William L. Nolte Movies

To most outside observers, Bride of the Monster probably seems like a ridiculously inept horror film, and in many ways it is just that. To connoisseurs of the work of director Edward D. Wood Jr., however, it is the biggest budgeted film in his entire output, made with the resources of a normal B-movie (as opposed to his usual totally emaciated finances) and the most easily accessible of his three horror films. Bela Lugosi, in his final complete performance, portrays Dr. Eric Vornoff, a renegade Eastern European scientist with a plan to create a race of atomic supermen, giants charged with radioactivity. The problem is that the hapless hunters and other passersby at Lake Marsh, where he has set up shop with his hulking, mute assistant Lobo (Tor Johnson), whom the pair waylay, keep dying when he straps them in and switches on his atomic ray machine (which is a not-at-all disguised photographic enlarger). A dozen victims later, reporter Janet Lawson (Loretta King) goes out to investigate the disappearances -- attributed to a monster -- and falls into Vornoff's hands, with her police detective fiance Dick Craig (Tony McCoy) hot on her trail, and a devious spy (George Becwar) from Vornoff's former nation also nosing his way around the swamp and the old house. Vornoff dresses Lawson in a wedding gown and plans to irradiate her but Lobo refuses to allow it, straps Vornoff into the machine, and turns him into a radioactive giant (and into stuntman Eddie Parker, totally unconvincing in his doubling for Lugosi). ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

The most unlikely cowboy hero of them all, whip-wielding, black-garbed "Lash" La Rue made his starring debut in this moderately entertaining B-Western from low-budget PRC. "Lash" La Rue plays the Cheyenne Kid, a prospector saving pretty shopkeeper Jane Hilton (former Fox starlet Mary Scott) from being harrassed by uncouth stage robber Lefty (Lee Roberts in a fine multi-layered performance). The latter follows Jane and her father (John Elliott) on an errand to Cheyenne's camp but is disarmed by the black-clad stranger's whip. Going slowly "loco" from being cooped up in a cabin for days with Cheyenne's uncommunicative sidekick Fuzzy (Al St. John) and the incessant ticking of a clock as sole company, Lefty is finally released by a seemingly magnanimous Cheyenne. Naturally, the henchman leads Cheyenne and Fuzzy straight to his boss, Decker (Jack O'Shea). In the climactic shootout, Cheyenne not only reveals himself to be a U.S. marshal in disguise, but that "Decker" is in reality the notorious wanted criminal "Dude" Bracken. Slightly better than its rather tawdry reputation, the La Rue Cheyenne Kid series was ostensibly launched because a jaded post-war audience liked the idea of a cowboy hero resembling Humphrey Bogart rather than Gene Autry. An equally valid reason for the series' modest success, however, was the enduring appeal of St. John's Fuzzy Q. Jones character, a hold-over from PRC's late Buster Crabbe/Billy the Kid Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Like most of Monogram's 1943 "Range Busters" westerns, Two-Fisted Justice was directed by Robert Tansey. In this outing, the three range-busting heroes are played by John "Dusty" King, Max "Alibi" Terhune and David Sharpe. Our heroic trio rides into the town of Dry Gulch, hoping to bring law and order to the community. This they do, but not before several pulse-pounding adventures, notably a wild runaway-stagecoach sequence. Gwen Gaze, a Universal serial heroine of the 1930s, fulfills the leading-lady obligations, while Max Terhune relies on his ventriloquism skills for laughs. The villain, as ever, is the swarthy Charles King, playing not "Blackie" but "Trigger" this time out. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Rough Riders--Buck Jones, Raymond Hatton and Rex Bell--endeavor to provide a wagon train safe passage through Indian country. With Jones heading the caravan and Bell and Hatton working undercover, the threesome discover that the "savages" planning to attack the settlers are actually renegade whites. The criminals' target is the shipment of railroad supplies being carried in one of the wagons. Normally, the third "Rough Rider" would have been played by Colonel Tim McCoy, but when McCoy was called to active duty in World War II, he was hastily replaced by old-time western star Rex Bell. Dawn on the Great Divide was the last film for Buck Jones, who was killed in the infamous Coconut Grove fire shortly before the film was released. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After having terrorized singing cowboy Tex Ritter in 19 consecutive Westerns, veteran Bad Guy Charles King found himself relegated to that of a minor henchman in The Man from Texas. The chief villain this time was the now forgotten Vic Demourelle, Jr., who played Jeff Hall, a nasty rancher plotting to take over his neighbor's spread. Said neighbor, Speed Dennison (Kenne Duncan), hires Ritter to help protect the property from Hall's hired gunslingers. One of them, the Shooting Kid (Charles B. Wood), is a friend of Ritter's and is being blackmailed by Hall. Unless he can get his cattle to the railroad station in time, Speed will forfeit his ranch, but Hall refuses him passage through his land. Aided by Sheriff Happy Martin (Hal Price), Tex and Speed nevertheless manage to get the cattle through Hall's illegal barbed wire fencing but in the ensuing shootout, the Kid is mortally wounded after taking a bullet meant for Tex. After the villainous Hall has been apprehended, Ritter reveals himself to be an agent for the railroad and that Hall was trying to steal the Dennison spread hoping to sell it to the company for a profit. Filmed on the Monogram ranch in Newhall, California, The Man from texas was even cheaper than Ritter's previous efforts and the former radio crooner only got to sing two songs: Prairie Lights and Men Who Wear the Stars, both composed by Frank Harford. On a more positive note, this was the first Ritter Western sans the so-called comedy relief by Snub Pollard and/or Horace Murphy ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

A typical Tex Ritter "Boots and Saddle" singing Western from low-budget company Monogram, Sundown on the Prairie featured Ritter and sidekick Horace Murphy as rangers assigned to apprehend a gang of rustlers. After capturing one member, Hendricks (Karl Hackett), Tex introduces himself to gang leader Dorgan (Charles King) as Hendricks' emissary. Hendricks, however, escapes from Ananias (Murphy) and Tex is forced to make a fast getaway. Assisted by rancher Graham (Frank LaRue) and his daughter Ruth (Dorothy Fay), Tex and Ananias manage to stop Dorgan and his henchmen from dynamiting the valley. While not rustling rustlers, Ritter sang Al Von Tilzer and Harry MacPherson's title-tune, his own and Dwight Butcher's Dust on My Saddle and Cactus Pete by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter. Leading lady Dorothy Fay later became Mrs. Ritter and the mother of television actor John Ritter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Ahora Seremos Felices (Now We'll Be Happy) was one of the few Cuban films of the 1930s to gain favorable critical notice in the U.S. Heading the cast are Mexican singing favorite Juan Arvisu and Puerto Rican leading lady Mapy Cortes, both of whom enjoyed substantial movie careers in their own countries. Arvisu plays a celebrated radio star who falls in love with millionaire's daughter Cortes. Naturally, daddy disapproves, shipping the girl off to a remote country estate. Breaking his lucrative radio contact, Arvisu searches high and low for his sweetheart, but when money runs out he's forced to seek a job. Since he's been blacklisted from Cuban radio because he ran out on his contract, Arvisu is obliged to pass himself off as "The Masked Tenor." In this guise, he is hired for the radio program sponsored by -- that's right -- his girlfriend's father. The rest of the film is as enjoyable as it is predictable. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The last of five inexpensive Westerns produced by small-scale Beacon Pictures, Gun Play starred brawny Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as a drifter who unwittingly comes into possession of a treasure map concealed in an old boot. The inheritance of siblings Madge (Marion Shilling) and George Holt (Wally Wales, the treasure is also sought after by the unscrupulous Meeker (Tom London). The latter sponsors a novelty folk dance in order to gather up all the local boots, which he then offers to exchange for brand new pairs. Suspicious of this unprecedented largesse, Big Boy refuses to part with his own footgear, only to become the target of Meeker's gang of ruffians. Discovering the map in the broken heel of his boot, Big Boy leads Madge and George on a treasure hunt that yields several bags of gold. Meeker and his henchmen, meanwhile, are disarmed in a final confrontation, and Big Boy and Madge embrace for a happy ending. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Based on a story in Golden West magazine by Frederick Ryter, this rather pedestrian Monogram Western starred handsome Tom Tyler as Jess Ryder, a detective for the Cattlemen's association who infiltrates a gang of rustlers. The gang is hired by a nefarious land grabber (Robert Walker) to drive the Langton family off their valuable land and their methods of destruction -- injecting the cattle with snake venom -- was the only off-beat touch in this otherwise humdrum Western effort. Tyler, whose B-Western career had begun in the late silent era, was never less than interesting to watch, but Monogram producer G.A. Durlam and veteran director J.P. McGowan offered him very little to work with here. The author of the story, Frederick Ryter, appeared as one of Walker's henchmen. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi