on the grounds of a national park. The boys seem to have plenty of motive, inasmuch as the bears are suspected of depleting their livestock. When it turns out that the real villains are a gang of smugglers, the Mesquiteers team with the park rangers to get their man (or men). Robert Livingston was injured during production of Heart of the Rockies, forcing Republic to replace him with Ralph Byrd in the next Three Mesquiteers opus, Trigger Trio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Despite the claim of "an original screenplay by Edward Earl Repp," this entry in Warner Bros.' Dick Foran "singing cowboy" series was a virtual remake of the studio's earlier The Telegraph Trail, whose 1932 screenplay was credited to Kurt Kempler. Prairie Thunder in fact opens with the same montage as its predecessor, and Yakima Canutt and Albert J. Smith play identical characters in both films. Foran and rotund, eternally fatigued Frank Orth replace John Wayne and rotund, eternally fatigued Frank McHugh but that is really the only difference between the films. That, and Foran's lusty renditions of Over the Trail Again, The Prairie is My Home and a few other selections. Foran and Orth are assigned by the army to investigate a series of Indian attacks on the railroad. They quickly discover that the Kiowas have been mislead by unscrupulous trader Smith, who views the coming of the railroad as a threat to his trade monopoly. The Indians capture Foran and heroine Ellen Clancy, but Orth helps the former escape. The cavalry arrives just in time to save the railroad construction site from yet another attack by the Kiowas and Foran personally chases down the villainous Smith. The least expensive entry in the Dick Foran series, Prairie Thunder lifted entire sequences from the earlier John Wayne vehicle, including dialogue scenes between Canutt and Smith and the killing of a telegraph repairman. The film's pieces de resistance, Indian attacks on both a white settlement and the construction site, are lifted almost in toto from a silent Ken Maynard Western with Maynard himself plainly visible in several shots. Foran's blonde leading lady, Ellen Clancy, later signed with Universal and changed her name to Janet Shaw. Paul Panzer, the German-born villain of the 1914 serial The Perils of Pauline, appears unbilled as a medicine man.. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a railroad agent is blamed for a terrible train crash. Actually, just before the crash, the agent was trying to keep a gunman from hijacking the train. The agent then runs from the authorities. He ends up sheltered by an impoverished family whom he tries to help while conducting his own investigation into the crash. He soon reveals the culprit's true identity and brings him to justice. He also manages to keep a second train tragedy from occurring. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This period adventure drama was directed by Tay Garnett and adapted from a story by William Faulkner. The skipper of a slave trading vessel operating along the West African coast in 1860, Captain Jim Lovett (Warner Baxter) is troubled by his flesh-peddling trade. He's marrying the beautiful Nancy Marlowe (Elizabeth Allan) and wants to replace his morally-indefensible business with a more respectable foray into standard goods shipping. So he orders his first mate, Jack Thompson (Wallace Beery) to fire most of the crew and replace them with new hands. However, the ship's swabbies are accustomed to their lucrative line of work and, under the sway of the greedy Lefty (George Sanders), they mutiny, resulting in high seas histrionics and swashbuckling sword fights, with comedy relief provided by Mickey Rooney as Swifty the cabin boy. Lon Chaney, Jr. appears unbilled in the film's opening, where his character is crushed during a ship's launching. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Warner Baxter plays Dr. Samuel Mudd, American history's most famous victim of circumstance. In 1865, Dr. Mudd, a known Confederate sympathizer, sets the broken leg of a mud-caked stranger who stumbles into his home. The injured man turns out to be John Wilkes Booth, and Mudd is accused of conspiring to murder President Lincoln. Sentenced to hang with the genuine conspirators, Mudd finds his sentence commuted to life imprisonment at the very last moment. He is shipped to Shark Island, a brutal penal colony. Subject to the cruelties of a guard (John Carradine) who hates Mudd because of his "complicity" in Lincoln's death, the doctor suffers the torments of the damned, while outside Shark Island his wife (Gloria Stuart) campaigns desperately to get her husband pardoned. During a Yellow Fever breakout on Shark Island, Dr. Mudd performs heroically to save the survivors. For his humanitarian efforts, Mudd is finally released and reunited with his wife. While the script glosses over the fact that Dr. Mudd had never been officially pardoned by the US government (the pardon wouldn't be granted until years after this film was made), Prisoner of Shark Island strives long and hard to exonerate the man for whom the phrase "your name is mud!" was coined. Dr. Samuel Mudd's story was retold in the 1952 feature Hellgate, with Sterling Hayden as a (fictional) doctor, and in the 1980 TV movie The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd, starring Dennis Weaver in the title role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Guns and Guitars could have served as the title of any Gene Autry picture released in 1937. In this one, medicine-show entertainer Gene runs afoul of a crooked town boss who moonlights as an outlaw. The villain murders the local sheriff and pins the blame on poor Gene. With the help of comical sidekick Smiley Burnette, our hero breaks out of jail to clear his name. Though Guns and Guitars contains more action than usual for an Gene Autry picture, it pales in comparison to such superior 1937 Autry vehicles as Rootin' Tootin Rhythm and Boots and Saddles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Every so often, Columbia's resident cowboy hero Charles Starrett would head to the studio's facilities in British Columbia to star in a Northwest Mountie opus. The second of these "northerns" was Secret Patrol, which was supposed to have been directed by screenwriter Ford Beebe but was ultimately helmed by David Selman. Starrett is cast as Mountie Alan, who goes undercover to solve the murder of his best friend. Tied in with this is the mysterious disappearance of the Chief Inspector's son (Henry Mollison), who is presumed dead but who has actually gone AWOL. The love interest is provided by the exotically yclept Columbia ingenue Finis Barton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 12-episode Universal serial Jungle Jim was based on the Alex Raymond comic strip of the same name. Grant Withers stars as Jungle Jim, who on this occasion is leading an expedition into darkest Africa. His employers hope to ascertain the whereabouts of Joan (Betty Jane Rhodes), a young heiress who disappeared in the jungle several years earlier. It turns out that Joan has become the ruler of a small native tribe -- and that she has fallen under the influence of The Cobra (Henry Brandon), a mysterious figure who exercises an evil influence upon her. With Jungle Jim's help, Joan breaks free of The Cobra's spell; now, however, both hero and heroine must make their way back to civilization without being devoured by marauding wildlife. Though Jungle Jim was well received, it would be another 12 years before Columbia's Jungle Jim "B"-movie series began production. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide